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Summary
- The Flare is the 2nd Gunboat weaponry unlocked, at Headquarters level 3.
- When a Flare is deployed and lands, all affected troops will move to its location, or attack a building tagged by it. Once they accomplish their objective or if the Flare expires, the troops will resume their usual rules of engagement.
- Only one Flare can be active at a time, and the most recently deployed one takes priority above the rest.
- Flares do not function during retreats.
- Medics, Protectors, Dr. Kavan, Critters, Seekers, Crystal Critters, Dr. Vitamins, clones spawned by Clone Riflemen and defenses under influence of Remote Hack/Universal Remote will not follow Flares.
- Each use costs 1 more Gunboat Energy than the previous, with a starting cost of 2 Gunboat Energy.
Offensive Strategy
- Flares can be used to flank Players who place their Headquarters at the back of their island with very little protection. By using Flares, you can guide your troops to walk around the perimeter of the island to ignore the bulk of the Defensive Buildings and into the weak spot at the back with the Headquarters. They are particularly useful for specific Smokey Warrior/Zooka/Bullit strategies.
- You can guide troops into the blind spots of Mortars, Rocket Launchers, and Critter Launchers by firing a Flare right next to them. However, as troops can't fire on the move in general, they will be forced to absorb fire until they get to the target point.
- Flares can be great when used with Scorchers/Incinerators and MegaScorchers, as it will force them to regroup temporarily. It's best to fire them on enemy structures so other troops won't wander into the line of fire.
- Be careful when guiding mass infantry into a cluster, as the splash damage from Mortars and Rocket Launchers can potentially annihilate a large number of your troops.
- Flares can be used on high-priority targets to neutralize them quickly, especially when combined with Shock Bombs.
- Certain units' inability to follow Flares can be a merit, as they can attack in one direction while others strike elsewhere. This is particularly relevant for Seekers, as Flares can reposition other troops to clear the way on Warships.
Upgrade Differences
- There are no visual changes between levels, but each upgrade increases the Flare's duration.
Trivia
- The Flare was once named Signal Smoke and appeared very similar to the Smoke Screen except with colored smoke during beta. It was soon renamed and resprited with a new icon.
- There is a bug where troops don't react to the flare and continue attacking their targets, so always check that all troops are actually running towards the flare.
- If Scorchers are affected by this bug, they will only attack 1 building at a time.
- If a troop runs towards a Flare and gets pulled by a Grappler, it will no longer react to the Flare.
- With the September 2025 update, the Flare now always targets the center of a building. This change was made to buff the Sky Shield. This was changed in the November 2025 update, due to negative Feedback from the Community.
Statistics
Level
|
Duration
|
Research Cost
|
Armory Level Required
|
Research Time
|
Instant
|
XP Gain
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6s | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2 | 8s | 6,300 | 1 | 2h | 52 | 14 |
| 3 | 11s | 105,000 | 5 | 8h | 203 | 30 |
| 4 | 15s | 350,000 | 9 | 17h | 390 | 43 |
| 5 | 20s | 1,080,000 | 12 | 1d 2h | 689 | 54 |
| 6 | 25s | 2,600,000 | 15 | 1d 11h | 1,120 | 64 |
| 7 | 30s | 4,200,000 | 18 | 1d 17h | 1,484 | 69 |
| Number of Shots | Energy Cost
|
Cumulative Energy Cost
|
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | 4 | 9 |
| 4 | 5 | 14 |
| 5 | 6 | 20 |
| 6 | 7 | 27 |
| 7 | 8 | 35 |
| 8 | 9 | 44 |
| 9 | 10 | 54 |
| 10 | 11 | 65 |
Warships
| Rank
|
Level
|
Upgrade Tokens
|
Tech Level
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | N/A | 5 |
| 2 | 2 | 84,000 | 10 |
| 3 | 3 | 92,000 | 15 |
| 4 | 5 | 111,500 | 20 |
| 5 | 7 | 135,000 | 25 |
| Total | 422,500 | 75 | |
