This section is after what I consider to be halfway through the game, the enemies here are selected in order of the hunters journal, they are also selected by most notable in their region. such as the Conchfly.
these are some of the more interesting enemies.
Choir Clapper
Choir Clappers walk slowly between attacks, walking backwards a short distance when Hornet is too close to them, and walking forwards to pursue her when she is out of range of all their attacks.
- Retreat: Performs a much faster backwards scuttle than their usual walk speed. Often used after missing an attack when Hornet is close to them.
- Lunge Clap: Readies its mallet behind itself before lunging forward a short distance and doing a large overhead swing with their mallet.
- Jumping Clap: Holds their mallet above their head before jumping forward and swinging it overhead as they land.
- Silk Implosions: Holds its mallet high as silk wraps around it, then taps the ground with the staff of the mallet, sending waves of silk implosions outwards toward both sides of the arena, telegraphed by white circles. The silk implosions only deal
. - Silk Slam: Readies their mallet above their head whilst wrapping it in silk, then performs a Jumping Clap attack, with a large white circle appearing where they swung. After a moment, the circle implodes with silk, dealing .
Mallet strikes and contact damage with Choir Clappers deal .
Choir Clappers have a 100% chance to drop a Silk Spool on death that can replenish 2 strands of Hornet’s Silk.
Vault keeper
Vaultkeepers often hang from the ceiling or pop out of the background, dropping down once Hornet draws near. Vaultkeepers behave very erratically and can be very unpredictable, and have 4 moves to choose from:
- Skitter: Walks a set distance either left or right.
- Jump: Jumps up, often attempting to land either on Hornet or very close to her; alternatively, they use this move to jump entirely away from her.
- Vaultkeepers will repeatedly use this move to platform over obstacles and get to Hornet if she is on a different elevation than them.
- Lunge Claw: Moves backwards a short distance before lunging forward with a single strike with their claws. Often immediately follows this move up with Charging Slashes.
- Charging Slashes: Primes its claws and then rushes towards Hornet whilst slashing wildly in front of itself, Comboing her for + if she is caught at any point during the slashes. Ends the move if Hornet gets behind it or it reaches a wall.
Vaultkeepers deal with Lunge Claw and on contact.
Simply attacking as soon as they end a move like Jump or jumping behind them after Charging Slashes are the main modes of counterplay. Attempting to predict their next move is often useless due to Vaultkeepers’ erratic movement.
Verdanir
Verdanirs are often hidden or idly squatting until Hornet comes near, upon which they reveal themselves and begin their blindingly fast assault.
Verdanirs zip around Hornet between attacks – they cannot be hurt whilst performing these dashes, nor can they deal contact damage. Verdanirs also always maintain distance from Hornet, and only approach via their attacks. Verdanirs have 4 moves:
- Double Slash: Zips to be mostly horizontally away from Hornet, then performs 2 lunging slashes towards her, Comboing her for + if she gets hit by either slash.
- Corkscrew Dive: Zips to be above Hornet and then dives downwards whilst slashing all around itself. Combos Hornet for + if she gets hit.
- Jumping Uppercut: Performs a large, mainly vertical jumping uppercut into the air. This attack is very rare, and is most often used whilst Hornet is airborne and near the Verdanir. This attack also is more commonly used whilst the Verdanir is fighting alongside another enemy.
- Backdash: Performs a short dash backwards and slightly upwards, often immediately zipping or performing a Double Slash at the end of the dash. This move is notably different from their usual zipping as they can be hurt during this dash, mainly used after missing a move and if Hornet is close to them.
Verdanirs constantly zip away from Hornet if she approaches carelessly, so a bait-and-punish method must be used. Simply waiting until the Verdanir does a Double Slash or Corkscrew Dive and quickly taking advantage of the short moment where the Verdanir cannot act is essentially the only method to defeating them.
Shadow creeper
Meanders back and forth passively, sometimes vertically crawling on walls, with no regard to Hornet. It behaves exactly like the basic Mossgrub, but moves on walls rather than staying still and has more health.
It also does not take any knockback from Hornet’s Needle.
