Thorian Creepers are creatures encountered on Feros. They have also been shipped to a few other worlds.
Creepers are produced by the Thorian, appearing as corpse-like humanoids with long claws and no noticeable eyes.
Creepers hibernate (sitting down and curling up) until approached, then rise up at the Thorian's command to use melee attacks or vomit green acid onto their enemies, causing massive toxic damage that ignores shields. They are mostly found down in the Thorian's lair, though a few come above ground at Zhu's Hope to protect the Borealis.
Commander Shepard may encounter more Thorian Creepers on Nodacrux, shipped there from Feros for study. According to the ExoGeni scientists there, they found a way to turn the creepers into a docile source of labour, but when the Thorian died the creepers went berserk and began attacking. Through some undisclosed means Cerberus has also managed to obtain some creepers, secured at their facilities on Binthu.
Tactics[]
Thorian Creepers will first hibernate until disturbed or until the Thorian is threatened (while hibernating, they are invulnerable to any attack). Once 'awakened' they will race toward the squad, use their acid attack, and then slash at the party for melee damage. They tend to be extremely resistant to gunfire and can take a lot of slugs without slowing down.
- There are two easy ways to kill a Thorian Creeper. One is to use an anti-Thorian gas grenade, which will result in an instant kill. The other is to approach one of the Thorian's neural nodes, and use Marksman or a sniper rifle to attack the node from a distance. While doing this will rouse the Thorian Creepers around it and make them attack, destroying the node will also cause most of the creepers guarding it to die.
- Because their attacks bypass shields, armor upgrades that increase damage protection are an excellent choice. Heavy armor and the Immunity power are also invaluable tools for resisting their up-front damage. The vomit attacks, in addition to significant physical damage, also deal high toxic damage, but toxic damage does not directly reduce friendly health bars, it only interferes with the ability to recover health lost to other damage sources.
- The best way to handle the toxic damage is to deal with a group of Creepers, and then after the battle, equip Medical Exoskeletons on all damaged and poisoned party members. This requires some patience, but eventually the green toxic damage indicator will wear off from the continuous regeneration plus toxin resistance provided by the armor upgrades, and you are free to use First Aid if needed to fully restore health.
- If Shepard is a Medic with the First Aid specialization, medical upgrades or toxin resistance are largely redundant for defensive purposes as long as you have ample medi-gel supplies; you can freely use medi-gel effectively even during active combat with Creepers.
- Creepers ragdoll very easily. One point in Lift or Throw will send them flopping, as well as simple unupgraded melee gunbutting.
- Lift or Throw, especially in a confined space, will crush them against walls and cause heavy damage, and Warp will make gunfire more effective. Throw is also highly effective on the creepers in the underground portions of the Thorian's lair, as it is easy to knock them off high ledges so they fall to their death. Because creepers are comparatively light compared with other foes, Throw will also launch them back much further.
- Singularity is useful when they're clustered in groups, lifting all enemies within its radius into the air.
- A shotgun loaded with Sledgehammer Rounds is your best bet because it will knock Creepers over in one shot. High Explosive Rounds will do the trick as well as potentially knocking down multiple targets at once, but your gun will overheat quickly.
- As much as possible, engage the creepers at mid to long range. Their vomit can one-hit kill at higher difficulties if they manage to execute the move. Knock them down with melee attacks if you're confident you can quickly get out of their range.
- Although Thorian Creepers are physiologically robust, they wear no armour. This means that they are extremely vulnerable to melee attacks. A Creeper will stand still for a brief period before using its acid spit attack, and they can be struck at this moment to knock them over. Although melee attacks inflict little damage against Creepers, they are almost guaranteed to knock the target flat, even on the highest difficulty settings. It is also possible to knock down multiple creepers with one blow, allowing the squad to attack them with impunity.
- Damping neutralizes their ability to puke and has an area of effect to boot, making it very handy on a pinch if surrounded by the creepers. Sabotage, however, has no effect on their claws.
- Being biological enemies, they are also vulnerable to Shredder Ammunition and Neural Shock.
Trivia[]
- Enemies using the Thorian Creeper model and abilities also appear on the MSV Fedele, but are designated as "Test Subjects" and are not vulnerable to anti-Thorian gas grenades.