Enemies (Turnament series)

A list of enemies in the games Turnament and Rust Bucket.

General game information
All enemies are destructible and can harm the player on contact. They will follow Rust Bucket and will only move when the player does so. In Turnament, enemies will always move towards the player even if the character is unreachable. In Rust Bucket, however, they will stand idle if there is no target nearby, and they will prioritise the target that is the closest to them (villagers, green knights or Rust Bucket).

Slimes
Slimes are the first enemies encountered in the Turnament series.

Appearance
Slimes in Turnament appear as green blobs with two small white pixels for the eyes. When they are preparing to attack, they will jump in place at a fast pace.

In Rust Bucket, slimes appear blue on the inside, and have a mouth. When they are about to move towards the player, their blue outline will turn light-red.

Game information
Slimes generally move towards the player or chase them, making a move every two times the player moves. They follow a pattern of readying their attack one turn, then attacking. When readying an attack, the slimes move up and down, as if preparing to pounce. After the player's next turn, slimes will move one tile. When they are not bobbing up and down, they are unable to attack the player and can be easily killed in this stage.

In Rust Bucket, it is possible to find slimes hiding in pots. They will be in their idle state when the player cracks the pot open and they start moving after the next turn.

Slime towers
Slime towers are enemies in Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Slime towers look like a pile of three slimes stacked on each other. They all are conjoined to form one big enemy. The slime tower only has one mouth and two eyes on its top part, despite being composed of three slimes. The independent slimes which are part of the tower are a bit smaller than usual slimes so that the slime tower enemy is not too big compared to other normal enemies. Much like regular slimes, the tower will be resting when not moving, and will have a red outline when it is about to move.

Game information
Slime towers first appear in level 13 and have the exact same behaviour as regular slimes. They will wait one turn without moving, and will move one tile the other turn, appearing more aggressive when they are about to move. Attacking a slime tower will result in it breaking out into three normal slimes. The slimes will appear in every tile adjacent to where the tower was defeated, except for where the player, obstacles or other entities are. The state of the slime which are generated when killing a slime tower depends on the sate of the tower when it was killed. If the tower was idling when killed, the summoned slimes will be in their idle state (and vice versa). Since the slimes won't appear if their spawning tiles are obstructed with obstacles, gaps or even enemies, it is possible to reduce the amount of slimes created by defeating a slime tower depending on the environnement. Splitting a slime tower at the correct moment can sometimes be necessary to solve a level, as some puzzles require three enemies to be standing on heavy buttons at the correct time to open a gate.

Because the slimes that spawn after defeating a slime tower will appear in every empty tile adjacent to where the tower was, it is possible to have a slime tower split into 4 slimes if it is killed by a fire tile or a fireball. However this behaviour is likely unintended as slime towers' design only show three slimes.

Trivia

 * Slime towers was probably similar to Jumping ball towers in Bad Ice-Cream.

Skulls
Skulls are enemies in the Turnament series.

Appearance
In Turnament, skulls have the appearance of white craniums with black eyes and two teeth.

In Rust Bucket, skulls appear much more cylindrical, like the player. They are beige-coloured with red round eyes, with a slit as their nose and three teeth.

Game information
Skulls move every time the player moves. They are dangerous to touch, as they kill the player in contact.

Skull statues
Skull statues first appears in level 14 of Rust Bucket and are a skull variant.

Appearance
Skull statues, like their boar counterpart, are stone skull statues on a round pedestal. They are not animated like regular enemies, but can still move around. Their gold variant will appear bright yellow with a red outline.

Game information
Skull statues have the exact same behaviour as regular skulls. They will chance down the player, moving one tile per turn. Much like Boar statues, they cannot be defeated directly by the player, Green knights or even fire. They can only be defeated with bombs or by teleporting onto them. This resistance to most forms of damage make them a core mechanic of most castle levels. They can appear in Endless Mode, although much rare than most other enemies.

Much like golden boar statues, skull statues have their own golden variant. They will share every property of the normal skull statues, but are very rare and only appear in Endless Mode. They will drop a coin upon death.

Leaping enemies
Spiders are enemies in Turnament and demons are enemies in Rust Bucket. They have the exact same behavior in both games, and only differ in appearance.

Appearance
Spiders have a black body, four black legs, and four red eyes. Demons are dark-red square-shaped creatures with bright pink eyes and two dark-blue bat wings. They have two legs similar to teeth, which make them look similar to skulls.

Game information
Spiders and demons home in on the player. They jump two tiles through the air, staying in the air for one turn. When airborne, both enemies can be stood under safely. Their jumping ability makes them hard to kill, so it is much easier to avoid them than attack, as they are rarely mandatory to kill in order to progress in the game.

Squids
Squids are enemies in Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Squids look like pale pink squids with a single yellow eye and four tentacles which they use to sand on.

Game information
Squids first appears in level 12 and are also found in the Endless Mode of Rust Bucket. Squids can only move diagonally. They cannot attack the player or a green knight directly next to them, as they can only move or attack one tile in each four diagonal directions. Since they cannot move into walls or pits, they can be blocked where the player or most other enemies are unable to. Unlike most enemies which move in straight directions, squids will teleport as they move diagonally, allowing them to teleport to it even when they have something next to them.

Mimics
Mimics are enemies in Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Mimics have the exact same appearance as treasure chests. When active, they will show their two white pointy teeth and long purple tongue.

Game information
Mimics only appear in Endless Mode when the player has a minimum of 5 points. They appear exactly like treasure chests, making it impossible to differentiate mimics from regular chests. Once the player is in a two-tile diamond-shaped radius of them, they will become active and start following Rust Bucket, moving one tile per turn.

Contrary to chests, mimics will only give the player one coin when killed and will disappear instead of staying as an obstacle to the player. Green knights can approach mimics without activating them, meaning that it is safer for the player to use a green knight to open chests.

Brain monsters
Brain monsters are enemies in Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Brain monsters are large pink brains with one large white eye. Their body is in the shape of a dark pink cylinder and they have four tentacles to stand on.

Game information
Brain monsters are first found from level 12 and are also found in Endless Mode and are the only type of enemy in Rust Bucket which does not move. Brain monsters always remain idle and therefore can easily be killed by the player.

Brain monsters will try to spawn other enemies to attack the player. They will first think about the enemy they want to generate, which will appear in a small thinking bubble above their head. On the next turn, the new enemy will appear in a tile adjacent to them and start attacking the player. They will spawn one new enemy every four turns, doing nothing for two turns, thinking about the enemy they want to create on their next turn, and finally creating it one turn after. If they are out of reach of the player or the adjacent tiles are in a dark area, they will perform the exact same process but will fail to summon the enemy. In this case, the enemy icon that will appear before they attempt to summon the enemy will be grayed out.

Brain monsters can spawn many types of enemies, but one brain monster will always create the same type until it is killed. The type of enemy each brain monster is assigned to spawn is random each time the player encounters a new brain monster in Endless Mode, but is pre defined in levels. The ability of creating enemies, some being very difficult to deal with in certain environments such as Boar statues, makes brain monsters one of the toughest enemies of the game, despite being immobile.

Ghosts
Ghosts are enemies in Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Ghosts are white cylindrical creatures with circular indents at the bottom of their body. They have a W shaped mouth and two eyes that switch between yellow, orange and red. When going through walls, their eyes and mouth is the only part of their body that can be seen and they are surrounded by white sparkles. Upon death, they will disappear in white fumes.

Game information
Ghosts have the same movement as skulls, being able to move one tile per turn. They only appear in Endless Mode once the player has seven or more points. Contrary to other enemies in the game, they are not obscured by walls or obstacles, and can therefore move through them. As an exception to this, ghosts cannot go through the pots or bombs. They are able to go through blocks to reach their target. When inside a wall, they are still vulnerable and can still be defeated by the player if Rust Bucket is standing next to them. They will not factor in obstacles when trying to pathfind to their target, and will always take the shortest route, regardless of the potential obstacles in the way.

Centipedes
Centipedes are enemies in Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Centipedes have multiple parts, one head and some body segments. All parts are cylindrical and greyish-blue coloured, with a slightly darker cross on top. Body elements have multiple arthropod legs. The head is taller, with a darker middle section, and has no legs. It also has two white fangs and a circular red mouth whole, but no eyes.

Game information
Centipedes are the only enemy in Rust Bucket to be composed of multiple parts. They always have a head, and often other body segments. The head is the only part of the centipede which tries to move towards the player, moving one tile per turn, while each body element will follow the head's movement. The player can attack any part of the centipede, which will defeat it but leave the other segments alive. A centipede will always have a head, so killing its head will transform the body element before it into a new one. Killing a body element of a centipede will separate it into two separate centipede, with two separate heads. The newly created head will be from the element right next to the part which was cut off. A centipede will only be defeated once each one of its segments are destroyed.

A giant centipede serves as a pseudo-boss in level 10. After defeating a large pack of slimes, boars and skulls; the player will enter the centipede's room, with fire tiles and giant skull statues at the entrance. The centipede is made out of 22 parts, which all have to be defeated for the player to reach the end. The player can use pots, or can turn around obstacles to reach the body elements of the centipede.

In Endless mode, centipedes only appear after reaching a score of 8. They will only appear as small, and can even appear as just a head, in which case they behave exactly like skulls.

Living stumps
Living stumps are enemies in the castle levels of Rust Bucket.

Appearance
Living stumps look like square-shaped light brown wood logs. They have a large single yellow eye as well as two small green leaves on top of their body. They also have tree teeth, which makes them look like wooden skulls. Once attacked, they will turn grey, like if they were petrified. They will close their eye, their leaves will turn brown and a crack will appear on them.

Game information
Living stumps will chase after the player like skulls, going one tile per turn. Once attacked, they will not disappear but rather stay as obstacle, much like chests. They will stay petrified for two turns, will start opening their eye after three turns, and will come back to life four turns after they are attacked. As such, they cannot be defeated completely simply by attacking them. Living stumps can be killed by fire if stepping on fire or by being petrified on them. They can also be killed by bombs in both their normal and petrified state.

Medusas
Medusas are enemies in Rust Bucket

Game information
Medusas first appears in level 17. They will move one tile per turn, like most enemies of the game. They have the ability to walk sideways, like skulls, but also diagonally like squids. Medusas are therefore able to attack anything within a 1-tile square radius around them.

Trivia

 * Although real spiders have eight legs, spiders in Turnament have four. This is likely due to the limitations of the pixelated art-style.
 * Many enemies resembles Chess pieces: Skulls behaves like rooks, Slimes like pawns, Boars like knights, Medusas like Queens and Squids like Bishops.
 * In few Nitrome's blog posts where early game footage is shown, a beta version of skulls can be seen, in which they have two legs to walk on . This was later scrapped for the version of skulls that can be seen in the finished game.