Commanders, it’s time for us to introduce our brand new feature – the COBRA Base.

We have created this guide for players who want to learn all about the feature. Here you’ll be able to find out about all the key mechanics, and learn how to implement this new gameplay into your strategies. Don’t forget to share this information with your friends and fellow Combine members.

The COBRA Base is a feature that unlocks a huge range of new content and functionality. You will be able to create a second Base, construct new Buildings, get new types of Units, use new Resources, engage exciting new PvE locations, and much more.

Let’s take a closer look at how your COBRA Base works and how you can access it.

Accessing the feature

The COBRA Base will only be available to players who have met all the requirements:

Reach Level 60

Win at a Level 40 Location

Negotiate the “Combat Aviation – Platinum” Contract

Negotiate the “Recon in Strength” Contract

Negotiate the “Perimeter Security Lvl 5” Contract

After you have met all of the above requirements, you will need to click the button that opens the COBRA Base. This is found in the Requirements window.

This action will trigger quests that introduce the feature and some of its mechanics. In the “Quests” window you will also see a new list of tasks that will guide you through some of the more complex features, such as:

Constructing and upgrading COBRA Buildings

Negotiating and renegotiating COBRA contracts

Activating COBRA Unit Abilities

You will gain access to the following mechanics when you have unlocked this feature:

The COBRA Base. You will be able to switch between your first Base and your COBRA Base by clicking a new button on your Base interface.

New Buildings. You will be able to construct and upgrade a variety of COBRA Buildings. Some of these are directly for your new COBRA Units and associated Resources, while others will benefit your first Base as well. You can boost all construction processes at the COBRA Base using Diamonds or COBRA Boosts. You’ll also be able to construct Resource production and storage buildings for Rations, Munitions, and Fuel.

COBRA Contracts. The COBRA Contracts can be found in the same tab as your regular Contracts. COBRA Contracts increase the power of your COBRA Units, COBRA Base economy, and provide other bonuses as well. You must collect the relevant COBRA Referrals in order to start negotiating COBRA Contracts.

COBRA Units. COBRA Units are special Units that will be available immediately after you have unlocked your COBRA Base. They are special for two reasons: firstly, they are effective in both Offensive and Defensive battles. Secondly, they have special Abilities that – when activated – provide significant combat bonuses.

New Locations. COBRA Locations and COBRA Missions are new PvE challenges that can only be completed using COBRA Units. Similar to Locations and Syndicate Contracts, completing COBRA Locations will earn you powerful Rewards. These include Units, Resources, and Referrals.

Parts. Parts are a new Resource that is required for training COBRA Units, constructing and upgrading COBRA Buildings, and negotiating and renegotiating COBRA Contracts. You can produce Parts by building up to 6 Parts Factories in your COBRA Base. You can also use the Parts Fabricator, which will increase Parts production. To store Parts you need to build Parts Storage. You can also get Parts for winning at COBRA Locations or by purchasing them at the Black Market.

New Combine Achievements. With the release of the COBRA Base, your Combine has new Combine Achievements to complete. These will require your Combine’s members to contribute points by training COBRA Units and winning at COBRA Locations.

COBRA Base

So, let’s imagine – you have access to your COBRA Base and you’re ready to receive all the benefits this update brings. So, what now?

The first thing to do is explore your new surroundings. Here is what you need to know about your new COBRA Base:

Your COBRA Base does not have its own coordinates. It will not appear on the Map.

The Defensive Buildings at your COBRA Base increase the Defense Bonus of your first Base as well.

You can switch between your Base and your COBRA Base from the navigation panel on the right-hand side of your screen, or from the Map.

The easiest way to visualize this is to imagine your first Base now has a second floor. These two Bases work as a single Unit. This means all the bonuses currently applied to your first Base will apply to your COBRA Base, and vice versa.

COBRA Buildings

When you first unlock your COBRA Base, there will be one Building already constructed – a Parts Storage (Level 1).

You can see all the bonuses a COBRA Building provides by clicking on it, then opening the Building’s “Info” window. From there, you can see what the Building does at each upgrade level.

You can earn individual Achievements by constructing and upgrading COBRA Buildings.

All bonuses that influence your Construction Speed apply in both your first Base and your COBRA Base.

You must upgrade at least one of your Combat Engineers to a Master Engineer in order to construct your first COBRA Buildings. Master Engineers can work on Buildings in both your first Base and in your COBRA Base. You can upgrade the first Engineer for free. Upgrading more Engineers will require Diamonds.

Please note that you can only upgrade Engineers who are not currently working on any Construction or Upgrades. You can have a maximum of 2 Master Engineers at your Base.

Here is the list of COBRA Buildings:

Parts Factory. Allows you to produce Parts.

Parts Storage. Allows you to store Parts.

Parts Fabricator. Increases your overall Parts production with each upgrade level.

COBRA Barracks. Allows you to hire Rangers, Enforcers, Spectre AFVs, and Garudas.

COBRA Defensive Buildings.

COBRA Units

COBRA Units are special Units that you can hire after unlocking your COBRA Base and building the COBRA Barracks. There are 4 Units in total: Ranger (Infantry), Enforcer (Heavy Infantry), Spectre AFV (Armor), and Garuda (Combat Aviation).

COBRA Units are suitable for use in both Offensive and Defensive engagements and will gain a 20% stat advantage in battles against non-COBRA Units. Their base Offense and Defense statistics are equal, although the Contracts for each Unit type allow you to tweak their statistics according to your strategy.

COBRA Units can be hired at COBRA Barracks, but you must negotiate the COBRA Contract for each Unit first. Hiring COBRA Units requires both Parts and IPs. You can also receive COBRA Units as Rewards for winning at COBRA Locations and completing COBRA Missions.

You can boost your COBRA Unit Hiring Queue by using both Regular Boosts and Diamonds.

If your COBRA Units are killed in battle, you’ll be able to revive a certain percentage of them in the Sick Bay, or in the “Field Hospital” tab at the Black Market. The percentage of COBRA Units that can be restored using Diamonds depends on the “Sick Bay Rate” contract for each Unit (this will be explained in more detail later) and the Level of your Sick Bay. You can also revive a percentage of COBRA Units for free. These will appear in the “Restore Units for Free” section in the COBRA tab of the Sick Bay.

COBRA Unit Abilities

COBRA Unit Abilities dramatically improve your chances in both Offensive and Defensive battles. Each COBRA Unit has two Abilities – one for Offensive and one for Defensive engagements – although each Ability has specified battle types in which it can be activated.

The probability of a COBRA Unit Ability affecting the battle depends on its Activation Chance. The higher the Activation Chance, the more likely it is that the Ability will be activated. In general, the higher the number of the same COBRA Unit type you send, the more likely it is that their Unit Ability will be activated.

This mechanic is more complex when you start sending different types of COBRA Units to a single location. Try varying combinations of Units to find the strategy that’s best for you.

You can increase the probability of an Ability being activated by renegotiating the relevant “Activation Chance” COBRA Contract.

The Activation Chance of every Ability will be displayed in the Unit selection window before a battle, or at the Command HQ (for Abilities that can be activated during battles to defend your Base).

The Activation Chance window looks like this:

Here is a summary of the COBRA Abilities available.

Offensive Abilities

1. Movement Invisibility (Rangers)

This Ability gives you the element of surprise. When activated, Units sent to enemies will be hidden for the first part of their journey.

When you upgrade the Contract for this Ability, you increase the percentage of Travel Time your Units remain invisible for. At the maximum Level, Units will be hidden for 90% of their journey.

This Ability can only be activated during Raids.

2. Rapid Movement (Enforcers)

This Ability increases your army’s Speed. When activated, your entire army will move at the Speed indicated by the Ability’s Contract in the “Send Units” window.

The more you renegotiate the Contract for this Ability, the faster your army will become (up to a maximum of 50 km/h).

Rapid Movement can be activated during Offensive missions sent to other Bases, Repositories, Mining Complexes, and Combine HQs.

3. Bunker Raid (Spectre AFVs)

This Ability can improve your yield from Raids. When activated, you will be able to take Resources from enemy Bunkers.

Renegotiating the Contract for this Ability reduces the amount of Resources your enemies can protect in their Bunkers. As such, the “bonus” indicated for this ability does not necessarily translate to how many Resources you can take.

Example 1: Your enemy has 10K of each Resource, and a Bunker Capacity of 10K. If the bonus from “Bunker Raid” is 2K, the Bunker Capacity will be reduced to 8K for each Resource. This means you can raid 2K Munitions, Fuel, and Rations.

Example 2: Your enemy has 8K of each Resource, and a Bunker Capacity of 10K. If the bonus from “Bunker Raid” is 2K, the Bunker Capacity will be reduced to 8K for each Resource. This is still enough to protect all of the Resources at the Base from Raids.

At the maximum Level, you will be able to reduce an enemy’s Bunker Capacity by 20K of each Resource (this is the same capacity of a fully upgraded Bunker). This means no enemy will be able to shield Resources from you when you raid them – powerful stuff.

This Ability can only be activated during Raids.

4. Enemy Defense Bonus Decrease (Garudas)

This Ability can help you do more damage to your enemies. When activated, their Base or Mining Complex Defense Bonus will decrease by a certain percentage.

If you renegotiate the Contract for this Ability to the maximum Level, you will decrease enemy Defense Bonuses by 75% (when the Ability is activated).

For example, if your enemy has +1000 Base Defense, this will be reduced to +250. This will have a noticeable negative effect on their defensive forces.

Defensive Abilities

1. Defense Bonus Increase (Rangers)

This Ability can help you improve the performance of your Defensive Units. It increases the Defense Bonuses at your Base and your Combine’s Mining Complexes.

At the maximum Level, this Ability (when activated) will improve your Defense Bonuses by 50%.

2. Missile Protection (Enforcers)

This Ability will help soften the blow of enemy Missile Attacks. When activated, you will lose fewer Units when you are attacked with Missiles. Renegotiate the Contract for this Ability to increase the percentage of Units that will be saved.

When this Ability is activated at the maximum Level, you won’t lose any Units at all.

This Ability can be activated both at your own Base and friendly Bases where you have stationed Reinforcements. However, keep in mind the restrictions with the latter case (see below).

3. Cloaking (Spectre AFVs)

When activated, a percentage of your army will be hidden in enemy Recon Reports. Renegotiate the Contract for this Ability to increase the percentage of Units that will be hidden.

At the maximum Level, all of your Units will be hidden.

In the situation of an enemy Unit managing to destroy some of your Recon Units, your remaining Recon Units will still be hidden in the Report.

4. Free Sick Bay Rare (Garudas)

Under normal circumstances, only Units that were destroyed defending your Base are sent to the Sick Bay’s “Free” section. However, this Ability allows you to extend the Free Restoration mechanic to other locations too.

Each negotiation Level increases the percentage of fallen Units that can be restored, to a maximum of 10%.

The Ability can be activated in Defensive battles at the following locations: friendly Bases with your Reinforcements, Mining Complexes, Repositories, and Combine HQs. Units that fall defending your Base will still be sent to the Free Sick Bay using the existing mechanics.

Notes: Ability Activation

Remember the following points when analyzing your COBRA Unit Abilities.

If an Ability is activated, it will apply to all Units in the battle, not just your COBRA Units.

The exception to the above rule is when there are COBRA Unit Reinforcements stationed at a Base, and the Missile Protection Ability is activated. In this case, only the Units at the Base belonging to the Commander whose Ability was activated will be protected.

Abilities cannot be activated in COBRA Locations and COBRA Missions.

Some bonuses from the Buildings and Items active in your Base will not affect COBRA Units. However, bonuses from your Offense/Defense Enhancer Items and UCAV Bonuses will benefit your COBRA Units as well.

COBRA Contracts

We have created a brand new tree for COBRA Contracts. This tree will allow you to improve your COBRA Units and COBRA Base economy.

Contracts are divided into 8 groups.

1. COBRA Unit (Ranger, Enforcer, Spectre AVF, Garuda)

This type of Contract allows you to hire COBRA Units. There are 4 contracts of this type – one for each Unit.

2. Unit Offense/Defense (e.g. Ranger Offense, Garuda Defense)

Contracts of this type increase the Offensive or Defensive statistics of the Units they relate to. When renegotiated to the maximum Level, they make a massive difference to the power of your COBRA Units – increasing their combat statistics by 170%. This means that a Unit with a base Offensive statistic of 1000 will be boosted to 2700. In short, they are well worth investing Resources and time into.

3. Unit Restoration Cost (e.g. Ranger Restoration Cost, Enforcer Restoration Cost)

COBRA Units are valuable. Hiring them from scratch can be slow, and Resource intensive. Restoring your COBRA Units is essential to maintaining the strength of your army, and it’s faster than hiring new ones.

Each renegotiation Level of this type of Contract reduces the cost of reviving a COBRA Unit by the indicated percentage. At the maximum Level, it could save you 30% of the Unit’s full value in Diamonds. It is then multiplied by the discount already provided by the Sick Bay.

Example: The Diamond value of a COBRA Unit is 100. Your Sick Bay provides a 50% discount, and your “Restoration Cost” COBRA Ability provides a 30% discount. The calculation is as follows:

100 Diamonds – 30% (COBRA bonus) = 70 Diamonds

70 Diamonds – 50% (Sick Bay bonus) = 35 Diamonds

4. Sick Bay Rate (e.g. Ranger Sick Bay Rate, Spectre AFV Sick Bay Rate)

This type of Contract increases the number of COBRA Units that will be sent to the Sick Bay after they are destroyed in battle.

Renegotiating this type of Contract to the maximum Level will increase its bonus to 100%. For example, If you upgrade the Ranger Sick Bay Rate to Level 20 (the maximum Level), 100% of your fallen Rangers will be sent to the Sick Bay, and can be restored for Diamonds.

5. Offensive/Defensive Special Abilities (e.g. Movement Invisibility, Defense Bonus Increase)

As mentioned earlier, each COBRA Unit has two abilities – one Offensive, one Defensive (view the Unit Information window for each Unit to find out more). The power from the bonuses of these Abilities depends on the Level of the relevant Contract.

Once you have unlocked a Unit type by negotiating a required COBRA Contract, you will be able to begin increasing the power of their Ability bonuses. The higher the renegotiation Level of the Contract, the more powerful the bonus is from an activated Ability.

In addition, you will receive a permanent 5% and 15% Unit Offense/Defense bonus at Contract Levels 15 and 20 respectively. Note that this bonus only affects the COBRA Unit to which the Ability belongs.

6. Ability Activation Chance

Even the most powerful COBRA Unit Abilities are useless if they are not activated. You can improve the Activation Chance of each Ability in the Unit Selection window, usually by choosing a higher quantity of the specified Unit.

However, there is a different way to improve Ability Activation Chance. By renegotiating the Activation Chance Contract for each Ability, you will be able to significantly increase the probability that the Ability will be activated.

In addition to this, you will receive a permanent 5% and 15% Unit Offense/Defense Bonus at Contract Levels 15 and 20 respectively. Please note that this bonus will only affect the COBRA Unit to which the Ability belongs.

7. COBRA Perimeter

These Contracts allow you to build COBRA Defensive Buildings in your COBRA Base. The Level of the Defensive Building you can construct is equal to the renegotiation Level of the Contract.

8. Parts Production

This Contract allows you to construct the Parts Fabricator. This Building increases your Parts production by a certain percentage with each renegotiation Level.

About Contracts:

You can negotiate only one Contract or COBRA Contract at a time, unless you get an Additional Negotiator.

If you want to negotiate Contracts faster, you can reduce Contract Negotiation Time using COBRA Boosts, or complete the process instantly with Diamonds.

Other important points:

All bonuses that currently affect the speed of Contract Negotiation will also apply to COBRA Contracts.

Points for negotiating COBRA Contracts will contribute to Achievements.

COBRA Contracts do not affect the 7% Resource Production Bonus. This is still unlocked by negotiating all the Contracts that do not require IPs.

To negotiate COBRA Contracts you will need to collect the relevant COBRA Referrals. You can get these in several ways:

Log into the game. You will get 1 COBRA Referral per day

Purchase them from the Contract Info window. There is no limit for purchasing COBRA Referrals

Win them at COBRA Locations

Exchange for them in the Contracting Office

Receive them from another player

COBRA Locations

It has been a long time coming for some of our players, but we are excited to announce our brand new type of PvE Location – COBRA Locations.

COBRA Locations pit your COBRA Units against Zheng Shi forces across Zandia. The Units you will face are different to those found at regular Locations, so be sure to check their statistics to find out the most effective way of destroying them.

Only COBRA Units can fight at COBRA Locations, which means you will have to plan your strategy carefully. The way you get through COBRA Locations is almost the same as regular Locations. First, you must complete the highest available Level of COBRA Location, then after a certain number of Levels you must clear a COBRA Mission. The latter will be the greatest challenge your COBRA Units will face.

Another similarity to regular Locations is the Reward system. While the highest level Locations will yield the greatest Rewards, there is also value in sending weaker COBRA Units to lower-level Locations. You may just end up with a more powerful army from what you win.

This is particularly important in the early stages of your interaction with the feature. There will be a fair amount of renegotiating to do before you can train the most powerful Units by yourself.

As well as COBRA Units, you’ll receive Parts as a Reward for completing COBRA Locations. This Resource is essential for training Units, constructing and upgrading COBRA Buildings, and negotiating COBRA Contracts.

COBRA Missions

Your first COBRA Mission will be available to you as soon as you get access to your COBRA Base. After this, new COBRA Missions will be available after every 10 Levels of Offensive and Defensive Locations you complete. This means the second COBRA Mission will be available after you complete a Level 10 COBRA Location.

Parts

Parts are a brand new Resource in the game, unique to your COBRA Base. You will need a reliable supply of Parts to make improvements to your COBRA Buildings and Contracts, as well as to train new COBRA Units.

You can obtain Parts in several ways:

From Parts Factories

As a Reward for completing COBRA Locations

By purchasing Parts Packs at the Black Market

COBRA Combine Achievements

We have added two new Combine Achievements to reward Combines that perform well with this new feature.

COBRA Trainer. This Reward is for hiring COBRA Units.

COBRA Hunter. This Reward is for attacking or defending COBRA Locations.

Commanders, we hope this guide proves useful to you.

Remember, this is just the beginning of what’s coming up for your COBRA Base. We’ll be adding exciting new improvements in the coming weeks and months.

We appreciate any feedback and suggestions that come from you, so if you have any comments or questions, let us know!

Good luck.