• Effectively destroys all units

• Very high view radius

• Good against tightly packed units

• An excellent support unit

• Slower and less maneuverable than its counterpart, the Vertex

• Overall less damage than their counterpart

• Easily killed by any form of air defense

Hawks are best used as a support unit, but can be used in many ways

General base defense - Hawks have good damage, making them good at killing most enemy units. They also have good explosion radius, which makes them very good at dealing with densely packed foes. This makes hawks good at killing incoming enemy squads. Effective against infantry and vehicles, they can be patrolled while being attacked making them eliminate enemy forces. They can also target critical enemy targets, making waves easier to destroy. It is necessary to be careful of mobile air defense as they pose a large threat to hawks.

Air defense - With the support of riflemen or other hidden infantry, hawks can severely weaken or destroy incoming enemy fighters and bombers. Patrolling the hawks in the direction of incoming aviation allows hawks to automatically fire on targets on sight. However, if there are also land units present, the hawks may preferentially target the land units and not the incoming aviation. In this case, manual targeting is required.

Support - This is the most effective role of hawks, as they are able to quickly and effectively eliminate high-priority targets. This occurs in cases such as killing artillery, energy shields, rocket towers or even the main enemy strike force. Using hawks effectively to eliminate critical targets proves a significant advantage: killing a shield leaves the enemy far weaker in the face of your forces; killing rocket towers severely cripples enemy defense; eliminating torrents saves a ground army from many casualties, etc. Hawks are also useful for eliminating superweapons, hence keeping the fighting chance alive.

Effective scouting - Hawks fly fast, and with a very high view radius they can easily scout the enemy base. The main ways of scouting are flying along the map edges, which avoids most anti air defenses, or targeting the headquarters, which in most cases does not spare the hawk. The second method gives an overall wider view of the enemy base, while flying along the map edge most likely spares the hawk, but exposes less of the base most of the time. It is advised to use the more appropriate method. Flying along the base edge is recommended when the production of aviation is limited, and from 1 factory for example. If hawks are being produced in mass from 2 or more factories, sometimes doing a full scout is a better choice, since the hawks tend to be more expendable.

Map control - Sweeping the map with hawks on patrol frequently during the game enables enemy scouts to be killed, while your own scouts remain in place (preferably hidden infantry). Sweeping the map and eliminating enemy scouts before an attack, is very effective at confusing the enemy, giving them a hard time of knowing incoming direction of attack. Patrolling hawks around the map makes it easier to dominate and monitor the map with your own units.

Shielding Bombers - Since bombers are quite slow and if the enemy has substantial anti-air defenses, bombers may get shot down before even reaching the target. Sending a single Hawk just before bombers enter the range of anti-air defenses can cause all anti-air defenses that could fire upon the bombers to instead shoot down the Hawk, resulting them in having to reload before attacking the bombers.

There are several ways of engaging enemy units or buildings when using hawks. Hawks are best used in groups, making them easier to control in the following ways:

Normal shot - All hawks are placed in a single group and the target is chosen. This is good when there is little to no air defense. It is quick and easy. However, there is major stacking of the hawks, resulting in the hawks taking splash damage from air defenses meaning many hawks are damaged or even lost simultaneously by the same salvo of missiles. This results in a very high death rate and minimal damage delivery, so it's best to do this when air defenses are scarce.

Turn shot - Useful to target blind spots where enemy air defenses cant reach. The hawks are placed in a single group, and are ordered to retreat just before they fire. This means, they don't fly completely into the enemy base and they avoid most or all of the enemy air defense. The hawks can be ordered to retreat by pressing the stop button or by manually tapping a point to the side for them to go, which will cause them to turn. Using the stop button is recommended when sending the hawks back in the direction of your base doesn't cause them to fly over the enemy base into air defense. Manually tapping to retreat the hawks is useful when shooting from odd angles, where making them retreat using stop would make them fly over the enemy base. This method still has stacking of the hawks, so is not recommended when there is good distribution of enemy air defense around the base or protecting their units. This method applies to attacking enemy units that are out of reach of their accompanying mobile air defense.

Split shot - This is the method of having multiple groups for the hawks, and focusing a different target with each group. This is effective when trying to eliminate multiple air defenses, or larger groups of units. Damage is better distributed, making it easier to destroy more units or buildings in the same run. For example, using 12 hawks in 1 group against multiple deployed typhoons results in a slower destruction rate and higher casualties for you since the typhoons stay alive longer, since only 1 typhoon is generally killed in 1 pass. There is also wasted damage when 12 hawks shoot 1 typhoon at once, when it only takes 3 to kill a typhoon. Splitting the hawks into groups of say, 3, makes it possible to eliminate 4 typhoons in 1 pass, which results in no wasted damage and a far higher kill rate, meaning much better survival rates for your hawks. Also, for example, using 2 groups of 6 hawks(when they are 12) to destroy a large pack or Zeus results in 2 Zeus being killed in a single pass, which is double the kill rate if a single group were used, etc.

Scatter shot - All hawks are still placed in 1 group, but before engaging, they are made to fly for a short time using the 'scramble fighters' button. They must fly long enough for the fighters to be scattered above the base in different directions, and this is usually 1 to 2 seconds. After they fly and scatter, then the enemy is targeted. The hawks approach the target from different directions and distances, meaning there is minimal clustering and stacking. This is best used when there is no time to add the hawks to groups to defend the base from enemy attacks and the enemy has plenty mobile air defense, or, a critical target, such as an airfield or space system needs to be killed inside the enemy base when there is lots of air defense, and the air defense cannot be bypassed. The hawks are mostly killed 1 by 1, which maximizes their survivability and since they aren't killed multiple at once due to stacking.

Bait shot - This is best when targeting a critical building within an enemy base or when aiming to destroy a dense cluster of enemy mobile air defense. This is done by sending 1 hawk slightly ahead of the remaining hawks, so as to bait a salvo out of the enemy air defense. This causes the all the air defenses to fire a salvo at a single hawk, which makes the remaining hawks able to get a clean shot while the air defenses are reloading. This is good when killing super weapons in a well protected base.