A cartoon depiction of the Prober from an official news post
"The probers are the most vile of all invasion forces; designed to penetrate skulls at 150 MPH bursts, drain brains in under 20 seconds, and move on like nothing ever happened, it's no surprise that these horrible units reside in many planetary defenders' worst nightmares. Who would develop such a weapon?"
Probers are the most dangerous units in the wyrms' scouting arsenal. They are the first mastered wyrm in the mod, and as of v0.1.37, will no longer receive any changes except for balances to existing mechanics.
Lore
Probers were Californium's first invader units, which were first deployed onto the citizens of Aragios IV, a now-consumed planet. These tiny wyrms were mistaken for the planet's local brain-sucking insects, and as a result, no action was done to stop them from collecting vast amounts of information. Once they were proven to be extremely effective against even the internet-age Malaonians of Mala II, Probers became a permanent addition to the invasion forces of Nyrus.
Probers can reach speeds of 180 km/h, making them the fastest non-voidwyrm unit in the species. They typically aim for the head, but have been known to take advantage of the guts of some species they've been used against, if the head is not an ideal target. Weighing only 50 pounds, the sheer speed of their wings displaces enough air for them to maneuver on Earth, and of course, The Overworld.
Appearance
Probers are flat and have pointed heads, featuring 4 wings, a large proboscis (hence the name) and a tail for balance. They appear like dragonflies, darting around the air. They have six small legs at the bottom of their bodies that tuck in when the wyrm is flying to a location in order to maximize aerodynamic flow.
Abilities
"Probers are [______] terrifying." -Iké, mod developer
They will attack any and every mob (excluding creepers and other wyrms), and can wipe out entire worlds of life if not exterminated quickly enough. Thankfully, their armor never increases when invasion stages do.
Their flying animations make it hard for players to land a hit on them, adding an extra sense of danger through the act of confusion.
(v0.1.37 and beyond) Probers will expire after ~2 minutes of being alive in the world. However, they can start to wreck havoc in half that time.
Probers harassing the local wildlife
Probing:
Probers' special abilities can be disabled in configurations.
Probers earn more invasion points per kill, and each hit that doesn’t kill adds even more points, but these points are stored in the prober, not immediately added to the global value. If a prober is not killed within 2 minutes, it will despawn and add their collected points to the invasion progress.
A before and after a prober despawned. 8 points to 44 points.
Probers deal their own special damage type (Deals 50 raw damage) that bypasses armor on mobs. Players can stop this damage from being applied by wearing a helmet, and normal damage will be applied instead. Death messages appear like this (in the English translation):
[Player Name] was probed
Additionally, if probing and wyrm griefing is enabled, probers can break glass blocks with ease, so long as they aren't strong enough. Use of glass blocks like Nuclear Tech Mod's Reinforced Glass is recommended if one wants to keep their windows.
Simple AI:
Probers move around less, reducing CPU load in terms of entity updates.
Dealing with Probers
Rule #1: Never use precision weapons.
An example of the death screen when being killed by Probers (If probing is enabled)
Probers have slightly confusing hitboxes on purpose. Your best advice is to instead use something like a sword, which is able to do sweeping damage, or anything with AoE, like splash potions or explosives.
Rule #2: Use ranged options whenever possible.
Probers are extremely fast wyrms. In some cases, they build up enough momentum to move at speeds of close to 30 blocks a second. A human simply does not have enough time to react to this before the distance is closed, so it is very often that a player doesn't manage to hit the Prober with a melee weapon.
It also should be noted that probers are extremely hydrophobic, and will expire when coming into contact with water, because of this submerging yourself in water can prevent Probers from attacking you.
Trivia
Probers play a reference to classic alien-focused science-fiction pop culture, where aliens (greys) would study animals by probing their hind ends; Probers often end up going for this area when attacking mobs.
Version history
v0.1.234 ETB - Probers damage (if probing is enabled) changed from 4 to 7.
v0.1.3 - Prober AI is fully enhanced, Probers also move really fast.
v0.1.32 ETB - Probers now deal their own damage type if probing is enabled, complete with custom death messages. They can also break glass if both probing and wyrm griefing are enabled.
v0.1.37 ETB - Probers expire after ~2 minutes, no matter the world or invasion difficulty.
Probers additionally got a complete remodel and updated animations.
Probers are now easier to hit since the model deviates outside of the hitbox less.
Probers are the most dangerous units in the wyrms' scouting arsenal. They are the first mastered wyrm in the mod, and as of v0.1.37, will no longer receive any changes except for balances to existing mechanics.
