Distorted
A Distorted is a person who has begun to become Invisible under the influence of Active Matter. Most Distorted avoid open, sunny places and spend most of their time sleeping. From a distance, a sleeping Distorted resembles a pile of rags on the ground. Before waking, a Distorted will make disturbing, frightening noises. Upon awakening, the Distorted's body, covered with sharp black growths, is surrounded by smoke. Attacks in close combat, does not use weapons. When moving, the Distorted can teleport short distances, up to 7 metres.
Notes
Description
Distorted are meant to be the basic anomaly enemy of Active Matter, they are a short ranged melee enemy that swarm the character once they are detected. they are able to rush the player and "can teleport short distances, up to 7 meters", leading to difficulty hitting shots as they approach you. They come in either a more common larger enemy with standard attacks, and a smaller version with a short ranged attack that knocks the player back and staggers them. standard attacks from the distorted have the chance to clock you back and stagger you for about a second, leading to your focus being interrupted.
They can spawn anywhere from factory rooms to (?) signals to set spawns on every map. Some places have set spawns for distorted to spawn, such as the church on Ozernoe and many of the factories on Factory. Do note that for example, you make enough noise in the factories in the map Factory, you will attract the entire building of distorted, which could be about 10 distorted. Avoid situations like this by using melee or luring them all out and killing them with a grenade. It is noted in game that they stay away from sunlight and in dark areas, but their spawns can be outside as well.
Distorted stay in a sort of "Deep sleep" when they spawn in. They remain in this status while they will occasionally look around, becoming aggravated if they see a player. They can become active when they hear a loud noise like a gunshot, so be careful when trying to avoid a swarm of them. They can be lured away individually if you throw a rock at them, so that can make for easier times.
Appearance
Distorted take the appearance of black humanoid anomalies with sharp spikes protruding from their body. They emit a kind of grunting that is distinct to them that can be heard from a good distance away, letting you be known of their location before you are swarmed by them. From afar they appear as a bunch of rags on the ground, but they can shine light back at you, alerting you to their location. It is seen that their heads are slightly darker than the rest of the body, which makes for an easy stealth insta-kill. A cloud of smoke is common around distorted as they attack you, however this isn't much of a hinderance as they move around a lot so the smoke never catches up and can actually be a problem for you.
Tips & Tricks
The best advice I can while taking on a few at a time is to aim for the head or beat the hell out of them. Any weapon works, but a shotgun is best when aiming for the head for an insta-kill. This can be done while they sleep, while they rush you, or while they're attacking you, but best do it before they know your there. If its too late and they're surrounding you with chaos, then pull out your melee and start swinging. It takes 2-3 hits per distorted given you have an adequate melee weapon, such as an axe, spear, cleaver, wrench, or Warhammer. knives take about 4-5 hits but swing fast so its a similar time to kill.
As stated before, you may be rushed down by a bunch of distorted at once. This is a moment where no amount of bullets can save you, but a well times grenade at your feet can save your life. To do this, pull the pin and throw it at your feet. then run as far as you can and hope you hit most of them. its likely there will be 1 or 2 stragglers but they're are easy to deal with. It is worth mentioning that running far enough away from their resting spot will cause them to de-agro on you, but it is more worth it to kill them than to run as that distance can be up to over a hundred meters.
+ There is a special move they do when retreating back to their sleeping spots. They appear to be walking normally but will do longer teleportation in shorter time. Be sure your able to identify when they are running away and what direction they were coming from, it could potentially lead to an enemy player. After enough experience with them, you can tell from the audio of their jumps and know that you aren't in any danger for now.
Drops
The distorted drops consistent "remains of distorted". This item can be refined for about 10 credits but are better turned into chronogenes. They can give either "Jump", "Endurance", or "Serenity" chronogenes, either being tier I or II. They can also drop the rare variant of the remains, which give out tier II or III of the "Jump" chronogene.
Distorted can also drop a multitude of common scrap. The loot pool is similar to that of jackets, with only small items being in their inventory (apart from keys). Overall, distorted are the best way to gain chronogenes to combine into random tier II or III chronogenes as they are the most common enemy you will come across in early game, only being beat out by hellhounds in more difficult maps.
Distorted drop 2-5 active matter upon their deaths, which is standard for humanoid anomalies.
