Lucina Spinos

 is an extremely aggressive legendary unit. It is very breach-vulnerable, and has the ability to convert Drones into Perforators.

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Strategy
 will often be the center of your strategy when you choose to build it, both because of its ability and high cost. By itself it is a cost-efficient attacker, extremely vulnerable in case of breach, but what really defines it is the tech investment it requires; that combined with its ability will let you center your strategy around it to increase the pace of the game greatly through fast constant damage.

The most straightforward red strategies use only a single Animus, and are played on low economy. builds are different, as its cost forces you on a rather high economy and its supply only lets you buy one. This sounds impractical because the would go to waste after buying the single. The catch is that if your opponent doesn't counterattack immediately, you will actually be able to make use of it.

is best built in sets with no rushers, burst or chill, otherwise the risk of early attack or breach is too great, read the set with care. In those situations players may choose to go for a rather high economy build, since there is no way to easily threaten that path. , however, is a way to do just that. If you manage to build a Lucina when they start econing up, your opponent will have little attack available and a lot of defense to build to answer for the sudden 4 it provides. That will give you time to build Tarsiers or other red attackers (Shadowfang, Immolite) before having to focus on defending yourself.

When your opponent starts dealing damage back, 's ability will start proving invaluable. You should click it every turn, without attempting to replace the Drones; the point of building Lucina isn't to win with econ on the long term, but rather to overwhelm your opponent as fast as possible. Since you have to avoid getting breached at any cost you will soon have to devote most of your resources to defense (in the form of Rhinos, or possibly Blood Pacts or Husks). The Perforators produced can both defend and threaten to make use of the leftover for damage. In practice it seems often more preferable to let a Rhino with Stamina charges left die in defense rather than lose a Perforator, since it will likely be able to attack more times. The point is that both the Perforators and the Rhinos will threaten damage to your opponent, forcing them to defend heavily without much resources available to fight back.

As stated above, 's main build has rather strict requirements on the set. It is weak against:
 * Chill units, such as Frostbite or Endotherm Kit, which will let your opponent bypass your defense and snipe Lucina. Some however are less effective vs red due to lack of granularity (such as Nivo Charge).
 * Burst units, such as Cluster Bolt or Tia Thurnax, which will simply breach your red defense and kill it.
 * Rush units, such as Electrovore or Grimbotch, which won't let you gather enough gold and red to buy Lucina as you will need to defend early.
 * Apollo, though is great value if it gets to live 4 turns.

On the other hand, does very well combined with:
 * red support units like Corpus, Nitrocybe, or Immolite which will help simplify your defense, sink tech, or put out damage even faster. The combo with red sink units however is a lot smaller than it is with most other double Animus units as Lucina also comes with built-in tech sink.
 * red attackers requiring lots of red resource to build (Shadowfang, Vai Mauronax), as you will already have the infrastructure required.
 * Alternative gold generating units, such as Doomed Drone or Auric Impulse, which can allow you to afford Lucina sooner without floating tons of.

Lucina alone
Often it seems desirable to rush Lucina as your first attacker since she is so efficient and puts on so much pressure that you could easily find yourself locked out of getting her at all if your opponent gets her first. An extremely fast build is available to Player 1:
 * DD
 * DD
 * 1) DDA
 * 2) A (float )
 * 3) Lucina Spinos

Player 2 usually rushes her via the following:
 * DD
 * 1) DDE
 * 2) DDD (float 4)
 * 3) DAA (float 3)
 * 4) Lucina Spinos

There is also a slower build for Player 1:
 * DD
 * 1) DDE
 * 2) DDD
 * 3) DDD (float 5 or buy Conduit)
 * 4) DDDAA
 * 5) Lucina Spinos

With supporting units
Auric impulse allows a more efficient Player 1 rush.
 * DD
 * DD
 * 1) 2x Auric Impulse + A
 * 2) 2x Auric Impulse + AT
 * 3) Lucina Spinos + D

Economy version.


 * DD
 * 1) DDE
 * 2) Auric Impulse + DD (float 1)
 * 3) Auric Impulse + AA (float 2)
 * 4) Lucina Spinos (float 1)

Auric Impulse allows Player 2 a similar, faster rush:
 * DD
 * 1) Auric Impulse + D (float 4)
 * 2) 2x Auric Impulse + AA
 * 3) Lucina Spinos

Player 2 may play this super fast rush with Galvani Drone:
 * DD
 * 1) 2x Galvani Drone + A
 * 2) A (float )
 * 3) Lucina Spinos

Another fast Player 2 rush enabled with Perforator:
 * DD
 * DA
 * 1) 2x Perforator + D (float 2) or Perforator + TD
 * 2) A (float 7 or 6)
 * 3) Lucina Spinos

With the Doomed Drone (1)
 * 1) DE1
 * 2) DDD
 * 3) A111
 * 4) 2x Perforator + A1
 * 5) Lucina Spinos

Player 1 Thorium Dynamo (1):

It may be better to use the Base line to prevent Player 2 from getting priority.
 * DD
 * D1
 * DD
 * 1) DCA (Float )
 * 2) TDCA click 1 (RECA pressures/absorbs) (Float )
 * 3) Lucina Spinos click 1 (Lose 2 Drones, float )

Player 2 Thorium Dynamo (1):

Greatly benefits from Trinity Drone.
 * DD
 * 11
 * D
 * 1) AA (Float )
 * 2) Lucina Spinos click 1 ( left)

The quickiest rush for Player 1 is with Auric Impulse (1). Though it leaves a thin economy, it can overwhelm opponent. Doomed Drone or Galvani Drone improves the opening and defense as well.
 * D1
 * 11
 * 1) AA11
 * 2) Lucina Spinos

Opening for Player 1 with Centrifuge (2) and Auric Impulse (1).
 * 2
 * 1) D1 (Float 1)
 * 2) A11
 * 3) Lucina Spinos (Float 1GGBB)

Player 2 Ossified Drone (1) and Auric Impulse (0). Can block a Rush to attack.
 * D0
 * 1) A00
 * 2) AE001
 * 3) Lucina Spinos

Change log

 * April 6th, 2018
 * Click ability now costs in addition to sacrificing a Drone.
 * February 15th, 2015
 * Cost decreased from 18 to 17.
 * October 11th, 2014
 * Ability's activation cost changed from to sacrifice a Drone.
 * Limited stamina of 6 has been removed.
 * September 29th, 2014
 * Cost increased from 16 to 18.