Guide

Dealing with the monster that comes apart

How to read the bomb thrower in R.E.P.O. before it acts: the head that grows and comes off, the tell before it goes off, and the screaming heads on its body that open before they bite.

Applies to

0.4.0, read from the copy of the game this site was built from (see the sources page)

Before you start

• A run in progress
• Sound you can hear over the level
• A way out of the room it is walking into

Steps

1. Watch the head rather than the body, because the head is grown rather than swapped and the growing is played.
   the head is grown, with three sounds for the growing
2. Treat the laugh as the start of trouble rather than as noise, because the head has a laugh of its own and a separate tell before it goes off.
   the head has a sound for laughing and one for the moment before the explosion
3. When the head leaves the body, get clear, because coming away and going off are two separate moments with their own sounds and particles.
   the head has a sound for detaching and particles for it, and a separate sound for the explosion
4. Listen to the torso as well as the head, because the heads on the body open before they do anything.
   the torso heads open with one sound for a single victim and one for several at once
5. Know that a bite is heard twice, once by whoever is caught and once by the crew.
   the torso's melee has a local sound and a global one
6. Do not relax when the screaming stops for a moment, because the noise is cut and resumed rather than played once.
   the screaming is broken up by a set of breakers
7. Read its feet when you cannot see it, because bare skin and boots sound different and both have a light and a heavy step.
   the feet have separate points for skin and boot, with light and heavy footsteps for each
8. Treat its arrival and departure as a warning of their own, because both are drawn and sounded.
   there are teleport particles and a sound for arriving and for leaving
9. Break line of sight early if you can, because the head is aimed at a point it tracks rather than fixed forward.
   the head looks at a transform and a position, with an eye target of its own
10. Check that it is finished rather than merely quiet, because its death is drawn with particles of its own.
    the death has particles of its own

Common mistakes

• Watching the body and missing the head that is growing above it.
• Treating the laugh as idle noise instead of the beginning of the attack.
• Standing still when the head comes away, which is the moment before it goes off.
• Waiting for the screaming to stop before moving, when the noise is only broken up.
• Assuming silence means it has gone, without checking for the teleport it leaves on.

Related entries

MonstersThe bomb throwerThe monster's body holds the animation, the head, a collider for the head and a place to spawn it.MonstersEnemies and what they doThe game defines several distinct monsters rather than one enemy type.MonstersWhat a monster is doingA monster is always in one of a fixed set of named states.

Sources

A local copy of the game, read only. The grounding for each step is listed on the technical reference pages; nothing here is estimated.