History VideoGame / ScapeAndRunParasites

** Beckons are an odd and complicated case. They can appear via one of many ways: spawning via the Reinforcement System when a Parasite dies, being summoned by Stage IV Beckons, growing from the Infested Blocks that other Beckons turn normal blocks into, or from Residue which can be spawned by Light Carriers, Hosts, Adapted Parasites, and dead Beckons. Beckons slowly grow from Stage I to Stage IV, with each stage capable of producing biomass that spawns other types of Parasites, the types of which get stronger per Stage (Stage IV only spawns ''other'' Beckons from Stage I-III). Stage IV Beckons convert a large area around themselves into a Parasite Biome, which spawns high-tier Parasite mobs regardless of Evolution Phase.

* AdaptiveAbility: One of the driving characteristics of the parasite invasion. More directly, tiers of parasites past Primitive can adapt to individual sources of damage (such as an Iron Axe, Diamond Sword, a specific Iron Golem, or arrows shot by a Dispenser), reducing their effectiveness with each additional hit they take. The only damage type which they cannot adapt to is fire; falling, suffocation, explosions, even magic damage can all be nullified given enough time. The only way to counter this is by [[AttackItsWeakPoint cutting off their tentacles]] (if they have any), but that risks giving the parasite in question the [[TurnsRed Rage buff]]. Colonies are an upcoming mechanic that allows a global version of this: whenever an adaptation-capable parasite dies within a Colony's range, the Colony will remember the damage type that killed it and subsequent parasites spawned will start with more resistance to that damage type.

** Feral Parasites are created when a Gnat burrows into a suitable living host, spawn naturally on Phase 5, spawned in place of Assimilated mobs on Phase 6 onwards, or transformed from an Assimilated mob that gets 60 kills. They are somewhat faster than their Assimilated counterparts, and possess significantly more attack damage and health, plus additional armor. These Gnats are Inborn-tier parasites produced by a Primitive Parasite known as the Vermin.

** Beckons are an odd and complicated case. They can appear via one of many ways: spawning via the Reinforcement System when a Parasite dies, being summoned by Stage IV Beckons, growing from the Infested Blocks that other Beckons turn normal blocks into, or from Residue which can be spawned by Hosts, Adapted Parasites, and dead Beckons. Beckons slowly grow from Stage I to Stage IV, with each stage capable of producing biomass that spawns other types of Parasites, the types of which get stronger per Stage (Stage IV only spawns ''other'' Beckons from Stage I-III). Stage IV Beckons convert a large area around themselves into a Parasite Biome, which spawns high-tier Parasite mobs regardless of Evolution Phase.

* WeakToFire: Parasites take 4x damage from fire and cannot adapt to fire damage, unlike other sorts of damage. A Parasite on fire also [[AdaptiveAbility adapts to damage]] significantly slower.

* AquaticMook: Devourers are tentacled parasites that spawn in water. While they slowly suffocate on land, their ungodly speed and attack power in the water means that not even the normally mob-free ocean will be safe from the Parasites.

** Feral Parasites are created when a Gnat burrows into a suitable living host. They are somewhat faster than their Assimilated counterparts, and possess significantly more attack damage and health, plus additional armor. These Gnats are Inborn-tier parasites produced by a Primitive Parasite known as the Vermin.

** Imagine if every Enderman you encountered was hostile, detected you in a massive radius, inflicted Bleeding (damage over time), [[FlunkyBoss teleported other hostile mobs (including other Endermen)]] onto you, had a chance to spawn a weaker version of themselves on death, and made [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking even more annoying sounds]] - that's the Assimilated Enderman (or "Simmerman," as dubbed by the community), minus the immunity to water and increased health/armor. They keep their immunity to projectiles too, which makes even a single one of these mobs extremely dangerous, even for a player with fully-enchanted Diamond gear. Anyone who plays Scape and Run for a reasonable amount of time will quickly develop a healthy respect for this mob's power.

** Feral Parasites are created when a Gnat burrows into a suitable living host, and are somewhat faster than their Assimilated counterparts. These Gnats are Inborn-tier parasites produced by a Primitive Parasite known as the Vermin.

** Beckons are an odd and complicated case. They can appear via one of many ways: spawning via the Reinforcement System when a Parasite dies, being summoned by Stage IV Beckons, growing from the Infested Blocks that other Beckons turn normal blocks into, or from Residue which can be spawned by Hosts, Adapted Parasites, and dead Beckons. Beckons slowly grow from Stage I to Stage IV, with each stage capable of producing biomass that spawns other types of Parasites, the types of which get stronger per Stage (Stage IV only spawns ''other'' Beckons from Stage I-III).
** Pure Parasites do not evolve from other Parasites, but are spawned from Stage III Beckons, generate within a Parasite Biome, or spawn naturally during Phases 7-8.

** The Collective Consciousness mechanic introduces an invisible, intangible entity known as the Scent. A Scent will spawn in an area where many parasites are dying or when a player uses a Carcass to reduce the Parasites' Phase points, and will analyze what entities around it are doing. It can teleport Parasites within its area of influence to attack players and non-Parasite mobs, becoming stronger as more Parasites die around it. Once enough Parasites have been killed, a Scent will outright summon new Parasites via massive worm-like entities that emerge from the ground.

** Imagine if every Enderman you encountered was hostile, detected you in a massive radius, inflicted Bleeding (damage over time), [[FlunkyBoss teleported other hostile mobs (including other Endermen)]] onto you, had a chance to spawn a weaker version of themselves on death, and made [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking even more annoying sounds]] - that's the Assimilated Enderman, minus the immunity to water and increased health/armor. They keep their immunity to projectiles too, which makes even a single one of these mobs extremely dangerous, even for a player with fully-enchanted Diamond gear. Anyone who plays Scape and Run for a reasonable amount of time will quickly develop a healthy respect for this mob's power.
** Hosts can be spawned early on if an Assimilated Human/Villager kills 5 Skeletons (rather rare (as the Skeletons will fight back), but possible). They cannot move while have a significant amount of health (50), use both melee and ranged attacks that deal 10 and 7 damage respectively, and burrow underground when not in combat while placing infectious Residue and spawning Rupters; they can even teleport while underground. Furthermore, a Host that manages to score 40 kills will transform into an even stronger Herd that now spawns Manglers.
** While their mechanics are still a work-in-progess, each of the currently-unused Preeminent Parasites will be a boss in its own right, and are meant to spawn like rare normal enemies in Parasite Biomes, making these locations completely inaccessible without supporting mods to make players stronger. All of them can spawn flying "Succors" that move quickly, have decent amounts of health and will either cause Exhaustion (massive hunger drain), explode, or teleport its summoner to it. Besides that, they all have very powerful abilities -- Bogles fly and literally nuke you with projectiles that explode a huge area for massive damage, Haunters ''spam'' [[MagicMissileStorm a swarm of painful homing projectiles on you]], Colony Carriers give other Parasites Regeneration III, Heavy Bombers drop bombs that explode and spawn Primitive Parasites, and Wraiths fire projectiles that create incredibly-damaging lingering areas. None of these mobs are designed to be anything resembling a fair fight for players with Vanilla gear; the only reliable way to even escape one is to launch yourself away with Elytra faster than they can follow.

* CollateralDamage: Notably averted for Parasites. Many of them possess ranged or area-of-effect attacks such as acid balls or explosions, none of which will harm fellow Parasite mobs.

* CycleOfHurting: Assimilated Adventurers, in certain situations. While their poor speed makes them as easy to kill as a vanilla Zombie, they can spread COTH to players - dying to one will often spawn another. If a Parasite gets to your spawn point, even that MercyInvincibility won't do you much good - and an Assimilated Adventurer that gets enough kills (such as you at your spawn point) [[FromBadToWorse will evolve into a much faster Thrall!]]

* DefeatEqualsExplosion: A killed parasite will often burst into piles of viscera (dealing no direct damage, fortunately), clouds of poison and COTH, or [[MookMaker Buglins]]. All of these will spread the infection further.
** Assimilated Horses take this even further; their explosion deals damage instead of spawning Buglins, which can greatly harm or even kill an unprepared player.

** Assimilated Endermen are immune to damage from water, unlike their standard form.
** Parasites are all normally weak to fire, taking 4x damage from it. However, If there are 4+ Parasite Biome nodes in a world, all Parasites spawned within a Parasite Biome get the Fire Resistance buff, nullifying a huge weakness until it runs out.
* RunOrDie: It's hinted right there in the mod's name. Mid-to-late-game Parasites are extremely difficult to take down, can break through blocks to reach players, and deal massive amounts of damage. In later stages, a Vanilla player's best option is to avoid combat with them altogether - if Parasites colonize your base, you'll usually have to grab your valuables, e''scape, and run'' to a new location - rinse and repeat.

* SupportPartyMember: On its own, a Primitive Bolster is rather underwhelming, sporting melee damage, range and speed comparable to that of a Vanilla Zombie (plus a short-ranged jump attack); especially since other Primitives tend to hit for at least twice as much damage, have extended melee range, and are dangerously fast. Their real threat is [[MookCommander their capability to grant nearby Parasites the Regeneration buff]]. Averted with Adapted Bolsters, which now have huge claw tendrils that dish out massive amounts of damage, easily able to one-hit-kill a player in full Diamond armor; you'll need Protection enchantments to survive even one attack.

* TentacledTerror: Almost every parasite sports tentacles of some kind. In the case of Parasites that can adapt to damage, dealing enough damage to a tentacle will cut it off, stripping the Parasite in question of any damage resistances they may have acquired, at the cost of giving them the Rage buff.
* ThereIsNoCure: Downplayed. Players infected with COTH will have it expire after a few minutes; most sources of COTH won't even re-apply the effect to players already afflicted with it. However, mobs that get infected cannot have the effect cured from them, with their COTH effect serving as an infection "timer" that counts down until they are fully assimilated.
* TheVirus: Call of the Hive (often abbreviated to COTH) is a potion effect that serves as the Parasitic infection. If a mob has the effect, it will slowly and silently become an assimilated version of itself over the course of several minutes; there is no way to stop the transformation. Later stages give non-Parasite mobs a chance to spawn with COTH already applied. While players will not be assimilated while alive, an [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie infected player that dies spawns an Assimilated Adventurer wearing their armor]]. The infection is ridiculously easy to contract as well, and is spread by:

* AdaptiveAbility: One of the driving characteristics of the parasite invasion. More directly, tiers of parasites past Primitive can adapt to individual sources of damage (such as an Iron Axe, Diamond Sword, a specific Iron Golem, or arrows shot by a Dispenser), reducing their effectiveness with each additional hit it takes. The only way to counter this is by [[AttackItsWeakPoint cutting off their tentacles]], but that risks giving it the [[TurnsRed Rage buff]]. Colonies are an upcoming mechanic that allows a global version of this: whenever an adaptation-capable parasite dies within a Colony's range, the Colony will remember the damage type that killed it and subsequent parasites spawned will start with more resistance to that damage type.

** Feral Parasites are created when a Gnat burrows into a suitable living host. These Gnats are Inborn-tier parasites produced by a Primitive Parasite known as the Vermin.
** A Primitive Parasite that kills 10 hostile mobs will evolve and become an Adapted Parasite.

** Beckons are an odd and complicated case. They can appear via one of many ways -- having a chance to spawn when a Parasite dies via the Reinforcement System, by Stage IV Beckons, on the Infested Blocks that other Beckons turn normal blocks into, or on Residue which can be spawned by Hosts, Adapted Parasites or converted from Infested Blocks if a Stage 1 Beckon dies. Beckons slowly grow from Stage I to Stage IV, with each stage capable of producing biomass that spawns other types of Parasites, the types of which get stronger per Stage (Stage IV only spawns ''other'' Beckons from Stage I-III).

** Preeminent Parasites are generated within Parasite Biomes - each one is a [[BossBattle boss]] in its own right.

** Imagine if every Enderman you encountered was hostile, detected you in a massive radius, inflicted Bleeding (damage over time), [[FlunkyBoss teleported other hostile mobs (including other Endermen)]] onto you, had a chance to spawn a weaker version of themselves on death, and made [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking even more annoying sounds]] - that's the Assimilated Enderman, minus the copious damage buffs, immunity to water, and increased health/armor. They keep their immunity to projectiles too, which makes even a single one of these mobs extremely dangerous, even for a player with fully-enchanted Diamond gear.

** While their mechanics are still a work-in-progess, each of the currently-unused Preeminent Parasites will be a boss in its own right, and are meant to spawn like rare normal enemies in Parasite Biomes. All of them can spawn flying "Succors" that move quickly, have decent amounts of health and will either cause Exhaustion (massive hunger drain), explode, or teleport its summoner to it. Besides that, they all have very powerful abilities -- Bogles fly and literally nuke you with projectiles that explode a huge area for massive damage, Haunters ''spam'' [[MagicMissileStorm a swarm of painful homing projectiles on you]], Colony Carriers give other Parasites Regeneration III, Heavy Bombers drop bombs that explode and spawn Primitive Parasites, and Wraiths fire projectiles that create incredibly-damaging lingering areas.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Adaption System works this way. Red particles mean a mob is taking damage as normal. Yellow particles and a green flash means a mob is in the process of adapting, reducing their damage taken from a specific weapon type (e.g. Iron Axe, Diamond Sword), mob type (e.g. Zombie, Iron Golem), or damage type (e.g. Falling, Explosion, Magic). Once a mob flashes purple, it is [[NoSell completely immune]] to that damage source.

* DamageIncreasingDebuff: Certain Parasites can inflict the Viral debuff, which increases the damage taken by 50% per level (Viral Level IV causes all incoming damage to be tripled). This is made worse by the fact that the usually non-lethal Poison status effect commonly applied by Parasites will actually kill you when Viral is active. Prior to the 1.9.5 update, Viral reduced the player's maximum health, effectively causing them to take more damage.

** Assimilated Horses take this even further; their explosion deals damage instead of , which can greatly harm an unprepared player.
* DoomsdayClock: The Bloody Clock is an item that helps to measure what Evolution Phase a world is in, getting closer to midnight the higher the phase is:

* DramaticThunder: Lightning strikes whenever a Primitive mob transforms into its Adapted variant.

* EldritchLocation: The Parasite biome. Affected blocks become [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver dull and rotten-looking]], Parasites can spawn at any light level, and non-parasite mobs have their healing halved.

* EyelessFace: A staple of the parasite infection. Mobs either have dark black eye sockets or simply none at all (or nonfunctional eyes, in the case of Yelloweyes). The sole exception to this rule is the Primitive Manducater, which will receive a new model in a future update.

* GameOver: Outside of Hardcore Mode, it's extremely rare to be placed in a situation that completely ruins a world in vanilla Minecraft. If cornered by mobs, players can run away and regroup; if they spawn in a hazardous location, the MercyInvincibility they receive will allow them to reach a safe zone. This mod adds many Parasites that are faster and stronger than players, and heal outside of combat. If a strong Parasite manages to reach the world spawn point, a player may be trapped in an endless cycle of being spawn-camped, forcing them to switch to Peaceful Mode, or discard the world and start a new game if the world's difficulty is locked.

** While a new Beckon might not be visible from a distance, its DramaticThunder can be heard from anywhere in the world - [[ParanoiaFuel especially if the skies are clear]].

* HealingFactor: Parasites that aren't Inborns, Crude tier, or Beckons heal quickly when out of combat.
* HostileTerraforming: High-tier Beckons have the ability to spawn Nodes, which gradually convert the world into [[SicklyGreenGlow infested blocks]] which damage and infect non-Parasites, and later a unique "Parasite" biome, which strengthens Parasites and cuts most non-Parasites' healing in half.

* {{Invisibility}}: Manducaters. When attacking an enemy, they will often turn nearly-invisible before approaching, greatly reducing their movement speed but granting them attack damage. While invisible, they emit a subtle sound cue to warn players of the imminent danger - assuming it isn't being masked by combat noises. This ability can be completely nullified by making hitboxes visible within Debug mode (F3+B) (or by installing a mini-map mod), although this ruins the challenge of fighting them.

** All Parasites possess a 300% damage vulnerability to fire and lava, and cannot adapt to it. Additionally, a burning Parasite will adapt to other damage sources significantly slower - as such, setting stronger ones on fire before engaging is highly recommended. However, even flames might not work if they're [[HomefieldAdvantage spawned in a Parasite Biome]] when there are 4 or more Parasite Nodes in the world, where they receive the [[ImmuneToFire Fire Resistance]] buff upon spawning.

* MooksAteMyEquipment: Certain Parasites can break blocks -- instead of dropping them, they will store the items in their personal inventories. When they die or their inventory becomes full, they will drop a Gluttonous Cyst, which will destroy each block or item one-by-one every five seconds (or reducing tool durability by 5), generating Evolution Points doing so.

* NintendoHard: Primitive, Adapted, and Pure parasites are extremely formidable foes, even for players with fully enchanted Diamond armor. A fair number of them can deal 20 or more damage in a single hit, assuming they don't have an [[DeathOfAThousandCuts absurdly rapid attack]] to begin with - not to mention their [[IncrediblyDurableEnemies massive health pools]], adaption to damage, and frequent block-breaking. Then ther are Preeminent Parasites, which take a step further by summoning Succors on top of having overpowered abilities. As for the currently-unused Ancient parasites... good luck.
** Without supporting mods to make players more powerful, the only reliable way to survive with Scape and Run installed is to keep the Parasites' evolution at bay. After the Evolution Phase advances, Parasites are unable to gain any more progress toward advancing it again for one full Minecraft day, giving players time to kill them for Lure components. If the players can obtain enough Lures to revert the Parasites' evolution to the previous phase before the Cooldown ends, the Parasites can be held off indefinitely. This must be done early, however; it's usually too late once Adapted Parasites start spawning naturally, as they are too powerful to fight en-masse, even with top-tier Vanilla gear.
** Vanilla Minecraft is a rather easy game, generally only killing you if you choose to put yourself in a dangerous position. ''In Scape and Run'', risky decisions are forced on you all the time; if you fight Parasites, you can easily die, but if you choose not to, they will evolve without resistance until they can literally tunnel into your base to kill you over and over until you're forced to despawn them via Peaceful Mode, or abandon the world entirely.

* RunOrDie: It's hinted right there in the mod's name. Late-game Parasites are extremely difficult to take down, can break through blocks to reach players, and deal massive amounts of damage. In later stages, a Vanilla player's best option is to avoid combat with them altogether - if Parasites colonize your base, you'll usually have to grab your valuables, e''scape, and run'' to a new location - rinse and repeat.
* ScareChord: Evolution Phases have one for whenever they go up, along with a single-word announcement in chat. Listen to them [[https://youtu.be/j90wzSvN0aY here]].

* SupportPartyMember: On its own, a Primitive Bolster is rather underwhelming, sporting melee damage, range and speed comparable to that of a Vanilla Zombie (plus a short-ranged jump attack); especially since other Primitives tend to hit for at least twice as much damage, have extended melee range, and are dangerously fast. Their real threat is [[MookCommander their capability to grant nearby Parasites the Regeneration buff]]. Averted with Adapted Bolsters, which now have huge claw tendrils that dish out massive amounts of damage, easily able to .

* TentacledTerror: Almost every parasite sports tentacles of some kind. In the case of Parasites that can adapt to damage, cutting off a tentacle will strip them of any damage resistances they may have acquired, at the cost of giving them the Rage buff.

* TheVirus: Call of the Hive (often abbreviated to COTH) is a potion effect that serves as the Parasitic infection. If a mob has the effect, it will slowly and silently become an assimilated version of itself over the course of several minutes; there is no way to stop the transformation. Later stages give mobs a chance to spawn in with COTH already applied. While players will not be assimilated while alive, an [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie infected player that dies spawns an Assimilated Adventurer wearing their armor]]. The infection is ridiculously easy to contract as well, and is spread by:

* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Unlike many other mods of its size (and difficulty!), ''Scape and Run'' doesn't include any in-game guide for progression. Important mechanics like how to build a base that's parasite-proof have to be figured out over the course of many, ''many'' ruined worlds. If you don't feel like regularly losing all your progress and starting from scratch, this mod may not be for you.

** In addition to greatly increasing a parasite's attack damage and speed, the Rage effect halves the cooldown on parasite abilities.

* BodyHorror: Familiar mobs like Sheep, Cows, Pigs, and Wolves gain pulsing tumors and empty eye sockets. In addition, most of the Primitives look like they've been messily stitched together. The Assimilated Bear looks... [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/scape-and-run-parasites/images/5/54/Assimilated_Bear.png/revision/latest?cb=20220206234448 horrifying.]]

* ScareChord: Evolution Phases have one for whenever they go up, along with a single-word announcement in chat. Listen to them [[https://youtu.be/3rd7DehIg8c?t=26 here]].

* GlassCannon: Many of the early-game Parasites are fairly fragile, but deal much more damage and are significantly faster than most Vanilla mobs. Subverted for the [[BossInMookClothing Assimilated Enderman]] and Bear, which add extra health on top of their already impressive stats.

** Buglins emit a slimy squelching noise, which while off-putting, helps players hunt them down before they can grow into Rupters.

* ImpostorExposingTest: In the first stages of the mod, Rupters tend to assimilate mobs silently - infected and non-infected mobs look and behave identically. The only way to tell is to touch the mob in question; if it transmits Call of the Hive, it's Assimilated and will attack when injured. This method is extremely limited, as a player must wait a few minutes for the effect to wear off before they can test another mob.

* {{Invisibility}}: Manducaters can turn nearly-invisible before approaching enemies, making them incredibly difficult to spot, especially if you're already fighting something else. This ability can be completely nullified by making hitboxes visible within Debug mode (F3+B) (or by installing a minimap mod), although this ruins the challenge of fighting them.

** All Parasites are weak to fire and lava, taking quadruple damage from fire, and cannot adapt to it. A burning Parasite will adapt to other damage sources significantly slower - setting stronger ones on fire is highly recommended. However, even flames might not work if they're [[HomefieldAdvantage spawned in a Parasite Biome]] when there are 4 or more Parasite Nodes in the world, where they receive the [[ImmuneToFire Fire Resistance]] buff upon spawning.

* LightningBruiser: Several Primitive, Adapted, and Pure Parasites sport huge amounts of health, possess insane attacking power, and can easily chase down players. Unless you prepare specifically for every aspect of the invasion, you'll likely need supporting mods to avoid dying horribly over and over.
** Even the Assimilated Parasites deal more damage and are faster than their standard variants (with the exception of the Assimilated Adventurer, which is about as dangerous as a Vanilla Zombie)

** Summoners create Parasites using Biomass, summoning additional enemies for the player to deal with.

** Seizers are created by Pure Parasites, and grab nearby entities, dealing no damage but preventing them from moving.

* ParasiticHorror: The Parasites are both a parasite on lifeforms ''and'' the world itself. Mobs can get Call of the Hive from Rupters, which assimilates them within minutes, allowing them to turn into [[BodyHorror assimilated mobs or the weaker incomplete forms]] depending on their state of assimilation. Beckons are parasites of the world itself, infesting nearby blocks and spreading the infestation, and the highest-level ones can transform the world itself into sickly parasitic biomes.

* SupportPartyMember: On its own, a Primitive Bolster is rather underwhelming, sporting melee damage, range and speed comparable to that of a Vanilla Zombie (plus a short-ranged jump attack); especially since other Primitives tend to hit for at least twice as much damage, have extended melee range, and are dangerously fast. Their real threat is [[MookCommander their capability to grant nearby Parasites the Regeneration buff]]. Averted with Adapted Bolsters, which now have huge claw tendrils that dish out massive amounts of damage.

* TentacledTerror: Almost every parasite sports tentacles of some kind. In the case of Parasites that can adapt to damage, cutting off a tentacle will revert their damage adaptations, at the cost of giving them the Rage buff.
* ThereIsNoCure: Downplayed. Players infected with COTH will have it expire after a few minutes if it isn't re-inflicted. However, mobs that get infected cannot have the effect cured from them, and when their COTH effect expires it gets reapplied with an increase in potency.

* WeakToFire: Parasites take 4x damage from fire and cannot adapt to fire damage, unlike other sorts of damage. A Parasite on fire also has a chance to fail to [[AdaptiveAbility adapt to damage]].

'''[[OhCrap One.]]'''

* DaylightHorror: Unlike undead mobs, parasites don't burn in the sunlight. Though they (usually) only spawn at night, they often linger throughout the day, generally making a nuisance of themselves (or obliterating you, depending on the Evolution Phase and whether you have ).

** Like their ordinary cousins, Assimilated Endermen are incredibly beefy for being relatively early-game mobs. In addition to keeping their immunity to projectiles, they now attack on sight, deal 13 damage per hit, inflict the Bleeding debuff, lose their weakness to water, can crawl to fit under low ceilings, and even [[FlunkyBoss teleport other assimilated mobs]] into battle - even other Assimilated Endermen! This makes even a single one of these extremely dangerous, even for a player with fully-enchanted Diamond gear.
** Hosts can be spawned early on if an Assimilated Human/Villager kills 5 Skeletons (fairly rare, but possible). They have a significant amount of health (50), use both melee and ranged attacks that deal 10 and 7 damage respectively, and burrow underground when not in combat while placing infectious Residue and spawning Rupters; they can even teleport while underground. Furthermore, a Host that manages to score 40 kills will transform into an even stronger Herd that now spawns Manglers.
** Preeminent Parasites are basically bosses in their own right that spawn like rare normal enemies in Parasite Biomes. All of them can spawn flying Succors that move quickly, have decent amounts of health and can cause Exhaustion (massive hunger drain), explode, or teleport its summoner to it. Besides that, they all have very powerful abilities -- Bogles fly and literally nuke you with projectiles that explode a massive area for massive damage, Haunters ''spam'' [[MagicMissileStorm a swarm of painful homing projectiles on you]], Colony Carriers give other Parasites Regeneration III, Heavy Bombers drop bombs that explode and spawn Primitive Parasites, and Wraiths fire projectiles that create incredibly-damaging lingering areas.

* CycleOfHurting: Assimilated Adventurers, in certain situations. While their poor speed makes them as easy to kill as a vanilla Zombie, they can spread COTH to players - dying to one will often spawn another. If a Parasite gets to your spawn point, even that MercyInvincibility won't do you much good - and an Assimilated Adventurer that gets enough kills (such as you at your spawn point) [[FromBadToWorse will evolve into a much faster Thrall]]!
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: Certain Parasites can inflict the Viral debuff, which increases the damage taken by 50% per level (Viral Level IV causes all incoming damage to be tripled). This is made worse by the fact that the usually non-lethal Poison status effect will actually kill you when Viral is applied. Prior to the 1.9.5 update, Viral reduced the player's maximum health, effectively causing them to take more damage.
* DaylightHorror: Unlike undead mobs, parasites don't burn in the sunlight. Though they (usually) only spawn at night, they often linger throughout the day, generally making a nuisance of themselves (or obliterating you, depending on the Evolution Phase).
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Minecraft'' is a fairly easy, child-friendly game. This mod makes it decidedly not so.

** Buglins spawn naturally or erupt from other Parasites' exploding corpses, or are created by Buglin Tunnels, which are created by Rupters in the earlier stages. They grow into Rupters after some time.
** Rupters spawn naturally or grow from Buglins, and can infect non-parasite mobs with the Call of the Hive, which assimilates those mobs over the course of a few minutes. They can place Buglin Tunnels after killing 5 mobs, and evolve into Manglers after their kill-count reaches 30. Assimilated Mobs can spread COTH to non-infected mobs to Assimilate them.
** When an Assimilated Mob kills enough hostile mobs, it and three other Assimilated Mobs around it will turn into Moving Flesh. The four Moving Flesh will then [[FusionDance merge together]] and form into a Primitive Parasite at 50% of its normal health.

** Adapted Parasites can spew out Residue, which can spawn Beckons on top.
** Beckons are an odd case. They can appear via one of many ways -- having a chance to spawn when a Parasite dies via the Reinforcement System, by Stage IV Beckons, on the Infested Blocks that other Beckons turn normal blocks into, or on Residue which can be spawned by Hosts, Adapted Parasites or converted from Infested Blocks if a Stage 1 Beckon dies. Beckons slowly grow from Stage I to Stage IV, with each stage capable of producing biomass that spawns other types of Parasites, the types of which get stronger per Stage (Stage IV only spawns ''other'' Beckons from Stage I-III).
** Pure Parasites do not evolve from other Parasites, but are either spawned from Stage III Beckons, generate within a Parasite Biome, or spawn naturally during Phase 7-8.
** Preeminent Parasites are generated within Parasite Biomes.
** [[BossBattle Ancient Parasites]] can spawn naturally in the world during Phase 8.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Adaption System works this way. Red particles mean a mob is taking damage as normal. Yellow particles and a green flash means a mob is in the process of adapting, reducing their damage taken. Once a mob flashes purple, it is [[NoSell completely immune]] to that specific damage type.

* DamageIncreasingDebuff: Certain Parasites can inflict the Viral debuff, which increases the damage taken by 100% per level (Viral level 3 causes you to take four times normal damage). This is made worse by the fact that the usually non-lethal Poison status effect will actually kill you when Viral is applied. Prior to the 1.9.5 update, Viral reduced the player's maximum health, effectively causing them to take more damage.
* DaylightHorror: Unlike undead mobs, parasites don't burn in the sunlight. Though they (usually) only spawn at night, they tend to linger throughout the day.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Minecraft'' is generally a very cutesy, borderline-fantasy game. This mod makes it decisively not so.
* DefeatEqualsExplosion: A killed parasite will often burst into piles of viscera (dealing no direct damage, fortunately), clouds of poison and infection, or [[MookMaker Buglins]]. All of these will spread the infection further.
** Assimilated Horses take this even further; their explosion does deal damage, which can easily kill an unprepared player.

* HellIsThatNoise: Quite a few.

** Rupters make a very distinct chittering sound. Jeb help you if you ever hear [[ZergRush more than one]] before you have armor.

* ImpostorExposingTest: In the first stages of the mod, Rupters tend to assimilate mobs silently - infected and non-infected mobs look and behave identically. The only way to tell is to touch the mob in question; if it transmits Call of the Hive, it's Assimilated and will attack when injured. This method is extremely limited, as a player must wait until the effect wears off before they can test another mob.

** All Parasites are weak to fire and lava, taking quadrupled damage from fire, though they can still adapt to it. A burning Parasite will adapt to other damage sources significantly slower - setting stronger ones on fire is highly recommended. However, even flames might not work if they're [[HomefieldAdvantage spawned in a Parasite Biome]] when there are 4 or more Parasite Nodes in the world, where they receive the [[ImmuneToFire Fire Resistance]] buff upon spawning.

** The [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Nether]] has an Evolution Phase of -1, meaning that no parasites can naturally spawn (though they can advance it to Phase 0 by infecting mobs).

** Phase Eight is a harsh, droning flute note. Appropriate, since it pretty much signals TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* RunOrDie: It's hinted right there in the mod's name. Late-game Parasites are extremely difficult to take down, can break through blocks to reach players, and deal massive amounts of damage. In later stages, a Vanilla player's best option is to avoid combat with them altogether - if Parasites colonize your base, you'll usually have to grab your valuables and e''scape'' to a new location - rinse and repeat.