MANTICORE

Behavior

The Manticore, regardless of what map it serves as a boss on, behaves as follows; beginning the fight by spawning atop a high rock vantage point, roaring, then taking off in flight. It will proceed to fly around the arena, and perform several airborne attacks. One is where the Manticore dives and bites at the target. This can damage Survivors while mounted; if you don't have a tame whose saddle protects you from this, you will want to bring high quality Armor, and Medical Brew to ensure your safety. Another attack it uses in flight is its tail swing; launching ranged spines that deal high amounts of Torpor to anything hit by them. The longer the battle goes on, the more this attack's torpor will present a danger of knocking your tames unconscious, so prepare accordingly! Importantly, the Manticore's arena on Scorched Earth is the one of only a couple Boss Arenas that allows flying tames to enter it, and depending on what tames are brought in, it can cause a VERY important difference in the Manticore's behavior during the battle. If a Survivor team enters with NO Shoulder pets or Flyers, the Manticore will land every few minutes, opening itself up to damage from ground-based tames.

If Survivors DO bring in ANY shoulder pets or flying tames into the arena, the Manticore WILL NOT land!!! Take very special care when putting together your boss team for this battle! Both for the Manticore's native map, and any other map it is included as a boss on! Regardless if the Manticore is perpetually flying or infrequently landing, like many Bosses it will summon minions to aid it in battle. As its health goes down, Deathworms will occasionally appear, and as its health bar reaches its last legs, the Manticore will call on a small handful of Rock Elementals, all of which will die when the Manticore is finally brought down. On other maps, the Manticore is unlikely to summon any minions that are not already native to that map. Its death in the Scorched Earth arena will trigger an Ascension, so to ensure you don't lose anything you're wearing or carrying, including the precious Element you won from the battle, you will want to stash ALL your carried and worn items into a tamed creature's inventory during the 1-minute window you have before the ascension happens, which will be safely transported outside the arena at the terminal you used to enter for later retrieval. There are also occasional issues Ascending while mounted, so be sure that you are dismounted as well beforehand.

General

The floor of the arena is teeming with Deathworms. The Manticore will primarily fly about the arena shooting purple bolts in different directions at once while using its tail to inflict Torpidity. Near the end of the battle Deathworms and later Rock Elementals start spawning and can easily trap and kill your creatures.

Dangers

• Improper preparation of your tames can lead to disaster such as trying to mix fliers and land tames.

• The Manticore can inflict large amounts of torpor and decrease stamina with its tail, from which it can also shoot spikes like a Thorny Dragon. Be careful! Torpor gained from these spikes can't be lowered with stimulant like normal torpor inflicting attacks unless it's on a human. Bring stimulant and water for yourself.

• The Manticore's slam attack can potentially damage a survivor, even if they are on a dino. Care must be taken when its landing.

• The Deathworms in the arena will swarm any player or creature on the ground, which is especially dangerous to those that are unconscious from the Manticore's attacks.

• 5 Deathworms spawn during the fight

• The Rock Elementals can spring up for damage if a creature or player is close enough and that will trap a creature inside of it and it will be doomed.

• 5 Rock Elementals spawn during the fight.

• The Deathworms' attacks have a large area of effect that can quickly drain the health of many of your creatures if they are close together.

• Upon start of the encounter the Manticore can glitch in the air. For this reason it's worth always bringing an Assault Rifle or a Pump Action Shotgun with a lot of ammo to shoot the Manticore with. This seems to cause it to aggro you and un-glitch. However, be cautious when shooting unmounted as you may be targeted with a torpor attack.

Weaknesses

• Although it is supposedly patched, it may still be possible to pin down the Manticore with a pack of Rexes.

• The Manticore has very low health – the lowest health of any boss to date if you don't count the mini bosses on Ragnarok – and can go down very fast. However, enough space must be available for it to land or it will spend a lot of time floating in the air. Ensure your tames are grouped, and assign locations for them to move when they are not attacking to give space for the Manticore to land.