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The Protectorate Build Drone is the faction's automated builder, a Tier 0 flyer that raises every Protectorate structure and, unusually for a builder, the Strider walker as well. It has 25 health, no weapon, and the highest move speed of any unit on the roster at 2000. Figures below describe build ZS.c36778 of 11 September 2026 and move with the patch cadence.

Stat Block

One field is a real gap: the entity data publishes no build cost for the Build Drone. Both the hexite and flux fields read zero, which is not the same as a confirmed free unit, so the cost is recorded here as unpublished rather than as 0 hexite. Supply 0 and the absence of a status resist value are genuine, not missing.

Role

The Build Drone is infrastructure rather than army. It places production buildings, supply platforms, turrets and outposts, and because it is a flyer it crosses terrain that would block a ground builder. Move speed 2000 is roughly three times a Commando, so a single drone can service a forward expansion and a home base without a second one idling.

It also builds the Strider, which is the one place a Protectorate player has to plan around drone positioning. The Strider is produced by the drone rather than by a production building, so committing to one means committing a builder to that spot for 60 seconds.

With 25 health and no weapon, the drone dies to anything that notices it. The counterplay is entirely about where it stands, not about how it fights.

Faction Context

Protectorate structures are raised by drones rather than by a worker pulled off the line, which is why the Prospector never stops harvesting to build. That split is a faction trait: the Prospector handles flux income and field healing, the Build Drone handles construction, and the Operating Tower produces both.

Structures the drone raises include the Barracks, the Research Lab, the Assembly Plant, the Skydock, the Mechanical Research Lab, the War Foundry, supply platforms, turrets and the Airstrip that calls in Sol Invictus. The full production chain is described on the Protectorate page.

Tier and Armour Interactions

The drone carries Medium armour with a flat armour value of 0, so nothing is blunted before it lands. At 25 health that is academic; any single shot on the roster removes it.

It also carries the Flyer tag. Flyer is a tag rather than an armour type, and it matters because weapons that cannot target air simply ignore the drone while anti air weapons treat it as a free kill.

Counters

The Build Drone has no attack and therefore no favourable matchups.

Weak to:

Balance History

• No dated balance change to the Build Drone appears in the first party patch notes covering Early Access, and the entity data for it is unchanged across the 15 days to 11 September 2026.

Notes

The engine name is Troop_Prot_BuilderDrone_C. The Legion fields its own separate builder, the Legion Build Drone, and the two are different entities despite the shared role.

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.

The stats above describe build ZS.c36778 of 11 September 2026. Versus balance moves on a weekly cadence during Early Access, so a figure that is right today may be adjusted in the next pass.