Revision 1

The Corsair Rover is the Free Corsairs light vehicle, a Tier 1 unit hired two at a time that fires while moving and speeds its attacks up against anything standing close to it. The Free Corsairs are a mercenary group hired into a main faction army rather than played on their own, so Rovers are contracted at an outpost partway through a match rather than teched to.

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 health raised on September 1 and its movement reworked in late August, so read the numbers as dated.

Stat Block

Weapons

Abilities

The Rover has no activated abilities. Two of its properties behave like them and are always on: it can fire while moving, and its attack speed rises by 75 percent against targets at point blank range.

Conversion Costs

The Rover is eligible for Infuse, Reanimate and Replicate at an identical 6.5625 power each, from the top bar pool described on Resources and Economy. It sits in the middle of the Corsair roster on price and is a reasonable target, because 340 health is enough that a percentage increase buys a meaningful amount of it, and because a Rover that lives is a Rover that keeps firing while it withdraws.

Role

Firing while moving is the whole unit. Most ranged units in the game stop to shoot, which means disengaging costs damage and pursuing costs damage. A Rover pays neither price, so two of them can chase, retreat, and reposition without a gap in output. At move speed 700 and 17 damage a second each, a pair is a persistent nuisance rather than a burst threat.

The close range fire rate bonus pushes the unit toward contact, which is unusual for something with a gatling weapon and 340 health. Standing on top of a target raises the Rover's output by three quarters, so the correct play against something slower is often to close rather than to kite. Against something faster or harder hitting, the unit still has range 7 and the ability to leave while shooting.

It also hits air, which at Tier 1 is worth having. A pair of Rovers will not beat a real air army, but they deny scouts and punish an early flier in a way nothing else the group hires at that price can.

Faction Context

Rovers come out of the Free Corsair Mercenary Outpost with the rest of the group, and they sit at Tier 1 alongside the Raider and the Deadeye. The three cover different problems: the Raider steals and jumps cliffs, the Deadeye reaches 20, and the Rover is the one that can actually fight for a sustained period.

Plundered Optics, the level 4 Corsair talent, adds 75 percent vision and 15 percent move speed, which takes a Rover to 805 and makes it faster than almost anything on the ground. Pillage at level 2 pays hexite for destroying harvesters and buildings, which a mobile unit that never stops shooting is well placed to collect. The group's leader, Caylan Yearl, is covered on Heroes and Commanders.

Tier and Armour Interactions

The Rover carries Light armour with an armour value of 0. Nothing is subtracted from incoming hits, and every anti Light bonus in the game applies at full value, which against 340 health is survivable in a way it is not for the group's 150 health infantry but is still the worst armour type to wear. The six types in this build are Light, Medium, Heavy, Building, Hero and None.

Its own weapon carries no bonus, so 4 per volley lands flat against all six. That small per hit figure is the Rover's real armour problem: against a unit with an armour value of 2, such as the Corsair Flamer, half of each volley is subtracted away. Rovers are efficient against unarmoured targets and poor against armoured ones for reasons that have nothing to do with armour type.

Counters

Balance History

Notes

The August 28 acceleration change is easy to underrate. For a unit whose design is built on firing while moving and on repositioning constantly, removing the ramp up to full speed is a larger practical buff than the 20 health added on September 1.

The engine identifier for this unit carries the group's development era name, Dread Raiders, which the Free Corsairs shipped without. It is a legacy string, not a separate unit. The roster record is complete. For the rest of the group see Free Corsairs, and for the shared armour, tier and supply rules see Units.