The Corsair Deadeye is the longest reaching unit the Free Corsairs field, a Tier 1 marksman hired two at a time that shoots ground and air at range 20 and doubles its damage against Light armour. The Free Corsairs are a mercenary group hired into a main faction army rather than played on their own, so Deadeyes are contracted at an outpost partway through a match.
Figures below describe the September 2026 Early Access build, the one carrying the identifier ZS.c36778, and they move with the weekly patch cadence. This unit has had its damage, its bonus and its price all changed since Early Access launch, so read the numbers as dated rather than settled.
Stat Block
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Cost | 100 hexite and 175 flux for a batch of two, which is 50 hexite and 87.5 flux each |
Health | 100, plus a 100 shield pool |
Shields | 100 |
Armor | 0 |
Armor type | Light |
Status resist | None listed |
Move speed | 425 |
Vision | 20 |
Supply | 4 per Deadeye |
Build time | None. Mercenary units are hired at an outpost rather than constructed, so the game publishes no build time for them. |
Tier | 1 |
Domain | Ground unit |
Infuse cost | 7.96875 |
Reanimate cost | 7.96875 |
Replicate cost | 7.96875 |
Built by | The Free Corsair Mercenary Outpost |
Weapons
Weapon | Damage | DPS | Range | Cooldown | Targets | Bonuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H-52 Eagleshot | 25 | 11 | 20 | 2.2s | Ground and air | +100% against Light armour, which takes 25 damage to 50. The weapon also fires 75 percent faster against anything inside 3.5, so a Deadeye caught in melee is not defenceless. |
Abilities
The Deadeye has no activated abilities. Its close range fire rate bonus is a passive property of the weapon rather than a cooldown, and it triggers automatically whenever the target is within 3.5.
Conversion Costs
The Deadeye is eligible for Infuse, Reanimate and Replicate at an identical 7.96875 power each, paid from the top bar pool described on Resources and Economy. It is the best conversion target in the Corsair roster on a per power basis. A percentage increase applied to 100 health and a 100 shield pool compounds across two bars rather than one, and a Deadeye that survives one extra volley at range 20 is a Deadeye that keeps shooting for the rest of the fight.
Role
Range 20 is the Deadeye. Nothing else the Free Corsairs hire reaches past 9, and very little in the game outranges it, so a pair of Deadeyes standing behind a main faction line contributes damage from a position the enemy has to walk to. At 25 damage on a 2.2 second cycle the sustained output is only 11 per second, which is not why you buy them; you buy them for where they can stand.
The +100% bonus against Light armour is what turns that reach into a threat. Fifty damage a shot at range 20 kills most Tier 1 infantry in a small number of shots, and because the weapon hits air as well it is one of very few Corsair answers to a flier. Against Medium or Heavy armour the Deadeye does its flat 25 and is essentially a spotter with a rifle.
Its weaknesses are structural. Move speed 425 is the slowest unit the Corsairs field, so a Deadeye that is caught cannot leave, and 4 supply each makes a pair more expensive in army space than the 200 health between them suggests. The close range fire rate bonus at 3.5 softens the worst case but does not solve it.
Faction Context
Deadeyes come out of the Free Corsair Mercenary Outpost along with the rest of the group. The Corsair identity is economic pressure rather than line combat: the level 2 talent, Pillage, pays hexite for destroying harvesters and buildings, and the level 4 talent, Plundered Optics, adds 75 percent vision and 15 percent move speed. Plundered Optics is worth more to a Deadeye than to anything else in the group, because vision 20 already matches its weapon range exactly, and extra sight is what lets it shoot at the edge of that range rather than inside it.
The Corsair faction power is Sandbags, which drops blocking cover at a target location for half a point of faction power on a 20 second cooldown. Cover in front of a Deadeye line is close to the ideal use of it. The group is led by Caylan Yearl, covered on Heroes and Commanders.
Tier and Armour Interactions
The Deadeye carries Light armour with an armour value of 0, which means it takes every weapon at full listed damage and every anti Light bonus in the game at full value. It is also, unusually, a Light armour unit whose own bonus is against Light armour, so two Deadeyes shooting at each other is the fastest exchange either of them will ever have.
The shield pool changes how armour reads on this unit. Shields are a second health bar rather than a damage reduction, so the effective 200 is a real number, but the 0 armour value means nothing is subtracted from incoming hits on the way through either bar. The build has six armour types, Light, Medium, Heavy, Building, Hero and None, and the +100% keys off the first of them.
Counters
Strong against | Why |
|---|---|
Endari Shade, Endari Needler and Light armour infantry generally | +100% against Light takes 25 damage to 50, at a range those units cannot answer. |
80 health with Light armour dies to a single shot at range 20, well before it can attach. | |
Light armour fliers | One of very few Corsair weapons that hits air at all, and the Light bonus applies in the air as well. |
Weak to | Why |
|---|---|
Anything that closes the gap | Move speed 425 is the slowest in the group, and 200 effective health does not survive being reached. |
Corsair Flamer and other Light armour specialists | Its own armour type is the one most commonly carried as a bonus target. |
Medium and Heavy armour | No bonus applies, so the weapon does a flat 25 on a 2.2 second cycle, which is 11 damage per second at 4 supply. |
Massed cheap units | One shot every 2.2 seconds does not clear a swarm, whatever each shot is worth. |
Balance History
Date | Change |
|---|---|
September 1, 2026 | Cost changed from 75 hexite and 200 flux to 100 hexite and 175 flux. |
August 19, 2026 | Moved onto the newer animation system alongside twenty one other units and structures, including the Endari Shade and Shadow Leech. The studio reported large performance gains when many of them are on screen. No stat effect. |
August 11, 2026 | Damage reduced from 30 to 25, while the bonus against Light armour increased from +75% to +100%. Net damage against a Light target fell from 52.5 to 50. |
Notes
The group was called the Dread Raiders for most of development and the old name still appears in one live place, a battle record board that predates the rename. The Deadeye itself has never been renamed; its engine identifier still carries the old group name, which is a legacy string rather than a sign of a second unit.
The roster record for this unit is complete. For the rest of the group see Free Corsairs. For the shared armour type, tier and supply rules see Units.