Moloch

Moloch
Stats
Health 1,000 (1,200 boss)	Armor 75-90%
Weakpoints Core beneath Shell (x2)	Armored Points Shell (90%, destructible) skirt (90%) tentacles (75%,destructible)
Speed
Walking N/A	Swimming 2 slow (6.50 fast)
Behavior
Aggressive? Sound emitters (passive) Everyone (chase)	Can Enter Submarine? No
Sight 0	Hearing 1
Drops only 1 of the items marked with an asterisk * may drop at a time
Item(s)	Chance
Hydroxyapatite Brockite	100%
Hydroxyapatite (+1) *	67%
Moloch Shell Fragment*	33%

Versioning - Potentially Outdated Last updated for version: 0.10.5.1 Current game version: 0.12.0.3

The Moloch is a large jellyfish-like creature that manifests in Barotrauma.

Description

The Moloch's large dark blue shell covers most of its main body, which seems to be mostly made of the creature's "ballast sac". On the front, three elongated dark brown tentacles protrude off the shell. Underneath the ballast sac, the "skirt" is made of thinner black tendrils.

Molochs are blind, and rely on using echolocation to navigate the ocean. The ballast sac, or core body, can pulsate to provide propulsion. They emit strikingly tuneful notes, stronger and higher in tone when the creature attacks.

The Moloch's shell serves as both defensive and offensive capabilities. It protects their soft innards and will absorb 90% of incoming damage; it is also immune to Bleeding. After sustaining enough damage, it will shatter, leaving the core unprotected.

The Moloch will ram into its targets, or whip them with its tentacles.

In-game

Molochs are agitated by noise. If attacked in melee by a reckless diver, the Moloch will strike back but won't persist, unless it is actively chasing the submarine. If the submarine and its crew stay silent for a few seconds, the Moloch may lose them and stop pursuit.

Impact with a Moloch, or even just a corpse thereof, is especially damaging to the submarine's hull and will easily punch holes in it, causing floods.

Molochs will deliberately attempt to ram the submarine. Despite their persistence to sink the submarine, they tend to be unable to match their speed, which makes fleeing a viable option.

Combat strategies

Coilgun Piercing and Exploding Ammunition will damage the core through the shell, and is the best option when attacking from above.

Since the shell of a Moloch significantly reduces the efficiency of regular attacks from above, if lacking any piercing or exploding ammunition it is strongly recommended to shoot them from below for maximum efficiency. A Railgun will take three to four shots to kill it. If a player manages to shoot it under its shell, it will usually be an instant-kill.

Another option is to use stealth and poisons. As long as the Moloch is unaware of the submarine's location one can easily get close to it and apply Cyanide/Radiotoxin with a Syringe Gun. Cyanide will stun the Moloch and only drain 10% of its hp, so it should still be dealt with the old-fashioned way. Radiotoxin is able to kill a Moloch over time but will not stun it^{confirmation needed}. In both cases the Moloch will ignore players.

Variants

• Moloch "bosses" share the appearance of regular Molochs but have higher vitality and cause more damage to hulls. They are the targets of "Killing a Moloch" Missions obtained in Outposts.

• Black Molochs, as their name suggests, have a darker shade to their shell and limbs, and are encountered in Random Events. They inflict less damage to hulls but their ramming attack has a large area-of-effect which stuns and has a light EMP effect.

• Moloch Babies lack any offensive capabilities, but will emit a very loud noise when hurt, calling for their mother to defend them from a very long range.

Damage Values

Item	Target Type	Afflictions	Structure Damage	Attack Duration	Cooldown
Core	Any	Bite Wounds 50 Stun 2.5 sec Explosion (black): range 2000, EMP 1, Stun 2 sec	40 (regular) 65 (boss) 25 (black)	0.25 sec	12 sec
Tentacles	Any	Bite Wounds 10 Stun 1 sec	5 (regular & black) 15 (boss)	0.25 sec	5 sec

Defense wise, all Molochs have, on top of the raw damage reduction provided by their armor, some bleeding resistance.
Shell: Armor 90%, immune to Bleeding
Skirt: Armor 90%, Bleeding Resistance 80%
Tentacles: Armor 75%, Bleeding Resistance 50%
Core: Damage and Bleeding x2

Trivia

• The Moloch Boss' internal ID used to be "Molochboss"; in version 0.9.10.0, it was changed to "Moloch_m".
• Before version 0.3.2.0, Molochs were unable to damage players, but tried to regardless. This resulted in the popularity of a 'rush' strategy to deal with them: divers would swim to the Moloch and strike it with the least efficient weapon, distracting the creature from the comparatively vulnerable submarine and slowly wearing out the monster. The issue was fixed in 0.3.2.0, and the strategy abandoned.
• Interestingly, the Moloch's code doesn't include direct damage values against structures, instead transferring kinetic energies to yield the same result and create hull breaches.
• Molochs bear a resemblance to the extinct Dollocaris as it has a similar body plan, and may have been based on them.
• Black Molochs when nearby the sub cause the navigation terminal to display heat as if there are volcanoes attacking you
• Molochs are sometimes found instead of an artifact at the end of salvage missions in Mission Mode or Campaign, as they emit the same kind of infrasonic signals. Killing the misleading creature will still be considered a success.

Audio

Standard

• Idle 1

• Attack 1

• Damage 1

• Death 1

• Moving

Baby

• Idle 1

• Alarm 1

• Damage 1

• Death 1