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Prospector
September 11, 2026 at 10:13 PM
Initial version (2026-09-11)
The Prospector is the Protectorate flux harvester, a Tier 0 support vehicle that gathers flux and carries a single healing wave rather than a weapon. It is one of the two units the Operating Tower produces before any research, and it is the only harvester on the roster that can heal the army it funds. Figures below describe build ZS.c36778, stamped 11 September 2026, and they move with the weekly patch cadence.
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Cost | 100 hexite, no flux |
Health | 275 |
Shields | None |
Armor | Not published in the entity data |
Armor type | Medium |
Status resist | None listed |
Move speed | 500 |
Vision | 16 |
Supply | 0 |
Build time | 18 seconds |
Tier | 0 |
Domain | Ground unit |
Infuse / Reanimate / Replicate | Not eligible |
Built by | Operating Tower |
Two fields are genuinely absent rather than omitted here: the entity data publishes no flat armour number for the Prospector, and no status resist value. Supply 0 is a real figure, not a gap, because harvesters do not draw on the army cap. See Resources and Economy for how flux income converts into upgrades and conversion power.
Ability | Effect | Cooldown | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Repairnites | Releases a healing wave that restores 150 health across a 4 range area, targeting friendly ground and air units | 60 seconds | No listed cost |
Prospectors are the flux half of a Protectorate economy: the Operating Tower raises extractors on a hexite patch, and Prospectors work the flux nodes that pay for research, upgrades and mercenary hires. Losing them is survivable in a way that losing most units is not, because a destroyed harvester respawns 60 seconds later at no cost, so the real damage from harvester harassment is the income lost during that minute rather than the resource spent replacing it.
Repairnites is the reason a Prospector is worth pulling out of the mineral line. A 150 point burst across a 4 range area is a full third of a Hauler healthbar or more than half a Commando, and it lands on air units as well as ground. With a 60 second cooldown it is a once per engagement tool, so it rewards holding it for the moment a push is actually trading rather than spending it on chip damage.
Every Protectorate expansion starts with an Operating Tower, which raises extractors and produces both the Prospector and the Protectorate Build Drone. That makes the Prospector a Tier 0 unit in the strict sense: it needs no research and no production building beyond the outpost itself.
The healing wave fits the faction identity described on the Protectorate page, where production and base structures carry a healing bot that repairs nearby friendly units. The Prospector extends that same self-sustaining behaviour to the field, and it stacks with the Griffin repair beam and the Hauler heal aura rather than replacing either.
The Prospector carries Medium armour. That has been true only since the 11 August 2026 balance pass, which deleted the separate Harvester armour type outright and moved every harvester and extractor onto Medium. The six armour types in the current build are Light, Medium, Heavy, Building, Hero and None.
The practical consequence is that harvester harassment now runs through the ordinary anti Medium bonuses instead of a dedicated category. Anything that hits Medium harder hits the Prospector harder, including the Protectorate's own Ironwing and Predator.
The Prospector has no attack, so it has no favourable matchups. It survives through health, the respawn timer and the units standing over it.
Weak to:
Unit | Why |
|---|---|
+100 percent against Medium armour, and fast enough to reach a mineral line | |
+100 percent against Medium with splash across 3 range, which catches a clustered harvester line | |
+50 percent against Medium on a cheap early hire | |
+50 percent against Medium, and mobile enough to trade the income even when it dies |
11 August 2026: move speed raised from 450 to 500.
11 August 2026: armour type changed from the deleted Harvester type to Medium, along with every other harvester and extractor in the game.
11 August 2026: the Shield ability can no longer target Prospectors or scouting drones.
19 August 2026: harvesters and the Protectorate Extractor moved onto the animation system already used by Commandos and Stingers, a performance change rather than a balance one.
The engine name for this unit is Troop_Prot_Harvester_C, which is why balance notes about harvesters in general sometimes read as if they apply to a separate entity. They do not: the Prospector is the Protectorate harvester. See Update History for the dated record.
For the commanders that lead a Protectorate army, see Heroes and Commanders.
Every number on this page is read from build ZS.c36778, the entity release stamped 11 September 2026. ZeroSpace patches weekly during Early Access and 42 of its 87 versus units changed stats in the 15 days before that build, so treat the figures here as dated rather than permanent.
