Death Stalker

Death Stalker
300
Critter
Role	Venomous, stealthy critter
Location	Abandoned WarehouseHD Arke Power Station Bunker (Upper Caves) Core City Sewers Deep Caverns Hecate Research Outpost Institute of Tchort west wing Lower CavesNHD Lower Underrail Port Zenith Research Facility Under-passages Upper Caves Utility Station 7
Loot	Crawler Stinger Crawler's Eye Insectoid Salivarium
Abilities	Darkvision Crawler Sting special attack Regenerates 40 hit points per round Restealths after injecting its venom Blindsiding Hyperallergenic Interloper Opportunist
Combat Stats Combat Stats Damage: 20-40 Range: Melee Action Points: 50 Initiative: 31 Detection: 318 Base Abilities Strength: 8 Dexterity: 12 Agility: 14 Constitution: 8 Perception: 13 Will: 4 Intelligence: 4 Skills Stealth: 296 Resistances Mechanical: 35% / 16 Heat: 0% / 0 Cold: 0% / 0 Electricity: 0% / 0 Acid: 0% / 0 Energy: 0% / 0 Bio: 0% / 0

Main article: Crawler

Death Stalkers are a larger and very dangerous strain of crawlers, overall more similar to the unique Black Crawler than to their smaller cousins. They inhabit the same dark caves and buildings crawlers do, and are commonly encountered, albeit in varying numbers, on all difficulty levels.

Description

Anything crawlers do death stalkers do better. Their stealth skill is very high and with Interloper they move fast, depriving you of precious time needed for detection. Their own detection allows them to instantly detect any prey that carelessly wanders into their sight range of 8, unless they are hiding with at least 128 effective stealth skill. If you bump into them, their initiative will most often win them the right to act first. They have fairly high dodge, more than double of what crawlers have, while their evasion received a more moderate increase. They deal 20-40 Mechanical damage, double of that with their sting, and it can be further boosted with Blindsiding and Opportunist easily piercing through even armor with good mechanical threshold. Their sting applies the Hyperallergenic status effect along with the injected poison, therefore characters with low health should think twice before consuming an Antidote or other medication.

Otherwise most other usual strategies for detecting and fighting crawlers still apply to death stalkers as well. All they have in terms of resistances is some moderate protection against Mechanical damage, thus the "only" challenge lies in finding them, more so if you can't allow yourself the luxury to let them make the first move and come to you.