Ssrathi Buildings

Back to Ssrathi

Ssrathi Buildings

Sun Temple
If the Ssrathi weren't cheating enough with their towers, then their keep can will decide it. Unlike all other keeps in the game, the Sun Temple is actually a small building, making it easy to place, and also is quick to assemble - and that's not taking the Chameleon's amazing build skill into count! Further more, it has two additional abilities on top of the usual converting of buildings. The Sun Temple is also home to their Titan, Iriki, which would normally make you consider carefully where to place the building to prevent such a large unit from getting stuck in your base, but since all the Ssrathi buildings are small in size, you can easily work around any sloppy building plans. Interestingly and surprisingly, the Sun Temple doesn't prevent defeat until level 5. This itself should surely be a bug, as every single keep in the game, regardless of level, all prevent defeat.

The additional abilities of Rites to Dawn and Couatl's Wrath only further the greatness of the Sun Temple. The other races that have the ability to change the weather / time usually can only do so after hitting tier 3 or tier 4. The Ssrathi on the other hand can do that right from tier 1. The Ssrathi have already countered the time war before it's even begun! There there's Couatl's Wrath - a tier 4 ability that allows the Sun Temple to emit a high powered, fiery, Titan explosion. Judging from the way the AI use it, it seems as if it were meant to be a defensive ability - something to ward away attackers. But also judging from the way the AI use it, it simply doesn't work as well as the concept would lead you to believe. It simply doesn't ward away enemy attackers as well as it does at destroying your own base. But who said Couatl's Wrath has to be used defensively? The amazing combination of the Chameleon's hyper build skill, their ability to infiltrate enemy bases indefinitely with the Summon Mana 3 skill, and the Sun Temple's unusually small size and fast build time makes for a hilariously effective distraction for your enemy. Basically, infiltrate an enemy base, build a Sun Temple somewhere and then emit that Couatl's Wrath a couple of times to destroy everything around it before your enemy has even had time to react. This should be used shortly before your actual army invades, catching the enemy off guard and leaving them in a state of Chaos before your true force strikes. This plan would work great if it weren't for the ridiculous cost needed to cast Couatl's Wrath just once - 750 gold! If it were cheaper or even crystal instead of gold, then it would be more viable. Furthermore, some races have elemental attack type towers, which can possibly take out the Sun Temple during construction depending on the number of towers around.

Tower (Ssrathi)
The Ssrathi have fantastic towers; they're very small, cheap in resource cost for a tower, quick to build, have an unbeaten damage output that also causes poison and even above average hit points - only 25 points short of the leading towers. The Ssrathi also have access to a elemental missile unit in tier 2, allowing them to garrison their towers to counter missile resistant units and generally making them stronger overall. Although cheap for a tower, the stone cost can hit them quite hard as their tougher units, the Dinosaurs, require a huge amount of stone. The gold cost can also hinder Snakepriest production, mostly due to how much gold those units need. Other than that, there's not really anything more to say - the Ssrathi towers are simply just that good.

Worker Sect
The Worker Sect produces the Ssrathi's builders, as well as researching skills that power them up - not stat wise, but utility wise. Like all Ssrathi buildings, the Worker Sect is small and since it produces their builders, you could build a couple at the start of the game without worrying about base room and max out your mine capacity in no time at all. The researches are expensive, though, so you may have to come back for them later on. The Worker Sect also has a surprisingly large view range for such a small building.

Warrior Sect
The Warrior Sect is almost identical to the Worker Sect but does have a slight variation. It has a shorter view range and is cheaper by 20 stone than the Worker Sect. Due to the limited number of units they produce, you wont be building as many of them as you would do with similar core production buildings. Typically four would be enough. Although in the very late game, you can find yourself sitting on top of a lot of spare metal, which could always be spent to mass Snakemen. In which case, you could build a few more later on just for that very purpose.

Religious Sect
Most races get access to their spellcaster units in tier 4. The Eleven races originally defied this rule by having them accessed at tier 3, but then came the Ssrathi who broke yet another mold. The Religions Sect produces both the Ssrathi spellcaster and their general (who also is a spellcaster). As the Snakepriest also doubles as the Ssrathi missile unit, you are pretty much forced to produce them. Fortunately, they're a great unit once upgraded in tier 3 and can even solo enemy bases by themselves. But, until then, they remain a little underwhelming, not to mention that they are quite costly and have a long build time. The build time issue can be circumvented by building more Religious Sects, which, like all Ssrathi buildings, are quite small and can easily be placed within your base grounds without much hassle. Although Religious Sects can produce Nagas later on, you'll still spend most of the building's time producing Snakepriests, so you wont really need to build anymore Religious Sects than what you find comfortable for a Snakepriest army. Also, since both units that are produced are spellcasters, you therefore might want to set the building's attitude to Magic Defender, so the Snakepriests and Nagas are automatically set to Magic Defender, too.

Nest level 1
Dragonflis are all that the Ssrathi can produce from their Nest level 1, and they're not much of a unit at all. Their stats are poor and their only note worthy skill is their ability to inflict poison. But also at tier 2, the Ssrathi can produce Snakepriests who are also able to inflict poison on aerial targets, as well as doing far more for the race in general. Because of this, the Ssrathi have very little need for Dragonflies and thus have little need for Nests when they can't upgrade them yet. However, at such an early point in the game and with only Snakepriests being their only unit to hit aerial targets, Dragonflies could be used to work along side those Snakepriests to help fend off early fliers that are resistant to fire, such as Daemons obtained through Infernal Temples or summoned by a Hero. Other than that, it's best to wait till tier 4 before building Nests, where they upgrade them to produce Pterodactyls.

Hatchery
Tier 3 is the start of the Dinosaurs (again), and they all revolve around the Hatchery. Not only does the Hatchery produce two of the four Dinosaurs, but also allows for the production of the third one - the Lizard Rider that's produced from the Warrior Sect. The Hatcheries are even smaller than the other Ssrathi buildings but also physically weaker and cost twice as much (a combined total of 400 resources). Despite their small size and useful units within, you wont actually be building many of them. This is simply because of the sheer stone cost needed for the two Dinosaurs it produces, usually leaving you only able of producing a few at a time.

Sacred Pool
This building is a God send, quite literally, too. The Sacred Pool powers up the Snakepriests by giving them a total of +6 range, as well as 300% mana regeneration. This allows the Snakepriests to out-range un-garrisoned towers, rapidly heal themselves from the few things that do reach them and proceed to sweep the enemy off the map. The six researches that achieve all this are expensive in crystal, though. But fortunately, the Ssrathi don't make much use of their crystal so there's little competition as to what gets to consume it. Aside from those researches, the building has no other purpose. So if it ever gets destroyed after you've done all the researching from it, then you wont even need to rebuild it. As you would have come to expect by now, this building is also quite small.

Scrying Pool
The Scrying Pool is a building dedicated towards view range researches. This makes the building only useful for games played with Fog of War or / and Hidden Map. However, as the building comes quite late on, it's not nearly as effective as it could have been. By this stage of the game, most of the Hidden Map would have been uncovered. But still, being able to remove Fog of War is a tremendous asset - it's just that not many people actually play with Fog of War. (Me included!)

Nest level 2
No other race meets a Nest level 2 with as much excitement as the Ssrathi. This newly upgraded Nest can produce one of the most feared flying units in the game - the Pterodactyl. Although much of their power comes from their tier 5 researches, they still possess the raw power to turn the tide of aerial combat, and can even proceed to demolish an enemy base. Because of how ridiculous they can become, tier 4 is the tier where building Nests become mandatory. The cost for building and upgrading a Nest, as well as the price for the Pterodactyls, can be a costly one indeed. Because of this, if you're not well off with resources, then it may be best to wait till your Pterodactyls are powered up before launching an assault, although, if aerial combat has demand for them before tier 5 hits, then send them off to show your enemy that their raw power is still something to be feared! Once Pterodactyls become available, Dragonflies then become extinct. As such, there is no need to produce additional Nests if you already have some on the field.

Saurus Pen
The Saururs Pen is the biggest of all the Ssrathi buildings and also one of the more expensive ones. Fortunately, it doesn't produce units, meaning only a single one is ever needed. The building offers only researches and isn't actually needed for the production of any Ssrathi units - the Tyrannosaurus Rex is documented incorrectly in game as requiring one for production, when in fact it actually checks for a Sun Temple level 5. Not many races at all have a tier 5 building other than their Eyrie / Nest / Brood level 3 upgrade, and especially not one that is dedicated towards researches. But it's the sheer power that those researches that make the building so great, so sort after and thus its place in tier 5.

Nest level 3
If Pterodactyls weren't enough, the Ssrathi also get Swamp Dragons, giving them multiple options of how to tear down enemy buildings. Although the Ssrathi aren't short of answers for enemy buildings between Snakepriests and Pterodactyls, which tend to do a better job than the Swamp Dragon in that regard, its high powered splash damage that erodes armor allows it to put a swift end to infantry, too. This ability to handle all units and buildings equally well can make it stand out against its competition and merit its use. As Dragons cost gold and crystal, which clashes with Snakepriest (and even Nagas), you may find yourself holding back in the Dragon department. Therefore you wont really need to upgrade many Nests to level 3. But with Pterodactyls still useful at this point, you may still want to build and extra Nest and level that up for a Dragon production Nest.