Best Command and Conquer 3 Nod Units

The Redeemer has more disadvantages compared to its rivals, such as less health, fewer garrison slots, inability to generate resources, and lack of splash damage. However, it's still the best of the three Epic Units because it can actually beat them in a one-on-one fight (without any garrison slots).

Its most feared ability is the Rage Generator, which causes enemy units in the vicinity to attack each other for a brief moment. This can either weaken their ranks or give you an edge if they foolishly attempt to engage after it wears off. Units already attacking won't be affected unless their original target is dead, and skilled commanders can avoid the Rage Generator by force firing their units. Nonetheless, it can still buy you time in some situations.

The Redeemer can be outfitted with stealth to sneak past enemy lines. It is often garrisoned with either a Black Hand squad (for increased anti-infantry, anti-structure, and splash damage) or an Engineer (for repairs, which are crucial since Nod has no mobile repair units unlike GDI Rigs, Steel Talons MRTs, or Scrin Corrupters).

Take the already powerful Nod Avatar, outfit it with a flamethrower, and install an infantry bonus aura to it, and you've got the Purifier. The Purifier costs 3000, 800 more than the Avatar's 2200, and lacks the ability to upgrade with vehicle parts (granted it's impractical anyway), but the advantages outweigh the drawbacks.

The infantry bonus aura increases the armor and rate of fire of nearby infantry. Its flamethrower negates its disadvantage against cannon-resistant infantry, though it has to close in to kill them. Once upgraded with Purifying Flame, it becomes one of Nod's strongest ground units, capable of decimating infantry and structures in mere seconds and dealing fearsome amounts of damage to vehicles. However, it cannot engage aircraft, so you'll need Mantises and Rocket Squads as support.

Despite being available only to the Black Hand subfaction, Confessors are the strongest basic infantry in the game, especially once fully upgraded with Black Disciples. They have more health than Riflemen, deal more damage (which can be increased with charged particle beams), and like the Purifier, they improve the combat performance of nearby infantry, making Confessors and Rocket Squad spams a very popular and cost-effective tactic among Nod players.

Flame Tanks are great vs. infantry and structures, but are commonly used as an anti-structure vehicle since they can take down an entire structure very quickly. The Black Hand variant deals more damage and can be further upgraded with Purifying Flame. It is a common tactic to send a cheap unit as a diversion so that one or two Flame Tanks can sneak in (they can sometimes have cloaking installed on them in vanilla Nod), find an angle of attack, and destroy an important structure like a refinery or a tech structure.

Their absurd damage allows them to promote very quickly. They're quite cheap (1200), move quickly for a medium-sized vehicle, and only require an Operations Center to construct. While they have a decent amount of health at 3700, they take additional damage from cannon attacks and lack anti-air defense, making Predators, Zone Troopers, Orcas, Tripods, rogue Avatars, and Vertigos good counters to Flame Tanks.

Like Missile Squads, Militant Rocket Squads are a good choice for defense against enemy attacks. Place them behind the turrets so the vehicles won't close in and crush them. They have the same weaknesses as Missile Squads but are also slightly slower and less protected (the Tiberium Infusion upgrade can mitigate these to an extent). However, they are used more in the competitive scene since they synergize very well with the aforementioned Confessors.

A staple unit in Nod's arsenal, the Stealth Tank has gotten much better in this game. Stealth Tanks are fast and sneaky units that can kill most vehicles and aircraft in just one salvo. With Tiberium Missiles, they can even potentially solo Predator Tanks.

The catch is they're lightly armored for a vehicle that costs 1800. They can be neutralized by stealth detection and are rather useless against AI (which has stealth detection on literally every unit they control, often forcing you to just resort to brute force to bring them down). In multiplayer, they act as a foil to Flame Tanks, hunting for harvesters in hopes of stalling the enemy's income, setting up deadly ambushes, and can act as invisible scouts as well. Stealth Tanks are fun to use and highly valuable to your army when micro'ed properly.

Nod's answer to Juggernauts in the expansion pack. Specters are faster (allowing for quick assaults and retreats), can cloak while moving, and are cheaper than Juggernauts. However, they are less armored, have a longer deploy time, and are less accurate since their shells travel slower.

Still, with good micro, they can be just as strong as Juggernauts. They can work for defense owing to their long range, and can also serve as siege units when attacking the enemy's base.

Stealth Tanks are generally preferred due to their stealth capability and higher damage, but Attack Bikes are cheaper and easier to mass since they don't require any additional tech, making them a good choice for early game harassment. They are often grouped with the more durable buggies to absorb some damage while the bikes do the damage.

Their missiles deal more damage than their rival Pitbull, but they have almost no armor to speak of, and two Predator shots can kill one. To compensate, bikes move even faster than Stealth Tanks and can easily dodge artillery shells and other weapons that don't track them, like ZOCOM Orcas. Like Stealth Tanks, they can be upgraded with Tiberium Core missiles, increasing their lethality. This makes them very good even up to the late game when resources are scarce, making Stealth Tanks too expensive to be worth the risk.

Vertigos sacrifice the mobility and flexible payload of the GDI Firehawk in exchange for increased damage (for a single bomb) and stealth ability, allowing them to surprise the enemy. Again, this is less effective against the AI, but they are slightly more resilient than the Firehawk. They can use their machine gun to engage aircraft when the need arises, though the MG is rather weak.

Unlike the Firehawk, Vertigos deal slightly less damage to buildings but are much more effective against vehicles. Any vehicle with less health than a Predator Tank will die in one hit. They are a good counter to GDI Juggernauts, which have weak armor and no protection against aircraft.