Epic creatures are giant and hostile creatures that occur in all stages of Spore. They are encountered in the Creature Stage of the game and in subsequent stages. Epic Cells also exist in the Cell Stage. Epic creatures appear randomly, and their appearance is dictated by specific criteria.
Epic creatures act like the creature they are based on, and will not attack non-epic creatures of their own species. They will battle epic creatures of other species should they encounter them.
The number of epic creatures on a planet is not determined by difficulty, but is instead a factor in the way each planet randomly generates.
Abilities
Epic creatures have a specific ability set, examples of these are as follows:
- Strike: The epic will slash with one of its graspers. This only applies to epics with graspers. Produces a chainsaw sound when used.
- Fist smash: The epic will wind back and slam its fist into the ground. This has a shorter range than strike but does more damage. It requires graspers.
- Stomp: The epic will lift its leg and stomp its feet. In the Creature Stage, this can kill any creature instantly, with the exception of other epics. It requires feet.
- Super Stomp: A more powerful stomp. The creature will use much more effort in its attack, and upon contact with the ground, it will produce a small shockwave, damaging those within range. It cannot be used by Creature Stage epics. In Spore Galactic Adventures, during an Adventure, the player will take no damage when this attack is used by an Epic on the player's team. Also, if an Epic has four feet, it will use one front and one back foot and make two explosions.
- Bite: The epic will throw down its head, jaws open, and bite the victim. All epics have this attack, because all creatures in the Creature stage have mouths.
- Head swing: The epic will swing its head from left to right once. This requires a strike weapon on the head.
- Tail spin: The epic will turn around, outstretch its tail then quickly turn back to whip its tail at the victim. This requires a strike part on the tail (at the end of creature's body).
- Fireball: The epic will make a growling noise, then release a ball of fire from its mouth. The epic uses this attack primarily to attack the buildings and vehicles in the Civilization Stage which does 360 to 380 damage to them, and the spaceship in the Space Stage which deals a large amount of damage. The creature will also spit fire during the Creature Stage if its target is airborne or far away from the distance. In the Tribal Stage, however, this ability is almost never used.
- Spit: This works exactly like the fireball, only it poisons the target, it deals less damage, and it can be used by normal creatures and epics in all Stages, except the Cell Stage, since creatures don't exist in that stage. It is very similar to the Spit ability used by creatures and requires a spit part.
- Chomp: The epic will pick the creature up, take a bite out of them and then throw them, sometimes very far away. Sometimes the creature will catch fire or start flying. This attack does 10 damage and stuns the creature once landed to the ground. This is seemingly the only attack epics will use against Hologram Scouts, should one get too close.
- In Galactic Adventures, the new parts like guns and slashers are sometimes used too.
Appearances in Spore
Cell Stage
An Epic Ducky in the background.
Occasionally, Epic cells can be found in the Cell Stage. They can range from just about the size of the screen to more than four times such. Epic cells are able to kill any cells in one bite, poison cloud or shock either the AI or the player's cell, though any spikes attached to one will deal no damage. They're invulnerable to every harmful cell part, except for electricity from Electric part. However, like all other cells, they will shrink in size to the player's cell as they grow, eventually becoming a predator, then a regularly-sized one, and finally a prey cell.
Creature Stage
A dead epic found at an enemy creature's nest.
In the Creature Stage, Epic creatures are uncommon, hostile, can't be socialized, and are fully immune to the effects of Raging Roar and Siren Song. Appropriate for such a colossal being, epic creatures are the hardiest creatures one can encounter, having over 1,000 health, whereas most normal creatures can only have up to 6 to 60, and have massively stronger (yet slower) attacks that usually deal enough damage to kill lesser creatures in a single hit. If the player has been allied with epic's equivalent species, the epic becomes allies with player's species. Killing an Epic gives the player the Epic Killer Achievement as well as 100 DNA and a full stomach's worth of food for Carnivores and Omnivores.
A friendly Epic. The player allied with a Rogue equivalent of the same species to make this happen.
Despite frequently being seen roaming around the planet's forests, almost all Epic creatures do have nests that generate along with them. Rather than a traditionally-shaped nest like normal creatures, however, Epic nests are simply enormous dirt indention in the ground with a very large number of skeletons surrounding them.
If the player encounters an epic version of a creature they've already befriended, they can socialize with and befriend them too. However, they still can't add them to their pack if they've unlocked at least one slot yet.
A creature's diet determines how likely it is to be used as an Epic when a world is generated; Carnivores are most likely, Herbivores are least, while Omnivores are somewhere in-between.
Tribal Stage
A bunch of tribe members attacking an epic Crikiitis.
Epics are usually seen far less common than the previous stage - most will generate mid-game rather than when the player first advances from creature to tribe. Due to the RTS style of gameplay in the Tribal Stage, Epics are somewhat more dangerous due to not having full control of the player's creatures, and, thus, making evasive maneuvers when fighting one all but nonexistent. Though usually merely territorial, only attacking tribe members when neared, Epic creatures will sometimes wander into a village and begin attacking everything in sight.
When killed, they provide 100 to 300 meat or more, far more than standard creatures.
Civilization Stage
An epic creature in the Civilization Stage.
Epic creature occurs in a similar fashion to the way they do in the Tribal Stage, only even less frequently. Compared to the Creature and Tribal Stages, individual Epic creatures are statistically much stronger, having their health increased to 3,000 and their damage increased to the point where they can destroy buildings, vehicles, and turrets with ease. While military vehicles and turrets can be used to kill them as expected, religious vehicles are able to "charm" Epic creatures, causing them to temporarily turn passive towards the player's vehicles. Notably, Epic creatures seem to spawn near and attack opposing cities more than the player's. Whenever if the epic creature isn't threatened and their health is low, they return back to their sanctuary—at the terrain where they spawned on—and start regenerating their health.
Unlike the previous modes, killing an Epic no longer grants the player any sort of award besides the security that comes with knowing they won't be a threat anymore.
Space Stage
An epic creature in the Space stage.
Epic creatures become exceedingly rare, and their health increased up to 4,000 health. They appear on habitable planets and will act as they do in Civilization Stage. Oddly, however, they no longer attack city hall buildings, likely due to the different mechanics of colonies compared to cities. Epic creatures also attack Hologram Scouts in this stage.
A spaceship fights a Supersized Creature in a Wildlife Sanctuary.
The player can also transform a regular creature into an epic using the spaceship tool Supersizer. Unlike an average epic, their health is relatively lower—over 3,500 health—around 500 hit points lower than a regular epic creature.
Galactic Adventures
Within the Adventure Creator, the player can resize the creature into the epic by holding shift and scroll the mouse wheel. The creature will automatically skip from Rogue size to Half-Epic size, then can be made even bigger until the maximum limit. The creature with Epic's sizing stats are customizable; can appear to be fragile or literally invincible.
Spore Hero
Epic creatures also appear in the Wii game, Spore Hero, but are delegated to a largely insignificant role compared to previously, as they only appear as the sources of the various boulders that act as obstacles during the three Race minigames that the player has to do throughout the game.
- The Cylopean Epic (seen in the Mushroom Valley) throws rocks down the hill and the player and Bakkara race up. Upon both creatures finishing, they run up to the epic while shouting and flailing, which (humorously) causes the much larger creature to flee in terror.
- The Rock-throwing Guardian (seen in the Moonlit Caverns) throws rocks down the subterranean hill that the player and Boldyrok race up. Upon reaching it, the player's creature will smash the red meteorite crystal next to it, freeing it from its influence and causing it to stop throwing rocks.
- The Heart of the Planet (seen in the Creature Beach) is an incalculably large fish-like creature that acts exactly as its name states, being the organic part of the planet with its heart acting as its 'core.' In addition to acting as an important character of the final area of the game, hosting a number of locations inside of its body, the final race occurs between the player's creature and Zarkhator in order to get to and retrieve its brain before the latter does. Additionally, rather than dodging boulders during this race, both competitors dodge black, metallic spheres covered in white electricity, likely emulating neuron charges.
Strategy
Creature Stage
- Summon Flock can be helpful to summon minions help to fight epics for you.
- The undoubtedly easiest way to kill any Epic is to continuously use Spit at it from range, keeping it out of the majority of its attacks except its fire breath. There are a number of ways to keep an Epic away, such as...
- ...having high Speed or by using Sprint and constantly running away. This may not work if the Epic has equally fast speed.
- ...luring one past or through a patch of trees, usually resulting in it getting stuck.
- ...getting to higher ground, such as on top of a rock formation or a large hill. If the Epic has the ability to Glide, they may be able to jump and grab the player's creature, however.
- ...positioning a rock formation between you and the Epic, as rock formations (oddly) don't block Spit. If it has Charge, however, it may use this to run around or over said formation.
- An advisable way to kill an Epic is to bait one to either the player's nest or one of an allied species, allowing them to assist in fighting the creature.
- If an Epic is near the player's nest and the player's creature either dies and respawns or enters the creature editor via mating, said Epic will be fully healed.
- Due to how long it takes to kill an Epic, starvation is capable of being an actual threat during a fight. Consider luring an Epic to another creature to distract it while one runs off and gets fruit or meat if one begins to starve mid-fight.
Tribal Stage
- Though Epics will often follow tribesmen they're targeting back to their tribe, they'll often not enter the village itself.
- Spearmen are usually the best means of taking down an Epic; simply position several a good distance away from the Epic in question and let them throw spears at it.
- Oddly, traps (from the skill of the same name) can be used to kill an Epic with ease; if a normal creature walks over one while the Epic is nearby, it will kill both its activator and the Epic instantly. This will not work if the Epic trips the trap itself, however.
- Rarely, in the Tribal Stage, An epic may spawn neutral and not attack the player's tribe, Although the player can not tame the epic.
Civilization Stage
- The quickest and easiest way to kill an Epic is to launch a Gadget Bomb directly at the creature, which will often deal extreme damage to it, if not kill it outright. Beware doing this near a city, however, as the large explosion risks hitting any buildings, thus destroying them and causing an extreme reputation drop with the nation owning that city, as well as a -90 "Used Nuclear Weapons" relationship penalty with all nations regardless.
- If an Epic enters one of your cities, where vehicles generally can't reach, consider temporarily removing all its buildings and focusing on building turrets until the creature is killed. As long as the buildings do not get damaged, removing them will grant a full refund.
Space Stage
- Even in the final stage of the game, Epics are still an enormous threat, as their fireballs are deadly accurate and highly damaging to the player's ship. This can make them a large potential danger when colonizing, offset only by their general rarity.
- Despite almost never being seen on T-0 planets, Epics can survive on them.
- Obviously, Epics are far too big for the player's cargo hold, and can thus not beamed up. This leaves the only means of getting rid of one is killing it, which takes time and significant firepower, given their high health in this stage. Bombs are a good option for this, as they deal very high damage compared to other weapon types, and their inaccuracy at long range is somewhat offset by the large size of the target.
Galactic Adventures
- Due to sharing the Creature Stage's mechanics, many—if not all—of the tactics there work here, though there is much more variance, as the layout of the Adventure and stats of the Epic in question are subject to customization rather than being fixed.
- The 'spit-and-run' tactic that worked then works here, only better; as the Insect Swarm, Plasma Pulser, and Missile Flinger are all much stronger abilities than Spit while sharing its range, Epic creatures can generally be slain much faster than other modes unless the actual creature in question has been given very high health or damage resistance margin by the adventure's creator.
- While Epics can still be baited into getting stuck on terrain, trees, and buildings, this is less dependent on player ability and more so on exactly what's been placed into a given adventure to work with.
- The added versatility that comes from Trader accessories, and defensive power that comes from Ecologist and Zealot accessories, makes Captains far more suited to endure long fights against Epic creatures than Creature Stage creatures are.
Trivia
- If allying (or at least get a friendly blue face) with an Epic's species, it will act friendly towards the player, waving and dancing. However, they cannot be added to the pack, most likely for balance reasons.
- Epic creatures will normally fight each other if left alone in an open area. One generally dies, although, rarely, the two Epics will kill each other in the fight. This is to players benefit: it leaves them two fewer Epics to deal with, and a huge amount of meat for omnivorous or carnivorous players. Also, the player can spit at the epic at the last second and get the Epic Killer achievement, but this may attract the other epic if it's alive or still there.
- It is possible to duplicate an epic creature in the Space stage by using a Supersizer on another Epic.
- It seems that the epics in the Creature Stage and tribal stage are supposed to represent dinosaurs, as apart from their colossal size, they are no different from normal creatures. However, the health and size of epics times threefold in the civilization and space stage, and as they can shoot fireballs, these epics seem to represent Godzilla, King Kong, and other giant monsters, although creature and tribal epics can still shoot fireballs, but only with the spit ability. This might make them a reference to mythical creatures such as a dragon or hydra.
- The sound epics make is very similar to the sounds the Final boss in the game "Dead Space" makes.
- Epic creatures will only pick the creature up if running up to them. A creature with glide and jump abilities can be sent into orbit by pressing the spacebar while the epic is about to throw.
- If the epic is a captain, and the player talks to it, it will make more loud sentient (still epic-like) sounds with epic creature sounds. This could be a way an epic speaks.
- In the Creature Stage, when going up to an epic and use the "sneak" ability it will shrug and say "mer wer!?!" until attacking or get off of sneak.
- In Tribal Stage, if there's an epic creature that is the same species as the player's creature, it will automatically be their ally.
- Although it is rare, Epic Creatures may swim across entire oceans in the Civilization stage to cross over to other continents. Likely a reference to the Godzilla franchise.
- Though illogical, it is harder to kill an epic in Civilization stage than in the Tribal stage.
- It should be noted that epic creatures are totally distinct from Hyper Epic Creatures, which are much larger and only exist in Spore as huge skeletons and footprints.
- Very rarely, if the player's creature has hunted the normal version of an epic creature close to extinction (or have killed several members of its species in Tribal Stage), it may be terrified of the player's species.
- Sometimes, In Tribal Stage, an Epic may come across a tribesman with a maraca. The Epic will walk up to the tribesman and sometimes, just before the Epic delivers a deadly blow, the tribesman will raise his maraca just above his head and shake it lightly. The Epic will be slightly surprised, and then, like a baby entranced by a shaking rattle, it will start staring curiously at the maraca and examining it, turning its head from side to side inquisitively, for some time. The Epic will have calmed down by now and, also like a baby, will reach out and try to grab the maraca (along with the tribesman). And then, also like a little baby, it will chew at the maraca and tribesman, then throw it to the ground angrily and walk away. This, along with the fact that the religious music of Civilization Stage vehicles can charm Epics, suggests that Epics, with their bestial and simple minds, are more fascinated by music than other creatures normally are.
- Sometimes, when the player puts animals on a planet, an epic creature will generate on it.
- Also, if abducting sentient species and put them near the epic, sometimes they will start to attack it with spears and stone axes. Rarely, this kills the epic. If the sentient creatures win they start to make a roar-like sound, then begin to wander the planet as they normally do. It will reward literally nothing and it doesn't work with normal animals. In other cases, sentients just run in panic as soon as they see the epic.
- It can be grown near an enemy city, which it will then attack. This could be a reference to how, in Godzilla movies, aliens use giant monsters to attempt to take over the Earth.
- During the Creature Stage, if an Epic throws the player's creature at the right angle, they can remain airborne long enough to earn Flight of the Bumblebee, even if the said creature doesn't have wings.
- Although it makes the game more difficult, there is no in-game explanation of how epics go from 1000 to 3000 to 4000 health - although it could be the fact that all the epic creatures with 1000 health were killed by the advanced technology of space-faring empires, so that only the epics with more health have survived, or the epics possibly "evolved" to have more health by the start of Civilization Stage.
- During the early Creature stage, it is possible to see the corpses of epic creatures that have only 500 health, which some have deemed "Half-Epics." It's unknown if these are the result of a bug or an intended feature.
- In the Civilization Stage, it is possible to find a normal-sized epic. It functions exactly the same as an epic creature and has 1,000 health.
Glitches
- In the Creature Stage, when the epic creature is walking around in sight of the player, using Mating Call may trigger epic creature's roar animation (along with the sound).
- There is a rare occurrence that will cause an extremely large number of epic creatures to spawn on the player's planet. It is unknown what causes this, but usually, all the epic creatures will be made by the player. It is also possible for there to be no epic creatures on the players starting continent.
- Sometimes, if trying and killing an epic in the Creature Stage, it will heal wherever the player's creature go. To solve that glitch, just save and exit.
- Sometimes when killing an epic, it will fall between a tree and some bones and it will start moving by itself like it was still living.
- Sometimes in the Space Stage, the epic will spawn and appear to be an exact copy of the player's creature, clothes and all.
- Occasionally, when trapping an epic creature in between trees, it will eventually give up on trying to kill.
- Sometimes, when playing one of the saved games in the Space Stage, all the vehicles are transformed into epics. They will continue to gather spice but look exactly identical to the epic creatures.
- There is a very strange glitch where herbivorous Epics are actually seen eating the corpses of other dead creatures or picking them up and eating a small amount of their flesh, despite being herbivorous. Epics usually must be either Carnivorous or Omnivorous.
- There is a glitch, whether intentional or not is unknown, that if the player pauses while an epic creature chases the player's creature and zoom out in "freecam" cheat when they zoom back in and un-pause the game, the epic creature will be gone.
- When encountering epic creatures that have parts from the Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack or the Spore Bot Parts Pack, and haven't those expansion packs installed will cause the game to freeze if it is attacked.
- A glitched way to kill an epic: First, lure the epic to home nest. Two, stealth when one of the nestmates attack it. If this works successfully the epic will be stuck in a roar loop ( It won't attack but will constantly keep roaring at the nestmate attacking it). Keep eating fruit if needed. Wait for it to get to 10-30 health, then charge it/spit it and finish it off, and finally get the achievement. It is recommended be omnivore or herbivore when attempting this strategy.
External links
- Video showing how to kill an epic creature in Creature Stage by "kiting"
- Video showing how to kill an epic creature in Creature Stage using the "nest glitch"
- Video of an immense number of epics invading a player's planet (Warning: annotations contain profanity)
Gallery
