Overview
The Garbage Collector is a roaming AI process that treats you as bad data to be cleaned. It appears throughout the Latent Space and scales in toughness from the outer Static Sea inward to the Delirium, dropping better loot the deeper you encounter it.
In the live proto the Garbage Collector is implemented as proto_enemy_sweeper.gd.
Behavior
Garbage Collectors move in tight rush lines aimed directly at your last-known position — the visual read of a process sweeping a memory address. Their defining mechanic: any player projectile they contact is deleted on impact. They do not dodge around shots; they eat them.
Packs intensify this — a wedge of Garbage Collectors charging in formation can strip a full volley before a single shot lands.
Attack Pattern
- Line rush — charges in a straight lane at the player.
- Projectile delete — on contact with a player shot, the shot is removed. No explosion, no ricochet; it simply ceases.
- Scales with biome depth: faster rush speed, higher HP, denser packs toward the Kernel.
- May appear as a line-rush variant of a larger Daemon-Pack anchor (see Daemon-Pack entry).
How to Fight
Garbage Collectors punish mindless spray-firing. Positioning beats raw damage: move perpendicular to the rush line so they overshoot, then shoot the exposed flank or rear. AoE abilities land cleanly because wide blasts are harder for the Collectors to intercept in bulk.
High-density packs demand burst spacing — fire in timed salvoes rather than continuous streams, so a second volley lands before replacement Collectors fill the lane.
Threat Notes
- Tier: Trash / roaming mob
- Corruption affix: under the enraged corruption cycle, rush speed increases markedly; under swarming, pack density doubles.
- Lore hook: no malice — an antivirus does not hate the malware. The Wreck’s immune-reflex, still running, nobody home.
- Names: all working names. OPEN — final name is Jay’s call.