A Guide to the Icy AI Serina for Halo Wars 2

Serina the smart AI from the original Halo Wars enters the Halo Wars 2 fray with a plethora of chilling new units and abilities. Below you will find a guide and overview of her new additions to the game as well as some early strategies to adopt. Serina is available now for season pass owners or can be brought as an individual purchase.

A Guide to the Icy AI Serina for Halo Wars 2

The Leader

Before Isabel there was Serina. Fans of the original Halo Wars will instantly recognise the sarcastic AI who was the heart, brain and protector of the Spirit of Fire. To Captain Cutter, she was his most trusted advisor and friend. Unfortunately, smart AI's only have a lifespan of 7 years and so while the crew slept between the events of Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 on their long journey to the Ark Serina was forced to shut herself down.

Before having to shut herself down Serina was able to plan and build for the future of the Spirit of Fire. She was remarkable for research and analysis and in particular, was interested in the work of professor Anders and her work on cryo technology. As a result of her hard work, Serina was able to develop a plethora of new units and abilities making use of cryo technology.  

New Mechanics

Serina is different to all other leaders in the fact that she introduces completely brand new mechanics to the game which are unique to her leader powers and units. It's important to understand these new mechanics both for playing as and against her.

Chill: A unit that is chilled will have reduced movement speed and will do less damage. Should the unit not sustain more chill they will eventually warm up and revert to normal speed and damage. There are many ways to inflict chill on your opponents, from new units, active leader powers and even a few passive bonuses. Chilling your opponents gives you a massive advantage in most situations against all types of adversaries, whether you be attacking or defending and as Serina is built around these new mechanics it's important to use it to your advantage as much as possible.

Freeze: Should a unit or building sustain enough chill they will become frozen. You can keep track of how much a unit has sustained chill by looking at the bar that will fill up below a units health. Once the bar is filled the unit becomes completely frozen. In this frozen state, a unit cannot move, attack or perform any actions. After a time they will naturally thaw out, should a frozen unit be attacked they will not be hurt unless they are shattered. Again with so much focus on these new mechanics, a player simply needs to be making use of new units and abilities to see the advantages of freezing enemy combatants.  

Shatter: If a frozen unit sustains enough damage they will shatter, an effect that causes a massive damage spike which is devastating against most units, in most cases finishing them off. Attacking frozen units with conventional weapons in my experience is not very effective at causing shatter and using cryo weapons on frozen enemies will also not trigger the effect. The best way to cause shatter is to use the Frostravens special ability or the leader power seismic blast. (More on those later)

New units

Tundra Bison: This unique vehicle acts as Serinas hero unit. It's a slow moving but heavily armoured and shielded vehicle that is a great addition to any Serina tactics due to its chilling primary weapon and AOE special ability. Its primary weapon is a long range launcher that deals damage and chilling, it's slow firing and will often miss when used against air units, its, therefore, best to keep the Tundra Bison at the back of your army as more of a support unit than as the focus of an attack. The Launcher has a certain degree of splash damage but the nature of the unit means it can be swamped by other units quite easily particularly from aerial attacks. Upgrades to the unit will increase the range, fire rate and chill effect of the launcher but it's still best used in a support role.

The most exciting use of the Tundra Bison is its special ability which will lock down the unit in one spot like the Kodiak or Blissterback. In this lockdown state, the unit creates a massive chill aura around it which will rapidly chill and freeze any units caught in the area. Used effectively this ability can be used to gain an advantage at key choke points, used to cause carnage when deployed at enemy bases or deployed at your own base to give you a defensive edge. In the lockdown state, the unit still has use of the launcher and so if defended effectively can be used to constantly harass and pester as well as lock down key areas. Upgrades to the unit will also boost its defences and the area of the chill aura.

Cheap, versatile and supportive the Tundra Bison is a hero unit that actually remains useful and effective in the early, mid and late game. An essential purchase.

A Guide to the Icy AI Serina for Halo Wars 2 - The Tundra Bison introduces a unique and exciting hero unit to deploy
Frostraven: This unique aerial unit is weak against infantry, vehicles, air and buildings. It makes up for this however by being armed with a cryo ray which will rapidly chill and freeze enemy units. An upgrade to the frostraven will increase the rate that it chills and freezes enemies. As mentioned above shatter is a new mechanic which when taken advantage of will cause insane amounts of damage to frozen units, this is where the frostravens special ability the seismic missile comes into its own. When used on frozen units it will trigger shatter, used on unfrozen units is extremely ineffective. Of course, to make use of shatter and seismic missiles will often depend on the circumstances of a battle, players will have to pay constant attention to any units that are frozen and quickly target them with the special ability. In early engagements, it can be easy to keep track of your frostravens but in late game engagements, it can be hard to make use of seismic missiles in all the carnage.

Even without seismic missiles, the chilling effect of frostravens means they are an incredibly fun and devastating unit to use. However, it's important to not rely entirely on the unit due to its low damage output. One tactic is to focus attention on global air upgrades and back up frostravens with Hornets for damage output and some nightingales for healing, in the late game a combination of Vultures and frostravens can be devastating in a variety of engagements. In addition to other air units making active use of the Tundra Bison, Cryo Trooper and leader powers to cause chilling and freezing means you don't have to rely purely on the frostravens to make use of their seismic missiles.

Like many other unique units, the frostraven first needs to be brought as a passive ability to unlock it at the main base. This can be done relatively quickly but I recommend purchasing other leader powers before unlocking it and waiting for your economy to get set up. The unit costs 250 resources and 100 energy and so purchasing a few early on can be bad for your economy. I recommend waiting till around tech level 2 so that your economy will be set up and you will be in a good position to purchase global air upgrades and start mass producing the unit for the mid game engagements.

A Guide to the Icy AI Serina for Halo Wars 2 - The Frostraven swoops in to provide some ice cold support 
Cryo Trooper: Hell has frozen over. The Cryo Trooper replaces the Hellbringers in the barracks, the units behave in the same way effectively but the Cryo Trooper deals less damage but causes the chill and freezing effect with their cryo spray. The uses of the unit are really the same as that of Hellbringers such as being a cheap unit to rush enemy bases with but the decrease in damage can set them at a disadvantage in the early game with no units or abilities to help support their freezing capabilities, in many early game situations they will freeze units but then with no additional support they will often not actually kill enemies. As such the unit is actually best used later on rather than as an early unit to field, an upgrade to the unit, for example, increases the damage, range and area covered by their weapons.

The full potential of the Cryo Trooper is not unlocked until the passive ability Cryotech advances  (see below) has been purchased. This passive ability gives the unit energy shields and a small AOE chill aura, this coupled with their upgrade from the barracks turns the cryo trooper from disadvantaged worse off hell bringer into a highly advanced and formidable opponent great for freezing infantry and vehicles and being a formidable unit to attack bases with. That said they are similar to that of the Tundra Bison and Frostraven in that they are supportive and compliment other units and leader abilities rather than being the sole focus of any one strategy.

A Guide to the Icy AI Serina for Halo Wars 2 - A song of ice and fire

New abilities

Ice Barrier:  Drops in three blocks of ice in the chosen location of the player. Careful placement of the blocks can block off key choke points although is far less effective at doing this than Colonys living barrier ability. Ice Barrier does have the added bonus of having a chill aura around each block of ice, this means that you don't necessarily have to deploy them to block off areas but simply deploy them around enemy forces to significantly chill them, often early on in matches ice barrier can be used as an effective deterrent. Spending a further ability point on ice barrier will increase the ice blocks from three to five and increase the chill aura, be wary as ice blocks can be destroyed.

Cryo Mine:  The same as other mine abilities, the cryo mine can be deployed to surprise your foes in checkpoints or used as extra defence around bases. The cryo mine will deal damage and freeze any enemy caught in the blast radius.

Cryotech advances:  I consider this to be an essential ability to purchase. As mentioned above it gives the cryo trooper a chill aura and energy shield but it has more additional bonuses that can give you a significant edge. Turrets gain a chill aura as do captured energy points, this means defending your base as Serina is made that much harder for your adversaries all you have to do is make sure to build turrets at your base to cover the local area in ice. To really mess with your opponents you can purchase this ability and then capture the energy points around the map, the chill aura for energy points is massive meaning you can hold onto the energy points easily and it acts as a brilliant deterrent, should your opponent be foolish enough to engage you around an energy point they will suffer the consequences as their entire army becomes chilled and frozen. If this wasn't enough this ability also gives siege turrets and Kodiaks a chill effect with each shot great for causing long range headaches on your opponents forces and bases.

Frostraven:  Unlocks the Frostraven at the main base. As mentioned above I would wait a while before purchasing this ability straight away such as unlocking Cryotech advances so that you can rush energy points instead.

Seismic Charge:  This is the easiest way to make use of the shatter mechanic, it shoots down a seismic pulse that covers a relatively small area, used on unfrozen opponents does very little damage but used on frozen enemies is absolutely devastating. Just like the Frostravens seismic missiles, the use of seismic charge will often depend on the circumstances of the battle as well as the reaction times and skill of the player. Making effective use of Serinas units and abilities means there will be plenty of opportunities to make use of the ability, the best way to use it, however, is as a combo piece with Cryo Bomb. An upgrade will increase the radius of the ability meaning there is less emphasis on using it around clustered frozen units.

Cryo Bomb: A fan favourite from the original game the cryo bomb will deal damage and instantly freeze any units caught in its blast radius, follow up a cryo bomb with a seismic charge to devastate your opponents army an especially effective tactic when used on clustered forces so you could even use ice barrier to try and bunch up your opponents units. The Cryo Bomb can be upgraded an additional two times, increasing its initial damage and radius of its instant freeze effect.

Cryo Drop:  Drops in two veteran scorpion tanks and cryo troopers as well as a veteran frostraven.  In addition to this, the drop zone is bombarded with three seismic blasts and so can be an effective ability to combo with. As with any reinforcement ability, they can be used to instantly reinforce existing pushes or defend on the fly but do cost a lot of resources and energy to do so.

Glacial Storm: The initial blast does damage and chill but then spreads out and covers a large area in chill that lasts a decent amount of time. This and Cryo Drop are ultimate abilities, unlike other ultimate abilities glacial storm does not feel that useful or effective. In my opinion, the ability point is better spent on upgrading cryo bomb and you can use the Tundra Bison to cover an area in permanent chill which is far more effective than the short lived AOE chill of Glacial Storm.

To round out the ability wheel Serina also has access to turret drop and restoration drones.

A Guide to the Icy AI Serina for Halo Wars 2 - ICE ICE BABY

Blitz Mode

Unique cards available to Serina in blitz mode:

Cryo Troopers 40 energy

Cryogenic Detonator 40 energy

Ice Barrier 50 energy

Seismic Blast 60 energy

Frostraven 70 energy

CryoBomb 110 energy

Glacial Storm 170 energy

Tundra Bison 220 energy 

Making use of all of Serinas cards means that for blitz mode you can focus on tactics that will slow down and agitate your opponent rather than actually focussing on pure offensive power. As such the abilities and units are best used offensively outside of capture zones rather than chilling and freezing your opponent in the capture zone.

The cryo bomb and seismic blast combo come into its own here as it can be used to devastating effect on the clustered forces you will often find in the capture zones or on the ridges over looking them. Glacial storm can be used as a very effective deterrent as players are often unlikely to push a zone with a chilling effect covering it. Cryogenic Detonator and Ice Barrier are great for defending choke points. All of these abilities can deter, block and slow down your opponent meaning an effective Serina can hold capture zones while not actually necessarily destroying too many units. The Tundra Bison is also a very effective card to make use of, as its chilling aura special ability can effectively hold down capture zones whilst its long range launcher can deal damage and chilling from afar.

With the low damage output of the units and abilities, it's good to back up a deck with some offensive firepower such as a vulture or scorpion. A unit like the cyclops or jackrabbit is also a good addition to a deck so that you have something to contest energy drops with.

Final Thoughts

Unlike other leaders Serina well and truly shakes up the battlefield with unique abilities and units that bring entirely new mechanics to the game. Her damage output is low but she is able to control the battlefield with area denial tactics. With combo powers and supportive units a player needs to be diverse and on the ball to make the most out of Serina but otherwise, she is a truly formidable adversary across all of Halo Wars 2's multiplayer modes. 

2 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    Serina has a shit ton of damage! Once you make a 6 Frostraven, 3 cryo troopers and 6 scorpions plus other units like warthogs, marines, etc. You can destroy other leaders easily, like Forge. This happens because Scorpion shots SHATTER pasively. Artillery shots do this too. Someone should do a video researching this.

    Reply
    • Avatar photo

      Scorpions and artillery can cause shatter? I’ll deffo have to look into that! True overall her chilling and freezing is often more than enough to overwhelm most players.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

×