Harvester/NPC

General
Alien Harvesters, or known more simply as Harvesters, are Alien capital ships, introduced in the very first Alien Decimation event. They are extremely lethal and tough to destroy.

These ships have a whale-like shape, and are armed to the teeth with extremely powerful weapons and squadrons. It may also unleash a powerful Surge Core I that is triggered upon reaching certain health thresholds. The player-obtainable variant uses the level II version of the overdrive instead.

The generic Alien Harvester is very devastating at close range but also has decent long-range capability.

The Barrage and Reaper Harvester variants are modeled after the Barrage Hive and Alien Reaper respectively, with similar but much more powerful capabilities.

Geir's Fortress contains an "elite" Alien Harvester guard that was in fact extremely weak and could be defeated by a single Covenant Cruiser (no longer possible after the AI change). It is considered to be a cross between the Barrage and Reaper Harvesters, with mainly long-range weaponry and high forward speed.

Strategy
All Alien Harvesters have extremely long range and cannot be kited effectively. That leaves no choice but to rush in, hopefully taking them out before your fleet is destroyed.

Squadrons are not very effective unless they can survive the Surge Core. Nevertheless, carriers provide some distraction even when put far behind front lines and can support your ships using the Agility Field. On the flip side, squadron protection is absolutely necessary as the Alien Harvester's squadrons deal a lot of damage if left unchecked.

It is recommended that you master tactics used to defeat weaker fleets of the particular Harvester variant (Barrage or Reaper) before taking on this ship, as it is considered as a boss target and therefore much more powerful.

Trivia

 * It is one of the largest ships in the game.
 * In Geir's Fortress, players are able to see that the Alien Harvester indeed does have a 360-degree firing arc.
 * The Harvester received an AI change which caused them to maintain their distance at long range instead of charging headlong into enemy fleets. In addition, they no longer ignore Alien Mines.