Advanced Crusher Guide

[Toroic]

EDIT: So much has changed, and crushers are now a lot worse. Most of these no longer apply.




Slow Charging: REMOVED

Crushers can creep along at roughly 1 tile per second and continue to build momentum and max speed, allowing surprising acceleration with little warning other than spaced out stomps and the crusher having their head down. This works well for both increasing deflection chance and combined with a long charge.

Extended charge: REMOVED

While crushers hit 30 (max) momentum in about a screen, they continue to increase maximum speed for several screens after that. This is a large advantage both for getting into position for a stomp and for ramming marines who thought they had more time to move to the side.

Curving: REMOVED

Crushers retain their speed (but not momentum) briefly after cancelling a charge, which can let them move perpindicularly 4 tiles in like half a second, allowing you to get into melee with a marine far faster than normal or drop a stomp somewhere unexpected.

Charge cancelling

Moonwalking or even clicking in front of yourself cancels momentum.

Trampling

Trampling damage is based on momentum and does nearly as much damage as a ram, and appears to have a high chance of bone breaks. If you see a spit stunned marine or one who got hit by boiler stun acid you can trample them at max momentum /without resetting momentum like a ram will/. This means you can still slow charge, curve, or ram a second marine after pretty much 1 shotting the first one.

Stomp trampling: REMOVED

You can stomp without resetting momentum, allowing you to stomp a marine 2 tiles ahead, trample them, and keep moving. Great for duels.

Table flipping

Crushers can destroy flipped tables from the side or bottom. They can also stand up and flip tables to make it easier. Doesn't work with reinforced tables.

Boiler blocking

Stand in front of boilers. They can shoot through, they can't soak many shots, and you can charge after the acid bomb to cause some damage. Very powerful on defense and offense to help the boiler keep watching and firing globs to keep up pressure.

Downed Xeno blocking

Crushers should generally not be pulling xenos to safety while under fire, they should block and other xenos should pull to safety. Much more efficient.

It also works when abducting a host, you can block bullets for them and the xeno pulling them as a crusher so you don't let marines deny you a larva.

Stomp Chaining: REMOVED WITH STOMP REWORK

Best way to chain stomps is to establish the order and wait as long as possible before stomping. I like to stand so if they get up and move a tile or two they still get dunked, and tacklespam while doing so.

Don't blow your stomp too early, and remember you need line of sight. Doesn't work around corners.

Knocking down sentries

15 momentum charge and you can knock over a sentry, disabling it until a marine stands it back up. You'll self stun but will recover faster than the sentry can be picked up. Stomp before or after, and ideally use a boiler cloud for cover.



For an extra dick move, back off after I injuring a marine and then line up a charge to hit their savior. If you land it right you can trample kill and ram in the same charge.

Ass to Wall

If marines are trying to surround you, it may be better to get your ass to a wall instead of just trying to moonwalk, because it makes it that much harder to flank you, and makes it easier to potentially line up an escape route (for example, in cafeteria if you're getting flanked, you can get your ass to a wall and then crush doors to cyro to escape.

Crush Trains: REMOVED

If you're looking to break a multi charge obstacle (such as blast doors on welded doors to the bridge). You can line up two crushers and have the first move out of the way as the second slow charges to take down both barriers nearly instantly and surprise the marines on the other side. I'd recommend the second crusher stomps first, as they will already be moving through the doorway.

This is also effective for nearly instantly breaking into the dropship, as you can crush the shutter and then the door.

This technique also works for reinforced walls as the first crusher will bonk and be downed, so the second crusher can simply run over them.

Surviving SADAR

The most dangerous thing to a crusher is a AT (Anti-tank) SADAR rocket. Second most dangerous is a WP (White Phosphorus) rocket.

Young crushers should make every effort to never get hit by either rocket. At mature, it is essential that you have guarding pheromones and stay on/near weeds, but you can survive both.

No matter the age though, don't let yourself be down to even half if there is a SADAR around unless you just saw them fire. SADAR take some time to reload, so take advantage of a whiff.

HE rockets briefly blind you like all explosions, but don't do any damage.

Fighting Preds: NOT COMPLETELY REMOVED BUT GOOD LUCK

Predators are perhaps the most dangerous single opponent a crusher will ever face, but they can be beaten solo. (NOT ANYMORE) I'll need to collect more data before I know whether Crushers are better or worse than ravagers

Predators are very tough, and I don't know all the kinds of weapons they have, but predators are vulnerable to bone breaks just like humans are. Trample and ramming are both highly effective at breaking bones, and crusher tackles are highly effective. Try to catch them in something surprisong like a slow charge into a fast charge, or a stomp trample. A broken leg is a very unhappy predator who is also vulnerable to additional ramming.

Be aware that the predbomb will probably kill you, so unless you're ready to die shiny and chrome I'd try to cripple more than kill. Or just intimidate the predator into not messing with you.

It appears to be impossible to tackle/slash cloaked predators, but ram, trample, and stomp still work. If you can wound the predator, try to watch for drops of blood and keep trying to ram and trample them.

I've killed a predator 1v1 off weeds, and survived. Had I not utilized all these techniques we probably would have either died together or I would've been slaughtered.

Crushers > Electric Grills

Crushers can smash electric grills with a ram of sufficient speed. If you don't have enough speed, you get shocked and stunned.

Powerful tool if you are confident in your charging, but spitter/prae can use acid spit to break them as well.

Drive By: REMOVED

Dropping huggers does not stop your momentum, so a crusher can drop them while charging to cause additional disruption to maines, and punish marines attempting to point blank a crusher from the side. Very useful when say, charging through tablefort because you can build up too much speed to take significant damage. Huggers are cheap if a queen is laying like she should be, so laying them down as mines as you run through a group of marines, or dropping them on a marine can save you time over the standard double hugger.

Guarding Pheromones and you

I believe guarding pheromones are currently the best option for a crusher on weeds, as guarding seem to increase the rate of deflection to the point even a mature crusher can deflect an entire clip of rifle ammo from the front. They also allow crushers to survive AP shots at mature without being put into crit, which means the crusher can escape with their life.

Skydiving

Whenever possible I try to crush not only the doors but the dropship shutters because if you get launched with the ship you have an avenue to escape.

I haven't tested it yet with multiple ages, but at elite and full health a crusher can survive the fall without being put into crit, meaning they aren't relying on landing on weeds to survive. Young probably need weeds to survive, and mature may be able to survive without them.

Digging: REMOVED

Crushers are unique in that they are the only caste capable of breaking rock tiles. There are a number of applications for this ability.

1) Making secret paths to hide larva whole being attacked from marines, or to hide hivelord escape routes

2) Making hidden paths for flanking

3) Making a 1 tile wide path which is incredibly hard to defeat a crusher in, or a 2 tile path for boiler bombs.

4) Making grid like forts through the rock that marines are forced to move single tile through.


EDIT: As you can see, crushers have been changed a lot and pretty much all the advanced techniques no longer work. As a result, the maximum potential of crushers is far, far lower than it used to be. Crushers are durable but they're slow (even while charging) their tackle sucks, and they no longer have reliable tackles or stomps. They are no longer an efficient use of a t3 slot except as a meatshield for boilers.

[Casany]

I like the guide, it's well written. Though, I rarely go t3.

[Toroic]

Added a few more techniques.

[Toroic]

Added some nuances with fighting SADAR specs and predators without any spoilers.

[Toroic]

Updated with a tip on electric grills

[forwardslashN]

The best tip for any aspiring crusher is rule 0: Always have a linear path of escape. Crushers excel at taking damage, which means they can go in and come out of tough situations with their health intact. Overextending is often the most dangerous thing a crusher can do, and that is to go in blind without an escape plan and then get caught up in a battle they cannot easily disengage. Bulldoze a path you can follow in and out and you're basically unkillable.

[Toroic]

The best tip for any aspiring crusher is rule 0: Always have a linear path of escape. Crushers excel at taking damage, which means they can go in and come out of tough situations with their health intact. Overextending is often the most dangerous thing a crusher can do, and that is to go in blind without an escape plan and then get caught up in a battle they cannot easily disengage. Bulldoze a path you can follow in and out and you're basically unkillable.

That's definitely great advice, my only change to that is the best escape route is one parallel to the marine front line. If they're south of the river lined up looking north, the best escape routes are east/west because they have to aim on two axis to hit you. This is especially important when facing a SADAR user.

[EXOTICISME]

Also be carefull with people who will cockblock you and start beating you to dead with melee. My advice is never went to deep to enemy defense point so they can't block your way out. I've seen some crusher that can't charge back to safety because some marines are being smart and surrounding the crusher.

[Toroic]

Updated with "digging" which helped xenos win a major against pretty significant odds.