A Botanical Tunneler
Botanical Tunnelers are Bio Lieutenants native to the planet Verdanth . They are large, plant-like enemies with large teeth-like spikes. Despite their numerous "teeth", Botanical Tunnelers only attack by burrowing through the ground and ambushing players with AoE poison clouds.
There are three Botanical Tunneler Captains in the game, one in each difficulty mode:
- Contagion, the Deadly Epidemic (Onslaught)
- Cormeer, the Cloud of Death (Invasion)
- Tunax, the Toxic Terror (Apocalypse)
Lore[]
One of the most destructive Darkspore entities on Verdanth is the terrifying Botanical Tunneler. Burrowing through soil, sand or even solid rock, a Botanical Tunneler can surprise even its most uncanny enemies by erupting directly next to them. Protected by an iron-strong dendritic armor, a Tunneler kills with its toxic death cloud that can penetrate most armor types.
Strategy[]
From a distance, Botanical Tunnelers will dig their way to a Hero's position to unleash their toxic clouds of poison, with each cloud refreshing the previous poison debuff. They are very annoying in large groups and should be taken out as soon as possible.
They are completely immune to attacks while underground, and will remain motionless while above ground. If the player moves far enough away, they will return into the ground and pursue them.
A good tactic is to use Vex's Chrono Blink and teleport to their position, then attack the Tunneler before it releases its clouds. This strategy can also be used with Blitz's Ride the Lightning.
Another possibility is to use Revenant's Terrifying Curse squad ability to neutralize and damage them before they have a chance to dig.
If you happen to get poisoned, you can cure it with Meditron's Syndrome Shift or Tork's Sporogenesis, just to get it out of the way. A word of caution with using Tork though, the Tunneler's poison cloud will automatically Crit because they are both Bio-genesis.
The 'Immune to being poisoned by Darkspore' secondary stat renders Botanical Tunnelers completely harmless, the only exception being their melee attack from bursting out of the ground.
Trivia[]
- If a Botanical Tunneler tunnels beneath an energy bridge on Zelem's Nexus, the player can see them underground before they even emerge.
- Botanical Tunnelers bear a resemblance to 'Leevers', common enemies from The Legend of Zelda universe.
- Botanical Tunnelers also (somewhat) resemble the real-life Trifolium repens, otherwise known as the 'White Clover'.
- Due to their peculiar body structure, it is hard to discern where the front or back of the creature is, making Skar's Opportunism almost useless against them. However, as with most enemies, they will likely face you to attack, so this can be used to get a general idea of which direction its facing.