Revision 1

The Endari Shade is the group's cheap melee body, a Tier 1 unit hired three at a time that moves at 700 and phases through other units instead of pathing around them. The Endari are a mercenary group mixed into a main faction army rather than played on their own, so Shades are recruited at an outpost partway through a match.

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 in the fortnight before this build, so read every number as dated.

Stat Block

Weapons

Abilities

The Shade has no activated abilities. Its published trait is passive: it phases through other units, so it does not collide with friendly or enemy bodies and cannot be blocked by a wall of them. In a game where melee units routinely lose half their value to pathing around a front line, that is the whole design of the unit.

Conversion Costs

At 3.75 power for Infuse, Reanimate or Replicate alike, the Shade is the second cheapest conversion the Endari offer, behind only the Shadow Leech. The power comes from the top bar pool described on Resources and Economy. A conversion on a Shade is cheap enough to spend freely, and health is the stat it most wants, since 225 with Light armour is what stops the unit from reaching a back line rather than its damage.

Role

Shades are how the Endari get to something that does not want to be reached. Move speed 700 is fast for a ground unit, and phasing removes the usual defence against melee, which is simply standing enough bodies in the way. Three Shades for 225 hexite and 6 supply is a cheap package to throw at a harvester line, a siege unit, or a ranged formation that has committed to a position.

Twenty damage on a 0.9 second cycle is 22 per second, which is ordinary. The unit is not a damage dealer you win fights with; it is a delivery mechanism that also happens to hit. Its best use is as the piece that arrives first, pulls attention, and lets Needlers behind it shoot into a fight that has already started.

The obvious limitation is that a melee unit at range 1.6 has to survive the approach, and 225 health with Light armour and no armour value is not much to approach with. Shades want the night. The Veil Cracks takes their move speed to 875 for 30 seconds, which closes most gaps before the defender gets a full volley off.

Faction Context

Shades are produced at Silent Hollow, the Endari mercenary outpost, and continue to come out of the Awoken Hollow while the night is up. The Endari identity is ambush and concealment, and the Shade is the clearest expression of it in a unit that costs 75 hexite: it does not hide, but it ignores the thing that usually stops a melee rush.

It sits alongside the Needler as the group's Tier 1 pairing. Between them they cost 400 hexite and 25 flux for five bodies, which is the practical shape of a first Endari purchase before the Wyrm or the Devourer becomes worth the flux.

Tier and Armour Interactions

The Shade carries Light armour with an armour value of 0, so nothing is subtracted from incoming hits and every anti Light bonus in the game applies at full value. The Corsair Deadeye doubles its damage against it, the Corsair Flamer adds half again, and the Valkaru Flame Walker adds 150 percent. Against any of those, a Shade is a body that arrives and then stops existing.

Its own weapon carries no bonus, so Unmaking Blade does a flat 20 to all six armour types, and it targets ground only. Phasing does not help against a flier, so a Shade has no interaction with the air domain whatsoever.

Counters

Balance History

Notes

Phasing is published as a description of the unit rather than as a named ability, so it has no cooldown, no cost and no entry in an ability table. It is always on.

The roster record for this unit is complete. For the rest of the group see Endari, and for the armour, tier and supply system shared across every unit page see Units. The Endari hero and her Impaler form are covered on Heroes and Commanders.