Defender

ALIEN - TIER 1
Defender	Evolves From: Larva Evolves To: Warrior Role: A good engagement starter that works great for protecting other castes with its unique tail sweep ability being key to halt marine advances while injured sisters retreat to heal. Guides: No External Guides.

General Information

The Defender, as the name implies is meant for the protection of the hive and its members, though don't let that fool you into thinking it's only a caste about protecting others; as the Defender can additionally be an aggressive pusher. The Defender can easily push into the marines FOB or supply lines and come out victorious against overwhelming odds due it's unique tail sweep ability providing superb crowd control and lower crest/fortify abilities providing varying levels of defense against incoming projectiles.

Defender Stats

Maximum Health	500
Maximum Plasma	100
Plasma Regeneration	5
Armor	35
Evasion	0
Speed	1.6
Slash Damage	Min: 25 Max: 30
Claw Strength	1
Explosion Resistance	70

Playing as a Defender

Playing as the Defender means you can both work on the defense, protecting retreats or spearhead advances with your high armor pool. Sometimes you will be required to fulfill both these roles if the marines have decided to push out an attack. Early on in the round, you'll want to be gathering hosts, and due to your defensive capabilities, you are the perfect caste to take on any survivors who may have made it through the original infestation outbreak. Once the marines have landed in force, you'll want to take an active role in defending the weaker castes especially Boilers as your fortify ability allows you to soak a lot of damage keeping the weaker Boiler behind you safe from the marines' fire.

If defending the Boiler is already being done by a Crusher or a fellow Defender then you can move onto harassing the marines supply lines, wounded and unmanned defenses. Due to the defenders focus on defense they make good engagement starters so where possible try to work with other castes to surprise and harass small groups of marines, though note that you can also take on large groups of marines if you have support from your fellow sisters.

Abilities

Abilities:	Description:
Rest	Used to rest and get up. Xenos heal faster when resting on weeds.
Release	To haul, grab a host with Ctrl + Click or Grab intent (3 in hotkey mode) then click yourself, keep still, this will start restraining them. To stop the host from getting up and running away, you can switch to an empty hand (X in hotkey mode) and keep tackling them using Disarm intent (2 in hotkey mode) when you are restraining them, once fully restrained you will haul them. Xenos hauling humans can not vent crawl but Xenos hauling monkeys can. Hosts with boot knives or other melee weapons can injure the Xenomorph they are being hauled by if they are conscious. Using this ability whilst hauling a host will free them from your grip, giving a moderate stun.
Toggle Crest Defence	By lowering its crest, the defender caste becomes more resistant to projectile damage, gaining 5 extra armor. A lowered crest will cause a slowdown while toggled on. They will be able to resist knockback and stuns while the crest is lowered. Costs 0 plasma, Cooldown: 2 seconds.
Headbutt	Headbutts into the target dealing damage. Effects depend on if the crest is lowered or not. Normal: Has a 3 tile homing range which deals 30 damage with 5 penetration to the chest, but pushes only one tile away. Lowered Crest: Deal 20 damage with 5 penetration to the chest, knocking them back three tiles. Must be next to the target. If the target hits an obstacle, they take an additional 8 armor-piercing damage. This ability requires a direct click on the target's sprite. Costs 0 plasma, cooldown: 4 seconds.
Tail Sweep	A spinning attack that causes all targets within a one tile range to be knocked down for a short period and thrown back one tile, as well as dealing 20 damage. This ability cannot be used with your crest lowered. Costs 0 plasma, cooldown: 11 seconds.
Fortify	When activated the defender becomes extremely resistant to projectile weapons, gaining 30 armor, but is immobile while in this hunkered down state. They will be able to resist knockback from small explosives, and take 60% less damage against explosives in general, alongside being resistant to stuns while in this state. Costs 0 plasma, Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Tail Slam	Activating tail slam will begin a windup of one second, and upon conclusion, will enable you to launch a two tile attack that deals 1.2 times your maximum melee damage. It requires a direct click on the targets sprite, however, if it is missed, it only incurs a standard slash delay. Additionally, it will always hit the targeted limb. Unless otherwise stated, this is shared by all strains. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Attainable Strains

Strain:
Steel Crest

Strain Abilities

Steel Crest (Passive)

• Reduces slash damage by 5
• Increases headbutt damage by 7.5
• Allows the defender to slash with a 50% reduction in damage while in fortified mode.
• Additional armor gain from Fortify is lowered to 10

Abilities:	Description:
Toggle Crest Defence	By lowering its crest, the defender caste becomes more resistant to projectile damage. A lowered crest will cause a slowdown while toggled on. Cooldown: 2 seconds (shared with Fortify).
Fortify	When activated the defender becomes extremely resistant to projectile weapons - however, unlike the base caste, a Steelcrest defender is capable of moving at a very slow speed while fortified. They cannot resist explosive stuns, however they still take 30% less damage against explosives in general, alongside being resistant to general stuns while in this state. Additionally, you gain 15 more armor on top of the already high resistances of your caste to the front - totalling at 50 armor while fortified. Make sure to not let marines circle around you, however! Cooldown: 5 seconds (shared with Toggle Crest Defence).
Headbutt	Headbutts into the designated target dealing damage. Effects depend on if the crest is lowered or not. Normal: Has a 3 tile homing range which deals 37.5 damage with 5 penetration to the chest and pushes one tile away. Lowered Crest: Deals 27.5 damage with 5 penetration to the chest, knocking them back three tiles. Must be next to the target. If the target hits an obstacle, they take an additional 8 armor-piercing damage. This ability requires a direct click on the target's sprite. Costs 10 plasma, cooldown: 6 seconds.
Soak	When activated tracks damaged taken for 6 seconds, once the amount of damage reaches 140, the Defender is healed by 75 and the Tail Slam cooldown is reset. If the damage threshold is not reached, nothing happens. Costs 20 plasma, cooldown: 17 seconds.

Steelcrest Defender Stats

Maximum Health	500
Maximum Plasma	100
Plasma Regeneration	5
Armor	35
Evasion	0
Speed	1.6
Slash Damage	Min: 20 (-5) Max: 25 (-5)
Claw Strength	1
Explosion Resistance	70

Defender Tactics

• Watch out for marines with shotguns. Being stunned by either slugs or point blank buckshot is usually a death sentence, as it will further reduce your already low speed.

• If you're charging into a group of marines always start or end the engagement with a tail sweep, to initiate combos and prevent follow up attacks while you retreat.

• Fortify can be used in front of the Boiler to provide defense against marine fire while the Boiler prepares a shot.

• Lowering your crest is a good way to get marines to waste ammo on you. Fortifying is even more effective, but be careful to not get caught by armor-penetrating ammunition or fire.

• Due to how defensive you are, you should try to block the fire of marines on injured sisters while they retreat, or while other sisters drag crit xenos to safety.

• Unlike the similar Warrior ability, Lunge, your headbutt does not automatically go on cooldown if you miss-click. Spam click to your hearts content.

• You can headbutt and tail sweep marines who are standing on the other side of barricades. Be careful however, as if they are too far back, you will try to leap at them and hit your head in the barricade, stunning yourself and leaving yourself very vulnerable.

• You have the ability to halt the tank in its tracks if you face the tank and fortify yourself. If the tank tries to ram you head on, you will be able to stop it. Be cautious though, the tank can still rotate and shoot you. Even if you do fortify yourself, the tank can ram you if you're facing the wrong direction.

Defender Evolution

Defenders can Evolve into the Warrior. The Warrior is focused around an offensive play-style with abilities which allow it to drag and throw marines around. However, due to the offensive play-style of the Warrior, its lack of armor makes it more fragile than the Defender.

Defender Stats

Tier 16 Tier 15 Tier 14 Tier 13 Tier 12 Tier 11 Tier 10 Tier 9 Tier 8 Tier 7 Tier 6 Tier 5 Tier 4 Tier 3 Tier 2 Tier 1 Health Lower Melee Upper Melee Plasma Plasma Regeneration Armor Explosive Resistance Speed Evasion

You can learn more about alien stats here.