The Fade is the high-skill damage lifeform. It has little health for its price (250 health, 80 armor) but huge mobility: Blink turns it invisible and launches it across a room. A good fade dives in, kills one or two marines, and leaves to heal.
Abilities#
| Key | Ability | Energy | Damage | Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mouse1 | Swipe | 7 | 37.5 ×2 vs players | Start |
| Mouse2 | Blink | 12 + 32/s | – | Start |
| Shift | Metabolize | 10 | – | Biomass 3 + research |
| 3 Mouse1 | Stab | 30 | 120 | Biomass 7 + research |
Swipe#
Fast melee claw (1.6 m) for 37.5 puncture damage: 75 against players. Affected by Focus.
| Attack | No upgrade | Focus (3 Veils) | Crush (3 Spurs) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A0 | A1 | A2 | A3 | A0 | A1 | A2 | A3 | A0 | A1 | A2 | A3 | |
| Fade swipe | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Hits to kill a full-health marine by armor level (A0–A3). A dot means the attack does not benefit from Focus.
Blink#
Hold Mouse2 to blink: the fade becomes ethereal (nearly invisible) and accelerates in the direction you look, up to 19 m/s. Starting a blink costs 12 energy, holding it costs 32 per second. Chaining short blinks with jumps keeps speed without draining energy.
Metabolize#
Press Shift: a quick "breath" that restores 20 energy for a cost of 10. Advanced Metabolize (Biomass 5, separate research) also heals 15 health per use. Metabolize needs Biomass 3 and research (20 team res); Advanced Metabolize costs 20 more.
Stab#
A slow, wind-up strike for 120 structural damage (240 against structures). Used to kill power nodes, phase gates and ARCs fast. Requires Biomass 7 and research (25 team res).
Combos#
One stab followed by swipes is the fade's fastest kill on a marine who can't get away:
| Target | Fade swipe hits needed after this many fade stabs | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Marine A0 | 3 | 1 | kill |
| Marine A1 | 3 | 2 | kill |
| Marine A2 | 4 | 2 | kill |
| Marine A3 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Full-health targets. A highlighted cell means that many fade stabs save a fade swipe compared with the cell to its left.
See Kill combos.
Fade eggs#
With Biomass 8 the commander can make Fade Eggs (80 team res).
Tips#
- Never fight to the death. Hit, blink away, heal at a Crag or the hive, come back.
- Shotguns are your nightmare; HMGs and railguns are close behind. Pick fights with rifle marines.
- Celerity and Vampirism or Regeneration are the common fade picks.
- Fades cost 35 personal res. Losing one hurts your whole team.