Zarkhator is the main antagonist of Spore Hero. He emerged from the Red Meteor, and caused corruption and chaos across Sporeling's planet.
One of Zarkhator's Red Meteors is on Creature Beach.
Story[]
The Crystal Meteors before landing on Sporeling's planet.
In the beginning, an explosion occurred in space, causing red and blue meteors to spread throughout the galaxy and eventually crash into a tropical planet. Zarkhator hatches from an egg inside one of the red meteors and quickly causes corruption and devastation on the planet.
In Mushroom Valley, Zarkhator attempts to crush Sporeling and Big Chief with a red meteor, but misses and instead corrupts the Chief. Zarkhator later ambushes Sporeling in Moonlit Stoneway, but he loses the fight and retreats. In Mushroom Grove, he disguises himself as a trustworthy form to try and feed Sporeling a poisonous Suwapootoo fruit.
Outside of Sporeling's encounters, he conspires with other creatures to obey him or corrupts them to become mindless and hostile. In some cases, he transforms other creatures into weaker, often unrecognizable forms of themselves, such as with Beast, who became a "big pile of fluff" and his love interest Beauty believed he left the valley as a result.
Just before the final battle, Zarkhator tries to get to the planet's brain, but loses to Sporeling. Zarkhator then manages to get to the heart of the planet instead. He then battles against Sporeling three times, but loses thanks to the Spor-o-mega. Sporeling then uses its ability to devolve Zarkhator into a harmless form. He is then laughed at and runs away.
Evolution[]
Zarkhator goes through the evolution process just like Sporeling. Although unlike Sporeling who can go with multiple forms, Zarkhator has a total of six forms (not counting two alternate forms, which include his disguised and cursed form):
First Form[]
The first form of Zarkhator.
When Zarkhator first emerges from the meteor, he resembles a smaller version of his third form. He is born more powerful than Sporeling and is capable of pushing large red fragments with some difficulty. This form was seen in the opening video and the Mushroom Valley. His eyes are white when Zarkhator first hatches. They become red as he matures.
Second Form[]
Zarkhator's second form looks similar to his first form with some minor changes. He now has Wareyes, a Slagjawed mouth, Gubbypaws and Heycorns on his back. This form is seen in the Mushroom Valley where he pushes a large red meteor down on Sporeling and Big Chief.
Third Form[]
Zarkhator's third form is a lot larger form his second form, now having spikes on his back and a tail. This form seen and fought in the Moonlit Stoneway.
Fourth Form[]
Zarkhator's fourth form is now more upright with a Barracutie mouth and two extra arms. This form was seen in the Moonlit Stoneway.
Fifth Form[]
Zarkhator's fifth form resembles his fourth form but has the Soundersnout mouth and Deathclaws.
Note: This form is interchangeable with the fourth form.
Final Form[]
Zarkhator's last form was the same as the previous one, but more muscular and with the Megachiraptora wings, Deathspikes, and the Beefteef mouth. This form was seen in the Creature Beach. This is the form Zarkhator is in when he is taken down once and for all. He participates with Sporeling in an epic battle at the heart of the planet. The hero has to beat him three times before Zarkhator is too weak to fight back anymore.
Disguised Form[]
Zarkhator shape-shifts himself to look like a Krikat, being referred to as "Strange Creature". He still retains Wareyes and other "evil" looking details (ie: Monstrumtalons for hands). While in this form, he tries to give Sporeling a Suwapootoo fruit. If Sporeling ate the poisonous fruit, the Sporeling would be taken back to its nest after drifting off into sleep. This form is seen in the Mushroom Grove.
Cursed Form[]
After defeating him, Sporeling evolves Zarkhator into a form that cannot harm the planet. This form's appearance is determined by the player, and can be seen just before the ending credits. In this state, all the other creatures laugh at him, causing Zarkhator to be humiliated and run off.
Unique Powers & Abilities[]
- Summoning Red Crystals
- Summoning Red Crystal Entities
- Corrupting creatures with red crystals
- Controlling the corrupted
- High Speed evolution
- Shape-shifting
- Transforming other creatures
- Has weakness to Spor-o-Mega
Trivia[]
- In the pre-release footage and within the game files, Zarkhator's original name was Nemesis.
- If player make no alterations to Zarkhator's form after defeating him, he will still be laughed at.
- Zarkhator's final form in the editor is slightly different from what is used in the game, as some of the parts seen are reoriented/missing.
- Zarkhator has a unique red skin texture that it not used by any other creature in the game. In the official renders however, he uses a non-unique blue skinned texture with red markings. If the player does not edit his texture after defeating him, it'll revert back to the latter.
- Zarkhator is the first non-cybernetic Spore villain, unlike Gar' skuther and The Grox.
- When Zarkhator first hatches in the opening, his eyes are Blinkys instead of Wareyes.
- Zarkhator never evolves an omnivorous mouth. He does evolve a herbivorous mouth in his fifth form.
- In the beta version of Spore Hero, Zarkhator is seen as a Sporeling.
- Throughout the game, Zarkhator comments that he and Sporeling have fought before on several different planets, but he has always remained victorious. The Ancient Idol comments that both Sporeling and Zarkhator are born from the same home planet, but doesn't know what happened to them. This implies that every time Zarkhator wins and destroys the planet he's on, both he and Sporling to reset back to their original forms and return to space, causing the cycle to repeat once again. This cycle seemingly stopped after Zarkhator was defeated.
- Zarkhator has an incorrect texture in his official art that uses the paint options used in core spore. In game, Zarkhator uses a unique texture that cannot be used by the player. Zarkhator gains his beta texture in the editor after being defeated, and will be seen with it in game if the player doesn't change the texture or edit him.
- If the player loses to Zarkhator in the final battle he'll tell the player to crawl back into their nest since he'll always be stronger than them. However, this doesn't reset the player's progress in the battle, making this a rather ineffective taunt.
Gallery[]
