Commander

Commander intro

At the start of a match, you are given the option to select a Commander Chassis.

Choosing Strike, Guardian, Recon, or Engineer will determine your Commander's starting abilities.

Your commander can also be configured with a variety of Modules to suit your play-style. A commander can be made more powerful in the middle of a round by using the 'Morph' command to gain levels. Each time you morph to a higher Commander Level you are given the option to spend metal to attach new modules.

Modules can have different costs. Morphs to a new Level have a base cost and additional cost for each module selected.

Commanders start at Level 1 with a Beam Laser and no modules attached.

At Commander Level 2, it is possible to replace your starting Weapon.

At Commander Level 4, a second weapon (or a Special Weapon) can be added. Some weapons at this level require the use of both hands. If the weapon upgrade slot is left empty, your commander is given a second Beam Laser for free.

Each added level gives the commander a health boost. Commanders can morph an unlimited number of times until all possible modules are attached. Engineer commanders will also gain additional build power with each level.

Favorite loadouts can be created and saved (up to Commander Level 6) for online play.

Modules and weapons

Number of slots per level

Commanders start at level 1. The number of modules and weapons increases with levels.

Commander level	1	2	3	4	5	+
Base cost	-	25	100	600	200	+100
Base time	-	2	6	30	8	++
Total Weapon slots	0	1	1	2	2	+0
Total Module slots	0	1	3	5	8	+3

Equipping weapons and modules costs additional metal. Morph time is partly dependant on the metal cost.

Module types

Modules have cyan names in the unlock list, although their icon color depends on their nature. They fall into four categories.

Stackable

These modules are able to be stacked up to 8 times. Stacking them repeatedly will create a powerful commander, even though their bonuses as quite minor. These are cyan. This type of module is the one that should be used the most, and because of their versatility, it is useful if you intend on getting commanders which do many things, or a single buff commander that is fast, invisible and deals lots of damage. Some of these modules will subtract speed or HP, and should be used with caution as too much will leave the commander a sitting duck.

Name	Description	Cost	Strike	Guardian	Recon	Engineer
Advanced targeting system	+7.5% range for all weapons. -2.5% speed.	150	✔	✔	✔	✔
Damage booster	+10% damage for all weapons. -2.5% speed.	150	✔	✔	✔	✔
High density plating	+1600 HP,-10% speed. Requires Ablative armor plates.	400	✔	✔	✔	✔
Ablative armor plates	+600 HP	150	✔	✔	✔	✔
Companion drone	+1 Weak attack drone	300	✔	✔	✔	✔
Battle drone	+1 Drone with slowing laser, requires Companion drone.	500	✘	✘	✘	✔
Carrepairer's nanolathe	+4 Buildpower	150	✔	✔	✔	✔
High power servos	+8% speed	150	✔	✔	✔	✔
Autorepair system	+10 HP/sec, -100 HP	150	✔	✔	✔	✔

Support

Support modules are not stackable. They can provide large expensive bonuses such as a shield, cloaking, jamming or a cloaking field. These are cyan as well.

Name	Description	Cost	Req. level	Strike	Guardian	Recon	Engineer
Area shield conversion	Upgrades Personal shield. Larger shield (same as Aspis) Prevents commander from cloaking	250	3	✘	✔	✘	✔
Cloaking field	Upgrades Radar jammer. Cloaks friendly units within 350 elmo similar to Iris 15 E/s upkeep	600	3	✔	✘	✘	✔
Field radar	Basic radar with 1800 elmo range	75	1	✔	✔	✔	✔
Lazarus device	Commander can resurrect wrecks same as Athena	400	2	✘	✘	✘	✔
Personal cloak	Cloaks the commander Does not work with shields	400	2	✔	✔	✔	✔
Personal shield	Small shield with 1250 HP, no upkeep Prevents commander from cloaking	300	2	✔	✔	✔	✔
Radar jammer	500 elmo range	200	2	✔	✔	✔	✔

Weapon Boosters

These modules are expensive but give a large bonus to a few specific weapons but can only be applied once. They require a level 2 commander. They are a space effective way to spend a module slot but make sure you have the weapon that they affect. They are purple.

Name	Description	Cost	Weapon	Strike	Guardian	Recon	Engineer
Disruptor ammo	Add slow damage. Reduced direct damage.	300	Shotgun Machine gun Light/Heavy particle beam	✔	✘	✔	✔
Flux amplifier	Improves stun duration and EMP damage.	300	Lightning rifle Multi stunner	✔	✘	✔	✔
Napalm warhead	Set targets on fire. Reduced direct damage.	350	Riot cannon Rocket launcher	✘	✔	✘	✘

Weapon types

There are 2 types of weapon, special and normal. Both weapon types are affected by the stackable range and damage modules. Weapon names are in red.

Normal

These are auto-targetting normal weapons that behave the same was as any other unit. They can be affected by weapon boosters and weapon converters given that it is the right weapon. They are all affected by stackable modules. They are red.

Name	Range	Reload time	Damage	DPS	Strike	Guardian	Recon	Engineer	Notes
Beam Laser	330			150	✔	✔	✔	✔	Constant beam
Flame thrower	270	0.17	11	66	✘	✔	✔	✘	Sets units on fire for 15s(15 DPS) Pierces units Does more damage against larger units
Heatray	300	0.1	0 - 45	0 - 450	✘	✔	✘	✘	Damage falls off linearly with range
Heavy particle beam	390	3.1	800	258	✘	✘	✘	✔	Replaces all other weapons Mounted on second weapon slot
Light particle beam	310	0.33	55	165	✔	✘	✔	✔
Lightning Rifle	300	1.83	220+550	120+300	✔	✘	✔	✔	EMP duration: 1s
Machine Gun	285	0.17	30	180	✔	✔	✔	✘
Missile launcher	415	1	80	80	✔	✘	✘	✔	Homing
Pea Shooter	300	0.1	12	120	✔	✔	✔	✔
Riot cannon	275	2	220	110	✘	✔	✘	✘	AoE
Rocket launcher	430	3	360	120	✘	✔	✘	✘	Not Homing
Shock Rifle	600	12	1512	125	✘	✘	✘	✔	Replaces all other weapons Mounted on second weapon slot
Shotgun	290	2	32x12 (384)	192	✔	✘	✔	✔

Special

Special weapons have a long reload time and must be manually aimed with the 'D' key. They are only affected by stackable modules. They are orange and can only be put on the level 4 weapon slot.

Name	Range	Reload time	Damage	DPS	Strike	Guardian	Recon	Engineer	Special Notes
Cluster bomb	360	30	300x8 (2400)	80	✘	✔	✔	✘	Bomblets spread (like a shotgun)
Concussion shell	450	25	750	30	✘	✘	✔	✘	Has Impulse (Tosses some units)
Disintegrator	200	30	1400	46.67	✔	✔	✘	✘	Damage varies on unit size
Disruptor bomb	450	25	350+2100	14+84	✔	✘	✔	✔	Slow Effect, Has large AOE (512)
Hellfire grenade	450	25	200	8	✘	✔	✔	✘	Sets an area on fire (45s,40dps+3s burning)
Multistunner	360	25	550/800 x 16 (8800/12800)	352/512	✔	✘	✔	✔	Affected by flux amplifier. Max EMP time: 8s [upgraded: 10s]
SLAM	700	30	1512	50.4	✘	✔	✘	✘	Tactical Missile with high vertical arc

Key: EMP Damage, Slow Damage

Commander Chassis

There are 4 types of commander chassis to choose for a battle.

You can configure custom commanders based on these chassis on your user page; you must be logged in to the Zero-K website and go to: https://zero-k.info/My/Commanders. These custom commanders may be selected at the beginning of the game in multiplayer matches. You will still need to upgrade them as usual, but the upgrade options are filled in to your preferences.

Common attributes

The commander you start the game with produces 4 metal and 6 energy per second, via a unique Vanguard economy module. Any resurrected commanders who have lost this module produce only 0.4 metal and 0.4 energy per second. They all provide a sight distance of 500 and a sonar of 500. All have a base regen of 5 hp/s. Chassis other than the Engineer Commander have 10 build power and 144 build range while the Engineer commander gains build power and range with levels and has base 220 build range.

Chassis list

Note that attributes on level 1 and level 2 are equal. Morphing to level 2 provides no bonus other than the weapon and module slot.

Strike Commander

• All rounder
• Decent health and speed (40.5)
• Can use the most weapon types
• Combat regen bonus

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
HP: 3200	HP: 3200	HP: 3800 Bonus regen: 7.5	HP: 4600 Bonus Regen: 15	HP: 5500 Bonus regen: 22,5	HP: 6400 Bonus regen: 30

Guardian Commander

• Best HP
• Medium speed (40)
• Gains more HP from increased levels than other chassis do
• Able to use most non-exotic weapons

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
HP: 3600	HP: 3600	HP: 4400	HP: 5500	HP: 6600	HP: 7600

Recon Commander

• Lowest HP
• Highest Speed (43.5)
• Can Jump
• Uses light weapons

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
HP: 2400	HP: 2400	HP: 2800	HP: 3200	HP: 3600	HP: 4000

Engineer Commander

• Lowest speed (36)
• Low HP
• Gains buildpower and small amount of build range with levels
• Increased build range (220 + 12/level, up to 280, compared to 144 for others)
• Fewer direct damage weapons

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
HP: 2800 Buildpower: 10	HP: 2800 Buildpower: 12	HP: 3400 Buildpower: 14	HP: 3800 Buildpower: 16	HP: 4500 Buildpower: 18	HP: 5000 Buildpower: 20

Exact effects of attribute modifiers

Attribute modifiers are applied in this order:

• Commander Chassis absolute statistics
• Percentage modifiers both from modules and chassis
• Absolute modifiers

Percentage modifiers from commanders and stackable modules are additive, not cumulative. Five +10% speed modules multiply a commander's speed by 1.5 instead of by 1.1^5 = 1.61.

Percentage modifiers from weapon boosters and converters are cumulative and applied before other percentage modifiers. Think of them as changing the intrinsic stats of the weapon, rather than adding a bonus.