Diabolus

A Diabolus is a mechanoid added by the Biotech DLC.

Summary

As mechanoids, every diabolus is immune to fire, Flame and Heat damage, and temperature extremes, despite having Comfortable Temperatures defined. They have 100% Toxic Resistance and Toxic Environment Resistance, making them immune to toxic buildup, rot stink and other toxic effects. They do not need to eat, rest, and have no mood. They will be stunned by EMP attacks for a time proportional to the EMP damage inflicted and will "adapt" and rendered immune to further EMP strikes for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs).

Diaboluses have a 60% EMP resistance, meaning they are stunned for 60% less time.

As an enemy

You can summon a hostile Diabolus with a mechanitor and a powered comms console. The console is not consumed in the process. Therefore, summoning one requires the Microelectronics research. However, they are not exclusive to summoning, as strong enough mechanoid raids may feature one or even multiple.

When summoned, it will be accompanied by other mechanoids. The amount of other mechanoids depends on how many times you have summoned a Diabolus before, but is independent of wealth, time, or colony progress. Eventually, you'll have to face multiple Diaboluses at the same time. They will crash down in a ship after a random amount of time ranging from a few in game hours to days. They will not attack immediately, but will instead act like a raid and "prepare" before launching their assault. At the moment, it seems that the maximum size is reached after summoning Diabolus 8 times.

Defeating a hostile Diabolus rewards the player with a signal chip. Studying one is required to research Standard Mechtech, and they can also be used to create various mechanitor gear, or even your own Diabolus.

Combat

An enemy Diabolus alternates between two long range attacks:

1. Hellsphere cannon. When using this attack, Diabolus will create a red circle around a target. After a 450 ticks (7.5 secs) warmup, it explodes, leaving a large radius of fire. The blast is a bit larger than the visual circle, so err on the side of caution. This attack only has a range of 19 tiles, but also has a minimum range of 5.9 tiles.

It deals 800 Vaporizing damage, increased to 3200 damage against impassable structures. As an explosive, it ignores cover and has 100% accuracy. This checks Heat armor, but has a massive 100% AP.
Unlike other ranged weapons, once initialized, it will continue to fire, even if the Diabolus is engaged in melee in the meantime. Engaging in melee will prevent future shots being initialized, but will trigger the flame burst discussed below.

2. Charge blaster turret. This fires a single shot at relatively low damage, but from a very long range (44.9 tiles). It can be fired while moving, and has almost no startup time.

When engaged in melee, the diabolus will trigger a special ability. It surrounds itself in explosive fluids and then ignites them creating a massive fireball around it. This attack deals heavy damage, and there is almost no time to disengage and run to safety.^[Details] Once the flame burst is initated, it will try and back off.

An enemy Diabolus won't actively try to breach walls, and it will never appear in breacher raids. However, it will destroy buildings and objects, like any enemy, if no pawns are accessible.

Summoning:

1x Diabolus, 3x militor
1x Diabolus, 4x militor, 2x pikeman
1x Diabolus with heavy shield unit, 7x militor, 2x pikeman, 1x tesseron
2x Diabolus with heavy shield unit, 10x militor, 3x legionary, 1x centurion
2x Diabolus with heavy shield unit, 10x militor, 5x scyther, 3x centipede (gunner)
2x Diabolus with heavy shield unit, 15x militor, 8x pikeman, 4x centipede (gunner), 1x centurion
2x Diabolus with heavy shield unit, 15x militor, 10x lancer, 5x centipede (gunner)
3x Diabolus with heavy shield unit, 15x militor, 10x tesseron, 6x centipede (gunner), 1x centurion

Like the other mechanoid bosses, after being summoned 8 times, the next summon will be the same as wave 3. The wave count is per playthrough, not per colony or map.^{[Archonexus?]} If the Diabolus is summoned once on one map, summoning another on a second map will bring the second wave.

As an ally

The Diabolus is an ultra-heavy mechanoid, and require High Mechtech to be researched.

They can be created from a large mech gestator with 300 Steel, 300 Plasteel, 2 Signal chips, 1 High subcore, taking up 5 bandwidth from a mechanitor. After taking a small amonut of work to craft, it must gestate for 12 cycles to form. They recharge in a large mech recharger, creating 25 wastepacks whenever the recharger's waste is filled up.

In combat, the Diabolus will automatically use their pulse turret, unless disabled. They will automatically aim the hellsphere cannon, though it has a limited range, can't be used too close, and still takes a long time to charge up. However, it can be used even if attacked in melee range. The cannon will still light the terrain on fire and will destroy structures. They may also initiate a flame burst, which takes 3 seconds to warm up and cannot be used for 1 hour afterwards.

Analysis

Kiting and spreading out is key to taking out the Diabolus. The biggest threat is by far its Hellsphere cannon, which can instakill almost anyone and anything. For reference, a pawn with the Tough trait, fire resistant gene, and wearing a legendary duster, formal vest / corset, and button down shirt made of devilstrand still has a 28% of immediately dying from torso damage. Players should instead prioritize avoiding the shot in any way possible, either by moving pawns out of the way, staying out of range, or by being too close to target with the cannon.

Be extra careful about fire; if not from the diabolus' blasts, then from the wildfires caused by them, or by the tesserons alongside it. Pawns lit on fire can't be controlled, so you can't order them out of the blast range, which is nearly certain to be fatal. Also be wary of the Fleeing Fire mental break, caused by being a child or having the pyrophobia gene. While short, it is still just as dangerous as any mental break with a diabolus. A firefoam pop pack is very helpful.

You should manually move pawns away from the blast radius, always allowing yourself the option to retreat. Split up your pawns, which will allow more of them to focus on shooting instead of running. You can even use your own militors to lure the cannon or flame burst; their range is short enough to justify staying close, anyway. It only has 1 non-flame attack, so even a cleansweeper can stall for some time.

Melee

Melee can be an effective tactic. But with fire vulnerable pawns, it is highly advised to NOT use melee attacks, due to the close-ranged burst. Sufficient fire protection (devilstrand clothing, phoenix armor , impids' fire resistance) can help tank the flames, and your own mechanoids are completely immune to fire. Firefoam makes your organic pawns immune to being lit on fire, but heat damage still applies.

Using EMP

Despite their resistance, diaboluses are still vulnerable to EMP attacks. However because of the EMPs reduced uptime, you may want to use EMP damage tactically. Stunning the diabolus interrupts the hellsphere cannon, so EMPs can be timed to prevent the cannon from firing and potentially save a pawn's life. If the diabolus is still adapted while firing, and therefore temporarily immune to further EMP stuns, then this strategy cannot be used. EMP should thus be used sparingly, rather than fired at will.

Once diaboluses spawn with shields, it is often better to use EMPs to break the shield rather than interrupt a blast. This will kill the diabolus faster, which prevents more hellsphere shots overall.

When you should fight

The first diabolus battle is a major hurdle for any mechanitor. For a solo mechanitor playthrough, a mechanitor armed with an assault rifle, 4-5 militors, and a small crew of labor mechs like agrihands are enough to take out the first diabolus, with the following strategies:

Spread out. Have each militor close enough to the diabolus, and labor mechs even closer. Ideally, only 1 mech is in the hellsphere blast at a time.
Have your mechanitor & militors focus fire each enemy militor until they die. The faster the small mechs die, the less damage you'll sustain.
Have labor mechs melee a seperate enemy, each. Militors in melee cannot fire their guns, reducing damage accordingly
With the diabolus inefficiently firing hellspheres / flame bursts at your mechnoids, take it down. The pulse turret can still hurt, especially for the labor mechs, but it should die.

Alternatively, running the diabolus down 30-40 wood spike traps, or 10-15 steel spike traps, is enough to do the trick. A triple rocket launcher can be handy, but don't harm your own mechs!

With a multi-pawn colony, you can have each pawn wield a long-range weapon like the bolt-action rifle or assault rifle. Whenever you get into the hellsphere cannon's range, back off. You can combine this with the aformentioned mech strategies to be more successful. With just the pulse turret to worry about, the diabolus becomes about as strong as 2 pikemen.

Analysis - As an ally

Slow and with a little more health & armor than a centipede, diaboluses are best used against stationary threats like sieges, mech clusters, and other mech commanders.

Watch out for the hellsphere cannon accidentally destroying items, including the chips dropped by all 3 mechanoid commanders.

Health

Specify body type when known.

Body part	Health
Head	113
Skull	113
Brain	45
Nose	45
Neck	113
Jaw	90
Eye ^[1] (left, right)	45
Ear (left, right)	45
Body	180
Kidney^[2] (left, right)	68
Lung^[2] (left, right)	68
Liver^[2]	90
Heart^[2]	68
Spine^[2]	113
Stomach^[2]	90
Limbs (left, right, fore, hind)	135
Appendage (left, right, fore, hind)	90

↑ Located inside of Head.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 Located inside of Body.

Version history

Biotech DLC Release - Added.
1.4.3531 - Increased EMP resistance from 30% to 60%.
1.4.3555 - Now immune to psychic lances.

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

[Head-1] Located inside of Head.

[Body-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 Located inside of Body.

[1]

[2]