Revision 1

The Stinger is the Grell basic melee creature, a Tier 1 unit that hatches three at a time from the Broodwomb for 75 hexite and no flux. Six damage on a 0.65 second cooldown is the fastest attack cycle in the faction, and its upgrade path pushes it toward speed, stealth and terrain access rather than toward raw damage.

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

Weapons

Abilities

Upgrades

Conversion Costs

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.

The Stinger is eligible for all three conversions, and at 1.25 power it is the cheapest army unit in the faction to act on. The three prices are identical in this build, so Infuse, Reanimate and Replicate all cost 1.25. Infusing a Stinger is an efficient use of a nearly full power pool because the +45% applies to a unit that is already attacking every 0.65 seconds.

Role

The Stinger is the unit a Grell player has in numbers before anything else. Three per order at 25 hexite each and no flux cost means the opening army is Stingers whether the plan is aggression or defence, and 600 move speed lets them arrive somewhere before the opponent has committed. Nine damage per second each is unremarkable; eight of them is 72, which is enough to end a harvester line or a lone ranged unit.

The upgrade tree decides what the Stinger becomes. Extensor Adaptation makes them a raiding unit at 800 effective move speed. Biomass Submersion turns any ground the faction has already spread into ambush terrain, adding stealth on top of the movement bonus. Pouncing Reflex lets them cross cliffs, which on most competitive maps means an attack angle no other Grell ground unit has, and the attack speed burst on landing rewards using it aggressively. Dissolving Venom adds a slow, which converts the Stinger from a damage unit into a tool for holding something in place for the rest of the army.

They remain melee and Light armoured throughout. Against splash, and against anything that can retreat while shooting, a Stinger group melts, so they want targets that are already committed.

Faction Context

Stingers come out of the Broodwomb, the Grell basic production structure, with their first tier of research at the Young Canopy and their second at the Synapse Canopy. They sit at the bottom of the same production line that later produces Lashers and Skrell, so a Stinger opening does not lock a player out of anything.

They are also the unit the rest of the faction is measured against for performance. The Stinger animation system is the one the studio has been migrating other units onto through Early Access, and the August 19, 2026 performance update explicitly names Commandos and Stingers as the reference implementation.

Tier and Armour Interactions

The Stinger carries Light armour with an armour value of 0, so it takes every hit in full and gains nothing from the flat reduction floor. Light is the category that fast cheap units sit in, and weapons carrying a Light bonus, such as the Protectorate Titan rotary cannon at +25%, are aimed squarely at exactly this kind of swarm.

Feral Claws carries no armour bonus of its own and targets ground only, so Stingers are dead weight against any flyer. The Grell answer to air is Lashers, Skrell and Weavers, not this unit.

Counters

Strong Against

Weak To

Balance History

• August 11, 2026: Stinger health increased from 90 to 100.

• August 28, 2026: the upgrade tree was reorganised from three tiers to two. Tier 1 is now Extensor Adaptation and Biomass Submersion; Tier 2 is Pouncing Reflex and Dissolving Venom, requiring the Synapse Canopy.

• August 28, 2026: Biomass Submersion changed from +100% attack speed on biomass to +300 movement speed on biomass.

• August 28, 2026: the Dissolving Acid passive and upgrade were renamed to Dissolving Venom, with the effect unchanged.

Notes

• The roster record for this unit is COMPLETE.

• The unit data still lists a +50% attack speed figure on the Biomass Submersion passive text alongside the August 28 change to a movement bonus. The dated studio note is the clearer of the two and is what the Balance History above records.

• Dissolving Venom appears twice in the stat block, once as a passive and once as the upgrade that unlocks it. That is how the data models a passive gated behind research, not two separate effects.

• 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.