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 other at variable rate (yeilding 1 resource) .
Upgrades:	Fast Ordering (Quantom 2), Gamma Radiation (Mutagen-3), Volatile Reactors (Mutagen-1)

"Oh God, they're suckin' up the civies!" -anonymous Marine.

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

General

Unlike Novus and the Masari, who's 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 the civilians themselves.

The Reaper Drone is for all intents and purposes a mobile teleporter, 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 it's 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 Drones 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.

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 on the first tutorial mission, performing their standard task of beaming up any resource they come across, including screaming civilians. They are first used during the second Hierarchy mission where they are used to harvest a large amount of "lucrative" cattle.

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 harvested 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 metal or by harvesting the aforementioned instantly harvested items.

Special Abilities

Auto-Gather On/Off
Effect: Toggles between having the Reaper seek out resources on its own or stand still and harvest 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

Triva and Tips

• Reaper Drones do not prioritize "instagrabs" over standard resource piles. Micromanagement is necessary 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 the mother ship 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.