Machairodus

**Machairodus** (*Machairodus giganteus*) is a genus of extinct sabertooth cats that lived in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America from the Late Miocene through the Middle Pleistocene epochs. They are one of the most deadly creatures encountered early in *Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey* and must be avoided if your hominid has no weapons to defend themselves. After successfully attacking a Hominid, the   Bleeding effect will occur. The Machairodus can be found in all biomes.

## Variants

### Golden Machairodus

*Machairodus giganteus aureus* is the most common Machairodus encountered by the clan. It has an elaborate gold-yellow coat, with dark stripes all over.

### Black Machairodus

*Machairodus giganteus niger* is the second most encountered variant of Machairodus. It bears a sooty black coat with leopard spots, however, the spots are barely noticeable unless you are very close to the beast.

### White Machairodus

*Machairodus giganteus alba* is the rarest and strongest variant of Machairodus encountered. Its coat bears an almost identical pattern to that of the Golden Machairodus, albeit much lighter. One of its saber teeth is also broken.

## Behavior

A strong, fast killer,  Machairodus are some of the worst threats facing the clan. While they are vicious, they are by no means invincible, and they know that. When they are wounded they will run off, only to return when you are least expecting it.

They will often times stalk your hominid and their clan, even after being intimidated or wounded. Killing the Machairodus or retreating to the high up places like treetops is the only true way to get it to leave you alone. Watching your hominid’s body language and dopamine level is a good way to know when a machairodus is stalking you.

Most Machairoduses are locally spawned and each type follows a specific pattern.

* The Golden Machairodus will spawn but will not have a lair. They'll wander randomly.
* The Black Machairodus will spawn with a territory centering around a lair usually identifiable by the presence of at least one pile of bones on the ground. They'll wander their territory periodically and sleep/rest at their lair.
* The White Machairodus only spawns as a Stalker Cat with no lair.

The difficulty scales with the rarity of the beast, with the Golden Machairodus being the least difficult, the Black Machairodis next difficult, and the White Machairodus being the most difficult.

### Stalker Cat

After your first evolution leap, a Machairodus starts to stalk you. It is this behavior vs local Machiaroduses that gives it the unofficial name of the 'stalker cat'. This stalker cat can attack at any time - even inside an oasis. The stalker cat is randomly one of the three Machairodus varieties. However, once you reach the  Canyon biome, the Black Machairodus is the most common stalker cat that spawns.

The stalker cat will spawn near your position at random times until it gets killed. A new stalker cat will respawn each time when you change a generation or complete an evolution leap.

It's unlikely but possible that a new stalker cat will spawn after the first one is killed in your current generation but it's unknown what triggers this respawn. This might be time-based and/or location-based so be on your guard after killing that first stalker cat in your current generation. It's unlikely you'll see another one in the same generation but be ready in any case if you are travelling long distances through many locations and/or a lot of game time has passed.

Only few locations are safe from this stalker cat:

* The initial starting location of the Hidden Waterfall Oasis
* Deep inside caves
* Very high places or rock outcroppings off of the ground
* Very low places or pits such as Deep Enclave Oasis or Butterfly Tree Oasis

Branch Barriers are most often ineffective to prevent against the stalker cat from coming after you but this barrier can be useful to trap/prevent the cat from escaping out of your settlement.

An excellent strategy to deal with the stalker cat is to trap it right away when it spawns near you, kill it, and then you no longer have to worry about it showing up later at an inopportune time.

* Be sure to prepare enough Sharpened Sticks (or other weapons) in your settlement and locate them strategically within easy reach when the time for combat comes.
* Build up branch barriers (or if possible)  Thornbush Walls to stop the stalker cat from escaping if you wound rather than kill it. When building the branch barriers, be aware that the stalker cat can jump over a single layer branch barrier but is mostly unable to get past a stacked double layered branch barrier. Build your defenses deep enough to stop the stalker cat from being able to run away.
* Machairoduses that are fleeing are hard to catch as they run very fast except in the cases they are already wounded badly enough. The branch barriers will stop the cat from being able to run away and out of your reach. You can then corner the stalker cat and finish it off.

## Gallery

* A Golden Machairodus being suffocated by an  African Rock Python.
* A Close-up of a Black Machairodus
* Golden Machairodus attacking a clan

## Notes

* Machairodus can prove to be a big problem by the time you reach the *Sahelanthropus Tchadensis* stage, as they will often attack and kill other members of the clan while you are out exploring.
* They can be tricked into attacking or getting attacked by other predators.
* In the game's opening cutscene, a Black Machairodus is seen stalking, pouncing and killing a  Thorbjarnarson's Crocodile.
* Sometimes two machairodus will fight but they will not kill each other. However, this doesn't apply to the pair of Golden Machairodus' roaming the desert in the  Canyon biome.

## Trivia

* Unlike the hominids that evolve over time during the game, animals don't change over time. If it was possible to see the evolution of animals, *Machairodus* would evolve into *Homotherium* around the time of the *Australopithecus Afarensis*.
	+ Homotherium only became extinct 12,000 years ago, already in the time of *Homo sapiens*.