Q'ronar Youngling

"Q'ronar Younglings possess all the same bad traits of their mature counterparts, except for the fact that they have not yet developed the ability to fire acid at you, and that their armor is nowhere near as resistant to standard caliber firearms. Kill on sight."

- Miner's Manual Description

The Q'ronar Youngling is a hostile creature. It is found exclusively in the Salt Pits biome.

As the name suggests, the Youngling is a juvenile version of the Q'ronar Shellback. It retains the same body shape but is much smaller and differs in color. The chitinous plating on its back is white and has a soft, chalky appearance while its underbelly is a deep red.

Younglings follow a similar behaviour to their mature counterparts. They have two different forms of behaviour - walking and rolling. They will spawn in a rolling state. While rolling they can use their bodies as weapons, building up momentum to crash into the Dwarves or leap off terrain high into the air. Their mobility is even better than a fully grown Shellback, as they are smaller and lighter, allowing them to build up speed more easily.

Their armor is very soft and will not fully block attacks, instead only reducing a portion of a shot's full damage - similar to the armor found on Glyphid Grunts.

Younglings will often spawn in groups. Sometimes, a Youngling group will be accompanied by a Shellback, but this is rare.

On top of their less developed armor plating, Younglings don't yet have their Acid Spit attack they have as adults. Therefore while walking they are essentially defenceless, as they have no attacks while in this mode. They also lack the damage resistances they receive while rolling. Younglings are not fully immune to Electrocution unlike how their matured counterparts are, meaning they are vulnerable to slowdown from Electrocution.

While standing, they will occasionally open their "mouths" on their underbellies. While this is not a weakpoint, in this state they will take 50% extra damage from Fire damage and 70% extra damage from Ice damage.

Trivia

 * Q'Ronar Younglings are found exclusively in the Salt Pits biome. It is stated that the salt in the biome's terrain is essential to the development of a Shellback's hard chitin. This may suggest a diet primary consisting of salty minerals, such as the large white outcroppings found all throughout the Salt Pits.
 * The Salt Pits is located in the middle of the Mission Selection Terminal's diagram of Planet Hoxxes, surrounded on all sides geographically by other biomes. It is likely that Q'ronar Younglings grow into Q'ronar Shellbacks, then migrate to other biomes once they mature.

Q'ronar joven