Attercopus aquatrophyx - the semi aquatic trophy collector

[SmileShape]

ART by SmileShape

 

Common Name: Attercopus

Species: Attercopus aquatrophyx

Time: Early Devonian

Diet: Piscivorous

Temperament: Territorial

 

Wild: 

 

“Saying that Attercopus aquatrophyx is an unusual creature, would be an understatement. While only a few spiders managed to master a semi aquatic lifestyle, these resorted to almost fully aquatic life. They very rarely get out of the water and spend most of their time latched onto underwater rock formations. With their diet consisting mainly of small fish, most ocean dwellers don’t have to worry about these arachnids, but any survivors should keep their distance just in case.”

 

Domesticated: 

 

“Attercopus is a true trophy collector. They’re remarkable at recovering all kinds of spoils of war from their fallen enemies. Some survivors have even managed to come up with ways to utilise those rare finds to increase this spider's performance even more. Another thing worth mentioning is that its tail, seemingly ending with a stinger at first glance, can actually split the last segment and can fire a very high pressure water stream, using the supply stored in this arachnid's abdomen. I’ve seen Attercopus use this ability mostly to propel themselves and perform rather high jumps, but the pressure at which the water is coming out is so high, that I bet it could be used offensively as well.”

 

Introduction:

Greetings, survivors! I introduce to you the semi aquatic tribute and artifact collector; the Attercopus !

 

The foundational ideas and selling points for this arachnid include:

 

• Getting you through most artifact caves

• Helping you get the much needed tributes for boss fights

• Customizing how you can use this creature with the addition of tribute enhanced saddle attachments

 

Size comparison next to an average survivor, Sabertooth, Carno and Rex

 

Wild

Spawns deep underwater latched onto rocks and cliffs. Will attack smaller creatures and survivors that come too close to it.

 

Suggested stats at lvl 1

• Health: 650

• Stamina:  380

• Oxygen: N/A

• Food: 1500

• Weight: 350

• Base Damage: 35

 

Taming Process:

 

Firstly, you need to have some kind of tribute in your inventory. Rex arm, Megalania toxin, Therizionsaurus claws doesn’t matter which one you have as long as you have at least one.

Wild Attercopus will not attack you when you have a tribute on you. Instead, they will be interested and let you come closer. When you do come up to one of them, they will grab one of the tributes in your inventory and inspect it. Upon inspection, the spider will choose a target for you nearby, which you’ll have to go and kill. 

Once you do, you’ll have proven yourself to the Attercopus a bit more and the taming will progress. 

Repeat until tamed. Taming varies on the type of tribute given to Attercopus.

It is worth noting that you shouldn’t keep showing the same tribute over and over. Try at least three different ones to ensure maximum taming effectiveness.

You’ll also receive different results, depending on what tributes you show to Attercopus. If given regular tributes, spider will point you to kill something like a Megalodon or Dunkleosteus and give you the usual taming speed. Alpha tributes are twice or three times as effective (depending on creature, Raptor claws give 2x, Rex/Mosa Teeth give 3x etc), but will also make you kill bigger creatures, in this case more along the lines of Mosasaurus or Plesiosaurus. You can also use Boss Trophies to tame Attercopus instantly after a single hunt, but during the hunt, you’ll be forced to hunt down an Alpha Mosasaurus or Tusoteuthis.

 

Warning! This taming method won’t look for a creature on the map and instead will force spawn one for you to kill. These creatures will always be max level, never drop any loot/tributes and will always be untameable. This is to prevent people from exploiting the taming through mass taming high level aquatic tames or farming rare tributes.

 

Tamed:

 

Saddle:

• Saddle Attachments

Variety of augments that can be applied to Attercopus’ saddles (one at a time) giving different buffs.

• Hydro Menace attachment (made out of Spino sails, Sarco skins and Basilo blubber) - increased swimming speed, lower stamina consumption, better maneuverability underwater, water supply stat is doubled

• Spiky Crawler attachment (made out of Theri Claws,  Rhino Horns and Thyla Hook-Claws) -  increased wall climbing speed, damages attackers on contact (roughly 15% damage dealt to Attercopus is dealt back) and deals grounded debuff (prevents flyers from flying as long as the debuff is active)

• Adaptive Survivalist attachment (made out of Yuty Lungs, Sauropod Vertebrae and Megalania Toxin ) - 20% increased armor (aka +20% saddle armor), greatly increased insulation for the rider and immunity to most weather conditions while mounted, increased stamina regen

 

Passive Abilities:

 

• Steady legs

Four well coordinated pairs of legs not only grant this creature the ability to scale walls, but also omni-directional movement (this includes stuff like sprinting backwards!)

 

• Water Supply

Water Supply is a new stat replacing oxygen for Attercopus. It’s used for some of this spider’s water related abilities. This stat will only refill upon contact with water or when an opponent is hit with the dehydrating bite.

 

• Artifact Collector

This creature can carry multiple of the same artifact in its inventory. When carrying any type of artifact or while being in close proximity to an artifact (either in a stand or in a cave), it gains 40% damage resistance against creatures with drag weight of 350 or lower.

 

• Pay Tribute

Attercopus can detect creatures that give tributes or select drops, from great distance, if given a sample of item dropped by those creatures.

For example: if you show Attercopus a Spino sail, it’ll then show you where the nearest Spinosaurus is on the map. 

Attercopus don’t forget, so you only need to show it every tribute once. It can only be searching for one species at a time however.

During searching, Attercopus does 2x damage to this creature only and damage it receives from that creature is halved. (applies only to wild creatures)

It also makes those creatures drop twice as many tributes/drops and enhances the quality of items you receive from killing alpha creatures.

Creatures that can be tracked and what item do they require to be tracked/give double the amount of:

Allosaurus	Allosaurus Brain
Argentavis	Argentavis Talon
Basilosaurus	Basilosaurus Blubber
Giganotosaurus/Carcharodontosaurus	Giganotosaurus Heart
Megalania	Megalania Toxin
Megalodon	Megalodon Tooth
Diplodocus/Brontosaurus/Titanosaur/ Amargasaurus	Sauropod Vertebra
Sarcosuchus/Deinosuchus	Sarcosuchus Skin
Spinosaurus	Spinosaurus Sail
Therizinosaurus	Therizino Claws
Thylacoleo	Thylacoleo Hook-Claw
Titanoboa	Titanoboa Venom
Tusoteuthis	Tusoteuthis Tentacle
Rex	Tyrannosaurus Arm
Yutyrannus	Yutyrannus Lungs
Woolly Rhino	Woolly Rhino Horn
Rhyniognatha (male only)	Rhyniognatha Pheromone
Ceratosaurus	Ceratosaurus Venom Spine
Fire/Lightning/Poison Talon	Fire/Lightning/Poison Wyvern
Deathworm Horn	Deathworm/Iceworm
Basilisk	Basilisk Scale
Nameless	Nameless Venom
Reaper Queen	Reaper Pheromone Gland
Rock Drake	Rock Drake Feather
Gasbags	Gasbags Bladder
Crystal Wyvern	Crystal Talon
Alpha Creatures	Respective Alpha Tributes

 

Actions:

• Dehydrating Bite (, , ): Basic attack dealing damage. Decreases water stat of survivors and stamina of creatures on hit. Replenishes water supply by a percentage with each hit

• Wall Climbing (, , ): Toggle wall climbing. Works both on land and underwater.

• Proppel (Click/Hold Space, , ): Attercopus propels itself into the air with the water pump tail. Height it’ll reach while doing so, depends on how long you hold the button (click = typical jump, hold for a bit = Reaper type jump). Used underwater can propel the Attercopus back to the surface. Requires and uses water supply instead of stamina.

• Water Pump (Click C, , ): Spider fires a high pressure stream of water from its tail pushing back smaller opponents and greatly slowing down bigger ones. Can be used both on land and underwater. This attack also triggers hydrated buff for creatures with access to it and puts out creatures that have been set on fire. Requires and uses water supply instead of stamina.

• Artifact Echo (Click Ctrl): Cosmetic roar/hiss/spider noise. Highlights artifacts if there are any nearby.

 

Conclusion:

 

Thanks for reading through the whole thing, I appreciate the effort.