Scyther

Scythers are a type of fast-moving mechanoid with strong melee skills that can be found sealed in ancient ruins in all biomes, either spawned inside mountains or outside on the landscape. They may also raid the player's base through a random raid-type event and can also be found in most poison ships and psychic ships.

Scythers are often supported by centipedes and lancers, though they outrun centipedes by a huge margin, and will not stop to let them catch up. They always charge head-on at your colonists, spelling disaster should they successfully close the distance due to their excellent melee capabilities.

Like other mechanoids, scythers are sentient machine-like creatures which do not need to eat, cannot be tamed or trained, and are always hostile to the colony. Scythers have a moderate resistance to sharp damage and a small resistance to blunt damage combined with a higher-than-average health scale, meaning that it is unlikely that a scyther charge can be completely intercepted at range. Scythers are vulnerable to deadfall traps, being more readily lured into them due to their melee nature.

Dead scythers may be shredded at the machining table or crafting spot for 15 steel though these values are affected by mechanoid shredding efficiency as well as missing parts on the scyther.

Combat & Strategy

Main article: Defense tactics#Scythers

Scythers are dangerous melee fighters; they deal significant melee damage while forcing your gunners into melee combat. Usually, a 1v1 fight with a scyther and a gunner will result in the scyther emerging victorious.

Melee fighters are essential in guarding against scythers, being able to 'peel' them off from more vulnerable allies.

Combat

Scythers attack with a blade attached to each arm, dealing a massive 20 damage per. Even for brawlers with high melee skill, scythers are extremely dangeous.

Melee Attacks	Damage Amount	Cooldown
Cut	20	2.0 sec

Scythers have a 62% base chance to hit with no injuries. For comparison, a scyther's damage is roughly equivalent to a pawn with 10 melee skill wielding a normal quality steel longsword.

Armor

Armor

Health

Biology

Scythers, although mechanical and not very human-looking, are actually almost the same in structure as a typical human (minus the organs). However, they're more durable than humans, don't feel pain and do not fear for their life - they don't even use cover. This can make them very dangerous to fight against when under-armed.

Like Lancers they have two arms, run on two legs, and (surprisingly) have a neck and make vocal communication. Why a machine would use standard human-like air-based vocalization is unknown at this time - especially when Centipedes are completely unable to manually communicate.

Diet

Much like Centipedes and Lancers, it's unknown what exactly drives a Scyther, but it's likely it would be similar to whatever powers the Centipede.

Body Parts (Summary)

Scythers, again, are practically humans in biology, although they lack many of the human organs and bones.

Body Part Name	Health (×1.5 Health Scale)	Base Health	Quantity	Coverage (per part)^[1]	Group	Function / Required for following System	Effect if Destroyed/Removed
Mechanical Thorax	40	40	1	?	Core part	Functioning in general	Machine failure
Mechanical Neck	30	30	1	8.0%	Top of Thorax	Communication (vocal), connector of thorax and head	Machine failure
Mechanical Head	30	30	1	75%	Neck	Houses Artificial Brain, Sensors	Machine failure
Artificial Brain	30	30	1	15%	Head	Dataprocessing	Machine failure
Sight Sensor	10	10	2	15%	Head	Sight	Loss of sight/Blindness
Hearing Sensor	10	10	2	5.0%	Head	Hearing	Loss of hearing/Deafness
Smell Sensor	10	10	1	10%	Head	-	-
Arm	30	30	2	10%	Thorax	Manipulation	Loss of manipulation ability/Unable to work (if both lost)
Hand	20	20	2	20%	Arm	Manipulation	Loss of manipulation ability
Fingers	7	7	10	5.0%	Hand	Manipulation	Loss of manipulation ability (minor)
Leg	30	30	2	10%	Thorax	Moving	Unable to move
Foot	20	20	2	20%	Leg	Moving	Loss of moving ability
Toes	10	10	10	5.0%	Foot	Moving	Loss of moving ability (minor)

↑ Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It is dependent on which group the body part is part of, so, for example, you can't shoot someone in the toe and hit them in the brain.

Trivia

Scythers have a unique slashing sound when they use their melee attacks.

Version history

0.5.492 - Added.
Beta 19 - scythers will no longer always spawn equipped with the charge lance and will generally prefer to engage at range over melee. Downed scythers can no longer be be salvaged through a medical operation to obtain their blades if they are intact after the battle.

Mechanoids

Mechanoids | Core: Centipede (Blaster, Burner, Gunner) • Lancer • Pikeman • Scyther • Termite
Combat: Centurion • Legionary • Militor • Scorcher • Tesseron
Command: Apocriton • Diabolus • War queen (War urchin )
Labor: Agrihand • Cleansweeper • Constructoid • Fabricor • Lifter • Paramedic • Tunneler
Cluster | Buildings: Condition causer • Count-down activator • Mech assembler • Mech capsule • Mech drop beacon • Mech high-shield • Mech low-shield • Mech node • Proximity activator • Unstable power cell
Turrets: Auto charge turret • Auto inferno turret • Auto mortar • Mini-slugger turret
Creation | Pawn: Mechanitor
Buildings: Mech gestator • Large mech gestator • Mechband antenna • Mechband dish

[coverage-1] Coverage determines the chance to hit this body part. It is dependent on which group the body part is part of, so, for example, you can't shoot someone in the toe and hit them in the brain.

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