THE VENDOR
- ELITE
- MARS
THE VENDOR is a named elite on MARS, a place of machines.
He wrote the colony's operating system. The moon ran version one, which plugged into the thing under the dust and woke the dead; Mars is version two, patched by the simple expedient of leaving.
The numbers
- BASE HEALTH250
- CONTACT DAMAGE22
- HITS EVERY0.70s
- SPEED18/s
- SIZE24 across
- CRIT CHANCE10%
- ABOVE THE HORDE+3 levels
- NOTICES YOU AT250
The monster at its baseline, before a venue has placed it. What it really fields on each difficulty is under “Where you meet it”.
Where you meet it
MARS
It is placed by hand on MARS and waits at its post until you come close.
| DIFFICULTY | LEVEL | HEALTH | DAMAGE | XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EASY | 19 | 250 | 34 | 899 |
| MEDIUM | 20 | 375 | 35 | 1049 |
| HARD | 22 | 575 | 36 | 1133 |
| NIGHTMARE | 50 | 1500 | 54 | 12116 |
What to know
- THE ENTRANCECloses at 110/s until it has said its piece, then fights at its own pace.
- WHAT IT WAS CARRYINGMore than it should be. Its corpse sheds 4× the gold an ordinary body of its rank does.
- WHEN STRUCKIt bleeds. A blow that overwhelms it bursts it, and there is a face among what lands.
Mechanics
Every dangerous move is telegraphed — it roots, it winds up, and you get the beat you need to be somewhere else.
- SLAMWith you inside 70 it roots for 0.9s and then smashes the ground for 120% of its contact damage to everything standing in that circle. A jump sails clean over it. Once every 8s.
- WARD SHIELDOnce it has been hurt, it roots for 0.7s first and raises a shell over itself worth 25% of its full health. The shell EATS damage until that budget is spent, and whatever overflows still lands — so a saved cooldown breaks it AND hurts, while chipping at it merely feeds it. It fades on its own after 7s if you leave it alone. Once every 12.5s.
- SEEKER VOLLEYIt roots for 0.7s first — the bearing LOCKS on where you were standing — then 3 bolts leave in a 24° fan, reaching 230 at 90 a second, each carrying 50% of its contact damage. They STEER after you, which is what makes them different from every other shot in the game: standing still does not work and neither does a sidestep. They turn slowly enough to be outrun, and a wall between you and them ends it. Once every 8.5s.
What it drops
Every kill pays one medkit, one repair kit and one XP scroll.
Its drops roll 30% better on the rarity ladder than the level's ordinary loot.
Guaranteed pieces by rarity: 1 magic and a 35% chance of a rare. A rarity the monster's own level has not unlocked yet is skipped, so the same fight pays better on a harder rung.
Always drops
Story items
MOON POST-MORTEM
What it says
Spoilers for this fight, covered until you ask for them.
THE VENDORPLEASE HOLD. YOUR INTRUSION IS IMPORTANT TO US. DID YOU TRY TURNING YOURSELF OFF AND ON?
THE HEROVERY FUNNY. YOU BUILT THIS COLONY? I CAME FROM YOUR LAST ONE. THE MOON'S FULL OF GHOSTS.
THE VENDORI WROTE THE OS. THE MOON RAN VERSION ONE. IT PLUGGED INTO THE THING UNDER THE DUST AND...
THE HEROAND IT WOKE THE DEAD. I MET THEM. EVERY LAST ONE.
THE VENDORA DISASTER, YES. WE PATCHED IT BY LEAVING. MARS IS VERSION TWO. NO DEAD THINGS. CHECKED.
Last words
FATAL... ERROR... WHO WROTE... THIS...
What this scene is part of — everything said and found around it — is its chapter of the story.