Auburn Espinas

Auburn Espinas is the subspecies of the fabled Espinas whom are locked behind Guiding Lands leveling. While the regular Espinas focuses on rushing its opponents head-first without chill - Auburn Espinas focuses more on precision and highly-telegraphed/slow but extremely devastating attacks that can cart entire parties of hunters.

## Physiology

Auburn Espinas features a brown carapace with red spines, claws, and horns. When enraged, its body is covered in glowing orange veins that glimmer between orange and green when enraged. It is otherwise identical to the common Espinas.

## Behavior

Somewhat similarly to the common Espinas, it is a docile and passive wyvern which will only attack when provoked although due to it lifestyle in far more hazardous environments, it is much easier to provoke than the standard species. It sleeps for much of the day, and is usually encountered in this state although it is much more frequent for this species to wake up on its own accord than with the standard species. It enters into its enraged state far more often as-well.

## Ecological Information

### Placement In Food Chain

Minimal - Extremely Low - Low - Average - High - Extremely High - **(Apex)** - Legend

Main Prey: Meat (the common Kelbi, Apceros, Gastodon)

Arch-Rivals: Deviljho, Rajang, Yian Garuga, Bazelgeuse, Espinas

### Behavior Towards Other Monsters

Unlike the standard Espinas, Auburn Espinas is much more provokative against other monsters and will occasionally kill smaller creatures that comes close to it - mostly consisting of Kestodon and Gastodon.

### Tracks

Tracks: Autumn Intoxicated Thorns, Corrosive Intoxicated Scar, Carcass

### Specific Locale Interactions

* Auburn Espinas often starts off awake rather than asleep: typically in Sector 2 of the Wildspire Waste - Sector 14 of the Elders Recess.

* When Auburn Espinas intends to sleep, it will fly to the right corner of Sector 13 of the Wildspire Waste and sleep - in the Elders

* Its extremely rare that Espinas ever wakes up by itself - when it does, it will walk around before flying into another sector of the locale and attacking an Aptonoth/Apceros to eat its carcass before returning to the same area where it was found sleeping and proceeds to continue its sleep.

* Unprovoked Auburn Espinas is not as docile as the standard Espinas and will give several warning roars against the hunter if they're in close proximity, if the hunter still remains or hits it, it will engage but it will be almost

* It will occasionally grind its tail onto the ground which leaves behind *Intoxicated Thorns* which can be gathered to collect tracks and gain points.

## Abilities

Auburn Espinas is capable of producing larger and more powerful bursts of fire than the common Espinas, and is more resistant to damage. One of its most noteworthy abilities is to launch a large fireball at its feet which explodes into a massive fire storm covering a large radius.

## Rage and Tired States

* Rage State: The veins around its body will start pulsating red while white smoke will emit from its mouth. Its movements are 1.85x faster.
* Tired State: It will leak saliva from its mouth - it will fail to shot out any fireballs from its mouth - it will trip over when doing a charge - its movements are 0.75x slower.

## Mounts

The hunter climbs Auburn Espinas in the exact same fashion that the hunter mounts any other Flying Wyvern. However, the thorns on its back will deal continuous damage to the hunter while they're mounted, to balance this out, Auburn Espinas stays tripped for a much longer period of time compared to other monsters that are tripped from mounts.

## Minor Notes/Alterations

* When hit by one of its standard physical attacks and possibly poisoned - it will inflict the regular Poison status. If hit by any of its fireball-based attacks and definitely poisoned - it will in inflict the Deadly Poison status.

* Despite being a Fire Elemental monster - Auburn Espinass fireballs inflict blastblight instead of fireblight - this indicated with the differing sound cue + the explosive area-of-effect that occurs when Amber Espinass fireballs hit a surface.

* In order to unlock Auburn Espinas - you need to raise the Wildspire Waste region to Lvl 6 in the Guiding Lands although the Espinas subspecies itself doesn't make an appearance until MR90.

* Its fireball-based projectiles leave specks of explosive powder on the ground that can inflict blastblight if the hunter steps on it before it fades away.

* Similarly to the regular Espinas: Auburn Espinas is immune to poison, thus the likes of Poisoncups will not affect it but Paratoads will - so do Nitrotoads.

* If the hunter has put an Auburn Espinas to sleep, it will drop a shiny which is usually a *Large Wyvern Tear*.

* The gap between Auburn Espinass non-enraged state and enraged state is bigger than even the regular Espinass.

* The Alpha Armour set uses the Espina U armour design while the Beta Armour set uses the Espina G armour design.

The Reiji and Divol Armour designs come in layered armour that can be unlocked via atleast defeating one Auburn Espinas.

* Its Weapons have both poison (320 Poison) and blast (320 Blast) as attributes and both are extremely high on infliction.

## Ecology

### Taxonomy

Auburn Espinas is a subspecies of the Espinas, but retains a differing personality and method of dealing with threats.

### Habitat Range

Auburn Espinas in the New World can be encountered in Wildspire Waste and the Elders Recess. They've also been spotted in the Guiding Lands

### Ecological Niche

Outside of just the various spines on its body, Auburn Espinas retains a toxic + corrosive organ that chemically react and allow the Wyvern to shoot extremely powerful bursts of concussive explosions although this process often takes several seconds. Common prey include Kelbi, Apceros and Gastodon although it will make prey of whatever it can if truly ravenous. Espinass adaptations put it at advantages against the likes of Uragaan, Lavasioth, Azure Rathalos, Diablos and Brachydios but it still has to compete against the likes of Yian Garuga, Deviljho, Rajang, Bazelgeuse and even the standard Espinass that they could cross paths with in the Wildspire Waste.

### Biological Adaptations

The Auburn Espinas has all the adaptations of its green counterpart, though a few key differences. It gets the title, Brown Thorn Wyvern, from its color. Unlike its cousin's poisons, the poison produced by the Auburn Espinas is much deadlier from its acidic nature. The acid that the Espinas Subspecies produces is able to corrode armor in a single touch. Its fire sac is mixed with various chemicals that emit a flickering gas that when forced out, form into powerful explosions mixed with the chemicals of its acidic toxins. The thorns on the Auburn Espinas has doubled the poison, withering all plants it touches. Two sticks from these thorns and prey will never wake up again! This poison can kill up to a thousand Jagras in near minutes. While the standard Espinas are relatively smart - the Auburn Espinas are much more intelligent as indicated by their more precise and thought-out method of dealing with enemies. Its able to charge and slowly but surely make a correct move that will catch the enemy off-guard before obliterating them to mere ash. It charges its attacks to analyse the enemies movements briefly and also to amplify the toxins + chemical reactions in its body to deliver extremely devastating attacks that can outright kill even powerful apex monsters in a single blow.

### Behaviour

It retains the laziness of the standard Espinas when not enraged but it is actually much easier to provoke and are more prone to attacking targets. When enraged, it will stop at nothing to kill the aggressor.

## Lore

The Espinas is a fabled Flying Wyvern that is well known for successfully fending off an Elder Dragon from its territory. In comparison, the Amber Espinas is incredibly elusive and remains a mystery. What's known is this Espinas species often has to deal with provokative Elder Dragons on a daily basis due to habitat disputes which could explain why this species is so much more hostile than the standard species.

Auburn Espinass discovery is fairly distant after the discovery of the standard species. Rumours of an Auburn Espinas and a *White species of Espinas* in the Guiding Lands together have been recently circulating...

## Attacks

*Espinas gains brand new attacks while also having several moves from its HC variations. Still retains its passive behaviour when not-enraged, showcases most of its brand new attacks when it is enraged.*

### Calm

*Note: Auburn Espinas usually starts off awake and will put in a bit more effort when not-enraged to try and attack the hunter, unlike the regular Espinas - The stomach and tail tip being its weakest parts remain the same.*

**Fast Bite:** It will rear its head swiftly and proceed to bite in front of it in an attempt to hit the hunter.

**Body Shake:** It will shake its body around to mildly injure any hunters extremely close to it.

**Tail Sweep:** It sweeps its tail from side to the side to the left and the right before sweeping it to the left again.

**Horn Thrust:** It will rear its head at a hunter and proceed to thrust its horn upwards into the air, sending the hunter flying if they're hit by this attack. Inflicts Poison. It is able to do this twice in a row.

**Double Stomp:** It will lift either its left leg or right leg and proceed to slam it into the ground two times in a row which causes Tremors.

### Enraged

*On a threshold of damage done to it (lower than the standard Espinas), Auburn Espinas will become enraged and will turn its full attention to the hunter. The veins around its body will glimmer around its body between bright orange and green while the Wyvern huffs black smoke - its entire body can now be pierced with a minimum of Green Sharpness, lowering Espinass defense values. When enraged, Espinas will attack any and all hunters and palicos on sight zero regard.*

*Note: when weakened, it will stay Enraged until death.*

**Charge:** It will instantly charge forwards at extremely high speeds - homing in on hunters/palicos if they're in its line of sight during the charge.

**Alternating Charge Bite:** Sometimes when doing a Charge, it will alternate to a different direction mid-charge before then proceeding to bite the targeted hunter.

**Charge + Horn Thrust:** After doing a Charge, it will often combo-chain with an instant backwards turn to charge again and then thrust its horn at the targeted hunter. Inflicts Poison.

**Triple Charge:** It will Charge multiple times in a row, sometimes standardly but will often combo-chain each of its charges with alternating moves mid-charges.

**Stomp + Charge Combo:** It will lift up either its left or right leg and stomp the ground which causes Tremors, Espinas will then take a step backwards and instant-charge the stunned hunter.

**Wing Flap + Tail Slams:** It will flap its wings repeatedly which unleashes mild gusts of wind that blows hunters away before it then leaps and slams its tail on the targeted hunter, it then proceeds to slam its tail in different directions three times in a row before stopping.

**Triple Bite:** It will bite to the side of it like a typical Wyvern but then proceed to bite to the opposite side of it before then biting either at the front or at the back of it to hit hunters.

**Frontal Explosion Bite:** I will take several steps back before its mouth starts emitting explosive powder and it proceeds to bite on front of it which unleashes a large-sized concussive explosion with a large Area-Of-Effect. Inflicts Blastblight.

**Charged Horn Thrust:** It will rear its right leg and stay poised for several seconds before then thrusting its horn extremely high into the air while turning. This attacks deals extremely high damage (can OHKO with defense below 850), sends out wind gust and inflicts Poison. (This attack is one of the two signature attacks that the base Espinas Subspecies had in Monster Hunter Frontier).

**Charged Super Charge:** Sometimes casually charging, it will also poise itself at a targeted hunter, turning if the hunter keeps moving and then bolt at them with its horn poised, full speed - sending wind gust and causing tremors, almost tripping before getting back up. This attack can almost OHKO with defense below 850 and inflicts Poison.

**Corrosion Fireball:** It rears upwards before then shooting a corrosive fireball like a standard Flying Wyvern - the projectile itself explodes on impact when it hits a solid surface. Inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deady Poison. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Triple Corrosion Fireball:** It stands almost upright and proceeds to shoot out 3 corrosive fireballs before hovering backwards while shooting a fourth. Inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Charged Corrosion Fireball:** It raises its head upwards and proceeds to walk backwards as it poises itself before then unleashing multiple fireballs in one go that hit the ground close to it and immolate into 6 different explosions that spread before fading. This almost OHKO with defense below 850. Inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Charged Super Charge + Charged Corrosion Fireball:** It will do the Charged Super Charge attack but instead of tripping at the end, it will hover upwards into the air and an aerial equivalent of the Charged Corrosion Fireball. The Charge inflicts Poison while the Fireball inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Omega Stomp + Fireball:** It will hover upwards into the air before then slamming its feet into the ground which causes a mass of tremors, it then raises its head upwards and shoots 6 corrosive fireballs in differing directions in front of it. Inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Charged Multi Corrosion Flame Barrage:** It proceeds to do the Charged Corrosion Fireball multiple times before then doing two Charged Super Charges.

**Omega Corrosion Fireball:** It rears itself almost upright as flames flicker from its mouth for several seconds before hovering upwards extremely fast and unleashing a powerful fireball that explodes into a colossal-sized AOE. This attack OHKOs if your defense is below 900 - inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison if the hunter somehow either survived or had the Guts skill. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Double Omega Corrosion Fireball:** After doing an Omega Corrosion Fireball, it will proceed to hover upwards directly on top of a hunter and unleash the very same fireball. This can OHKOs if your defense is below 900 - inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison if the hunter somehow either survived or had the Guts skill. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Charge Omega Corrosion Fireball:** It will do a Charged Super Charge before then immediately poising itself to do an Omega Corrosion Fireball. Inflicts Blastblight, Defense Down and Deadly Poison. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Charged Horn Thrust + Omega Corrosion Fireball:** It combo-chains its Charged Horn Thrust and Omega Corrosion Fireball in a single combo succession. The time-period between the charging of both attacks is shorter than it is for the standard types. Inflicts Poison, Deadly Poison, Defense Down and Blastblight. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

**Charged Tail Slam:** It will rear itself upwards and poise its tail upwards for several seconds before turning from behind and slamming its tail extremely hard into the ground. This attack causes a massive amount of tremors that not even Tremor Res+1 can cope with. Getting hit directly by the tail can potentially OHKO if your defense is below 900.

**Charged Tail Slam + Charged Corrosion Flame Burrow:** Sometimes after doing a Charged Tail Slam attack - it will follow up with shooting a charged corroive fireball into the cracks which cause parts of the tectonic ground to fracture into explosive AOEs that deal extremely high damage. Inflicts Blastblight.

**Corrosive Obliteration Nuke:** It will taunt the hunter and proceed to growl several times while its veins begin to glimmer at extremely fast speeds. It then proceeds to walk around aimlessly, pretending that its non-enraged although it being enraged will be clearly visible due to the veins that are glimmering faster than usual, the hunter has approximately 20 seconds to either run out of the area or unsheathe to prepare to superman dive. Because after 20 seconds is up, Auburn Espinass will be glimmering at its brightest as it hovers high into the air before then shooting a massive fireball from its mouth that explodes even from the moment it enters outside of the wyverns mouth - when it hits the ground, the AOE explosion is utterly gigantic and will OHKO hunters below 1200 defense meaning that the hunter can either only be out of the area, farcaster, superman dive or have the Guts skill to survive this attack due to it being impossible to gain 1200 defense - The AOE of this attack is as large as Sector 8 of the Wildspire Waste and can be witnessed from other parts of the area - often One-Shotting all of the smaller monsters present in the area as-well. Auburn Espinas usually almost always gets exhausted after doing this attack + always gets out of rage mode after doing this attack. Specks of explosive powder remain after the impact for several seconds before fading away - inflicts Blastblight if the hunter steps on it.

### Bond

*Note: In a special quest that features both Auburn Espinas and Pearl Espinas - the duo of Thorn Wyverns have a bond attack.*

**Rotunda of Death:** Auburn Espinas will run in a circle while the Pearl Espinas will run counter-clockwise as both unleash devastating fireballs that cover the entire Origin Isle before both wyverns then ram into each other as both emit fireballs from their mouths, causing a colossal explosion that combines the effects and ailment afflictions of both species.

## Quests

 **Client:** The Seeker
 **Notes:**
*Unlocked after encountering an Auburn Espinas in the Guiding Lands.*

## Turf Wars

*Note: Almost all the Turf Wars that the regular Espinas has is shared with Auburn Espinas with the only difference being that Auburn Espinas deals x2 the amount of damage the regular Espinas does in the Turf Wars. Auburn Espinas does however have a turf war with Teostra.*

### Auburn Espinas vs Teostra

Both will roar at each other before Teostra attempts to leap at the Wyvern but the Wyvern steps back and proceeds to ram the elder dragon to which Teostra responds via triggering its supernova which deals 2800 damage to Auburn Espinas but then the wyvern penetrates Teostra's neck with its horn and tosses the elder dragon to the side, dealing 3300 damage to Teostra.

'Note: The Turf War with Lunastra is the same but heat wave damages Auburn Espinas instead of an explosion.

## Notes

* The Clutch Claw cannot pierce its shell when non-enraged, but will be able to when it is enraged and function normally.
* While Paralysis is almost useless against the regular Espinas - Auburn Espinas is highly susceptible to it. A Paralysis weapon + a full stack of Adamant Seeds is highly recommended to counter the Defense Down attribute.
* This incarnation uses the HR5/100 Tower theme as its battle track due to its stark differences in fighting style to the regular Espinas, thus making the HR5/100 Great Forest theme not very fitting for the Auburn subspecies, in comparison to the HR5/100 Tower theme that does actually play against this subspecies in Monster Hunter Frontier if you fight it in the Tower at that rank - the remixed version is for one its calm but then auto-switches to the original version when Espinas is enraged and remains so until Espinas enters its calm state again.
* Espinas is a romanised translation of Espinas - created due to the rename being present to the subspecies of Espinas being present in a crossover collaboration with a separate game.
* Auburn Espinas in Monster Hunter Frontier was introduced in the 2.5 patch which came fairly distant after the 2.0 patch which introduced the regular Espinas into the game.
* While the standard Espinas was confirmed - it is unknown if the Auburn Espinas was also going to appear in the portable port of Monster Hunter Frontier that was originally going to serve as Monster Hunter Freedom 3 before Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was announced: https://twitter.com/BannedDino/status/1005134907981615104
* Auburn Espinas uses the same roar sound as the standard Espinas although identically to it in Monster Hunter Frontier: its fireball sound cues are different.
* Different iterations of Auburn Espinas *(whether it be the HC version or the Monster Hunter Online iteration)* gave it green eyes - this iteration retains the bright yellow eyes that it had when it was first introduced due to personal preference + the fact that it was its original eye colour.
* Its horn, chest, wings and back can be broken, and its tail can be severed.
* While the standard Espinas grants the usual 3 carves for its body and 1 carve for its tail - Auburn Espinas grants 4 body carves but still only has 1 tail carve.
* Similarly to the standard Espinas, it must be near death for its horn to break and tail to be severed.
* Auburn Espinass roar requires HG Earplugs to block.