Spiderant

Spiderants are viciously territorial fauna native to Pandora that bear some passing resemblance to insects. The most striking features of these creatures are their heads, their four lower limbs, and their abdomen. Their heads are thickly armored almost to a point of total invulnerability to weapons fire and the same can be said for their strong, dangerously sharp forelimbs. The abdomen however, is unarmored and is in fact the weakest point upon the animal as a whole; very few Spiderant breeds can survive more than few shots to this area.

Spiderants are known to burrow underground and tend to frequent areas with relatively high amounts of water in the otherwise parched Pandoran soil. As a general rule of thumb if an area is abnormally quiet, but there is a puddle, Spiderants are likely nearby. Spiderants are one of the few native species encountered on Pandora that does not emerge from a hardened burrow with a noticable exit.

There are several different varieties of Spiderants, with varying abilities and attack patterns. All Spiderants employ some form of sweeping slash attack when a player gets too close. Some leap at the Vault Hunters, trying to impale them upon their diamond-hard forelimbs. Others use a strange sort of projectile attack, ejecting semi-transparent, egg-like sacs from the ends of their abdomen which themselves can vary from small, simple grenade-like impact-projectiles, to large mine-like projectiles that detonate over a large area.

Badass Spiderants, like all badass creatures, have an elemental property, and can fling or eject projectiles of their element.

Borderlands-Spiderant.jpgal Strategy
All Spiderants are covered in an armored carapace which protects their rounded head and tipped lower legs. Shots to either of the mentioned areas will tend to do about 0.1-0.2 times baseline damage while shots to the upper limbs will do 0.75 times. Shots to the actual body itself, a small sliver of exposed flesh between the head and abdomen, will do regular damage, however where one really wants to aim for is the abdomen. Shooting a Spiderant in the head (especially the upper fringe) will disorient them for a moment, making them turn about and stagger for a second or two, exposing their vulnerable abdomen.

The extreme armor on Spiderants is slightly offset by their relative fragility which means that Spiderants can't take a lot of punishment to their abdomens. So weapons that deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time (with two exceptions) are best used against them.

Shotguns work inordinately well against Spiderants, not only because they can easily disorient, but also because one-to-three following blasts to the abdomen can usually take down even the toughest specimen. Also, "Spiked" varieties of Shotgun can be used to quickly deliver debilitating melee attacks which can themselves disorient and/or kill a Spiderant if the gut sack takes a further blow. Another good weapon to use is the Combat Rifle in both its major incarnations as; again, the heavy slugs can disorient and then slam the abdomen. Assault rifle-style Combat Rifles can be used to great effect in burst-sniping Spiderants from a raised position. Revolvers are passable weapons to use against Spiderants, with their extreme damage-per-bullet rating, they have a better than normal chance of disorientation, however their limited magazines, rates of fire, and poor recoil handling can pose a problem. As said, Sniper Rifles can do extreme amounts of damage to this less than robust enemy, but only with abdomen shots from a distance. Repeater Pistols aren't recommended and only "Anarchy" variants of Submachine Guns are consistently effective against Spiderants. Like Scythid all but one variety of Spiderant seems to be extremely resistant area-of-effect or "splash" damage from Rocket Launchers or Grenades.

Corrosive damage can be used to penetrate a Spiderant's armored head, and if you can cause corrosive DoT with a x3 or x4 corrosive weapon, the Spiderant can go through its "stun" animation several times, rendering it harmless as you attack its exposed abdomen. Incendiary damage works in a similar way, but is not as effective against the armored heads.

Spiderantling / Skittish Spiderantling / Agitated Spiderantling
Spiderantlings are the smallest and least dangerous of the Spiderant creatures. They are most likely baby or freshly hatched Spiderants, as their underdeveloped heads and forelimbs are without effective armor. Interestingly, this breed doesn't suffer critical damage to the abdomen, but this doesn't mean much as they are inherently weak and fragile. They have a tan coloring similar to Worker Spiderants, but are slightly darker and have a kind of "wet and fresh" sheen to their carapace sections. They attack by leaping, but will also run up to a player and swipe with one of their legs.

They are little more than a nuisance to most, any weapon or even a couple of swats can eventually dispatch these tiny beasties in short order. Rocket Launchers are especially fun to open up with on groups.

Worker Spiderant / Spiderant Toiler / Spiderant Slave
Worker Spiderants can be distinguished by their tan armor. They are a little bigger than Spiderantlings, and their abdomen is slightly bigger than their heads. Worker Spiderants attack by aggressively leaping at the player and striking with their large talons when close. Both of these attacks don't do much damage, but they can knock the player back and interfere with their shots.

Worker Spiderants are slow, in that they do not quickly react after they attack. A quick player can use this to their advantage by zipping forward and then strafing the abdomen.

Gyro Spiderant / Spiderant Beetle / Spiderant Vermin
Gyro Spiderants can be distinguished by the strong blue color of their carapace, tiny abdomen, and frightening speed. This type of Spiderant leaps, slashes, and also uses a highly damaging rolling tackle. Out of all the Spiderant breeds, this can be the most difficult to take on as they can outrun a player when sprinting and then leap onto their backs or roll over to knock a sizable portion off their shield. They also have relatively keen reflexes, and can quickly pick up and deliver a rapid string of attacks to anything in front of them.

Like with Workers, its best to try and get behind this blue dervish after it leaps at the player. Not only will this put the abdomen into one's crosshairs, but it will also delay the creature as it tries to lock back onto its target.

Soldier Spiderant / Spiderant Warrior / Spiderant Slayer
Soldier Spiderants can be distinguished by their light-blue carapace, large head, and ostensibly tiny abdomen. Slightly bigger than the Worker, Soldiers are slow-moving ranged attackers that will only use melee against a player when the player is close. They tend to favor hanging back and launching volleys of white, glistening sacs from their abdomen in groups of 3-5, and they can also launch larger globs that bounce along the ground and explode like grenades.

Despite the apparently small size of their abdomen, Soldier Spiderants are ludicrously easy to score critical hits off of, even when being taken from the front. All one needs is a Shotgun with a big magazine, or a highly accurate assault rifle-style Combat Rifle. Whether due to a glitch or something else, if a player aims just at the top of the head-ridge, they can get critical hits as if to the abdomen.

Badass Spiderant Burner / Badmutha Incinerator/ Superbad Cremator
Fire Spiderants like to fight from medium range, using a powerful incendiary version of the projectile attack used by the Soldier Spiderants. They occasionally fight up close, but they're much more likely to stay at range. They can perform an attack like a Spiderant Gyro. Fortunately, they have reflexes of a Worker up close, and a massive, vulnerable abdomen.

Badass Spiderant Zapper / Badmutha Shocker / Superbad Fulminator
Shock Spiderants like to fight up close and personal, and can easily do plenty of damage to your shields using an area-effect shockwave attack that also possess a knock back effect. Zappers also have an electrical/shock version of the projectile attack that is fairly weak. Their abdomen is one of the smallest in proportion to the head compared to other Badass Spiderants, making it harder to hit.

Badass Spiderant Corruptor / Badmutha Infector / Superbad Desecrator
Corrosive Spiderants like to fight from a distance, using volleys of corrosive spitball-like projectiles fired from their abdomens. Their elemental attacks pose less threat than their incendiary and shock cousins, but the corrosive damage they deal can soften up a Vault Hunter for attacks by other Spiderants, especially Soldiers.

Queen Spiderant, Spiderant Matriarch, Queen Mother Spiderant
Queen Spiderants are very large Spiderants. They can be distinguished by their large size and bluish coloring. While they will slash with their large scything talons at times, they prefer to hang back and shoot volleys of large whitish sacks that are excessively damaging. The larger, delayed-blast projectile from these mighty matriarchs has been known to instantly cripple a Vault Hunter otherwise distracted by other Spiderants.

King Spiderant, Spiderant Overlord, Spiderant Emperor
King Spiderants are huge Spiderants with a pale brown coloring similar to the Worker. While similar in size to Queen Spiderants, they have larger heads, and small relatively well protected abdomens. Kings attack exactly like Workers do, except they can leap longer distances, and they are more damaging, still rarely they will shoot volleys of large whitish exploding sacks that are excessively damaging.