Styrax

Roar This article is under construction to remove strange and out of place things like that crocodile and replace it with something better or to add information. So don't delete it if a stub until two months from now. That was some baad grammar.

Height: 70 metres Weight: 50,500 metric tons Gender: Male Combat Style: Charging Primary Attacks: Horn Crash, Rocket Tackle Secondary Attacks: Hooked Beak & Teeth, Clawed Forelegs Primary Weapon: Reflexive Rocket Thrust Secondary Weapon: Brine Slug Energy Style: Meditation · Overview. Styrax is a ceratopsian dinosaur that has undergone dramatic genetic and cybernetic alterations to become a weapon of war for an extinct race of sentient saurians. No-one knows why it walks the earth once more, but no-one can deny its ferocity in battle, both on land and in the air. In terms of gameplay Styrax works as an agile hit-and-run charger; his ability to accelerate backwards allows him to escape unfavorable engagements and to retreat far enough to regain energy. Styrax's inability to hoist, high running speed and high weight also makes him effective at destroying buildings with the intent to deny their use to the opponent as ammuniton or fuel. · Origin. Modern humans have existed for a mere 10,000 years, and global civilization for even less. The dinosaurs, therefore, having had over 130 million years in which to flourish, had plenty of time to develop sentience and a civilization even more advanced than our own. Unfortunately, this includes a longer history of war and conquest as well. Millennia of internecine warfare between rival saurianoid factions brought the Earth over the edge of disaster; indeed it was their own misuse of “mass driver” weaponry that brought an end to the Age of Dinosaurs as we know it. In a desperate attempt to survive the global winter they had created, the surviving saurianoids used experimental time-travel technology to try and find a future when the Earth had healed and they could re-colonize. They found it. Unfortunately, we had evolved to replace them, and Daikaiju stalked the earth, seas and skies. In response, they began sending massive bioweapons, relics of their war, to our time in the hopes that they could eradicate the human scourge and defeat the modern Kaiju. Styrax was* but one of many, a mindless tool to usher in a new age for his masters.

• please note that I don't intend to develop any other cyborg dinosaurs to back this up, and Styrax is the only one of his kind extant in our time. This is because the tech his masters used to send him here wasn't initially built to handle the scale of the mass-energy conversion needed to send kaiju, which manifested as corruption of the spatial coordinate parameters. Consequently, all of Styrax's progenitors got telefragged, so to speak (asphyxiated in space, crushed underwater, entombed inside mountains, etc).

· Energy System: Styrax obtains energy by the efficient breakdown of water into an Oxyhydrogen-based fuel source. As such, he requires a REALLY big drink: entering any body of water on the battlefield and standing still will cause Styrax to enter a “drinking stance” where energy is rapidly refilled. Energy slowly drains when out of water, and is more rapidly lost whenever Styrax uses an attack or ability that requires a burst from the rocket thrusters embedded in his flesh, most obviously when in flight mode. This system unfortunately means that Styrax’s combat efficiency is dependent on the stage selected for battle; in completely landlocked areas he can’t regain energy at all except via generic pickups (I don’t know if you’ll have these in the game, just going by experience of the Godzilla ones).

• Please note that I classed this energy system as meditation rather than hunger due to the fact that, unless specific assets were put into a game that allowed for alteration of water levels, Styrax would never actually run out of stuff to “eat”.

· Ranged Combat: Unless you count using his rockets to essentially fire himself as a projectile, Styrax has no long-range attacks to speak of. His quadrupedal stance also prevents him from grabbing buildings, though he can shove them forward while charging, during which they may damage foes. His main mid-range attack involves the re-direction of fuel through the small vents on his horns (reflexive rocket thrust), allowing him to blowtorch his opponents and, at more powerful settings, to dash backwards to escape the foes’ grasp. Styrax can also shoot a burst of salty marine solids (the refuse from his energy regen process) upwards and outwards from his blowhole; and is his only real anti-air option (when grounded himself). · Grappling: Styrax’s lack of leverage in close quarters prevents him from initiating grapples, and his massive horns provide the more dexterous Kaiju with a neat handle with which to swing him around like a ragdoll. As long as Styrax has energy he’s far from defenseless though, being able to break grapples with a quick thrust backwards or, at great energy expense, to fly into the opponent, drive them into the air, and then aim at the ground for a bone-shattering piledriver! · Melee Combat: Styrax is a prehistoric bull in a Mesozoic china shop; charging is the only game he knows. His melee game involves literal hit-and-run tactics, relying on his superior agility at speed to run rings around – and through—his targets. If the energy is available Styrax can also enter a flight mode not unlike Rodan’s; fast-moving but unable to hover in place. Unlike Rodan, Styrax can knock down enemies merely by flying into them. Getting hit while flying, however, will throw his fuel choke out of kilter, preventing him from getting back into the air for several seconds.

Weaknesses: Styrax does not do well in close-range combat; his strikes here are weak and have greatly limited range. Monsters that rely on damaging strikes may find Styrax to be difficult to approach from the front due to the wall of spikes and flames it presents, but he has no real way of defending his sides or rear other than by dodging out of the way. Due to the horns, grapplers are Styrax’s bane, and with skill he can be plucked right out of a charge and dumped into a world of pain. As a cybernetic organism he also has a notable vulnerability to electrical and radiation damage, as the energy surge disrupts the signals he receives from his masters.