Hoverer Queen

Infinite (the front)

## Overview

* The Hoverer Queen is a heavily armored boss level lume. When it enters the stage, the map will indicate its location with a medium skull icon.
* It attacks with a wave similar to normal Hoverers however with an additional effect: if there are any towers in range, they will be powered down for a few seconds before rebooting.
* As with common Hoverers she has a generally impenetrable frontal armor, but smaller weakspot on her back.
* Aside of hitting the lume's back, the boss would also always take damage from the Drone Launcher, the bleeding DoT of the Circle Saw's secondary fire and Sweet's burn, regardless of which part of the lume's body is hit/aimed at.
* When the Queen attacks the core, she deals 120 damage per hit.

## Appearances

This boss lume appears in 6 maps and in two of them there are two Queens, i.e. it has a total of 8 spawns:

* 3-2: Canopy (in Wave 10, when she is the first enemy to spawn from her corresponding spawn point)
* 3-4: Abandoned Lab (in Wave 10, when she spawns after a few Snorkers come out)
* 4-1: The Depths (in Wave 9, when she's the only lume that spawns from her spawn point when the wave starts)
* 4-4: The End (**two** - appears as very first boss, and later as a fourth/fifth one, alongside a Walker Patriarch).
* 6-2: The Slums (in Wave 10 after a few Walker Warriors. With proper maze and timing one can chase her for a while, uninterrupted by other lumes, since Walker Warriors walk faster)
* 7-2: Field (in Wave 10 **two** Hoverer Queens will spawn in the final wave and will progress slightly faster than the Soakers in the maze)

## Notes & tactics

### Tower Strategies

* Intentionally getting the Queen's attention in order to make her turn her back to your towers is a valid strategy. However, care should be taken as her attack will momentarily disable any towers in the vicinity and possibly create a gap in the player's defenses allowing others enemies to bypass them.
* Just like the other ground bosses and the normal Hoverers, the Queen is susceptible to AR-, Rupture & environmental mines, but explosions still have to hit the back, which pretty much happens normally since explosions have a little delay and the boss walks a bit meanwhile. Therefore stopping behaviour like kiting when the Queen triggers the mines can result in all the damage being blocked by her front, since she hasn't passed a bit away. The method with stacking explosive mines on a player's head and exploding into a lume also tends to fail vs this particular boss and the regular Hoverers. While the damage of the Rupture mines wouldn't be negated by such mistakes, they demand enemy movement for the succesful high damage and stopping & slowing effects are unwanted when using them vs her. Being a very capable boss executor as well, these have to be on exact same place to attach to the boss alltogether for combined damage.
* One of the most effective towers against the Queen is the Drone, but it requires serious overcharge and/or buffing in order to deal high damage vs her.
* Setting up a Focus to shoot into her back as she attacks the core can result in a lot of damage dealt to the boss, but if the Focus is too close to the core, her attacks might happen to permastun the tower.
* Scatter Lasers can be effective hitting the Queen's back, especially if paired with Kairos or Slow Fields.

### Player Strategies

* The Queen's shockwave radius is larger than that a normal Hoverer and also can throw the player far away; if there are pits nearby, caution should be taken when approaching the Queen.
* If no towers are close by, provoking the Hoverer Queen into attacking to stall it is a good tactic, since it slows her progress in the maze.
* The Drone Launcher is among the most effective weapons against the Hoverer Queen as drones ignore armor.
* The Circle Saw's secondary fire would always apply the bleeding DoT, regardless of where the projectile hits, although the damage is limited.
* The secodary fire of the Rex and the Gatling Laser **cannot** damage Hoverer Queens and the usual Hoverers, although these can apply Sweet's burn and Skye's warming-up.