Defender

ALIEN - TIER 1
Defender	Evolves From: Larva Evolves To: Warrior Role: A good engagement starter that additionally specifies protecting other castes with its unique tail sweep ability being key to keeping those marines at bay 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.

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 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 squishy boiler behind you safe from any countermeasures 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 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.
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 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. Use middle mouse button to toggle. Costs 10 plasma, cooldown: 6 seconds.
Tail Sweep	A spinning action that causes all marines within a one tile range will be knocked down or thrown one tile. Costs 10 plasma, cooldown: 15 seconds.
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. They will be able to resist knockback and stuns while the crest is lowered. Cooldown: 2 seconds (shared with Fortify).
Fortify	When activated the defender becomes extremely resistant to projectile weapons and additionally immobile while in this hunkered downstate. They will be able to resist knockback from small explosives, and take 60% less damage against explosives in general, alongside being resistant to general stuns while in this state. Additionally, you gain 5 more armor on top of the already high resistances of your caste to the front - totalling at 50 armor. Make sure to not let marines circle around you, however! Cooldown: 5 seconds (shared with Toggle Crest Defence).
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

• Reduces slash damage by 5
• Increases headbutt damage by 7.5
• Allows the defender to slash with a 50% reduction in damage against non-mobs while in fortified mode.
• Fortify armour is increased 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 70 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. Use middle mouse button to toggle. Costs 10 plasma, cooldown: 6 seconds.

Defender Tactics

• Watch out for marines with shotguns. Being stunned by either slugs or point blank buckshot is usually a death sentence.

• 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 defense against marine countermeasures 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 you are, you'll want to be saving crit xenos and dragging them back whenever possible.

• 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 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 focussed around offensive an play-style with abilities to quickly dispose of marines. Due to the offensive play-style of the warrior it lacks in defensive capabilities with less health and less armor when compared to 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.