Cryptor

> "*Escape is futile, Zane. You and I share programming. I know your every move before you even make it.*"
> ― Cryptor to Zane.
>
>

**General Cryptor** was the leader of the Nindroid army. Cryptor found himself at odds with the original Nindroid, Zane, whose design had inspired his. Cryptor and his allies fought to stop the ninja from erasing the Digital Overlord from the Digiverse. Despite failing to do so, Cryptor and the Nindroids claimed the Golden Weapons, which allowed for the birth of the Golden Master. During his assault on the city, Cryptor fought against Nya and was frozen when Zane sacrificed himself to defeat the Golden Master. Subsequently, Cryptor was destroyed after shattering apart.

A statue of Cryptor was later placed in the Ninjago Museum of History. When Cole accidentally opened the Departed Realm, Cryptor's spirit escaped and possessed the statue. Cryptor set off to exact vengeance, in his case going after Zane with help from three Nindroid Warriors. Cryptor fought Zane in Birchwood Forest before accidentally hitting himself with his weapon. This sent his spirit back to the Departed Realm, where it remains to this day.

## Biography

### Nindroid Crisis

#### Created by the Overlord

When the Digital Overlord took over New Ninjago City, P.I.X.A.L. built an army of Nindroids in the factory in Borg Tower according to the original plans of Dr. Julien to build Zane, but with many improvements. One of these Nindroids was Cryptor, who was specially modified and programmed to serve as a general.

#### Attack on Garmadon's Monastery

Shortly after his creation, General Cryptor was sent by the Overlord to attack Garmadon's monastery with his army and P.I.X.A.L. where the ninja were taking refuge. However, he failed and the ninja escaped, so he called the Overlord who was angry with him.

#### Battle at Storm Farms Power Station

Later Cryptor was sent by the Overlord to guard the Power Station. There, General Cryptor made fun of Min-Droid's small stature, and gave him his nickname. When the ninja arrived, he tried to stop them and almost destroyed P.I.X.A.L.. Eventually, he encountered Zane and told him to get a move on with the future. When the Power Station was destroyed, he was powered down with the rest of the Nindroids and taken to Ed & Edna's Scrap N Junk to be scrapped.

#### Revival

Cryptor, along with Min-Droid and the other Nindroids, were reawakened by Techno Wu using Electro-Cobrai in Ed and Edna's junkyard. Min-Droid attacked their mobile home with a crane, and General Cryptor rised on one of the junk-piles. More Nindroid reinforcementes were brought by the stranger, and Ed and Edna escaped by using bubble powered jetpacks. Cryptor fought Zane and P.I.X.A.L. and ridiculed them until he was defeated and the ninja managed to escape. During their escape, Cryptor got a bubble in his eye and escaped with the stranger, Techno Wu, and the other Nindroids.

#### Attack on the Serpentine Village

When the ninja were in the Serpentine village in the tomb of the Stone Army, Cryptor led the attack on them. When Skales Jr. was running to his mother, Cryptor tripped him and mocked him that he was the future of the fearless Serpentine, but he was kicked in the face by Kai. As he was about to battle the four ninja by himself, he was taken down by Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane, but soon overpowered them easily then left his Nindroids to finish them. However, when Cole discovered that they were powered by Electro-Cobrai on their back, Cryptor vanished and the ninja didn't notice his disappearance.

#### Infiltrating Borg Tower

General Cryptor, Pythor, and Techno Wu broke into Borg Tower to stop the ninja from erasing the Digital Overlord, but before they could break-in, they were attacked by an army of civilians, led by the Postman. They overpowered the civilians and started to go through the tower to the top floor. Then when they were nearly close enough to reach for the Techno Blades, Nya gave them a chance to surrender. Cryptor laughed and simply said that she was cute. However, when he, Pythor and Techno Wu along with the Nindroids were going to battle her, her Samurai Mech arrived and she jumped inside of it. Cryptor and his Nindroids fought her while Pythor and Techno Wu decided to go for the Techno Blades to gain an advantage.

When the Digital Overlord was destroyed, Pythor escaped and Techno Wu turned back to normal, Cryptor and his Nindroids stopped battling Nya as they realized that the ninja rebooted the system, meaning that the Digital Overlord was destroyed. Cryptor told them to switch their power offline. He also said he looked forward to his second date with Nya as he and his Nindroids were forced to retreat.

#### Developing Project Arcturus

Soon afterwards, the Nindroids along with Pythor recovered the spirit of the Overlord from the Nindroid MechDragon that crashed into the sea following the shutdown of the Digiverse and set up a lab under the Lost City of Ouroboros to begin working on Project: Arcturus.

Cryptor later led the Nindroids to infiltrate the village of Nom, where they set up a factory and built Nindroids out of scrap metal to try to prevent the ninja from finding out about their true plans.

After the ninja, with the assistance of the mayor's daughter Seliel, under the guise of the Phantom Ninja, lured the Nindroids to the woods and freed the workers, Cryptor confronted the ninja, telling them that their plan has failed and they have endangered the mayor and his daughter, only for Seliel and her father to reveal themselves, forcing Cryptor to escape.

#### Finishing the Rocket

Inside the Lost City of Ouroboros, General Cryptor told Pythor that his drones were questioning the continued existence of the Overlord, ever since the ninja purged him from the Digiverse. Pythor said that the Overlord’s a bit consumed at the moment, but Cryptor warned with him that if he and his Nindroids would find out that he was pretending that the Overlord was alive only to use the Nindroids, he would pay dearly. But then Pythor claimed that the Dark Lord would appear only when he wanted to, and threatened to re-program Cryptor if he commanded his Nindroids to attack.

Later, he was driving the convoy with Pythor and a few Nindroids to Ouroboros. Kai tried to put a stop to them but got occupied with battling Nindroids and escaping from bombs. Pythor had spotted Kai, and commanded for chains to be put on him. The ninja tried to save their chained friend, but the Nindroids fought them, including General Cryptor. He later got on Arcturus and traveled into space. However, he didn’t know that the ninja were with them.

#### Battle at Delta V

General Cryptor commanded the rocket Arcturus, ordering his Nindroid Warriors to the controls of the rocket. Upon discovering that the ninja were aboard, he ordered his minions out to get rid of them. After they failed, he demanded that they take the rocket into the comet's tail to lose the ninja. Eventually, they made it onto the comet, and Cryptor and the other Nindroids ventured to the Golden Weapons in their lunar rovers.

Soon, the ninja once again encountered them, and Cryptor and his minions escaped on the lunar rovers, with the heroes and a swarm of extraterrestrial beetles on their tail. Three rovers were lost as they jumped over a pit, with Cryptor commanding his Nindroids to try and hold the ninja off. Eventually, they reach the rocket, but the ninja thwart their escape and are soon stuck with the beetles, who are devouring the rocket. Cryptor and his Nindroids used their jets to fly off of the comet along with the melted Golden Weapons back to Ninjago.

### Battle of Ninjago City

Cryptor was present in Borg Tower during the transformation of the Overlord into the Golden Master. While they were in the factory, Cryptor released Cyrus Borg so he could watch his city fall and bow to his new master. When Borg wondered aloud what he could do, Cryptor mockingly said that he should already start bowing.

Later, he was attacking Nya as they both began to battle with their bare hands, Cryptor claiming that she kicked like a little girl. In return, Nya thrown continuous hits at the Nindroid, but he simply pushed her off with one hand in mere seconds, aware that she couldn't use her Samurai Mech.

Cryptor soon gained the upper hand, but Nya saw Min-Droid behind him. Thus, she said that Min-Droid thought Cryptor was short of a hard drive. Irritated and unaware of the Nindroid behind him, Cryptor began to insult Min-Droid, claiming that he had met toasters more intelligent than him. Moments later, an enraged Min-Droid got his general's attention and punched him in the chest. Abandoning Nya for the moment, Cryptor began fighting his diminutive subordinate, distracting them both from the main battle until Zane defeated the Golden Master. Cryptor and Min-Droid were frozen mid-battle, shattering into pieces.

### Legacy

In 2017, a statue of Cryptor was placed in the Ninjago Museum of History's Hall of Villainy exhibit alongside many of the other villains the ninja have fought over the years. The curator of the museum, Dr. Saunders released a video detailing Cryptor's history to promote the exhibit.

### Yin-Yang Eclipse

#### Restored to Life

Due to the machinations of Master Yang, Cryptor and several other villains—Samukai, Kozu, Chen, and Morro—were freed from the Departed Realm, with their spirits inhabiting the mannequins created in their image. After some initial bickering, such as Cryptor mocking Kozu over his defeat, the group was informed by Yang that they would return to the Departed Realm after the Yin-Yang Eclipse unless they used their new Departed Blades to dispatch an enemy. At that moment, Pythor appeared and greeted Cryptor as his old friend while he appeared neutral to the greeting. Armed with a weapon in the image of a Techno Blade, Cryptor refuted Samukai's claim to destroy Zane by stating that the Nindroid was his to destroy, being his clone; Pythor, who had joined the group, remarked that Cryptor was technically Zane's clone.

#### Confronting Zane

After reviving a small group of Nindroids from the Hall of Sidekicks to serve as backup, Cryptor found Zane in the Birchwood Forest and smashed the statue of Dr. Julien, Zane's creator. As he did so, he mused that the old scientist was his creator, in a way. The Nindroids then attacked Zane in force, with Cryptor confident in his chances of victory given that he knew all of Zane's moves, even those that Zane had learned since Cryptor's demise. However, Zane soon bested the lesser Nindroids, and when Cryptor faced him alone and declared his knowledge that Zane would "never give up," Zane proceeded to surrender. His backing away from the struggle left Cryptor off-balance, and the Nindroid General inadvertently struck himself with his Departed Blade, resulting in his return to the Departed Realm.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Overlord - Former Master
* Nindroid Army - Former Subordinates
	+ Nindroid Warriors
* Yang †
* Departed Villains
	+ Samukai †
	+ Pythor
	+ Kozu †
	+ Chen †
	+ Morro †

### Enemies

* Ninja
	+ Zane - Rival and Attempted Victim
	+ Lloyd Garmadon
	+ Kai
	+ Jay Walker
	+ Cole - Accidental Resurrector
	+ Nya
* P.I.X.A.L. - Creator and Temporary Ally
* Cyrus Borg - Temporary Ally
* Garmadon
* Wu - Temporary Ally
* Mayor of Nom - Former Prisoner
* Seilel - Former Prisoner
* Min-Droid † - Former Ally

## Personality

Cryptor is a very cruel, supremely arrogant and ruthless nindroid due to his built-in ego program. He treats his enemies very cruelly and derisively, as he often ridicules his opponents and always mocks them. This characteristicy of him had gone so far that he even mocked a member of his army only because he was smaller and even slandered him, even though he thought he did not know about it. Cryptor was basically cruel to anyone he thought was less than him. He ridiculed Zane because he was much older and didn't seem to like women because he believed they weren't meant to fight.

## Appearance

General Cryptor is similar to a Nindroid Warrior but with the addition of curved black pauldrons on his shoulders. His eyes are glowing red, his torso has slightly different mechanical detailing from a normal Nindroid's, and his silver robotic arm is on the right side instead of left. He also has a purple mark near his red eye.

After being revived by Cole in *Day of the Departed*, he had a green glow like the other villains in the special. However, in the alternate version of the special, he a dark green glowing skin.

## Weapons and abilities

As the leader of the Nindroids, Cryptor is built with the most advanced technology available to the Digital Overlord, giving him greater and more varied abilities than a standard Nindroid. He has enhanced strength, speed, and durability, allowing him to overwhelm most opponents in a straight fight. He can also cloak himself from view and fire lasers from his eye scope and chest armor; the latter is powerful enough to blast doors away or even push someone away if they attempt to block with a weapon. Cryptor is said to have a faster firing rate than other Nindroid units as well. He can absorb Lloyd's powers to enhance his strength, but he never had the chance to demonstrate this. Like Zane, Cryptor's robotic nature allows him to survive in space with no protection.

Cryptor is proficient in several weapons, including twin katanas and a high-tech bazooka. In the video games, he also has the power to overload himself, releasing some electricity that surrounds him to protect against his enemies' attacks.

Upon his return from the Departed Realm, Cryptor wielded a Departed Blade with the ability to restore him to life by sending a victim's soul to the Departed Realm in his place. He also revealed that he shared some of Zane's programming, allowing him to copy the Titanium Ninja's moves and abilities. This ability even extended to techniques that Zane only learned after Cryptor's destruction and Zane's rebirth, such as Airjitzu. The true amount of power that Cryptor gained is unknown though it can be assumed that it allowed him to be around equal to Zane's new form.

## Etymology

Cryptor's name is likely based on the word "cryptic" or "encrypt," although the name is also possibly derived from the computer virus "Gen-Cryptor."

## Behind the scenes

* Cryptor's Rebooted minifigure has a unique torso print. However, his render in the show has an identical torso design to the other Nindroids.
	+ This is one of the few times in which a character's render in the show is less detailed and unique than a physical minifigure.
* According to Tommy Andreasen, Cryptor was sent to the Departed Realm because he "must have a programmed soul like Zane and Pixal."
* When asked why Cryptor wasn't rebuilt like Zane was, Tommy Andreasen responded, "Who would want to rebuild that bastard?"
* Cryptor is similar to King Sombra from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, as both are hot tempered and arrogant, have similar colour schemes, met their ends from exploding and were resurrected for a short time.
* Cryptor is also similar to Scorm from Legends of Chima as both are hot tempered and arrogant, have a habit of underestimating their enemies, have a common rivalry with anthropomorphic animal antagonists and both debuted in 2014.

## Trivia

* According to Tommy Andreasen, if Cryptor got in a fight with Lloyd, he would easily be defeated.
* Cryptor has characteristics similar to each of the ninja.
	+ Like Jay, he mocks his enemies when he battles.
	+ He is arrogant and a hothead, like Kai.
	+ He's a Nindroid, like Zane.
	+ He's a leader, like Lloyd.
	+ He wears a black suit, like Cole.
* In *Shadow of Ronin*, Cryptor is the most expensive of the Nindroids, costing 200,000 studs. However, if P.I.X.A.L. were to be considered a member of the Nindroid army, then she is the most expensive, costing 250,000 studs.
* Cryptor appears as a boss in *The LEGO Ninjago Movie Videogame* in the training dojo "The Secret Factory" and can be unlocked as a playable character by achieving silver medal status or higher in the said dojo, which requires the player to accumulate at least 100,000 studs.
* He is the youngest major villain in Ninjago, as he was built sometime during Season 3.
* It is implied by Cryptor himself that he knows Airjitzu. In "Day of the Departed," Cryptor told Zane that he knew his every move before he even made it. Zane then responded with "Even this one?" as he did Airjitzu and landed on a tree branch. When Zane turned to look at Cryptor, he was already on the branch and responded with "If you know it, I know it."
	+ This makes him one of the four villains to know Airjitzu, the other three being Morro, Yang, and Zane (as the Ice Emperor).
	+ Considering Zane and Cryptor share the same programming, this may also imply that he knows how to do Spinjitzu as well.
* Cryptor's design from "Day of the Departed" has his silver robotic arm inverted.

## References

1. ↑ The Surge
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Art of the Silent Fist
3. ↑ Blackout
4. ↑ The Curse of the Golden Master
5. ↑ Enter the Digiverse
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Codename: Arcturus
7. ↑ Who is the Phantom Ninja?
8. ↑ The Void
9. ↑ The Titanium Ninja
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Day of the Departed
11. ↑ Villain Throwbacks