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TIER 1 XENO
Runner	Difficulty: Easy Rank: Hatchling (Starting), Young (10hrs), Mature (25hrs), Elder (70 hrs), Ancient (175 hrs) Duties: Pick off loners, harass pushes, dance around Marines. Guides: This is the guide. Quote: "THAT IS A ROUNY."

The Red Menace

In a far distance prison planet away from Terra, there existed a xenomorph that was called "the Dragon". The red blur that is the Runner putted fear into the hearts of unrobust and unarmed prisoners. What was once feared now become revered when the marines figured out that it was a doglike xenomorph that needed a pet from the age old PB buckshot or flech shotgun. However, the Runner is not to be underestimated as many psychic constructs (robustos or statics) have obtained mastery of the Red Menace, ensuring that marines will be challenged and guard their arms in fear of getting bone fractures or, worse, delimbed.

Statistics and Evolution

As a Runner you can evolve into Tier 2 or straight into Tier 4, or into the Tier 0 Hivemind.

Slash is the MELEE damage dealt on HARM intent per click
MELEE, BULLET, LASER, ENERGY, BOMB, BIO, FIRE, and ACID are soft armor values, not hard armor, which means that they reduce damage by a percentage rather than a flat value. Low sunder reduces the effectiveness of this armor.
Speed is calculated inversely, meaning the lower the speed value you have, the faster you are. Xenomorphs are always running, meaning they have a -1.0 boost added to their base speed. (Chart displays running speed)
Runner gets an increased slash speed, being able to slash every 0.6 seconds as opposed to the standard 0.8 seconds

Health	Plasma	Slash	Speed	Melee	Bullet	Laser	Energy	Bomb	Bio	Fire	Acid
240	200	21	-2.5	20	20	20	20	0	5	19	5

Playing Runner, or, "THAT ROUNY IS DOING THE MATRIX!"

Dancing / WASD Dancing, in action. Notice the distinct lack of a mouse pointer.

The Runner is a very fast caste that excels at hit and run tactics and close quarters combat (especially in one on ones), but suffers in terms of durability and recovery with its low health, armor and plasma regeneration. It has the tools to support a glass cannon-esque type of gameplay, and in the right hands, it can be one of the deadliest xenos in the hive, enough to instill fear and make marines retreat just from seeing their visage.

Before you start running around, take a very close look at your age, then at your armor values. You'll notice that you're quite literally tissue paper (there's a table with the armor values further down if you're lazy or if you don't know how to access this information).
With this in mind, take the liberty of sitting down until you become Mature -- then you can finally begin the process of human obliteration.

Note that, as a Runner, you're nowhere near useful in a FOB siege (or against barricades of any sort, for that matter). Your best bet is staying back and letting other castes take care of the FOB, and only apply pressure when you think you can get away with it or slashing unguarded barricades.

As a xenomorph, you'll realize you have two ways of attacking: by clicking the target, or by bumping into them with your movement (commonly referred to as bump attack). For all intents and purposes, dancing around a marine (or WASD dancing) refers to moving around them, while using bump attacks to cause damage on the move -- this is what makes a Runner deadly; you never stop moving, you never stop slashing, and marines will sometimes refrain from shooting in fear of attacking their fellow man, which translates to free damage.

But this is easier said than done. There'll be times where you'll get shot anyway while dancing, there'll be times where you'll lose most of your health just trying to get to a marine. Luckily, Runners have a set of abilities that allows them to ease the process. Let's take a look at them.

TL;DR: Use Evasion, run into enemy marine, dance and savage pounce, run away when Evasion runs out (use pounce as an escape tool if needed) and wait for the cooldown. Rinse and repeat.

Abilities

Ability	Description	Plasma Cost	Cooldown
Toggle Bump Attacks	Allows you to toggle bump attacks on and off. This allows you to slash any enemy creature by running into them. The red arrow means it's on, you attack when on HARM intent; the green arrow means it's off, you push when on HARM intent.	N/A	N/A
Rest	Used to rest and get up. You heal faster when resting on weeds.	N/A	2 seconds
Psy Drain	This ability is used on dead Marines. For every Marine's psyche drained, the Hive will gain between 30 and 90 psychic points, depending on the number of Marines spawned; and 1/8 of a larva.	50	N/A
Hide	This ability lets you hide underneath other objects on the tile you are on (such as tables). Useful for sneaking around and surprise attacks.	N/A	N/A
Pounce	Leaps to the target, knocking them down (unless they're holding a shield). Makes you un-hide if already hiding.	10	13 sec
Savage	A togglable ability that adds to the effects of Pounce. Deals a minimum of 15 extra damage that scales with plasma storage, up to 35 extra damage. You need at least 10 plasma to be able to use this, though.	10	N/A
Evasion	Dodges near-all forms of attacks for 2 seconds, except for fire. If you manage to accrue a total 250 projectiles dodged, you get an extra chance to use Evasion, but running into fire while evading will reset it to zero. You cannot slash while evading.	75	30 sec

Primordial Evolution

Once the hive has enough psychic points, your queen has the option to unlock powerful primordial evolutions for each strain. Primordial evolutions grant additional abilities for the relevant class.
For the Runner, this primordial ability is Snatch.

Ability	Description	Plasma Cost	Cooldown
Snatch	Steals an item from a target on an adjacent tile, but requires them to not move for half of a second. Can steal an item from the target's hands, backpack, shoes, and suit storage, in that order if no item is found. The item is automatically dropped after 3 seconds.	75	60 seconds

Tips

As a Runner, your armor and health are quite low (see the Maturity table above). If you drop below half health, consider retreating and recovering your resources. If your plasma is too low, consider normal pouncing instead of savage poucing, to conserve plasma.
Runners can vent crawl (alt+click on a vent or a scrubber). Useful for scouting and surprise attacks, or maybe even harassing the backlines.
As a hit and run tactic: you can use Evasion, run into the enemy, dip when Evasion's out and wait until it's off cooldown to come back and do the same. This is a very safe way of playing, albeit a tad bit less engaging.
If you're hit by a mine or a grenade, don't risk it and fall back to recover.
If a marine is resting and you want to attack them with Evasion, you can constantly move up and down while using your mouse to slash them. It's easier said than done, though!
Move in erratic and hard to predict ways to make it harder to be shot.
Always prepare multiple ways out of a closed space so you can run away no matter what happens.
You can safely get in three slashes right after a pounce.
Reinforced tables three-wide can hide you completely, but be careful of Tactical Scanners, signified by a subtle beeping from marines
It may be more beneficial to save your plasma for repeat pounces than using a ton of it for a Savage attack.
If a marine drops his weapon when you pounce him, try to push him away from it when he gets up. If he doesn't have a secondary and you keep him from his gun, your victory is assured.
Always be observant for who has a shotgun, one hit from buckshot can easily crit you.
Abuse the fact that marines have a cooldown between shots to get pounces off when they can't fire.
Never retreat in a straight line, this makes you easy to shoot off-screen.
You can pounce the moment you leave a pipe, allowing you to get the jump on people before they can react.
If a marine has many friends with him, don't be cocky and get out of sight after a slash or two.
You are far and away the fastest Xeno caste, use your speed for transporting hosts, scouting locations, and preparing the environment for later combat.
You are a T1 who can get in between your fellow Xenos and marines very fast and very well, it may be best to soak bullets to save a dying, more important, caste.
You have the fastest cooldown stun of all the Xenos, if a marine with a fast-firing gun is suppressing the hive, you can pounce him repeatedly to ease his pressure on your allies.

How to fight a Runner

Flamethrowers (or flame tiles in general) will limit the space in which they can maneuver, and maybe even cause them to walk into it if they're reckless enough. This will scare off some, though not all (which may get them killed), and make them retreat sooner. It also helps against Evasion.
Mines and grenades can stop a Runner dead on their tracks, and cause them to fall back.
Point blank shotguns, namely those with buckshot shells, are a Runner's worst nightmare. To put it into perspective, a T-35 Pump Shotgun with buckshot shells and a bayonet attachment will instantly crit even an Ancient Runner if you're lucky, or leave them heavily injured at worst.
Shooting the runner is not necessarily a wasted effort. Successful shots, especially in a group of marines, will quickly deplete their Evasion and cause them to fall back (or die if they get too reckless).

TGMC Roles
	TerraGov Marines Ranks	Command	Captain, Field Commander, Staff Officer, Pilot Officer, Transport Officer, Mech Pilot
		Vehicle Crew	Assault Crewman, Transport Crewman
		Engineering and Supply	Chief Ship Engineer, Requisitions Officer, Ship Technician
		Medical	Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Researcher
		Marines	Squad Leader, Squad Smartgunner, Squad Engineer, Squad Corpsman, Squad Marine
		Civilians	Corporate Liaison
		Silicon	Combat robots, Synthetic, AI
	Xenomorphs Playtime	Tier 0	Larva, Minions
		Tier 1	Drone, Runner, Defender, Sentinel
		Tier 2	Hivelord, Carrier, Hunter, Wraith, Bull, Warrior, Puppeteer, Spitter
		Tier 3	Gorger, Defiler, Widow, Ravager, Warlock, Behemoth, Crusher, Praetorian, Boiler
		Tier 4	Shrike, Queen, King, Hivemind
	Others		Zombie, Emergency Response Teams, Sons of Mars, ~~Survivor~~

TGMC:Runner

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