Glyphid Dreadnought Twins

"On occasion a Dreadnought will split in two during metamorphosis and twins will develop side by side in the cocoon. All the examples encountered so far have been interrupted transformations with armor that has not fully hardened. Just what would emerge from the cocoon if the process was permitted to finish is still unknown and despite R&D’s requests for a controlled study, management would like to keep it that way."

- Miner's Manual Description

The "" are a pair of Dreadnoughts encountered as bosses in the Elimination mission type. They have a 1 in 3 chance to spawn when the first Glyphid Cocoon is broken in the Elimination gamemode, where they will attack the Dwarves once they spawn. They also have a very rare chance to spawn in a swarm in other mission types.

The boss is comprised of two separate unique enemies, being made up of two smaller Dreadnoughts instead of a large one, called the Lacerator and the Arbalest. They each have a separate health bar at the top of the screen. They are almost identical in appearance, the only difference being their colors and headplates. The Lacerator is a light blue/green, while the Arbalest is a dark blue/purple. They have large front leg plating like their kin, but their ovular abdomens are a deviation in appearance. Sporting large sharp fangs, they are heavily armored across their bodies.

The Lacerator specializes in melee attacks, while the Arbalest prefers to use ranged abilities. Both are very aggressive and will stay close to the Dwarves when attacking. They are heavily armored, but their plating can be broken. The twins do not individually have nearly as much health as a normal Dreadnought, but they are able to share health and armor when the difference in their health pools becomes too large, with a net regenerative gain depending on the size of said difference. They will also do this process one time in the middle of the fight if they didn't do it before, regardless of their health difference. They are immune to damage during their health & armor share. It pays off to damage them equally, until you are certain to be able to exterminate one of them for good to avoid repeated healthsharing. They do not have any weaknesses or weakpoints.

The Lacerator has a variety of attacks and abilities, mostly melee oriented. It is able to produce flame breath like a flamethrower at close range, incinerating Dwarves who do not move out of the way. It has a standard slam attack dealing moderate damage. Its rock wave attack is ranged, and will produce a moving row of stone spikes rapidly advancing at the player to knock them around. The Arbalest has only a couple ranged attacks. Firstly, it is able to release a rain down a shower of fire on a Dwarf, called the explosive barrage. The fireball fan will release a spread shot of 5 fireballs, this attack will be used after the Arbalest's first Health/Armor share.

Being highly mobile, they are able to quickly swarm and rapidly attack unsuspecting Dwarves. Despite this, both of the twins have a burrow ability which allows them to hide in order to regenerate, and then pop out of the ground elsewhere to surprise players. With this ability, they will not dig through terrain in order to reach the Dwarves, unlike the regular Dreadnought and Hiveguard variants.

Trivia

 * These creatures were added in Update 33: New Frontiers
 * Arbalest and Lacerators names both reflect their preffered methods of attacking the dwarves
 * An arbalest is a larger, more powerful variation of a crossbow primarily used in 12th century Europe, reflecting Arbalest's primarily ranged attacks
 * To lacerate is to violently tear and make deep cuts in flesh or skin, reflecting Lacerators primarily melee attacks