Megaraptor99

It's really similar to a Shadowmane, yet you've still made it work without being a clone. Love this thing!

(Artwork by me) Behavior: Santanmantis is highly aggressive in the wild. It will attack pretty much anything – from the size of a Dodo to a Reaper Queen, and even its own kind if multiple are present. Appearance: Santanmantis axelrodi is between about the size of a Rex and Allosaurus. It is a four-”armed,” four-legged mantis with an iridescent exoskeleton and wings. Its head is similar to that of a carnivorous dinosaur, but clearly has some buglike features as well. Design inspiration was taken from fossils of the prehistoric mantis, the iridescent bark mantis, and just myself spitting out random details. Taming: To tame a Santanmantis, you must breed two wild Santans together. Since this is a unique taming process, here are the steps to getting a Santanmantis of your own. First, sacrifice a live tame of yours to a female Santanmantis to pacify it. The more health that tame has, the longer she will be pacified. Then lead a male to her by having him chase after you. Once the two are near each other they will begin breeding. When that is finished, the female will kill her mate and become fully passive towards you. After a while, the female lays an egg that you can take and raise to earn your very own Santanmantis. Stats are taken from both parents. The female will die after laying her egg. Potential Abilities: Left Click - Slashing Flurry: Santanmantis swings its arms and hits twice. It gradually swings faster as it is spammed and will deal bleed damage if spammed for long enough. Left Click (Hold) - Grab: Santanmantis will grab hold of anything nearby up to the size of an Anky. It can carry four creatures at once, but cannot glide or fly while carrying. If there is something small enough to grab nearby, it will pick it up. If there is nothing to grab or if all four arms are full, Santanmantis will drop everything. Can also pick up eggs undetected. Right Click - Climb/Lunge: Point at a slope and Santanmantis will jump onto it, allowing for you to climb in any direction, even side-to-side. Right click again to stop climbing. Right Click (Hold) - Evisceration: Hold right click to show a crosshair. That crosshair will lock onto a target up to the size of a Carnotaurus. Once the target is locked, let go to lunge at the target and snare it in Santan’s four arms. It will then proceed to essentially rip the poor target open, dealing an appalling amount of damage. If the target miraculously survives, DOT and slow will be inflicted for a short period of time. C - Dash: Santanmantis holds its spined arms out and dashes a medium distance forward, inflicting bleed to whatever it hits. Pointing in any direction other than forward will have Santanmantis turn in an instant while attacking, similar to the Sarco. Left Ctrl - Roar: Just a cool aesthetic roar cause why not. Space - Glide/Fly: Females can glide, males can fly. For females, hold space and release to jump into the air. Hold shift to glide, just like a Rock Drake or Maewing. For males, pressing space will simply lift them into the air for flight. They cannot sprint while flying, though, and flying consumes drastically more stamina than it does for most fliers. Passive - Bioluminescence: In dark areas, Santan’s abdomen lights up with about twice the diameter of a typical lightpet’s charge. Perfect for fending off Nameless and Reapers, but will turn off in well-lit places. Passive - Radiation Immunity Sexual Dimorphism: Male Santanmantis are a little smaller, have less health, and deal less damage. However, they are faster and have the ability to fly (Although not as well as most fliers). Female Santanmantis are larger, tankier, and more powerful, but they are slower. They can also glide about as well as a Rock Drake. Overview: Santanmantis axelrodi would essentially be the Swiss Army Knife of Aberration, along with the males being the one and only rideable fliers on the map, and the females being efficient gliders. It can climb in all directions, even side-to-side. Since light is also essential to survive on this map, Santanmantis’ abdomen lights up in dark places just like real-life fireflies. It’s also perfect for raiding the Rock Drake trench, as it can pick up eggs without aggroing the parent. Not only is it great for travel, Santanmantis is also great for combat, able to inflict bleed with most of its attacks and can insta-kill a lot of small-medium sized creatures with its Evisceration ability. It is also immune to radiation. Sexual dimorphism is also a highly wanted trait for creatures in ARK, and it’d be interesting to see both genders have their own advantages and disadvantages over the other. And of course, who doesn’t love a new and unique taming method? Wild As if I could ever think that this broken ARK couldn’t get any worse… then I discovered Santanmantis axelrodi. This thing looks like if a regular praying mantis were dunked in a barrel of nuclear waste! But as horrific as it is, this prehistoric mantis is fascinating – maybe even beautiful. Not only is it an insectophobe’s worst nightmare, Santanmantis is also a masterful hunter. It’s got speed, power, tactics, everything you’d want in an experienced killer. Much like modern mantids, Santanmantis can climb up any surface and grapple any unfortunate prey with its modified front limbs, to which it will devour with brutal haste. Domesticated Santanmantis’ impressive set of skills can be utilized to perfection inside the dark, untamed environment that it calls home. With its ability to climb, glide, and even fly for short periods depending on the insect's gender, scaling the caves is not a problem. Of course, you can’t forget that it can pick up smaller creatures in its arms, and will even pick up eggs! I wonder if that could be used for any special heists… Are you afraid of the dark? No need to worry about that either! When entering dark environments, Santanmantis’ abdomen will light up – just like a glowbug! However, this glow cannot be activated or deactivated manually, so it can’t save you from the Nameless and Reapers forever.