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Duster Information
Rubinelle Lazurian/IDS
DoRDuster DoRDusterAlt
A somewhat powerful plane that can
attack both ground and air units.
MAIN SUB
Machine Gun None
Cost 13,000 Inftry ArrowBad
Gas 99 Veh ArrowBad
Ammo 9 Air ArrowBad
Mobility 8 Heli ArrowGood
Vision 4 Ship Hyphen
Range 1 Sub Hyphen
IconMovementMovement Air IconCombatCombat Air
 IconRedWarning IconCruiserIconMissiles
 IconYellowWarning IconFighterIconAntiAir
Main article: Lite Fighter

Dusters(Days of Ruin) or Fighters(Dark Conflict) or 軽戦闘機(失われた光) are an Air Unit that make their one and only appearance outside Japan to date in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. They can target both Air and Land Units, but their attack power is mediocre compared to the specialized Fighter or Bomber. They can also (barely) survive being hit by an Anti-Air unit.

Dusters are initially introduced in A Kind of Home, and become buildable in The Beast.

Tactics[]

Duster

A lone Duster from AW:DoR under Will's command.

Duster's firepower is average, so don't expect to use dusters alone to destroy units quickly. However, they are the cheapest Air Combat unit in the game and can hit all ground and air units in the game, improving their versatility. This is especially true in maps that have limited or no naval support. Dusters aren't meant to be produced in masses and are designed to finish the job off.

Dusters are designed to function similar to early recons: Both are cheap on their unit table (recon being land and duster being air) and intended to disrupt the early flow of the game. Dusters will do 4-6 HP damage to soldiers, making it harder for them to capture cities in 2 or 3 turns and also cannot counter due to its Air (not Copter) status. Dusters will also do a good 7-9 HP damage to copters without counterattack; B-Copters, despite not being OHK'd, can't do anything but scout at the risk of level-up. Dusters also do decent damage to other Air combat unit and offensively trade blows with fighters for economic value if desperate position. Anti-Airs, while dealing a good amount of damage, can't OHK the unit unless CO Zoned or leveled up and cannot catch up to duster's better mobility if it doesn't OHK, giving dusters the ability to retreat back until better later game. If dusters do enough offensive engagements, it has done its job, value-wise; even better if veteran status.

Unlike recon units, which lose all practical use on later stages and have weak tire movement, dusters still remain useful as they can still deal meaningful damage towards infantry and other aerial units while having less restrictive movement. They are essentially useful to force the more expensive fighters and bombers in retreat. Duster can finish off weakened air and land units, they can hinder land unit movement, disrupt bombers and helicopters, and punish any unprotected infantry unit. Even with fighters being superior in terms of damage, the cost difference allows you to deploy Duster along Anti-Airs, which significantly reinforce them against air units, or Tanks, which offset their low damage against vehicles and counter enemy Anti-Airs, at the same cost.

Even though they can attack every ground unit in the game, it is mostly not recommended to engage the vehicular units. Damage to tank-armored type units is very minimal, doing around 1-2 HP damage. If rockets and missiles are spotted and not on cities, an engagement to them with dusters just to do 2 HP damage may work wonders, but not the smartest idea if there are better engagements or if opponent is ready for counterattack. In short, unless you are going to gamble with dealing 1-2 HP damage left, you are better off leaving your other ground units to deal with them instead and instead do better damage to other units.

Despite higher defense than a B-Copter and a T-Copter, don't get carried away. They can still be OHK'd by missiles and cruisers. Additionally, any damage done by another unit (especially anti-airs and fighters) makes duster's average damage be nearly useless, making them only used for scouting or retreating.

Overall, dusters can play a great role in the early game, but not much in the later game if funds are higher.

Trivia[]

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