Lurker

XENOMORPH - TIER 2
Lurker	Evolves From: Runner Evolves To: Ravager Role: A highly mobile xeno which packs a punch, good for ambushing and general harassment of the marines supply lines. Guides: No External Guides.

General Information

The Lurker is a large step up from the Runner that precedes it. What it loses in speed and agility is largely gained in becoming a fearsome and destructive force, capable of effortlessly slaughtering any single tallhost that it finds wandering alone, where a Runner might have needed to go for a long, sloppy brawl to secure a kill.

The Lurker is not as fast as the Runner and its Pounce is more cumbersome, having him pin down his target instead of simply flooring him. However, its attack quickly becomes devastating, capable of tearing a tallhost apart once subdued, meaning that they will usually stand no chance if caught with their pants down. Its health and armor is nothing to laugh at, although it will still go down quickly if focus fired by a group.

The Lurker loses its ability to hide under objects, being a caste of much greater stature, but it gains a fascinating ability to Cloak when on Stalk mode, essentially Walking for Xenomorphs. While the Cloak is far from perfect and will easily be spotted when moving or hiding on a bright background, it will allow the Lurker to hide in far more spots, and to spring ambushes even in the open if it finds a good spot.

Playing as a Lurker

As a Lurker, you lose your ability to easily dodge attacks in exchange for more solid health and a greater attack. As such, you become more of an ambush caste, with an ability to skirmish and seriously wound tallhosts using hit and run attacks. Your Cloak helps you to set up ambushes, meaning you can wait for the perfect moment to strike instead of making a risky sprint into a potential target, which could reveal an off-screen group accompanying them, a turret, anything that could ruin your day.

While you keep your ability to Pounce, it is important to note that its purpose shifted from a disarming pounce that you and the tallhost will recover from quickly, to a disabling pin that will cause both you and your target to be floored for a significant duration, allowing you to tear them apart while they lay defenseless on the floor. This does mean however that pouncing on someone in the middle of a group will almost certainly get you killed, so avoid it at all costs.

Your Cloak is a fantastic tool. While it is not as reliable as the Runner's Hiding to conceal you for long periods of time, it can allow you to blend into the environment in a pinch to find and subdue a target. The fewer tallhosts expect you, the less they will think to carefully scan their surroundings for that one shimmer in the distance. Just remember that cloaking will make you much slower and drain your plasma, so only use it when it is needed. If tallhosts are tracking you down, they will probably see through your cloak unless you find an excellent spot.

Should you find yourself in direct combat, you are still a formidable foe, although you will not take as many shots as your bigger sisters to knock down. It is important that you try and run on the flanks as much as possible, using your Cloak wisely to close the distance without being sprayed down by gunfire from alert and ready Marines.

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)
Pounce	Pounce at target, pining the victim on the ground and causes them to drop their weapons. Lasts longer than a Runner's pounce, but also makes you immobile for a short duration while you pin the target down. Costs 10 plasma.

Lurker Tactics

• Your Cloak is best used when stationary and on a dark background. Moving will not make you any more visible, but humans will have a far easier time spotting your shimmer if it's moving across tiles. Darkness also works fairly well in concealing you, although it is not necessary. Since the tiling used in colonies is often bright outside of bathrooms, maintenance areas, and high-security areas, you might have trouble finding spots to hide in buildings.

• Isolated targets are in essence free kills for you. A single Pounce will disarm them and floor them for long enough for you to start the fight with a handful of slashes. At this point, they might have a window to fight back, but they will undoubtedly be wounded. Make a simple evasive maneuver to avoid CQC weapons like buckshot shotguns and pounce again, and you should have them in the bag.

• If you do need to brawl against a group, or partake in a massive fight, only use your Pounce for evasive maneuvers, and use your regular speed to get close to Marines and slash them. Of course, it is heavily recommended to approach from the rear or sides. Your Cloak can help on the approach, but if you start getting shot, drop it, it's not helping you if the tallhosts spot you.

• Your pounce can be used to quickly cover distance, and will let you leap into windows immediately instead of having to climb on top of them. While still not as smooth as a runner simply running over it, this will allow you to travel faster. Be careful though, pouncing into a window frame will stop your movement, so if you do it to attack a host behind it will cause you to stop on the frame. If your target has a shotgun this can end very poorly for you.

Lurker Evolution and Upgrades

Lurker Upgrades focus on making him a devastating force in ambushes. Your attacks will do more and more damage. You will also gain a modest speed boost and a significant health and armor boost. An Ancient Lurker is a force to be reckoned with, capable of efficiently fighting head to head with two or three Marines if he makes his moves smartly.

Lurkers can only Evolve into one possible caste, being the Ravager:

• The Ravager is the ultimate combat form of the Runner's evolution tree. While it loses some more speed, it grows into a large and powerful Xenomorph, capable of utterly destroying humans even under fire. Your Pounce will no longer pin tallhosts, instead of knocking them off their feet, allowing you to come in for a devastating blow immediately. Your attacks also gain an increased chance to disable hosts by slicing limbs right off. You also gain immunity to explosive stuns and burns, allowing you to engage into fights that would be ill-advised to even the most seasoned Lurkers.