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11 The Harbinger is the Grell durable ranged creature, a Tier 2 unit with 400 health and 1 armour that spits corrosive acid at range 5.5 for double damage against Heavy armour. It also carries Eruption, a delayed area spell the unit pays for out of its own health rather than from any resource. The official faction page names it, alongside the Reaver, as one of the two evolutions that define the faction.
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33 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.
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55 Stat Block
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77 StatValueCost75 hexite and 50 fluxHealth400Shields0Armor1Armor typeHeavyStatus resistNone listedMove speed525Vision16Supply4Build time35 secondsTier2DomainGround unitInfuse cost6.875Reanimate cost6.875Replicate cost6.875Built byIncubatorResearched atSynapse Canopy for Tier 1, Elderwomb for Tier 2
88 Weapons
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1010 WeaponDamageDPSRangeCooldownTargetsBonusesCorrosive Spit24125.52sGround+100% against Heavy armour
1111 Abilities
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1313 AbilityEffectCooldownCostEruptionDeals 125 damage to units in the target area after a 1.5 second delay. Splash covers 100 percent over 1 range, and it can be aimed at air or ground.Range 15100 health, reduced to 50 health by Coagulated Membrane
1414 Upgrades
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1616 UpgradeTierCostEffectResearched atThermal Carapace1100 flux, 40 seconds+2 armorSynapse CanopyCardiovascular Boost1100 flux, 40 seconds+200 move speedSynapse CanopyHemal Vents2125 flux, 60 secondsIncreases Eruption radius by 50%ElderwombCoagulated Membrane2125 flux, 60 secondsReduce Eruption cost to 50 healthElderwomb
1717 Conversion Costs
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1919 Infuse is the Grell conversion mechanic, paid out of the same top bar power pool as the Legion Reanimate and the Xol Replicate. It permanently raises a friendly unit's health, damage and regeneration for the rest of that unit's life. Since the balance pass of August 11, 2026 the bonus is +45%, down from +50%, and the cost multiplier rose from 0.045 to 0.05 so that it matches the Protectorate shield and the Legion Reanimate.
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2121 The Harbinger is eligible for all three conversions at an identical 6.875 power each. Infuse is unusually valuable here because Eruption is paid in the unit's own health: +45% health is directly +45% more Eruptions, on top of the damage and regeneration the conversion also grants.
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2323 Role
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2525 The Harbinger is the Grell answer to armour. Twenty four damage a shot is modest, but +100% against Heavy makes it 48 into precisely the units a Grell army otherwise struggles with, and 400 health behind Heavy armour of its own means the Harbinger can stand in the line while it does it. Twelve damage per second is low enough that a Harbinger group is a sustained investment rather than a burst threat.
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2727 Eruption is what makes the unit worth its four supply. A hundred and twenty five damage in a delayed area at range 15, which is nearly three times the unit's own attack range, lets a Harbinger open a fight from outside it or punish a siege position it cannot reach. The cost is the interesting part: it is paid in the Harbinger's own health, not from the top bar pool, so a player casting repeatedly is spending the unit. Coagulated Membrane halves that to 50 health and is effectively a doubling of how many Eruptions an army can afford.
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2929 Thermal Carapace triples the armour value from 1 to 3, which against fast weak attacks is a much larger change than it sounds: the flat reduction rule described in Units takes 3 off every hit with a floor of 1, so a Harbinger with Thermal Carapace is close to immune to swarm chip damage.
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3131 Faction Context
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3333 Harbingers come from the Incubator, the Grell middle tier production structure, with first tier research at the Synapse Canopy and second tier at the Elderwomb. That places them on the same path as Keepers and Threshers and makes the Incubator the structure that turns a Grell opening into an army that can hold ground.
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3535 The studio has given the unit specific attention through development. It received a dedicated animation pass before launch, and on August 19, 2026 it was one of twenty two units and structures moved onto the newer animation system already used by Commandos and Stingers, alongside the Skrell and the Weaver from this roster. The studio reported large performance gains when many of them are on screen at once.
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3737 Tier and Armour Interactions
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3939 The Harbinger carries Heavy armour with an armour value of 1, rising to 3 with Thermal Carapace. Heavy is the category built to absorb damage, and the armour value matters more here than on any other Grell unit except the Reaver: three armour against ten attacks of four damage cuts 40 damage down to 10, while against one 40 damage hit it saves 3. A Harbinger is therefore strongest against many weak attackers and weakest against single heavy hits.
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4141 Its own bonus is the mirror image: +100% against Heavy armour, which is the only anti armour bonus in the Grell ground roster. Against Light, Medium, Building, Hero and None the Corrosive Spit does its flat 24. Two Harbingers shooting at each other is a perfectly symmetrical illustration of the whole bonus system.
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4343 Counters
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4545 Strong Against
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4747 TargetWhyHeavy armoured units+100% against Heavy turns 24 damage into 48 against the toughest category in the build.Swarms of weak attackersHeavy armour plus Thermal Carapace at 3 armour blunts every small hit down toward the one damage floor.Static positionsEruption reaches range 15 and can be aimed at ground the Harbinger cannot itself attack.
4848 Weak To
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5050 ThreatWhyAir unitsCorrosive Spit targets ground only. Eruption can be aimed at an area containing air units, but the Harbinger has no anti air attack.Single large hitsA high armour value saves a fixed amount per hit, so one heavy strike bypasses most of the benefit.Being forced to castEruption is paid in the Harbinger's own health, so an opponent who baits casts is killing the unit with its own ability.
5151 Balance History
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5353 August 19, 2026: the Harbinger was one of twenty two units and structures moved onto the newer animation system, a performance change with no stat effect.August 28, 2026: the flux cost of the second tier Harbinger upgrades, Hemal Vents and Coagulated Membrane, was reduced from 200 to 125.August 28, 2026: the Eruption hotkey changed.
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5555 Notes
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5757 The roster record for this unit is COMPLETE.The current data carries two different damage figures for Eruption: the ability text says 125 damage and a separate numeric field reads 150. The ability text is the figure reproduced above, because it is the one the game itself shows a player.The Protectorate fields a unit whose name begins with the same letter and which occupies a broadly similar tier. The two are unrelated and share no mechanics; the Harbinger is a Grell creature produced by the Incubator.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.