Revision - arandi empire - ZeroSpace Wiki

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 on the Factions page.

Who They Are

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.

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.

How They Fight

The official faction page names two combat traits.

Trait	What It Does
Warp the field	Cross vast distances instantly and appear where it hurts.
Unconventional roles	Units that refuse to fight the way anyone expects.

Commander

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.

Field	Value
Health	120, plus a 120 shield pool
Status resist	40
Move speed	500
Vision	18
Supply	10
On death	Rebuilds automatically after 60 seconds

Ability	Effect
Ghost Tether	Her basic attack. 23 damage at 12 range on a 1.63 second cooldown, against ground and air.
Singularity	Fires 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.
Teleport	Moves her to a target location up to 15 away, on a 12 second cooldown.
Black Hole	Pulls enemies toward the centre of a target area. 20 second cooldown.

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.

Forces

Arandi units are produced from the Penumbra, and several arrive as squads. The figures come from the community knowledge base’s entity data and match the published balance notes through the update of August 11, 2026.

Unit	Tier	Cost	Supply	Health	Armour	Role
Phoenix Guard	1	250 hexite, 50 flux (squad of 2)	2	160	Medium	Fast, cheap skirmisher. Its weapon slows the target, and a hallucination spawns if that target dies.
Asterion	1	250 hexite, 250 flux (squad of 2)	4	300	Heavy	Slow projectiles that pass straight through enemies, damaging everything in their path.
Ethermancer	2	50 hexite, 175 flux	5	200	Light	Mind-controls an enemy unit, draining energy while it channels. Friendly deaths nearby leave hallucinations.
Chronowarper	3	50 hexite, 200 flux	6	350	Medium	Flyer that teleports friendly units to its position, and can Phase to slow enemies in an area by 30 percent.
Judgement	4	100 hexite, 200 flux	6	600	Light	Builds energy as it attacks and shields nearby allies every fifth attack.

Two of these are the "unconventional roles" the official page is describing. 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, and the controlled unit’s own abilities stay locked. The Chronowarper is a flying transport that does not carry anything, it teleports friendly units to itself, which turns an air unit into a reinforcement route. The Judgement is not available at the start; it unlocks through the level 6 talent, which spawns two of them at once.

The Penumbra

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.

Field	Value
Cost	75 hexite, 50 flux
Health	800, starting at 320 when first placed
Armour	Light armour, 1
Move speed	350, as a flyer
Carry capacity	10
Limit	One at a time
Produces	Asterion, Ethermancer and Chronowarper
Unlocks	The Penumbra Recall faction power

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.

Faction Power and Talents

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.

Level	Talent	Effect
2	Lore of Flux	One extra harvester and 15 percent more flux income.
4	Ghostplane Sight	Casting range increased by 25 percent and ability cooldowns reduced by 30 percent.
6	Penumbra Ascendant	Penumbra speed increased by 50 percent, the Abduct cooldown falls from 120 seconds to 15, and two Judgements unlock and spawn.

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.

Changes Since Launch

Date	Change
July 25, 2026	A slow timer was added to the lingering effect of I’olin’s Black Hole.
July 30, 2026	I’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, 2026	Portraits for the Marran and Arandi mercenary buildings were updated.
August 19, 2026	The visuals for the Arandi abduction were fixed in the performance update.

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.

In the Wider Game

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 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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