40d Talk:Hydra

Even though hydras have seven heads I have only gotten one skull from butchering them, not seven. Someone please confirm this. Bouchart 18:48, 23 November 2007 (EST)

Confirm. The game code for skull dropping doesn't support multiple heads. --Karlito 01:28, 26 November 2007 (EST)

Uou can, however, accidentally cut several heads of it's body. Then each head will give you a skull, after it rot.--Dorten 23:23, 22 January 2008 (EST)

For a "Megabeast" I expected an epic battle, instead it chased a bunch of random haulers around for a bit (without catching any of them) and was killed by a single weapon trap with 5 green glass discs. Apparently the first triggering knocked the Hydra out without really wounding it and it continued to fire until I had a lovely Hydra tartare. Is this typically anti-climatic? HeWhoIsPale 08:51, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

Megabeast attacks tend to either be complete disaster or a footnote, depending on how well you're prepared. It's rarely something in between. Bronze Collossi tend to be the 'disaster' route, though. You can, at your discretion, mod Hydras and Dragons to be a lot tougher by putting scales on them in the raws, so your dwarves have to mangle up an entire layer of scales before they can harm the megabeast at all. Cage traps make basically every megabeast attack a footnote, so if you want epic struggles, don't use them. --ThunderClaw 12:02, 3 November 2008 (EST)

Or give 'em [TRAPAVOID].--Maximus 13:19, 3 November 2008 (EST)

During a siege I had a hydra attack and 4 hammer goblins killed it within the first second of meetiing it without any causualties then they turned around and massacred my army. It was very anti-climatic and fortress ending.--Cerol The Elf Hunter 14:05, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Decapitation

The article states that you only need to cut off one of the hydra's 7 heads in order to kill it, but a recently added screenshot shows a living hydra which has had several of its heads lopped off. Does beheading actually cause instant death on hydras, or does it just cause them to bleed to death (or just instantly give in to pain)? --Quietust 20:30, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello, I added the screenshot. Decapitation is not necessarily an "instant-kill" with a Hydra as it is with most species. Hydras will die from it (unless modified for no bleed or something, don't know exactly), but not "because it lost a head", rather because it bleeds out very fast or because it falls unconscious and gets killed with a simple blow. The Hydra pictured died very quickly after it lost its heads, usually if a killing blow is landed death takes effect the same frame as the blow, so there is no way to check for injuries. --Overspeculated 10:46, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I think this actually makes the Hydra even more hilarious. Required Secondary Powers much? ...Come to think of it, modding it to prevent bleeding might just make it a bit more threatening. Or maybe just cruelly prolong its life so it can feel the excruciating pain of having 3 of its heads removed. ...Hmmm... --Mr Frog 05:10, 6 March 2010 (UTC)