Creatures¶

Everything you shoot is one of five creature types. Each spawn sets its own health, speed, bite and XP, so a type tells you how it moves, not how tough it is. Numbers here are for normal difficulty; see Hardcore and Retries for how quests change them, and What spawns for Survival.

The creature types¶

• Aliens: the most varied type, from 5 HP near-invisible aliens to the 3,800 HP red boss.
• Lizards: Radioactive can't finish them off.
• Zombies: mostly slow. In Survival they move at 60% speed and have 1.5× health.
• Jerky spiders: move in bursts (see Stop-and-go). The Spider Boss and the spiders of the quest 5.7 grids are the exceptions.
• Spiders: the second spider kind. They run steadily. Splitters are this kind.

Movement¶

Speed is in game units: speed 1 covers 30 units a second. You run at 100 units a second, so anything faster than 3.33 outruns you. Survival creatures top out at 3.5 (105 units a second). A creature turns at a rate that grows with its speed, so slow ones swing wide.

Closing in¶

Most creatures don't run straight at you. Each one picks a fixed compass bearing and aims at a point on that side of you, 85% as far from you as it is. The point slides in as the creature does, so it curls in from that side. It heads straight at you instead when:

• it is more than 800 units from you;
• its aim point is more than 400 units from it, or less than 40.

So far-off creatures beeline and close ones curve. A few use other patterns:

• The blue-tinted quest aliens and lizards and the lizard chain leader curl in tighter, at 55%.
• Rush aliens swing wider, at 90%, and never beeline.
• Grid leaders, Plasma Shooters and Typ-o-Shooter creatures chase you directly.

A jerky spider drops back to the standard 85% approach after its first pause.

Co-op targeting¶

Each creature hunts one player. It keeps checking, and switches to the other player whenever they're alive and closer. If its player dies, it switches at once.

How they hurt you¶

Bites and contact¶

Creatures bigger than size 16 bite from 30 units, at most once a second, and can't get closer than 20. Player has the rules and what changes a bite.

A creature of size 30 or less dies when it touches you. You get no XP and no bonus for it, though it counts as a kill. This catches the 64 small green aliens of quest 5.1 (size 30) and anything the Shrinkifier 5k has shrunk that far.

Ranged attacks¶

Two creatures shoot, and only while they are more than 64 units from you. Shots fly the way the shooter is facing.

• Spider Boss: a Plasma Rifle bolt (600 units a second) once a second.
• Plasma Shooter: a slow plasma bolt (200 units a second) every 0.4–0.7 s.

Shots and bites share one cooldown. An enemy shot that hits you deals a flat 10; see Enemy shots.

Enemy shots also hit creatures in their path, for the same damage your own shot of that kind would deal, boosted by your bullet-damage perks. A Spider Boss bolt hits a creature for up to 295; a Plasma Shooter bolt for up to 38. Those kills pay you XP.

Special creatures¶

Stop-and-go¶

Jerky spiders run for 0.7–1.7 s, then stand still for 0.5–1.0 s, at random. They still bite and shoot while paused. Jerky spiders get a speed bonus: 1.2× in quests (except the fast yellow spider), 1.3× in Survival and 1.4× in Rush. Speeds on this page include it.

Nests¶

Nests appear only in quests. A nest never moves and never leaves the arena. You can't walk into a nest, or into a giant zombie. Nests have no bite, but you can get close enough to the small ones for them to "bite" you for 0: that still triggers Mr. Melee, Veins of Poison and Toxic Avenger on the nest.

A nest releases a creature on a timer until it reaches its limit. Kill it and it stops; what it already released stays.

The ringed lizard nest's ring of 24 red aliens (40 HP, speed 4.0, bite 30, 350 XP) carries on after the nest dies.

Splitters¶

A splitter spider splits in two when it dies, as long as its size is over 35. Each half:

• is 8 smaller;
• has a quarter of the original splitter's health: 100 for the 400 HP splitter, in every generation and on every difficulty;
• is 0.1 faster, bites for 70% as much and pays ⅔ of the XP.

A size-80 splitter splits six times: 127 spiders in all, worth 19,388 XP before perks. The last generation moves at 2.6 and bites for 2. A splitter shrunk to size 35 or less dies without splitting.

Linked groups¶

Some quest creatures arrive in formation around a leader. When the leader dies, some groups die with it and some fight on. Followers that die with their leader still pay their XP and can drop bonuses.

White-grid followers don't hold formation: each hunts you on its own until the leader falls. Kill the leader of a 5.7 grid and all 27 die with it.

In every group except the bronze grid, the last follower is a plain 20 HP alien, even in a lizard chain or a spider grid. In every group, hardcore and retries change only that last follower; see Formations.

Bosses and named creatures¶

XP per kill¶

Each creature carries a fixed XP value, paid to the team's shared pool when it dies. Fractions are dropped.

• Quest creatures: the values above. Ordinary aliens, spiders, lizards and zombies pay 50–280. Retries cut it.
• Survival creatures: worked out from each one's health, speed and bite; see What spawns.
• Bloody Mess pays 1.3× (rounded down).
• Double Experience pays the kill again, Bloody Mess bonus included.

Some kills pay less:

• Contact deaths of small creatures pay nothing.
• Breathing Room and Lifeline 50-50 pay nothing.
• Radioactive and Jinxed kills pay base XP only.
• Energizer kills pay base XP plus the normal kill payment.

What bonuses and perks do to them¶

• Freeze: everything stops. Creatures don't move, bite, shoot or release, and poison and plague pause.
• Energizer: creatures under 500 max HP run from you; under 380 they're eaten on contact. Nobody bites.
• Evil Eyes: the creature under your crosshair stands still and can't bite, shoot or release.
• Monster Vision: highlights every creature; purely visual.
• Plaguebearer: infected creatures run from you.
• Shrinkifier 5k: shrinks creatures until they die, or until they're small enough to die on contact.
• For about 0.4 s after death a body still stops ordinary bullets; see Hit radius.