Jorge/Bush Tech

## *Stalker no Stalkin'*

#### -Found by Masterchief00099, Dubbed by JustCarrier of the TC community-

In the Torture Chamber, the Stalker is the MOST deadly thing to encounter during a run. Or even during a Rank. For Vanilla, the Stalker is not much of a threat once you understand the basics of how it operates.

#### -General Stalker Information-

There are a few things of base knowledge to know of the Stalker for new-comers:

* The Stalker can only be killed *after* its Pre-attack phase, when it gets up close and personal. Shooting it at any point before or during the Pre-attack phase will only elongate the stalking.
* The Stalker will NEVER go away until you or it dies once spawned. Or until you Rank up.
* The Stalker can ONLY spawn by being summoned via the Gong at top of Gallery tile or spawned via Threat Echo. (Or Seasonal, during October by shooting pumpkins).
* The Stalker teleports to a location to look at you/Pre-attack based off where you are, what direction your looking, and the distance to the closest wall(s).
* The Stalker likes to spawn right outside or just to the side of your vision.
* The Stalker can't kill you when you're in the tall bushes.

It spooks you at a distance for a bit, teleporting around in secrecy before the eye colors turn from Yellow to Red in a Pre-attack phase. Then the Stalker will raise its spikes, waiting about 3 seconds during this Pre-attack. The Stalker will stop you in your tracks from moving, teleport right up on you where you have a choice before it kills you in about 1 second:

You can shoot it with your weapon, or hack it.

#### -TC Stalker Information-

In Vanilla gameplay, either option is relatively easy for advance Receivers. However in TC, the Stalker is **Super Buffed** as mentioned. Another list below will talk about the relative configurations changed from Vanilla:

* The Stalker *heavily* doesn't stalk as much compared to Vanilla, if at all. (You can essentially be killed instantly if you're unlucky enough)
* The Pre-attack phase (When it readies its spikes), is only **0.55~ seconds long**.
* The kill window to shoot or begin hacking the Stalker is only **0.35~ seconds long**.
* Hacking the Stalker is much **much** faster, and VERY hard. Requiring you to catch the Stalker within the 0.35~ second window to begin the hack, and only having about 1 second to complete the hack.
* The Hacking bar when tapping the G button, is also changed. It feels fairly heavy compared to hacking the other Killdrones, throwing Receivers off who attempt to hack it.

#### -Strategy-

The best strategy when you know a Stalker is going to spawn, majority of the time it is usually by tape. Is to pause the tape and find a Tile that has the large bushes. **\*\* The small potted bushes cannot be used for Bush Tech! \*\***. Those Tiles being: Hospital (Only bottom floor), Patio (Only top floor), and Apartments (All floors except top floor).

1. Once a bush is found, proceed to wait for the Stalker to go insanely crazy fast. If you hear it acting as normal, then it isn't ready yet and is still in its stalking phase.
2. Once the Stalker goes in for the kill, it will teleport sporadically right outside your field of view. But do keep in mind from the list mentioned near the start. It can only teleport to the edge of your field of view and the direction you're facing, based off the walls around it. It's fairly picky.
3. Once in the right area, adjust your camera to 'Focus down' the noises into one generalized area. Think of it as wrangling the Stalker into attacking you from one angle instead of many angles.
4. After the wrangling and a build up of confidence is done. You must not turn your camera just yet, as you step out from the bush safety. Once fully emerged from the bushes, the Stalker will 'Confirm' the attack angle and go for the kill. You must quickly aim in its direction and wait just a moment before pulling the trigger.

The moment of pause there is because there's just a very small margin of delay before it strikes. Which could lead you to shooting it before you can kill it. Prolonging the stalking.