An Excavator is a class of walker constructs established by the Covenant and later used by its remnants. As their name implies, vehicles of this class were used as excavators and mining platforms. Excavators were also used by the Covenant as heavy weapon platforms, mobile bases, and combat engineering vehicles.[1]
The Excavator class encompasses several lines of vehicles, including the Harvesters, Locusts, and the comparatively ubiquitous family of Scarabs. Excavators often make extensive use of Lekgolo, with the worm colonies bound together with the vehicle's control systems. The Lekgolo were rarely given complete control of an Excavator, and a supervising Covenant officer and military personnel usually accompany the vehicle.[1] The Lekgolo meta-colonies that operate Harvesters from within are known as the Sbaolekgolo.[2]
Tiers
All Excavators were organized by the Covenant into several tiers, each one indicating a walker's size, excavating efficacy, and delicacy. Nine tiers of Excavators are noted in records that survived the Covenant Empire's collapse in 2552, though humanity has only encountered three as of 2558.[1]
- Tier-one: Shua'ee-pattern Locusts are designated as tier-one Excavators,[1] designed primarily as offensive tools with no apparent Lekgolo operators.[3]
- Tier-four: All members of the Scarab "family"—including the Type-29, Sumda'te-pattern, Protos-pattern, and Deutoros-pattern — are classified as tier-four Excavators,[1] often deployed as mining platforms or assault vehicles.[3]
- Tier-five: Za'zayara-pattern Harvesters are tier-five Excavators utilized during large-scale excavations.[2]
Production notes
An additional excavator walker was prototyped for inclusion in Halo 5: Guardians, as a central focus of the cut level "Reef City".[4]
List of appearances
Sources
- ^ a b c d e Halo Waypoint: Scarab
- ^ a b Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide, page 130
- ^ a b Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition), pages 254-255 (2011)
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "Wish I still had in-game footage of it because a LOT of work was done on animating it destroying parts of the city. I don’t even have the animated stub in work I did or footage of how you fight it :-( Goodnight, sweet Tyrant." (Retrieved on Oct 28, 2023) [archive]
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