Infected Explorer

50 (when crawling, non-weakspot);
25 (when crawling, weakspot)

## Overview

* Featured in the Ruins of Brightholme DLC, the Infected Explorer is originally a human conscript, but rapidly mutated into a dangerous **self-respawning** foe due to their excessive inhalation of spores. It's frequently found in the slums of Brightholme, and often appear in groups.
* At the 1st phase, Infected Explorers look similarly to smaller and slower Walkers and behave as such, but instead of dying when their health depletes, they fall forward and enter the 2nd phase.
* At the 2nd phase, they revive to their maximum health and start crawling, in which state they move slower but gain some armour (50 non-weakspot & 25 on weakspot). They need to be killed at this phase to actually be dead. If they're left hanging for 10 seconds, they'll pick themselves up, **return to the 1st phase** and fully recover their health. So the process of killing them must be repeated.
* Infected Explorers at both phases are very aggressive toward players, and have a melee attack similar to a Walker's, but dealing slightly less damage.
* Their attacks to the core deal 30 damage per hit (in comparison, a Walker deals 35 dmg/hit).
* This lume appears in 6 maps - the 4 ones from the 6th region (Brightholme) and the first two from the 8th region (Arc Islands) - 8-1: Below Arc and 8-2: Arc.

## Notes & tactics

* Their weakspot is a bulging orange lump on the back of their head, but it comes around the left side *just* enough to be visible when facing them directly. When an Infected Explorer is on the ground, it leaves their weakspot very much exposed.
* Target locking still works on an Infected Explorer that enters the 2nd phase, e.g. Focus tower will still lock on it. Also REX 's secondary fire wouldn't lose its aim at it.
	+ It is worth noticing that as it does, the Infected Explorer becomes really close to the ground, which can cause the Focus or other towers trying to fire through tower bases, the beam of the focus visibly targets the lume, but the tower does 0 damage until it has a line of sight on it again.
	+ Adjusting the Targeting System of towers doesn't help them distinguishing Infected Explorers of different phases and the firing will continue until the target dies or goes out of range/sight.
* Slowing effects prolong the "respawn" time of an Infected Explorer. For example, a rank 3 slow field can extend it to about 18 seconds. An Infected Explorer takes about 2 seconds to fall down or get up after it switches to another phase, during which it cannot move or attack. Again, this can be prolonged by slow effects. Slow Fields and Kairos work well against crowds of Infected Explorers since they will get up much later and will be vulnerably gathered together, thus rendering them highly vulnerable to area-of-effect towers and weapon fire modes.
* If an Infected Explorer has started to attack the core or has attempted it, but has been downed or has risen from a downed state, this lume might start to target a nearby player/player's AI like G-2 Companions instead, thus potentially working as a core-protecting trick.
* Due to its nature, a tower should ensure the rate of its damage put on Infected Explorers to prevent them from getting up. The ACP and the Orbital Strike Relay are among the best choices. The Focus needs proper line of sight and might be able to kill Explorers only if they are close enough, since downed ones can hide behind bases if further away. Bursty towers with slow fire rate like Violators and Lightnings can quickly draw high damage and so would AR-mines, but they might need to be more in numbers in order to deal with the downed Explorers as well, since the ability of stance convertion makes these lumes burst-protected.