corruption addict Darwinopterus acuticornus: the Corruption's Chaotic Vessel

[ZCI5250]

Hello hello, thank you for checking out my submission! Given the results of the previous few votes, myself and a few others have decided to submit pterosaurs for this vote. The last pterosaur we got was the Sinomacrops, but it wasnt exactly rideable, sooo

ZCI5250 presents:

Darwinopterus acuticornus: the Corruption's Chaotic Vessel!

^ Darwinopterus main feature

^ A Darwinopterus defending its perch from another

^average day in the wastelands (go vote for katanaa's hatzeg!)

^ art by Drawolfknight!! Go check out their thylacosmilus sub as well

Dossier:

*dossier flashes between corrupted and uncorrupted ver

Quote

WILD:
Very few creatures have adapted as well to the wastelands as Darwinopterus acuticornus. This medium-sized pterosaur truly is a stellar example of evolution, being extremely specialised for hunting down the abundant corrupted creatures that roam the barren sands. Darwinopterus seems to enjoy divebombing its prey to hunt, flying high up into the sky and then arcing downwards like a missile.

This pterosaur has another trick up its sleeve, however. Over countless generations, Darwinopterus has gained immunity to corruption in most of its body. Interestingly enough, though, the keratinous crests on their heads are still susceptible to element infusion. Darwinopterus ingests the flesh of corrupted creatures deliberately to corrupt its own crest! This wicked blade usually extends far past the creature's snout, giving it significantly more edge when it hunts.

DOMESTICATED:
Thankfully, Darwinopterus seems uninterested in hunting non-corrupted creatures, so survivors can walk up to them in the wild freely. To tame a Darwinopterus, one must feed it corrupted nodules to gain its affection. However, after a certain point in time, the Darwinopterus's crest will become corrupted, and it will enter a temporary frenzy mode. Survivors must protect the Darwinopterus while it breaks away its crest, and then resume the feeding.
 

*note: the taming method in the domesticated section is a little out of date, please disregard the protection part

(Read caption below) Size comparison:

To quickly address the concerns of Darwin being way too big, my concept has the darwinopterus around the same size as a pteranodon, albeit slightly longer. This size was also chosen as it was the bare minimum for a player to not look silly riding on the back of it. With that out of the way, enjoy the rest of the sub!!

Main gimmicks:

Corruption, affliction and addiction:
Darwinopterus's main ability is corrupting its own crest to use as a weapon. Basically, I meant for it to have adapted to be immune to corruption in its whole body except for its crest. Darwinopterus hunts corrupted creatures instinctually to eat their flesh and corrupt itself. In a sense, it's kinda "addicted" to corruption. On maps outside of extinction or where players dont have access to corrupted nodules, they can also feed their Darwinopterus element shards as a substitute for the nodules Darwinopterus will take a varying amount of corrupted nodules OR element shards to get to max corruption based on its addiction level. Think Ferox, but with an additional bar for corruption level. Darwinopterus has 5 different visual and mechanical stages of corruption, and it gains 3 base damage to its attacks per stage. A Darwinopterus switches its moves as long as it has any corruption at all. When a Darwinopterus attacks something with its corrupted crest, it has a chance to inflict a 15 second "Element infection" debuff that makes the target more vulnerable to dmg from all element-related sources, including corrupted creatures.

Stats, finisher and crest conditions:
When uncorrupted, Darwinopterus is about as strong as a pteranodon with slightly more HP and attack. The corruption is where the Darwinopterus's true potential lies though. When corrupted, Darwinopterus slashes at things with its crest instead of biting. It also does slightly more damage when gliding, kinda like a griffin. After using up all of its corruption, if the Darwinopterus is not constantly fed corrupted nodules, its crest will break, and it wont be able to corrupt itself for about 10 seconds while it “recovers”. When a creature is below 10% of their max HP, the Darwinopterus can do a finishing move on them which is activated by gliding and colliding with the creature. This will cause the Darwinopterus to phase through the creature, as it has "sliced it clean in half", and kill it instantly. This move, however, does not work on bosses. The Darwinopterus also has a separate finishing move that hits up to 5 times and has an extremely high dmg output, but breaks the crest completely

 

Usage and applications outside of Extinction:
Darwinopterus would be a good supporting and attacking creature, especially in the wastelands of Extinction given the plentiful corruption. It would have excellent synergy with meks and enforcers, both the astrocetus and astrodelphis, and anything else that attacks with element. Darwinopterus would be especially useful in the King Titan bossfight, as inflicting the titan with elemental infection allows the mega mek to deal additional damage to it. Outside of Extinction, Darwinopterus would also be a good late game tame, as tribes with sufficient element shards can use their Darwinopterus to their full potentials. Darwinopterus would also be good for PvP scenarios, as it can be used to fly by soakers and inflict them with element infection, so they can be killed more easily. Its finisher can also be used to kill tames that are super low on HP in one shot before the opposing tribe can cryo them or heal them up to above 10%

 

 

Base Stats:
HP: 250
Stamina: 200
Oxygen: 150
Food: 1200
Weight: 150
Torpor: 150

 

Moveset:

(quick note: Darwinopterus CAN in fact fly, it is listed under spacebar with takeoff/landing. There seems to be people who may have missed this, so i felt the need to point it out)

Uncorrupted:
- Primary attack (,,) : Bite, base 20 dmg 
- Secondary attack (,,) : Mouth grab, base 1 dmg
- C//(Landed only): Wing flap, does knockback, base 5 dmg 
- Spacebar// : Take off/Land 
- Can glide

Corrupted (Moveset switches upon corruption, easiest indicator is the patterns turning purple):
- Primary attack (,,) : Crest slash, base 25 dmg, gains damage per corruption stage for up to 40 dmg when fully corrupted. (Uses 1% of corruption per hit) 
- Secondary attack (,,) : Mouth grab, base 1 dmg 

- C//: Finisher slash, base 40 dmg, hits up to 5 times depending on corruption level and fully shatters crest. Last hit does base 50 dmg. (Uses up all corruption)

(very anime lol)

- Spacebar// : Take off/Land 
- Can glide, gliding into a creature with less than 10% of its max HP will do a finishing move that instakills it (100% corruption required to perform manouvre, uses 25% corruption)

 

Taming:

Taming a wild Darwinopterus consists of two stages: Feeding and riding.

Stage 1: Feeding
Since wild Darwinopterus only hunt corrupted creatures. survivors can walk right up to them safely. You will have to passively feed a Darwinopterus corrupted nodules and watch for five visual stages of its crest to signify full corruption. The Darwinopterus will screech and flutter its wings, and the patterns on its back will turn purple and pulsate violently for a while to signify that it is fully corrupted.

crest corruption in action: 
 

Quote

Corruption stages:

no corruption (stage 0)

20% corruption, thin slice of tissue on edge of crest (stage 1)

40% corruption, knob grows, tissue reaches further (stage 2)

60% corruption, knob turns into a separate fork (stage 3)

80% corruption, third fork briefly appears, corrupted tissue reaches significantly further back (stage 4)

100% corruption, full crest forms, extends past snout (stage 5)

Stage 2: Riding
Stage 2 begins when the Darwinopterus plays its full corruption animation. At this point, you will have to quickly get on the back of the Darwinopterus, and guide it to kill corrupted creatures. The corruption on its crest will get chipped off with every attack just like when tamed, and when the crest is fully broken, the Darwinopterus will land and buck you off. At this point, you have to go back to stage 1. Repeat until tamed.

How to fail: 
- attacking the Darwinopterus in any way when uncorrupted will cause it to see you as a threat and attack
- getting the Darwinopterus to below 25% HP in stage 2 will cause it to buck you off and flee.

 

Silly stuff:

Some pictures of the irl animal:

The actual real Darwinopterus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinopterus

Extra credits: Katanaa, ashgcy and many others who helped me brainstorm and come up with ideas for the Darwinopterus, Shockal, RiskyBiscuits, Sovira, RRG, DILONG, and many other amazing artists who are some of my biggest inspirations, and all of YOU wonderful people for taking the time out of your day to read through this silly submission of mine!

And that's all folks, enjoy!

Edited September 13, 2023 by ZCI5250
it does fly

[LeDonkaConka]

And why he ourple (pretty cool fella)

[ZCI5250]

idk how balanced this thing is for pvp so if yall have any tips do leave a comment ^^

 

Edited September 2, 2023 by ZCI5250

[ZCI5250]

2 minutes ago, LeDonkaConka said:

And why he ourple (pretty cool fella)

he eated too many corrupted nodules 🔥🔥🔥 

[RebelKevin94]

What all abilities does it have

[BlueWhale989]

if this creature wins ima do a little trolling (mutate them to oblivion)

[ZCI5250]

1 minute ago, RebelKevin94 said:

What all abilities does it have

darwin's main gimmick is that it eats corrupted nodules to enhance its own crest. so in essence the more corrupteds you kill, the stronger you get (to an extent of course)

[Laind004]

I like those animations!

[wisperalpino906]

Another birb

[Falcon2821]

Really cool creature design 

[Hellix]

I totally want a Darwin 😁

[RebelKevin94]

3 hours ago, ZCI5250 said:

darwin's main gimmick is that it eats corrupted nodules to enhance its own crest. so in essence the more corrupteds you kill, the stronger you get (to an extent of course)

Oh ok, I like it and I really like flyers, would just like to see you add a some more abilities to give it more appeal and make it more unique but I’m not the best at giving suggestions for a flyer especially on extinction with all the corrupted Dino’s but I’ll try to think of some that would make sense and that I think you might like 

[Rutabaga]

I'm going to be honest in saying that the corrupted crest concept alone kind of sells the concept to me. Having a more combat-oriented pterosaur would also be nice, especially for its size.

[Riot87]

7 hours ago, ZCI5250 said:

darwin's main gimmick is that it eats corrupted nodules to enhance its own crest. so in essence the more corrupteds you kill, the stronger you get (to an extent of course)

It would be funny if it had no extent to the strength buff so it just got as powerful as a titanosaur🤣🤣

[Rach883]

Really good idea, i'm not too sure on a new flyer though. I think it having some kind of addiction level like the ferox would be cool

[kimg1234567]

Another pterosaurs??

Seriously...?

[Julienp54]

good idea

[1ndocraptor]

This looks really cool, the idea of a creatures thats evolved to use corruption is really original.

Edited September 2, 2023 by 1ndocraptor

[EDSELA]

me encantaria que esta criatura se encontrar en lo alto de los edificios de la Terminal de Extinction, que aniden (hagan sus nidos o se roben las crias) en lo alto de los edificios de Extinction,

[FunkyGnome241]

pretty cool

 

[RexTheDargon]

I would really like this Pterosaur to win just cause of the design and it’s cool tail.

[ClackerRuni467]

Nice creature! 

[raptor22339]

👌

[Drauk]

Mira nomas esas animaciones pa🤌🏼

[MercRising]

Make it’s wings look more like the Banshees from avatar and I can dig.  I like the changes to the snout from the irl version.

Edited September 3, 2023 by MercRising