Spiral Knights - The Swarm's Snarbolax

The Swarm's Snarbolax

8 replies [Last post]

Sat, 01/25/2014 - 15:59

Delos-Xk

"The number of knights who have fallen to this devouring beast is uncountable.
Any who try to face it have fallen prey to it's paralysing stare.
Any who try to slash or shoot at the beast is rendered inept.
Any who try to defeat the creature... fall."

A knight sacrificed his life to get this image of the beast:Here

LAST EDITED: 26/01/2014 - 21:45

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The Dark Swarm Snarbolax Proposal

The Swarm Snarbolax is even more fierce than the Rabid Snarbolax's and the normal Snarbolax combined. If you were to face this beast alone, even when prepared; you would surely die. The creature will constantly attack in the direction of a player, and not in a set direction. You cannot see it's eyes underground so you can't predict it's movements. This Snarbolax is much more wild than it's previous incarnations, the swarm causing it to rampage about in it's attempt to rip you to pieces.

The swarm has gone one step further in it's path of corruption and completely over-run the Snarbolax and it's domain.

Staring into the black abyss ahead of you, the light purple glow being the only sign of light ahead, you regrettably head forth along with your three squad-mates into the darkness. Ahead of you, a pink glowing party button logo appears, lines of the swarm spread from it. As you and your party steps onto it, a large, deafening, deep boom echoes through the room. A few seconds later, the room springs to 'life'. The area's borders are shown by purple lines, passing through it into the abyss looks like it'd damage you continuously until you die.

Suddenly, in front of you, an old 'friend' appears. Corrupted and distorted, it seems to have been over-run by the Swarm; much like the wolvers you faced before. The Snarbolax. the creature forces itself out of the black floor in front, seemingly in terrible pain from doing so. When it finally escapes the abyss, it looks at you, staring deep into your soul, staring straight at it's prey. It stands up on it's two feet and roars, the sound is distorted and corrupted, much like it's body. The sound splits your ears, stunning you, causing you to dizzily wander around the area; barely able to see the creature. All you can feel is it's sharp spikes and teeth pierce your body.

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ATTACKS

Bite [Piercing]: Much like it's previous forms, the creature bites in a players direction multiple times, though it's much faster than the others.

Spinning Spikes [Piercing]: The Snarbolax jumps to the center and spins three times, sends multiple spikes in all directions in 3 waves. Each spike goes in a random direction away from the snarbolax. Touching the snarbolax while it is spinning will push the player back and damage them, a small chance of also stunning.

Burrowed Charge [Piercing]: The creature burrows into the ground and waits for a second, before charging at the player from underneath at an incredible speed, causing spikes to suddenly burst from the ground underneath it's target(s). The spike appear near enough all at once, meaning the player will either need to move out the way while it's stopped for a moment or put their shield up.

Swarm Bite [Piercing and shadow]: The Snarbolax will bite multiple times, the same as his normal bite, but instead will have a chance of cursing the player. The attack will do piercing and shadow damage, meaning you will need both of these in terms of defence to survive the attack.

Swarm Dust [Shadow]: The Snarbolax dashes across the field leaving a pink mist in it's path, damaging and having a chance to curse any player that falls prey to walking into it. The dust lasts 4 seconds before dissapearing in the order that it appeared in.

Swarm Rage[Piercing and Shadow]: The creature roars (stunning for roughly a second) and jumps onto the ground randomly, causing cracks in it that emit a pink glow. The cracks spread out a long distance, all the while, spike rise from them (Causes Piercing damage). The origin of the crack, where the snarbolax landed, will leave a swarm dust cloud in it's place. The snarbolax jumps to another location quickly and upon landing, the same effect happens. This happens 3-5 times. When it stops, the creature will rest for a moment before continuing it's rampage of attacks (allowing you to attack it).

STAGES

This Snarbolax fight, unlike it's previous variants, does not include the use of a bell. Instead, the creature has a 'break' every now and then, where it stays still giving you a chance to attack it. Otherwise, while it's attacking, it's defence is increased. You can still damage it, but nowhere near as much as you'd do while it's resting. During the Snarbolax's roars, it is immune to all damage. During the fight, the snarbolax may burrow into the ground and go to a random spot, be it the corners or the middle. When it appears four spikes head out quickly from the snarbolax in all directions, much like the other battles. In this fight, the Snarbolax has three stages, details are as follows:

Stage One:
The Snarbolax uses it's first three attacks, the Bite, Spinning Spikes and Burrowed Charge. Every now and then the snarbolax has to 'patch itself up' as the swarm that's holding this dead creature together begins to fall apart from attacking too much. This is when the creature is vulnerable and can be damaged more; however two Wolvers will spawn and 'assist' the Snarbolax by defending it; kill them otherwise they will begin to get annoying. Once it's health is depleted, it will roar in pain (stunning the players) and switch to it's second stage.

Stage Two:
The snarbolax's 'cracks' are now widened and it's attacks are even more furious. It now also uses it's Swarm Dust attack as well as using Swarm Bite instead of a normal bite. The snarbolax has increased it's speed slightly, it's attacks and movement being faster than before. This also means recovering takes longer, so a void silkwing will spawn to heal it. Depleting it's health will cause the creature to roar again (stuns) and go to it's final stage.

Stage Three:
The cracks are now holes, and the Snarbolax no longer rests. However, hitting the beast will do normal damage, as it is now constantly vulnerable. An occasionaly silkwing will spawn and follow to heal the snarbolax directly (they will never heal any wolvers. The snarbolax will now use it's Swarm Rage attack, it's most deadly attack. The creature will now be even more violent, now nearly twice as fast as it first started. Once the creature is killed, it will roar in agony as it is sucked into the abyss and then it melts away... Nothing else will remain of it.

A Swarm Mark token will spawn upon it's death; however, the token emits a swarm effect instead of the glow that it usually has. The markings underneath the token are pink, the same colour as the Swarm.

THE DUNGEON

The dungeon before the Swarm Snarbolax is similar to the Rabid Snarbolax dungeon, however the area is infected much like the Unknown Passage is. This 5-floor dungeon of utter chaos and destruction will destroy challengers, but the lucky few who have proven themselves may fight the beast itself. Throughout the dungeon, there is very quiet music, not changing until you get to the final floor. In the final floor, the area is similar to the older dungeon, however the corruption get's worse and worse up to the boss-room, where the area is completely enveloped in the Swarm. The area is pitch black, and the only thing that gives the sign that it's a 'room' is the pink line around the edge. Crossing this will damage you a lot, and eventually kill you. Monsters (including the snarbolax) cannot pass this border. There is no music, and no sign of the snarbolax. The music begins when the party button activates; when the beast itself appears.

See here for an example on how the room looks.

The dungeon would be located underneath the core platform that is D29, and is available to access if you have earned 100 Fumious Fangs and turned them in for a key, which can be used to unlock the gate to the dungeon (is not consumed). Completing the lair will bring you back at the core terminal area.

MODEL

I know I'm not meant to do this, but I managed to get hold of the model and I modified the texture a little. I'm not going to put this in-game or anything, or distribute it at all, as this is just for concept purposes. Here is the model after I added the texture. If you ask, no, you cannot have this texture for your own use.

NOTES

I'll add more as ideas come to my head! Don't worry, there'll be more!

Thanks for reading!

Sat, 01/25/2014 - 20:36

Valorai

Heart of Valor

A very interesting concept, I have to say.

Although personally, I think the rabid snarbolax is enough.

(Nothing else to say)

Sun, 01/26/2014 - 01:48

Masterreeve

I make you black, bluue and red all over

A very nice concept, This would probably be the closes thing to T4 we would ever get. Would seem more plausible if there was a Swarm's version for every boss in the game, so I hope you intend to continue this string of threads. Parts of it does seem like fake difficulty, as all you really did was increase his damage/health/speed but the idea itself does have potential.

A few points of interest however:
- Swarm turrets cannot b destroyed, so unless you intend for these turrets to be different from the ones in the Unknown Passage, including the turrets might be a tad over the top.
- What does the [???] mean on Swarm Dust? Does that mean the damage type isn't like anything else previously shown in the game? If it is, I suggest making a new damage type called Swarm/Abyss/what-have-you that is only present in these new Swarm infested levels. A new line of armor with Swarm defense will be craft-able from these new bosses, and Swarm defense will become an extremely rare defensive UV that can be rolled at Punch on any pre-existing armor (it cannot be obtained from crafting UVs)(also note that these new armor will not be 6*, but instead 5*. If they do become 6*, they must be crafted from the old SL armor). Or, a more simpler solution would be to simply give this attack shadow or normal damage.
- No damage type was given for Swarm Rage, for my response on that look at the above comment.
- I'd like to know where you would intend to put these levels. Having them on the terminal on d23 would make the space too crowded since the current SL's are already there. I suggest having the elevator at the core lobby transport any players that take it to another area of the Clockworks (not the core) where they may choose which Swarm infested area to travel to, similar to the area behind the terminal for the SL's. Of course it would make sense for these new areas to require payment to enter, so either make them use Shadow Keys or make a new item that costs more. After completing the area, the party would find themselves on the surface of the core closer to the core gate, below the core lobby on d29 (not inside the core).

That's about it for my post.
P.S
Nice work on the artwork, it was very well done.

Sun, 01/26/2014 - 04:12

Ding-Dong-Die

Yes, these new things should

Yes, these new things should be in the core terminal place (depth 29) and you would have to use a new item called swarm keys that cost more than shadow keys.

Sun, 01/26/2014 - 04:14

Ding-Dong-Die

Sun, 01/26/2014 - 11:50

Delos-Xk

Thanks for the feedback,

Thanks for the feedback, especially Masterreeve.

I did this just because I like the snarby so much, and I've been reading up on the swarm lately and have become quiet interested in ways they could develop further. I got into the mood for drawing a swarm snarbolax, so I did, and it ended up turning into this.

@Valorai
I know the Rabid snarbolax would be enough but, I wanted to explore the concept of what happened if the Swarm stole the bosses, like they do with the wolvers and such, turning them into what you see in the Unknown passage.

@Masterreeve
I see what you mean with fake difficulty, I guess I could change it around a bit (I'll work on that) to make it challenging through what the boss does and not the simple fact he has more health and whatnot. Heck, I could go to the point of where the stage changes throughout the battle but I don't know exactly (Similar to how Vanaduke brings down the ceiling and sets the floor on fire (I just beat him recently and got vanguard :3)). Continuing, I didn't know swarm turrets were immortal (I have yet to challenge a Shadow Lair, but I'm preparing for it), and originally I thought Void Wolvers would be satisfactory enough, then I thought how they'd get in the way of both the boss and the player; plus they're wolvers, they get really annoying. Originally, I was thinking of replacing the bell with something that counters the swarm, making the invulnerable vulnerable (similar to stunning snarby), but I thought it'd be tough considering how much this snarbolax would be moving about.

The [???] was meant to be a new damage type that you can't counter, as the swarm is completely different from anything you've ever faced before in the clockworks; or at least, rarely face. Thinking about it now, that would be a little too harsh, having it have no defence at all. I just can't decide weather to make it shadow or a new type. Thinking about it from a games development angle, incorperating a new damage type WOULD take quite a bit of work, so making it shadow would be appropriate, and would also mean players would have to get both shadow and piercing defences to face this boss effectively. Considering that, I think 5* equipment might be sufficient, as long as it's sufficiently levelled. btw, yes, I did forget to put a damage, That one would be a mix of Piercing and ??? (shadow I guess, if I change it to shadow). Piercing would be from the spikes that land, and the ???/shadow would be from the dust cloud left behind.

From the start I knew having them with the other SLs would be too much, and I just forgot to specify my idea as to where the entrance(s) would be located. I was intending them to be starting from the core area, but I believe the current elevator located there would be the elevator to inside the core (It's pretty obvious that area is planned to be used to go into the core, considering the alpha squad needed to go in there and whatnot. I think the door is actually the circular thing you see here). If anything, I think the best place for it to be would be the core area, but where would it go? Perhaps the swarm could infect the area partially, creating a bridge of sorts to the elevators with these Swarm Lairs (Calling them that would be confusing, since it would also be SL. Maybe Abyss Lairs?), but that's just a rough idea that'd need more thought.

In response to the keys, I think either it would be a new type of key that costs energy, or perhaps a high amount of the seals of the original boss (for example the snarby's swarm key would require a high amount of Fumious Fangs to purchase the key). After the lair itself, a new area underneath d29 would be pretty cool... thinking about it, maybe the elevator shown in the image from earlier would actually be suitable, taking the player down to an Abyss Lair entrance area. That could be a requirement to enter the core stage of things, passing through them to get to the entrance, but that would make it TOO difficult to enter the core. It's a neat idea, but maybe it could just let the player bypass these layers and have them as optional. Having them as requirements to get in the core would maybe be too much? I'm not too sure. I like the idea but in practicality it may be too difficult for players.

Oh, and before I forget, it would probably be classed as T4. I think that'd also be the same for the core areas, if/when they're released. I don't think the shadow lairs should even be T3, but instead T4 (knowing how tough the shadow vanaduke is, which is what I'm getting at.). Thanks for the response! ^^

@Ding-Dong-Die
As I explained above, yeah, I think a new item would be suitable as a requirement for entry.

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Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll modify the main post and change things around a little, improve it and whatnot!

Mon, 01/27/2014 - 08:03

Sandwich-Potato

Not sure on the Shadow aspect. The Swarm is gloomy and all, but that doesn't mean it's powered by dark rituals and energy, like Undead and Fiends use.

Tier 4? That would require a whole new bunch of star upgrades of stuff, and I'm pretty sure a Tier 4 Chaos would murder said fourth tier.

Mon, 01/27/2014 - 10:09

Delos-Xk

@Sandwich-Potato That's what

@Sandwich-Potato
That's what I originally thought, but from a development angle it'd be a lot of work to incorporate this new damage type and have armours that can put up defence against it. Also, T4 would require a lot of stuff too, but I'm pretty sure that's under way already with the core stuff; but I dunno, maybe not. Either way, the new stuff with the core IS most likely going to be more difficult.

Thinking about it, when has the game had a major update? I suspect the next one is going to be something big storyline wise. I'm thinking either more crimson hammer stuff or something related to the core, but that's another discussion for another place. If it was the core, I suspect it'd be classed as a new tier.

Tue, 01/28/2014 - 03:55

Rihzome

Damage Types

@Sandwich-Potato
Swarm Turrets, Void Wolvers and Void Lumberers deal Normal damage only, just several times the amount of a tier 3 of the same variety. For some odd reason, Void Zombies deal Normal / Shadow, Void Thwackers deal Normal / Elemental and Void Gels deal Normal / Piercing.

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The Swarm's Snarbolax