The Cyclops is the Protectorate laser vehicle, a Tier 3 unit whose Spherewalker Particle Cannon fires small rapid pulses at 13 range that build damage the longer it holds a target. It gains 75 percent against Heavy armour and carries 100 armour penetration, so flat armour does not blunt it. Figures below describe build ZS.c36778 of 11 September 2026 and move with the weekly patch cadence.
Stat Block
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Cost | 100 hexite and 150 flux |
Health | 350 |
Shields | None |
Armor | Not published in the entity data |
Armor type | Medium |
Status resist | None listed |
Move speed | 600 |
Vision | 16 |
Supply | 6 |
Build time | 45 seconds |
Tier | 3 |
Domain | Ground unit |
Infuse / Reanimate / Replicate | 14.375 each |
Built by | War Foundry |
The entity data publishes no flat armour number and no status resist value for the Cyclops. It also gives the base pulse as 4 damage on a 0.4 second cooldown for 10 damage per second without publishing the rate at which the beam ramps up, so the charged output is not a figure this page can state.
Weapons
Weapon | Damage | DPS | Range | Cooldown | Targets | Bonuses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spherewalker Particle Cannon | 4 per pulse, rising as the beam holds a target | 10 at the base rate | 13 | 0.4 seconds | Ground and air | +75 percent against Heavy armour, and 100 armour penetration |
Upgrades
Upgrade | Tier | Cost | Effect | Researched at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Charge Speed | 1 | 100 flux, 50 second research | Plasma Ray charge time reduced by 50 percent | Mechanical Research Lab |
Role
A Cyclops is a sustained fire unit, not a burst one. Four damage every 0.4 seconds is almost nothing on its own; the value comes from holding the beam on one target while the damage climbs, which means the unit wants a fight that stays in place rather than a series of short trades. Charge Speed halves the time that takes and is close to mandatory for the same reason.
Armour penetration of 100 is the quiet strength here. Flat armour subtracts from every individual hit with a floor of 1, which is normally devastating to a weapon firing many small pulses; a Juggernaut with 2 armor would otherwise halve each 4 damage tick. Penetration removes that problem entirely, so the Cyclops is one of the few units on the roster that is not punished by armoured targets.
It shoots ground and air at 13 range, which is a wider envelope than most Tier 3 vehicles. Against flyers it has no bonus and no splash, so it is a supplement to the Titan missile rather than a replacement.
At 350 health with no published flat armour, a Cyclops that is focused dies at ordinary speed. It belongs behind the line, holding a beam on the biggest thing in front of it.
Faction Context
The Cyclops comes out of the War Foundry, the Protectorate's advanced vehicle building, which also opens Tier 3 mercenary hiring. Its single upgrade is researched in the Mechanical Research Lab.
It shares the anti Heavy role with the Sentinel and the Juggernaut, and the three work differently enough to stack. The Sentinel is cheap and fires slowly from 13 range, the Juggernaut is a brawler with 100 damage shells, and the Cyclops is a sustained beam that ignores armour. Against an enemy committed to Heavy armour, all three at once is the Protectorate answer.
Tier and Armour Interactions
Medium armour on 350 health. Like most of the faction's Medium units it is multiplied against by anti Medium weapons, and the absence of a published flat armour value means nothing is being subtracted from incoming damage.
Its own +75 percent keys off Heavy armour, which on the current roster means Juggernaut, Strider, Hauler and Sol Invictus on the Protectorate side, and the equivalent heavy units on the other factions. Combined with 100 armour penetration, that makes the Cyclops the faction's most efficient answer to a small number of very tough targets.
Counters
Strong against:
Unit | Why |
|---|---|
Heavy armour with 2 flat armour, and penetration removes the armour advantage entirely | |
Heavy armour at 1000 health and 400 move speed, so it cannot break the beam by leaving | |
a Massive tagged heavy target that stays in a fight long enough for the beam to ramp | |
a large Grell target the Cyclops can hold a beam on from 13 range |
Weak to:
Unit | Why |
|---|---|
+100 percent against Medium armour | |
+100 percent against Medium with splash across 3 range | |
fast Light armour that breaks the beam by moving between targets | |
+50 percent against Medium on a cheap hire | |
Massed cheap infantry | a beam that ramps against one target gets little value against many small ones |
Balance History
14 August 2026: a bug was fixed where the Disruptor, which is this unit under its engine name, was not dealing damage on dedicated servers.
No dated first party balance change to the Cyclops itself appears in the Early Access patch notes through 1 September 2026, and its entity data is unchanged across the 15 days to 11 September 2026.
Notes
The engine name is Troop_Prot_Disruptor_C, so patch notes that mention a Disruptor are describing the Cyclops. The upgrade text also refers to a Plasma Ray rather than to the Spherewalker Particle Cannon; both names refer to the same weapon. Several other games in this catalogue have an article at the slug cyclops, and this page covers only the ZeroSpace unit.
For the rest of the roster and how to read a stat block, see Units. For hexite, flux, supply and the power pool behind unit conversions, see Resources and Economy. For the commanders that lead a Protectorate army, see Heroes and Commanders.
These numbers are the ZS.c36778 build of 11 September 2026. Early Access balance passes land roughly weekly, so check the dated record before relying on an exact figure.