Cyclops is a poor Backliner, anti-Wave attacker and anti-Alien, but a passable Aku Shield Piercer. He has 44.2k HP with 3 KBs, 3800 DPS split equally over two hits in a 9.1s attack cycle at 460 range, and 15 speed. First Form is a support-type unit with a 50% chance of a 3s Freeze against his target traits, and a 50% chance of piercing Aku Shields, both only on his first hit. Evolved Form swaps these abilities for being Immune to Waves and Strong against his traits. Both forms come with a 5325 cost and 151s cooldown.

His main use is his First Form's 50% Shield Pierce ability from a high standing range with area attack, which is more consistent than non-uber alternatives, and may even Freeze the newly-pierced enemy as a bonus over his competitors. This is convenient for having an easier time against the likes of Fallen Bears, Le'Behemoths and bosses like Mamon or Jagando. Other than that, his standing range is just high enough to be usable for getting around early-game anti-CBahamut ~450-range enemies like SLOTH and Master A, while his Wave Immunity in Evolved Form may prove convenient for early Wave enemies if other alternatives are not unlocked yet. Newer players may also value his effective 88k HP and 5800 DPS against Aliens in Evolved Form for general ITF use, and similarly the Freeze ability in First Form may benefit players who have yet to get Surfer Cat throughout early Alien content.

Despite having multiple possible niches with his broad range of abilities, Cyclops is held back in all of them by abysmal base stats. His sub-CBaha DPS is barely passable in early game but after this it is really not fit for any purpose. Even his Strong-boosted stats are rather ordinary and matched or even outperformed by most decent generalists' base stats. As an anti-Wave attacker he is only barely preferable to the atrocious pre-TF Musashi, and vastly outclassed by almost all other alternatives. As a control uber, his Freeze has a pathetic ~30% uptime even assuming it always procs, and it only applies on his first hit, leaving it often feeling ineffective, and easily outclassed in the Alien meta. Similarly, his long attack cycle and absence of Shield Pierce on second hit make his average time to remove a shield 18 seconds, which is on the higher end for ubers with this role. Thus, on hard-pushing Aku stages, you still need some reasonable luck to land the pierce before you lose too much ground, and once again his poor stats offer no backup should the pierce fail; it's very much All Or Nothing, and when a spell of bad RNG strikes, it's 2.5 minutes of cooldown and ~5000 cash lost. As a result, taking into account both the pros and cons, he doesn't feel all that much better in use than just sending a handful of more disposable Researchers until they work.

In summary, Cyclops has five potential roles over his two forms but all are plagued with serious problems. His stats are unsuitable for general use, anti-Alien DPS or anti-Wave combat outside of very early game when you lack alternatives, his CC is of poor quality, and his Shield Pierce is hampered by a slow attack rate. Note that Wave Immunity and Shield Pierce are on different forms, so he does not counter DeathKory (nor Aku Face, due to range issues as well). He may not be bad to obtain in the early game when he may fill multiple niches you need support in, but when the difficulty ramps up you will likely find him inadequate in all of these situations except to break Shields, where there is still little competition.

Changes

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