Defect
Standard Energy (3 per turn) plus Orb Slots (start with 3). Orbs act as persistent passive and active resources. Focus amplifies all orb effects.
ASCENDER DOSSIER · Advanced
Defect
S TIER“An automaton eternally modifying itself to survive. Deploys Orb technology when it must fight.”
An ancient combat automaton that channels elemental Orbs — Lightning, Frost, Dark, Glass, and Plasma — for versatile strategies. Returns from StS1 with a familiar toolkit and is considered one of the most consistent characters.
base HP75
Cards90
Builds5
- ＋Orbs provide consistent passive damage and defense every turn
- ＋Focus scaling is multiplicative across all orbs
- −Slow early game before Focus and Orb slots come online
- −Orb management adds complexity — wrong evoke order punishes
Signature traitsOrb ChannelingFocus ScalingLightning DamageFrost DefensePassive Power Generation
Build compendium
View all →DefectS TIER
Defect Lightning Build
Channel Lightning orbs and boost them with Focus for devastating passive damage each turn. Electrodynamics turns every Lightning evoke into AoE. Echo Form doubles your best play each turn for exponential scaling.
Zap
Defragment
Echo Form
ElectrodynamicsDefectS TIER
Defect Claw Build
The fan-favorite zero-cost spam deck that cycles through cheap attacks at blazing speed, with Claw's damage permanently ramping every time it's played. All for One retrieves all 0-cost cards from the discard pile for massive combo turns, while Feral doubles up 0-cost card plays. When the machine gets going, nothing can stop the Claw.
Claw
All for One
Scrape
FeralDefectA TIER
Defect Frost Build
Become an impenetrable wall of Frost orbs. Generate massive Block passively each turn while your orbs chip away at enemies. The ultimate 'I can do this all day' defensive strategy for the Defect.
GlacierDefragment
Coolheaded
Capacitor
