welcome to the definitive crusher guide! All crushers pals are welcome to comment on or suggest bits to add to the guide. Credit will be given!
Hey little larvae, what do you want to be when you grow up?
A Ravager perhaps, to shred your foes?
A carrier, to infect your foes?
Hey! how about a crusher? why it's a great career choice!
Do you like to:
- get shot alot?
Use your head to break things?
Run over people or knock them down?
Run into explosions or large groups of people?
Be a literal bodyguard for squishier aliens?
Many more roles??
then maybe being a crusher is for you! read on little larvae...
The pros
- With your armoured head, you can, with good luck take alot more punishment than other castes, giving you both a support and offensive role
You're great at stunning and crowd control
Your charge can break barricades, walls, and most barriers
You have one of the best, if not THE best tackle ability in the game
You're highly resistant to explosions, make you a great minesweeper and the like
You can defend chokepoint and the like very effectively
You work great in a team, you go getter you!
you can knock marines over if you charge into them, stunning them and normally badly hurting them!
The cons
- You're vulnerable to attacks from the back and sides
Armour piercing ammo and attacks do more damage to you, and defeat your armour with ease (obviously!)
You're slow (when not charging)
You're a big, fat target
Crashing into something sturdy can stun you if you don't break it, which can lead to your death
Your charge constantly drains plasma when in use
You have no tail attack
Your slashes are pretty weak
You do poorly in wide open spaces
To crush your enemies - rules of thumb
Its a bad idea to go off hunting solo or without support, especially in somewhere without weeds. If you want to run away, but marines are chasing you, you will either have to try and charge away, letting them shoot you in your vulnerable back and sides, or moonwalk (more on this later) and hope you can get to safety. Marines run faster than you when not charging, so it's entirely possible for them to chase you down and end you if you're hurt.
Sentries still pose a significant threat to you, and should not be taken on alone. Thier bullets will easily pierce your armour, and unupgraded, one burst from one will nearly put you in the grave!
Flamethrowers are also dangerous to you due to your slow movement speed when not charging.
A direct hit from an ap rocket will put a serious dent in your health!
Don't die for the wrong reasons. While it is noble and normally doable to shield a critical hive member while they get dragged to safety, it would be a waste for you to die say, shielding a young runner, especially if you both die!
Knives and machetes pierce your armour, and when not charging, marines can get into melee range quickly, tackling is your friend here
Don't slash when you could be tackling! unupgraded, your slashes are like gentle kisses. It's much better for you to tackle someone and let a ravager slay them then try slashing them yourself!
If you know you're going to be charging into somewhere with a sentry or a large group, don't do it on anything other than full health. Remember you will have to get back to safety with potentially multiple angry marines firing at you!
to see them driven before you - techniques
Moonwalking - While holding a direction arrow, spam click in the direction you would like your head to face. (rip your tendons) This is a very important crusher tactic, and allows you to retreat while letting your armoured head protect you.
Smash and Grab - charge into a group, use your stomp, then drag, or tackle and drag an unfortunate stunned victim away with you for your sisters to dismember. Remember your movement is slowed further when dragging, and sometimes depending on the damage being dealt to you, you may have to give up the drag and get back to safety.
Hit and Run - Run in, use your stomp, run out again. Useful for when the enemy is behind barricades you cannot break with one charge (plasteel barricades and the like)
Demolition man - get a good charge going, and smash through as many lines of enemy barricades as you can. Use your stomp to escape rather than at the start.
Run em down! - If you hit a marine at moderate to high momentum, you will knock them flying and cause serious damage. You can use this to take out dangerous individuals, such as smart gunners or sadar users. Just be careful they don't dodge your charge and you overextend yourself!
Trample - If you move over a prone marine while charging, you will run them over, doing serious damage and potentially breaking bones. You can utilise this by timing your stomp to knock someone down just before you get to them. One thing to keep in mind - captured hosts in nests can often be accidentally trampled by you and potentially die if you keep charge on around the hive. Best keep if off there, eh?
Fuck you sentry!- If you charge into a sentry at high momentum, it will be automatically knocked over, but you will also be stunned[b/] If you've taken a burst from the sentry while charging, you may be at low health, so always do this with backup incase marines guarding the sentry take advantage of your prone state!
to hear the lamentations of their women commanders
coming soon.
