Elite Mandrill Cavalry

> "*In addition to being brave in battle when at an advantage, the most troublesome aspect of the Elite Mandrill Cavalry is his tactics in retreat when the battle turns against him.*"
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Elite Mandrill Cavalry is an enemy found in Hyperborean Jokul. It is the elite version of the Mandrill Cavalry.

Elite Mandrill Cavalry has 3 attacks:

* At mid range, the Mutant Penguin will fire their flamethrower, creating a constant stream of high  Fire? damage that can inflict  Burning?, sweeping it back and forth several times. They are capable of aiming their weapon upwards and downwards, preventing slopes from being used to evade attacks.
* The Mutant Penguin will command its Mandrill to charge forward. It performs 3 charges in quick succession, each time leaving a trail of fire pools that deal constant  Fire? damage and can inflict  Burning?. The charging itself can stagger and knock players back. The charge can be interrupted by hitting walls, causing it to end early with a reduced cooldown (see Notes).
* If the player is too close, the Mandrill will strike them in melee with their claws, shoving them back slightly.

Elite Mandrill Cavalry is technically 2 enemies, however all damage will only be applied to the Mandrill.

Elite Mandrill Cavalry is extremely dangerous, due to possessing a high damage, short range flamethrower, having extremely high  Movement Speed and not fully dying unless both enemies are killed. This enemy can also be troublesome in multiplayer, since the stagger effect can interrupt reviving other players, especially when there is more than one enemy.

## Elite Mutant Penguin

Once the Mandrill is killed, the Elite Mutant Penguin will still be alive, and must be killed too. They will immediately create  Armor? for themselves before continuing.

Their only attack is to fire their flamethrower at mid range, creating a constant stream of high  Fire? damage that can inflict  Burning?, sweeping it back and forth several times. They are capable of aiming their weapon upwards and downwards, preventing slopes from being used to evade attacks.

Unlike other Mutant Penguins, the Elite Mutant Penguin will attempt to run away from the player, only attacking them if they get too close.

If the Elite Mutant Penguin survives for 60 seconds, their Mandrill will be revived, turning them into the Elite Mandrill Cavalry again. Any damage dealt to the Elite Mutant Penguin will remain however.

## Tips

* Care should be taken to avoid the charge attack, as its ability to stagger can result in being unable to avoid the next charge, the fire pools or a followup flamethrower attack, leading to serious damage in the process.
* It is often a good idea to move to the top of a wall on higher ground if one appears. Most of the time they will attempt to charge first, but they are unable to charge up walls. Additionally, climbing up or falling down said wall can give some extra distance when they begin using their flamethrower.
* Having the ability to inflict  Decay? should be a high priority, as not only will it increase the time for them to reach you and start attacking, but it will also slow down the Elite Mutant Penguin's attempts to retreat.

## Notes

* For some reason, the cooldown reduction for the charge attack is often extremely high, allowing them to immediately begin another charge right after the previous one was interrupted.
* When Interdependent Fortunes was first added, they could receive a Shield from  Paranormality. If this happened, the same converted Shield bar would apply to both the mandrill and the penguin, resulting in an easy kill after the mandrill is defeated.
	+ The Elite Mutant Penguin would still conjure Armor for itself, making them have both a Shield and Armor bar at the same time, on top of also having a Health Bar.
	+ After another update, it is changed that when other enemies would get  Paranormality, this enemy (and its normal variant) will get a different scroll instead.

## Update History

* 11/23/2023 update: Increased the countdown to revive their Mandrill from 30 seconds to 60.
* 08/25/2023 update: Elite Gathering number cap is ignored when playing on Reincarnation 9 difficulty, due to all elites being the same.
* 09/02/2022 update: If this enemy appears in the Elite Gathering Challenge Events, the number is capped at 3.
* 12/30/2021 update:
	+ Added visual effects representing that the rider is invincible when the mount is alive.
	+ Added visual effects representing the countdown for the rider to re-summon a new mount after the old one is defeated.
	+ The cooldown for their charge attack is reduced if it gets interrupted.
	+ Some skills will now inflict the Burning Effect.
	+ Reduced the rider’s additional DMG taken when the mount is alive.