While most Scrin were satisfied with merely keeping their harvesters out of harm's way, Reaper-17's aggressive tactics often do the contrary. To minimize losses, Reaper-17 had its harvesters equipped with a Tripod's energy field generator. Unlike most shielded units, the Shielded Harvester has its energy generator installed by default, without any need to upgrade it. These variants were first deployed in China during the Third Tiberium War.