Snatcher

**Snatchers** are a rare enemy in GTFO that first debuted in Rundown 7.0 (within R7C1). They have a unique grab attack which will render a prisoner helpless until the Snatcher eventually releases them or is killed by teammates.

 Occurrence | Rare

## Appearance

Snatchers appear to be highly mutated yet humanoid creatures. The entirety of its back side is ripped open, sprouting a mass of undulating writhing tentacles from its spine and rectum. Its chest and stomach are completely hollowed out, but when it tries to grab a prisoner a mass of tentacles spring from their abdomen to grab them. Their heads are mutilated, and protruding from it are multiple tentacles. It is larger than a Striker but slightly smaller than a Giant.

Snatchers share the Striker's tendency of moving as a quadruped, but will briefly stand up on two legs when attacking. It has similar armor to that found on other unique enemies, and those areas of its body are resistant to damage. In the case of the Snatcher it will take one-fifth of the normal damage when it is shot in armored areas.

## Spawning

They can spawn during alarm scans, error waves, and from events triggered by performing certain other actions. As a special enemy, they are only scripted to spawn on a small number of alarms/events, such as completing the terminal command in ALT://R5A2's secondary or their introduction during the room scan of R7C1.

As of Rundown 7.0 they can not be found sleeping.

## Behavior

Snatchers will run very quickly towards prisoners before pouncing onto one and grabbing them, running away from battle, dealing low damage over time and covering the screen with moving tentacles. After running away with a prisoner, they will eventually release them near the largest group of enemies up to one room away, or moderately far away if no group is available. Otherwise, killing it will forcefully release its grabbed prisoner.

Snatchers have natural armor on much of their body, and only take full damage to the fleshy parts of their back and stomach. Shots to its sides or arms will deal substantially reduced damage.

Snatcher's behavior is characterized by two modes: a more passive/evasive mode, and an active/hunting mode. When in their passive mode, Snatchers will run rapidly over the map, typically away from a given player (though this can take them towards other players). While in this mode, the Snatcher will be immune to being staggered, although it can still take damage and be killed. After a sufficient period of time in its passive mode the Snatcher will switch to its active mode, announced by the Snatcher emitted a shrill scream. When in this mode, it will actively hunt down a player, moving as fast as it can toward them and, once close enough, it will attempt to grab them. While its grab attack will be initiated by targeting a given player, if that player is able to dodge the attack the grab may instead hit another player. While in its active mode, the Snatcher is able to be staggered by taking sufficient damage (40), this stagger effect does not use the typical stagger system and stagger multipliers are ignored. After being staggered, missing their grab attack or if too much time passes, the Snatcher will return to its passive mode.

## Strategies

Snatchers are very agile so there is no point in trying to outrun it. Whenever a Snatcher is in combination with other enemies, it is incredibly dangerous as it will try and grab another prisoner and run away with them, potentially ruining scans and placing prisoners in dangerous positions. As such, it is essential to take it down as fast as possible. Whenever one is alive, it is important to stay near other teammates to ensure that it can be more easily killed, or at least that the players are able to deal enough damage to stagger it.

Often, players will aim to kill the Snatcher in one 'cycle', dispatching it the first time it approaches the players and not giving it an opportunity to run away. When doing so, it can be important to intentionally not damage the Snatcher until it gets close, to ensure that it doesn't stagger and run away before closing the distance. After focus firing the nearby Snatcher, players may also choose to reserve bullets to shoot it as it runs away, as while doing so the player will benefit from doubled back damage - this is particularly important for weapons such as the Sniper Rifle or Choke Mod Shotgun, as the have a limited mag size but deal heavy damage.

## Tips

* C-Foam has no effect on Snatcher, and they destroy C-Foam that they run through.
* The Mine Deployer can be useful for dealing large damage as well as staggering the Snatcher.It especially useful when placed in doorways or potential exits as they often try to run away.
* Although not as effective, guns with higher fire-rates like the Machine Gun V, Machine Gun XII or Heavy Assault Rifle can still output high damage when the Snatcher is running away as its rear end and back is exposed in doing so.
* If you are its target, the only way to dodge its grab is to put a solid wall between you and it (its grab seems to have unlimited range once the animation starts).
* When a player is grabbed, their icon will not show up on other player's HUDs or on the map, and the grabbed player will be unable to see where they are being taken. This can be quite disorienting for the grabbed player when they are released. However, upon release, there will be a short delay before the player is able to act, and this time can be used to evaluate their surroundings, or even look at the map and ascertain their position and facing direction, allowing the player to successfully path towards safety.

## Trivia

* The **Snatcher** has a sleeping animation.
* First mentioned in a log from Schaeffer in R4E1.

## Bugs

* R7D1's overload adds a Snatcher Error Alarm, however, the number of Snatchers in this error alarm is bugged, and instead of being just one, can contain up to four Snatchers at a time. Having all players leave except one, before completing the overload objective, will prevent this bug.
* If the Snatcher's attack is interrupted just as it is about to grab a player, that player may receive the visual animation of the Snatcher's attack, without the grab actually occurring. Since the attack was interrupted, the Snatcher will not release the player, and thus this visual will persist indefinitely, until the player is grabbed and released by a Snatcher again. This bug is exclusive to clients, as it occurs when the attack is interrupted for the client, but not for the host.
* When the player is grabbed, the game internally moves their position to a location outside of the map. However, upon being released the game may sometimes fail to teleport the player back to the map, leaving the player locked in 'the Snatcher dimension'.

## Gallery

* The screen being covered in tentacles after being grabbed.
* Full body image of a Snatcher.
* A Snatcher as it tries to grab a prisoner.
* Front view of a prisoner getting grabbed by a Snatcher.
* Closeup of face
* Closeup of body
* Closeup of face