Metal Extractor

Mines metal from a deposit. Your economy lives here.

BuildingEconomyTier 1Structure

Stats

Tier: Tier 1
Cost: 120 metal
Build time: 10 s
Hit points: 600
Armor: Structure
Vision: 5 tiles
Footprint: 2×2 tiles
Power: −4
Mining: +1.4 metal/s
Weapons: Unarmed
Upgrade: 240 metal · 16 s

▸Must be placed on a metal deposit

Production and tech

Built by

Engineer

Upgrades to

Advanced Extractor

Counters

Effective against

—

Countered by

Thunder Howitzer Tempest MLRS Sovereign Battleship

Vulture Bomber

Overview

The Metal Extractor mines a deposit and is the only source of metal in the game. There is no storage cap and no other income: your economy is exactly the number of extractors you keep alive.

How to use

Claim every deposit you can reach and drive on the enemy's. Each extractor drains a little power, so a Power Plant per two or three keeps the grid green. Upgrade to the Advanced Extractor when a deposit is safe and you have spare metal: doubling a mine is cheaper than finding a new one. Guard remote extractors with a turret or a patrol; raids on them are how games are lost quietly.

Counters

Raiding buggies, gunboats on coastal deposits, artillery. It has no defenses of its own.