The Maw remembers.

Update 1.2 · The Maw Remembers (in development)

The Harvester Swarm is not mindless. Behind every wave sits the Null Maw, and in update 1.2 it starts keeping score. The lieutenants that survive your fire come back as named Harvester Warlords, each with its own face, its own war record and its own way of hunting.

Burn one with the laser and it grows a beam shield. Lean on Tesla and it grounds itself. Beat it and it ranks up. Let it beat you and it ranks up anyway. Break it and it stays broken: its shard orbits Eos-Prime as a trophy and its core powers your guns.

A history of the Maw

Before the line: The Null Maw

A wound in deep space that the old charts left blank. Whatever waits behind it sends out the Harvester Swarm: drones, frigates and capital hulls that strip a world and carry what is left back into the dark. Every outer ring around Eos-Prime went dark the same way.

Sector Zero: The Dread-Hulk anchors

The armada breached the exosphere and anchored its Dread-Hulk above Sector Zero. Command drew a fallback circle on a tactical display and called it the perimeter. The Aegis Vanguard called it the Last Radius, and held it.

Update 1.1: The Maw learns

The Swarm began to answer. A Threat Director reads how you fight and sends the counter: shielded frigates for laser-heavy commanders, evasive interceptors for missile spam, rams for parry artists. Six new hulls joined it, from the Lancer to the Sower.

Update 1.2: The Maw remembers

The survivors stop being nameless. From your third run a Brood-Lord takes a seat on the War Council with a name, a hull and a colour of its own. It remembers the weapon that hurt it most and grows the counter. It remembers whether it beat you.

Every day: The Maw Turn

Once a day the Maw moves its pieces, whether you play or not. Wounds heal, warlords fight each other for rank, empty seats fill with new blood, and one warlord is sent to hunt Eos-Prime under a Hunt Order.

Every season: The Maw speaks

Break five warlords inside one 30-day season and the Maw stops sending lieutenants. It sends its voice: the Maw-Sovereign, a gold Hive-King wearing the mutations you forced the council to grow that season.

The War Council

Brood-Lord: base hull 40, 1 mutations, escort of 2, hunts Wave 6+. Every warlord starts here, with one counter-trait.
Reaver: base hull 60, 2 mutations, escort of 3, hunts Wave 10+. From here up it can cheat death once.
Warlord: base hull 85, 3 mutations, escort of 4, hunts Wave 16+. Break one with a full shield for a Clean Kill.
Hive-King: base hull 115, 4 mutations, escort of 6, hunts Wave 21+. The top of the pyramid. It has nowhere left to climb.
Maw-Sovereign: base hull 115 × 1.6, 4 mutations, escort of 6, hunts Wave 10+. Once a season, Endless only. It never runs and never cheats death.

Five seats: The council holds five warlords at most. Your first Brood-Lord is seated on your third run, and while a seat is empty a new one rises every two runs.
Who hunts you: Each run, the warlord the Maw sent today hunts you. If none was sent, the one with the biggest grudge comes: wins over you count double. A warlord healing its wounds sits the run out.
When it comes: In Endless it arrives on its rank’s wave or up to two waves later. In Sector Assault, Brood-Lords and Reavers come on wave 4. There are no warlords in Three-Wave Blitz or the Daily Sortie, and never on a boss wave.
Scaling: Its hull is its rank’s base, plus the wave’s heavy-hull bonus, scaled up to three times by your Garage power. Spending cannot make the fight one-sided.
Plating: A warlord’s plating caps any single hit at 4 damage, or 8 for a thrown hull. Steady, mixed fire beats one big burst.
Never parried: You cannot parry or throw a warlord. Throw its retinue into it instead.
Intel: A transmission names what you know. Mutations you have not seen show as ▒▒▒▒▒▒ until you see them in a fight or intel reveals them. Wipe out a warlord’s whole escort or kill a Herald and a hidden mutation on another warlord is exposed; a Hunt Order exposes one on the warlord it names.

How a fight ends

Destroyed: Broken for good. It goes to the Hall of the Fallen, its shard joins the trophy ring orbiting Eos-Prime, and it drops a Warlord Core. A Hunt Order kill pays 250 vault salvage per rank and raises the core a tier. A warlord with a bounty on its head pays 150 per rank.
Escaped: At 22% hull, or after 70 seconds on the field, it runs for the rift. Finish it before it clears the screen. If it gets away it ranks up, grows the counter to the weapon that hurt it most, takes an epithet such as THE UNBURNT or SILO-SPITE, and sits out one run to heal.
Broke you: If your run ends while it is still on the field, from a lost core or a retreat, it ranks up and learns. It earns the name CRUST-EATER, and after three wins over you, BANE OF EOS.
Cheated death: From Reaver up, a warlord you kill has a 35% chance, once in its life, to be dragged back through a rift by the Maw. It returns as THE UNDYING, having learned from the fight even past its rank’s mutation cap.

Warlord ships: power ranking and doctrines

Bulwark, Siege doctrine
Hammer, Strike doctrine
Carrier, Brood-Mother doctrine
Mauler, Ram doctrine
Warden, Anchor doctrine

#1 Bulwark: Siege doctrine

Creeping artillery. Advances on a slow, steady line and never backs off. Every turn it takes, it closes the ring by 8%, down to 60% of its first stand-off, so the fight gets harder the longer it lasts.

Its turns: Heavy Maw Lance: a 1.8 second charge, then 1.5 shield; Siege barrage: three strikes fanned across the shield, 0.4 shield each.

The tell: SIEGE ADVANCING · a long, thick sight line. Weak spot: Its siege plating caps laser and station hits at 2. Missiles, Tesla and the pulse get through in full.

Kill it early. Every turn it survives, it parks closer and the next lance arrives sooner.
Switch off the laser. Missiles, Tesla chains and the pulse do full damage; laser hits stop at 2.
The 1.8 second sight line is your cue: recharge the shield or open Build to slow time before the heavy lance lands.
Only the centre strike of a barrage can reach the core once the shield is down. Keep the shield up and the barrage is just noise.

Why #1: The most damage per turn of any hull that holds a line, armour against your main weapon, and a fight that tightens around you.

#2 Hammer: Strike doctrine

Fast gunship. Closes fast and circles faster than any other warlord. After every attack it flips direction, so it never runs the same way twice.

Its turns: Strike run: a 0.8 second charge, then three lance bolts 0.3 seconds apart, 0.45 shield each.

The tell: STRIKE RUN · BURST INBOUND. Weak spot: No armour tricks. Only the last bolt of a burst can reach the core, and a Hammer never sidesteps missiles unless it has grown Evasive.

Missiles are your best friend: they track a fast hull that your laser taps will miss.
Tesla chains and a well-placed flak line along its orbit catch it without aiming.
Lead your laser shots, and expect it to reverse after each burst.
It drains the shield faster than anything else. Keep shield recharges in your Build budget.

Why #2: The highest raw shield pressure in the council and the hardest to pin down. It falls quickly once you land hits.

#3 Carrier: Brood-Mother doctrine

Swarm commander. Hangs farther back than any other warlord and circles slowly, letting its brood do the work. Its turns come 15% faster than its kin’s.

Its turns: Brood call: three drones plus one per rank (two more than any other warlord); Brood call; Maw Lance: a 1.3 second charge, then 1 shield.

The tell: LAUNCH BAYS OPEN · drones pouring out of its bays. Weak spot: Its own lance is the weakest in the council. The danger is the brood, and the brood stops when the Carrier dies.

Pulse the brood as it reaches the shield, and spend missiles on the Carrier itself.
Area damage pays here: Hellstitch, Rotary Saws and Tesla chains turn each brood into salvage.
Do not chase drones forever. Every brood call is another one; burn the mother down.
With Splitter Brood grown, a dying Carrier bursts into fragments. Keep a pulse ready for the end.

Why #3: Little direct damage, but a brood every few seconds overwhelms a commander who ignores it.

#4 Mauler: Ram doctrine

Shock ram. Holds closer than the others and circles fast. When it rams it braces, aims, then throws its whole hull into your shield at full speed and recoils.

Its turns: Ram: a 1.1 second telegraph, then a dash into the shield for 1.5 shield; Ram; Brood call: three drones plus one per rank.

The tell: RAM INBOUND · BRACE, then REELING · +50% DAMAGE. Weak spot: After every ram it reels for 2.2 seconds with its plating open: every hit lands for 50% more.

The sight line and RAM INBOUND give you over a second of warning. Top up the shield before impact.
Hold your missiles and Tesla for the reel. That 2.2 second window is where the fight is won.
It cannot be parried, but its brood can. Throw the drones back into it.
If it grew a Ram Prow, thrown hulls do half damage. Stick to guns.

Why #4: Each ram hits harder than any single lance, but every ram hands you a punish window.

#5 Warden: Anchor doctrine

Fortress. Takes its place on the ring and barely moves. It trades blows on a slow rhythm and hides behind its Aegis in between.

Its turns: Maw Lance: a 1.3 second charge, then 1 shield; Aegis: a field for 3.5 seconds that halves every hit except the pulse.

The tell: AEGIS RAISED · PULSE IT. Weak spot: A Pulse shatters the Aegis outright and lands in full. It also stands still, so every shot connects.

Save the pulse for the Aegis. When it goes up, pulse it and the field breaks.
Strike between fields: the turn after the Aegis is its lance, and that is your damage window.
Its slow rhythm leaves room to clear the retinue first. Wipe out the escort and a lieutenant talks: free intel.
Low threat, long fight. Do not let the clock run out: at 70 seconds it withdraws.

Why #5: The toughest to grind down and the least dangerous to sit next to.

Mutations and counters

Beam Shield (grown against laser and station fire): Laser and station hits are blocked. Answer: Missiles, Tesla, the pulse. Core: Aegis Lens, +6% laser and station damage per tier.
Grounded (grown against tesla): Tesla arcs cannot touch it. Answer: Laser and missiles. Core: Grounding Spike, +6% Tesla damage per tier.
Point Defense (grown against missiles): Missiles are shot down near it. Answer: Laser and Tesla. Core: Interceptor Lattice, +6% missile damage per tier.
Ram Prow (grown against parries and thrown hulls): Thrown hulls deal half damage to it. Answer: Anything but the throw. Core: Prow of the Ram, +8% thrown-hull damage per tier.
Evasive (grown against flak barriers): Jinks away from incoming warheads. Answer: Laser, Tesla, the pulse. Core: Slipstream Coil, +6% flak-line damage per tier.
Splitter Brood (grown against the pulse): Bursts into three fragments when it breaks. Answer: Save a blast for the pieces. Core: Brood Seed, +6% pulse damage per tier.

The Maw Turn

The Maw Turn: Once a day, seeded by the date so every commander sees the same turn. Wounds heal. One time in three, two warlords fight for rank: the winner tears a mutation from the loser and earns a bounty, the loser drops a rank or dies. Empty seats fill with new blood. Missed days stack, up to three.
Hunt Order: Each turn one warlord is sent to hunt Eos-Prime, weighted toward the biggest grudge, and exposed: one of its hidden mutations is revealed. Break it before the next turn for 250 vault salvage per rank and a better core.
Maw Alerts: An optional notification with the headline of the next Maw Turn, such as who is coming and what it remembers. Turn it on in the War Council.

Warlord Cores

What drops: A broken warlord leaves the core of the last counter it grew, turned against the swarm: a Beam Shield warlord leaves an Aegis Lens that boosts your laser.
Tiers: A core’s tier is the warlord’s rank, one higher for a Hunt Order kill, five for the Maw-Sovereign. Each tier adds 6% damage to its weapon (8% for the Prow of the Ram), up to 30%.
Sockets: One socket to start, a second at three warlords broken and a third at six. Only socketed cores fire. Stronger cores of the same kind replace weaker ones.

Seasons and the Maw-Sovereign

Seasons: Seasons run 30 days, the first from 1 November 2026. Break five warlords in one season and the Maw speaks: the council refills, and the Maw-Sovereign comes for Eos-Prime.
The voice: One gold Hive-King per season. Its name and hull are the same for every commander that season, but it wears up to four of the mutations you made your council grow. It carries 1.6 times a Hive-King’s hull, stands taller than its kin and hunts with its hull’s doctrine.
Where: Endless Defense only, on wave 10 to 12, before any council seat. It never runs and never cheats death. If it breaks you, it waits for your next run.
Three phases: At two thirds of its hull the Maw answers: it calls a coronal storm and a brood, and its turns come a quarter sooner. At one third it comes unbound: a comet storm of five, and its turns come twice as fast.
The prize: A gold trophy in the Hall of the Fallen, the SOVEREIGN-BREAKER title for that season, and a tier-5 core. A new season reseats the council; the Hall and your cores stay.

Hunting the hunters

Mix your damage. A warlord learns from the weapon that hurt it most, so a single-weapon commander builds their own nemesis.
Read the transmission. It names its known mutations and hull doctrine before it arrives: plan your answer during the warning.
Kill the escort. Wipe out its whole retinue and a lieutenant talks: a hidden mutation on another warlord is revealed.
Watch the 22% line. Hold your burst until it turns to run, then finish it before it reaches the edge.
Use the Hunt Order. It tells you who is coming, reveals one of its secrets, and pays 250 vault salvage per rank plus a stronger core.
Socket for the warlord you expect. A Grounding Spike makes your Tesla hit harder against everyone, not just the next warlord.

Field manual · Last Radius