Spitter

Summary
The Spitter is a medium sized creature of the Dirtbeast class. It is a common ranged creature.

Description
The Spitter is a quadrupedal Dirtbeast. It has a longer tail than the squatter, with with odd-sized, blue-glowing spinal plates protruding from the base of the neck to the tip of the tail. The spitter has 4 blue, large, ball-like sacks along the underside of its neck and mouth that contains the corrosive spit that this creature propels towards its target. Two large antennae like appendages extend from the spitters shoulders, each approximately as long is its forearm. Unlike the squatter, the spitter lacks any horns or additional claws other than 3 sharp nails on each paw.

The standard spitter is furless, with a skin similar to that of other dirtbeasts. It is primarily an orange-brown colour, with some darker striping on the back, and a pale underside and belly. Its chest, spinal plates, spit sacks and antennae glow a light-blue. The spitter skin has small light blue, glowing patches as a result of mutation caused by the Cycle. It has 2 eyes and 2 nostrils, and as a result of the spit sacks, its face appears wider than that of the squatter. The spit sacks on the spitter lacks 'webbing' covering the skulker and hurler spit sacks.

Behaviour
The spitter is primarily a ranged attacker, preferring to attack from a medium range. It is still capable of close range engagement, and has a strong melee attacks that it will use should it's target approach it to close. Its various attacks consist of:


 * Ranged attack: The spitter will hunch down, and start growling as a signal that it is charging it's attack. The charge-up last 1.5 seconds, after which it will release a volley of 13 shots of spit, each dealing damage. If the spitter is staggered during the charge up phase or the actual attack, it will stop attacking. It will usually attempt to be 15m away from the target, but will still initiate this attack if the target is 10 to 25 meters away. Once this attack starts it will not stop until it is staggered, or all 13 projectiles have been fired, regardless of whether line of site has been broken, or the distance to the target has increased. This attack is very accurate, but dodging and sliding has a detrimental effect on the spitter's aim and will cause it to miss a few shots. It is unable to attack if the target moves behind the spitter, and will not opt to stop spitting and instead melee if the target gets to close
 * Left Downward Slash: If the target is within close range the spitter will slash down with its left paw. This is the most common melee attack for the spitter.
 * Right Upward Slash: The spitter will swipe its right paw upwards to attack the target if within melee range
 * Combo attack: The spitter will first swipe up with its right paw before slashing downwards with its left paw. The time between attacks is approximately 1 second.

The spitter does not have a leaping attack and will instead jump backwards to get into optimal range for its spitting attack, or attempt to melee the target. It does occasionally jump from side to side, making aim more difficult for the player, but the dodging attempts do not last for long.

Like other dirtbeasts, the spitter spawns by burrowing up from underground, either due to minerals being mined, natural spawning or being forced to spawn by a howler flapping its wings and body on the ground.

Variants
Like other dirtbeasts, the spitter has 5 variants:


 * Standard Spitter: This variant is the base version of the spitter. It appears frequently throughout a match
 * Weak Spitter: This variant is identical to a standard spitter, however it is only spawned by a howler. It has reduced health and damage and is worth less credits
 * Storm Spitter: This variant of the spitter appears mid to late game, and is stronger than the standard variant. It is identifiable by it golden glow on its back and skin, with a vibrant blue and red marking on its forehead. Its spit sacks remain blue to distinguish it from other storm variants.
 * Thunder Spitter: This spitter form is stronger and tougher than the storm variant, and is worth more credits when killed. It is dark grey and black in colour. Its back plates are black, and the skin glow and spit sacks are blue. It has tiny sparks of lightning running over and arcing on its skin. This variant typically spawns in the late game
 * Mutated Spitter: A spitter that is spawned for the Hunt contract. It will drop biospheres when killed. Physically, the mutated spitter is much stronger and tougher than the average spitter. This spitter has magenta strips and black spots on its back. The spinal plates and antennas glow a bright pink/magenta. The spit sacks remain a blue glow.



Lore
The spitter is simply a mutation of the squatter. It's 'spit' has a corrosive effect on it's own but is mostly concentrated 'cycle' energy, which is collected by the two large antennae on the back of the creature.