BAR / BUILD ATLAS
← All builds
Pond / Cortex / Economy first / OBSERVED BUILD

Gunslinger buy

Cortex Pond build order · Supreme Isthmus

Pond buys Gunslingers from Tech from around 4:40, paying heavily for them, sending the skirmish bots to fight in the middle and later building its own Bot Lab for Ticks and Blitz.

#push #team support · 85 distinct matches · 14 players · 11% of Cortex Pond games · team won 60% of 85 · Recently observed

THE CATCH, AND WHAT COMES WITH IT
  • GunslingerGunslinger from Tech arrives 4:41 · 11% of role by thenTech makes it and hands it over.
  • Bot LabBot Lab in 45%15% of all Pond games by then

Paid for by sending allies about 860 metal and 19,000 energy by 5:00; standard pond sends 110 metal and 9,450 energy.

Where those units first fight, in 84 games with kill data: in the middle 92%, on their own side 7%.

Those units destroy a typical 2,352 metal of enemy units by 15:00.

Then transitions into tick (19% of army), blitz (11% of army), Armageddon (11% of army).

HOW TO PLAY IT

Key timing: Gunslinger handed over by 4:44

  1. Build heavy tidal and wind eco before any lab of your own.
  2. Take Gunslinger skirmish bots handed over by Tech.
  3. Send Gunslingers to the middle as skirmish support for front.
  4. Send Tech metal and energy, 872 metal and 20345 energy, to pay for it.
  5. Put up your own bot lab late for the Tick/Grunt transition.

Phase by phase

TYPICAL OF ITS 85 GAMES · AGAINST STANDARD POND
  1. 1
  2. 2
PLAY THE OPENING

Follow the example game's first 6:00 step by step: what to build now, what comes next, and where it goes. At 1× it keeps pace with your own game.

  1. 1

    Up to 5:00

    Economy
    • Metal Extractor4Mex
    • Wind Turbine10Wind+3 vs standard
    • Tidal Generator8Tidalfor allies
    • Tidal Generator2Tidal
    • Energy Converter1Converter
    • Energy Storage1Energy storage

    Some games also: con turret (42%)

    By 5:00 in all: 4 mex · 10 wind (standard 7) · 2 tidal · 1 converter · 1 energy storage

    The example game in this phase · 7 steps
    1. Tidal ×8for Front
    2. Tidal ×2
    3. Mex ×4
    4. Wind ×8
    5. Energy storage
    6. Converter ×4
    7. Wind ×6
  2. 2

    5:00 to Bot Lab

    Economy
    • Wind Turbine1Wind−16 vs standard
    Order
    1. Bot LabBot Lab after 4 mex, 18 wind, 3 converterdone ~10:13, middle half 9:09–11:21

    Some games also: wind (49%) · con turret (45%) · Thistle (40%) · Guard (34%)

    The standard build makes here, this one skips: 4 converter

    By 10:02 in all: 4 mex · 14 wind (standard 24) · 2 tidal · 1 converter (standard 6) · 1 energy storage

    The example game in this phase · 114 steps
    1. Wind ×7
    2. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mexdone 6:35 · typical 9:11
    3. Wind
    4. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex ×2
    5. Bot LabBot Labdone 7:59 · typical 10:13
    6. TickTick ×4
    7. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    8. TickTick ×4
    9. Construction BotCon bot
    10. Fusion ReactorFusiondone 10:31
    11. Construction BotCon bot ×2
    12. TickTick ×2
    13. Con turret
    14. TickTick ×3
    15. Con turret
    16. TickTick ×9
    17. Wind
    18. TickTick ×3
    19. Wind
    20. TickTick ×2
    21. T2 converter
    22. TickTick
    23. Wind
    24. TickTick
    25. Wind
    26. TickTick
    27. Construction BotCon bot
    28. Wind ×3
    29. TickTick
    30. Vehicle PlantVehicle Plantdone 11:49
    31. Wind
    32. TickTick
    33. Con turret
    34. TickTick
    35. Wind
    36. TickTick
    37. Con turret
    38. Wind
    39. TickTick
    40. Construction VehicleCon vehicle
    41. TickTick
    42. Wind
    43. Con turret
    44. TickTick ×2
    45. Wind
    46. TickTick ×5
    47. Wind
    48. TickTick ×4
    49. Vehicle PlantVehicle Plantdone 12:29
    50. Wind
    51. TickTick ×2
    52. Construction VehicleCon vehicle
    53. TickTick
    54. Wind
    55. TickTick
    56. Advanced Vehicle PlantAdvanced Vehicle Plantdone 13:02
    57. TickTick
    58. Wind
    59. TickTick
    60. Wind
    61. TickTick ×2
    62. Wind
    63. TickTick
    64. StarlightStarlightdone 13:22
    65. TickTick
    66. Wind
    67. TickTick
    68. Wind
    69. TickTick
    70. Vehicle PlantEat Vehicle Plantreclaimed for its metal
    71. Wind
    72. TickTick ×2
    73. StarlightStarlight
    74. TickTick
    75. Wind
    76. TickTick ×2
    77. Wind
    78. Con turret
    79. TickTick
    80. Vehicle PlantEat Vehicle Plantreclaimed for its metal
    81. Wind
    82. TickTick
    83. Con turret
    84. Wind
    85. TickTick
    86. Con turret
    87. TickTick
    88. Wind
    89. TickTick ×2
    90. StarlightStarlight
    91. TickTick
    92. Wind
    93. TickTick
    94. Wind
    95. TickTick ×3
    96. ShredderShredderdone 14:23
    97. Wind
    98. TickTick ×2
    99. ShredderShredder
    100. TickTick
    101. Wind ×2
    102. TickTick
    103. ShredderShredder
    104. TickTick
    105. Wind
    106. TickTick
    107. UmbraJammer
    108. TickTick
    109. Wind
    110. TickTick
    111. ProphetRadar vehicle
    112. TickTick ×3
    113. Wind
    114. TickTick ×2

Counts are medians over the build's games: half of them build more, half fewer. The example game is Deathkebab's (35 OS, 14/10/2026); pick another.

Team trades

IN AT LEAST 30% OF ITS GAMES

You hand over

  • Tidal Generator8 Tidal to Suicide front or Frontfirst at 0:19 · in 99% of games

You get

  • Construction Bot1 Con bot from Geo or Tech or Suicide frontfirst at 2:34 · in 51% of games
  • Hercules1 Light transport from Air or Techfirst at 4:24 · in 36% of games
  • Gunslinger1 Gunslinger from Techfirst at 4:42 · in 100% of games
  • Advanced Construction Bot1 T2 con bot from Techfirst at 7:44 · in 99% of games

How it plays out

Typical game of this build against the role’s standard build, running totals by minute

  • This build
  • Standard pond

Metal produced

010k20k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

Enemy metal destroyed

02k4k6k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

Own metal lost

02k4k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

Metal sent to allies

01k2k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

Energy sent to allies

050k100k150k
0:005:0010:0015:00

metal

85 games.

Show as table
ByMetal produced: This buildMetal produced: Standard pondEnemy metal destroyed: This buildEnemy metal destroyed: Standard pondOwn metal lost: This buildOwn metal lost: Standard pondMetal sent to allies: This buildMetal sent to allies: Standard pondEnergy sent to allies: This buildEnergy sent to allies: Standard pond
1:001151150000001631988
2:0027826000000036912438
3:008207520000106060534666
4:001496141400005850115046481
5:00218121420000861111192439436
6:002884295119000011293892763611987
7:00366938391065021014854363576314105
8:00445649131572512577316604484864816905
9:0053436340207818565017217874525800419465
10:0067067751267832171851318714616516722262
11:0084609899308874093379618914687216424464
12:001052012351369911421184105419024827349226862
13:001275414910388815751811163719414827811030092
14:001508917209490718372389207319515078885235003
15:0017277199345960262330502966195153110469540760
WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY

Won slightly more often than the standard build with the highest kill-to-loss gap of the three buys by 15:00.

  • + Own metal lost stayed low, 779 by 10:00 vs 755 standard, tightest of the three.
  • + Destroyed 4935 enemy metal by 15:00 vs 3127 for the standard build.
  • − Still a rare line: only 9% of role games buy this early by 4:37.
  • − Metal produced by 15:00 trailed standard, 15981 vs 19066.
THE EXAMPLE YOU ARE READING

Deathkebab

35.2 OS · 14/10/2026

Open source match ↗

5 received units · includes a constructor
282 metal received · 162704 energy received

Allied construction assistance is unknown. Timings are observations, not a promise of solo reproducibility.

Typical milestones

Advanced Metal Extractor9:11Middle 50%: 8:23–10:05 · n=83
Bot Lab10:13Middle 50%: 9:09–11:21 · n=43

Played most by

Boozha38games of this buildDeathkebab32games of this buildDontStreamSnipeMeBro3games of this buildGoldReasons2games of this build[NWP]Kadafi9231game of this build