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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 · 82 distinct matches · 14 players · 11% of Cortex Pond games · team won 60% of 82 · Recently observed

THE CATCH, AND WHAT COMES WITH IT
  • GunslingerGunslinger from Tech arrives 4:40 · 10% of role by thenTech makes it and hands it over.
  • Bot LabBot Lab in 44%16% of all Pond games by then

Paid for by sending allies about 850 metal and 20,000 energy by 5:00; standard pond sends 110 metal and 10,000 energy.

Where those units first fight, in 81 games with kill data: in the middle 94%, on their own side 6%.

Those units destroy a typical 2,454 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 82 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 (44%)

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

    The example game in this phase · 11 steps
    1. Tidal ×8for Suicide front
    2. Tidal ×2
    3. Mex ×4
    4. Energy storage
    5. Wind
    6. Converter
    7. Wind ×3
    8. Converter
    9. Wind ×5
    10. Energy storage
    11. Converter ×4
  2. 2

    5:00 to Bot Lab

    Economy
    • Wind Turbine3Wind+3 vs standard
    Order
    1. Bot LabBot Lab after 4 mex, 16 wind, 3 converterdone ~10:24, middle half 9:16–11:31

    Some games also: wind (50%) · con turret (46%) · Thistle (41%) · Guard (35%)

    The standard build makes here, this one skips: 17 wind · 4 converter

    By 10:07 in all: 4 mex · 14 wind (standard 24) · 8 wind (standard 0) · 2 tidal · 1 converter (standard 6) · 1 energy storage

    The example game in this phase · 112 steps
    1. Converter ×3
    2. Wind ×18
    3. Bot LabBot Labdone 7:50
    4. Construction BotCon bot
    5. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mexdone 9:05 · typical 9:13
    6. Construction BotCon bot
    7. Con turret
    8. Construction BotCon bot
    9. TrasherTrasher ×3
    10. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    11. Wind
    12. GruntGrunt ×2
    13. Wind
    14. GruntGrunt
    15. Wind
    16. GruntGrunt
    17. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    18. GruntGrunt
    19. Wind
    20. GruntGrunt ×2
    21. Wind
    22. GruntGrunt ×3
    23. Wind
    24. GruntGrunt ×2
    25. Wind
    26. GruntGrunt ×2
    27. Wind
    28. GruntGrunt ×2
    29. Wind
    30. GruntGrunt ×3
    31. Wind
    32. GruntGrunt ×3
    33. Wind
    34. GruntGrunt ×2
    35. Wind
    36. GruntGrunt ×2
    37. Advanced Metal ExtractorT2 mex
    38. Wind
    39. GruntGrunt
    40. Con turret
    41. GruntGrunt
    42. Wind
    43. GruntGrunt
    44. Wind
    45. Con turret
    46. GruntGrunt
    47. Wind
    48. GruntGrunt
    49. Con turret
    50. GruntGrunt
    51. Wind
    52. GruntGrunt
    53. Con turret
    54. GruntGrunt
    55. Bot LabBot Labdone 12:32 · typical 10:24
    56. GruntGrunt
    57. Wind
    58. Bot LabBot Labdone 12:37
    59. GruntGrunt
    60. TickTick ×2
    61. GruntGrunt
    62. TickTick ×2
    63. Wind
    64. GruntGrunt
    65. TickTick ×2
    66. GruntGrunt
    67. TickTick ×2
    68. GruntGrunt
    69. TickTick ×6
    70. Wind
    71. TickTick ×2
    72. Fusion ReactorFusiondone 14:16
    73. TickTick ×10
    74. Wind
    75. TickTick ×12
    76. Wind
    77. TickTick ×8
    78. Con turret
    79. TickTick ×2
    80. Wind
    81. TickTick ×11
    82. Wind
    83. TickTick ×5
    84. Con turret
    85. TickTick ×5
    86. Wind
    87. TickTick ×7
    88. Wind
    89. TickTick
    90. Wind
    91. TickTick ×2
    92. Converter
    93. TickTick ×6
    94. Wind
    95. TickTick
    96. Converter
    97. TickTick ×6
    98. Converter
    99. TickTick ×3
    100. Wind
    101. TickTick ×4
    102. Converter
    103. TickTick ×6
    104. Wind
    105. Converter
    106. TickTick ×3
    107. Fusion ReactorFusion
    108. TickTick ×4
    109. Converter
    110. TickTick ×5
    111. Wind
    112. TickTick ×6

Counts are medians over the build's games: half of them build more, half fewer. The example game is Deathkebab's (35 OS, 01/10/2026); 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 2:33 · in 51% of games
  • Hercules1 Light transport from Air or Techfirst at 4:24 · in 37% of games
  • Gunslinger1 Gunslinger from Techfirst at 4:39 · in 100% of games
  • Advanced Construction Bot1 T2 con bot from Techfirst at 7:47 · 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

82 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
1:001151150000001712995
2:0027825900000037132365
3:008187370000104060364436
4:001496140900005810113396554
5:002181213000008451131957110268
6:002886294920900011244032762611852
7:00367438291101021014784453567414303
8:00444748741643542648616564534823417340
9:0053416257216122065018917734685735021198
10:0067037661268435071564018664686490822906
11:0084519859317476693483618814687145925778
12:001049712092368011961217107518974827343027224
13:001273414534403315781830166119404827788032595
14:001507216881498418142442199519465328581137744
15:0017268193615834263232612964194654810147941136
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

34.9 OS · 01/10/2026

Open source match ↗

3 received units · includes a constructor
14 metal received · 85734 energy received

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

Typical milestones

Advanced Metal Extractor9:13Middle 50%: 8:29–10:04 · n=80
Bot Lab10:24Middle 50%: 9:16–11:31 · n=41

Played most by

Boozha38games of this buildDeathkebab30games of this buildDontStreamSnipeMeBro3games of this build[NWP]Kadafi9231game of this buildCommandoMan1game of this build