deep rock galacticglyphid post
drg is my latest hyperfixation i think i love this game so mcuh ive been thinking aboutthe glyphids a lot and their biology im not super knowledgable on bio i just really like the topic so i might get a ton of stuff wrong but idc disclaimer: because glyphids evolved seperately from earthbeings (duh cuz they're on hoxxes not earth) any similarities to earth creatures is most likely just convergent evolution extraterrestrial life could be extremely similar like the glyphids or completely different its all speculative. anyway, first things first: Bone Game
ok lets look at the glyphid grunt for a sec. Glyphids have two body segments, a head and an abdomen, and eight legs. Their front legs are usually enlarged for burrowing, attacking, and defending. These vary in size and shape depending on the bug. (most glyphid variants look like they have three body segments, such as the grunt shown above, but i believe that its just a protruding jaw as when it moves its head its entire body moves with it, and the Warden specifically has a much more obvious two-segment body plan due to its lack of sharp teeth and massive size difference in body and head) They may or may not have eyes, indicating that eyes were a trait they lost when they went underground. What separates them from spiders is their size, ability to vocalize, their eusocial hierarchy, and the fact that they probably have bones. Earth spiders are invertibrates, like all arthropods. We haven't seeen a glyphid skeleton completely before, but there is a lot of evidence pointing towards their true bony nature. They dont have typical exoskeletons that cover the entirety of the animal. They have "chitinous armor plating" as described by the bestiary that resembles more the armored back of a crocodile than an actual exoskeleton. This plating can be removed in battle and not impair the glyphid's movement, in stark contrast to an earth bug which if you removed its exoskeleton it would just be a pile of bug organs. Exoskeletons double as their skin. Also glyphid sw
armers have no armor and still are fine moving around. They also have defined teeth and jaws, unlike the mandibles on an earth arthropod.
(peeled glyphid grunt guard)
(glyphid swarmer with teeth and jaw visible) Lastly, and I'm not too sure on this one, but i dont believe an exoskeleton made of chitin could hold up a glyphid, yet alone some of the bigger ones. Praetorians are the size and weight of a midsize SUV, and they're not even the biggest glyphids get.
Solitary vs Eusocial
If you got this far you're autistic about animals like me and probably know what eusocial means. If you don't, it just means there's a queen and workers. Think ants, wasps, and bees. While it's generally a consensus that most glyphids are eusocial under one Queen (we'll talk about her later), I think not all of them are. The bestiary says that glyphids are a genus, not a species, meaning that different glyphids can evolve seperately from one another and can be able to live independently instead of in a caste system. Of these, I think the beasts most likely to be solitary are the Stalker, Menace, Stingtail, and Septic Spreader. These guys have extra tools and divergent behaviors (sneaking up behind you, digging around, keeping a distance to shoot projectiles) that seem, to me, like they are taking advantage of the fact you are preoccupied with the glyphid colony and trying to snatch you up as prey for themselves.
(from left to right) stingtail, septic spreader, stalker (below) menace
It also explains why, in some locations, there are random batches of glyphid eggs out and about. It could be this could be a clutch of one of the aformentioned solitary glyphid eggs, and all glyphids look the same when they hatch.
These swarmer nests could either be from the glyphid colony (we are in their territory, after all) or just a different variant of glyphid.
( the blue gem is not supposd to be in there usually, just the purple circles. I couldn't find a better picture.) insert super smooth segue into :
Glyphid Hierarchy
apologies for the crunchy image but i put together this tierlist to explain how I think the glyphid hierarchy works. The tierlist didn't have the stalker in it but it would have gone in solitary for reasons Ive mentioned.
Notes: Soldiers are specialized for fighting but they all have different roles. Slashers and exploders tend to flank and sneak up on their target, the latter being born literally just to die. Praetorians and oppressors are meant to soak up attention and, in our case, damage. Web and acid spitters are meant to take care of flying enemies ( probably mactera in the wild, but in our case it's dwarves on a zipline), and wardens support the ground enemies. the green baby glyphids that are in the solitary tier are called Glyphid Spawn, and they aren't actually a glyphid; rather, a fleshy monolith called a Brood Nexus (below) had taken the DNA of a Glyphid and created their own version of swarmers with it. icky.
Mutations and Anomalies
Certain bugs such as the Bulk Detonator, Dreadnought Hiveguard, and dreadnought twins are anomalies that either don't occur naturally or an unintentional byproduct of biology doin its thing. The Bulk detonator "is what happens when an exploder manages to not detonate during its volatile, and usually short, life." This description pretty much spells it out that these guys aren't supposed to exist.
also, look at their mangled faces and bulbous, pustuled bodies. Exploders are meant to be sent out and explode. I don't know what the glyphid colony does with these, but I don't think they let them stay. Too volatile, and positively humongous. They're the biggest glyphids by far and i think glyphids just wouldn't let them be.
I have no clue how the Crassus Detonator exists or how it turns an entire crater into gold when it explodes. The Dreadnought Twins are a Dreadnought that split into two in the cocoon. Assuming dreadnoughts pupate into queens (more about that below), it's likely that they would pupate into two queens, with possible ramifications outside of that (perhaps sharing energy in a cocoon means inhibited reproduction in some way?) I doubt they'd fight over power, because the dreadnought twins show impeccable teamwork when broken out, even to the point of one dreadnought will sacrafice some of it's health for the other if one gets too low.
dreadnought twins The Dreadnought Hiveguard is the closest we've got to actually seeing a Glyphid Queen. It's a dreadnought that's been baking for a while but hasn't gotten all the way there. It's impenetrable from everywhere and can spawn Sentinels to protect it. It then reveals three weakpoints on its face when all Sentinels are killed, and then reveals its booty weakpoint when the face weakpoints were deaded.
(from left to right) Hiveguard, Sentinels Because Sentinels don't come from the cocoon and dont spawn in any other area, my best guess about them is they lay dormant usually, letting the other glyphids fight. They only respond to the Queen, being her last line of defense. It'd make sense because the Hiveguard is the closest thing to a queen we've got, and it has a unique vocalization for summoning Sentinels.
Dreadnoughts, Praetorians, Queens, and Conservation
The glyphid dreadnought, at its base form, seems to be a grander Praetorian. They look similar, down to the tusks on their face, and even have similar attacks. They carry the same bite and slash that nearly all ground glyphids have, but they also have a projectile shot from the mouth.
(from left to right) Praetorian 3d Model, Dreadnought 3d Model If I had to guess, this could be a Royal Jelly Moment. To explain, lets look at earth honeybees. These guys are fed a substance called "royal jelly" as a larva until they are fed honey. Certain workers, though, are fed and fed and fed and even have the walls of their honeycomb cell lined with the stuff. These workers end up becoming juvenile queen bees and they start their own colony. Given the fact that Oppressors are canonically "aggresively mutated Praetorians", I believe they are simply praetorians that weren't fed Royal Jelly. Their armor grows, and their weakpoint abdomen shrinks.
In the game, it's heavily implied that the glyphids are without a Queen (the voiceline "Die like your mother did!" when killing glyphids comes to mind), and the only time we ever see a Dreadnought is in a cocoon, outside of the rare times it spawns on an unrelated mission. We are told explicitly that these guys arent in their final form and they will pupate into something much worse if we don't stop them, and there seem to be a lot of cocoons around. (There are 2-3 cocoons a mission and there is always an elimination mission available.) What i think is happening is Praetorians are mutating into Dreadnoughts which are further trying to mutate into Glyphid Queens to fill the empty spot in the glyphid hierarchy and they want to spew out so many glyphids that the mining operations on Hoxxes has to close down. This has a lot of implications. Firstly, glyphids are so plentiful without a queen. Imagine how insane they'll get with one. Secondly, glyphids are numbered. They aren't being replaced and DRG is killing hundreds of them a mission, potentially thousands on Deep Dives and Elite Deep Dives. (I tried an elite deep dive earlier today, got to about 897 dead glyphids on the third mission which i inevitably failed). Thinking about this really puts into perspective the damage DRG is doing to Hoxxes in the pursuit of more money and resources, polluting it with depleted uranium and plasma radiation and drill fumes and omoran heartstone lazerbeam juice and abandoned mining equipment, sucking it dry for its resources, and actively killing the rest of the wildlife that havent died from habitat loss. Glyphids are not the villain of this story. They are just following their instincts. It reflects how real-world corporations simply don't care about the earth that gives it its wealth and gives us life. I didn't mean for this rant to end the way it has, but please be grateful for the earth you stand on, appreciate nature, and don't litter. Also, if you haven't, play Deep Rock Galactic. solid game.
if only there was some salute or chant i could say to end this with a bang, one involving rocks, or stones, or something
This is a really great analysis! I have one solid thing I would argue against though - stingtails being solitary. This comes more from a gameplay perspective, but I think it can be shown to have biology origins. For one, I’ve hardly ever seen stingtails spawn completely on their own. They almost always appear with larger groups. Also, they seem specifically built to function with these groups. Menaces and Spreaders and Stalkers don’t mesh very well, and flee easily from striking, a very non eusocial behavior clearly making them solitary hunters. But Stingtails’ only actual attack is still just a basic melee slash - the typical of a colony glyphid, and it makes them not well equipped to kill prey(or dwarves) completely on their own. Their tail grapple might seem like a tool used to pull you away from colony glyphids to have a meal for themselves, I never see it used his way. Rather, most often in game, they ride along with big glyphid crowds, and use their tail to snatch you directly into a horde of grunts, who then get the opportunity to swarm you in a perfect eusocial fashion. Their anatomy differs more from typical glyphids than the rest of the solitary examples (different jaw, no large front appendages, tail), but I think their actually the closer connected. In fact, that anatomy difference is likely a result of them being part of the eusocial colony. It allows them the opportunity to pull off that hyper-specific evolution some eusocial insects do(such as those door ants), and their able to build a much more specific body than would be possible with the solitary creatures, who can only afford so much experimentation in evolution when they don’t have a colony to back them up, and so they must stick closer to the typical base form of a glyphid. So, overall, Stingtails function best at attacking with the obviously eusocial glyphids, and use their hyper-specialized abilities to reel prey into the horde, rather than separate it. This is why I believe they should be classified as a specialized soldier glyphid, rather than a solitary one.
