1. Melee Rush Variants
Behavior: fast, aggressive closers that thrive in tight halls — the most common pack type and the reason anchor play exists.
- Counter: door block + sword anchor — a construct blocker in the doorway, a sword behind it, and the pack files into your kill tempo
- Avoid: open-field kiting unless your crew has stamina upgrades; they close distance faster than you backpedal
2. Rot Ooze Applicators
Behavior: slower units whose attacks stack Rot corruption instead of burst damage — they don't kill your vessel, they kill your next elevator ride.
- Counter: priority kill + cure check — when corruption meters climb, drop everything and delete the ooze source first
- Avoid: never extract with active Rot; run fire-cure steps before the elevator
3. Screamer Types
Behavior: audio-focused alarm bells — left alive, they trigger cascade spawns from every nearby pack. A Screamer is a countdown, not a combatant.
- Counter: silence fast — a gun flex is justified here, or a fast melee rush before the first scream completes
- Avoid: triggering a second Grinder load while a Screamer is active — stacked noise events snowball into a floor-wide response
4. Spark Remnants
Behavior: partially intact vessels with salvageable parts — the loot piñata of the Corrupted family.
- Counter: decide quickly whether scrap or speed matters more right now; stripping a Remnant takes time you may not have
- Avoid: tunnel-visioning on salvage while the pack that made the Remnant circles back
5. Multi-Vector Swarms (Combined Pattern)
Behavior: the deep-layer signature — multiple families arriving from two or more directions at once, flanking off each other's screams.
- Counter: abort and elevator. This is the run telling you the noise budget is spent
- Avoid: chasing the last kill. Crews wipe chasing "we almost had them"
Kill Priority Cheat Sheet
| Priority | Target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Screamers | Every second alive multiplies incoming packs |
| 2 | Ooze applicators | Rot stacks threaten the elevator ride and the Outpost |
| 3 | Melee rushers | Chop at chokepoints once alarms and Rot are handled |
| 4 | Spark Remnants | Salvage only after the room is safe |
Practice this until it's reflex: trigger one noise event deliberately, hold a doorway with a construct, and call extract at the first Rot stack. Crews that drill the abort survive; crews that wing it become Remnants.
What We Don't Know Yet
The demo's 9 enemy types and the 1.0 additions have no officially published names or stat sheets — community taxonomy (the families above) is descriptive, not canonical. Post-launch patches will settle names, health values and resistances; check back as we verify each entry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Corrupted should you kill first in GRAIN ROT?
Screamers first (they cascade-spawn packs), then Rot ooze applicators (corruption threatens extraction), then melee rushers. Salvage Spark Remnants only once the room is safe.
Do the Corrupted have weak points in GRAIN ROT?
No true weak points — chokepoints and physics-impact stuns matter more than critical hits. Hold a doorway with a blocking construct and let the pack funnel into your sword.
Do the Corrupted attack Sparks?
They prioritize living vessels over Sparks, so a disembodied Spark is often ignored briefly — useful for scouting exits, but immunity is not guaranteed.