Sea Serpent

**Sea Serpents** are ferocious reptilian marine predators that terrorize the vast oceans and attack any smaller creatures they see.

## Appearance

Sea serpents are large marine reptiles with a serpentine physique, a large, fish-like fin running down their backs, a noticeable lack of limbs, a moderately long neck, and a head reminiscent of that of a dragon, with a pair of backwards-facing fins and massive, toothy jaws. They come in 7 colors: blue, deep blue, teal, green, purple, bronze, and red.

## Spawning

Sea serpents commonly spawn on world generation in Ocean and Deep Ocean biomes.

## Drops

Upon death, sea serpents drop:

* 1-30 sea serpent scales (corresponds to the serpent's color and varies with size).
* 1-3 sea serpent fangs (varies with size).
* 1 sea serpent skull (2.5% chance).

## Behavior

Sea serpents are hostile, and will attack everything that comes nearby, including players and dragons. When attacking, sea serpents will usually take a bite out of their prey, dealing a considerable amount of damage (depending on how big the serpent is); if their quarry is further away, they will fire a jet of boiling water from their maws, rapidly damaging their target over time. Finally, if their target is riding a boat, swimming near the surface, or standing near the shore, they will let out a loud, booming roar before leaping out of the water; the impact that they make upon landing deals a large amount of damage, tosses their target back a considerable distance (how powerful this attack is correlates with the serpent's size), and breaks the boat that their target may have been riding. The largest sea serpents are colloquially known as **ancient sea serpents**, and rival a Stage 5 dragon in size; they can withstand many attacks from the player before dying, their bite and water jet attacks do a lot of damage, and their leap attacks create a massive impact that sends all nearby creatures flying.

### Combat

Since most arrows are ineffective in water, it is suggested that one should use a powerful sword before taking on a sea serpent. Depending on its size and bts, decent armor, potions of water breathing, and a shield may be necessary; since the serpent's leap attack can destroy boats, it is advised that one should ride an armored hippocampus should they need any fast aquatic transportation. The best way to take on a large sea serpent is to lure it a little below the surface with a hippocampus, swim away from its rushing bite attack, swim back to land a hit on it, and repeat until it dies; if the serpent uses its water jet attack, swim away from the attack and keep a respectable distance from the serpent (not too close, but not too far). Should the sea serpent chase the player to the surface and perform a leap attack, swim away as quickly as you can from the serpent, as the attack is very deadly and covers a wide range.

The combat materials crafted from sea serpent drops can be quite useful when dealing with them; Tide Arrows and Tide Tridents can freely travel through the water and hit the serpents from a distance (with the latter being able to pierce through multiple serpents at a time), while the strength boost granted by Tide Guardian Armor allows one to kill a serpent with just a few strikes from even a bare fist.

## History

* 1.7.0:
	+ Introduced.
* 1.7.1:
	+ Now despawns on Peaceful.
* 1.8.0:
	+ Added new model (now has a more shallow head with smaller fins).
	+ Added new textures.
	+ Now associated with a new Legendary Weapon: the Tide Trident.
	+ Now occasionally drops a placeable skull.
* 1.8.2:
	+ Model now generates less lag.
* 1.8.4:
	+ Can now render from further away.
* 1.9.0:
	+ Idle animations are now smoother.
* 1.9.1:
	+ Can now destroy leaves.
* 2.1.2:
	+ Now has new AI.
	+ Now has new body physics.
		- Hitboxes will now curve around each other in the direction it moves.
		- Tail now waves around in the direction it moves.
	+ No longer deals hundreds of damage points.

## Trivia

* Much like death worms and dragons, sea serpents have hitboxes for each of their segments, making it possible to hit any part of the body rather than just the torso.
* Sea serpents have a slightly different AI from other swimming mobs in the mod; whereas the other swimming mobs swim rapidly, surfacing and diving slightly sharply, sea serpents swim much more slowly, and surface and dive somewhat smoother.
* Due to how aggressive sea serpents are, they will target any mob that even comes slightly close to the shore, and will leap very far out of the water in order to kill targets beyond their reach. This can cause them to be found in unexpected places.
* Ancient sea serpents boast a more fierce appearance in comparison to their common brethren, possibly signifying the grave danger they bring.