Grandparent

Armor | 20

The **Grandparent** is a Boss Monster added in the *Anniversary Update*, and is part of the   Parent monster family. Being a Boss, the Grandparent may be encountered after initiating a stage's Teleporter Event. It can otherwise spawn naturally during higher difficulties.

## Environments

* Other Environments with the Artifact of Dissonance enabled

## Skills and Behavior

### Primary: Rock Throw

The Grandparent charges a large rock for 2.3 seconds (scales with attack speed) and throws it at its target with a speed of 60m/s. Upon impact it deals 300% damage with a proc coefficient of 1.0 in a blast radius of 20m with sweep spot falloff. The rock then splits into 5 smaller rocks that each deal 30% damage in a radius of 3m also with sweet spot falloff. Both the big and small rocks can knock back the player and can also be destroyed by .

This skill has a cooldown of 2 seconds, which begins after the attack is finished.

### Secondary: Gravity Orb

The Grandparent launches an orb at its target after a delay of 1 second (scales with attack speed) which moves at 15m/s and lasts for 10 seconds. Any player caught in its gravity well with a radius of 20m will be pulled toward the orb. This orb (and its gravity well) can pass through all obstacles. Players should avoid being caught by these orbs in certain levels as they can result in being dropped into bottomless pits. The attack has an end lag of 2 seconds, which also scales with attack speed. This orb can also be destroyed by Defensive Microbots.

This skill has a cooldown of 10 seconds, which begins when the skill has finished.

### Special: Solar Flare

The Grandparent prepares a star-like orb above its head for 4 seconds (scales with attack speed) which will be located at an ideal distance of 100m above the Grandparent, but can be lower if any environmental obstacles prevent it. This in turn creates an enormous sphere with a radius of 200m that produces heat for 14 seconds. Any entity (friendly or not) caught in its large area of effect that does not take cover (except for  and Grandparents) gets a stack of the  debuff every 0.5s. Each stack of Overheat lasts for 2 seconds, but old stacks are refreshed when a new one is applied. Additionally, if a victim has more than 2 stacks of Overheat, the solar flare inflicts a stack of  every 0.5s. The damage from this Burn stack is multiplied by (Overheat - 2), with a minimum of 1x. This only affects that added Burn stack; previously-inflicted stacks of Burn are not affected. After expiration there will be an end lag of 2 seconds which scales with attack speed.

This skill has a cooldown of 30 seconds.

### Behaviors

1. **Rotate to target (priority)**: no requirements, but this behavior cannot be chosen twice in a row. As a result, it will be the Grantparent's initial behavior and it will alternate it between using other skills. This behavior lasts for 4 seconds, so if the Grandparent is already looking at the player, it will appear idle.
2. **Use special**: the Grandparent must be within 300m of its target and have less than 50% health. This behavior lasts for 20 seconds, even if the Grandparent has sufficient attack speed to make the attack last less.
3. **Use secondary**: no requirements, other than the skill being off cooldown.
4. **Use primary**: the Grandparent must be within 300m of its target.
5. **Rotate to target**: no requirements. Similar to the priority version, this also lasts for 4 seconds. Whenever this behavior is selected, the Grantparent will next rotate again with the priority version which gives the player a lot of downtime to deal damage.

## Loot

*Main Article: Planula*

If the Grandparent is the Teleporter Boss, there is a 15% chance for the Uncommon item (that drops as a reward for defeating the Grandparent) to be replaced by its Boss item, the .

## Tips

* The Grandparent's spawn animation will launch players within it at a high velocity, in most cases off the map, so be careful when it is spawning. Being launched can result in severe fall damage or flying into the path of enemy attacks.
* Solar Flare is the Grandparent's deadliest attack by far. Since it can only use it below 50% health, the player should focus on killing Grandparents one at a time if there are multiple present.
* It may be tempting to fight Grandparents at close range, since they do not move and possess no melee attacks. However, Rock Throw and Gravity Orb become harder to dodge when near the Grandparent, increasing the likelihood that the player will be knocked away long distances and take heavy fall damage. The Solar Flare also becomes extra-deadly at close range, since it is harder to escape from and inflicts Overheat for a longer duration.
* The Grandparent's Solar Flare attack starts out almost harmless, since Overheat does nothing on its own and the attack does not set the player on fire at first. If they fail to take shelter, however, the player will find that the damage builds up quickly, with every moment spent in the hot zone adding more Burn stacks that are progressively more lethal.
* Remember that in order to take shelter from the Solar Flare, it is necessary to break line of sight with the star high above the Grandparent, *not* the Grandparent itself. The attack produces an extremely bright light which does cast shadows, making it easy to see where safe spots are.
* Surprisingly, the Solar Flare can turn the tide of an otherwise losing battle in the player's favor, as long as the player takes shelter. The attack hurts all non-Parent, non-Grandparent entities, so it can rapidly kill off huge numbers of enemies as long as the player has brought the Grandparent below half health.
	+ Conversely, the Solar Flare attack will deal tremendous damage to allies, potentially managing to destroy almost all drones that the player has.

## Lore

```
$ Transcribing audio... done.
$ Resolving... done.
$ Outputting text strings... done.
Complete!

Uhm… this is DS-9, here at rendezvous point 9. We seem to have lost connection with the other dropships.
We are holding, waiting for zeta squad at designated rendezvous. Wow, it’s so beautiful here.
…
Uhm… we are seeing a, uh… MASSIVE unknown entity at the landing site. It seems impaired, or unaware. Oh my god… I’ve never seen anything like it. Wow, amazing. It’s so bright. I can’t believe something like this exists in the world.
…
Still holding – this is the rendezvous point, right? We are still waiting for zeta squad.
…
The unknown entity is uh, turning around.
…
MAYDAY MAYDAY THIS IS DS-9 WE HAVE BEEN STRUCK BY AN UNKNOWN ENTITY MAYDAY MAYDAY RENDEZVOUS 9 IS NOT SAFE I REPEAT NOT
```

## Version History

Anniversary Update
* Major Content
	+ Added New Boss: Grandparent
	+ Added New Lore Entry: Grandparent

## Trivia

* Prior to the Anniversary Update, an early version of the Grandparent was left unused within the game code with a vastly different appearance and skill set. It resembled a large, misshapen, two-headed Parent that was partially submerged in the ground. This Grandparent could create teleportation fields to bring the player within striking distance, as well as spawn eggs from which Parents would eventually emerge. It also had a different boss item, the , which gave the player a chance to spawn one of these eggs to distract enemies and summon allied Parents.