Spitter

The Plasma Spitter, or Spitter, is a class of ranged hostile creature that deals damage with its fireball attack. It can be seen in groups, guarding the mid-tier resource patches such as Coal.

Variants
There are 4 species of Spitters depending on their native biome:

Behavior
A spitter patrols around its spawning point, which is commonly around resource nodes, Power Slugs, Mercer Spheres, Somersloops, and Crash Sites, but can also be anywhere in the World. It makes a snake-like hissing sound and sounds similar to Stingers. Spitters can be found in groups. Some are led by a larger version of these which is the Alpha Spitter.

It will become aggressive when approached and start attacking the nearest pioneer. It attacks by shooting out a yellow fireball in a straight line. The attack has a wind-up animation in which its mouth glows and blinks yellow. If the pioneer attacks a spitter, but the spitter is at a location where it cannot fight back, it will flee. After some time it will move back to its patrol location. A spitter ignores all vehicles, even if a pioneer is riding it. A spitter will still target a pioneer hiding behind a vehicle or standing on top of it.

The spitter drops Alien Organs when killed. If it falls into a void, it will not drop any loot.

Combat
When a spitter detects a pioneer is nearby, it will run towards the nearest pioneer, pause momentarily, then shoot out a fireball from its mouth. The color may vary from the spitter skin, as of Patch 0.6.0.0. The spitter's mouth will blink a few times in yellow, green, blue or possibly red/maroon (again, the skin and habitat are key) before shooting as a warning sign. Its mouth will appear like it is chewing a piece of gum. It targets directly towards the pioneer if the pioneer does not move. If the pioneer moves, it predicts when the pioneer will be in the next few seconds and will shoot in the predicted direction.

A spitter will move a few steps towards you, then start shooting. It will try not to stay too close to the pioneer. After each shot, it will move another few steps, then repeat its attack. If the pioneer is in the melee range of the spitter, the spitter will then shoot out a melee-range fireball(mostly flat, like a wave), dealing five damage with a knockback effect. Its mouth will also glow yellow, blue, green or red before it starts a melee attack, but for a much shorter time. If the pioneer stands fully inside the spitter's hitbox, it will not be able to hit the pioneer directly with any attacks. Its attack can be completely dodged by getting out of its line of attack.

The spitters fireball travels in a straight line, but curves downwards after a certain distance. If it hits anything, a splash effect can be seen, and the fireball itself disappears. It deals 10 damage to the pioneer and wheeled vehicles if hit. A spitter has a few seconds of cooldown after each fireball attack. These fireballs can also be destroyed by a melee weapon.

The best tactics to killing a spitter involve running into it and spam melee attacks. Getting close to the spitter is the first step. Make sure you are in running mode. Press to toggle run. Make sure the running mode is set to 'Toggle' in the Options->Control setting. Wait for the spitter to launch a fireball, then sprint and slide directly at the spitter. You can also run while it fires, and move in a zigzag pattern using the sideways buttons ( or ).

The Xeno-Basher is the most effective melee weapon for dealing with spitters. A spitter has a few seconds of cooldown after each fireball attack. After it shoots a fireball, run up as far as possible into it and use your Xeno-Basher to double-bash it. It will start shooting a melee fireball, but its attack will spawn behind you and miss so long as there is no terrain right behind you for it to splash against. To avoid its melee fireball attack, simply move backward.

As the Basher deals 9 damage and a spitter only has 40 hit points, 5 hits will kill it. If you use a Xeno-Zapper, which deals only five damage, you may need to hit it a few more times to kill it. Once the spitter dies, pick up the Alien Organs dropped by it.

The Rifle is also very effective, especially Turbo ammo. Attack the spitter from above so it cannot attack you. The Rebar Gun isn't very efficient because it is inaccurate and takes a log time to reload. However, if you've acquired Explode or Shatter Rebar, then it is easier to kill the spitter due to explosion or shrapnel.

The Nobelisk is also quite useful. The Poison Nobelisk is useful if you have bad aim, Shock Nobelisk deals massive knockback over a large area, and the Nuke Nobelisk is insanely powerful and also releases radiation over a large area for a short period of time. Nobelisks are good when fighting a group of spitters from above.

Try to handle only one spitter at a time. It is possible to lure a spitter away from its group. It is possible to kill a spitter without getting yourself injured, but if your health drops too low, consider fleeing or healing yourself. If you attempt to flee, do not run in a straight line. Try moving in a zigzag pattern and jump often. The spitter will eventually reset back to its spawn location once you are far enough away. Wait until your health slowly regenerates back to three segments (30 HP). Use a healing item such as a Beryl Nut or a Paleberry to heal beyond that amount.

The Boom Box Turbo Bass ability is very useful when the spitter is guarding something or just an obstacle and a bloody nuisance, since it causes massive knockback to any hostile creatures within 60m of the pioneer. It also delivers 1 point of damage, so it is useful if you want to defeat a spitter in style(don't know why you'd want to do that).

Trivia

 * It is possible to have a spitter get hit by a fireball launched by another spitter. Fireballs can also accidentally injure or kill other spitters by friendly fire.
 * Particularly useful when Alpha spitters and normal spitters are in a group; when they shoot at you, they can hurt each other.
 * If the fireball collides with a placed Nobelisk, the Nobelisk will explode.
 * Its fireball is slightly explosive. If you trap a spitter in between four walls and look at it from outside, it will continually shoot the fireball at the wall, causing explosions, and will eventually kill itself.
 * If a vehicle (such as a tractor) runs into a spitter, it will "ragdoll" and go completely limp. However, if a pioneer exits the vehicle while the spitter is in this state, it can still shoot fireballs at pioneers nearby even though it will be unable to move.
 * Different spitter variants now shoot different fireballs, including green acid-like liquids.

History

 * Patch 0.6.0.0: The Creature AI system, navigation, and spawning have been overhauled
 * Creatures now have separate visual and audio perception (and they won’t hear you crouch)
 * Creatures can now panic and run when certain conditions are met
 * Added unique loot for all aggressive wildlife (see Alien Remains - Spitter Remains)
 * Added optional HUD indicators for aggressive wildlife (can be turned on in the options menu)
 * New Spitter looks
 * Desert Spitters: They are brownish-yellow with spikes on their body and have a slightly dry appearance. Their mouth glows blue.
 * Aquatic Spitters: They are blueish-green/turquoise spitters who are found on islands and along the shore.
 * Green and Red Forest Spitters: The red forest spitters look maroon with purple splotches and the tendrils hanging off at the front are longer and slimmer. They have six large horns at the back of their head. The other forest variant is obscure, please add details if possible.
 * Please note that these are not details taken from Coffee Stain Studios, this is input from players. The attack strength, health, speed, attack types and size do not vary from the spitter variant since it's still the same old spitter. Only the spitter and fireball looks have been changed.
 * Patch 2018-10-17: Introduced