History DemonicSpiders / Descent

* Red Hulks (a.k.a Advanced Hulks, Heavy Hulks, or Super Hulks) are EliteMook versions of the brown-colored Medium Hulks. They're the only robot in the game with Homing Missiles and nearly enough health to tank a direct hit from a Mega Missile. In most places you find them, they won't be alone; there will be other robots in the room with them. So you have to either focus on the Red Hulks while the other robots are firing at your back, or focus on dogfighting the other robots while dodging the Red Hulks' Homing Missiles.
* The Class 1 Driller comes equipped with the Vulcan Cannon, the nearest thing ''Descent'' has to a HitScan weapon in a game where every other weapon fires {{Painfully Slow Projectile}}s. Because the robots in this game don't lead shots, when the Driller fires, it's deadly accurate and does a lot of damage, even on easier difficulty levels. They also have tougher cloaked versions in later levels. Both versions of the Class 1 Driller will often be found paired with Red Hulks and other DemonicSpiders. If you see an InvincibilityPowerUp, these robots are most often the reason you'll need it.

* Red Hulks (a.k.a Advanced Hulks, Heavy Hulks, or Super Hulks) are EliteMook versions of the brown-colored Medium Hulks. They're the only non-boss robot in the game with Homing Missiles and enough health to tank a direct hit from a Mega Missile. In most places you find them, they won't be alone; there will be other robots in the room with them. So you have to either focus on the Red Hulks while the other robots are firing at your back, or focus on dogfighting the other robots while dodging the Red Hulks' Homing Missiles.

* Omega Defense Spawn are small, fast-moving suicide-bombers that take a lot of damage to kill. When they explode, they blow up with enough force to punt you across the room...and, potentially, into another Omega. Camoflauged Omegas are a common occurrance in the levels after Quartzon, though they prefer to run away from you and drop bombs rather than kamikaze-rush you. Of course, they don't try very hard to avoid ramming you by accident, and they still pack a hell of a wallop when they explode. In some levels, the blue, yellow, and red keys will be carried by camo Omegas, forcing you to chase them down and kill them in order to complete the level.

* The Gyro is TheGoomba in this game; it's the first enemy the player encounters in the game, alongside the Orbot. Its [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority red]] PaletteSwap, however, trades in the laser for a Napalm Gun, and [[KillItWithFire it will hose you down with it the moment it has line-of-sight to you.]] [[AttackAttackAttack And it will not stop until one of you is dead.]]

* Red Hulks are back in the form of the Lou Guard. They're made tougher to compensate for the more powerful weapons introduced in ''Descent 2'', and they're often positioned where they can surprise the player.
* Diamond Claws are faster and tougher than their predecessors, the Medium Lifters. They're designed and positioned in such a way that there really aren't a lot of options against them that won't also hurt you, too. If you hit them with energy weapons, they fire back with homing Smart plasma. Being melee bots, they're constantly moving toward you, meaning they'll very often be close enough to catch you in your own SplashDamage if you use missiles or Gauss on them. Finally, when you do kill them, they use the new weaponized-explosion mechanic to get one last hit in. They have cloaked versions, but the normal versions are colored to blend in with the most common rock wall textures in the game; either way, the only way to know they're around is the distinctive sound they make when they attack. ''Descent 2'' loves using these things in ambushes, so they'll be a thorn in your side for most of the game.

''Descent'' as a game series prides itself on being NintendoHard. Most of the difficulty comes from the robots. Below is a list of the robots purposely designed to give the player hell.

* The Green Spider found in later levels takes the place of the Class 2 Platform as the game's chief spammer of Concussion Missiles, but retain the Red Spider's ability to spawn GoddamnBats to continue harassing the player when they die.

* The Stingers, which are basically Descent 3's even more dangerous replacement for Lou Guards. Stingers are hard to hit, extremely aggressive, and they can spam a ridiculous number of homing missiles. To top it off, they give off a horrible screeching sound when they find you. The level 3 version of those Stingers are a pain to beat since they're a lot faster (insanely faster in higher difficulties), shoots 2 dual homing missiles at you, and their claws inflicts more damage.
* The tail bots are quite annoying. Level 1 tail bots are a joke (unless playing higher difficulty) that fires EMP lasers at you, while level 2 fires concussion missiles and level 3 fires '''Frag''' missiles that can kill you instantly if you're near a wall.
* Gyro bots are a joke. But their [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority red]] PaletteSwap, the Flame Gyros, are their exact opposite. They're extremely fast, highly damaging, operate in packs, and will [[AttackAttackAttack never ever EVER stop blasting you with their napalm cannons]].
--> '''Gyro:''' Freeze!\\
'''Flame Gyro:''' BURN.

* Lou Guards: Green hulks armed with homing missiles. They are are [[PaletteSwap identical]] {{Expy}}s of Red Hulks (although the latter seems more durable because ''Descent 1'' doesn't have as many powerful weapons to finish then quickly).
* Diamond Claws: Sharp claws (of course), sneaks up on you, often double teams you, sometimes comes cloaked, and shoots plasma back when hit with energy weapons.
* Sidearm Modulas: Tiny and hard to hit, fire [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Flash Missile Massacres]] and are produced when Sidearms are destroyed.
* Seekers: Tough as nails, fire fast Mercury Missiles that take off a large chunk your shields, tend to camp around corners, major pain on Quartzon.
* The BPER Bot's phase pulse cannon (same as the Sidearm's, but faster) drains your shields very quickly, and it also can kill from beyond the grave.
* Omega Defense Spawn. Small, fast, tougher than they look, and they [[RammingAlwaysWorks explode on top of you]] as their attack. Even when detonated well away from you, the shockwave is enormous, and tends to throw your ship violently.
* Red Hornets are GoddamnedBats as individuals, but when encountered in swarms, they will quickly deal you a DeathOfAThousandCuts. They also have a tougher PaletteSwap, the Spawns, which are produced by the also-demonic Green Spiders (possibly the worst [[MacrossMissileMassacre Concussion Missile Massacrer]] in the series) when they are killed.
* The Energy Bandit, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, draining both your energy ''and shields''.
* The dreaded Boarshead, the deadliest normal enemy in D2. This monster of a drone is armed with a ''gatling plasma cannon'' '''''and''''' ''Smart Missiles''. Tellingly, it's the only robot whose danger level is listed as "extreme" in the briefings.
* ''Vertigo'' also had the MAX (Maximum Amplified Xenophobe). Take the Red Hulk's durability and homing missiles (it even makes the same noise), except it fires homing ''Flash'' missiles. Have fun being blinded in the middle of intense firefights!

* Red Hulks (a.k.a Advanced Hulks, Heavy Hulks, or Super Hulks). First appear in Level 5. They are three times as durable as brown hulks and fire [[HomingProjectile homing missiles]] at you. While 1 Mega Missile barely destroy it, a Mega Missile's blast alone or a Smart Missile won't destroy it in 1 shot. Dodging the homing missiles is very hard and highly recommend the cloaking device reserved for them whenever available.
* Class 1 Drillers. First appear in Level 6. Drillers, who have the [[{{hitscan}} nigh-undodgeable]] Vulcan Cannon as their armament, and are deadly accurate, firing very aggressively as soon as you're spotted. They don't drop anything worthwhile except more ammo for the Vulcan Cannon, and their only weakness is that they're fairly large and have very low durability, going down in a single Concussion Missile, Homing Missile, or a quad laser shot. Many would reserve Homing Missiles, Smart Missiles, and Invisibility power-ups just for these and to avoid massive shield chipping in the long run. When paired with Red Hulks later in that same level and next, the results can be lethal.
* The Advanced Lifter. First appear in Level 8. They are lightning fast, does considerable damage with its four claws, and was the quietest bot in the game by a long shot. Get used to turning around and seeing a pack of them right on your tail, with zero idea where they came from. However, when you realize they frequently drop shield items, you'll actually feel somewhat fortunate to encounter them compared to other nastier enemies. It doesn't help that Supervisor robots, introduced in the same level, can alert these Advanced Lifters.
* Heavy Drillers. First appear in Level 10. They debut in large numbers in Level 12. Although the Vulcan shoots at lightspeed, the Plasma Cannon shoots very fast and can destroy you quickly if your maneuvering isn't good. ''Vertigo Series'' has Class 2 Heavy Drillers which have returning homing plasma.
* The Class 2 Platform Robot (green). First appears in Secret Level 1 or Level 16. If you didn't get to Secret Level 1, you may be introduced to its much weaker white Class 1 as "okay this is very weak" because the briefing says "Medium" threat, but surprise. The green ones will appear much later in that same level firing [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Missile Massacres]] at you that makes you wish you never took the weaker robot for granted. Even a single burst can mean ''instant death''.
* Fusion Hulks, (a.k.a "Mini-boss"). First appear in Secret Level 1 or Level 23 and without any briefing of the robot whatsoever. Each one a BossInMookClothing that has enough health to ''survive'' a mega missile and shoots projectiles like from your Fusion Cannon at you. Each shot of their Fusion cannon can deal 25-60 (or even more) shields and have a wide bulk that is harder to dodge. Making matters worse, there are a few [[MookMaker MatCens]] in the game that create only Fusion Hulks.

There are many enemies in the game that will make your travels a lot worse than it should. What qualifies these as Demonic Spiders are the fact that there are a large quantity of these enemies and indestructible enemy generators.

Almost every enemy will use the same type of gun that you use and will apply the same stat rules ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard or even worse]]). The weapons' velocity goes the same speeds, from slow to instant. They can have the same properties like lock-on. And so forth. What makes it even tougher is the A.I.'s behavior, from standby to aggressive.

As robots get introduced into certain levels, they automatically create a DifficultySpike to those certain levels they were introduced in.

It also doesn't help that some of these enemies hide in trap doors, forcing players to drop Proximity Mines and and Smart Bombs just so they can avoid or minimize encountering these enemies.

In general, any cloaked enemy qualifies as this. Due to graphics resolution at the time, it is very difficult to spot where each cloaked enemy is located. You may wonder who is repeatedly hitting you, but can't visibly pinpoint the location. By the time you destroy one, you have likely lost some shields in the process if you came in unprepared. While approaching levels slowly can be safe, cloaked enemies, combined with the below enemies can make your exploration much tougher than it should and literally forces you to [[FakeDifficulty memorize the level]] rather than complete levels fairly.

%% The Difficulty Spikes are a little harder to pinpoint in the second game, partly because the enemy [=AI=] improves throughout. With the expansion of AI varieties, even the {{Mooks}} introduced in Zeta Aquilae can be a lot tougher to deal with once you face the much faster, more evasive ones set to "Sniper" mode in Baloris Prime or the Omega System.

%% To make matters worse, let's just say that ANY robot in the first two Descent games will, in some way or another, play this trope or GoddamnBats. Even the frickin' Guide Bot. Descent 3's robots [[ZigZaggingTrope play the tropes straight whenever they feel like it.]]

* Class 1 Drillers. First appear in Level 6. Drillers, who have the [[{{hitscan}} nigh-undodgeable]] Vulcan Cannon as their armament, and are deadly accurate, firing aggressively as soon as you're spotted. They don't drop anything worthwhile except more ammo for the Vulcan Cannon, and their only weakness is that they're fairly large and have very low durability, going down in a single Concussion Missile, Homing Missile, or a quad laser shot. Many would reserve Homing Missiles, Smart Missiles, and Invisibility power-ups just for these and to avoid massive shield chipping in the long run. When paired with Red Hulks, the results can be lethal.

* The Class 2 Platform Robot (green). First appears in Secret Level 1 or Level 16. If you didn't get to Secret Level 1, you may be introduced to its much weaker white Class 1 as "okay this is very weak" because the briefing says "Medium" threat, but surprise. The green ones will appear much later in that same level firing [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Missile Massacres]] at you that makes you want to scream. Even a single burst can mean ''instant death''.

Almost every enemy will use the same type of gun that you use and will apply the same stat rules ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard or even worse]]), with the exception of shields. The weapons' velocity goes the same speeds, from slow to instant. They can have the same properties like lock-on. And so forth. What makes it even tougher is the A.I.'s behavior, from standby to aggressive.

As robots get introduced into certain levels, they automatically create a DifficultySpike to those certain levels.

It also doesn't help that some of these enemies hide in trap doors, forcing players to drop Proximity Mines and and Smart Bombs just so they can avoid or minimize encountering these enemies.

* Red Hulks (a.k.a Advanced Hulks, Heavy Hulks, or Super Hulks). First appear in Level 5. They are three times as durable as brown hulks and fire [[HomingProjectile homing missiles]] at you. While 1 Mega Missile barely destroy it, a Mega Missile's blast alone or a Smart Missile won't destroy it. Dodging the homing missiles is very hard and highly recommend the cloaking device reserved for them whenever available.
* Class 1 Drillers. First appear in Level 6. Drillers, who have the [[{{hitscan}} nigh-undodgeable]] Vulcan Cannon as their armament, and are deadly accurate, firing aggressively as soon as you're spotted. They don't drop anything worthwhile except more ammo for the Vulcan Cannon, and their only weakness is that they're fairly large and have very low durability, going down in a single Concussion Missile or Homing Missile. To make matters worse, the Drillers later come in a slightly more durable cloaked variety, which cannot be targeted by homing weapons. Many would reserve Homing Missiles and Invisibility power-ups just for these and to avoid massive shield chipping. When paired with Red Hulks, the results can be lethal.

* The Class 2 Platform Robot (green). First appears in Secret Level 1 or Level 16. If you didn't get to Secret Level 1, you may be introduced to its much weaker white Class 1 as "okay this is very weak", but surprise. The green ones will appear much later in that same level firing [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Missile Massacres]] at you that makes you want to scream. Even a single burst can mean ''instant death''.
* Fusion Hulks, (a.k.a "Mini-boss"). First appear in Secret Level 1 or Level 23. Each one a BossInMookClothing that has enough health to ''survive'' a mega missile and shoots projectiles like from your Fusion Cannon at you. Each shot of their Fusion cannon can deal 25-60 (or even more) shields and have a wide bulk that is harder to dodge. Making matters worse, there are a few [[MookMaker MatCens]] in the game that create only Fusion Hulks.

* Class 1 Drillers, who have the [[{{hitscan}} nigh-undodgeable]] Vulcan Cannon as their armament, and are deadly accurate, firing aggressively as soon as you're spotted. They don't drop anything worthwhile except more ammo for the Vulcan Cannon, and their only weakness is that they're fairly large and have low durability, going down in a single Homing Missile. To make matters worse, the Drillers later come in a slightly more durable cloaked variety, which cannot be targeted by homing weapons. If paired with the above Red Hulks, the results can be lethal if unchecked.

* The Class 2 Platform Robot (green). First appears in Secret Level 1 or Level 16. You may be introduced to its much weaker white Class 1 as "okay this is weak", but the green ones first appear much later in that level firing [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Missile Massacres]] at you that makes you want to scream. Even a single burst can mean ''instant death''.

Almost every enemy will use the same type of gun that you use, thus applying the same damage rules (or even worse) when fired against you.