| “ | Troopers, ready for action! - Zone Trooper rolling out of the Barracks. |
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Zone Troopers are advanced heavy infantry used by the GDI since the Third Tiberium War.
Description[]
They wear advanced, self-sufficient powered suits made from the same composite used in the Mammoth 27's armour.[1] The advanced life support systems allow the wearer to survive in heavily Tiberium contaminated areas such as the Red zones. In addition to being able to survive in such conditions, zone troopers are equipped with jump jets, allowing them to move long distances in seconds, often dropping into the heat of a battle as reinforcements. For combat the zone troopers carry an advanced portable railgun based off the same design employed in the new Mammoth 27 and MBT-6 Predator tanks. Besides protection from light weapons fire, the armour also absorbs the recoil the railguns produce and increases the wearer's strength and power. Some zone troopers do one handed push-ups while in their power armour when idle, and they can run faster than regular riflemen.
Squads of four zone troopers are deadly foes, often accompanying larger tanks on their way into combat. Their suits can be upgraded with sensor packs giving them limited stealth detection abilities and with advanced power packs which amplify the suit's performance, resulting in increased resilience and firepower, and allows the suit to self repair and also give the wearer medical attention.
A drop pod delivers Zone Trooper reinforcements.
Zone troopers can also be dropped from orbit using atmospheric entry drop pods, allowing for rapid insertion onto the battlefield as either reinforcements or to establish beachheads. The drop pod squad is composed of 3 experienced squads of troopers. Unlike the Bloodhounds, GDI Airborne and sharpshooter teams which have to be inserted via Ox transports, making reinforcement slow and vulnerable, Zone troopers arrive on the battlefield instantenously.
However, the cost of equipping a single Zone Trooper is enormous as a single suit and associated equipment costs 25 credits more than a whole Rifleman squad. They are also completely defenseless against aircraft (especially the Venom) and armour-piercing projectiles of the shredder turret, and flame-based weaponry is highly effective against them. It is advised to cover them from such threats using anti-air units and heavier tanks.
Variants[]
Various customized suits of armour
A heavily modified variation of the zone trooper armour is deployed by ZOCOM, and utilized by soldiers known as zone raiders.
Some zone troopers modify their armour, customizing its appearance with decals and different colour schemes.
Legacy[]
Following the conflict and in the years leading up to the Incursion War, GDI had managed to make improved versions of Zone Armor which for a time led to the units being somewhat immune to the effects of the fires from Nod flame tanks until a new series of such vehicles were introduced. The zone trooper also has a new type of variant known as the Zone Captain, as well as other variations such as the Zone Enforcer or Zone Lancer.
Abilities[]
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Jetpack | Allow Zone Troopers to take flight, clearing large amounts of terrain in a single jump to land at a targeted destination. This activated ability has a 10 second cooldown (Ctrl+S). |
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Call for transport | Calls in a V-35 Ox to carry the Zone Trooper anywhere on the map (Ctrl+A). |
Upgrades[]
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Scanner Packs | Provides Zone Troopers with a 20% range and line of sight bonus while also allowing them to detect stealth (Ctrl+S). | Purchasable at any Command Post for $500 and takes 0:15 to research. |
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Power Packs | Makes Zone Troopers considerably more durable by adding 50% more hit points and also confers self-healing (Ctrl+D). | Purchasable at any Armory for $1000 and takes 0:30 to research. |
Assessment[]
Pros[]
- Does high damage to most types of ground units, especially vehicles
- Cannot be suppressed or crushed, except by Tier 3 units or upgraded Scorpions and Reckoners
- Jumpjets greatly increase mobility and allow the crossing of otherwise impassable terrain, as well as enemy walls and buildings, and can be helpful in avoiding enemy base defenses
- Jump jets are also very effective against enemy tanks, as it allows the squad to strike them from behind where the tank has weaker armour.
- Veteran units can be instantly deployed to the battlefield using the Zone Trooper Drop Pods support power
- Power packs upgrade allows them to passively recover health when idle. Stacks with regeneration bonusgained at Heroic status. However, power packs still do not allow them the ability to replace fallen squad members
- Scanner packs upgrade grants for short-range stealth detection. With this upgrade, zone troopers become very well suited to hunting down units such as Nod Harvesters and stealth tanks
- Capable of moving more quickly than most infantry due to powered armour
- Immune to Tiberium radiation. When retreating from enemy infantry vulnerable to Tiberium radiation, a valid tactic is to have them run away through a Tiberium field to break pursuit
- Troopers' power suits resist most attacks, including Sniper-type damage
- Take minimal damage from a tank's Cannon-type damage, while dealing back the maximum damage with their own Cannon-type.
Cons[]
- Deal minimal damage to similarly priced Black Hand and shock troopers while receiving decent damage in return, due to dealing cannon damage, which all three units take minimal damage from.
- Vulnerable to aircraft and becomes vulnerable to anti-air while using jet packs
- Ineffective against heavily armoured structures
- Expensive by infantry standards and rather fragile for their cost
- Cannot garrison buildings or Foxholes
- Jet pack needs to cool down after each use, and Zone Troopers will "freeze" for a couple of seconds after landing
- Not cost-effective against basic infantry units such as militants, rifle squads, or groups of buzzers
- Despite having a slight resistance to sniper-type damage, buzzers and commandos can still kill them nearly instantly due to their extremely high rate of fire.
- Vulnerable to crushing by Tier 3 vehicles and Nod vehicles upgraded with dozer blades
- Fall easily to flame-based weapons and small-arms fire
- Not available to Steel Talons.
Development[]
The initial zone trooper design did not have sealed armour. The fanbase complained this did not make sense given the Tiberium-contaminated environment they were supposed to operate in. The final design was sealed.
Quotes[]
Created[]
- Troopers, ready for action!
Select[]
- Troopers in the field!
- Whaddaya need?
- Alive and ready!
- We're here!
- Trooper squad!
- What's the call?
- That's right!
Moving[]
- We hear ya!
- Got it!
- Let's go, troopers!
- Moving!
- Time to go!
- I'll check it out!
- Let's move!
- Let's get over there!
Using jump jets[]
- Over easy!
- Hit it!
- Let's go!
- Punch it!
Garrisoning structure[]
- You know where to find us!
- Take it!
- Going in!
Attacking[]
- Shut this party down!
- Pin 'em down!
- Oh yeah!
- Have at it!
- We got this one!
- Take 'em!
- Get a load of this!
Moving to attack[]
- Sit tight!
- We got 'em!
- Let's do it!
In combat[]
- Keep 'em comin'!
- We got this handled!
- It's under control!
- Here, want some more?
- Have some of this!
- Take that!
Retreating[]
- It's no use, let's go!
- We're outta here!
Names in other languages[]
- Dutch - Zonesoldaat ("Zone soldier")
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Zone Troopers bear a striking resemblance to the original Mobile Infantry from Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. They both wear large and bulky powered armour, both use jetpacks to perform long jumps and make sudden entrances onto the battlefield as opposed to flying, they use extremely powerful handheld weapons, and both are deployed from orbit via a disposable transport pod.
- They also bear a resemblance to Space Marines from the Warhammer 40.000 universe, as they both are highly mobile elite infantry forces equipped with fully sealed power armour. Space Marines are also known to use advanced weapons (the Lascannon in particular is similar to Zone Trooper railguns) and jetpacks and have certain preference for drop pod assaults. However, they are also heavily augmented to the point of no longer being merely human, and their heavy ranged weapons and jetpacks are mutually exclusive.
- Single Zone Troopers can be added to a map instead of squads with the Worldbuilder, and these single units can garrison civilian structures.
- Zone Troopers also resembles the Terran Marines from Starcraft.
Idle Animations[]
•A trooper does a one armed push-up, similar to the commando.
•A trooper will sit down and beat his chest with one arm.
•A trooper will kneel.
References[]
- ↑ GDI campaign intro
