Glyphid Praetorian

"The Glyphid Praetorian is two tons of armor, teeth, and claws. It is extremely aggressive and highly territorial. It vomits up powerful sprays of corrosive poison and is mostly resistant to bullet fire from the front - both very good reasons to flank Praetorians at all times. Furthermore, R&D advises standing well back once one of these beasties go down - their poison sacks tend to rupture, covering the surrounding area in a deadly cloud of poisonous vapor."

- Miner's Manual Description

The  is a hostile creature found on Hoxxes IV. It is found in every region of the planet, though some biomes (the Radioactive Exclusion Zone and the Glacial Strata) have unique variants. They are similar in body shape to Glyphid Grunts, being an arachnid creature with two overly developed front legs and no apparent eyes.

Being noticeably larger than the majority of the Glyphid species, the Praetorian is an imposing creature with the majority of its body covered in thick chitinous plating. It has a much larger mouth than most Glyphids with bigger teeth and two massive fangs. The creature's abdomen is noticeably developed and sticks out at the rear, with no plating to protect it.

As their name suggests, Praetorians hold a notable presence in enemy ranks. Despite their power they are fairly common, and often seen accompanied into battle by Glyphid Grunts (plus their varieties) and Glyphid Swarmers.

Health and Armor
Praetorians occupy a tanky role, using their big health pools and Heavy Armor to soak up lots of damage while fighting the Dwarves. Unlike the Light Armor found on Grunts, Heavy Armor will fully block all damage to the Praetorian until its own health is depleted. The Heavy Armor on the Praetorian's body is broken up into segments, and will expose the vulnerable flesh underneath which will receive the full damage of a weapon. Unlike the rest of their body, their mouths have no plating and can be fired at to deal damage; going for the abdomen can give you more damage only if your weapon has a weakpoint damage bonus.

Attacks
Their primary attack is an Acid Spray. The Praetorian backs up for a second before spewing out a spray of acidic chemicals which can quickly cut through a Dwarf's health pool. This spray has a deceptively long range - Praetorians will often seek to close the gap in distance before using it, so that they can catch even retreating players in the spray. The Gunner's Shield Generator will not block the spray attack of Praetorians.

They can also fight by using their forelegs to strike or biting with their huge mouths - similar to Grunts, though they deal much more damage with their melee attacks.

Finally, on death they will release a cloud of toxic gas at the location of their body, a couple seconds after they die. This Gas Cloud lingers on surfaces for a few seconds, obscuring vision and dealing constant damage to anything which lingers in the cloud. The gas is highly flammable, and weapons which inflict fire damage (such as the Driller's CRSPR Flamethrower) can ignite it to produce a large fiery explosion, which damages Dwarves and enemies alike. A Frozen or disintegrated Praetorian will not release its Death Cloud.

Despite their strong offensive and defensive capabilities, Praetorians are slow, often lagging behind their smaller and nimbler cohorts. While using their Acid Spray attack they are completely stationary and cannot turn around.

Variants
The regional variants of this enemy don’t have the Acid Spit attack and don’t leave a Gas Cloud behind on death; instead they acquired some unique attack and features representatives to the biome they live in. The regional variants also react differently to temperature.

Glacial Strata Variant
"Some Praetorians have adapted to the bone-chilling cold of Hoxxes' permafrost layers, replacing much of their bodily fluids with an organic compound not too unlike commercial anti-freeze. The Frost Praetorian will violently exhale gouts of freezing by-product of this process, capable of flash-freezing almost anything in their tracks before moving in for the kill."

- Miner's Manual Description

Attacks
Frost Praetorians spew an icy mixture which deals no damage, but will rapidly chill a Dwarf's body (which can result in them being frozen solid). When killed, they generate a Cold Cloud that can rapidly freeze any Dwarf.

Radioactive Exclusion Zone Variant
"Praetorians found in the radioactive exclusion zones of Hoxxes display all the usual tenacity and adaptiveness of their misbegotten kind. In short, they lap up rads like candy, and use it in their attacks to devastating effect. A minimum safe distance of at least 15 meters is advised at all times - both their beard-curdling radioactive breath, and the lethal burst of radiation they release on death makes the Radioactive Praetorian a formidable enemy for the dwarf caught unawares."

- Miner's Manual Description

Attacks
Radioactive Praetorians create an aura of radiation around their body in a fairly large radius. Upon death, they will leave behind the same radiation aura for a few seconds.

Trivia

 * Before update 24 hotfix 7, Praetorian abdomen used to be designed to take 150% damage, but wasn't registered as a weakpoint for the purpose of weapon modifications (such as Hollow Point Bullets).
 * The Glyphid Praetorian's Steam Card, unlike the game, spells its name as "Glyphid Pretorian", likely as a misspelling.