Overview:
The xenosmilus would have a similar use to a thyla in most cases, with stats close to it, and the ability of climbing walls, which would make it useful before you can get your hands on a rock drake. The only big difference is that the xenosmilus would be able to counter reapers, with a bunch of special abilities making it useful against them (and only them, so this wouldn’t be the fifth gigakiller in a row).
General abilities:
Wall climbing – similar to thyla
Zipline climbing – like ravagers and some other creatures
Lifesteal – in reality, this sabertooth hunted by ripping parts out of its prey, so ingame, you would be able to gain back a small amount of your lost hp with each bite
Radiation resistance – the special fur of the xenosmilus evolved to make it able to go into radiation zones with taking less damage than other species
Reaper counter abilities:
Challenger roar – a roar which would be able to force buried reapers (both tamed and wild) out of the ground
Tearing bite – the xenosilus bites off the end of the reaper’s tail, making it unable to shoot poison, spin, and inject babies into survivors (for reaper queens) for a short amount of time (lorewise the reaper can rapidly heal, like axolotls, and therefore its able to regrow its missing body parts fastly) the bite would simply do more damage to other creatures
Rival buff – if the xenosmilus use its special bite successfully on a reaper, then it would gain a buff, which would make it take reduced damage from reapers, and increase the xenosmilus’ attack damage against them
Dossier
Wild:
There are some terrifying beasts lurking in the dark of these caverns. Now, I’m one of the few who studied them and lived to tell the tale. I think these cats are a somewhat bigger relatvie of the xenosmilus, the mighty ’’cookie cutter cat”. While they doesn’t seem to be the biggest threat here, they seemingly evolved to counter the owner of that title. Packs of the xenosmilus are capable of taking down reapers deep down in the radiation zone.
Domesticated:
Those who manage to earn the trust of a xenosmilus, gain a level of safety while travelling in the caves, which most survivors can only dream of. This cat is nearly the only other animal apart from the rock drake, which can survive an encounter with a reaper queen or king. its hunting strategy based around removing the reaper’s most dangerous weapon, the end of its tail. The strong jaws of this sabertooth cat make it capable of doing this, however the extreme self healing ability if the reaper makes themissing part regrow quickly, so the survivors travelling with only one xenosmilus must be able to escape from the location, before the injured reaper can use its tail again.
Other informations
Taming:
The xenosmilus would spawn in both the easier upper zones, and the dephts of aberration. However, you could only find lower level ones in the easier zones, with them requesting a different taming method than the ones deep down with the reapers around.
Taming one in the easy zones would require you to wait until it hunts down something, and then guard it while the cat enjoys its meal, meaning that you have to kill or lure away other hungry predators like ravagers, which would want to steal the xenosmilus’ meal.
If you are advanced enough to tame a higher level one, you would have to travel down to the dephts, and help the xenosmilus hunt down a reaper. But you have to do it without any creatures helping you (not even light pets are allowed), otherwise the xenosmilus won’t accept you proving your strenght.
Utility:
PvE: Since thylas don’t spawn on aberration, the xenosmilus would be a great alternative to them, with the lower level ones offering safe travel through the caves of aberration. The climbing and radiation resistance would also make the xenosmilus an excellent choice to steal rock drake eggs with, and you wouldn’t have to worry if you somehow run into a reaper while exploring, because with the special bite and rival buff combo, you would be able to either kill low level reapers, or run away from them if your mount isn’t strong enough to take on one yet.
PvP: As you probably seen from it’s abilities, the xenosmilus would be the perfect choice to counter the reapers of the enemy tribes. With the challenger roar, you could unbury hidden reapers, and either get the stored items from them, get them out of the way when they block rathole entrances, or just kill them if they were already damaged, and the enemy tried to hide them from you. The other useful ability would be the tearing bite, which would make you be able to disable the poison of the reaper, and stop your fliers from being grounded for a short time. However, you probably won’t be eable to kill the reaper, because after all, you are just riding on a somewhat bigger sabertooth, and there’s a high chance that the enemy have their gigas, carchars, or even their strong rexes nearby, which would be able to kill your poor kitty with ease, as its buffs only help it against reapers.