This is the first of several articles that will detail the alien spacecraft you will be engaging in mortal combat in our new game, Decimation. We will start with the smallest one: the Harvester.

As the name implies, these agile ships do not attempt to directly engage the player's ship, but instead target nearby asteroids and mine the valuable minerals contained within. Harvesters will fly up to an asteroid and begin shooting it with their mining lasers. Once a crystal is released from this action, they will scoop it up and continue mining for more crystals.

Due to their small size, harvesters have limited cargo capacity, and once a Harvester has collected four crystals, they will zip back to the nearest capital ship and unload their valuable cargo. A player can follow and destroy a Harvester when it is en-route to a capital ship to release all the crystals it has collected. This is a great way for the player to boost their crystal collecting with minimal effort, allowing them to replenish shields and build more bombs quickly for their next bombing run on the armada ships.

Although most of the harvesters deployed will flit about the asteroid fields happily mining their crystals, you'll find an occasional harvester will take special interest in the player, circling nearby and waiting to swoop in and steal crystals out from under their nose! These Harvesters can be very annoying, but a well-timed missile on a full harvester can be a welcome crystal boon.

I hope you'll check back regularly as we continue to write about the various features and enemies of our upcoming game: Decimation!