Design Phase 1 - Alpha
Driller
[Efficacy: 4]
-Evolution Chance: 35%
-Available Evolutions:
-- Driller+ 100%
-Mutagenic Potential 3
- Description: The Driller is, in most respects, a strictly improved grub. Similar in form, light yet strong carapace segments covered - though the necessities of flexibility mean that each body contains substantial gaps where an adequately soft chitin sub-form could not be produced. The modified rostrum of the Driller grows into a peculiar spiral that incorporates multiple mineral elements, giving it a deep rusty hue and excellent hardness for an organic material. This shape enables a Driller to contort its body and then whip forward, slamming the drill into a hard surface before death rolling its way into building a tunnel - using its peculiar neck flexibility to reset the 'drill' as needed. Vibrational senses in many stiff hairs that poke between chitin plates enable the Driller to detect nearby motion in the air, and to 'hear' a short distance into most solid materials. This enables them to select softer paths through most materials and to detect when ambush worthy prey is near.
Problematically, the driller's method of locomotion, though fast and effective, is very energy-intensive and rarely yields enough to sustain the driller. This is generally solved by sending swarms of drillers into the same hole, so that the tip of the drill, the bit, is constantly starving and being cannibalized by those drillers behind them. This pattern most be done carefully, however, as the suffocation of the swarm in tight quarters is a real danger. In combat, the Driller's senses let it down considerably. While its face is an excellent weapon, it has very little accuracy after an initial ambush - after which vibration and movement will typically arise in a furious clamor. Too many drillers in an ambush will occasionally result in a death seethe, where the drillers thrust to the surface and thrash around, creating so much debris and movement that the drillers continue to believe that foes exist when none remain. This means that the thrashing continues until the drillers exhaust themselves or they splatter enough of one another to end the cycle.
Driller+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
-Mutagenic Potential 3
- Description: The Driller+ is only slightly larger than the driller, with improved chitin coverage in the form of dozens of small fingernail like ridges between body segments which both serve to abrade the tunnel walls and to protect the fleshy-fleshy insides. The most notable change in the Driller+ is a system of three flexible chitin plates along its length, corresponding with the locations of three reserve vacuole stomachs. One vacuole is reserved to hold air for harsh environments, one reserved to hold pre-digested food back to extend endurance, and one to hold water back for the same reason. This allows the Driller+ to enter much harsher environs, travel much further, and to dig for longer than an ordinary driller.
It is now the revision phase. You have 2 Revisions.
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