Rathops

## Overview

Rathops is a bulky monster who can build good combo through Proliferate, Burning Charge, and Charged Destruction. It also provides better bulk than Fungi with its two copies of Critical Defense, but is slower and less explosive than Fungi, making its best home more midrange Burn teams that can leverage all its Burn synergies. Additionally, it has the Unique Aura Skirmish, as well as the excellent aura Splatter, enabling it to be the focal point of bleed oriented teams.

## Beast Bleed - Tanky

#### Equipment

* Purifying Mace / Restoring Wand / Hexing Rod
* Hide
* Hood
* Charging Sphere / Crown

### Build Details

Rathops is the cornerstone of a Beast-based Bleed team, which revolves around its Unique Aura - Skirmish. Skirmish does damage based on enemy max HP and as such will scale over time, particularly if used in conjunction with the many Bleed Out users with the Beast tribal tag - Rampede, Sutsune, Akhlut and Nightwing. It is can fit in this style of team alongside other bleed and/or Beast supports that don't need to attack including Dodo, Ucan, Molebear, Aurumtail and Caraglow, among others. Skirmish, which can proc up to 3 times per turn, is the driving force on this team, allowing the user's team to cascade their bleed damage into massive team wipes. Additionally, having Splatter means that if you stagger enemy deaths you can transfer bleeds from one monster to the next for a snowballing win condition. Rathops can be built in this team in one of two ways - as a semi-attacker or for full bulk. Generally, against faster teams - going for full bulk is important since Rathops is the single most important monster on this team. Against other slower comps, particularly ones where you know you can get away with it - using a build which stacks crit damage is excellent, as you can use Predation to eventually guarantee a critical hit and get good damage and excellent bleed accumulation.

## Beast Bleed - Predator

#### Equipment

* Thorn Tendril
* Frozen Tear
* Medallion
* Belt / Charging Sphere

### Build Details

This build is similar to the last one, however instead of its goal being to purely survive, instead it is meant to be better against both slower teams as well as teams with many attacking supports, using Thorn Tendril to supplement its normal bleed application as well as build up a large attack once it gets 4+ Predation stacks. Since this build struggles heavily with mana generation, often you will use the lowest level possible of your key skills - Full Protect, Lava Shield and Weakening Shield - or, if you have a Wonder Potion user on your team (Molebear / Aurumtail), using potions is a great way to conserve mana from turn to turn. Since this build typically runs Charging Sphere to both generate more mana as well as build up charge for the eventual big hit, it is recommended not to attack until you have a guaranteed kill (taking into account any subsequent bleed damage). This build typically eschews some crit damage for some health (generally through food), as you get diminishing returns on increasing crit damage (and the resulting damage reduction), so the added bulk comes at a lower cost than it would appear at a glance. Additionally worth noting, this build typically runs the Light Shift, as you want all the accessories you get naturally, and the potential for extra damage resistance from the aura is extremely important for this team, since if you survive - you will eventually win.

## Burn Support

#### Equipment

* Bow
* Thermal Reactor
* Poison Dart
* Charging Sphere

### Build Details

Rathops uses Burning Charge and Charged Destruction to apply debuffs and trigger Proliferate to build combo. It also has the important Burning Desire, which can provide shielding to the whole team. While it’s not specialized to do so, it can deal reasonable damage in a pinch with its high crit damage.

### Team Options

* Magmamoth is a strong offensive Burn monster that Rathops can help build combo for and also protect with the shielding from Burning Desire.
* Goblin Pilot provides additional Burn and Charge synergies, while also appreciating the combo building and shielding from Rathops.

## Checks and Counters

* With poor mana regeneration for a support and no good way to cleanse debuffs, Rathops is vulnerable to Chill teams who can drain its mana.
* Counters to the bleed team include teams with multiple purifiers as they will be able to keep up with your passive bleed application, reducing the efficacy of the team drastically.