I got this idea from the Arcane Salamander gear. Thinking that an armor has been imbued with arcane power, why not a monster.

I have a few ideas for the use of arcane monsters.

Arcane monsters, what are they? Are they monsters that have found some kind of power to make them stronger? Do they have some relation to the core or are they a new threat that rivals the swarm (not mini swarms)?

These once ordinary monsters have obtained a mysterious power that makes them stronger. Arcane monsters have their health and attack power doubled (health is tripled if they are a rare/event single monster explained below). Judging by the color of the Arcane Salamander armor and the Arcane Halo, I'd say arcane monsters would be blue. There is one type of each monster in its family that has arcane power.

List of arcane monsters:
- arcane salamander (blue salamanders with red eyes)
- arcane quicksilver (blue quicksilvers with cyan spikes)
- arcane pearl greaver (blue greavers with same blue eye and wing rings)
- arcane hurkat/droul ( blue kat/zombie with green eyes and same mouth color/same green eyes and toxic bubbles)

Both kats and slags seem like possible candidates for an arcane monster, but one should be an arcane type. Whichever is more prefered.

There is one monster of each of the common four status effects: fire, shock, freeze, and poison.

If you noticed, there are only pierce and shadow monsters that can become an arcane type. It might appear that monsters with higher intelligent and/or no intelligent at all are unable to acquire this power. Or gremlins want nothing to do with or can't get this power. It might not even affect inorganic monsters (constructs).

Now to get into their uses.

I was thinking of using arcane monsters as one of the three ways: a rare monster like love puppies and impostocubes, a search and kill event like the Black Kats, or a new mission story line (either prestige or danger).

Rare monsters-

If they were used as rare monsters then they would take the place of any monster of its type. An example would be an arcane salamander taking the place of any chromalisk. Another thing as rare monsters is that they have tripled health and doubled attack power. Arcane monsters would also give a bit more heat and crowns than their normal counterparts.

Event monsters-

Like Black Kats, arcane monsters would spawn in the place of their own monster type. Monsters seem to be infected with a strange power and it appears to be spreading and making them stronger. You are to search and kill the monsters to stop this epidemic from spreading further into the clockworks. Gremlins are keeping their distance away from these monsters making them harder to find and constructs are unaffected by it. Arcane monsters would be killed for tokens that can be used to trade for prizes. Health and attack power is the same as what the rares would have. When killing an arcane monster, it will drop tokens and these tokens can be traded for probably costumes, materials, or a new armor. Like the Black Kat event it will be limited to last a certain amount of days/weeks.

Mission monsters-

Unlike the other two, this one has a story line to it. It might be different from the event information. In the mission the monsters' health and attack are doubled (health is the only thing different from the other two. The Spiral Knights have taken notice on strange monsters that have appeared in the clockworks. The mission is called Depth of Mystery and they seem to be located in the Mystery Grounds, a place similar to the ordinary clockworks but covered in an eerie blue haze somewhat similar to the poison theme. In the Mystery Grounds, there are chromalisks, lichens, greavers, and kats/zombies. Silkwings can also be found there. More are being found and something must be done about it. You must enter this place and find out what is going on. Basically you will enter the clockworks, kill arcane and normal monsters, and find an artifact giving information at the end that tells about the Arcane Power. There would be probably 40% arcane monsters and 60% normal monsters in the mission.

*Note- It is highly recommended to bring combo defense and resistance armor in the mission.

Event or mission rewards will be determined by OOO.