Editing Devourer

Devourers are rather unconventional combatants, as they prefer not to attack normally. Instead, they will choose a target, lunge at it, and instantly swallow it whole. It is possible to avoid being swallowed by using a [[Jump pack]], [[Longjump legs]], or similar ability during the Devourer's lunge attack. The Devourer will then prioritize a different target upon landing{{Check Tag|verify}}. A devourer cannot swallow any pawn with a body size greater than 3.5. Once the devourer has consumed its target, it will not move so long as it is full, making it vulnerable to retaliation. The swallowed pawn will be digested over time at a rate related to their body size, receiving acid burns. The rate at which a creature is digested is linearly interpolated between three different points - 10 seconds to digest a pawn with a body size of 0.2, 30 seconds for a pawn with a body size of 1, and 60 seconds for a pawn with a body size of 3.5. The devourer is capable of swallowing and digesting [[mechanoid]]s. If a devourer catches fire, or is affected by Vertigo Pulse, it will immediately regurgitate whatever it is swallowing. The devourer's swallowing attack has a cooldown of one hour.

If you have a [[mechanitor]]{{BiotechIcon}} in your colony, a valid strategy would be to inundate the devourers by sending in a wave of labor mechanoids and allowing them to be swallowed, then sending in your actual fighters. [[Scorcher]]s can be highly effective in forcing devourers to regurgitate swallowed pawns or mechs. The high rate of fire of scorchers, as well as their low resource and bandwidth cost, make them cost-efficient counters to the devourer's most dangerous attack. Similarly, pawns armed with [[hellcat rifle]]s or [[incinerator]]s can be used on Devourers that are actively digesting. [[Tesseron]]s{{BiotechIcon}} can also be effective at lighting devourers on fire, and have considerably longer range than scorchers. Additionally, the devourer is incapable of swallowing the larger mechs. For example, if you use a [[Diabolus]]{{BiotechIcon}} or a [[War_queen|War Queen]]{{BiotechIcon}} to tank, you can force the devourer to stay in melee combat while other mechanoids or colonists shoot at it. Some medium sized mechs, such as the [[Pikeman]]{{BiotechIcon}} or [[Scyther]]{{BiotechIcon}}, can be swallowed and go through a full digestion cycle without dying, allowing them to be swallowed a second time. If they do go through that cycle and survive, they still take significant damage and are likely to lose a body part.

 

Alternately, devourers can be countered with attack animals.  Spammable animals like dogs are numerous and expendable enough to be used as a distraction, similar to labor mechanoids.  Larger animals like elephants work even better; they're too big to be swallowed and are too sturdy for devourers to kill with their feeble melee attacks.