HW2 Leaders & Meta

Strengths

• The Chosen carries the whole early game — easy to farm kills with early and a genuine monster late — at Vet 3 the armour bonus makes him close to unkillable.
• Bulwark is an always-pick — the invincibility dodges enemy leader powers outright and heals on top.
• Fortifications makes expanding cheap — cheaper turrets means you hold more ground with less army, which is the entire super-turtle plan.
• Free, and still S tier — no DLC required — out of the base leaders plus Forge, he is the strongest thing you can play without paying.

Weaknesses

• Veterancy punishes chasing — the Chosen only gains experience standing still, so chasing kills actively costs you the scaling you are playing for.
• The aggressive opener is fragile — the early-expansion push folds to Snipers, mass Scouts, mass Choppers or Jackrabbits if the opponent scouts it.
• Tech 3 is one composition — mass Wraiths with Engineers, and you need Scorch Mortar plus bolted-on Reavers to handle air at all.
• Bad matchup versus bans — frequently removed in drafted tournament play, so a serious player needs a second Banished leader anyway.

Strengths

• The tankiest leader in the game — the Hunter Captain vets quickly, and with two Skitterers attached — which is mandatory — he takes on whole armies.
• Combat Repair heals everything — units and buildings, passively, and it keeps healing during combat.
• Devastating Host is arguably the best drop in the game — it grants Vehicle Symbiotes to everything in the landing zone, so grouping Reavers before dropping it buffs them all at once.
• The best Scarab of any leader — Combat Repair heals it and three Skitterers attach to it — more healing and more attack than any other Banished Scarab.

Weaknesses

• The hero barely moves — one of the slowest in the game, which means spending a point on Teleport or relying on map teleporters.
• No nuke — nothing equivalent to Eradication or Inferno; Hunter's Brand substitutes but will not wipe half a base.
• Thin unit roster — Skitterer, Hunter Captain and Goliaths are his only exclusive units — everything else is standard Banished.
• No mines — the whole mine-based style is simply unavailable.

Strengths

• The best turtle in the game — siphon turrets, bunkers to garrison infantry, and Digging in Deep making buildings free.
• An economic powerhouse — Digging in Deep lets him put free generators on many bases at once, which few leaders can match.
• Mech Overcharge — the Mantis and Colossus move quickly and become temporarily invincible, which can bail out a mech ball about to die to a nuke.
• Gets out of hand if left alone — like Decimus, the game slips away quickly once he is established — and Atriox plus Johnson is the best super-turtle pair in 2v2.

Weaknesses

• The most one-dimensional leader — our Forge guide uses him as the benchmark for predictability — "not as bad as Johnson" — and our own Johnson guide agrees: opponents know it is mechs the moment they see him.
• Needs the game to go long — the free-generator economy and turret network take time to matter, so early aggression is the way through him.
• A weak hero unit — Johnson does not hold up in raw damage against heroes like the Chosen or the Hunter Captain — he is a support hero via his heal Y ability, not a solo threat.
• The Colossus is slow — it gets overwhelmed by faster units or air on big maps without Pelican Transport, which is close to a required pick on his wheel.

Strengths

• Combat Spoils pays you to attack — damaging enemy buildings returns resources — hitting an upgraded generator returns power, which is what actually accelerates your tech.
• You do not have to win the fight — the advantage comes from the resources generated every time you go on offence, so even losing pressure snowballs you ahead.
• The best siege in the game late — Infusion Tech 2 makes Wraith Scorch Mortar and Blisterback shells leave goo, which stacks with the rest of the wheel.
• The best Scarab in the game — its main beam fires infusion goo, so it synergises with Cataclysm, Invigorating Frenzy and Infusion Tech at once.

Weaknesses

• Needs real mastery — named alongside Arbiter as one of the two hardest leaders to learn — the infusion style does nothing until you understand it.
• The hero plateaus — he levels out late and stops being dominant; the wheel carries the leader from there, not the unit.
• Goo does not damage bases — infusion pools do nothing to a base on their own — you have to set up Cataclysm to convert them into real damage.
• Often banned outright — strong enough that many tournaments remove him, so he cannot be a competitive main.

Strengths

• Every drop is worth taking — ODST Drop stuns on landing, Cyclops Drop arrives at Vet 2, and the ODST Assault Group lands two ODST squads, a Scorpion, a Wolverine and two Cyclops — all veteran.
• Stuns decide engagements — the drops stun on impact, so you pick the fight, land it, and win the trade before the opponent has moved.
• The only free ultimate — Close Air Support costs 1,500 supplies and no power at all, which is close to unique among ultimates.
• Owns the map by four minutes — UNSC Raid speeds up capture and infantry, and Raid 2 lets Jackrabbits cap nodes too — you can hold nearly every node by 3-4 minutes.

Weaknesses

• Falls off hard after twenty minutes — other leaders have stronger nukes and drops late, so you are trying to close the game out before their power spike lands.
• Entirely predictable — the infantry gameplan is the same every match, and opponents prepare for it.
• Battle Hardened is dead weight — the weakest slot on his wheel, which effectively costs him a leader point of flexibility.
• The ultimate has hard counters — Close Air Support gets shredded by Combat Tech Marines, ODSTs and Wolverines, so it is unusable into the wrong composition.

Blog post coming soon.

Strengths

• Nearly unstoppable if ignored — he gets stronger every minute, and an opponent who waits too long simply cannot deal with him.
• Boundless Fury and Boundless Siphon — the Siphon works out of combat despite what 343 said it would do.
• A mini-Eradication on the hero — the Warlord's Y ability does the job of a nuke without costing a wheel slot.

Weaknesses

• No nukes and no active heals — unlike most leaders he has neither, so a fight that goes badly stays bad.
• A real early-game window — he is weaker before the scaling kicks in, and that is when he has to be punished.

Strengths

• Everything costs less — R&D cuts research cost and time across infantry, vehicles, air and hero — Grenade Throw drops from 400 power to 340, and to 289 with R&D II.
• Sentinels from four directions — buildable Protector Sentinels, Arc Defense, Sentinel Beacon on siege units, and Sentinel Network for map vision.
• The best siege in UNSC — Sentinel Beacon makes Kodiaks and Siege Turrets spawn friendly Sentinels while they fire.
• Douglas hits hard at Tech 2 — the Spartan picks up a rocket launcher with real splash damage.

Weaknesses

• No nuke, at all — nothing resembling Eradication, Inferno, Rain of Fire or even a Beam — Sentinel Network will not delete an army.
• No unit drops — outside the Retriever Sentinel ultimate, her whole wheel is passives and actives, so she cannot reinforce a losing fight.
• Her own siege invites air — committing to Sentinel Beacon pushes opponents into air units she then has to answer separately.
• Her stats look worse than she plays — every Sentinel spawned by Sentinel Beacon counts toward the opponent's units-destroyed, so her units-lost is inflated on any stats page — including ours.

Strengths

• Rolling Economy compounds — cheaper supply pad and generator upgrades turn into faster units, faster pushes, faster tech and a faster hero — all from the first leader point.
• The Forge Hog buffs everything near it — an area buff plus Scatterbomb, which slows anything trying to leave and does enormous damage to what stays.
• Vehicles are protected and cheap — Accelerated Assembly cuts cost and build time, Heavy Metal raises defence, and Combat Salvage respawns your first 8-10 dead vehicles for free.
• Grizzlies are among the best units in the game — a huge health pool and good into everything except air — comparable to the Colossus as the strongest UNSC vehicle.

Weaknesses

• Grizzlies cost a fortune — 850 supplies and 140 power, 42 seconds to build, and 10 population each against a Scorpion's 7.
• Slow, and late — they underperform on small maps, need Pelican Transport on large ones, and Forge does not really come online until Tech 3.
• Opponents see it coming — they expect Grizzlies the moment they see Forge, and prepare accordingly.
• Jerome steals the ultimate — Omega Team hijacks all three Grizzlies from the Grizzly Battalion drop, handing him three Spartan Grizzlies.

Strengths

• Conduit of Rage is the best power in the game — every leader power you cast heals nearby units and structures and gives a speed and damage burst — and his hero Y procs it too.
• Stasis works in both directions — freeze the enemy army to delete part of it before a fight, or freeze your own units to eat a Beam or Eradication — they heal while frozen.
• Elite Spirit Assault deletes buildings — it spawns already carrying the Conduit buff, making it one of the deadliest base-damage tools available.
• Scales further than any other Banished leader — Power Surge multiplies how often you can proc Conduit, so the late game compounds rather than plateaus.

Weaknesses

• The hardest leader to learn — the wheel order changes by matchup and the payoff only arrives if you sequence powers to keep the Conduit window open.
• His reputation is a trap — he is known for early Enforcer rushes, but overcommitting to that gives up the late game where he is actually strongest.
• Thin through the early game — the Fast Tech 2 opener leaves him with very few units, and he has to survive to his spike rather than create it.
• Two powers look better than they are — Cloaking is answered by any detection, and Phantom is expensive and near-useless from behind.

Strengths

• Grunt Goblins heal anything, instantly — you get three of them, and the Y ability will heal a base, a Scarab or a Condor — the best hero ability in the game.
• He starts with a free army — five Cannon Fodder instead of the usual three Grunts, and they cost nothing, so scouting and node-grabbing are free.
• Surprise Party mines are lethal — at level 2 they spawn Vet 3 Cannon Fodder and can make an ODST squad disappear.
• Heavy Grunts answer air for free — they cost no power, and with Party's Over their EMP stuns vehicles and aircraft — one of the better answers to Vulture spam.

Weaknesses

• Nothing in the kit is individually scary — he works by stacking annoyances, which means a bad player gets none of the value.
• Air is off the table — massing air is explicitly not his plan, so that whole avenue is closed.
• Counters have to be bolted on — Hunters, Banshees or Reavers have to be built separately because the grunt core answers neither vehicles nor air.
• The rush only works once — after the first infantry push you sacrifice a Raid Camp for economy, and the opponent will not fall for it twice.

Strengths

• Mastodons are a problem to answer — loaded with Combat Tech Marines they beat ground armies; load enough Marines and two or three Nightingales and air struggles too.
• A free mid-game spike — Marines that survive the early game immediately occupy the Mastodons, so a won opening converts into a much stronger army at no extra cost.
• Omega Team wins fights outright — three Spartans that hijack vehicles, inspire, and close games.
• Stun chains create free kills — Victory Mine plus the Command Mantis drop, or Victory Turret on a hero, gives a window where the target cannot shoot back.

Weaknesses

• The most expensive T1 hero upgrade — his opening hero investment is the largest in the game out of the gate, so a delayed or wasted hero hurts more.
• The plan needs a won early game — Mastodons only spike if you still have Marines to put inside them.
• Mastodons expire at Tech 3 — they fall off once Vultures exist, so the window you built toward closes.
• Three dead slots on the wheel — Recon Training is among the weakest powers in the game, Time for Heroes stops mattering past 40 population, and Spartan Morale is skippable.

Blog post coming soon.

Strengths

• Ghost in the Machine — game-changing when used well — the single reason to pick her.
• Holographic Decoy is underrated — buys position and misdirection that most opponents do not play around.
• Combat Salvage for Vultures — the same Vulture-spam engine Forge gets, which is one of the strongest late-game UNSC plans.

Weaknesses

• Almost nothing unique — outside Best Defense buffing Scorpions and Nightingales, she builds the same army every other UNSC leader does.
• Her wheel is largely Forge's — a lot of overlap, so there is little reason to pick her over him for the same plan.
• Named among the weakest in the game — our own Pavium guide lists her alongside Anders as a leader only Pavium might be worse than.

Strengths

• The drone never stops healing buildings — it repairs during attacks even with Pavium still undeployed in base, and it will heal allies' bases too.
• Lich Vanguard is a flying Scarab — it fires a beam close to the Scarab's main cannon and creates a bubble you can train Wraiths, Reavers or Hunters from, mid-field.
• Mega Turrets reach across the map — they do damage long before an opponent gets near the base, which is devastating on maps like Sentry.
• Burnout accelerates a whole base — more supply and power, faster production, and it works on teammates' bases as well as your own.

Weaknesses

• Genuinely bad in 1v1 — our guide says to play him only in Team War and other team modes — which also means our default 1v1 stat scope flatters him least.
• Mega Turrets can bankrupt you — the cost stacks steeply after two or three, they occupy base slots, and over-committing cripples your economy.
• One unique unit — the Wraith Invader, and nothing else — the rest is vanilla Banished.
• The hero cannot get anywhere — far too slow traversing the map to matter outside his own base.

Blog post coming soon.

Strengths

• Cryotic Advances — the standout power on an otherwise thin wheel.
• A better hero than Kinsano's — the Ice Cream Truck is the clearer of the two flame-and-freeze heroes.
• Cryo Troopers over Hellbringers — the better of the two specialist infantry lines, and more fun to play.

Weaknesses

• The kit has obvious holes — Kinsano gets Flame Hogs and there is no Frost Hog equivalent — the theme is not finished.
• Only just above the worst leader — our ranking puts her a little bit better than Kinsano, and nothing more than that.

Strengths

• Deletes infantry and bases — Inferno is excellent into bases — especially UNSC ones without shields — and Flame Wall clears infantry outright.
• One of the fastest heroes — the Kinsano Cyclops with High Torque Joint moves with Shipmaster and Arbiter, so she arrives first and leaves first.
• Second-most drops in UNSC — Hell Drop and Flame Warthog Drop put her behind only Cutter for wheel reinforcement.
• The fire combo genuinely kills bases — Flame Wall to strip shields, Inferno on the base, Hell Drop, Napalm Missiles, then Firestorm Battle Group — which grants Hellcharge even if you never bought it.

Weaknesses

• Helpless into air — Flame Warthogs do not answer it, none of her powers do, and the Cyclops hero cannot target air at all.
• Loses to vehicles — the anti-infantry design leaves her exposed to Wraiths and Scorpions, and good opponents exploit it.
• No late-game identity — she shipped before the developers settled on strong leader themes, so past the flame units there is nothing specific to play toward.
• Years of nerfs — she has been cut back repeatedly — Hellcharge in particular is no longer the pick it was.

Blog post coming soon.

Strengths

• Confuses with cloaking and displacement — great at disorienting the opponent — cloaked units and displacement powers make it hard to read what is actually on the field.
• Some of the best Ghosts in HW2 — leader powers and upgrades push Ghosts further than most leaders can, so his vehicle harassment is a real identity.
• Displacement combos in teams — Displacement works especially well in team games and chained leader-power combos, where one setup creates a window for a teammate.
• Cloaking forces detect — invisible armies make opponents spend time and resources on detection instead of pushing.

Weaknesses

• Tactical Gateway cuts both ways — the teleport can bail you out or strand your army — it is as likely to lose a fight as win one if mistimed.
• Hardly any unique units — outside a few Ghost upgrades he is mostly generic Banished, so there is little the roster itself rewards you for picking him.
• Almost no healing outside Extraction — Extraction is the only leader-power heal, so sustained fights bleed units other leaders could recover.
• No nuke ultimate — his wheel tops out without a big team-fight reset button, so closing a stalled game is harder than on leaders with a true ultimate.