The Defiant is the Xol Tier 2 heavy melee unit, and it is not built from scratch. Two Xythers merge into one, with a further 150 hexite and 50 flux paid on top. What arrives is 500 health behind 2 armour with Heavy armour type, hitting ground targets for 40 damage on a 1.25 second cycle, and carrying a retaliation mechanic that no other unit in the faction has: being attacked fills an ABES energy bar, and at full the Defiant releases a pulse that damages everything around it.
Figures below describe the September 2026 Early Access build, the one carrying the identifier ZS.c36778, and they move with the weekly patch cadence. Roughly half the versus roster had a stat touched in the fortnight before that build was captured, so treat every number here as dated rather than permanent.
Stat Block
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Cost | 150 hexite and 50 flux, on top of the two Xythers consumed by the merge |
Health | 500 |
Shields | 0 |
Armor | 2 |
Armor type | Heavy |
Status resist | None listed in the entity record |
ABES energy | 6, starting at 0, filled by taking damage |
Move speed | 575 |
Vision | 16 |
Supply | 4 |
Build time | 16 seconds |
Tier | 2 |
Domain | Ground unit |
Infuse cost | 10.625 |
Reanimate cost | 10.625 |
Replicate cost | 10.625 |
Merged from | 2 Xythers |
Unlocked by | Molten Core |
Weapons
Weapon | Damage | DPS | Range | Cooldown | Targets | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vector Slash | 40 | 32 | 1.5 | 1.25s | Ground | The standard attack, no armour bonus |
ABES Pulse | 20 | Situational | 2 | Costs 6 ABES energy | Ground | 100% splash over 2 range, released automatically when the ABES bar fills from being attacked |
Abilities
The entity record lists no separate activated ability and no passive. The energy retaliation is implemented as the second weapon above rather than as an ability entry, which is why ABES Pulse appears in the weapons table with an energy cost instead of a cooldown.
Upgrades
No Defiant specific upgrades exist, and the Defiant has no molten mode. The World Forge upgrades reach it as a Xol army unit.
Source | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
World Forge, six upgrades | 200 flux each, 400 flux for Casting Range, 60 seconds each | Pick 3 of Armor, Damage, Vitals, Weapon Range, Cooldown Reduction and Casting Range, each to 2 ranks, doubled near the Forge |
World Forge Armor is worth singling out here. The Defiant already carries 2 armour, and two ranks near the Forge stack on top of that, which compounds unusually well on a unit whose whole plan is standing in incoming fire.
Conversion Costs
Replicate is the Xol conversion mechanic, paid out of the same top bar power pool as the Grell Infuse and the Legion Reanimate. Rather than buffing a unit it copies one, producing a second body from an eligible ally. Since the balance pass of August 11, 2026 it also works on molten units, at twice the usual power cost. Eligibility is not universal, and the tags on a unit record are what say which of the three conversions apply. The Defiant is eligible for all three at an identical 10.625 power each. That is expensive by Xol standards, and it is worth weighing against replicating two Xythers at 3.75 each and merging them instead.
Role
The Defiant is a punishment unit. Every weapon pointed at it charges the bar that eventually hurts whatever is pointing it, so the more attention it draws the more it contributes, and 500 health behind 2 armour and Heavy armour type means it draws attention for a long time. Armour is a number as well as a type. It subtracts a flat amount from every incoming hit with a floor of 1 damage, so it blunts many small hits far more than one large one. Two armour against ten hits of 4 damage cuts 40 damage down to 20; against one 40 damage hit it saves 2. That maths is why massed cheap attackers are the worst thing to throw at a Defiant and why single heavy weapons are the right answer.
Vector Slash at 32 damage a second is the highest sustained single target output in the faction below Tier 3, but it reaches only 1.5 and only on the ground, so a Defiant that cannot close is a 4 supply body doing nothing. Move speed 575 is quick for the weight class and is the mechanism the faction gives it for closing.
The merge cost changes how the unit is priced. A Defiant is not 150 hexite and 50 flux, it is that plus two Xythers, which is 300 hexite of prior investment and 4 supply of prior army. In exchange the Unmerge change of August 11, 2026 lets a player split it back into two Xythers for free on a 20 second cooldown, so the investment is recoverable in a way that a built unit is not.
Faction Context
The Defiant unlocks at the Molten Core, the Tier 2 structure that also unlocks the Echo, the Synapse and the World Forge, and which opens Tier 2 mercenary hiring. It is one of five Xol units assembled from other units rather than produced, alongside the Echo, the Synapse, the Gravitron and the Eradicator. See Units for how the shared stat block is read and Resources and Economy for the top bar power pool the conversions draw on.
Counters
Strong against | Why |
|---|---|
Massed cheap attackers | 2 armour subtracts from every hit with a floor of 1, and every hit also charges the ABES bar. |
Ground units caught in a group | ABES Pulse splashes at full value over 2 range, so a surrounded Defiant hits everything at once. |
Single target ground fights | 32 damage a second is the highest sustained output the faction has below Tier 3. |
Weak to | Why |
|---|---|
Air units | Both weapons are ground only. A Defiant cannot answer a flier at all. |
Kiting and range | Range 1.5 means it has to make contact, and anything that can retreat while firing beats it for free. |
Single heavy hits | 2 armour saves only 2 against a 40 damage shot, and weapons with a Heavy armour bonus point straight at it. |
Balance History
Date | Change |
|---|---|
August 11, 2026 | Unmerge cost cut from 5 power to 0 and cooldown from 60 seconds to 20, which made splitting a Defiant back into two Xythers a routine decision. |
September 2026 data release | The Defiant record dropped the Biological tag it carried in the previous release. No stat changed alongside it. |
Notes
The roster record for this unit is COMPLETE. Every core field is published.
The ABES Pulse entry publishes a damage figure, a range, a splash value and an energy cost, but no cooldown, because the release is automatic rather than triggered. The record also does not publish how much damage taken fills one point of ABES energy, so the frequency of the pulse in a real fight cannot be calculated from the data.
The Biological tag removal is a categorisation change in the data layer rather than a studio patch note. No dated studio post names it, so its practical effect, if any, is unconfirmed.
Per unit numbers are drawn from a community maintained entity catalogue that the studio links from each of its own faction pages. It is the only place the full stat block is published, and it is not a studio document, so the figures are best read as careful community documentation of a build rather than as an official specification. Dated balance notes, by contrast, come straight from the studio patch posts.