A unique Xenomorph Concept
By no means the first Xenomorph concept, but from what I’ve seen I think it’s the first Xenomorph concept that’s as unique as this. (mentioned in a recent topic, but I thought I'd refine it a bit and post it in it's entirety)
Rather than spawning in as a fully grown Xenomorph, you spawn at the very beginning of the Xenomorph lifecycle, and have to progress through each stage, almost like Myers tiering up. This allows for a relatively non-threatening early game, which makes room for a more lethal killer concept to take over in the mid-game.
This makes for a rather unique gameplay loop, and a unique killer concept in general. You have the suspense of a stealth killer in the first phase, further suspense and/or a reprieve for survivors in the second phase, you then have the ‘counter’ third phase in which the killer must evade the survivors, swapping the roles, and then finally you have your main killer, the perfect organism.
I remind you all this is just for fun, and individual values are not a make or break thing for this entirely hypothetical concept. By all means point out flaws, but there’s no need for “x seconds is so OP!” and the like.
Spawn: Ovomorph
Your spawn in animation is the ovomorph, or the egg, hatching with a Facehugger emerging from it. The game starts with five evenly spaced ovomorphs on the map, and you emerge from the one furthest away from the survivors as a Facehugger.
Phase 1: Facehugger
This phase plays much like Victor, you scurry around at 6m/s with a low FoV and no terror radius, accompanied by a lullaby of scurrying/scratching sounds. You cannot see scratch marks, but you can see auras and killer instinct when applicable. Your goal is to latch onto a survivor, you cannot latch on to a survivor in the deepwound state, and being stunned by a pallet causes you to respawn from the furthest ovomorph. Once attached, you have a skill check prompt like a survivor’s wiggle skill checks, meanwhile the survivor suffers from Blindness and Incapacitated and can attempt to remove you much like Victor, this action takes 14 seconds. You need to fill the bar to complete your implantation. If you fail to fill the bar fast enough, the survivor can pull you off and stomp on you. This action injures the survivor and puts them into deepwound, and you respawn from the furthest ovomorph. If successfully implanted, you progress to the Larval phase.
Phase 2: Larval
This is the most passive phase of the xenomorph cycle. You simply follow the implanted survivor around like a spectator, with a graphic on screen of a gestating larva. You also gain your ‘gestation’ meter which will remain for the next three phases. While this is happening, a separate 45 second timer is counting down, visible on the survivor’s portrait, which only you the killer can see. You will occasionally get skill checks like a survivor healing/repairing, hitting a skill check increases the gestation meter by 3% and decreases the survivor’s timer by 1s, hitting a great skill check will increase the gestation meter by 5% and cause the survivor to scream and interrupt their action. Survivors interacting with objectives will speed up this process, and add-ons can adjust the duration. Crucially, a survivor may not know if you successfully impregnated them, unless you hit a great skill check or you have add ons that inflict a status while impregnated. Meanwhile you get to see everything that survivor is doing, such as placing boons, which generator they’re working on, etc. Once the timer has completed, you erupt from the survivor as a Chestburster. This event interrupts the survivor’s action and puts them into the dying state, it also applies one entire hook state automatically. If this occurs to a survivor on death hook, a unique mori animation is carried out.
Phase 3: Chestburster
As a Chestburster, you are vulnerable. 5 seconds after emerging from the survivor, survivors are able to stomp on you, but this will place them into deepwound. If they do so, you respawn from the furthest ovomorph as a Facehugger and begin your cycle anew. Your goal is to evade the survivors, you move at 6m/s and have no terror radius, but you do have a lullaby. Once you are at least 32 meters away from a survivor, you gain the prompt to ‘complete gestation’. Hold down the secondary action button while stationary to increase the gestation meter, the default duration of which is 60 seconds, but will have retained any progress from successful skill checks during the Larval phase. You gain killer instinct at a range of 24m while in this phase, and when triggered, your gestation progress slows to 50% speed. Once the gestation meter is 50% complete, you will enter Immature phase.
Phase 4: Immature Xenomorph
You’ve now grown to the size of a large dog or a small human, you can no longer be stomped by survivors, your FoV is raised to that of Hag/Sadako, you lose permanent killer instinct, and you gain the ability to M1 survivors. You cannot pick survivors up when in the dying state, but you can mori if applicable (via offerings). You are capable of defending yourself, and capable of applying pressure, but you cannot further your objective until you complete gestation. Visually, you are a smaller version of your adult form, with any cosmetic options resized accordingly. Continue to hold down the secondary action button to complete your growth phase and become an Adult.
Weapon: Prehensile Tail
Basic Attack (M1): You thrust the tip of your tail forward and spear a survivor with the tip.
Phase 5: Adult Xenomorph
You have completed your growth cycle and become the perfect organism. You can no longer revert back to previous stages, but why would you want to? Your now at full height, your movement speed is 4.6m/s, your Terror Radius is 40m, your lunge is increased by 50%, and you gain your secondary attack ‘Evisceration’.
Special Attack (M2): Evisceration. Hold the secondary action button to go into ‘Evisceration’ ready mode, then press the primary action button to activate. It takes 0.5s to ready ‘Evisceration’ and 1.5s to fully charge. While charging/charged, you gain killer instinct on all survivors within 16m and move at 3.86m/s, while emitting a hissing sound. A partially charged ‘Evisceration’ will unleash a rush attack at 15m/s and injure any survivors in your path, a fully charged ‘Evisceration’ will unleash a rush attack at 18m/s and put any survivors hit into the dying state unless under the effect of Endurance. The rush attack is slightly steerable, unlike the Demogorgon’s Shred, but movement is heavily restricted similar to Oni/Billy. Evisceration has a 6 second cooldown, and a failed Evisceration or collision with an obstacle has a 4 second fatigue. An Evisceration rush does not break pallets, but it does cause you to vault over them with minimal loss of speed, and unlike Wesker, does not pause your power or deplete charges. If a survivor is still on the other side of the pallet, they will get hit.
Overall, you might notice that there are elements of Demogorgon, Wesker, with a bit of Myers in there, and a little bit of Twins. This all comes together to form a unique gameplay loop that makes for a relatively non-lethal killer in the first 2 minutes of the game, give or take your success at impregnating survivors, much like Myers tiering up. You then become a very threatening killer, with a power similar to Demo and Wesker in some ways, with an edge on each of them due to the lethality of a fully charged Evisceration.
There is a potential to never reach the final phase, if you allow yourself to be crushed in the Chestbuster phase and respawn as a Facehugger, you could repeatedly shave off hook states and eliminate survivors that way. However, this would take around 60s each time and would effectively be like camping, but with less pressure applied. Add ons could make the process a little more efficient, and the iridescent add on can kill survivors in one implantation, but if you use this, chances are survivors will avoid crushing you as a Chestburster to prevent you using it a second time.
Add ons
Iri 1: Iridescent Teeth - When erupting from a survivor as a Chestburster, you immediately kill that survivor by your own hand. Gestation in all phases is 100% longer.
Iri 2: Hive Mind - When charging ‘Evisceration’ you also gain killer instinct on survivors within 16m of any ovomorph. Survivors revealed by killer instinct suffer from 2% Hindered for the duration.
VR 1: Razor Talons - A partially charged ‘Evisceration’ inflicts Deepwound on healthy survivors.
VR 2: Serrated Talons - A partially or fully charged ‘Evisceration’ inflicts Mangled and Haemorrhage for 60 seconds. Timer is paused while hooked.
VR 3: Pheromone receptors - Reveal the auras of any survivors within 8m of an ovomorph.
VR 4: Acid Blood - Injured or dying survivors who stun you by any means are inflicted with Deepwound.
R 1: Perfect DNA - Increases gestation gained from great skill checks by 2% and gestation speed by 8%.
R 2: Growth Hormone Omega - Reduces the survivors gestation timer by 10 seconds.
R 3: Debilitating Toxin - While gestating in a survivor, that survivors action speeds are reduced by 25%.
R 4: Denticulated Talon - Fully charged ‘Evisceration’ inflicts Mangled and Haemorrhage for 60 seconds. Timer is paused while hooked.
R 5: Pheromone glands - Survivors that come within 8m of an ovomorph suffer from Oblivious, this effect persists for 3 seconds after leaving the area.
UC 1: Superior DNA - Increases gestation gained from skill checks by 1% and gestation speed by 6%.
UC 2: Growth Hormone Zeta - Reduces the survivors gestation timer by 5 seconds.
UC 3: Insidious Toxin - While gestating in a survivor, that survivors action speeds are reduced by 15%.
UC 4: Jagged Talon - Fully charged ‘Evisceration’ inflicts Mangled and Haemorrhage for 30 seconds. Timer is paused while hooked.
UC 5: Camouflaged Chitin - After losing a chase, you become Undetectable for 20 seconds.
C 1: Enhanced DNA- Increases gestation gained from great skill checks by 1% and gestation speed by 3%.
C 2: Insipid Toxin - While gestating in a survivor, that survivors action speeds are reduced by 10%.
C 3: Rigid Chitin - You cannot be crushed after emerging as a Chestburster for an additional 10 seconds.
C 4: Blunt Talon - A fully charged ‘Evisceration’ will not put a survivor into the dying state from healthy and will instead inflict Deepwound, failed Evisceration cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. Gain 100% bonus to bloodpoints in the Deviousness category.
Perks
Just a few ideas to add to the concept, although these aren't things I'm totally set on, just a few things I thought would fit the concept.
Perfect Defence
- An injured or dying survivor who stuns you by any means is inflicted with Deepwound and inflicted with Mangled for 20/25/30 seconds.
Heightened Senses
- When a survivor loses a hook state for the first time, this perk gains 1 token. When sacrificing a survivor, this perk loses 1 token.
- When this perk has 4 tokens, you see the auras of any survivors within 4/6/8 meters.
Genetic Memory
- When a survivor is unhooked, their aura is concealed for 180/150/120 seconds.
- After this time has elapsed, they become Oblivious for 30 seconds and their aura is revealed for 22 seconds.