Spiderant

Spiderants are viciously territorial fauna native to Pandora that bear more than a passing resemblance to insects. The most striking features of these creatures are their heads, their four lower limbs, and their abdomen. Their heads are thickly armored almost to a point of total invulnerability to weapons fire and the same can be said for their strong, dangerously sharp forelimbs. The abdomen however, is unarmored and is in fact the weakest point upon the animal as a whole; very few Spiderant strains can survive more than few shots to this area.

They are known to burrow underground and tend to frequent areas with relatively high amounts of water in the otherwise parched Pandoran soil. As a general rule of thumb if an area is abnormally quiet, but there is a puddle, Spiderants are likely nearby. Spiderants are one of the few native species encountered on Pandora that do not emerge from a burrow with a noticeable exit; they prefer to simply emerge in swarms from underground.

There are several different varieties of Spiderants, with varying abilities and attack patterns. All Spiderants employ some form of sweeping slash attack when a player gets too close. Some leap at prey, trying to impale them upon their diamond-hard forelimbs. Others use a strange sort of projectile attack, ejecting semi-transparent, egg-like sacs from the ends of their abdomen which themselves can vary from small, simple grenade-like impact-projectiles, to large mine-like projectiles that detonate over a large area.

Spiderantling
These are the smallest and least dangerous of the Spiderant strains. They are most likely baby or freshly hatched Spiderants, as their underdeveloped heads and forelimbs are without effective armor. They have a tan coloring similar to Worker Spiderants, but are slightly darker and have a kind of "wet and fresh" sheen to their carapace sections. They attack by leaping, but will also run up and swipe with one of their legs.

Worker
Worker Spiderants can be distinguished by their tan armor. They are a little bigger than Spiderantlings, and their abdomen is slightly bigger than their heads. Worker Spiderants attack by aggressively leaping at and striking with their large talons when close.

Gyro
This strain can be distinguished by the strong blue color of their carapace, tiny abdomen, and frightening speed. This type of Spiderant leaps, slashes, and also uses a highly damaging rolling tackle. Out of all the Spiderant breeds, this can be the most difficult to take on as they can outrun an enemy when sprinting and then leap onto their backs or simply roll over them. They also have relatively keen reflexes, and can quickly pick up and deliver a rapid string of attacks to anything in front of them.

Soldier
Soldiers can be distinguished by their light-blue carapace, large head, and ostensibly tiny abdomen. Slightly bigger than the Worker, Soldiers are slow-moving ranged attackers that will only use melee against a target when in close range. They tend to favor hanging back and launching volleys of white, glistening sacs from their abdomen, and they can also launch larger globs that bounce along the ground and explode like grenades.

Burner
Burners like to fight from medium range, using a powerful incendiary version of the projectile attack used by the Soldier. They occasionally fight up close, but they're much more likely to stay at range. They can perform an attack like a Gyro; fortunately, they have the reflexes of a Worker up close, and a massive, vulnerable abdomen.

Zapper
Zappers like to fight up close and personal, and can easily do plenty of damage to protective shield technology using an area-effect shockwave attack that also knocks enemies back. Zappers also have an electrical version of the projectile attack that is fairly weak. Their abdomen is one of the smallest in proportion to the head compared to other Spiderants, making it harder to hit.

Corruptor
Corruptors like to fight from a distance, using volleys of corrosive spitball-like projectiles fired from their abdomens. They are easily the least dangerous of the three elementally inclined Spiderant strains, but can still pose a threat to the unprepared and they are especially dangerous when surrounded by other Spiderants.

Queen
Queens are a very large strain. They can be distinguished by their large size and bluish coloring. While they will slash with their large scythe like talons at times, they prefer to hang back and shoot volleys of large whitish sacks that are extremely damaging. The larger, delayed-blast projectile from these mighty matriarchs has been known to instantly cripple prey otherwise distracted by other Spiderants.

King
Kings are huge Spiderants with a pale brown coloring similar to the Worker. While similar in size to Queens, they have larger heads, and smaller, more relatively well protected abdomens. They attack exactly like Workers do, except they can leap longer distances, and they are more damaging; rarely they will shoot volleys of large, white, exploding sacks that are very damaging.

Appearances

 * Borderlands