Apocrean Harvester
From SpiralKnights
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The Apocrean Harvester is a monster.
Contents
Description
"The Apocrea bend reality, twisting the environment they invade into a trap. In these traps they stalk any life, harvesting their souls for some unimaginable purpose." - Lost Soul in the Obsidian Nexus
This grotesque enemy has a dark, purplish-black color and a somewhat gooey, insect-like appearance. Its body is tall and slender. Metallic mandibles constantly snick about in its shadowy hood, which contains an emotionless mask that forever gazes out across The Grasping Plateau. The noises it makes are otherworldly - slimey squishes and sighs reminiscent of an ancient metallic machine echo in the emptiness of the plateau, warning weary ears of its approach. It stalks and harms its targets with a sickening patience. Can the living hope to outlast its eternal hunger?
Behavior
The Harvester will pick a knight to "stalk" and do so indefinitely until that knight dies, or until another knight takes its aggro. Your HUD will usually flicker with a static silhouette of the Harvester when you have its aggro, an effect similar to the one seen in the popular Slenderman game.
It appears to move slowly, but only when in range of a living knight. It can teleport and/or move incredibly swiftly to get in range of its target - this movement is possible to witness after your knight is killed, or when it is selecting a new target to stalk. This behavior doesn't really factor into most gameplay strategies, but it can be unnerving.
It will ooze into the ground if it doesn't have anyone targeted, making horrible squishing noises as it does so. This noise will twist the mind - players will learn to "like" this disgusting sound because it means that the Harvester has gone away, at least for a short while.
The Harvester can take damage from players, but it will always respawn after its HP bar hits 0, usually within a few moments. It will never drop loot or hearts.
- Apocrean Grip:
Once in range, the Harvester uses Apocrean Grip:
The Harvester will slowly lift up its arms and shake the ground, summoning many tendrils up out of the plateau that will attempt to ensnare targets. Each tendril will slam down around any knight within range (not just the Harvester's stalking target), depleting shields. The reach of this attack is very broad and somewhat discernible by dust particles that drift in the air after the Harvester shakes the ground, though it is best not to fully depend on this visual when attempting to get out of range.
Most shields will break within a few hits on Elite difficulty. The Omega Shell will take a few more hits than other shields. Most shields will handle the attack without breaking on Normal difficulty.
If ensnared, the grip acts much like the Freeze status in that it prevents players from moving and can be broken by ally attacks. The duration of the grip does not have a timer on the HUD. The grip usually lasts 15 seconds if unbroken by an ally, after which it will make a "splat" sound and the player can move again. But should a knight be unmoving, within range of the Harvester, and uncloaked, the Harvester will then attack with Apocrean Gaze:
- Apocrean Gaze:
The monster looks right at its target and fires a pinkish-white beam out of its hood onto the ground. Any player within this beam will take damage. The beam lasts ??? (several seconds).
The Gaze inflicts weak, multiple hits of non-typed damage. These hits do not trigger player invincibility frames, and are not affected by damage resistances. It will deal damage through shields, but it will do significantly less damage to a shielded knight vs. an unshielded knight.
The Harvester will use this attack on any player in front of it (you don't need to be entangled). Free your squadmates from its grip with caution, don't stand still in the plateau, and don't get frozen by any pale scarabs or freezing bombies.
This beam will seam to be sucking souls out of the area - this is just an aesthetic. Nobody is losing sigils or anything like that, the only thing lost is HP.
Strategy
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This enemy is more of an obstacle than a combat target. It can be fought and take damage, but fighting it is not worthwhile. In general, it is best to avoid it. Considering gameplay, the Harvester is simply a means to delay and/or prevent the the player from collecting 
Apocrean Sigils.
- If Solo:
Using the dash is important. The nature of the dash makes the Apocrean Harvester lose aggro and despawn for a short while.
If in a pinch, using the shadow cloak of the Maskeraith battle sprite will make the Harvester lose aggro. The Deadly Shadow Cloak ultimate of this sprite ability is also useful for farming the plateau.
- If in a group:
Pick someone to distract the Harvester while the others collect sigils on the other side of the plateau. Communicate with each other - make sure the Harvester is always far away from the other players doing the collecting. The person who baits should do so for the duration of the floor, or until the party decides it's time to move on.
Distract the Harvester by running+dashing in circles, gunning it from a distance, and generally keeping just out of its reach. Running away, then perpendicular, then towards the Apocrean Harvester is an effective way to dodge the hands when in close proximity.
Notes
The Apocrean Harvester is immune to Stun, Freeze, Shock, Curse, and Sleep statuses. It is not immune to Strong Poison and Fire.
The music changes based on proximity to the Apocrean Harvester.
When the Apocrean Harvester uses Apocrean Grip, a group of tendrils will always appear in a circle around the Harvester.
If you and/or another squadmate is caught in Apocrean Gaze, everyone's screen will flash pinkish-white and a sort of clapping sound can be heard, no matter where you are in the plateau.
Beware! If you are carrying something like a golden key and get caught in Apocrean Grip, your knight will drop the object and have certain commands blocked by the "pick up object" option. You are very vulnerable under these rather "buggy" or "glitchy" conditions.
