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Boomer
September 11, 2026 at 10:12 PM
Initial version (2026-09-11)
The Boomer is the Grell suicide unit: a timed-life creature spawned by the Deep Nest top bar ultimate that carries one attack, detonates on using it, and is gone. Nothing else in the Grell roster deals 250 damage in a single instant, and nothing else in it is quite so easy to waste.
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 | Not published. The unit data records 0 hexite and 0 flux, the placeholder for a creature that is spawned rather than ordered. |
Health | 150 |
Shields | Not published for this unit |
Armor | 0 |
Armor type | Medium |
Status resist | None listed |
Move speed | 300 |
Vision | 16 |
Supply | 0 |
Build time | Not published. The data records 0 seconds, which reflects spawning rather than a production queue. |
Tier | Not published for this unit |
Domain | Ground unit |
Infuse cost | Not eligible |
Reanimate cost | Not eligible |
Replicate cost | Not eligible |
Spawned by | Deep Nest |
Weapon | Damage | DPS | Range | Cooldown | Targets | Bonuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Explode | 250 | One detonation, the unit dies on use | 2 | No cooldown, the unit is consumed | Listed in the unit data as ground and air | +100% against Building armour, 100% splash over 2.5 range |
Infuse is the Grell conversion mechanic, paid out of the same top bar power pool as the Legion Reanimate and the Xol Replicate. It permanently raises a friendly unit's health, damage and regeneration for the rest of that unit's life. Since the balance pass of August 11, 2026 the bonus is +45%, down from +50%, and the cost multiplier rose from 0.045 to 0.05 so that it matches the Protectorate shield and the Legion Reanimate.
The Boomer is not eligible for any of the three conversions. Its tags carry no infusion, reanimate or replicate entry, so the unit cannot be Infused by the Grell, Reanimated by the Legion or Replicated by the Xol. A unit that dies on using its only attack has nothing to extend.
A Boomer is a delivery problem. Its move speed of 300 is the slowest in the Grell roster by a wide margin, half of what a Lasher manages, so it cannot chase and it cannot reliably catch anything that has seen it. Where it works is against things that do not move: the +100% bonus against Building armour turns 250 damage into 500 across a 2.5 splash radius, which is why a batch of Boomers walked into a production line or a wall of turrets is the cheapest structure damage the faction has.
The second use is as a threat rather than a weapon. 150 health is enough that an opponent cannot ignore a Boomer, but killing it early costs attention and positioning, and an army that backs off a step to avoid a detonation has ceded the ground the Grell wanted. Because Boomers are free, this trade favours the Grell player even when the Boomer never connects.
Boomers come only from the Deep Nest, the Grell top bar ultimate that also pours out Arkanids while burning its own life. That makes the Boomer a power pool expenditure rather than a hexite or flux one, and the same pool pays for Grell Infuse, so a player who commits to Deep Nest waves has less power left for conversions. The pool and how it refills are covered in Resources and Economy.
The August 14, 2026 balance pass cut the Deep Nest output from four Boomers to three and halved Boomer health, moving the unit from a threat that survived the approach to one that needs cover from the rest of the army.
The Boomer carries Medium armour with an armour value of 0. Medium is the busiest bonus category in the game since the harvester armour type was retired into it on August 11, 2026, so a Boomer walking at an enemy army is frequently walking into a weapon that already has a Medium bonus. The Grell's own Skrell carries +100% against Medium, which is a reasonable proxy for how exposed a Boomer is.
The Boomer's single bonus points the other way: +100% against Building armour. Against Light, Medium, Heavy, Hero or None it does its flat 250 with full splash, and against a structure it does double.
Target | Why |
|---|---|
Buildings and static defences | +100% against Building armour, with 100 percent splash over 2.5 range, is the largest single burst the Grell can put on a structure. |
Tightly clustered ground units | Full splash damage across the whole radius since the current splash rules, so a clump takes 250 each. |
Threat | Why |
|---|---|
Anything faster than 300 move speed | The Boomer is the slowest unit in the Grell roster and cannot force an engagement. |
Ranged units with spare attention | 150 health after the August 14 cut is not enough to survive an approach under focused fire. |
Weapons with a Medium armour bonus | The Boomer sits in the most heavily targeted armour category in the build. |
August 14, 2026: Boomer health reduced from 250 to 150.
August 14, 2026: the number of Boomers spawned by the Deep Nest reduced from four to three, and the Deep Nest power cost raised from 15 to 18.
August 14, 2026: a bug fix in the same post recorded that the Boomer explosion no longer damages air units.
August 28, 2026: textures updated for Boomers, a visual change with no stat effect.
The roster record for this unit is PARTIAL. The fields the source does not publish are cost, tier, shields and status resist. Cost and build time are both recorded as 0, which reflects the unit being spawned rather than produced.
There is a live disagreement between the two records on air targeting. The studio patch post of August 14, 2026 states plainly that the Boomer explosion no longer damages air units. The community entity data captured for this build still lists the explosion as targeting ground and air. The studio note is the stronger source and is reflected in the Role and Counters sections here; the data entry is recorded in the weapons table as what the catalogue says rather than as a confirmed behaviour.
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.
