Glider: the healer who never lands

The best Glider build in 1.0

Two directions, and the choice is about who else is in the lobby:

The support build is the one the ability list advertises, and it is also the weaker-documented of the two — see the co-op caveat below. The damage build is the older, better-documented one: a forum player posted the four-upgrade stack in August 2025, and Eye on You is the exotic that makes rockets ricochet between nearby targets, losing damage with each bounce. It rewards rooms where enemies line up, which is most rooms.

Both builds were touched by 1.0. Kernel Rerouter now charges health for salvo rockets even when they are not locked on, and its cost rises when your maximum target locks is below 3 and falls when it is above 3 — so the stack wants extra locks rather than avoiding them.

The kit: two cooldowns, no ammo

Rocket Salvo locks on and fires rockets that damage enemies and heal allies. The detail that decides everything else is buried in Game Rant's ranking: it only requires a cooldown. Most employees lose half their kit when a magazine runs dry and the room is full of things that want them dead; the Glider does not, because neither ability is tied to ammo.

The Wingsuit is the other half. You can fly in any direction and turn mid-flight, which no other employee's movement tool is described as doing — the Scrapper's jetpack gives height, the Wrangler's Air Dash is a single dash, the Bruiser has to spend a slot fixing mobility at all. The Glider starts with the problem solved.

What "best early" is actually based on

Two sources reach the same verdict for different reasons, and both of them are talking about the early game.

Game Rant's class ranking (12 July 2025, Early Access) calls the Glider by far the best class and gives the Wingsuit the strongest possible write-up: the best movement ability in the game. How To Video Game's build page, updated 20 October 2026, reports Steam forum consensus through Early Access putting Glider strongest early, and then adds the sentence that keeps the ranking honest — one player points out that in multiplayer, Rocket Salvo only heals the Glider.

Neither source measures the top threat levels. Both are describing a launch-window read, which is exactly the kind of claim that ages badly in a game that keeps re-tuning upgrades — see Wrangler for the same ranking being overturned.

The Infinite Glider build

The best-known Glider showcase is Phemeto's Infinity Glider, a build video from Early Access. It is the closest thing this employee has to a famous build, and the loop it runs is the flight-restoration loop described above: healing or damage output pays the flight back.

The risk in copying it now is specific. An infinite ring has to be fed by something, and 1.0 rewrote Kernel Rerouter — the upgrade that pays health to charge salvo rockets. A patch that changes when a health cost is charged is exactly the kind of patch that breaks a loop built on that charge. If you want to try it, do it after you have re-fitted the grid, and expect to debug rather than to copy.

What 1.0 changed for the Glider

• Kernel Rerouter now charges health for salvo rockets even when they are not locked on. The cost curve above is the new rule, which makes lock count a real build decision instead of a formality.
• From Down Town got a new pattern and a large damage increase — +56% to +200% minimum, +101% to +250% maximum. A new pattern means re-fitting the grid, not just re-equipping the upgrade.
• Saxonite Shackles (Exotic, new) — hold Q to create a cloud of Saxonite where you are looking; it immobilises enemies and makes grunts float. This is crowd control on the employee that already had the best escape, which is an odd but welcome combination.
• Gravity Well (Epic, new) — small health chunks orbit you and wait to pop out until you have taken enough damage, and you can instantly collect them once no more can orbit you. It is a defensive layer that does not cost you a cooldown, which matters on a kit whose two abilities are both spoken for.

Does Rocket Salvo heal the Glider itself?

This is the question behind most "Glider solo build" searches, and the honest answer has two halves. The ability is described as damaging enemies and healing allies — and in solo play, you are the only ally in the room. In multiplayer, the single player report found for this page says it heals only the Glider.

If both statements are true, Rocket Salvo is a self-heal that happens to also heal teammates when the game feels like it. Test it in a two-player lobby before you build a medic; test it solo by taking damage on purpose and watching the bar while a salvo lands.

When the Glider is the wrong pick

• Your squad already runs a healer. Two healing Gliders is one damage dealer short, and the projectile reflection on a Bruiser shield is not something the Glider can replace.
• You need someone in the doorway. Flight is an escape, not a hold. The Hard-Light Projector is.
• You are chasing top-threat damage. Players who run the ceiling name Wrangler for it. Rocket Salvo's value is uptime, not scaling.

Next in the roster

The other four employees, in order: Wrangler for late-game damage, Bruiser for the doorway, Scrapper for team mobility, and the Mycologist for the 1.0 unlock. If you are still deciding who to level, the employee index compares all five on one page, and the build guide has the grids.