Steward is the drone class that disappears. It keeps a full eight-drone swarm, moves faster than its siblings, and turns invisible when it stops moving. The swarm itself stays visible.
| Tier | 4 |
| Unlock level | 45 |
| Upgrades from | Shepherd |
| Barrels | 1 drone launcher; no guns |
| Drones | up to 8 |
| Respawn (0 points) | one drone every 2.25 s until you have 8 |
| Drone stats (0 points) | 25 HP, 8 contact damage, 220 px/s, penetration 1, size 11 |
| Stealth | fades after 2 s without movement input, fully invisible at 10 s |
| What stays visible | your drones, which orbit you when idle |
| Stat labels | Drone Speed / Drone Penetration / Drone Damage replace the bullet stats |
| Health / movement | ×1 / ×1.15 |
| Body damage | 20 (×1) |
Every number here is at 0 stat points, before the per-level health bonus and the per-level speed penalty that every tank gets. The automatic balancer can nudge a class's damage and health over time, so treat these as the roster's base values.
Steward plays like any Shepherd-line drone class. Hold fire to send the swarm to your cursor, let go and it hunts the nearest target within 400 px of each drone, right-click to repel it outward. The difference is the body. Stop pressing movement keys and a timer starts; after 2 seconds you begin to fade and at 10 seconds you're fully invisible. Controlling drones doesn't count as moving, so you can sit still, fade out and fight with the swarm the whole time.
A fully faded Steward can't be targeted by enemy bots, auto turrets or other players' auto-hunting drones. Other players see nothing where your tank is. Your drones are a different matter: they're always visible, and when they have nothing to hunt they orbit you at 80 px. A ring of drones circling an empty patch of ground tells everyone exactly where you are. The skill of the class is keeping the swarm busy somewhere else.
Steward respawns drones more slowly than Hivelord, one every 2.25 seconds at 0 Reload against 0.9, and from a single launcher. It moves 15% faster, which matters because the moment you move to escape, your cloak resets.
Steward is excellent against anything that relies on auto-targeting. Penta Sentry, Sentry and the turrets on Autovolley and Autosnare don't see a faded tank at all. It punishes players who fight near where you're hiding: they take damage from a swarm and can't find the source. Slow snipers like Horizon struggle because they need a target to shoot at.
It's weak once found, like every stealth class, and its swarm is exactly as fragile as Hivelord's. High-volume guns (Octant, Fanblade, Cascade) strip drones quickly. Caltrop kills drones on contact with its body damage. A player who notices your drones orbiting and sprays into the middle of the ring will hit you.
A 33-point build: Drone Damage 7, Drone Penetration 7, Drone Speed 5, Reload 4, Movement Speed 6, Max Health 4.
From Shepherd, Steward competes with Hivelord, Revenant, Foundry, Dreadnought and Snarelord.
Against Hivelord, Steward gives up respawn speed for stealth and 15% movement speed. The swarm is the same size with the same drone stats. If you play patiently and like fighting from hiding, Steward is the better class. If you play aggressively and lose drones often, Hivelord's faster respawn is worth more.
Revenant and Dreadnought both field more drones than you. Foundry's mini tanks shoot. Snarelord has traps. None of them can hide. Take Steward if the thing that kills you is being seen.