The second-generation Tiberium refinery, used by GDI, Nod and CABAL during the Second Tiberium War and the Firestorm Conflict, was a facility that refined harvested Tiberium and extracted the raw material from the crystals for processing and later manufacturing of vehicles and weapons for infantry. The process is hazardous to humans, and only qualified workers wearing hazmat suits were permitted in the facility.
Unlike the refineries from the First Tiberium War that used to centrifuge the minerals first, the redesigned successors were forced to melt Tiberium in order to process it further due to the crystals' changes between the two wars.
Refineries continued to be fielded by both armies following the Firestorm Conflict, but returned to centrifuging Tiberium like in the First Tiberium War.
Game building[]
The Tiberium refinery functions as a drop off point for harvesters, it is one of the basic structures for GDI or Nod to build a battle base. It provides access to build their respective walls, gates, Tiberium silos, defenses (component tower for GDI and laser turret for Nod), war factories, radar stations and pavement. The structure is large, but fragile. When it is destroyed, it will leave Tiberium behind.
Notes[]
As one harvester costs $1400 to build from the war factory, the refinery building itself should have a fair value of $600. However, if the refinery is sold, the owner will get $1000 ($2000 list price divided by 2) from the building and the harvester will be kept. Thus, a player can repeat the process for a modest economic benefit (saves $400 for each harvester) at the opportunity cost of occupying the construction queue.While this issue is not significant enough to affect overall game balance, it is recitified in Red Alert 2.
Trivia[]
Certain animations were disabled for unknown reasons. For instance, when a harvester detaches its container, it was supposed to be seen entering the refinery instead of simply popping on and off the harvester.