Gestalt-possessed mobs are really, really cool :)

[lowercase skye]

Since we just got another in the form of Bright-Beaked Birds, I just wanted to express how much I love the lunar rift mobs that are possessed by gestalts. In particular, something really creative about them is the way they play off the biology of the animal they're possessing:

- Deerclops is a creature with the power to summon ice from its body, particularly when smashing its claws down on its prey. When possessed by gestalt, this body function goes haywire, resulting in spikes of ice uncontrollably forming all over its body, at such a frequency that it needs to constantly tear them off.
- Bearger is an absolute tank of an animal, much like real bears, able to trample down entire forests and survive several onslaught of treeguards, there's almost nothing in the constant that the Bearger can't handle. When possessed by a gestalt, this is cranked up to eleven, with its body hardening into moon glass and truly making it an armored tank. Moon crystals form all over its body, giving the impression of pauldrons on its shoulder, gauntlets on its arms, and what visually doubles as a chestplate and ribcage.
- The Varg's regular leader-of-the-hound-pack behavior is reflected in its possessed version, but more of the focus is instead on the fact that this is a literal corpse: both natural gasses and lunar energy are constantly building up in its body, akin to a corpse bloating, which get released as a blast of lunar flames from its mouth. This thing is actively rotting, which is something that sets it apart from the other mutations which seem way more stable.
- Bright-Eyed Frogs are very simple in behavior, but there's a very fun implication that the usual frog rain phenomenon is happening when they spawn, with strong gusts of wind flinging the frogs up into the air... except it's also lunar hailing, so they get torn apart in a whirlwind of moon glass shards and are immediately possessed by gestalts. This game would be terrifying if you could look upwards, sometimes.
- All birds in basically the entire game are ravenous as heck: moslings can eat a whole base of food and not be full, redbirds/crows can be fed hundreds of meat without complaint, gobblers can never get enough berries, etc. So Bright-Beaked Birds are the same, except they now eat shards of glass, something they're also willing to gulp down in the hundreds if you let them. Their meat-to-egg metabolism also seems to now instead condense that glass into pure brilliance.

It's very unique and creative! I like it a lot. There's not much point to this post except appreciation of a feature I like, but I hope if you're on the fence about this category of mobs, then it could make you see them in a new light! 

[kroban]

I agree, I really like these mutations too, I think the devs did a fantastic job, both at the bosses and critters mutations!

But im probably being greedy here...I want more "possesed bosses". I really hope that this past update isn't truly "the end" of the surface rift, and that they will continue to add more rift stuff after they wrap up this arc. My bet is that the devs are probably getting tired with the rift content and they want to chill for a while after this year (which I think is awesome), but that they will (hopefully) continue it someday.

Like, I think that if they don't make atleast a mutation for Bee Queen, MooseGoose, and Dragonfly, it will be such a missed opportunity. They could go haywire with those three!

Edited August 9, 2025 by kroban

[Captain_Rage]

Good thing Klei updated and brushed up Armored Bearger's sprites. Almost every possessed husk looks top-notch now.

 

On a side note... since lunar entities possess and reanimate corpses, it would be neat if the shadow side would merge two or more living mobs (like, let's say, a Moleworm and a Bunnyman and other wonky permutations) into freaky abominations. They already have a merge-theme going for the shadow rifts with Iickers and that shadow shark that can be found in the ruins.