I have rarely seen a player use an Infiltrator in my games, for a good reason: Most experienced players will hire an inspector and promote them to security chief, making even some of their weaker outposts have 20 shield, and the strong ones where the security chief have up to 40 shield.
While other first hire specialist like the assassin, who is able to completely eliminate an enemy specialist, or the martyr which completely annihilates an outpost, I propose that the Infiltrator should have his shield destroy count raised to 30, and/or a speed increase when travelling to enemy outposts.
This would provide a good counter against the security chief, and hopefully more people using the Infiltrator.

I disagree. I feel that I see more players not promoting their inspectors—myself included. I feel that in most cases an inspector for one hire is better than a security chief for two. If you can couple an infiltrator with speed, then you are set.

Also—if I see someone with a security chief, the infiltrator is the perfect counter. If most of an enemy's bases have a shield of 20, an infiltrator (for one hire) discounts their (two hire) security chief's global ability at most of their bases.

I'll agree, I don't take the infiltrator often. I go for faster/higher production and just bust through shields with drillers

Lol me and panda are currently in the same game and right now everybody but me has two security chiefs so right now a really powerful infiltrator would be nice.

I said the same thing in the more general "specialist balance" thread. Buff to 30 shield taken.

There just so many weakness to infiltrator right now that he needs to be extremely good at what he does do well- countering inspector/sec chief

Dane, I have to disagree. Besides not even being worth a hire, infiltrator isn't even worth having on multi specialist ships. With a. Three specialist limit there are often many other specialists that are better suited.

I think the infiltrator is most iseful when combined with diplomat and general. The diplomat + general + specialists combo is already really powerful but you still need to use drillers to take a base. With an infiltrator in this combo, you can capture an outpost without expending any drillers.

I have to agree with Conner disagreeing with Dane disagreeing with Panda. I hired a Infiltrator in my first match and none since.

Besides not even being worth a hire, infiltrator isn't even worth having on multi specialist ships.

This is the damning bit for me, he's barely a one trick pony and he doesn't play well with others.

toekneegee wrote:This is the damning bit for me, he's barely a one trick pony and he doesn't play well with others.

I had an infiltrator together with a helmsman and thief on a strong sub. King at my homebase. Infiltrator killed the shields, thief stole some drillers and the king killed the rest. I was able to roll through their outposts directly heading for the mines. I didn't only not lose any drillers, I actually generated drillers after every attack. Wouldn't be possible without the infiltrator.

kinc4id wrote:

toekneegee wrote:This is the damning bit for me, he's barely a one trick pony and he doesn't play well with others.

I had an infiltrator together with a helmsman and thief on a strong sub. King at my homebase. Infiltrator killed the shields, thief stole some drillers and the king killed the rest. I was able to roll through their outposts directly heading for the mines. I didn't only not lose any drillers, I actually generated drillers after every attack. Wouldn't be possible without the infiltrator.

Fair enough; I certainly agree he's not useless. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I find myself thinking if the sub were strong enough there would be additional space for a more attuned specialist that we might find more useful, if only in the future.
A moderate bump in effectiveness (I particularly like the idea of the Infiltrator speeding to enemy bases,) would put the light touch of a finger on the scales. Maybe some of us have learned to crave analysis paralysis?

kinc4id wrote:I had an infiltrator together with a helmsman and thief on a strong sub. King at my homebase.

Yes, but this also shoews the Infiltrator is situational.
If you chould choose between an Infiltrator, inspector, or smuggler, most likely infiltrator won't be chosen, simply because when at war, both the Inspector or smuggler would fare better getting units to battle zones faster or defending yourself from a caterpillar (idk if that's a real term yet - the tactic of sending a bunch of subs after each tick in a line).
The only time I have hired an infiltrator was when my general driller count was low, and i had assassins. The enemy had 2 security chiefs (same game as frenchytheasian), and the Thief or Hypnotist wasn't worth it.

Here is a comparison to other hires to why one might or might not choose the Infiltrator by themselves:
Smuggler - can easily collect 20 drillers to a battle zone, as well as provide fast transport for specialists
Foreman - just wait 2 more cycles and have 20 drillers ready, also good for replenishing war zones
Inspector - Defensive=Inspector, Offensive=Infiltrator
Diplomat - By itself, I would rather have infiltrator, but with General, I would rather have Diplomat
Hypnotist - Requires I capture enemy specialists first, meaning Infiltrator is preferred here
Intelligence Officer - Would choose Infiltrator, unless I have a sentry coming up, or a fishy opponent
Martyr - unless my outpost count is low, martyr is great for destroying enemy outposts.
Assassin - almost a universal counter, so I would prefer the assassin
pirate - would only choose if I (will) also choose an assassin or martyr or navigator
Navigator - Because of his variability, would choose Navigator over Infiltrator
Thief - would choose Infiltrator, because Thief is only good against high count bases.
Lieutenant - would choose because can promote to General, and has slight speed boost
Helmsman - mobility is key, so I would choose Helmsman

Unless a specific scenario calls for it, most people would still avoid the infiltrator.