Stinger

Stingers are spider-like creatures found mostly in caves and jungles. Their body consists of four pointy legs attached to its torso, and another 4 similar pointy appendages attached to its head which it uses for combat. They move very swiftly and come in three variants. Warning = Warning: Spider images in this article. If you have Arachnophobia, please do not click the tab "Stinger". Clicking the right tab above will unhide the infoboxes for Stingers which contain spider images. Stinger =

Small Stingers are the most common. The Big Stinger, which is a larger variation, occurs more frequently in caves and later-game biomes (such as the Red Bamboo Fields and the Swamp), often surrounded by multiple smaller Stingers. Large Stingers are the most rare variant, having more health and also being able to climb on steep cliffsides. Elite Stingers can be found in the swamp area of the Red Jungle (elevated center part of the map) and also in Caves, the only difference is that they're green and are capable of emitting Poison Gas. Each variant except the Small Stingers are capable of leaping.

Comparing them by size to the Explorer:
 * Small are as big as the wheels
 * Big are as big as roughly half the car
 * Large and Elite are as big as the whole car

Behavior
Stingers aggressively attack pioneers (or, occasionally other creatures such as Hogs) by clawing. Large and Elite stingers can also leap up to 10 meters up/forwards. They also attack vehicles on-sight, dealing considerable damage to Tractor with a swarm and can potentially jam wheels for other vehicles.

Stingers make scuttling insect-like sounds when moving (unless in arachnophobia mode, as noted above). Stingers tend to zigzag and run in circles when moving, attempting to distract pioneers. This can be potentially dangerous when they are attacking in groups.

The leaping attack from Large and Elite Stingers has friendly fire: they can hurt or even kill each other.

Climbing
Big, Large and Elite Stingers will climb on each other to reach the pioneer, which can ocasionally lead to them falling from a cliff edge. Large and Elite Stingers have the ability to climb on almost vertical surfaces, as well as the ability to climb trees and Lookout Towers. They cannot climb on vertical surfaces with negative gradients, such as cliff overhangs. When facing sharp edges, unlike Hogs and Spitters, they can climb downwards.

Spawning
Stingers usually spawn in groups, with Large and Elite Stingers sometimes spawning alone. Some Stinger spawn points only work during nighttime, making some areas more hostile during the night.

Tips

 * If subtitles are enabled, 'Quick Footsteps' will be displayed if a Stinger is moving. Before they attack, it will display 'Slash'. Their leaping attack is subtitled 'Leaping'.

Combat

 * The is effective against stingers.
 * Back off to dodge the melee attack.
 * Construct a Lookout Tower or at least five stacked Splitters or a Foundation 8m x 4m to fully avoid their attacks (if Large or Elite). For Elite Stingers, you may need to stack higher to out-range the poison gas that it releases.
 * When standing on a tower of splitters or foundations, Stingers will gather around the base of the tower, moving around. Nobelisks can be effective against groups of them.
 * Use the Rifle or Nobelisks to attack them from a distance. It might be difficult to land a Nobelisk precisely, however, due to their fast movement.
 * Individual Small Stingers can be dealt with very easily, as they require just two hits from either or.
 * Take caution before fighting multiple Large or Elite Stingers due to their high damage (30) and leaping capability.

Arachnophobia Mode
Activating the "Arachnophobia Mode" option replaces the Stinger models with three sprites of cats with an animated hologram filter, to make the stinger visuals more palatable for those with arachnophobia. While this is enabled:
 * The cat sprites do not correspond to a Stinger variant, which can make it harder to tell them apart, instead, it is picked randomly
 * Elite Stingers have green particles surrounding them
 * The hitbox isn't changed
 * The cat sprites do not dim and can always be seen clearly, even in dark environments
 * The movement sound is silenced and their attack/idle sounds are replaced by cat sounds (loud meows)
 * This does not affect environmental subtitles

Trivia

 * There are three total cat sprites seen while Arachnophobia mode is enabled, two of which are from the same cat. It has been confirmed that both cats belong to Coffee Stain developers.
 * Stingers are most likely carnivorous creatures and attack for food.
 * The four kinds of Stingers are called "CaveStinger_Child", "Stinger_Child", "EliteCaveStinger" and "EliteStinger" internally. This naming scheme is confusing as no kind of Stinger is found exclusively in caves or exclusively outside of caves.
 * Big and Large Stingers occasionally miss a hit if the pioneer is exactly underneath their body.

Gallery
No spider image =

History

 * Unknown patch between Patch 0.3.3.0 and Patch 0.3.5: Elite Stingers now drool green liquid to distinguish them from Large Stingers.
 * Patch 0.3: Now make cat sounds when Arachnophobia mode is enabled.
 * Patch 0.1.16: Minor tweaks to the Elite Stinger.
 * Patch 0.1.15: Introduced the Elite Stinger to the Red Jungle.
 * Patch 0.1.14: Fixed an on load crash related to the Small Stinger.
 * Patch 0.1.5: Added LODs. Now drops.