Sidewinder (LWOTC)

The Sidewinder are a Viper variant that is far more mobile and slippery in exchange for some offensive power.

The Sidewinder is a viper variant that is far more agile, making them more mobile and dodgey targets. In exchange with a much lighter body, they lose some offensive power, having slightly lower aim and using an SMG-like weapon is far less effective at range. A more agile body also makes them incapable of binding targets but instead are capable of scaling buildings sliding along walls to reach higher elevations. Along with their new gain mobility, they also gain Shadowstep making them completely ignore any reaction moves. As Sidewinder improves, they gain better capabilities to reach our flanks while also taking advantage of it with Hit and Slither . Similar to the Vipers, they are immune to poison.

Sidewinder (Rank 1)

Difficulty	Health	Aim	Crit Chance	Flanking Crit Chance Bonus	Dodge	Mobility	Will	Detection Radius (tiles)
Rookie	5	60	0	33	10	15	50	8
Veteran	6	65	0	33	15	15	55	8
Commander	6	70	10	40	15	15	55	8
Legend	7	70	10	40	15	15	60	9

Weapon	Damage	Crit Damage	Clip Size	Other
Sidewinder Scramgun	4 - 7	2	3	Flank Aim Bonus: 5

Max Units in Pod = 4
Force Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Leader Spawn Weight	0	0	0	1	2	2	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Follower Spawn Weight	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	5	5	5	5	5	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	0

Abilities and Tactical Upgrades
Poison Spit Spit a deadly poison, that poisons any targets within the area and leaves a poison cloud that lasts 3-turns.	Shadowstep This soldier does not trigger overwatch or reaction fire.	Poison Immunity Immune to poison	Hunter's Instincts Ranged attacks against flanked enemies deal +2 damage. 33% chance of applying after completion
Center Mass You do one additional point of base damage when using guns. 16% chance of applying after completion	Will To Survive Enemy damage is reduced by 1 when in cover and attacked through that cover. Also grants 5 will. 15% chance of applying after completion	Lethal You do 2 additional points of base damage and 1 additional point(s) of bonus critical damage with your primary weapon. 8% chance of applying after completion	Hard Target Gain 5 dodge per enemy you can see, up to a maximum of +30. 25% chance of applying after completion

Sidewinder Serpens (Rank 2)

Difficulty	Health	Aim	Crit Chance	Flanking Crit Chance Bonus	Defense	Dodge	Mobility	Will	Detection Radius (tiles)
Rookie	7	65	0	33	5	15	16	68	8
Veteran	8	70	10	33	5	20	16	72	8
Commander	8	75	10	40	10	20	16	72	8
Legend	9	75	10	40	10	20	16	72	9

Weapon	Damage	Crit Damage	Clip Size	Other
Sidewinder Scramgun	4 - 8	3	3	Flank Aim Bonus: 5

Max Units in Pod = 4
Force Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Leader Spawn Weight	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Follower Spawn Weight	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	5	6	7	7	5	5	5	5

Abilities and Tactical Upgrades
Poison Spit Spit a deadly poison, that poisons any targets within the area and leaves a poison cloud that lasts 3-turns.	Shadowstep This soldier does not trigger overwatch or reaction fire.	Hit and Slither Once per turn, gain a movement action after taking a standard shot against a flanked or exposed target with your primary weapon	Poison Immunity Immune to poison
Hunter's Instincts Ranged attacks against flanked enemies deal +2 damage. 33% chance of applying after completion	Center Mass You do one additional point of base damage when using guns. 16% chance of applying after completion	Will To Survive Enemy damage is reduced by 1 when in cover and attacked through that cover. Also grants 5 will. 15% chance of applying after completion	Lethal You do 2 additional points of base damage and 1 additional point(s) of bonus critical damage with your primary weapon. 8% chance of applying after completion	Hard Target Gain 5 dodge per enemy you can see, up to a maximum of +30. 25% chance of applying after completion

Sidewinder Elite (Rank 3)

Difficulty	Health	Aim	Crit Chance	Flanking Crit Chance Bonus	Defense	Dodge	Mobility	Will	Detection Radius (tiles)
Rookie	10	70	10	40	10	20	16	85	8
Veteran	12	75	15	40	10	25	18	90	8
Commander	12	80	15	50	15	25	18	90	8
Legend	12	80	15	50	15	25	18	95	9

Weapon	Damage	Crit Damage	Clip Size	Other
Sidewinder Scramgun	4 - 9	3	3	Flank Aim Bonus: 5

Max Units in Pod = 4
Force Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Leader Spawn Weight	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	2	2	2	2
Follower Spawn Weight	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	6	8	8

Abilities and Tactical Upgrades
Poison Spit Spit a deadly poison, that poisons any targets within the area and leaves a poison cloud that lasts 3-turns.	Shadowstep This soldier does not trigger overwatch or reaction fire.	Hit and Slither Once per turn, gain a movement action after taking a standard shot against a flanked or exposed target with your primary weapon	Hunter's Instincts Ranged attacks against flanked enemies deal +2 damage.	Poison Immunity Immune to poison
Infighter Gain 40 dodge against attacks within four tiles.	Center Mass You do one additional point of base damage when using guns. 16% chance of applying after completion	Will To Survive Enemy damage is reduced by 1 when in cover and attacked through that cover. Also grants 5 will. 15% chance of applying after completion	Lethal You do 2 additional points of base damage and 1 additional point(s) of bonus critical damage with your primary weapon. 8% chance of applying after completion	Hard Target Gain 5 dodge per enemy you can see, up to a maximum of +30. 25% chance of applying after completion

Tips

Like most flankable units, they will ideally try to find reasonable cover whenever flanked. This can be taken advantage of if you want to force enemies to move. Though this is much less effective as Shadowstep prevents a lot of available tools that can take advantage of forcing enemies to move.
Poison Spit can easily be negated by simply carrying a medikit which grants poison immunity. This immunity can also block the initial poison when spat at, wasting their turn. While Viper's can sometimes spit at a single target, if you group multiple units closeby with immunity it will encourage the viper to spit but is then wasted as you can't be affected.
Sidewinders are incredibly mobile and have various bonuses when targeting flanked units that can be very dangerous. It is best to keep an eye on their position as well as yours so that they do not become big threats while also being difficult to rid of.
While Shadowstep prevents reaction moves from trigger, Suppression is unique in that it can still trigger but it will deal no damage due to the effective immunity. Instead the shot still fires and calculates regularly which can have a chance to apply a status effect such as burning with Dragon Rounds.