Reaper Drone

Reaper Drone
Affiliation:	The Hierarchy
Type:	Resource Harvesting Walker, Light walker
Health:	950
Armor:	Alien Reaper
Movement Type:	Walker
Speed:	1.3
Sight Range:	220
Cost:	1200RM
Time:	0:35
Popcap:	3 (build cap of 7)
Produced From:	Glyph Carver (requires Arrival Site)
Special Ability:	Harvest Resoruces, Auto-gather on/off
Weapon:	Abduction Beam
Damage:	Gathers resources at a rate of 18 per second, drains health from infantry at 10% per 2 seconds (yeilding 2 resources), drains health from others at variable rate (yeilding 1 resource) .
Upgrades:	Fast Ordering (Quantom 2), Gamma Radiation (Mutagen-3), Volatile Reactors (Mutagen-1)

"Our intel shows those alien things suck'n up civies with some kind of walking unit [...]" -General Moore

The Reaper Drone is the Hierarchy's resource collection unit.

General

For all intents and purposes, the Reaper Drone is a mobile teleporter for breaking down materials (organic or not) and beaming them up to orbiting supply ships. Each Reaper Drone possesses a limited AI that will allow it to wander about on its own to collect resources, but it is not intelligent enough to distinguish between valuable, easy to break down resources (such as cows) or more difficult to break down objects such as scrap metal or structures. The Reaper Drone's beam may also be used as a light anti-ground weapon, dealing damage over time and eventually sucking the object into the Reaper to be teleported to the command ship.

Unlike Novus and the Masari, whose resource collectors are stationary, the Hierarchy's Reaper Drones are able to wander about the map, collecting raw materials from Civilian Structures, vehicles, and even civilians themselves.

Campaign

Reaper Drones harvesting Cattle.

"Send Reaper Drones, but make sure they have backup!" -Orlok the Eternal

Naturally, being a resource harvester means the Reaper Drone is encountered in practically every mission involving a Hierarchy Base. They are first met in Washington D.C., performing their standard task of beaming up any resource they come across (including screaming civilians) and acting as light vehicles against Colonal Moore's task force. More Reaper Drones are seen in the Midwest harvesting cattle and civilians that wander too close and in Eastern Siberia harvesting civilian infrastructure. Reapers in turn are first used during the second Hierarchy mission where they are called down by Orlok to harvest a large amount of "lucrative" cattle. Later on, a single Reaper Drone is brought along with the Purifier to harvest the local wildlife (cows) and scrap as the task force made its way to Nufai's base.

Tactical Application

The Reaper Drone will collect resources automatically once it lands, but in order to maximize its harvesting potential it should be manually controlled to gather certain objects (such as cars, telephone poles, electric poles, humans, and especially cows) that are instantly broken down for a large resource gain. By default, the Reaper will collect resources at the rate of 18 per second, but this may be upgraded with a certain metal unlocked via multiplayer or by harvesting the aforementioned instantly harvested items.

If needed, the Reaper Drone can also be used as a light vehicle in assaults or for crushing light infantry, particularly useful as the only other Hierarchy unit that can do so is the research locked Brute. Reaper Drones have rather low health for their cost, however, and should a Hierarchy player lose one, not only are the resources it took to construct Drone wasted, but also the resources that the drone would have been collecting, so it is advisable to use them only if it is absolutely necessary or if resources are available to replace them.

Special Abilities

Auto-Gather On/Off
Effect: Toggles between having the Reaper seek out resources on its own or standing still and harvesting whatever happens to be nearby.
Cooldown: None

Upgrades

Fast Ordering
Effect: Glyphs carve 25% faster
Method: Research Quantum Branch Suite 2

Volatile Reactors
Effect: Creates radioactive cloud when destroyed
Method: Research Mutagen Branch Suite 1

Gamma Radiation
Effect: Upgrades the radiation damage of the Volatile Reactor Upgrade. Method: Research Mutagen Branch Suite 2

See Also

• Recycling Center
• Matter Engine

Triva and Tips

• Reaper Drones do not prioritize "instagrabs" over standard resource piles. Micromanagement is key to maximize resource gain.
• It is occasionally a good idea to toggle Reaper Drones to not move if they are in an area that humans tend to run through. With auto-harvest off, they will simply grab whatever happens to be nearby.
• Amusingly, Reaper Drones do not set off a Matter Engine's death explosion if they destroy one, making them ideal as "bomb squads".
• Unlike the other factions resource collection structures, Reaper Drones don't actually transform the things they collect into raw materials. Instead, they beam the various objects directly to orbiting ships so they can be processed.
• Curiously, Reaper Drones are seen gathering rubbish on board a Hierarchy command ship, perhaps being used to teleport wreckage about the various parts of the ship or to load the processor systems.
• According to some unused coding, the Reaper Drone was originally designed as a more conventional "harvester" type unit that would go out and bring resources back to a Material Uplink structure. Once at the structure, they would move to the center of the structure, deploy (somewhat like the Detection Drone), and beam up materials. While this method was cut, the Reaper still has the animations for this and it is referenced to in the third Novus mission where one picks up a piece of the home portal. This is also the reason Reaper Drones do not have a beam up effect despite having a large teleport dish, as the animations have no trigger.