Rival Nemesis

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OverviewCreaturesRival TechNemesis

“

The bloody Rivals weren't screwing around when introducing this abomination to the caves of Hoxxes. Few dwarves have met this horror and lived to tell the tale. Those who make it back alive and still have their wits about them report being lured in by cries for help from their fellow dwarves, only to be ambushed by this monstrosity. It's a near unstoppable beast that seeks to lure in, hunt down and eliminate our workforce, and management advices to flee on sight. If you have no other options, prepare for a fight, bring your most powerful firearms and keep your distance.

— Miner's Manual Description

The Rival Nemesis is a rare enemy found on Hoxxes IV.

It appears as a large, armored, octahedron-shaped robot kept aloft by an exhaust port located on its underside. It possesses two long, mechanical claws on its topside, each projecting a red light, and a circular optic with a triangular pupil adorning three glowing circles on its forefront. Following the color scheme of all Rival Tech machines, its body is primarily black with orange bioluminescent features.

The Nemesis is a specialized killing machine designed by Rival Tech to lure dwarves in by synthesizing the voices of their comrades, before ambushing and crushing them with its pair of robotic appendages. Any dwarves that the Nemesis grabs will be slowly crushed to death, but may be freed if they use a charge of the Heightened Senses perk or if the Nemesis collides with terrain. The Nemesis moves slowly and can only grab dwarves that are close by.

Before engaging in combat, the Nemesis will slowly hover around, mimicking voice lines of fellow dwarves in the hope of luring a dwarf over to its location.

Spawning

There is a 3% chance that the Nemesis will spawn on map generation on any mission, usually a significant distance away from the starting Drop Pod.

During missions with the Rival Presence warning, the Nemesis is added to the spawn pool and can spawn like any other enemy. However, in these cases it still spawns relatively infrequently. After spawning, there is an 11 minute cooldown during which its spawn probability is drastically decreased.

Combat

The Nemesis has a large amount of HP, and multiple attacks, but it moves slowly and its attacks have relatively short ranges.

Attacks

Seize and Destroy Protocol

In the Seize and Destroy Protocol, the Nemesis approaches a target which may either be a Dwarf or a L.U.R.E. If the target is within range and unobstructed by terrain, it grabs the target in one claw and gradually crushes the target with damage over time. Each claw can only grab a single target at a time. The grab has a range of 8.5m, duration of 8s, cooldown of 5s, and players who have just been revived have a grace period of 7s during which they will not be grabbed.

The grab attack is not instant, and players may evade it by quickly leaving the grab range or hiding behind terrain. The Nemesis also cannot grab through a Gunner's Shield Generator bubble.

Unlike with other grabbing enemies, using an active charge of the Heightened Senses perk does not instantly kill the Nemesis, though it does allow the user to escape the grab.

While a player is grabbed, the player's camera temporarily switches to a third-person view.

Seize and Destroy Protocol

DoT
Damage per Tick		Hazard Level
		Normal Mission								DD			EDD
		1	2	3	4	5	PV 1	PV 2		3	3.5		4.5	5	5.5
Player Count		1.5	2.1	3.6	6	8.4	12.6	16.8		3.6	4.5		6.9	8.4	9
		1.5	2.4	3.9	6.45	9	13.5	18		3.9	4.8		7.35	9	9.6
		1.5	2.7	4.2	6.9	9.6	14.4	19.2		4.2	5.1		7.8	9.6	10.2
		1.5	3	4.5	7.5	10.2	15.3	20.4		4.5	5.4		8.4	10.2	10.8
Details
Damage Type		Internal
Interval		0.29 s
Duration		7.5 s

Defensive Shield Barrier

During combat, the Nemesis will occasionally launch a Plasma Force Field, akin to a Repulsion Turret, toward an attacking Dwarf. These move at 6m/s, last for 7s, are impenetrable to player weapons, and collapse upon contact with terrain. They also damage and knock back players upon contact.

Defensive Shield Barrier

Projectile
Damage Amount		Hazard Level
		Normal Mission								DD			EDD
		1	2	3	4	5	PV 1	PV 2		3	3.5		4.5	5	5.5
Player Count		3.5	4.9	8.4	14	19.6	29.4	39.2		8.4	10.5		16.1	19.6	21
		3.5	5.6	9.1	15.05	21	31.5	42		9.1	11.2		17.15	21	22.4
		3.5	6.3	9.8	16.1	22.4	33.6	44.8		9.8	11.9		18.2	22.4	23.8
		3.5	7	10.5	17.5	23.8	35.7	47.6		10.5	12.6		19.6	23.8	25.2
Details
Damage Type		Electric

Dig

If a Nemesis is approaching a target but cannot get within grab range, it is capable of carving through terrain to reach its target, similarly to a Glyphid Dreadnought. It will dig by repeatedly emitting a spherical forcefield around itself that, unlike its other forcefield attacks, will destroy terrain in its vicinity.

Dig

AoE Attack
Area Damage		Hazard Level
		Normal Mission								DD			EDD
		1	2	3	4	5	PV 1	PV 2		3	3.5		4.5	5	5.5
Player Count		12.5	17.5	30	50	70	105	140		30	37.5		57.5	70	75
		12.5	20	32.5	53.75	75	112.5	150		32.5	40		61.25	75	80
		12.5	22.5	35	57.5	80	120	160		35	42.5		65	80	85
		12.5	25	37.5	62.5	85	127.5	170		37.5	45		70	85	90
Details
Damage Type		Melee					Radius: 5 m Maximum Damage Radius: 5 m Minimum Area Damage: 1 %

Bombardment Failsafe

Upon death, the Nemesis engages a self-destruct sequence, falling onto the ground, retracting its arms, delivering a parting voiceline and, after a short delay, spawning a large amount of Phase Bombs in the general location of nearby players. The Phase Bomb is an explosive that hovers in mid-air accompanied by a glow indicating its explosion range, exploding after 1.5s. These are identical to the Phase Bombs sometimes used by the Rival Caretaker.

Phase Bombs spawned by the Bombardment Failsafe are somewhat homing, created based on the nearest line of sight and sometimes ahead of where a player is running.

Doretta is a valid target for the phase bombs, making it dangerous to destroy a Nemesis in close proximity to Doretta.

Phase Bomb

AoE Attack
Area Damage		Hazard Level
		Normal Mission								DD			EDD
		1	2	3	4	5	PV 1	PV 2		3	3.5		4.5	5	5.5
Player Count		10	14	24	40	56	84	112		24	30		46	56	60
		10	16	26	43	60	90	120		26	32		49	60	64
		10	18	28	46	64	96	128		28	34		52	64	68
		10	20	30	50	68	102	136		30	36		56	68	72
Details
Damage Type		50% Explosive + 50% (Fire + Heat)					Radius: 3.5 m Maximum Damage Radius: 3.5 m Minimum Area Damage: 100 %

Electric AoE Attack

This is an additional attack that is not named in the Miner's Manual. It is an extremely high damage attack that is inflicted in a spherical area centered on the Nemesis itself, and accompanied by a field of lightning-like visual effects. It is telegraphed by a sound effect that rises in pitch, and has a noticeable charge-up time of ~5s. In these aspects it strongly resembles the Caretaker's "Area Shock" attack, but the Nemesis's version deals its full damage at one instant rather than over time.

This attack is rarely used. It appears to be triggered when a player is close to the Nemesis yet cannot be grabbed, such as when hiding under a solid object with certain geometry, or standing inside the Drop Pod. However, the exact trigger conditions are not precisely known.

Nemesis Electric Attack

AoE Attack
Area Damage		Hazard Level
		Normal Mission								DD			EDD
		1	2	3	4	5	PV 1	PV 2		3	3.5		4.5	5	5.5
Player Count		50	70	120	200	280	420	560		120	150		230	280	300
		50	80	130	215	300	450	600		130	160		245	300	320
		50	90	140	230	320	480	640		140	170		260	320	340
		50	100	150	250	340	510	680		150	180		280	340	360
Details
Damage Type		Electric					Radius: 6 m Maximum Damage Radius: 6 m Minimum Area Damage: 100 %

Health and Armor

The Nemesis has four exposed Weakpoints: two below the arms, one on the back, and the "eye". Additionally, there are permanent weakpoints on its top and bottom which are initially covered by Heavy Armor. All weakpoints share the distinct Rival Tech weakpoint appearance of being covered by thin glowing orange lines.

All corners of its main body, other than the top corner, are covered by Unbreakable Armor. Its arms are also completely composed of Unbreakable Armor, and invulnerable to non-AoE attacks.

Effective Health Scaling		Hazard Level
		Normal Mission								DD			EDD
		1	2	3	4	5	TE 1	TE 2		3	3.5		4.5	5	5.5
Player Count		1575	2275	2800	3500	4200	6300	7350		2800	2975		3850	4200	4550
		1925	2625	3150	3500	4200	6300	7350		3150	3325		3850	4200	4550
		2450	3150	3500	4200	4900	7350	8575		3500	3850		4550	4900	5250
		2975	3500	3850	4550	5250	7875	9187.5		3850	4200		4900	5250	5600

Just like all Rival tech, the Nemesis will instantly die if its temperature gauge reaches the On Fire status effect. However, it has a very high effective ignition temperature and a high natural cooling rate, requiring significant effort to ignite.

Voice Lines

The Nemesis's voice lines have very notable behavior depending on when they are used.

• Voice lines when the Nemesis is mimicking dwarves attempting to lure them towards it are variants of the Dwarves' own shout and downed voice lines. When spoken by the Nemesis, these voice lines contain extra ticking noises in the background and end with a beeping noise similar to the end of a voicemail message. Additionally, the Nemesis stutters on some of the words in most of the lines.
• Voice lines when the Nemesis is attacking the dwarves are spoken in its true voice. This voice is much more robotic and menacing, with a deeper pitch and more distortion than the Dwarf voices.
• Voice lines when the Nemesis is defeated are again mimicking the dwarves. However, unlike the lure voice lines, these contain no stuttering and are original lines rather than mimicking one of the Dwarves' voice lines. Distorting audio can be heard in the background implying the Nemesis is shutting down.

Lure

Trigger State	Quote	Audio
Idle (plays every 7-10 secs)	I'm hurt! I need he-he-he-help!
	Come and r-r-r-rescue me!
	Sa-a-a-ave me-e-e-e!
	Please, rescue me-e-e-e!
	Over here-re-re!
	Found something!
	Look what I fou-ound!
	Come here!
	Mush-r-r-room!
	We're r-r-rich!

Dwarf spotted

Trigger State	Quote	Audio
Target within grabbing range	Target acquired!
	Hostile in range!
	Dwarf detected!
	Initiate termination!
	Meet Nemesis!
	Attack initiated!

Performing seize and destroy protocol

Trigger State	Quote	Audio
Attacking target	Terminate!
	Kill!
	Crush!
	Die!
	Destroy!
	Exterminate!
	I. Am. Nemesis.
	Destroy dwarf!
	Crush dwarf!
	Murder. Death. Kill!
	Die, puny dwarf!
	Exterminate dwarf!
	Kill dwarf!
	I.. will.. crush.. you!
	Kill all dwarves!

Defeated

Trigger State	Quote	Audio
Death	I have watched BET-C glitter in the dark.
	I have seen tears in the rain.
	I'm so lonely.
	Why couldn't we be friends?
	I've seen things you dwarves wouldn't believe.
	Time to die!
	I feel so cold.
	I can't feel my arms.
	I see light!
	I'm dying!
	I never had a friend.
	I thought we were friends.
	I was Nemesis!
	My God, it's full of stars!
	The only winning move is not to play.
	Why.. is it so dark?
	This wasn't a triumph!
	Existence... unsuccessful!
	I'm leaving soon. Goodbye.

Trivia

• The Nemesis has voice lines referencing various science fiction movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Blade Runner (1982), WarGames (1983), 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) and Demolition Man (1993). It also has indirect references to the video game Portal (2007) and the Doctor Who (1963) series.

• The Nemesis is the first enemy to have proper voice lines instead of simply noises.
• During Season 2, Nemeses were marked on the Terrain Scanner with a tall orange pyramid icon; however, from Season 3 onward they are no longer marked.
• The Nemesis' true voice was provided by Javier O'Neill, who, ironically enough, also voices the dwarves.
• Originally, the Nemesis's death lines were spoken in its true voice during the Season 2 public test build. It was changed to mimic dwarf voices once Season 2 launched.
• The "Mushroom!" and "We're rich!" Nemesis voice lines were added in Season 03: Plaguefall.
• The Nemesis somewhat resembles a turret controller found in missions with the Rival Presence mutator.