Defender

XENOMORPH - TIER 1
Defender	Evolves From: Larva Evolves To: Warrior Role: A good engagement starter that additionally specifies in protecting other castes with it's unique tail sweep ability being key to keeping those marines at bay while injured sisters retreat back to heal. Guides: No external guides.

General Information

The defender as the name implies is meant for the protection of the hive and it's 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 surperb crowd control and lower crest/fortify abilities providing varying levels of defence against incoming projectiles.

Playing as a Defender

Playing as the defender means you walk the fine line between defending your fellow sisters and taking on small groupings of marines at a time, sometimes you will be required to fulfil both these roles if the marines have decided to push out and 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 squishy boiler behind you safe from any counter measures the marines deploy.

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 defences. Due to the defenders focus on defence 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. Lastly don't forget that as a defender you can use vents to flank marine positions.

Abilities

Abilities:	Description:
Rest	Used to rest and get up. Xenos heal faster when resting on weeds.
Regurgitate	To devour, grab a host with Ctrl + Click or Grab intent (3 in hotkey mode) then click yourself, standstill. 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 devouring them. Xenos with devoured humans inside them can not vent crawl but Xenos with devoured monkeys can. Hosts with boot knives can injure the Xenomorph they are inside if they are conscious. Using this ability with a host devoured will regurgitate them back up, giving a moderate stun. (Edit this template)
Headbutt	Headbutts into the designated target causing them to be thrown one tile. Use middle mouse button to toggle. Costs 10 plasma.
Tail Sweep	A spinning action that causes all marines within a one tile range to have a chance to be knocked down or thrown one tile. Costs 10 plasma.
Toggle Crest Defence	By lowering its crest the defender caste becomes more resistant to projectile damage. A lowered crest will cause a small slowdown while toggled on.
Fortify	When activated the defender becomes extremely resistant to projectile weapons and additionally immobile while in this hunkered down state.

Defender Tactics

• Marines using knives, throwing knives and machetes will be able to pierce your armor.
• If you're charging into a group of marines always start or end the engagement with a tail sweep.
• Fortify can be used in front of boilers to provide defence against marine counter measures and to keep the boiler safe.
• Lowering your crest is a good way to get marines to waste ammo on you
• Due to how defensive the you are, you'll want to be saving crit xenos and dragging them back whenever possible.

Defender Evolution and Upgrades

Defender Upgrades are focussed around improving their defensive capabilities with an ever increasing health pool with each upgrade and an increasing rate of armor deflection as well.

Defenders can Evolve into the Warrior. The Warrior is focussed around offensive an play-style with abilities to quickly dispose of marines and then escape using the agility ability. Due to the offensive play-style of the warrior it lacks in defensive capabilities with less health and less armor deflection when compared to the defender.