Harvester

A Harvester is a large, heavily armoured vehicle designed specifically for resource collection. It is typically slow moving with a large storage space and unarmed.

The concept of a Harvester has been introduced with the development of mobile base technology that allowed for quick deployment of armed forces worldwide with the use of MCVs that could quickly deploy an entire base. This method necessitated the development of effective resource gathering methods, as the amount of supplies and raw materials that could be delivered to the combat zone was extremely limited. The harvester was the key.

A harvester is designed to harvest whatever raw materials (ore, crystals and Tiberium) it can find and deliver them to a refinery for processing. In the past, because it couldn't drill or mine materials actively it had to rely on specialized mining teams deployed prior to the arrival of the forces, whose task was to set up mining and excavate materials for Harvesters to collect. This stopped being a case with the arrival of Tiberium.

Ore Truck
The first harvesters, which appeared during the Great World War II were enormous dump trucks that collected raw ore with dozer blades at excavation sites and delivered them to ore refineries, where the resource was melted for use in factories. The design was simple, but efficient, and the dump trucks served well throughout the Great World War II.

Ore Trucks were heavily armored as they were often targets of enemy attacks, in fact they were as durable as the mammoth tank itself. They were too difficult for any small arm fire to threaten them. Although cannon and missile fire was still a risk for them. Allied ore trucks were often at risk of being swarmed by T-80 heavy tank or Mammoth tanks. Soviet ore trucks had extreme fear from Light Tanks, Mines, AH-64 Apache helicopters or groups of Rocket infantry.

With the arrival of Tiberium, ore trucks proved to be dangerous and unreliable as they did not shield the user from the fumes.

Tiberium Harvester Mk. I
The Brotherhood of Nod quickly rectified these issues and, revealing itself as a global superpower, instituted new harvesting methods, quickly reaching a staggering 49% stake of the global Tiberium mining market, almost double the size of GDI sponsor countries. The vehicle was quite simple in its construction - a large storage container was mounted to the back of an all terrain truck platform with an isolated driver's cabin. Two large arms below the front ripped crystals out of the pods they grew in and moved them into an opening leading into the container. When full, the container was sealed and delivered to a Tiberium Refinery, where it was unloaded and the harvested Tiberium processed.

Tiberium Harvester Mk. II
As the need to harvest Tiberium in more remote regions became apparent, the harvester design was overhauled, and in 2030 both sides used multi-wheel truck platform with advanced grabbers to pick Tiberium. The truck was sturdier and more boxy, with an easy detachable container mounted on it. Due to the newly discovered Blue Tiberium being highly volatile, some commanders even ordered their harvesters to take a suicide dive into the opponent's base, turning them into makeshift demolition trucks.

Heavy Harvester


"Strength and efficiency!"
 * Heavy Harvester

With the sudden evolution of Tiberium and change of its properties, GDI Steel Talons's division was charged to quickly develop an alternative to avoid an economic crash. The solution was to change the drive system to treads, which contained no organic components for the Tiberium to assimilate. Also, they were bulkier and outfitted with mechanical arms that picked the evolved crystals and upon amassing an appropriate amount they were moved to Refineries, where they were melted and processed. The compartment feature was removed, now the tiberium harvested is packed into large tubes, which can then be quickly retrieved by a crane at the refinery and dropped into the melter. To safeguard these vehicles in a hostile world, both sides upgraded their properties. In accordance to their combat doctrine, which believe that all units should be flexible, the Talons have replaced their harvester's machine guns with a infantry pod. This pod allows infantry to be garrisoned within the Harvester.

Rocket Harvester


"Check the armor!"
 * Rocket Harvester

Exclusive to GDI's Zone Operations Command (or ZOCOM), this Harvester variant has a rocket turret instead of the standard machine gun. The heavier weaponry is considered obligatory in the inhospitable Red Zones, where dangers such as attacking Nod and mutant vehicles forces are ever-present. The rocket also serves as an anti-air weapon.

Machine-Gun Harvester


"GUYS GET THE GUNS GOING!"
 * Harvester

After reviewing the performance of the Heavy Harvester testing by Steel Talon's experimental combat division, GDI officials made the decision that having to assign infantry teams to garrison every harvester was too time-consuming. Instead, they opted for a light machine gun on a flexible mount. This could ward off most infantry attacks, but was vulnerable to tanks. This harvester became the mainstream harvester throughout GDI.

Black Hand Harvester
Under Marcion, the black hand developed a harvester with most of the same features as the GDI's Machine-Gun Harvester. It used treads, and had newer mechanical arms.

Stealth Harvester
"We must gather all we can !"
 * The greedy Nod Harvester

Once Nod regained it's stealth technology. The Black Hand Harvester was upgraded with a portable stealth generator, much like Nod's Stealth tanks. These made Tiberium fields seemingly vanish before one's eyes and made them much more difficult to "harvester hunt". The only major enemy was GDI's CC-6 Pitbulls and the Scrin Seekers which both wielded anti-vehicle weapons and stealth detection.

Scrin Harvester
When the alien Scrin arrived on Earth during the Third Tiberium War, they brought their own harvesting technology with them. Scrin Harvesters, like many of their vehicles, are bio-mechanical constructs that hover and are able to absorb Tiberium through a 'mouth', with the aid of 'claws' to bring the crystal closer. In addition they appear to self-repair where Tiberium is present. There are unconfirmed reports about the harvester creating Ion storms when destroyed.

Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle (MARV)

 * Main article: Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle

"WATCH MY SIX!"
 * MARV

The GDI Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle, or MARV, is a massive vehicle embodying both a Tiberium harvester and a mounted Tiberium processor. It can harvest Tiberium while driving over a tiberium field at a shocking rate. It is also heavily armed and armored making it a difficult target to tackle. The expense, speed, firepower against most units and production time are the only drawbacks that prevent it from becoming standard equipment.

Shielded Harvester
While most Scrin are satisfied with merely keeping their harvesters out of harms way, Reaper-17's aggressive tactics often put its' harvesters in harms way. To minimize losses, Reaper-17 has its' harvesters equipped with a Tripod's energy field generator. Unlike most shielded units, the Shielded Harvester has it's energy generator installed by default, without any need to upgrade it.