
Hello Commanders,
So Ardra is due to recieve a special token base which is upcoming on the 22nd of August. These Hero Tokens will allow you to upgrade the mighty and unyielding Ardra from level 1 to level 10, vastly increasing her power on the battlefield.
So because of this, I thought I'd write this breakdown on Ardra, the Ruthless, to give you a good reason as to why Ardra is worth acquiring the tokens for and upgrading. Let's begin.
⯁ Why you should unlock\upgrade Ardra?
⬥ She's one of the most popular heroes and a must-have unit in PvP.
⬥ The most reliable shield in the game.
⬥ Has a faction buff that grants her total immunity to all negative status effects.
⬥ Has workshop tech that takes her armor to a whole new level.
⬥ An efficient minesweeper.
⬥ A front-line attacker and a high-priority target.
⬥ Has one of the most punishing weapons in the game that can deal over 6 million damage per shot!
⯁ Ardra's stats from level 1 ~ 10:

⬥ All stats are fixed except for damage & health
⬥ Level 5 has 2x the amount of damage & health of level 1
⬥ Level 10 has 3.5x the amount of damage & health of level 1
⯁ DPS Breakdown (at level 10):
Ardra's Rail gun is an energy-type weapon that has Charge-Up time instead of Reload. the charging part always happen before the shot is fired, while Reloading always happen after. In practice and when the unit is continuously firing at enemy targets, there's no difference between the two, except for when you're using Jericho's tactic: the Rapid Fire tactic has zero effect on Purifiers & Ardra.
Level 10 DPS info:
Damage Per Round: 3,150,000
Damage Type: Burst
RoF: 1 or 0.025 sec
Reload: 0
Charge Up Time 1.25 sec
Clip Size: 1 shot
Clip Cycle: 1.275 sec
DPS = Damage/Time
DPS = [3,150,000] ÷ [0.025 + 1.25]
DPS = 2,470,588
Ardra's firing pattern is straightforward. she only does two things:
Charging &
Firing

But in practice, when using a stopwatch or a sound-wave graph, the delay between shots seems to be slightly longer than 1.25, so I asked KIXEYE's support about this issue, and this was their explanation:
Ferrite Core Inductor is a tech that reduces the charge time of the Purifier by 20%. The reloading of Purifier is based on nothing but Charge time. So basically decreasing charge time decreases the time between shots, which goes as follows:
Purifier to fire, first the charge, then the Shot fires, idle time, charge time, shot fires again and this explains the delay of around one second that you were seeing the shots.
So, according to KIXEYE's support, Ardra & Purifiers' firing pattern consists of three parts: Charge Time > Fire > Idle Time
Charge > Fire > Idle > Charge > Fire > Idle
1.25 > 0.025 > ? > 1.25 > 0.025 > ?
They didn't actually help, did they? TBH, the difference between the two patterns is insignificant and can be attributed to lag or other rendering issues, so I'd stick with the first pattern (the one with Charging and Firing) because its math does check out.
⯁ General Notes:
⬥ Every repair time posted on this page is specific to a level 14 Tech Center (70% time reduction in PvP) and a level 23 War Factory (53% time reduction) unless stated otherwise.
⬥ GoGo-Bar and Defense Lab were at level 20 and 25 with +48% damage and 20% damage reduction respectively.
⬥ All spawned ARDRA units from the GoGo-Bar were equipped with the same design shown at the beginning of each video.
⬥ No Workshop components, Faction traits, Loyalty bonuses, or Raid boosts were active during any of the offensive tests.
⬥ You might be wondering why there are no tests vs offensive omega units like the Juggernaut, Prophet, and War Rig, and the reason is that I don't have those maxed yet, and I couldn't find any players that were willing to sacrifice their units for tests like these, and you can't just record a test during an actual PvP battle, because those are too messy and you can't isolate each unit's damage from the rest when all are firing.
⯁ Special Abilities & Hidden Features:
Ardra has many powerful abilities & features that reinforce her role as a front-line attacker. most of them are available from level 1 and get better as she levels up, but the most powerful is locked at level 10


⬥ At level 10 and with not tech equipped, Ardra loses around 0.8% of her Full Health from stepping on a Shaped Charge.
⬥ She also has the armor components Mine Resistant Plating & Tight Spaced Armour, both of which can reduce landmine damage by 60%
⬥ Using all three armor components reduces damage taken from a Shaped Charge to only 0.2% of her full health.
⬥ The resistance increases even more when Ardra's HP drops below 75%, and again at 50% and 25%.
⬥ With an HP level lower than 25% and an active Loyalty bonus with all 3 armor tech equipped, damage from landmines is reduced by 93.5%



The ability doesn't actually have a name, but we thought it should have one, for easier referencing.
Does this ability actually work?
Ability OFF (no damage taken): Ardra killed a level 20 Darkstorm in 17 shots
Ability ON (while taking damage): Ardra killed a level 20 Darkstorm in 14 shots


What was thought of as a visual glitch to Ardra's health bar, is actually a special damage reduction!
To find how exactly that reduction works at different health levels, we put her to the test against a max level Rail Launcher. and let her take 1 shot at a time while taking notes on the repair time, then repeated the process for the rest of the shots.
Before each shot, we made sure that:
⬥ All Power Plants are destroyed, in order to slow down the ٌRail's RoF so it only fires one shot before ending the attack.
⬥ All support turrets are disconnected.
⬥ All customization and war paints are removed, and no war efforts or faction buffs are active. Each shot was tested exactly like this:

The table above has 23 rows, each row represent 1 shot and shows its repair time divided into Hours Minutes and Seconds, followed by the Total Repair Time in seconds, then the Repair Time Per Shot (also in seconds).
There’s also the Damage Reduction column that compares each shot’s repair time to the repair time of the first shot and displays the difference as a percentage.
HP Lost % shows the percentage of health the unit has lost so far. It’s also used to determine when the unit hits certain HP levels and when damage reduction is triggered.
HP column is self explanatory. It's divided into 4 levels and can be used to show how many shots were taken while at certain HP level.
NOTE: The shaded cells have values that are slightly different from the ones in the second table below, and the reason is that when the Repair Timer starts showing hours, there won't be enough room to display the seconds counter.

The shaded cell is a little bit misleading. It shows 80% instead of 75% because the remaining HP was less than the amount of damage received from that shot.
In general, we prefer to use the Repair Cost method over the Repair Time, for several reasons:
1-It generates more accurate results.
2-The repair timer sometimes only show Hours & Minutes but not Seconds.
3-Unlike repair time, oil & metal costs are the same across all platoon types, so if you’re testing an omega unit with high repair time, it’s better to do it with a PvP platoon and take advantage of the accelerated repairs.
Here's an alternative to the boring table above, a video that shows exactly what happens to Ardra as her health drops:


In this video we're testing a level 10 Ardra, that has no workshop components or faction buffs, against a level 15 Rail Launcher. It shows a series of screen shots of the repair time after each shot. in addition to other info like:
Current HP % = 1 - [Current Cost of Repair ÷ Total Cost of Repairs]
For example: finding the health % after the 14th shot= 1 - [2,511,161 ÷ 3,125,000]= 1- 0.804 = 19.6%
Repair Per Shot= Total Repair Time after the shot - Total Repair Time before the shot
Damage Reduction % = Repair Time of the Current shot ÷ Repair time of the first shot
As long as her HP level is over 75% she receives full damage without any reductions.
When HP level drops below 75%, her armor blocks 25% of incoming damage.
When HP level drops below 50%, her armor blocks 50% of incoming damage.
When HP level drops below 25%, her armor blocks 75% of incoming damage until dead.
What about Purifiers, Do they have the same armor?No, a max-level Purifier dies from 3 Max Rail shots, without a Fusion Turret. Each shot deals the same amount of damage without any reductions.
Is there any other units with this type of Armor\Damage Reduction mechanic?YES! we’ve done some testing with the other faction heroes and found out that
Roland,
Max, and
Burnside have a similar armor. we still have to redo the same tests again using a low-level Rail Launcher, to get more accurate results. (will post it later in a separate thread)
The following tables show each shot's effect on Roland's health, and damage reduction percentages:

First table shows the repair time after each shot and compare it to the first shot in order to find out the % of damage reduction. this method is less accurate for the reasons already mentioned earlier.
The table shows a more accurate measure of the health level and the repair costs after each shot.
[
Alternative] video of a level 10 Roland (with no tech or faction loyalty):


What about Corpus heroes?
Most of our tests were done with a level 6 and a level 15 Rail Launchers. and so far, none of the Corpus heroes seem to have that armor. We believe that that was intentional, because Corpus units already have an Adaptive Armor of their own. (Faction trait)
⯁ When tested against a Max Rail Launcher;
⬥ A level 1 Polly (HP=4,300,000) died after 2 shots
⬥ A level 5 Santiago (HP=1,900,00) died after 1 shot.
We also did another test with Polly to see if she has any damage reductions at lower HP levels, so we used an Avalanche to put her HP at a level below 25%, leaving her with more than 1,000,000 health, which should be enough to withstand the full damage of a level 6 Rail Launcher.. but the result confirmed that she doesn't have any special damage reductions like ARDRA & Roland.
P Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney.
Similar to her fellow faction units, Ardra's tech has clear uses and can be used to either enhance her where she is already very strong, orWorkshop Tech:
help compensate in areas where she falls short. Heroic Tech is naturally the best option as it has the obvious benefit of combining two pieces of tech into one. This allows for Ardra to get both the additional power for areas where she is already strong, but also to mitigate her weaknesses. But if you don't have her Heroic Tech, you can still make use of standard tech and get satisfying results.
Best design with standard tech for Defense [HERE] and Attack [HERE]
⯁ Tech can be divided according to slots:
[Main slots]
⬥Armor slot has tech that enhances her resistance to specific damage sources e.g. Infantry, Bunkers, or Landmines.
⬥Coils slot has tech the affect the damage & speed of her main weapon, the Railgun.
⬥Training slot has tech that makes enhances her general stats and makes her better in every situation.
[Special slots]
⬥Relic slot has two special pieces, one of them increases damage & armor, while the other adds a unique zombifiying effect.
⬥Warpaint slot has cosmetic tech that changes ARDRA's appearance and slightly enhances damage output.
⯁ Or according to benefits:
[Effectiveness] Components that directly affect damage output:
⬥ Hydrogen-Core Inductor: +10% damage to all
⬥ Diamond Tech: +10% damage to all
⬥ Warpaint: +5% damage to all
Total damage bonus from all three tech= +25%
⬥ Hydrogen-Core Inductor, which also reduces Charge time by 20%
Standard Charge time is 1.25 sec, but when using one the coil components above, the new Charge time becomes 1 sec, which indirectly affects Ardra's DPS by a +24% increase! (This doesn't mean her shots now deal more damage, but she's now more efficient and kills units faster)
[Utility]Status Effects Tech:
⬥ Zombifier: adds a chance to raise zombies from fallen units and spawn groups of weaker zombies from destroyed buildings.
⬥Air-Core Inductor: applies Busted status and prevents buildings\bunkers from spawning LSDs\infantry.
⬥Hydrogen-Core Inductor: applies Busted status and prevents buildings\bunkers from spawning LSDs\infantry.
[Durability]Armor Tech:
⬥ Mine Resistant Plates: reduces damage taken from mines by 60%
⬥ Spaced Armor: reduces damage taken from infantry and bunkers by 50%
⬥ Tight Spaced Armor: combines the two armors above^ 60% reduced damage from mines, and 50% reduced damage from infantry & bunkers.
⬥ Open-Die Forging: reduces damage taken from all by 20%
⬥ Heroic Training: reduces damage taken from all by 20%
⬥ Diamond Tech: reduces damage taken from all by 10%
Armor stacking
For a front-line leader and a high-priority target like ARDRA, armor is crucial. having one piece of armor is good, two are better, three are GREAT, but with how armor works in WC, adding more does not always yield as much benefit as previous, equal units of the same armor.Here's an example: using 3 different armor tech together:
⬥Open-Die Forging -20% damage from all
⬥Spaced Armor -50% damage from infantry & bunkers
⬥Diamond Tech -10% damage from all
We start by applying the 1st armor (-20%) on the full bar.. It blocks 20% of incoming damage, but there's still an 80% that can pass through, so we apply the 2nd armor (-50%) on that (80%) which cuts the damage in half and now we have another 40% reduction!
So far the total % of damage reduction is 20% from the first armor and 40% from the second armor.
Now apply the 3rd armor (-10%) on the remaining damage of (40%) and now we have another 4% reduction.
So the total % of damage reduction from infantry & bunkers is now: 20% + 40% + 4% = 64%
A GIF might explain better (?)
Actual testing of Armor Stacking on a Purifier:
The Purifier with No Armor: takes full damage from the Acolyte
The Purifier with 2X armor: Spaced Armor (-50% damage from infantry) and Open-Die Forging (-20% damage from all) should reduce damage from infantry by a total of 60%
The Purifier with 3X armor: Spaced Armor (-50% damage from infantry) + Open-Die Forging (-20% damage from all) + Diamond level 3 (-6% damage from all) should reduce damage from infantry by a total of 62.4%
No Armor: 94,532
2X Armor: 37,813 which is 40% of the original costs
3X Armor: 35,544 which is 37.6% of the original costs
As you see from the video and screenshots, the repair costs of the Purifier with 2X armor is reduced by exactly 60% of the original value, and the repair costs of the Purifier with 3X armor is reduced by exactly 62.4%.
Stacking different armor pieces and total damage reduction from certain targets:
When 100% ≥ HP > 75%
⯁ Rail Launcher:
We've been asking for turrets stats for years! hopefully Storm Chaser can help us with that and post something similar to WrongThinker's post about units' hidden stats.
We've done some testing with Rail Launchers and their damage to heavy vehicles, unique units, and infantry heroes such as:
Purifiers - Hammers - Caretakers - War Rig - Darkstorm - Polly
Now take a look at the amount of HP lost after 1st shot and tell me if you see the common number!
Amount of HP lost = [Shot Repair Cost ÷ Total Repair Cost] x Total HP Value
⬥ All heavy tanks lost around 2,250,000 HP after the first shot.
⬥ Infantry heroes, Max & Burnside both lost around 1,125,000, which is half the amount lost by heavy tanks!
⬥ We know that Rail Launchers have a [GOOD] damage modifier to infantry and do 100% damage to them according to [THIS] official post, so based on these numbers, does that mean that Rails do 200% to heavy vehicles, since their damage modifier against them is [BEST]?
⬥ Each Unique unit probably have its own special resistance to Rail Launchers (or Burst damage in general) so we need to do more testing with the War Rig, Juggernaut, Prophet and Darkstorm first before we could reach a conclusion.
Level 15 Rail Launcher+Fusion vs Level 10 ARDRA (without workshop or faction buffs)
What we know so far (not yet confirmed by KIXEYE):
⬥ Rail Launcher's shot deals around 2,250,000 damage to heavy vehicles (this number might be higher or lower than the base damage)
⬥ Fusion adds a Slayer Bonus of +200% damage to ARDRA
⬥ Total damage of 1 Fusion-Rail shot is 2,250,000 * 3= 6,750,000
Here's what happens, Step by Step:
⬥ ARDRA at full health with no damage reduction bonuses
⬥ 1st shot hits her with full damage causing a loss of 27% to her health.
⬥ Now ARDRA's HP is at level below 75%, so the first damage reduction (25%) kicks in
⬥ 2nd shot hits dealing only 5,062,500 damage (which is 75% of the original value) causing ARDRA to lose 20% of her health.
⬥ Now ARDRA's HP level is at 53%, so we're still in the 25% damage reduction area
⬥ 3rd shot hits her dealing another 5,062,500 of damage and causing a loss of another 20% and a drop below 33% HP
⬥ Immediately after that shot, the second damage reduction (50%) activates, which will affect the next shot
⬥ 4th shot hits her dealing 3,375,000 (50% of the original value) causing ARDRA to lose 13% of her health and total health to drop to 19%
⬥ The drop to an HP level below 25% immediately activates the third damage reduction (75%) which will affect the next shot and will continue at that level until she's dead.
⬥ 5th shot hits with 1,687,500 damage (25% of the original value) causing a 7% health loss and lowering her HP level to 13%
⬥ 6th shot hits with the same 1,687,500 damage causing another 7% HP loss and lowering the level to 6%
⬥ 7th shot finishes her with the same 1,687,500 damage...R.I.P. ARDRA
HP value= 15,750,000
-10% damage taken from all
-50% damage taken from Burst sources
-10% damage taken from all (Relic)
-20% damage taken from all (Defense Lab Buff)
Immunity to Shock & Scramble
----------------------------------
Total: -67.6% damage taken from ARDRA
Damage Bonuses:
Damage per volley=1,645,000
+10% damage to all (Diamond)
+5% damage to all (Warpaint)
+48% damage to all (GoGo-Bar Buff)
+Insane Fire effect for 3 seconds
--------------------------
Total: +63% Damage to ARDRA or a damage per volley of 2,681,350
Damage Bonuses:
Damage per shot=700,000
+10% damage to all (Diamond)
+100% damage to all at max distance
+48% damage to all (GoGo-Bar Buff)
-------------------------------
Total:+158% damage to ARDRA or a damage per shot of 1,806,000 at max distance
Damage Bonuses:
Damage per shot=500,000
+10% damage to all (Diamond)
+100% damage to all at max distance
+40% damage to vehicles (Stronghold Buff)
+48% damage to all (GoGo-Bar Buff)
------------------------------
Total +98% damage to ARDRA or a damage per shot of 990,000
HP value=89,000,000
Damage Bonuses:
non
Damage per shot: probably around 2,250,000 (read more about this in the comments below)
Damage per shot: probably around 2,250,000 (read more about this in the comments below)
+200% damage to unique units
Damage per shot after the bonus is around 6,750,000
Damage Bonuses
-----------------------
Total: 238% damage to ARDRA or a damage per shot of 4,461,600
Damage Bonuses
-----------------------
Total: 238% damage to ARDRA or a damage per shot of 4,461,600 + unknown fire damage bonus
Drakon's tests are incomplete because of the reasons mentioned above.
Level 6 - Ardra's Health: 16,560,000
How many shots to kill a level 10 Roland?
Level 10 Roland needs ... shots to kill a level 6 Ardra
How many Rail shots can Ardra take?
How many Fusion+Rail shots can she take?
Level 5 Santiago needs... shots to kill a level 6 Ardra
How durable is she against level Drakons?
Which Sharpshooter tech is more effective against Ardra? in the following test I'm using Corrosion:
Sharpshooter equipped with Impact Tech + Reflex Stabilizer:
How many shots to kill a level 10 Roland?
Ardra's durability vs level 10 Roland
How many Rail shots to kill Ardra?
How many Fusion+Rail shots to kill Ardra?
Level 5 Santiago kills Ardra
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Drakons
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Corrosion)
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Stabilizer)
Ardra's durability vs level 10 Roland
How many Rail shots to kill Ardra?
How many Fusion+Rail shots to kill Ardra?
Level 5 Santiago kills Ardra
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Drakons
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Corrosion)
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Stabilizer)
How many shots to kill a level 10 Roland?
Ardra's durability vs level 10 Roland
I'm no longer able to do this test in base.. maybe I should use a few Cerberus units as shield next time.
How many Rail shots to kill Ardra?
How many Fusion+Rail shots to kill Ardra?
Level 5 Santiago kills Ardra
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Drakons
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Corrosion)
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Stabilizer)
How many shots to kill a level 10 Roland?
Ardra's durability vs level 10 Roland
How many Rail shots to kill Ardra?
How many Fusion+Rail shots to kill Ardra?
Level 5 Santiago kills Ardra
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Drakons
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Corrosion)
Ardra's armor vs bunkered Sharpshooters (Stabilizer)
For the Wikia:
ARDRA's basic stats screenshots
Thane Mantis, who helped a lot with the writing and formatting of all of this.
Lomolife & Axel for their help and patience with the Rail Launcher & Purifier tests.
You seem to be quoting Ardra out of context, lol. Works, though.
Compared to all GEN-1 heroes, she's probably the one with the least amount of screen time. even Oren had more appearances & quotes than her!
-Some type of response is better than no response even if it's not the one you want to hear-
Sun Tzu Quotes:
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.
Trump approves.Very cool indeed.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The GIF, comes across more like, "ruthless is an understatement", for those that missed the event than the, "Nothing compared to Kara", it is, lol.
We need more work for nyx please by the way amazing work
Very nicely done my friend.
@MX36 bro you know our little test we did corrosion would have made the difference but still an awesome resilience, i agree Ardra is the most valuable of the current bunch...
Ah! now I get it..
I actually wanted it to mean "ruthless is an understatement" and I've seen that screenshot many times, but never thought of it the other way until you mentioned Kara.
I honestly don't know what to do for Nyx. her damage output is powerful no doubt about that, but she doesn't last long on her own, especially vs Avalanches and Liberators, and you have to be a Corpus ally in order to unlock her full potential.
Do you have any specific tests in mind?
You're welcome!
That's what I like about this game. there's a lot of questions and everyday I learn something new either by accident or by testing with friends.
I realized that the Loyalty bonus was active during the last test and the results would have been different without it.. and I was going to ask you for another round, but the CC is currently upgrading, so I can't relocate atm.
BTW, if you want to activate corrosion, I'll bring on a FULL WARLUST!
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<|= 1230 1221 1211 0230 0320 0301 1232 1203 1211 0200 1221 =|>
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Thank you for your wondeful post! All the information you provided here is really helpful.
"the optimist looks up and loses his footing.
the pessimist looks down and loses the path
the strategist looks forward and adjusts accordingly"
If you ever need help testing units just let me know, I don't mind tossing in my hat for an overnighter lol