Deep-Core Extractor
A deep-core bore yields far more metal from the same deposit.
Stats
- Tier
- Tier 3
- Cost
- 760 metal
- Build time
- 56 s
- Hit points
- 1700
- Armor
- Structure
- Vision
- 6 tiles
- Footprint
- 2×2 tiles
- Power
- −15
- Mining
- +8 metal/s
- Weapons
- Unarmed
- ▸Must be placed on a metal deposit
- ▸Only obtained by upgrading — it cannot be placed directly.
Production and tech
Counters
The last step on the mining line, and the largest one: 8 metal a second from a deposit the Advanced Extractor works at 3 and the first Metal Extractor at 1.4. It cannot be placed — it exists only as a 450-metal, 30-second upgrade on an Advanced Extractor — and it is the only building on the line whose power draw is worth planning for.
How to use
Upgrade the deposits behind your own turret line first. A deep core turns one safe mine into the income of five ordinary ones, so the map matters less than the map you actually hold: a deposit you have to defend at the border is not the one to sink 450 metal into.
Mining runs on the power factor like every other kind of work, and this bore draws 15 — nearly twice the Advanced Extractor. Two or three of them on a grid that was already tight will slow the whole base, mining included, so the plant comes before the bore. Losing one hurts accordingly: it is a bigger hole in the economy than any single extractor before it, and the enemy's raiders can read the sprite as well as you can.