Revision 1

The Corsair Raider is the Free Corsairs group in miniature: a Tier 1 infantry unit hired three at a time that jumps up and down cliffs and steals hexite from an enemy base without the owner losing any. The Free Corsairs are a mercenary group hired into a main faction army rather than played on their own, and the Raider is the clearest expression of what hiring them buys, which is economic pressure rather than a better line of battle.

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 had its damage bonus rewritten in August and its range changed on September 1, so read the numbers as dated.

Stat Block

Weapons

Abilities

Conversion Costs

At 2.9165 power for Infuse, Reanimate or Replicate alike, the Raider is the cheapest conversion the Free Corsairs offer, paid from the top bar pool described on Resources and Economy. Whether it is worth spending is a judgement about what the unit is doing: a Raider used to harass does not want to fight anything, so extra health rarely changes the outcome. A Raider used as a cheap Medium armour answer in a real engagement benefits more.

Role

Raiders do two jobs, and neither is standing in a fight. Cliff jumping means they ignore the terrain that shapes every other ground approach, so three of them can arrive in a mineral line from a direction that has no defences pointed at it. Thieve then converts that access into income at 50 hexite per use on a 60 second cooldown, and because the owner loses nothing, it is income the opponent cannot see on their own resource counter.

Their second job is anti Medium. The +50% bonus takes 12 damage to 18, and since August 11, 2026 Medium armour covers every harvester and extractor in the game, so the same three Raiders that steal from a base also shoot it efficiently. The weapon hits air as well, which at 8 damage a second is not a serious answer to a flier but is enough to chase off a scout.

One hundred and fifty health with Light armour is not enough to survive a response. Raiders are a harassment package: they arrive, take what is there, and leave before the defender has organised. A Raider squad that has been caught in a real engagement has usually already failed at its job.

Faction Context

Raiders come out of the Free Corsair Mercenary Outpost. They pair naturally with the group's level 2 talent, Pillage, which pays hexite for destroying harvesters and buildings, because a Raider squad is already in the place where harvesters die. Plundered Optics at level 4 adds 75 percent vision and 15 percent move speed, which on a unit whose entire value is arriving somewhere unseen is the strongest talent in the group.

The faction power, Sandbags, drops cover rather than damage for half a point of power on a 20 second cooldown, and the group's leader Caylan Yearl shares the Raider's style: cliff walking, cloaking and leaving explosives behind. He is covered on Heroes and Commanders.

Tier and Armour Interactions

The Raider carries Light armour with an armour value of 0, so nothing is subtracted from incoming hits and every anti Light bonus applies at full value against a 150 health body. Its own bonus keys off Medium armour, one of the six types in this build alongside Light, Heavy, Building, Hero and None.

That bonus has a history worth knowing. Until August 11, 2026 it read +75% against the harvester armour type. That pass deleted the harvester type outright, moved harvesters and extractors onto Medium, and rewrote six units' bonuses accordingly, the Raider among them. The current figure of +50% against Medium is confirmed in the September 2026 build data. Any material that still lists a harvester armour bonus on this unit predates that change and describes an armour type that no longer exists.

Counters

Balance History

Notes

Thieve is one of several places where the studio tunes a unit differently by mode. It was removed from the campaign on July 25, 2026 and left untouched in versus and skirmish, so a Raider in the campaign is a different unit from the one described above.

The +50% against Medium figure was verified against the September 2026 build data rather than carried forward from the August 11 patch note alone, because several August figures in this game were superseded later in the month. In this case the value held.

The roster record for this unit is complete. For the rest of the group see Free Corsairs. For how armour types, tiers and supply work across the game see Units.