Elite Thunderous Stalker

> "*The enigmatic elites among Thunderous Stalkers. They can conjure identical mirror images to fight together.*"
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Elite Thunderous Stalker is an enemy found in Hyperborean Jokul. It is the elite version of the Thunderous Stalker.

Elite Thunderous Stalker has 3 attacks:

* Aim their gun at the player, marking them with a laser sight for a brief time. Players receive visual effects warning them they are being targeted. Afterwards a high damage, high speed  Lightning? bullet will be fired where the player was. This is performed 4 times in a row in quick succession, followed up by a 5th shot that fires a lightning ball, creating a lightning aura on impact for a short period of time that deals constant Lightning damage.
* Fire 4 lightning balls in a row, each creating their own lightning aura on impact for a short period of time that deals constant  Lightning? damage. The final shot has a longer delay.
* If the player is too close, they will strike them in melee with their gun, shoving them back slightly.

At every opportunity, the Elite Thunderous Stalker will create 2 mirror images which fight alongside them. If any of the mirror images are killed, all mirror images disappear, the Elite Thunderous Stalker teleports to a new location, and 2 new mirror images are created.

They will also teleport and create new mirror images after taking enough damage, delaying players who have started firing on the real one.

## Mirror Images

Mirror Images look exactly the same as the real Elite Thunderous Stalker, making it extremely difficult to tell them apart when they are initially created.

Mirror Images have 3 attacks:

* Aim their gun at the player, marking them with a laser sight for a brief time. Afterwards a high damage, high speed  Lightning? bullet will be fired where the player was.
* Aim their gun at the player, marking them with a laser sight for a brief time. Afterwards a lightning ball will be fired where the player was, creating a lightning aura on impact for a short period of time that deals constant  Lightning? damage.
* If the player is too close, they will strike them in melee with their gun, shoving them back slightly.

When killed they will drop ammo, but the Elite Thunderous Stalker will teleport and create new ones.

### Finding the real Elite Thunderous Stalker

The way to tell the real one is simple, yet can be difficult to realize through trial and error.

* The real Elite Thunderous Stalker will always fire several shots in quick succession, while the mirror images only fire once. Counting the number of shots fired will allow you to find the real Elite Thunderous Stalker, and avoid hitting the mirror images.
* An alternative but less reliable way to find the real Elite Thunderous Stalker is checking how fast their  Health? and  Armor? bars fall when hit. The mirror images have less total, so will be killed faster. If the one you're attacking is dying too quickly, consider changing targets.
	+ Miasma? can be used to take advantage of the mirror images' lower total health more effectively. Since Miasma damage is based on max Health, the real Elite Thunderous Stalker will take more damage, revealing them as soon as you see a higher damage number. (However which health type you hit should also be taken into consideration, as Armor will receive double Miasma damage.)
* Occasionally the real Elite Thunderous Stalker will not teleport to a new location. If you see an Elite Thunderous Stalker in the exact location that the real one used to be, it is often still the real one.

## Tips

* Unless you plan to brute-force through the battle, it may be a good idea to clear out any normal enemies nearby so you can focus on counting the Elite Thunderous Stalker's shots. Hiding in a place where you can't be sniped and luring normal enemies can be an easy way to achieve this.
* Explosive? weapons can be used to deal damage to both the mirror images and the real Elite Thunderous Stalker at once, if they are close enough. This guarantees progress through its health bar, regardless of how many mirror images you kill.
* Sting is capable of removing the  Armor? from mirror images, making it easier to find the real Elite Thunderous Stalker, which will not lose its Armor when shot.
* During the Daily Challenge "Elite Sniper" with the negative effect "Hydrated Asylum", since jellyfish only spawns once per enemy, once the real Elite Thunderous Stalker is located, you can remove its jellyfish while keeping those of the mirror images.

## Notes

* If the Elite Thunderous Stalker is enhanced, the mirror images will also be enhanced. This can result in triple the effects to watch out for depending on the enhancement, such as Fiery, Lightning and Corrosive creating more fireballs, thunderbolts and corrosive auras, respectively.

## Update History

* 12/30/2021 update:
	+ Ammo Supply will be dropped when mirror images have 0 HP remaining.
	+ After re-summoning mirror images, the real Stalker will have any debuff currently applied to itself removed.
		- However since an unknown update, the real Stalker will keep the  Burning? visual effect afterwards.
	+ The mirror images are now immune to Manipulation Effect.
	+ Reduced the probability of re-summoning mirror images when the real Stalker is under attack.
	+ The real Elite Thunderous Stalker and mirror images will now attack the same player.