The Hypno Mantis are Bio Lieutenants. They can be found in an abundance of areas and is the only enemy that can cast the Sleep debuff.
Location(s)[]
Onslaught
Name: Hypno Mantis
Invasion
Name: Razor Mantis
Apocalypse
Name: Sabre Mantis
Lore[]
Like a few mutant children of the Darkspore, Hypno Mantises were once small, harmless creatures playing a vital role in their ecosystems. Now they're giant, repulsive, terrifying monsters, taller than the average sentient biped and more than capable of slaughtering sentients by the dozen in a single attack. But the mantis doesn't need to touch its prey to kill. Instead it propels a symbiotic plant that sprays toxins in a cloud. Mantises also possess revivifying antigens and boosters that allow them to bring seemingly dead creatures back to action. If all its other attacks fail, Mantises attack physically, with devastating results.
Strategy[]
Hypno Mantises are dangerous enemies, mainly because they can immobilize the player and do so before they are even seen.
Hypno Mantises will launch a pod that creates a cloud of relaxation spores that causes any Hero in range to fall asleep. Although the sleep can be broken if the Hero is attacked, the cloud stays on the screen for about 8 seconds after the pod hits the ground, so even switching Heroes is futile. The Mantis will then close in on the unconscious Hero and attack physically with its claws. After a Hero is knocked out, the Hypno Mantis gives itself a resurrection aura, which also works on any nearby enemies, allowing them to resurrect once after death, in some cases you can prevent it from resurrecting by killing it with a critical attack so it doesn't heal itself after death.
Any fast-moving Ravager is good to use against these enemies, as they can avoid the sleep clouds and the generally slow-moving Hypno Mantis.
Also, many parts in the game will make heroes immune to sleep, making fighting Hypno Mantises much easier.
A good combination would be Blitz and Skar. Blitz can use Skar's squad ability, Shadow Cloak, then Ride the Lightning. With this attack, he will easily get rid of the Mantis before it sees him. Blitz Delta is even better. He could use a Shadow Cloak+Flame Surge combination to slaughter everything around the Mantis without a chance of being resurrected, and if anything survived, just Shadow Cloak again and pick them off with Ride the Lightning.
Trivia[]
- Hypno Mantises were originally called "Hydro Mantis" and were exclusively found on Cryos. This was apparently changed for unknown reasons.
- They have Char's head and feet and what appeared to be Maldri's hands.
- The part which lobs the sleeping pods is a Spore weapon part.
- Sabre Mantises have the head, that, in early sketches for Darkspore made by Luke Harrington, was intended for Sage. The part, in Dark Injection, exists under the name "PotatoHead".