Warclones are the player faction of EVE Vanguard, and they are what makes the game's core fantasy work: technologically immortal mercenaries who can die on the battlefield and come straight back. The Warclones are infomorphs — their consciousness lives inside neural implants rather than flesh — so when one expendable body falls, that mind is transferred into another and redeployed. Collectively, the Warclones fighting under the Avalon banner are called the Vanguard.
You play as a Warclone. Every deployment drops you onto a hostile planet in New Eden to raid, fight, and extract, and because the Warclones cheat death, the story treats the Warclones as a genuine threat to the established order rather than as disposable troops.
Immortality through cloning
A Warclone is an infomorph: a digitized mind stored in neural implants instead of being bound to a single body. When your current body is destroyed on the surface, Warclone technology transfers that stored consciousness into a fresh clone and puts it back into the fight. Death becomes a setback rather than an ending, which is exactly why the powers of New Eden fear the Warclones so much. No wall or lockdown stops an enemy who respawns.
On a deployment you inhabit one Warclone suit at a time. There are no separate named classes or frames to choose between — just you, the body you are wearing, and the loadout you brought down from orbit.
Where the Warclones came from
The technology behind the Warclones traces back to the Amarr Empire, which originated it through its Templar program. That research later reached the Deathless Circle, a coalition of pirates and criminals operating out of the shrouded system of Zarzakh and led by The Deathless. The Deathless Circle refined Warclone cloning and recruited the Vanguard — the first Warclones — as its immortal soldiers.
For more on the science and the criminals who weaponized it, see the Deathless Circle.
Rebellion in Operation Avalon
Operation Avalon is the moment the Warclones stop taking orders. In the alpha's story the Vanguard breaks away from the Deathless Circle and seizes the Avalon flotilla, a wandering command base, for itself. That rebellion puts the Warclones in the crosshairs of AEGIS, the EDENCOM command group that regards the immortal Vanguard as an existential threat to New Eden and publicly condemned the operation.
Free of their creators, the Warclones now raid the Upwell Consortium's salvage sites and convoys for their own profit, with Mordu's Legion hired to gun the Warclones down.
Playing as a Warclone
Every deployment follows the same loop for the Warclones: drop from space onto the planet, raid crash and dig sites, seize advanced tech or mine ore, then reach a Harmonic Bridge and extract before the defenses overwhelm you. You can deploy with a squad of up to three Warclones, and any death simply cycles you into another body until the mission ends, because Warclones are never truly out of the fight.
Between runs you return to the Warbarge to set loadouts, craft gear, and procure equipment for the next drop. The Warclones and their Avalon flotilla are also the ground-level half of the game's link to EVE Online — see the EVE Online connection for how planetside raids ripple out into the larger universe.
Frequently asked questions
What are Warclones in EVE Vanguard?
Warclones are the player faction: technologically immortal mercenaries whose consciousness is stored in neural implants and transferred between expendable bodies. When a Warclone dies, that mind is redeployed into a new clone, so the fighter returns instead of being permanently lost.
Are the Warclones and the Vanguard the same thing?
Yes. The Vanguard is the collective name for the Warclones who fight under the Avalon banner after breaking from the Deathless Circle. Individually you are a Warclone; together the force is the Vanguard, hunted by AEGIS across New Eden.