The Cropper

**The Cropper** is the main antagonist from Mission 4 in Assassin of Steve 2. He runs a large farm that supplies food for the Tribal Snouts, and is additionally the carrier of the first Pink Jewel, given to him by King Parcore to protect the Squiggly Replic. He is a skeleton wearing chain armor, a carved pumpkin as a mask, and wields two Flora Cutters.

## Biography

It is not known where The Cropper was born, or his age. He lives at his farm, situated next to Bone Lake, where he runs a farming operation, growing wheat, carrots, potatoes, and melons. He does not grow beetroots because his minions can't stand the smell. Other crops such as pumpkins are absent for unknown reasons.

The carrots and potatoes are exported to the Tribal Snout Village while the wheat is secretly exported to distant villager towns. The melons are exported to the guardians that live in Puffer Caves underneath the complex, where Lord Prismbeam lives. After The Cropper was given a Pink Jewel by King Parcore, he struck a deal with them where if anyone tried to steal his Pink Jewel, then Lord Prismbeam would 'zap them to shreds'. In return for this protection, 30% of the crops (likely consisting of melons) go to the guardians.

In Assassin of Steve 2, the player and Chipnone travel to his farms first in order to get his Pink Jewel. Seeing them as a potential threat, he tries to stop them from entering by closing off all the hatches on the pipes that feed into Bone Lake. However, one of the pipes' hatches gets jammed, and the player is able to swim inside and straight up into the farm. The Cropper barricades the staircase leading up to the second floor where his office is using hay blocks, and also switches the current on Pipe 3 (which has a hatch leading up into the toilet on the second floor) to prevent the player from reaching him. However, the player is able to switch the current back and climb up the toilet shaft, then reach his office.

The Cropper escapes down his secret tunnel just before the player arrives, however due to a Cropper Harvester revealing he did so, the player locates the secret tunnel in no time and meets the Cropper in an underground chamber where all the water tanks for the farms are located. Chipnone gets the player to destroy the tanks, which begins flooding the room. Soon The Cropper relents and gives Chipnone his Pink Jewel, but then opens up a trap, destroying the entire floor and dumping the player into Puffer Caves.

The Cropper then expects Lord Prismbeam to hold up his end of the deal and destroy the player, however he is defeated, allowing the player to leave Puffer Caves and set out to obtain the rest of the Pink Jewels. While he failed to protect his Pink Jewel as King Parcore instructed him, The Cropper would have likely gotten his surviving minions to perform repairs on the farm's infrastructure and continue farming crops.

## Characterisation

The Cropper is kind of smart, coming up with an elaborate plan to bait and trap the player, as well as making the most out of his crop exports. But like many business managers, he is lazy and prefers to let his employees do all the dirty work.

## Quotes

* "Minions! GET THEM!"
* "Stop letting the water out of my tanks! I need them for my farms!"
* "On second thought, I'm dumping your sword-swinging friends into the Puffer Caves."

## Boss Fight

*Main Article: Mission 4: Don't come a cropper!*

In The Cropper's boss fight you don't actually fight him, instead you fight Cropper Minions and Cropper Shooters that get spawned into the arena. They have a 66% chance of dropping 2 ladders, which you can place on the oak logs on each tank, in order to climb up and then drain them. The boss fight ends once you destroy all the tanks except for the one The Cropper is standing on.

## Trivia

* The Cropper, along with Dr Mutation, are the two only Pink Jewel holders that the player never fights directly, and are also the only two to survive their encounters with the player.
* In the original 1.8 version of the map, you would actually fight the Cropper while you tried to destroy his water tanks, he having unlimited health and only serving as a distraction. This aspect was removed due to being too difficult.