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Corsair Hovercraft
September 11, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Removed repeated body wikilinks, keeping the first occurrence of each target
The Corsair Hovercraft is the Free Corsairs trap layer, a Tier 3 vehicle hired two at a time that shoots both ground and air at range 9 and drops three contact mines on a 75 second cooldown. It is the only unit in the group that is not available on contract: it unlocks through the level 6 Corsair talent, which also spawns two of them immediately. The Free Corsairs are a mercenary group mixed into a main faction army rather than played on their own.
Figures below describe the September 2026 Early Access build, the one carrying the identifier ZS.c36778, and they move with the weekly patch cadence. Close to half the versus roster changed stats in the fortnight before this build, so read every number as dated.
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Cost | 200 hexite and 125 flux for a batch of two, which is 100 hexite and 62.5 flux each |
Health | 375 |
Shields | 0 |
Armor | 0 |
Armor type | Medium |
Status resist | None listed |
Move speed | 550 |
Vision | 16 |
Supply | 4 per Hovercraft |
Build time | None. Mercenary units are hired at an outpost rather than constructed, so the game publishes no build time for them. |
Tier | 3 |
Domain | Ground unit |
Infuse cost | 8.90625 |
Reanimate cost | 8.90625 |
Replicate cost | 8.90625 |
Unlocked by | Entrenched Hideouts, the Free Corsairs level 6 talent |
Built by | The Free Corsair Mercenary Outpost |
Weapon | Damage | DPS | Range | Cooldown | Targets | Bonuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Powdered Shot | 10 per volley, two volleys and three shots per cycle | 20 | 9 | 3s, with 0.04s between shots | Ground and air | No armour bonus. The burst structure means the whole cycle lands almost at once and is then followed by a long gap. |
Ability | Effect | Cooldown | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Lay Mines | Places three mines at a target location. Each deals 30 damage and slows enemies on contact. The ability carries three charges. | 75s | No energy cost |
Upgrade | Tier | Cost | Effect | Researched at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Entrenched Hideouts | Free Corsairs talent level 6 | No resource cost. It is the final Corsair talent pick. | Mercenary Outposts act as bunkers, gain 600 health, build in half the time and have their limit raised to three. Unlocks the Hovercraft and immediately spawns two of them. | The Free Corsairs talent track |
The Hovercraft is eligible for Infuse, Reanimate and Replicate at an identical 8.90625 power each, paid from the top bar pool described on Resources and Economy. That sits in the middle of the Corsair roster. A conversion is worth more here than the 375 health suggests, because a Hovercraft that survives a fight is one that lays another three mines 75 seconds later.
The Hovercraft is area denial with a gun attached. Three mines dealing 30 damage and a slow on contact will not kill anything on their own, but they punish a path, and a path the opponent has to take is worth more than the damage on it. Laid in a choke, on a ramp, or behind a retreating Corsair force, they turn a pursuit into a decision. The 75 second cooldown and the three charges make this a positional resource rather than a combat one.
The weapon is more useful than its 20 damage per second implies. Three shots of two volleys land within a fraction of a second and then nothing happens for three seconds, so a group of Hovercraft delivers its damage in punches. Because it hits air as well as ground it is one of only three Corsair weapons that can engage a flier at all, alongside the Deadeye and the Rover.
The real constraint is the talent gate. Reaching level 6 is a long way into a match, and a Corsair player who spends that pick here is choosing the Hovercraft over nothing else, since Entrenched Hideouts is the only level 6 option and the Hovercraft comes attached to it.
Entrenched Hideouts is the whole reason this unit exists in a match, and the rest of that talent explains why the pairing makes sense. Outposts become bunkers with 600 extra health and a limit of three, which pushes a Corsair player toward a forward, fortified footprint. Mines are the natural complement to fortification: the bunker holds the ground, the mines cover the approach to it.
The other two Corsair talents are Pillage at level 2, which pays hexite for destroying harvesters and buildings, and Plundered Optics at level 4, which adds 75 percent vision and 15 percent move speed. Plundered Optics takes the Hovercraft's vision from 16 to 28, which is well beyond its weapon range and useful for choosing where mines go. The group's faction power is Sandbags, and its leader Caylan Yearl is covered on Heroes and Commanders.
The Hovercraft carries Medium armour with an armour value of 0, and it is the only Medium armour unit the Free Corsairs field. That matters because bonuses against Medium became common on August 11, 2026, when the old harvester armour type was deleted and harvesters and extractors were folded into Medium, with six units having their bonuses rewritten onto it. One of those six was the Corsair Raider, so a Corsair mirror is one of the matchups where the Hovercraft is most exposed.
An armour value of 0 means nothing is subtracted from incoming hits. Its own weapon carries no bonus and does a flat 10 per volley to all six armour types, which are Light, Medium, Heavy, Building, Hero and None.
Strong against | Why |
|---|---|
Predictable paths and chokes | Three mines at 30 damage and a slow make a route expensive without any unit standing on it. |
Pursuit | Mines laid behind a withdrawing force turn a chase into a cost. |
Light fliers | One of three Corsair weapons that engages air, in burst rather than in a trickle. |
Weak to | Why |
|---|---|
Corsair Raider and other Medium armour bonuses | +50% against Medium since August 11, 2026, against 375 health with no armour value. |
+100% against Medium armour, and fast enough at move speed 800 to choose the engagement. | |
Sustained fights | The burst weapon pattern means long fights average out to 20 damage a second at 4 supply. |
Being unable to reach level 6 | Without Entrenched Hideouts the unit is not available at all. |
Date | Change |
|---|---|
August 28, 2026 | Updated textures, alongside the Corsair Raider and the Grell Boomers. No stat effect. |
The Hovercraft has taken no balance change since Early Access launch, only a texture pass. That is partly a function of the talent gate: a unit that most matches never see is a unit that generates little balance pressure.
Its engine identifier carries the group's development era name, Dread Raiders, which the Free Corsairs shipped without. The roster record for this unit is complete. For the rest of the group see Free Corsairs. For the armour, tier and supply system shared across every unit page see Units.
