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Arandi Ethermancer
September 11, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Removed repeated body wikilinks, keeping the first occurrence of each target
The Ethermancer is the Arandi Empire caster, a Tier 2 infantry unit produced from the Penumbra and hired into a main faction army rather than played on its own. It is the clearest expression of what the group is for. The Ethermancer does not kill an enemy unit, it takes it: Mind Control channels on a target and hands it to you for as long as you can pay the energy. A second effect runs passively, so friendly units dying near an Ethermancer leave hallucinations that fight on without abilities and with very little health.
Figures below describe the September 2026 Early Access build, the one carrying the identifier ZS.c36778, and they move with the weekly patch cadence. Roughly half the versus roster had a stat touched in the fortnight before that build was captured, so treat every number here as dated rather than permanent.
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Cost | 50 hexite and 175 flux |
Health | 200 |
Shields | 0 |
Armor | 0 |
Armor type | Light |
Status resist | None published |
Move speed | 500 |
Vision | 16 |
Supply | 5 |
Build time | None. Mercenary units are hired, not built. |
Tier | 2 |
Domain | Ground unit |
Energy | 100 maximum, 75 on arrival, regenerating 2.5 per second |
Infuse cost | 13.4375 |
Reanimate cost | 13.4375 |
Replicate cost | 13.4375 |
Built by | Penumbra |
Weapon | Damage | DPS | Range | Cooldown | Targets | Bonuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chronobind | 20 | 10 | 12 | 2s | Ground and air | None published. |
Ability | Effect | Cooldown | Energy | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mind Control | Takes over an enemy unit. Energy is consumed while the channel runs, and the drain rate is set by the target status resist, so a resistant target costs more to hold. The controlled unit cannot use its own abilities. Massive units cannot be targeted at all. | 10s | 10 to cast, then continuous drain | 12 |
The energy economy is the whole ability. An Ethermancer arrives with 75 of its 100 energy and regenerates 2.5 per second, so it can open with a control immediately and then holds the target for as long as the drain allows. Against a low status resist target the hold is long. Against a high resist target it is brief, and the ten second cooldown means a failed grab is a real cost.
No upgrades are published for the Ethermancer in this build. The Ghostplane Sight talent at Arandi Empire faction level 4 raises casting range by 25 percent and cuts ability cooldowns by 30 percent, which affects Mind Control as a group wide effect rather than as a unit upgrade.
The Ethermancer is eligible for Infuse, Reanimate and Replicate at 13.4375 power each, all paid from the top bar pool described on Resources and Economy. Infuse is the most useful of the three here, because 200 health on Light armour with no armour value is the Ethermancer real problem and a permanent health increase partly answers it.
Ten damage per second from a five supply unit is not why anyone hires an Ethermancer. The unit is priced and supplied as a caster, and its value is measured in what it removes from the other side rather than in what it kills. Taking a high supply enemy unit swings a fight twice: once by subtracting it, once by adding it. The restriction that the controlled unit cannot use its own abilities matters, because it means Mind Control on an enemy caster gets you a body rather than a spell list.
The hallucination effect rewards playing the Ethermancer behind a line that is actually taking casualties. Every friendly unit that dies near it leaves something that keeps fighting, which is a soak effect as much as a damage one, and it costs nothing to run.
Armour in this game is two separate things. The armour type is a category that enemy weapon bonuses key off. The armour value is a flat number subtracted from every incoming hit, with a floor of one damage per attack, so it blunts a stream of weak hits far more than a single heavy one. The Ethermancer sits on the bad end of that: Light armour with an armour value of zero and 200 health means it takes full damage from everything and dies fast if anything reaches it.
Target | Why |
|---|---|
Expensive single units | Mind Control takes a high supply body off the field and puts it on yours for the duration of the channel. |
Low status resist armies | The energy drain is set by the target resist, so a low resist roster is cheap to hold. |
Fights you expect to lose bodies in | The hallucination effect converts friendly deaths near the Ethermancer into temporary fighters. |
Threat | Why |
|---|---|
Massive units | Mind Control cannot target them at all since the August 28, 2026 update. |
High status resist | A resistant target drains energy faster, shortening every hold. |
Anything that reaches it | 200 health, Light armour, zero armour value and move speed 500. The Ethermancer has no defensive tool of its own. |
Focus fire during a channel | Killing the Ethermancer ends the control and returns the unit. |
August 19, 2026: no change to the Ethermancer itself, but the Arandi abduction visuals were fixed in the same performance update.
August 28, 2026: Mind Control can no longer target massive units. This is the single largest change to the ability since Early Access began, because the massive tag covers most of the units worth stealing.
The roster record for this unit is COMPLETE.
The engine name for this unit is an amplifier rather than an ethermancer, and a promotional video from the pre release period used the name Amplifier for it. They are the same unit, not two.
Mind Control is also a general game mechanic rather than an Arandi exclusive, and most units in the game carry a tag marking whether they can be mind controlled. The Ethermancer itself can be mind controlled.
Per unit numbers are drawn from a community maintained entity catalogue that the studio links from each of its own faction pages. It is the only place the full stat block is published, and it is not a studio document, so the figures are best read as careful community documentation of a build rather than as an official specification. Dated balance notes, by contrast, come straight from the studio patch posts.
For how heroes and top bar abilities interact with this group, see Heroes and Commanders. For the wider roster this unit joins, see Units.
