Direform vs. Koloss

[Frustration]

So on another thread I was talking about direforms being perhaps the single greatest foot soldiers in the Cosmere, when @Trusk'our brought up Koloss. So I have a two questions to pose to the community.

1. Which one would you choose as a foot soldier in your army?
2. Who would win in a fight?

 

 

[Deception He/Him]

25 minutes ago, Frustration said:

So on another thread I was talking about direforms being perhaps the single greatest foot soldiers in the Cosmere, when @Trusk'our brought up Koloss. So I have a two questions to pose to the community.

1. Which one would you choose as a foot soldier in your army?
2. Who would win in a fight?

 

 

1:

I would choose direforms, because Koloss are idiots. Even if I get them under my control, it can be broken, and it would be impossible to direct every single one to hold a formation on the battlefield.

 

2:

I think that depends what weapons they are fighting with. If they were using something like bare hands or clubs, the Koloss would probably win. If they were using something more skilled like swords or daggers, the direform would win.

[Trusk'our he/him]

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

So on another thread I was talking about direforms being perhaps the single greatest foot soldiers in the Cosmere, when @Trusk'our brought up Koloss. So I have a two questions to pose to the community.

1. Which one would you choose as a foot soldier in your army?
2. Who would win in a fight?

Depends on some stuff, including what Era of Koloss we're talking about.

Era 1 Koloss won't retreat from a fight. They're not psychologically wired for that. Meanwhile enemy armies will often break after only like 20% casualties I think?

They're also pretty dumb, and can be out maneuvered if not directed by an Allomancer or other powerful, intelligent force. Era 2 Koloss are more intelligent, but probably still on the slower side cognitively. 

They can subsist off of basically any biological substance, so keeping them in the field with no supply lines is quite feasible. 

Infections and disease don't appear to be a major issue given how torn up they get and we never hear it slow them down.

You can also create more of them if you have an enemy population, iron to shape into spikes, a potent Emotional Allomancer, and no morals so speak of.

Also, you don't need an Everstorm to create Koloss with spikes. An offworld Koloss force could create more in the field, but more Direforms likely would have to be converted from Singers on Roshar.

 

Direforms are very likely more Invested, and have full carapace armor.

They have minds more intact and can use their own agency to occupy captured territory without you needing to worry about them simply destroying it all.

They're also not going to get mind controlled, though given how Elend and Vin couldn't do this to a Koloss army untol the controlling Inquisitor was killed (at least as a whole. They got a few beforehand by causing enough emotional turmoil in them) I think this is much less of an issue than typically assumed. Unless you're going up against a Shard or something and don't have your own to back you up.

 

I'd probably choose Koloss for an army, but I don't know how they'd compare to a Direform 1 v 1. Probably weaker, but they're easier to get in large numbers and replace, easier to field, and easier to force into meat-grinder tactics.

[Frustration]

In a comparison I'd say intellect is obviously on the side of the direform. As is defense as they basically wear the equivalent of steel armor at all times, while also having feet strong enough to be immune to caltrops with intense heat and cold resistance.

Strength is an interesting one as koloss start similar to humans, at least similar enough that Elend was able to kill a small one. However they get bigger and stronger. They only have four spikes but with hemalurgic construction they might end up more than five times as strong as a person.

Direforms on the other hand are Singers. We know that warforms are much stronger than a normal human, possibly 2-3 times as strong. We also know that most regals are stronger than that, with Direforms being even noticeably stronger than even some already strong regals like storm forms. I'd say they'd be around 4-6 times stronger than a human.

That would put them at about the same strength maybe slightly leaning towards the direform as Rosharan humans are larger and therefore slightly stronger than Scadrian humans.

Both can be made rather obedient, with direform psychology making them more dogmatically loyal to their leaders even than other regal forms. Koloss however can be directly controlled, however this is also a potential weakness as someone else could take control of them. Additionally as we saw in HoA if Koloss are attacked and they can't fight back they will simply start killing each other even if someone is controlling them.

One undisputable advantage Koloss have is that they can survive on literal dirt if they have to. While if warform is anything to go by Direform will need a lot of food.

 

I'd take direform for both, the few advantages koloss have I don't think make up for the fact that in every other way direforms strictly outclass them.

[alder24]

23 hours ago, Frustration said:

So on another thread I was talking about direforms being perhaps the single greatest foot soldiers in the Cosmere, when @Trusk'our brought up Koloss. So I have a two questions to pose to the community.

1. Which one would you choose as a foot soldier in your army?
2. Who would win in a fight?

Direform are intelligent, naturally armored and quite strong, comparably so to Koloss. Koloss are massive, intimidating and swing huge lumps of iron. While the Direform numbers are limited by available spren, you can create as many Koloss as you want, but they have a tendency to start killing each other, which isn't ideal.

Still, quantity is a quality of its own so in my army I would rather have Koloss simply because I can outnumber any enemy by a vast margin and overwhelm them. Koloss are also easy to control with Allomancy, so they will follow me commands just as I want them to and won't betray me. They are also super easy to replace, just reuse spikes from the fallen ones, and they don't need any supplies so any logistical restraints are just out of the window. Additionally, an army of Koloss is just terrifying, which would devastate the morale of my enemy and could force them to surrender without any fight.

But in a 1 on 1 fight, Direform would most likely win, simply because they are smart and intelligent unlike Koloss. Their armor probably wouldn't help that much if they were to get hit by Koloss' giant club of iron (blunt internal damage), but Eland had no powers and still killed one of them, Direform would have a much easier job.

[Nitpicking]

Koloss (Era 1) are only easy to replace if you have an unlimited supply of humans to put the spikes in. Also, hemalurgy is hard, you have to place each spike precisely, twice, IIRC (once in a victim to charge it, once in a second victim to use it).

[Trusk'our he/him]

34 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

Also, hemalurgy is hard, you have to place each spike precisely, twice, IIRC (once in a victim to charge it, once in a second victim to use it).

Once you know how it's not hard.

Independent Koloss from Era 1 can do it, and they're absolute meatheads.

On 6/12/2026 at 4:40 PM, Frustration said:

Both can be made rather obedient, with direform psychology making them more dogmatically loyal to their leaders even than other regal forms. Koloss however can be directly controlled, however this is also a potential weakness as someone else could take control of them. 

I suppose that's true, but I think they'd still feel a broader range of "human" emotions that would eventually lead to them breaking with sufficient losses.

Unless we're also comparing to Era 2 Koloss, in which case their craziness advantage probably goes away.

On 6/12/2026 at 4:40 PM, Frustration said:

That would put them at about the same strength maybe slightly leaning towards the direform as Rosharan humans are larger and therefore slightly stronger than Scadrian humans.

Why not use Rosharan humans to build your Koloss? Or transform Singers in Warform or Direform to become elite Koloss brutes?

[Frustration]

58 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Why not use Rosharan humans to build your Koloss? Or transform Singers in Warform or Direform to become elite Koloss brutes?

Possibly, but Scadrian humans are good comparisons to the standard cosmere humans, so on an average they'd work there.

That also assumes that singers can be made into Koloss which we can't be sure of yet.