That's... a really big skorpion!  |
Swarm Tyrants are Boss rarity enemies. They have some of the largest health pool and are very difficult to defeat without good team work. Swarm Tyrants can use their body's weight to land right on their foes dealing enormous damage.
Etymology and Anatomy
The Swarm Tyrant’s name is derived from the combination of Swarm (a large and dense group of insects) and Tyrant (an oppressive ruler). It is named as such because in its swarm of skorpions, it is the largest and it’s tyrannical nature comes from the fact that it doesn’t hesitate to force its hatchlings to fight against enemies for its own survival. The most important thing for a Swarm tyrant is itself, according to Venwick Crok, an Arcanist.
The Swarm Tyrant is a large hexa-pedal skorpion with jointed appendages, found deep inside dark, damp caves. It has 4 tiny eyes arranged in a diamond shaped pattern in its front, below which is its wide mouth attached to two mandibles. It has a dark chitinous exoskeleton all over, except for 3 bulbous sacs. The exoskeleton is spiky and tough. Swarm Tyrants have highly corrosive blood like other skorpions, which can damage even the thickest javelin armor.
Its sacs are filled with acid and are brightly colored. Unfortunately, because of their bright coloration and large size, the two sacs on its sides can be easily targeted by predators. But the Swarm tyrant itself is a giant monster, so there are very few who dare challenge it. The third sac in the back is slightly smaller and on its back. It also has two stingers attacked on its top.
Swarm Tyrants can also shed their exoskeleton time to time.
Narrative Involvement
Swarm Tyrants like other skorpions came into Bastion through the cataclysm that destroyed the ancient Arcanist city of Anshar. Since then, they have been found in various locations. Although, they are still rare, their size monumental!
Tyrant Mine
After several bands of merchant caravans that bring supplies to Fort Tarsis went missing, Corvus discovered that Scars used acid-based weapons to cause problems around the caravans’ route. Corvus finally pinpointed the location of the source of scars’ acid supply around the Academy Ruins.
Scars were using two volatile Shaper Relics and acid found in skorpion eggs to create these acidic weapons. There were so many eggs in this location that there had to be some unknown source to them.
After silencing the relics, defeating the scars, going through a buried shaper ruin, silencing more relics, defeating more scars, and fighting several swarms of skorpions in between, the Freelancer and their team reached deep inside the Shaper ruin, a place only known as The Hive.
Through the funnel in the center of the Hive, came out a monstrous skorpion. The Freelancers’ job was to put an end to this acid source so that scars would not make more acid weapons and cause trouble to their caravans. Once the Swarm Tyrant was defeated, Sev collected samples from it and all the defeated skorpions, and took them to the Arcanist Academy in Antium for study.
No One Likes Spiders
During the Season of Skulls in the year 468 LV, conjunctions started appearing in Northern Bastion. One of these conjunctions led to an eerily mesmerizing, altered version of the Hive called Tyrant's Revenge. This place showed up with a Swarm Tyrant unofficially nicknamed Crawling Horror.
Was this the ghost of the Swarm Tyrant from the Hive, trying to get revenge during this ominous time of the year? Was this new location the skorpion heaven? Either way, it could not be allowed to escape the conjunction and cause havoc in Bastion. So, the Freelancer defeated this Swarm Tyrant and prevented it from escaping, and hence contained the conjunction.
Encountered Expeditions
At least one Swarm Tyrant can show up in the below list.
Encounter Locations
The following places are all the locations where Swarm Tyrant can be found, either physically or in the lore. They may not be always found there, but have a high chance of being found in these locations.
Strategy
The Swarm Tyrant’s movements are very predictable. It also has 3 large glowing sacs which should be an indicator that they are its weak points. The Swarm Tyrant is vulnerable to fire. Setting it on a Fire Status will do more damage to it.
Overview
The Swarm Tyrant has 6 health bar pips. So, its fight is divided into 6 phases. Once a health bar pip disappears, it tries to retreat to its lair by using its Wall Climb.
However, unlike other bosses, the only time it is invulnerable is when the Tyrant is not present in the arena, i.e., when it has retreated to its lair. This means, it is possible to kill the Tyrant in one phase, rather than drawing it out to 6 phases simply by keeping it down.
The Swarm Tyrant and Skorpions regularly drops ammo and repair packs. Collect these resupplies to replenish the javelin and weapons.
Combat
During each phase, the first thing the Tyrant does is summon its minions using Shriek Summons. It literally shrieks to call its hatchlings to defend it. It is best to avoid fighting these skorpions and focus on the Tyrant itself. These skorpions: Digesters, Soldiers, and Workers constantly attack the javelins to keep them from dishing damage to the Tyrant.
The Swarm Tyrant Prepares to Spine Launch
At any point in combat, the Swarm Tyrant can do its Frontal Attack where it stomps on any nearby enemies in front of it. So, it is best to not be close to the Tyrant. The Swarm Tyrant can also Spine Launch to land on a javelin, ensnare it underneath its legs and do damage to it. In this case, if the Tyrant jumps, it is a cue to simply go to a different location in the arena.
The Tyrant can randomly choose a target and spit out either webs or acid.
If a hovering or flying target is hit by Acid Spit, there is a good chance that they will be knocked down and left with bare minimum health. So, it is best to avoid the edge of the arena and the mound in the center, as these two locations have acid mist that does damage to armor. This is also a long range attack.
If the target is hit by Web Spit, then they will be trapped inside web and stuck to ground and be under webbed status. In this case, there is good chance that the Tyrant will Spine Launch on the javelin and obliterate it with a one hit knock out. To escape from webbed status, keep trying to jump rapidly. However, doing so will put the javelin in overheat status, so the javelin won’t be able to fly immediately. The best thing to do at that point is use evade or hold the shield up to go elsewhere. If stuck on the same spot, the Swarm Tyrant will Spine Launch to attack the javelin.
The Swarm Tyrant’s Maggot Shed
When an enemy is doing aggressive attacks, the Tyrant will start chasing them around the arena in a circle to try to stomp on them.
Finally, the Swarm tyrant violently shakes itself to release maggots on its body onto its enemies. These red-colored maggots can bounce off walls and do a substantial damage to shields. This attack is only obvious while fighting the Swarm Tyrant in Tyrants Revenge and may not be observed any more in the Hive.
When a health bar pip is emptied, the Swarm Tyrant performs a Shriek Summons and wall climbs to retreat into its lair. While climbing walls, it is vulnerable to any damage. So, it is a good time to try and focus on its sacs.
The Swarm Tyrant Summons its Hatchlings
Once back in its lair, the Swarm Tyrants performs a Retreated Shriek Summons. It gives out a loud shriek, and hordes and hordes of skorpions come out of one a webbed cavelet (among many) located by the ground. For a short duration, only the skorpions keep swarming out of this cavelet. It is a good idea to perform as many combos on them to quickly build ultimate charge.
The Swarm Tyrant will randomly pounce out of a cavelet. This is usually the same cavelet as the one where the skorpions swarmed out, but not necessarily always. Before it pounces out, the Tyrant will shriek again. So, if a javelin is near the swarm of skorpions, it is best to move away elsewhere.
Finally, when each bulbous sac is ruptured, the Swarm Tyrant will collapse to the ground. But just because the sacs have been destroyed, doesn’t mean its weak points have disappeared. The hollowed-out spaces where the sacs once were, become new weak points. But doing damage to these spaces will not make the Tyrant collapse.
It is a good practice to destroy the sacs and keep attacking the new weak points to defeat the Swarm Tyrant faster. If by any chance the Tyrant gets up, it will continue its attack patterns until all its health bar pips are depleted.
Note: The lower the number of health bar pips the tyrant has, the more desperate it becomes and more skorpions it summons.
Trivia (May Contain Spoilers)
- The Swarm Tyrant was first showcased in the 2018 E3 demo. It had much darker bulbous sacs. It was also heavily armored.
- Swarm Tyrants are all females and perhaps the only ones to lay eggs in their nests.
- The diamond-shaped placement of the four Swarm Tyrant’s eyes is akin to that of a Mantikar.
- Swarm tyrant is the only Boss to appear outside a stronghold or a cataclysm.
- The Swarm Tyrant in The Hive summons skorpions, whereas the one in Tyrant’s Revenge summons Mistborn Skorpion.
- When the Swarm Tyrant is defeated, it collapses to the ground. It is possible to enter inside its hollow in-game model.
- The acidic weapons created by scars using the skorpion eggs, are very likely Seeker Mines used by Scar Destroyers.
- The ability names are taken from the Anthem Prima Guide and datamined files. They may have been slightly modified to avoid confusion with other in-game names.
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