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11 The Arandi Empire is one of the six mercenary groups in ZeroSpace, contracted mid match and folded into whichever main faction you are already commanding. Their motto is "Reality is negotiable", and of the six they are the group least interested in fighting a conventional battle: their units are built to move armies where they should not be able to go and to take enemy units off the board without killing them. They are listed among the hired guns rather than the main powers.
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44 Who They Are
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66 The official description presents the Arandi as an advanced civilisation that commands interdimensional energy, warping matter and bending the laws of reality. Their technology lets them cross vast distances instantly, which makes them unpredictable to play against, and their units are written as deliberately refusing traditional roles, shaping the flow of a fight through unconventional tactics rather than raw output.
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88 They also anchor one of the game's lore connections. The Endari, the sixth mercenary group, are described on their own official page as outcasts of the Arandi Empire, hunted for powers no one else understands. The two groups are the same people, split by what the Arandi were willing to tolerate.
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1010 How They Fight
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1212 The official faction page names two combat traits.
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1414 TraitWhat It DoesWarp the fieldCross vast distances instantly and appear where it hurts.Unconventional rolesUnits that refuse to fight the way anyone expects.
1515 Commander
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1717 The Arandi are led by I'olin, whose title is Malicant Enforcer. She is a caster rather than a duellist, built around creating a singularity and teleporting short distances. She rebuilds automatically after dying, like every hero described on Heroes and Commanders.
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1919 FieldValueHealth120, plus a 120 shield poolStatus resist40Move speed500Vision18Supply10On deathRebuilds automatically after 60 seconds
2020 AbilityEffectGhost TetherHer basic attack. 23 damage at 12 range on a 1.63 second cooldown, against ground and air.SingularityFires a ball of energy for 30 damage that slows enemies for 2 seconds, then returns to her, restoring 10 percent of her shields for every unit it passed through. 20 second cooldown.TeleportMoves her to a target location up to 15 away, on a 12 second cooldown.Black HolePulls enemies toward the centre of a target area. 20 second cooldown.
2121 I'olin also gave her name to the shared reward for the first season of the Galactic War. When the Keeper Council took Season Zero, the studio announced on August 6, 2026 that an I'olin Season Zero portrait was going out to every player.
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2323 Forces
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2525 Arandi units are produced from the Penumbra, and several arrive as squads. The figures describe build ZS.c36778, current in September 2026, and they move with the patch cadence.
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2727 Each of the five has its own page, reachable from the table below or from the index on Units. Being hired rather than produced, none of them carries a build time, and their prices draw on the currencies described on Resources and Economy.
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2929 UnitTierCostSupplyHealthArmourRolePhoenix Guard1225 hexite, 50 flux (squad of 2)2160MediumFast, cheap skirmisher. Its weapon slows the target, and a hallucination spawns if that target dies.Asterion1125 hexite, 125 flux4300HeavySlow projectiles that pass straight through enemies, damaging everything in their path. Built one at a time rather than as a squad.Ethermancer250 hexite, 175 flux5200LightMind-controls an enemy unit, draining energy while it channels, though not a massive one. Friendly deaths nearby leave hallucinations.Chronowarper375 hexite, 175 flux6350MediumFlyer that enters a phase mode, slowing the attack and move speed of enemies in an area by 30 percent.Judgement4100 hexite, 200 flux6600LightBuilds energy as it attacks and shields nearby allies every fifth attack.
3030 Two of these best illustrate the "unconventional roles" the official page describes. The Ethermancer does not kill an enemy unit, it takes it: mind control drains the caster's energy at a rate set by the target's status resist, the controlled unit's own abilities stay locked, and since August 28, 2026 it cannot be used on a massive unit at all. The Chronowarper is an air unit that fights by slowing rather than by killing, dropping into a phase mode that cuts enemy attack and move speed in an area by 30 percent. Earlier builds also had it teleport friendly units to itself; the current build lists no such ability on the unit, and the group's repositioning now runs through the Penumbra Recall power instead. No patch note covers that removal, so read it as an observation of the build rather than a studio statement.
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3232 In the August 11, 2026 roster: The Judgement is not available at the start. It unlocks through the level 6 talent, which spawns two of them at once.
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3434 The Penumbra
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3636 The Arandi structure is the strangest building any mercenary group fields. It flies, it carries troops, and it kills things by sitting on top of them.
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3838 FieldValueCost75 hexite, 50 fluxHealth1,000, starting at 400 when first placedArmourLight armour, 1Move speed350, as a flyerCarry capacity10LimitOne at a timeProducesAsterion, Ethermancer and ChronowarperUnlocksThe Penumbra Recall faction power
3939 Its passive, Abduct, takes a light-armoured unit directly underneath the Penumbra and kills it outright, on a 120 second cooldown. Because the Penumbra is airborne and mobile, the ability is aimed by flying the building over whatever you want removed.
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4141 Faction Power and Talents
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4343 The Arandi top bar entry is Penumbra Recall, which teleports selected units to your Penumbra for 10 faction power on a 90 second cooldown. Because the Penumbra itself moves, the recall point moves with it.
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4545 LevelTalentEffect2Lore of FluxOne extra harvester and 15 percent more flux income.4Ghostplane SightCasting range increased by 25 percent and ability cooldowns reduced by 30 percent.6Penumbra AscendantPenumbra speed increased by 50 percent, the Abduct cooldown falls from 120 seconds to 15, and two Judgements unlock and spawn in this August 11, 2026 talent record.
4646 Penumbra Ascendant changes what Abduct is. At a 15 second cooldown it stops being an occasional removal and becomes a rolling threat to any light-armoured unit that stands still, which is why it sits at the top of the talent line.
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4848 Changes Since Launch
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5050 DateChangeJuly 25, 2026A slow timer was added to the lingering effect of I'olin's Black Hole.July 30, 2026I'olin's Singularity slow rose from 40 percent to 50 percent and its cooldown fell from 24 seconds to 20. Black Hole's cooldown dropped from 30 seconds to 20. The Arandi structure's move speed rose from 300 to 350.August 6, 2026Portraits for the Marran and Arandi mercenary buildings were updated.August 19, 2026The visuals for the Arandi abduction were fixed in the performance update.August 28, 2026Penumbra health rose from 800 to 1,000, the Chronowarper's cost moved from 50 hexite and 200 flux to 75 and 175, and Ethermancer mind control stopped being able to target massive units.September 1, 2026Phoenix Guard cost fell from 250 hexite and 50 flux to 225 and 50.
5151 For historical context, an official post in March 2024, before Early Access, gave each mercenary group a single passive bonus rather than a talent line. The Arandi's made research upgrades instant.
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5353 In the Wider Game
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5555 The Arandi Empire is one of six groups on the Factions page, beside The Marran, The Valkaru, the Free Corsairs and the Cha'Kru Kingdom. They can be hired in Skirmish matches and across the galaxy map, and their flux-focused level 2 talent connects directly to the systems on Resources and Economy. Note that the official standings page keeps total-damage boards for only seven of the game's ten factions and mercenary groups, and the Arandi are not among them, in company with the Endari and The Xol. For the wider roster their units join, see Units.
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5757 October 3, 2026: Galactic War / Penumbra
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5959 The Galactic War Penumbra received 300 additional shields and a container size increase from ten to 25.
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6161 September 12, 2026: Versus, Skirmish and Survival
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6363 Judgement became available from Penumbra without a talent. Its attack buff was removed and it gained the Hallucination spawn aura; the spawned Hallucinations' starting health increased from 25% to 50%.
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6565 Penumbra Ascendant no longer unlocks or spawns two Judgements. It instead grants Penumbra an area attack that stuns ground units for 1.5 seconds and raises Penumbra health by 50%.