Kazaaakpleth

**Kazaaakpleth** is a secret pilot in *Into the Breach*.

## Location

Kazaaakpleth, along with the other secret pilots Mafan and Ariadne, is only obtainable in a run through the following process:

1. Find a marked mountain or ice tile, which can be identified after entering a mission through a small glowing dot and being damaged by 1 point prematurely.
2. Break the tile and collect the beacon by moving onto it with a mech or allied unit.
3. After ending the turn, a **Strange Pod** will drop. Protecting it rewards one of the secret pilots and a reactor core.

Once unlocked, Kazaaakpleth can be used as a starting pilot without doing the above method again.

## Background

The Mantis are an alien race from the game *FTL: Faster Than Light* by Subset Games, the same developers behind Into the Breach. Due to their alien nature, generic text is used to streamline him and other secret pilots for use in-game. His full name is KazaaakplethKilik, a legendary Mantis thief.

General Background: The Mantis exist to expand, loot, and plunder. There are males and females of the species. They once enslaved the Engi (and thus, may have an overseer-like dominance toward their Mech). They are expansionist, tribal, warlike, and polytheistic. Females often don't make it to high positions of authority unless they are particularly vicious.

At key points in their life, they have to either return home to reform their exoskeletons (non-biological materials adhere to a resin secreted by their epidermal layers) - or to a suitable planet with the same materials. The Earth of Into the Breach is one such planet, although it's not clear if the Mantis were aware of that. Their ships are composed of the same crust that the Mantis "wear." Presumably this crust can be applied to Mech hulls as well (not planning to discuss/show in game, merely commenting this). Mantis ship hulls may also be bedecked with hides, corpses, and remains of their kills. The Mantis enjoy teleporter technology in hunting prey (teleporting onto ships) and are comfortable with the technology (but the Breach tech may be more primitive than they're used to).

Kazaaakpleth is feared among his own people because he doesn't hunt aliens... he prefers to hunt his own kind. He outwardly claims to be doing this for bounties and for a higher, noble purpose, but secretly, he enjoys killing other Mantis. His craft is an escape pod from a failed encounter with a tribe of his own people he'd marked for death. His craft detected the beacon from Earth, and followed it to the corporate islands. He soon relalized he'd come to the "Happy Hunting Grounds" a place where he can practice his fighting skills on larger varities of insects than ever (the Vek) and a mech he can use as a weapon. Kazaaakpleth is happy to slay as many Vek as he can, although if he had the skill to build a ship and take to the stars with the technology he has found, he would do so. Like other Mantis, Kazaakpleth needs to reestablish his carapace and he finds the islands rich with suitable biological material - including Vek corpses.

## Personality

Mantis speak in a kind of chittering - (i.e. names having a lot of k's or tch's kinda sounds).

## Strategy

* Kazaaakpleth is a great way of provide fighting power to mechs that don't have it, mainly science mechs and the Hook Mech. His ability to neutralise enemies is better than Harold Schmidt as the mantis special can easily kill and control the map better; rarely will Harold out-pace him, such as when surrounded by multiple Vek.
* Kazaaakpleth prevents the mech he pilots from healing himself and thus carries a high risk of losing him early, especially on science mechs with two health like the Defense Mech. He must stay away from fire and blocking spawns as much as possible.
* Some mechs like the Judo Mech have limiting positional requirements for their attack, the Judo Mech in particular being unable to do anything if the tile behind is occupied. Kazaaakpleth's attack can be used anytime, which can increase their options for attack.

## Trivia

* The mantis ability closely matches the behaviour of mantises in FTL. Mantises in FTL are excellent in combat but have poor repairing skills, which translate over to an offensive attack replacing the ability to heal.