The Cortex Commander is the most versatile and important unit in your army. It's what you'll use to start your initial base and to build your first unit factory.

Use it to build and defend your front line when you expand.

It can produce both metal and energy, it's amphibious, equipped with a laser and powerful disintegrator gun (D-Gun), and can build Tech 1 structures. Its laser can fire underwater and hit subs, or even hit air units. The D-Gun can kill ANY unit in the game in a single shot, making it a powerful counter against expensive T2/T3 units. The exception is other Commanders—D-Gun projectiles vanish when they hit them, allowing a com to body-block for turrets and other units.

Commanders are the game's win condition—if a team loses all Commanders across its players, they lose!

Commanders explode for massive damage in a wide AoE when destroyed, leaving a crater in the ground. Self-destructing your Commander is a common strategy to get 1,250 metal reclaim for fast teching (Commander is the only unit to leave a wreck when self-D'ed), or as a "com bomb" deliberately blown to wipe out large numbers of enemies.