Armored Personnel Carrier

The Combine Armored Personnel Carrier (also known as APC) is an armored transport used by Overwatch and Civil Protection units.

In urban areas, APCs are used to rapidly deploy Civil Protection teams to trouble spots. Outside the cities, both Civil Protection and Overwatch forces use APCs extensively to patrol isolated areas (such as the Canals and The Coast). APCs are armed with guided rocket launchers and a mounted Pulse Rifle. The missiles are fired through tubes which can be seen in-between the two front platings. It is unknown how they operate the mounted pulse rifle, as there seems to be no trigger for it and there are no crew can be seen manning the weapon directly.

Overview


The Combine APC is first seen in combat in the canals, and the player's only means of destroying them is the Hunter-Chopper gun on the Airboat. APCs are also used by Combine Overwatch in The Coast to patrol and transport Combine Soldiers to areas in need of maintenance (such as reactivating Antlion restricting devices).

They can also serve as an electrical generator, seen on Highway 17 powering a transparent wall which prevents the player from advancing with the buggy until the APC has been pushed far enough away, either with the gravity gun or explosions, or its parking wedges are pulled out by the former, to be disconnected from the power cable going into the wall, and the APC falling off a cliff; exploding. APCs are generally equipped with a rapid fire chain gun for killing at close range, and a rocket launcher (which a combine soldier would re-load from the inside).

Tactics

 * Although powerful, they are vulnerable to damage from certain weapons. Hand grenades, SMG grenades, rockets, and the pulse cannon (salvaged from a Hunter-Chopper) that is mounted on the Airboat in Water Hazard all damage the APC to varying degrees. As the APC takes damage, pieces of its armor start to fall off, until it eventually disintegrates.


 * APCs can be seen being airlifted into areas by dropships. Like the Troop-Carrier, they can also be destroyed before the dropship reaches its destination.


 * Much like how a gunship can shoot down your own missiles, the missiles the APC launches can be shot down with the Airboat's pulse gun.


 * In the chapter "Highway 17", there are several APCs parked by a steep cliff or by the shore that are held in place with yellow chocks that prevents the APC from moving. Removal of the chocks would result in the APC moving towards the cliff or shore, resulting instant destruction.

Behind the scenes

 * The early APC originally consisted in four different static brushes, two of which equipped with heavy cannons. The fourth type appears as a flying APC, simply named "Shuttle", that was to have reactor emitting red lights. The first model to be subsequently created can be seen in the E3 map "Terminal".
 * The original brush APCs were also to be used by the Conscripts, the low-rank Combine soldiers. The tank arsenal was also to include Merkavas.
 * The APC was originally a player-driven vehicle. Playtesters found that the slow movement was not as satisfying as the Buggy, and it was recast and used by the Combine forces only.

Trivia

 * The APC is also a Land Troop Carrier for Metrocops and Soldiers.
 * The APC is not a NPC and has no AI. It is only a scripted model that has a few map-only entities.
 * The APC was mentioned as an example for creating vehicles in the SPORE Official Prima Guide. The example is called the "Combined SPC", and in its description it notes "...make sure that its targets don't escape with even half a life."
 * On the Xbox 360 on Point Insertion, when you use the invincibility cheat during the rooftop battle and jump down to where the APC's are it is possible to drive them after they have finished driving. The screen turns a beige colour and the controls for it show up.