What is the unity scout chopper for?

It has a range of 8 hexes. That makes it too short to actually scout, it can't be upgraded for a long time, and in the meantime it just eats up support.

I mean, you can use to kill it the occasional mind worm, but it just doesn't seem very useful. A scout chopper that can't scout seems silly.

It can actually scout 16 tiles from a base and then return. It will take damage, but it will make it back to the base and then can heal. Using it to zap native life will help to pay for the support it uses. You should be able to promote up to Elite by the time it can be upgraded to a better unit.

Question,

You have mentioned a few of the issues with the Scout Chopper being used for Offence, but the use of it for Defense is actually quite awesome.

I build my bases as far apart as needed, but still as closely packed as will not overlap, so I can have heavier unit density on the outside of the territory able to deal with attacks from mind worms or other factions, and then have a few scout choppers on the inside to deal with emergent threats.

Don't read too much into the term "Scout". In Alpha Centauri, "Scout" just means 'weak'

--The FNP

Honestly I tend to just cash it in to speed up an early rec tanks... but I could come up with a couple of other uses:

The ground attack penalty makes it... not great for killing native life, but the credits can be worth it.

As Petek mentioned, it's not actually limited to the range it can travel in one turn. I don't remember how much damage copter units take from forced landing - though my first bet would be 30% - but the next turn it'll somehow have scavenged up a full tank. You can uncover quite a lot of nearby tiles with one knowing that.

IIRC spotting other factions with a copter unit does not give diplomatic contact. This is probably bad rather than good, but it's something that's good to know.

If you're not above rule abuse, having an air unit around early makes life easier in a lot of ways. Use it to enter fungus tiles reliably without any risk of worm spawns, park it on top of a unit that you really don't want attacked this turn (or generally on a tile that you don't want any enemies to enter), use it to dodge ZOCs when you can't spare a probe team, etc.. Just be sure to have it end its turn with no moves left in that case, because the pilot might get cold feet and start flying home if you press space while the unit still has moves...

Yea, I really like the Unity Chopper for its scouting. My favourite is to get an Elite or Empath Rover and team them up for farming worms. I agree with all of the above. Don't be afraid to damage it.

You guys know that the Unity Chopper also has a SAM ability.

It can, ironically, ruin a needlejets day.