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.

[BinarySecond]

On 6/14/2026 at 3:40 PM, Trusk'our said:

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

That's a very interesting question - Using the same Hemalurgic method but on differently invested worlds...Identical result or would there be variance?

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, BinarySecond said:

That's a very interesting question - Using the same Hemalurgic method but on differently invested worlds...Identical result or would there be variance?

There's some variation in Koloss output based on the host's attributes. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e7707

Brandon Sanderson

Human's Origin

Human is a very special koloss. He's quite a bit older than most, his creation running all the way back to before the Lord Ruler's death. He was originally the leader of a rebellion out in the southeast—the same area where Clubs spent his youth fighting. Human, then known as Vershad, was one of the more successful leaders of the wasted men—those who live out in the desert outside the borders of the Final Empire, but come in to raid and steal supplies from outlying villages.

Charismatic and intelligent, he managed to keep his band alive even once the Lord Ruler turned his attention on them. Rather than ravaging villages, Vershad would convert them—quietly, carefully—to his side and get them to give him supplies. In turn, he would "raid" them and destroy the lords' mansions, causing chaos and letting the people get a sideways revenge against their masters. In the chaos, it would be assumed that the raiders got away with the skaa food, and it would be replenished.

The Lord Ruler tired of such games and eventually sent his koloss against Vershad and his men. As clever as they were, they weren't able to stand against a well-laid betrayal and ambush set by an Inquisitor—one who controlled a troop of koloss. The raiders were slaughtered, and Vershad himself was turned into a koloss for his crimes.

He retained enough of his determination and his intelligence, however, to make a remarkably clever koloss. (There is some variety to koloss, based on who they were before the transformation.)

 

[BinarySecond]

Thank you That's very interesting!

[Frustration]

I remembered that there is one other high level foot soldier that we have seen in the cosmere, Kalad's phantoms.

 

Being made of stone they're probably the most durable of them all, while also having superior strength and speed to a human, but likely less than Koloss or Direforms.

 

I'd still probably go with direforms for a foot soldier, but I think phantoms may win a 1v1, depending on what weapon the other was using, and how much the bone needs to deform before the phantom stops working.

[BinarySecond]

We need an invested soldier bracket. I have been confusing Direforms for Magnified Ones (Yazed-im).

I do wonder regarding the logistics of the creation of a 1xKalad's Phantom vs 1xKoloss vs 1xRegal

So when it comes to fielding an army the speed at which numbers can be accrued and the associated investiture cost is something I would consider.

Shashara developed single breath awakening which was used to create the Phantom's - But I'm quite sceptical by the written prose that a Phantom would only take a single breath.

Happy to read anything that gives a clearer answer as to the cost. But could range from 50:1 (pre Manywar cost) to 1:1.

It does seem that the creation of a Phantom is going to be very involved. Clean skeleton, encased in stone which doesn't seem all that quick! I would really love to read Vasher's notebooks from his time developing them.

You could acquire the breath from a person and then use them to make the lifeless so that would go some way to limiting the external costs for creation.

Koloss is a 4:1 but it's rapid. I envisage a stacked table like the hemurgic poster so you can create the spikes and place them immediately. 

 

I don't think there's any opportunity cost for a Regal, nothing has to be sacrificed to create a single soldier in the same way you would a Koloss or Lifeless.

In terms of timing you need a Highstorm (or at least you did) - You get a spike (hehe) in production every storm.

 

Account for no shardic intervention I think I would choose Regals, and if pressed Direforms.

 

Edited 18 hours ago by BinarySecond

[Trusk'our he/him]

47 minutes ago, BinarySecond said:

We need an invested soldier bracket. I have been confusing Direforms for Magnified Ones (Yazed-im).

I do wonder regarding the logistics of the creation of a 1xKalad's Phantom vs 1xKoloss vs 1xRegal

So when it comes to fielding an army the speed at which numbers can be accrued and the associated investiture cost is something I would consider.

Shashara developed single breath awakening which was used to create the Phantom's - But I'm quite sceptical by the written prose that a Phantom would only take a single breath.

Happy to read anything that gives a clearer answer as to the cost. But could range from 50:1 (pre Manywar cost) to 1:1.

It does seem that the creation of a Phantom is going to be very involved. Clean skeleton, encased in stone which doesn't seem all that quick! I would really love to read Vasher's notebooks from his time developing them.

You could acquire the breath from a person and then use them to make the lifeless so that would go some way to limiting the external costs for creation.

I believe Awakening skeletons actually takes upwards of a 100 Breaths if I'm remembering the scene where Vasher explains Awakening to Vivenna correctly. 

It's 1 Breath Lifeless that were the big thing.

Edited 17 hours ago by Trusk'our

[BinarySecond]

Yes you're absolutely right!

Found this elsewhere on the site after a quick search.

The investment (ha) to create a Phantom is steep indeed.

[alder24]

On 6/16/2026 at 3:31 PM, Frustration said:

I remembered that there is one other high level foot soldier that we have seen in the cosmere, Kalad's phantoms.

 

Being made of stone they're probably the most durable of them all, while also having superior strength and speed to a human, but likely less than Koloss or Direforms.

 

I'd still probably go with direforms for a foot soldier, but I think phantoms may win a 1v1, depending on what weapon the other was using, and how much the bone needs to deform before the phantom stops working.

I would argue that Phantoms are tougher and stronger even than a Direform, or at least have a potential to be stronger if you pump more Breaths into them. Kalad's Phantoms are a two-stage Awakened entity; first you Awaken bones into Lifeless, then you Awaken stone with Breaths to act as a sinew (WoB). Put more Breaths into the second stage, you might get a stronger Phantom. Still, they are made out of stone, which on their own is very strong and depending on the type of stone used, you might make them even tougher. Colors, who said Phantoms have to be made out of stone, cast them out of steel and none could compete against them. And even if a bone were to break due to blunt damage, it's still encased in a stone and stuck in the same place, so it can still function as intended. It is very hard to harm them. Both Direforms and Koloss are flesh and bones, they bleed and die. 

That's why I believe Phantoms can outclass both Direforms and Koloss and will certainly win against both of them in a 1v1 duel, even the original Vasher's Phantom would win.  

But when it comes to the army, I'm still a firm believer of quantity over quality and analyzing all units from a logistical standpoint. Direforms put the most strain on logistics as you need to feed them, heal them, supply them, provide Voidlight and all other things that come with being a fairly normal living being. Koloss and Phantoms have none of those issues, with Phantoms being literal dead bones, the only supplies they need are Breaths, bones and stone/metal when you Awaken them. Their weapons can break, so at minimum you need to supply them with new ones, but they can always pick up weapons of their fallen enemies or use stone fists. Koloss are very similar, they can live off the dirt and ash, they just need small iron spikes and iron swords, that's it. Napoleon said "amateurs discuss tactics, the professionals discuss logistics" - an army that requires next to no logistics can be vastly superior than then one that needs a complicated supply chain. In that regard Koloss and Phantoms win by a lot. 

However, Phantoms are extremely expensive to make. You need to invest at least 50 Breaths in each soldier, which makes them too costly to deploy effectively as an army. A small force of Phantoms would be nearly indestructible against conventional means, but they can be only at one place at the time. 300,000 Koloss can be everywhere at once and constantly grow in numbers - good luck stopping that. That's why, when it comes to the army, Koloss still are the best choice.

But why make an army out of only Koloss or only Direforms or only Phantoms? Use all of them at once. Differentiate their weapons (pikes, shields, slingshots, warbows), make Koloss-horses or Phantom-horses and create cavalry, give them armor, use artillery to fulfill your need for art. A small number of Phantoms can act as an elite core heavy infantry or heavy shock cavalry (you can Awaken Phantom-horses), Koloss can fill the ranks of a typical infantry at the center of your army and cavalry at the flanks. Put Direform's intelligence into use and make them into officers to command units composed out of Koloss or Phantoms. Make quick response units out of Direforms or use them as a reserve force. Direforms and Phantoms can be also used as skirmishers and ranged units (not Koloss, their bloodlust would make them bad at this). Employ Direform Awakeners as artillery engineers. Direforms would also be good scouts compared to others. 

If that's not allowed, become a monster and choose Koloss for your army.