Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought

### Details

The Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought is a Dreadnought-class ship created by the Varcon to harvest Thermanite, a resource specific to the place Commander bishop travels to in mission 10. This boss has a total of 5 stages, and is very difficult to fight against if inexperienced. This ship's appearance resembles somewhat of a scorpion and is metallic like all the other bosses. This ship has a total of 7 attacks, which are; shotgun laser blasts, missiles (homing in stage 1, and unguided in stage 2), scorpion tail blaster, orange splitting orbs (identical to the ones used by the mission 5 boss), green splitting orbs, and a mega-saw transformation.

### Stage 1

The first stage of the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought is fairly simple, consisting of an attack of double volley homing missiles and shotgun laser blasts. The goal is to destroy the two weapons that shoot the shotgun blasts and the head of the ship that shoots the double homing missile volleys. The two outer weapons both have visible cracks after being destroyed enough, however when the head is destroyed, it is entirely gone and stage 2 begins.

### Stage 2

The double shotgun blasters switch from pointing towards the player to making some sort of wings, which reveal the unguided missile volleys that fire full force for a couple shots, then alternate between wings firing a 3 volley attack. The scorpion tail in this stage now folds upwards and forwards and starts blasting lasers like an automatic cannon rather than a shotgun like in stage 1. Stage 2 is relatively short, as the wings do not last long before being completely destroyed by your weapons and stage 3 is activated. Overall, this stage is meant to be short due to its powerful missile volleys and the scorpion tail blaster.

### Stage 3

After a short dialogue from the Varcon commander after stage 2 is defeated, stage 3 activates and uses only 1 attack, the orange splitting orbs. This orbs are identical to the ones shot by the Varcon ship of war in mission 5, slowing down after being shot out of the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought, and then splitting into 4 orbs and rapidly approaching where the player currently is. This stage is defeated when all 6 of the legs on the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought are destroyed, which activates stage 4.

### Stage 4

Similar to stage 3, stage 4 only has one attack, this time it is the green splitting orbs, which are fired in volleys of 10 towards the player, and split into 4 lasers that shoot outwards in an x shape. These green splitting orbs fire towards where the player currently is, and then they split up into 4 lasers after some time has passed. In this stage, the target to destroy is the scorpion tail, which surprisingly doesn't attack the player, despite it still having a functioning laser cannon. Stage 4 is defeated when the scorpion tail is destroyed, in which it disappears in an explosion completely, and stage 5 activates shortly after.

### Stage 5

Stage 5 is the 5th and final (and arguably one of the hardest) stages of the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought. This time, we see the 6 legs of the ship change position from a sort of leg position, into a position where they are all symmetrically aligned and evenly spaced out around the ship. This transformation is meant to be in the shape of the Saw enemies, which follow you around and try to ram you. Unlike the saw enemies, the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought saw form is extremely deadly, as it follows you around at high speed and if it rams you, you will most likely be instantly killed. On top of this saw attack, the green splitting orbs from stage 4 remain, and now fire towards the player while the mega-saw is trying to ram you. This stage should be taken seriously, due to the fact that not dodging the mega-saw hard enough will result in you most likely being completely destroyed, or at the very least critically damaged. This stage is very dangerous, however the hp of the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought is low enough that any attacks other than the vulcan cannon can quickly destroy the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought and defeat the boss.

### Trivia

- The boss in mission 2 is a Scorpion class ship, yet the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought looks much more like a scorpion

- Stage 2 is incredibly weak when it comes to hp, but this is most likely due to the fact that the wings or claws of the ship were already damaged in stage 1, so their weakened state makes them vulnerable to attacks

- Despite it looking like it still functions properly, the scorpion tail never fires after stage 2, which makes stage 3 and stage 4 much easier

- The final stage of the Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought is most likely meant to represent a powerful version of the saw enemy, however this is unconfirmed by any official lore or developer announcements

- This boss is named Thermanite Harvester Dreadnought, however when the commander announces the ship's name, he pronounces it as Thermite, rather than Thermanite