Mechband antenna

A mechband antenna is a building added by the Biotech DLC that allows a mechanitor to summon the war queen.

Acquisition[edit]

Mechband antennas can be constructed once the standard mechtech research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a signal chip to unlock. Each requires 50 Steel, 4 Components and 8,000 ticks (2.22 mins) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder.

Summary[edit]

A mechband antenna can be activated by a mechanitor to summon the hostile war queen, which will drop a powerfocus chip when defeated. This destroys the antenna, turning it into 2-4 steel slag chunks.

It cannot be used in the time between another mechanoid boss being summoned and that boss arriving. In addition, there is a 2 day cooldown between summoning any mech boss, regardless of when the mechs actually arrive.

Summoning[edit]

Each time an antenna is activated, the number of mechanoids escorting the war queen increases.^[Detail]

1x War queen with heavy shield unit, 5x pikeman, 2x scyther
1x War queen with heavy shield unit, 7x militor, 2x centipede (burner)
1x War queen with heavy shield unit, 5x pikeman, 2x tesseron, 3x tunneler
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 8x militor, 4x lancer, 2x centipede (burner)
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 5x pikeman, 5x lancer, 3x legionary, 3x centipede (burner)
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 14x scyther, 4x centipede (burner), 1x centurion
2x War queen with heavy shield unit, 8x centipede (burner), 18x scorcher
3x War queen with heavy shield unit, 6x scyther, 6x lancer, 3x legionary, 8x centipede (burner), 1x centurion

Like the other mechanoid bosses, after being summoned 8 times, the next summon will be the same as wave 3. The wave count is per playthrough, not per colony or map.^{[Archonexus?]} If the war queen is summoned once on one map, summoning another on a second map will bring the second wave.

Analysis[edit]

Main article: War queen#Analysis

Build a mechband antenna when you are ready to fight the war queen.

In terms of actual cost, the war queen arrives with 600 steel worth of war urchins, its allies can also be shredded, and the antenna itself drops a few steel slag chunks to smelt. This results in the antenna being a complete positive in resources once Fabrication is available. Even when you can't fabricate components, the cost of an antenna is quite small for what a powerfocus chip and its research gets you.