Cujo Killer Concept

Lore

A once loyal and gentle Saint-Bernard, Cujo became infected with disease after an encounter with a bat. The disease manifested itself in the dog, causing the massive beast to lose his good judgement and become a wild, relentless creature only focused on killing to appease the pain in its head. He then turned loose on his owners and anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way. After killing 4 people, the dog vanished into the woods, following a voice that soothed the burning within its head, never to be seen again.

Appearance / stats:

Cujo is a giant saint Bernard, standing at slightly shorter than survivors’ height (so about hag height) when on all fours. When Cujo is standing up on his hind legs to hook a survivor he is about 7 feet tall.

Cujo’s face is lightly covered in blood and cuts, his fur is muddy and matted and has foam at the mouth

Height: short

Movement speed: 115%

Terror radius: 32 metres

Cujo’s pattering footsteps can be heard loudly as well as a low growling/rumbling and the clinking of his collar. This is to offset the fact that he has normal movement speed despite being a short killer.

Weapon: Monstrous bite

Instead of a weapon visible onscreen, the camera is set in Cujo’s mouth, similar to the game Natural Selection 2, with his top and bottom jaws being visible (opaquely when not in use) on the borders of the screen. When the player attacks, Cujo chomps down violently with a snap. Successful hits cause Cujo to bark and spit foam from his mouth.

Animations:

The problem with a character like Cujo is that he would be difficult to animate being a quadruped and low to the ground, however his sheer size overcomes this. 

- Vaulting: Cujo sits back on his haunches and leaps through the window

- Pallet breaking: Cujo rams his head on the pallet, stumbles back, and rams it again

- Damaging generators: Same animation as pallet, alternatively he stands on two legs and bats the gen with his massive paws.

- Closing hatch: Cujo stands on his hind legs and brings his weight and front paws down on the hatch

- Carrying: Cujo carries survivors in his mouth, latching on to their chest with them dangling about a foot off the ground

- Hooking: Cujo stands up on his hind legs and puts his paws on the shaft of the hook, lifts the survivor and pushes them onto it.

- Opening lockers: Cujo Rams his nose into the crack in the door and violently turns his head to open each door. Upon seeing a survivor, he growls, jumps up and bites them on the shoulder, picking them up.

Abilities:

Rabid beast:

Has 2 aspects to it: a passive and power button ability.

Passive: Incurable

- Cujo’s basic attacks apply a stack of Rabies to survivors, up to 7 stacks.

- Lose 2 stacks when hooked or hit with Senseless charge.

- Survivors can cure rabies by interacting with pools of antiseptic saliva, dropped by Cujo as he moves and interacts.

o 1 stack- survivors gain a 1% decrease to all action speeds

o 3 stacks- 3% action penalty and survivors’ blood, scratches and grunts are more noticeable.

o 5 stacks – 5% action penalty and become visible as an aura during senseless charge.

o 7 stacks – 7% action penalty, also gain broken status affect

Alternatively: Incurable could cause survivors to have hallucinations, scream (revealing their location) and involuntary movements not actioned by the player. (Each getting worse with stacks)

Power Button (M2): Senseless charge

“As the burning in its rabid brain grows, the mad beast decides to slam its head into anything it can find to help ease the pain.”

- Cujo channels for 1 second before breaking out into a running charge, Similar to hillbilly’s but much slower (picture a speed a bit faster than cloaked wraith). Running into a survivor injures them and stuns Cujo for 3 seconds.

- Takes 4 seconds to slow to a halt when ability is cancelled unless hitting a survivor / object.

- Can leap over vaults or pallets during charge, will end charge after landing (can still damage).

Mori

Cujo faces the survivor before barking at them. They attempt to flee before being clamped on the ankle, downed and dragged backwards. Cujo then leaps onto their back, grabbing their neck and shaking it around in his mouth before letting go.

Original idea from: Orycteropus-Afer