The Hydra is a Pandoran mutant with 4 heads. Each head has its own purpose and capabilities that modify the effectiveness of the unit in combat, and require different strategies from the player to mitigate damage and prioritize attacks.
Differing Heads all look and function differently. Any combination of these heads may appear on a Hydra in any given battle:
Poison head – similar to the Arthron spitter head, but deals less poison.
Virus head – spits viral matter at a target.
Screech head – screeches causing daze and/or small loss of will points.
Shock head – spits poison that causes paralysis rather than hp damage.
Spike head – fires spikes like a porcupine at a target. Shreds armor and destructible cover while dealing bleeding, but does small hp damage.
Shield head – vaguely like a cobra with its hood, but very hard and armored. The head functions like an arthron shield, but hangs down over the hydra’s body while not attacking, giving the adjacent heads some protection from line-of-sight attacks during the player turn.
Bite head – Extra sharp teeth, and its neck stretches and extends out longer than it appears to be when at rest.
Fire head – Spits a wad of chemicals that ignite and form a small firebomb on impact, like a fireworm but with far less area of effect.
Bombadier head – Fires a mortar-like round, similar to an arthron grenade launcher, but with less damage and area of effect, and slightly longer range.
Hell head – Fires direct rocket-like projectile, similar to the Hell Cannon, with poor accuracy, but higher damage.
Vomit head 1 – Causes acid damage on target.
Vomit head 2 - Vomits poison/explosive worm.
Mist head – Shoots small bubble of mist that spreads over a 9 tile area around/including the target.
Healing head – Heals Pandorans with a “chemical” spit.
Rarer Combo head – Combination of two heads; An example being the spike head and poison head, capable of firing spiked projectiles that shred and deal minor poison damage.
The enemy has 4 heads. In addition to the abilities specific to each head, the Hydra has additional powers based on the number of intact heads. With 4 heads, none disabled, the abilities will be different than when it has 1 disabled head and 3 functional heads.
For example:
4 intact heads - Ability to mind control, but only if the target has 4 or fewer will points remaining
3 intact heads - Ability to inflict panic in an area, but only if the targets have 10 or fewer will points
2 intact heads – Becomes enraged. Gains an extra ability point each turn.
1 intact head – Becomes desperate. Gains extra speed/ability to move more tiles each turn to get in better positions
0 intact heads – Becomes critical. If not out of HP by the time all 4 heads are lost, rushes a target and the body explodes. Deals small amount of damage, poison, virus, burning, paralysis on target in explosion area.
The hydra embodies exactly what Phoenix Point has tried to do with evolving dangers and power of the Pandoran forces as the game goes on. It would create a much less “certain” battle field relying on varying strategies based on the combination of heads that a hydra has. It essentially embodies what the game is all about.