Rift Creator Side: Imperium Hit Points: 1000 Cost: 8000 Sight Range: 8 Ground Weapon: Temporal Rift Anti-Air Weapon: Temporal Rift Range: 350 Damage: 4 Requirements: Headquarters 3 Temporal Gate Upgrades To: N/A

The feared Rift Creator creates a temporal vortex that tears up anything unfortunate enough to be caught within its spinning grasp.

Demolishing Enemies

This structure represents a serious investment, but its temporal vortex can be triggered in any location on the map that you have line of sight to. The vortex is treated as a weapon, so to fire it, select the Rift Creator and then use the Attack function and click on the desired target.

When a Rift Creator is fired, an alert is sent to all players. The vortex’s location shows up on the mini-map as a blue square as it forms, which then changes to red as it expands and begins doing damage. A temporal vortex grows to a size of roughly half the size of the screen, and though it does damage over time, it will demolish just about anything that is caught within, both units and buildings.

Reach out and temporal vortex someone.

The Rift Creator must recharge between firing, which takes a minute or two. So while its damage potential is devastating, choose your locations carefully to get maximum impact out of the limited number of times that you will be able to use this weapon to open rifts.

If you are having troubles gaining line of sight of your target (such as when you are trying to target deep inside your enemy’s base) there are a few tactics you can resort to. Since the Temporal Gate is a prerequisite of the Rift Creator, you’ll likely have one sitting around. First, uncover the fog of war over the area you wish to attack (suicide a unit such as a Recon Drone if necessary), then when you are ready to open a rift, teleport up to three units into the target area to give yourself line of sight. Before they are killed by the enemy forces, quickly select your Rift Creator and fire it off on your designated target. Your attack force will most likely die, but then, so will everything else under the vortex.

Countering

Prevention is your primary defense against Rift Creators. These buildings require a significant amount of time to construct, so keep up surveillance on your foes and try to destroy any such structures before they are completed. If you can find and destroy the Rift Creator while it is under construction, you not only prevent it from being used against you, but you will also cost your enemy quite a bundle of credits, more or less depending on how far along the construction had been.

Also remember that the enemy must have line of sight to trigger a vortex. By preventing him from gaining sight range of an area, you can also prevent him from opening a rift there. This is only a scant protection, though, since the enemy could move a unit close enough to get sight of the edge of his desired target area, then target the center of the vortex right on the edge of his sight range; the vortex spans a circular area, so it can extend even beyond where the enemy can actually see. On the other hand, you can protect the inner portions of your base at least by preventing the enemy from getting any units in there.

Failing at this, if you hear the rift warning, look at the mini-map for the blue square and move any units that you can away from that location. Buildings will likely not survive the vortex, so make plans immediately to replace any critical structures that will be caught in the blast. Once you have done everything you can to recover from the vortex itself, go hunt down the Rift Creator that was used against you and focus on taking it out before it recharges.