Hello Riftbreakers!
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We thought we covered everything all the topics when it comes to the beasts you will encounter in the Fungal Swamp biome in World Expansion III. However, very attentive viewers on our stream (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3 PM CEST www.twitch.tv/exorstudios) made us realize that we have yet to tell you about the Plutrodon. Here’s everything you need to know about this creature. WARNING: Please treat this article as a potential spoiler. If you’d rather find out all of this on your own, we recommend waiting for the release of the experimental branch, which should happen very, very soon! Enjoy!
Plutrodon and some of its animations. We changed the creature's default skin from green to... whatever the other one is to make it easier to spot the creature during more hectic moments.
Plutrodon falls into the category of a medium-sized creature. It is instantly recognizable in the wild, as it moves around on three legs only. That doesn’t mean the creature is slow or clumsy (looking at you, Krocoon). In fact, Plutrodon’s legs end with sharp claws that allow it to dig itself into the soft ground of the Fungal Swamp and gain the traction it needs to move around quickly. An additional side effect of this adaptation is the ability to climb almost all surfaces - but more on that later.
Plutrodons usually come in groups. It makes it really difficult to dodge their attacks, but it's not impossible.
Plutrodon will generally try to keep a safe distance from whatever it deems as a threat. Its main, ranged attack somewhat resembles the attack carried out by Morphium Towers. The creature will root itself in the ground and then attack the target with a pillar of spikes rising up from the ground. The attack starts near Plutrodon and travels towards the main target. What makes it especially dangerous is the fact that it damages everything on its path. If the Plutrodon targets your defensive towers hidden behind several layers of walls, all of those structures will be damaged by that attack.
A 'synthetic' situation, showcasing Plutrodon's attack strength. Even though you are behind the wall, you're not safe, as the spikes will reach you and your towers easily.
Plutrodons usually stick around in small groups, usually concentrated around bodies of water. There are three major strains of these creatures out there: the regular ones, the alpha strain, and the ultra strain. Creatures belonging to a ‘higher’ strain get bigger in size, more resilient to attacks, and hit harder. However, what doesn’t change is their general behavior and range of attack. If you figure out how to defeat the smaller ones, you should be able to take down the bigger prey. As with all the other creatures of the Fungal Swamp, Plutrodons do not build their nests. Instead, they utilize the strange living structure we told you about earlier as their hive.
These creatures work really well in conjunction with big tanks, like Fungors. Fungors take the damage from the towers, while Plutrodons try to destroy the defenses with their ranged attacks.
These creatures are hunters. They might not be the apex predator of the biome, but you should not discount their killer instinct. Thanks to their sharp claws, Plutrodons can climb almost any natural obstacle. Rocks, trees, and land formations are not obstacles but opportunities for them. Similarly to Stickrids, Plutrodons can come down from a tree and attack you at a moment’s notice. Always watch your back and pay attention to the radar. If you’ve dealt with Crawlogs in the Crystal Caves region, you had a taste of what’s to come - be prepared for more.
Plutrodons can climb off trees just like Stickrids.
If you have been watching our streams in this preview season, you might have noticed that Plutrodons changed their skin out of the blue a couple of weeks ago. Well, it turns out that if you put camo-green creatures on a background full of mud, leaves, trees, and other such props, the creatures blend in a little too much. In the heat of the battle, it was sometimes quite difficult to spot Plutrodons (and Stickrids, too, for that matter), especially if you defeated an entire wave and just had that one pesky critter left over, attacking buildings. As we know, that always happens. However, games should be fun, not frustrating, so we decided to give these creatures a major evolutionary disadvantage and completely redesigned their color palette. You can see the comparison of the old and new skins below. We hope it will lead to a better experience, but still - let us know what you think!
The dark green Plutrodons blended in a little bit too well.
The new version still matches the color shceme of the biome and blends with the ground, but the creatures are now far easier to spot.
The experimental version of the World Expansion III update is just around the corner. It has been quite a long time since the last patch. Over the course of the past couple of months, we have amassed over 6000 changes that will make their way to you with the Fungal Swamp update. Most of those changes are in the backend and necessary for the co-op to work, but there are a lot of optimizations, bugfixes, and new features we haven’t talked about yet waiting for you. We have been preparing the changelog for the entire last week - it’s going to be massive. If you don’t want to miss it, join www.discord.gg/exorstudios and get notified about the launch of the experimental branch.
See you later!
EXOR Studios