The Grunt is a basic infantry bot that's cheap to build, and can quickly devastate poorly-defended expansions, artillery units, and even isolated Commanders. It also fills a scouting role, gathering intel while easily killing enemy scout units like Ticks.

A small force of Grunts can easily kill an undefended Commander.

It is armed with two light lasers that have slightly greater range than the Pawn's guns, so you can easily take them out by "kiting" them (move back and let the Pawns come to you).

Grunts tend not to stack up very well vs. Light Tanks, which easily outpace them and last longer then they do, allowing the tanks to either pick them apart over time or blow right through them.

The Aggravator is a light rocket bot that's commonly used for pushing enemy defenses.

Support them with fast units like Grunts and some Graverobbers.

Thanks to its range the rocket bot can out range a Sentry and force enemy commanders to retreat. It's slower than the Rocketer, but also has more health.

The Construction Bot can build basic Tech 1 structures and is the cheapest construction unit.

Use multiple on a single structure to increase build power.

It's quite slow and weak, so try to escort it with a few Grunts when expanding. Each constructor also increases the player's energy and metal storage capacity by 50.

Mobile constructors produce a small amount of energy, helping you scale economy just by having them alive. Construction Turrets do not do this.

The Trasher is an amphibious anti-air bot that's cheap to build and can shoot down light air units.

Keep them at the back of your army to defend against air raids.

It's useful for preventing enemy bombing runs and can also walk underwater.

The Graverobber is a resurrection bot that can turn wrecks into brand new units.

Being stealthy, means that Radar cannot spot them, so they can work safely as long as your enemies does not have line of sight on them. They are extremely fragile — use with caution!‍

Assign them to repair and resurrect units on your front line to keep your army reinforced.

_‍_It can also reclaim wrecks, rocks, and trees, optionally reclaim an entire area, for extra resources.

ALT + Fight (F) orders (on default keys) will make Lazarus:

1. Resurrect (instead of Reclaim) any intact wrecks they find
2. Reclaim un-resurrectable debris
3. Repair friendly units

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The Thug is a light plasma bot that deals sizeable damage for a relatively low cost to build.

Combine with resurrection bots to keep them healthy while pushing the enemy front line.

It is fairly slow, so watch out for fast enemy units and long-range defences. It also has more range when shooting from higher ground.

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.

The Bedbug is a crawling bomb designed for one purpose—to go kamikaze on enemy units and structures. Very deadly vs. grouped-up units such as tanks.

When used in a swarm, spread them out to avoid a chain reaction.

Crawling bombs have 140 AoE normally, 216 AoE along with increased damage if you self-destruct it. Thanks to their amphibious attribute, they're also great for attacking and regaining sea territory.

The Deceiver is a mobile radar jamming bot that keeps units within its jamming range from appearing on the minimap.

Use it with cloakable units to make them totally invisible and undetectable.

It is best used to mount a surprise attack and to hide your units or structures from long-range weapons. Beware units can still be detected if the enemy has a intrusion countermeasure system.

The Augur is a mobile radar bot that gives you intel on enemy units within its range.

Keep it behind your army so it doesn't get taken out.

It doesn’t have any weapons and has rather low health, but having intel on your enemies whereabouts is crucial.

The Spectre is a stealthy and cloakable spy bot that's totally invisible to your enemy. When it self-destructs, it unleashes a 5,000 EMP damage charge that stuns units in a 360 area of effect.

Self-destruct it near an enemy Citadel to disable it with the discharged EMP.

It is also good to spot nearby enemy units so your artillery has a clear target. However, beware that it can be detected if the enemy has a Tracer within range.

Spy bots can Reclaim, which is useful for removing Dragon's Teeth or walls in its way, or slowly reclaiming enemy buildings. Beware that they must decloak to do this!

The Fiend is a fast and deadly raider bot equipped with a short-range flamethrower.

Optimized to quickly kill weak or slow units and demolish bases.

Moderately durable for a raider, they are still highly vulnerable to gunships and heavier defenses.

Combine Fiends with a Deceiver to hide them from radar until ready to strike.

Fiends can self-destruct in 1 second (default for most units is 5 seconds) which deals 1110 damage in a 100 radius. Push Fiends into the center of enemy forces and detonate for massive damage!

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The Twitcher is a handy construction unit that can run fairly quickly and provide build-power wherever you need it.

Useful for producing Fiends while on the move.

Its purpose is to have a source of mobile build power that you can quickly move to wherever you need it. It's also used to build mines for securing your flanks and areas of high tactical importance.

The Duck is an amphibious bot equipped with:

1. Short-range medium laser
2. Light torpedo launcher

Useful for raiding unprotected naval structures and sneaking into enemy territory from the sea.

It's also a good way to allocate a quick moving amphibious torpedo unit to aid your naval units.

In masses they can turn the tides of a naval battle and break through to the enemy economy. Be careful relying solely on its weak laser beam is not advised.

The Sheldon is an agile mortar bot armed with a long-range plasma mortar that fires small shells at a fast rate.

It has longer range than most T2 units. The Sheldon is a natural skirmisher - perfect for dealing damage at long range while on the move. Use them to provide fire support for your close-range units.

Mix in mobile radar and jammer bots for a classic combo - the radar bots' large sight radius vastly increases the accuracy of the Sheldons while jammers hide them from enemy radar.

The Sheldon is also good at dismantling enemy defensive lines as it can slowly but steadily do damage from a relatively safe distance.

The main weakness of the Sheldon is its paper-thin armor, making them sitting ducks once enemy units get close enough. Also do note Sheldon are very weak against large numbers of cheap fodder such as Ticks and Pawns.

The Advanced Construction Bot can build Tech 2 structures and opens the door to an advanced economy.

Start by building Advanced Metal Extractors and a Fusion Reactor.

It's quite slow and weak, so try to escort it with a few defensive units. Each Tech 2 constructor also increases the player's energy and metal storage capacity by 100.

Mobile constructors produce a small amount of energy, helping you scale economy just by having them alive. Construction Turrets do not do this.

The Sumo is a heavily-armored laser bot that deals great amounts of damage in close combat. It shines in an escort role, guarding more vulnerable units such as Sheldons from enclosing foes while soaking up long-range fire.

Beware its high energy cost per shot.

It's a lot stronger than the Welder, but also costs more. When you have enough of them they become quite an unstoppable force.

The Arbiter is a long-range heavy rocket bot that fires its missiles straight up to hit enemy units from a high angle.

Use them to destroy enemy defenses from far away and to break their front line.

It doesn't have much health, but it can easily target structures and units behind walls or high cliffs.

The Termite is an all-terrain spider bot equipped with two close-quarter heatrays. Termites are decent at close range and will slice through light units, but will be overpowered by tanks and defenses.

Evade enemy defenses by traversing where other units can't go.

Best used in maps with hilly terrain to attack from unexpected angles. On open terrain, Sumos are almost always better.

Use them to strike bases and economy, which are protected solely by terrain.

Contrary to popular belief, Termites are not a direct counter to Recluse due to their relatively slow speed, even though they overwhelm it at close range.

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The Manticore is an advanced anti-air bot equipped with medium-range missiles and a short-range flak cannon.

Keep it at the back of your army to defend against air raids.

It's amphibious and deals a significant amount of damage to most aircraft, but can't shoot while underwater.

The Decoy Commander is a fake version of your actual Cortex Commander and can build basic Tech 1 structures, including mines.

Use it to fool your enemy and for extra build power on the front line.

It serves the function of confusing your opponent and it's good so the enemy will target the fake one.

The Skuttle is a crawling bomb designed for one purpose — to go kamikaze on enemy units and structures.

When used in a swarm spread them out to avoid a chain reaction.

It has a large area of effect when it explodes, which is even bigger when you self-destruct it. Thanks to their amphibious attribute they're also great for attacking and regaining sea territory.

Skuttle's main advantage over the Bedbug is the ability to Cloak.

Use Juno to disable enemy Radar before sneaking in a cloaked Skuttle for devastating effect.

The Commando is a versatile and amphibious "paratrooper" bot, which needs proficient control skills to be successful.

It will drop out of a transport when it gets destroyed.

Its cannon fires rapidly with splash damage, and it regenerates its own health faster than most units, but it primarily excels as a minelaying saboteur and spy.

Use mines and its weapon to weaken buildings, then reclaim them for their full metal value.

‍It's able to build a few different units with the second longest build range in the game. It can demolish bases or lay mines amidst enemies even over cliffs or from water onto land, and set cameras in terrain where enemies won't find them.

Commando is the only unit, besides the Phantasm, that can jam radar/sonar from the water.

‍Uniquely immune to the Juno missile, it can keep units & structures hidden while providing radar itself. Given its very short jamming range, Move in formation orders should be used so it and your forces all move at the same speed.

The Mammoth is a heavily armored assault bot that's equipped with two heavy beam lasers.

Use it to absorb incoming fire while your long-range units take out the enemy units.

It has the most health among all the Tech 2 land units and is the best choice for tanking enemy fire. When you have enough of them they become quite an unstoppable force.

The two most notable even heavier T2 units are the Dragon and the Black Hydra.

Shivas are experimental siege mechs equipped with two powerful cannons and a heavy vertical rocket launcher. Their cannons excel at killing tightly-packed enemies, while their longer-ranged rockets clear walls and high terrain to pick off key defenses.

The flight time of their rockets can lead to friendly fire as allies walk into them! Be careful!

They're also amphibious and can walk underwater, though they can't fire their weapons this way.

Shivas are best at destroying lighter units and laying waste to defensive lines, but falter vs. heavy tanks, and turrets like the Pulsar.

The Karganeth is an experimental assault mech equipped with two rapid-fire homing missile launchers (600 range) for ground units, and twin AA launchers for air. Its all-terrain capability lets it crawl up cliffs and steep terrain to gain a tactical advantage.

Its high DPS and versatility make it well-suited for quickly killing individual units.

It's relatively fast (for T3) and has a good amount of health, and a rare combo of good range and high fire rate, but still loses out vs. groups of enemies due to its lack of AoE weapons.

The Catapult is an experimental heavy rocket bot that fires a barrage of unguided heavy missiles in a spread pattern around the target. It has a long reload time.

Use it to rain hellfire down on your enemy.

It is extremely effective against grouped units, and can clear out defensive structures. It's also good for attacking enemy fleets lingering too close to shore, allowing you room to push back into the water.

The Demon is a fierce assault mech that lays waste to massed enemy units with twin flamethrowers (500 range). It also packs an anti-air launcher for defending itself from gunships and bombers.

Its insane speed (for a T3), high survivability and firepower make it perfect for spearheading assaults.

It has no resistance to EMP, making spy bots and EMP Bombers effective counters.

The Behemoth is an experimental mobile heavy canon equipped a powerful disintegrator gun and three secondary beam lasers. While its main cannon lacks the instant-kill power of a Commander's D-Gun ability, it's still able to kill a heavy tank in one blast, and quickly obliterate even the heaviest T3 units.

Use it to spearhead endgame assaults against heavy fortifications.

Behemoths can tank through multiple direct hits from the heaviest weapons and remain combat-effective. They are still vulnerable to being outranged, and have no weapon vs. air units. Keep them well supported with other forces to cover their flanks and weaknesses.

In many cases, they are a better option than Juggernauts, although they lose out in mobility and all-around capability.

The Juggernaut is an experimental advanced assault mech, and is the most powerful unit among the CORTEX land units. It's armed with an immensely powerful single-target laser; 2 triple-barreled shotgun cannons; and long-range vertical-launch missiles. The Juggernaut is also immune to EMP.

If you Self-Destruct it as a last resort, the explosion is almost as powerful as a nuclear missile.

It doesn't have the most range, but its health and firepower allow it to fight and win against multiple Titans.

Despite its size and power, the Juggernaut is not invulnerable and can be taken down with focused fire from a group of long range units like Pulsars and Starlights or Behemoth at close range.

Overall, the Juggernaut is a fearsome unit that can dominate the battlefield. Its high cost and slow movement speed make it a risky investment, but in the right hands, it can be a devastating weapon of war.

Escort it with support units and radar and look out for enemy commanders trying to D-Gun it.