Runner

OFFENCE
Runner	Difficulty: Hard Supervisors: Queen Rank: Not defined Duties: Capture and harass prey. Guides: N/A Unlock Requirements: Not available. Detailed Description: |__________| Not defined |__________|

Playing a Runner

You are essentially the broods scout. Your primary task is to scout the land around the Hive, identify any threats and possible hosts, and where the opportunity arises, capture hosts or harass any identified enemy.

Speed and cunning are your weapons, a fragile body and relatively weak attack are your Achilles heel. A few well-aimed shots will bring down a Runner, and as most Marines tend to fire [b]lots[/b] of poorly aimed shots, death can come swiftly if you're not cautious and careful.

Once evolved from a Larva, you should immediately seek to explore the world on which you find yourself. Eventually you might find you encounter hostile beings that spit metal death. This is where your [b]hide[/b] verb comes in to play. With this activated, and for no drain on plasma, you can hide under tables and in crates, allowing you to both scout and report back on enemy movements as well as set up ambushes using your fellow sisters to help lure prey closer to you. The Runner starts with the Pounce ability as soon as it evolves from a larva. This ability allows a Runner to close distance with Hosts quickly, and will knock a Host to the ground if aimed to hit them. This works perfectly in conjunction with hide to let you ruin a Marine's day.

Runners serve best at harassing round start survivors, who are ill equipped to fend you off, or hunting isolated Marines. They can also operate well during larger conflicts in harassing and infecting wounded and retreating Marines, especially those that may get cut off from the rest of their squad.

Runner Evolution

After consuming some Royal Jelly (created by the Queen) and allowing it to become absorbed by their body, Runners can evolve into a more powerful, larger variant of their caste; the Hunter.

The Hunter gains increased health, and becomes a more focused stealth and ambush fighter. Gaining a cloaking ability, the Hunter becomes a more effective single fighter than a Runner could ever be.

Runner Tactics

• Hunt in a pack! Alone you are weak, but as a group you can overwhelm most small groups of Marines, and any isolated Hosts are easy pickings.

• If you fall below half health (or take ~two hits), flee! Although the other Aliens may not agree at times, you are a valuable part of the hive. Find some weeds, heal up, and find a pack to hunt with.

• Your Pounce ability can be very formidable if you're carrying Facehuggers. Once the Host has been stunned you can hit them with two Facehuggers to incapacitate them. However, be wary of any other Hosts in the area, they can kill you faster than you can click twice. If you drag the unfortunate Host away from their comrades, you can devour them (grab, then click on yourself) to return them to a nice, snug, nest.

• When you evolve from a larva, you keep your Crawl Through Vent ability. Use this to your advantage, there are a number of vents placed around the Nexus, use them as a quick escape if you're in danger, or use them to stalk Hosts while keeping to shadowy areas.

• If you find yourself assaulting the Sulaco, try to escape the shuttle as quickly as possible. Your low health prevents you from being much use during the Hangar assault, so find a vent and move to a less populated area. If you're lucky, there should be unarmoured civilian personnel that you can infect quickly.