Dealing with Scarabs -- how to counter them

This article is directed at beginners, who often have trouble dealing with Scarabs. This Nod infantry was recently nerfed and since costs 40 Tiberium instead of 30. Many good players were surprised by the nerf, because the Scarab is basically not used at all at the top of the ladder. The reason for the nerf is that it was "too strong" for many normal players to deal with.  (If you prefer watching videos, this video from CaptainBenzie is a good alternative to this article.)

Scarab characteristics

• Cost: 40 Tiberium
• Average move speed
• Low hitpoints
• Once it stops, it needs a short "charging period", after which it automatically targets and shoots units on adjacent pads, for which it has two chargest
• Most units die with a single scarab charge, harvesters and high-HP tech units need two charges
• A scarab explosion leaves behind a burning hex for some seconds, which damages ground units (esp. Squad based units as it's area-of-effect damage)

Scarab weaknesses

• It has low HP, so it cannot approach any anti-infantry unit as long as the defending unit targets it
• It needs to move next to a target, so 2-range units like Giga and Sniper hard-counter it
• It costs 40 Tiberium, so trades ineffcieintly against units that cost 10 (or against half-dead units that suicide into them)

How are Scarabs usually used?

• Defensively, e.g. built after the first harvester to protect a second one. 
• General counterplay: This is no real big problem as long as you can either efficiently remove them or (usually even better) just win the game by quickly charging the pads and preventing the Scarabs to effectively move onto a pad. With 2 harvesters and a defensive Scarab, the opponent has basically no units left to fight for the pads until they get their tech out.
• Cheesy rush, i.e. trying to kill your first harvester quickly with Scarab hits.
• General counterplay: Scout early enough to prevent this. See below.
• Delayed / optional, e.g. playing a normal opening of other units, and then, depending on the situation, moving Scarabs in from behind to protect certain pads, or bolster the frontline. This can be the most efficient way to use Scarabs.
• General counterplay: Depends on the situation, so the whole range of approaches below can help.

This list of weaknesses already shows us how to best deal with them:

1. Opening with a 10-cost unit (Rifle, Wardogs, Militant, Cyber Wheels) hardcounters Scarabs in multiple ways:
• As these units all have 4 vision, it scouts them, whether they defend a dual harvester build or whether they try to sneak to your harvester. That allows you to react properly.
• It counters them defensively 100%. You can position your unit in the path / on the pad, and the much-more expensive Scarab can't advance
• You can suicide your cheap unit into the Scarab and make a cost-efficient trade. Note that this is often not even needed -- only relevant if you need to dislodge the Scarab from a certain position (e.g. controlling a pad).
2. Flying with a cheap air unit directly onto them. You can move both GDI and Nod Drones (20 Tiberium each) over the Scarabs to trigger them, and make the exploding Scarab destroy the other charge. To do that, you move-click to the hex directly behind the Scarab, seen from the position from your unit.
3. Fight them with 2-range. Especially Snipers, but also other 2-range units are useful against them.
4. Defensively, fight them with any anti-infantry option. Whether it's Venom, Buggy, Rhino, Talon, APC, Flame Troopers .. -- Scarabs's can't approach them. Key: You need to manually target the Scarabs if the opponent sends in first another unit, then shortly after the Scarabs. As your defensive unit will auto-target the first opponent unit in range.
5. Suicide half-dead units into the scarabs. E.g. a bike squad with a single bike left. That is not only cost-efficient, but even allows you to get rid of unwanted units that prevent you from building more units due to the "pop cap" limitation that makes the unit production cooldown slower the more units you have on the field.

What does this mean for deck construction?

• It's great to have a 10-cost unit in your deck. It's cost-efficient not just against Scarabs
• Especially if you don't, you need at least a 20 cost opener (e.g. Laser or Missile Troopers) or Snipers
• The reason that many newer players struggle against Scarabs is because they don't follow this simple advice -- on this, I also recommend this article on how to build effective Rivals decks

There's also two advanced options to deal with Scarabs:

2v1 them. If you move in at the same time with two anti-infantry units, they can only kill one, as they die faster than they recharge. This is challenging, as the recharge is quite fast, so your units really must move at the same time. The easiest way to achieve this is (see illustration below):

1. have unit A be a bit further away from the Scarab
2. move unit B into a distance of two of the Scarab
3. attack-move unit A onto the Scarab
4. have the second unit move-command to the tile next to Scarabs at the exact moment that unit A (while moving) is 2 hexes away from the Scarabs (so they both arrive at the same time)

Pull Scarabs into opponent units. This depends on the circumstances, but can be quite powerful. The idea is to use an air unit to turn the Scarab explosion against your opponent.

1. By move-clicking past an enemy unit A, move an air unit B in such a manner that it will be above A in the moment that the Scarabs trigger
2. Scarabs will target your air unit and explode above their own unit A

If you enjoyed this article, maybe check our more content on my blog. Some recommendations for beginners:

• Basic deck construction guide for Rivals
• How to level up your units fast
• How much it cards and credits you need to upgrade your units to a certain level
• How the Tiberium income acceleration works throughout the game

And if you're in the mood to watch some Rivals action, here's a video recommendation: Top player 13lade follows the orders of his Twitch chat: He has to build the unit that his chat tells him to next. How does he deal with being forced to build the wrong unit at the wrong time? Very entertaining! 

• 13lade's YouTube channel
• 13lade's TwitchTV channel
• Interview with 13lade