| “ | Zzzhh Zhhh!! - Buzzers when ordered to attack(src) |
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Buzzers are the Scrin basic infantry unit. They are small, fast and agile, but extremely fragile. They swarm enemies and kill using melee attacks, and are capable of wiping out entire squads in seconds. They are roughly analogous to the the human factions' basic infantry.
Background
Named for the unnerving sound they make as they approach, Buzzers are like a cloud of flying razors. They are guided by a limited sentience, and are terrifyingly effective against infantry, whether they are fighting for their lives out in the open or seeking cover in urban environments. Buzzers are also often seen swarming about Scrin vehicles, forming a defensive barrier.[1]
In addition to their offensive roles, Buzzers are also released from Buzzer Hives, serving the role of anti-infantry base defense. However, Buzzers spawned from the Hives are not controllable by the player.
GDI Watch Commander Elliot Gruber, who was stationed in Cologne, later recalled how the Scrin forces who had mounted the unexpected invasion also deployed Buzzers, who quickly began "reducing our infantry to unidentifiable piles of wet flesh on the sidewalk".
Game Unit
Buzzers are perhaps the most flexible early infantry unit in the game. They attack by swarming enemies and are small enough to go unnoticed in hectic battle situations, and because they lack any solid mass, they are notoriously difficult to direct and track. For human players, Buzzers are extremely difficult to manage and there are only a few ways to know of their presence:
- Faint, consistent flashes of reflected light in one spot
- Allied infantry seemingly firing and/or dying for no reason
- Antipersonnel defenses seemingly firing at nothing
- Sudden, unexplained clearing of allied garrisons
- Allied infantry attacking Scrin vehicles from the rear are killed
Buzzers are roughly equivalent to the rifleman squads deployed by the Global Defense Initiative and the militant squads commanded by the Brotherhood of Nod, filling the same anti-infantry role in the army as well as being readily available early into the deployment of a new base. However, there are some distinctions between Buzzers and the human infantry squads they can be likened to: they are able to clear out garrisons without the support of other units, but given their unique but close-ranged weaponry, are unable to fire out of them and therefore are typically only ordered into buildings for protection. While highly effective versus infantry, they are useless against anything else.
Buzzers can attach themselves to most Scrin ground vehicles, after which they will attack any infantrymen who approach the vehicle they are bound to. This affords that vehicle protection against enemy infantry. Attached Buzzers are immune to damage, and will only remove themselves if either the parent vehicle is destroyed, or their Foreman orders them to.
Buzzers are still vulnerable to anti-infantry weapons, regardless of what their appearance or alien nature might suggest. Base defenses, vehicular and aircraft anti-infantry weapons are especially effective, as they can disperse Buzzer swarms without any need to be concerned for their own safety. However, if need be, infantrymen can also defeat them as long as they keep their distance.
Abilities
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Combine with Vehicle
Buzzers can swarm around a Scrin vehicle and are impervious to damage until they are removed or the vehicle is destroyed. While attached, Buzzers automatically attack available nearby targets (Ctrl+A).
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Changelog
- Tiberium Wars patch 1.01: hit points reduced to 75 and weapon damage type changed to SNIPER.
- Tiberium Wars patch 1.05:
- hit points increased by 50%
- move and attack rates retuned - as a result, Buzzers are now more effective at cutting through massed infantry but will no longer kill entire infantry squads all at once.
In-game Sounds
Developers seemingly created two seperate sets of voice lines for buzzers, and took sounds from them regardless of their original purposes.
die2
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f.
g.
sou2Atta (When ordered to attack)
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d.
sou2Move (When created or selected)
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sounAtta (Unused)
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sounJoin (When ordered to use "Combine with Vehicle" ability)
a.
sounSele (When ordered to move)
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sounSpli (When a vehicle is ordered to "Uncombine with Buzzers")
a.
Trivia
- Buzzers are somewhat similar to attack dogs from the Red Alert Universe in the sense that both can instantly kill infantry, but cannot target anything else, and are limited by their range.
- For balancing reasons, sniper teams can kill a swarm of buzzers with a single shot.
Gallery
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Unused intelligence database art
See also
- Rifleman squad, GDI basic infantry
- Militant squad, Nod basic infantry
- Confessor cabal, Black Hand basic infantry
- Awakened, Marked of Kane basic infantry
References
- ↑ EALA. 2007-03-20. COMMAND & CONQUER 3 FACTION FEATURE -- THE SCRIN. IGN. 2018-08-05.
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