: A new danger (and incentive) for travelling to Swamps
Lurkers are rarely spawning Swamp mobs that stalk the player.
Appearance
Concept art: https://imgur.com/a/urag544
Basic Information
HP:30
Spawns: Swamps
Damage: N/A
AI/movement
When spawned, Lurkers will try to follow the player but always stay out of their sight. To do this, they will keep a safe distance from the player, hide behind trees, hide in water, etcetera.
When in water, Lurkers are practically invisible until they poke their “head” out to watch the player. This is especially dangerous in their native marshes, where there is an abundance of water.
Lurkers will follow the player for as long as physically possible, despite only spawning in Swamps.
Finally, Lurkers will never actually attack the player. Instead, they inflict the new Paranoia effect over time.
Paranoia
As a Lurker watches the player, that player gains a Paranoia effect that increases in length and power for as long as they are being watched.
When under Paranoia, the screen gains a vignette that grows darker as the effect grows more intense.
If the player witnesses a mob (or other player) looking at them, they slowly take damage for as long as they maintain eye contact. This damage intake is increased with higher levels of the effect.
Once the player’s Paranoia is sufficiently high, Lurkers will abandon their strategy of hiding from the player and even try to get within the player’s sight. This is because players with Paranoia will take extra damage if they see a Lurker watching them.
Note: Lurkers hide from the player initially because being witnessed by the player slows the progression of Paranoia, not to mention the fact that many players will attack the Lurker should they see it.
Drops
When killed, Lurkers can drop two unique items.
Occasionally, they will drop “Strange Moss”. This can be brewed into low-level Potions of Paranoia.
Rarely, they will drop a “Lurker Skull”. This takes the place of a Helmet slot and gives no protection. However, it gives the player an interesting ability: when not engaged in combat, watching a hostile mob without it seeing the player will give them a small buff in strength and speed, which increases over time.
By the same token, however, being witnessed by hostile mobs when not in combat gives a small debuff in strength and speed, increasing over time.
The whole “when not in combat” stipend is included so that players don’t gain or lose benefits when simply engaging in combat. This is because the mechanic is designed to incentivize “stalking” enemies before killing them. For full effect, however, the Skull might benefit from the implementation of more powerful mobs that are difficult to defeat one-on-one.
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Clarified subject to help search results.
Thanks for your contribution.
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