Death Stalkers

[roshan]

OK, so who thought this was a good idea? An enemy that is pretty much invincible if you can't spot it, poisons you, prevents you from using medicines, disappears into thin air, and then only come back when you are stunned?

This is incredible absurd and tedious.

It's right up there with the idiocy of respawning rathound hordes everywhere.

 

[Sykar]

I will await with bated breath when you are getting told that you are scrub for not being able to beat them without meta knowledge.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

They're kinda bullshit when you don't know they're there. You're just walking along and oh they completely fucked you. Once you do know they're in the area it becomes a fun hunt though.
There's an armour that makes rathounds peaceful so you can ignore them. Once I get it it stays in my inventory at all times so I put it on whenever they show up and not bother fighting them.

 

[roshan]

So I killed it. Basically I knew where it was, so I had to smoke it out by throwing a grenade, making sure I was close enough to close in and tase it. After that it was easy work with a few lucky crits.

I was ready too with adrenaline shots and blitz in case things went wrong. But the attacks I got in were enough.

 

[Sykar]

Welcome to the fun world of meta-gaming and cheesing the shit out of the game.

 

[Doktor Best]

I will await with bated breath when you are getting told that you are scrub for not being able to beat them without meta knowledge.

What exactly do you need meta knowledge for? I played blind on hard mode and yes they kicked my ass some times but thats why you play an rpg. You just go somewhere else, gear up and return to kick some Death Stalker ass.

 

[ghostdog]

You meet a new hard enemy , you get killed and come back with a renewed strategy. That's the fun of it . Running away is always an option, and also avoiding certain areas until you are more confident you can survive. Detection goggles can help, traps will also fish them out. One is manageable in early-mid game. To fight a pack of them you'd better be in high levels.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I personally like that kind of enemies. Forces you to think and develop new tactics.

 

[JarlFrank]

 

[V_K]

The Boobs
of the Strumpet...

 

[Neanderthal]

The Boobs
of the Strumpet...

And the rape.

 

[Candide]

I like stalkers as enemies. The game used to make the "goes into stealth" sound when you entered a map with stalkers/crawlers on it. I considered it a fair warning and could begin hunting/trapping/preparing myself etc. Now it no longer makes that sound and you end up being ambushed/annoyed randomly and usually have to reload. Underrail used to be promoted as a game where sounds really matter, but we can't have nice things.

 

[Trash Player]

It is metagamey because stalker family tend to hang on their own, so without stealth it becomes a fight with homogenous enemies that are hardly threatening at all.
Flare roulette demands no character building options but simple trial and error. Admittedly other options are more reliable but for some build that is the only one.

A better design would be a more manageable alpha strike but more nuances in direct combat.

 

[Wunderbar]

The idea behind death stalkers is good, but it annoys me that you can't see them even with huge PER and detection goggles.

Quick tinkering helps a lot (with 5 turns cooldown and 25 AP cost it's the only situation Quick tinkering is useful for).

 

[AwesomeButton]

Goggles, flares and high perception. The flare increases the light rating and makes it easier for you to spot them, and aim at them. Traps also help a lot. The death stalker will get caught in the trap and become visible. I've been exploring some offbeat places filled with death stalkers, just to check out what's there. I would surround myself with traps, throw a flare, and wait for them to start coming. Very immersive shit when you think about it :D

 

[hell bovine]

The idea behind death stalkers is good, but it annoys me that you can't see them even with huge PER and detection goggles.

Maenwhile psi with their 3 perception can scan the area with force field.

 

[Agesilaus]

OK, so who thought this was a good idea? An enemy that is pretty much invincible if you can't spot it, poisons you, prevents you from using medicines, disappears into thin air, and then only come back when you are stunned?

This is incredible absurd and tedious.

It's right up there with the idiocy of respawning rathound hordes everywhere.

git gud

I just wander around until I spot them naturally (8 perception) or they reveal themselves by trying to make some pathetic little poison attack. Then I one-shot them with an aimed shot from my plasma pistol. Like an underground cowboy.

 

[thesecret1]

OK, so who thought this was a good idea? An enemy that is pretty much invincible if you can't spot it, poisons you, prevents you from using medicines, disappears into thin air, and then only come back when you are stunned?

This is incredible absurd and tedious.

It's right up there with the idiocy of respawning rathound hordes everywhere.

It's not so hard, even with low perception and no goggles. Just lay down traps and spam flares (yes, those things are actually useful). Electrokinetic imprint is absolutely excellent against them if you play a psi build, for example. Even if you don't have traps, it's just a matter of bottlenecking them (if there's a group) or throwing a flare every round to where you think they'll come from. There's literally dozens of them in some locations on dominating, but I slaughter them anyway with these tactics, so it can be done. If you cannot kill enough of them fast enough, you either aren't using grenades to their full capacity, or you are simply too weak and should return after you get a couple more levels.

 

[AW8]

I had an easy time with the crawler family on my first character (stealth + high PER), I was the one sneaking up on them and murdering them. They probably made angry forum posts about me.

On my current loud assault gun character, there's a lot more flares, yells, antidote-chugging and frantic searching for the little bastards going on.

At first I didn't realize that their "crawl up into the ceiling" move was them simply entering stealth, I thought they literally disappeared for a couple of turns. Until I moved around and accidentally bumped into one, revealing it, then shoving my automatic rifle into it's mouth and pulling the trigger.

 

[Elephantman]

Lets be real though, crawlers need to be made immune to beartraps and stun, daze only. Insects should not feel any fear ever.
Also, their first attack out of stealth should come "from the ceiling", ie bypass Forcewall and mines.
Also, they should keep distance if they spot you and only attack in pairs from 2 directions so that a char that is standing in a 1tile bottleneck and waiting for them to get close will wait forever. 3 Con chars should always get the allergic reaction.



Basically, the only way to fight them should be to go full tank mode - grab the stinger and blow their brains out while injecting T. Like AW8.
Virgin fags like OP and Sykar need not even apply.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I took a moment to imagine the kind of earfuck that would ensue if you fire bursts while inside a metal tube. :D

 

[Elephantman]

 

[Black Angel]

I think I kinda cracked the code of the crawlers.

1. Like stated in the wiki, if you see some Red Dream Mushrooms in cave walls, chance are high that the crawlers are nearby. If you're in an abandoned facility or some remote part of the metro and it's dark as fuck, chance are there are crawlers nearby.
2. Every time they go up the ceiling, they'll always go down in the nearest corner. Like, if there's some piles of rocks/stalagmite(stalactite?) nearby they'll try to stay right behind the rocks/the corner blocking your direct vision of them, until you're stunned. The same if there are pile of boxes, barrels, a pillar, or in a corner inside a room with an open door, they'll always try to hide right behind some corners where you don't have direct vision of it.
3. While not always true, I've observed a consistent behavior of crawlers desperately trying to continue their attacks if their first sting didn't connect, either because they missed, or (presumably, since I haven't tried this myself) if they can't pierce through your armor. One tiny detail in regards to this, however, is that if a crawler hit your Pseudo-spatial Projection instead, they'll actually thought they managed to connect their first sting and disappear up the ceiling. Truly, a majestic creature.

There's this one funny time where I got jumped by a Death Stalker in a cave, but since I had Pseudo-spatial Projection activated it 'missed' its first sting but thought it hit because it hit one of the projections. Knowing exactly where it is, I moved to nearby stalagmite(stalactite?) and bumped into it. But it was rather far away that I only managed to cast Neural Overload twice, so it had a little bit of HP left. You know what it did, even though I pretty much exhausted my MP? It fucking goes back up the ceiling. The poor thing probably thought its poison is still in effect that it goes up the ceiling right in front of my eyes, and since there are no nearby corner it just moved to the other side of the stalagmite(stalactite?)

 

[Elephantman]

Btw, have they removed the lone crawler really close to the SGS somewhere in the caves?
I vaguely remember the butthurt faggots crying about it too, maybe I'm mistaken.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Btw, have they removed the lone crawler really close to the SGS somewhere in the caves?
I vaguely remember the butthurt faggots crying about it too, maybe I'm mistaken.

Just bumped it today, poked it with my spear.