The [PRO] Harvester is an Epic Forbidden Tech, a prototype artifact you slot onto a Survey ship. Its headline effect is a large Mining Speed boost, backed by buffs that grow your cargo hold, protect what you mine, and add bonus crystal, gas, and ore to every haul. It does one job: turning a dedicated miner into a much richer one. Chase it if mining income matters to your account.
What the Harvester does
Every buff on this piece applies to Surveys, the game’s mining ship class. The cargo buff is active from the start, and the other three switch on as you tier the piece up. Once a buff has unlocked, its value climbs with the item’s level.
| Buff | Unlocks at tier | Unlock value | Max value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Max Cargo for Surveys | Tier 1 | 30% | 350% |
| Base Protected Cargo for Surveys | Tier 3 | 100% | 1250% |
| Base Mining Speed for Surveys | Tier 6 | 150% | 1500% |
| Bonus Crystal, Gas, and Ore mined with a Survey | Tier 8 | 2% | 25% |
In play, a fully built Harvester lets a Survey haul far more per trip, keep more of it safe from raiders, and finish nodes faster while skimming extra raw materials off every mine. All four numbers reflect the current game data and shift if the game rebalances them.
How to get the Harvester
This is an Epic Forbidden Tech, so you unlock it with Epic Forbidden Fragments in the Forbidden Tech refinery. You earn more Fragments through Q’s Trials and special rewards. Before you can equip any Forbidden Tech you also need a free slot on the ship, which you open with Forbidden Tech Fusion Rods; the same Rods let you pull a piece back off a ship later. Fusion Rods come from the Forbidden Tech refinery and the Store. If you build up spare Forbidden Tech parts, you can exchange the resulting Forbidden Tech Credit Pieces for Forbidden Tech Credits in the refinery.
Upgrading the Harvester
Two tracks raise the piece. Tiering up with Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalysts raises the level cap and switches on the later buffs at the tiers shown above, while leveling up with Prototype Tech Protomatter scales the values between those caps. Upgrade attempts also draw on Forbidden Tech Reactors, and Probability Devices raise your upgrade chances.
| Tier | Level cap | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 5 | Starting tier, no cost |
| Tier 7 | 35 | 4,000 Rare Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
| Tier 12 | 60 | 4,125 Epic Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
Reaching max tier costs 24,800 Rare Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst and 9,075 Epic Prototype Tech Tier-Up Catalyst in total. Taking it from level 2 to level 60 costs 815,050 Epic Prototype Tech Protomatter and 368,000 Rare Prototype Tech Protomatter.
Best ships and uses for the Harvester
This is a mining piece, and every buff is written “for Surveys,” so it belongs on your main mining ship and nowhere else. The value grows the more you mine: bigger loads mean fewer trips, protected cargo means less lost to raiders who catch you at a node, and the bonus crystal, gas, and ore add free yield on top of your normal haul. If you rarely send a Survey out, the Harvester does nothing for the rest of your fleet, since none of its buffs touch combat or non-mining ships.
The Harvester in Star Trek
The Harvester is a game-original piece rather than a named artifact from the shows or films, and its story lives in its in-game flavor text. That text describes a genetically engineered pathogen built as a mass-destruction weapon, designed to rewrite a host’s genes and wipe out a planet’s population. When the two factions that fielded it made peace, the weapon proved too perfect to safely destroy, and the Federation was brought in to contain it. The doctor credited with the fix is Julian Bashir, chief medical officer of Deep Space 9, whose canon record includes untangling exactly this kind of engineered plague. The game leans on that reputation without adapting a specific episode.
Is the Harvester worth it?
If you run Surveys hard and treat mining as real income, the Harvester is a strong pickup: the cargo, protection, and speed buffs stack into a much bigger haul per trip. Take it as far as your Prototype Tech materials allow, since the largest values only land at high tier and level. Players who barely mine can skip it without missing anything.