We're thrilled to share with you the latest addition to the wilds of Ithero - the Grilgora.

In case you missed it, you can read up on our Lore Forge piece on the Grilgora here.

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Creature Profile: Grilgora

At first glance, the Grilgora might seem like an unlikely pairing of a frog's head with a crocodile's body. But don't let its bizarre appearance fool you—this creature is far from friendly. The Grilgora is highly territorial, and any adventurer straying into its domain will quickly find themselves face-to-face with a brutal and relentless foe.

The Grilgora's tough, leathery skin makes it a formidable opponent, even for the most seasoned warriors. Melee combat is strongly discouraged unless you come well-equipped. So prepare yourself for some intense battles!

If you plan to go brawling with it, make sure you are exceedingly well-prepared!

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Grilgora Variants

We wanted to keep things interesting and diverse, so we've created three distinct Grilgora variants, each adapted to a specific environment:

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Marshland Grilgora

This is the basic variant. Marshland Grilgoras are found lurking in the boggy marshlands of Ithero. Their green, mottled skin helps them blend into the swampy surroundings, making them a oft unforeseen adversary. And once they've decided that you've encroached on their territory they won't hold back!
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Don't let their size mislead you. Through the use of their powerful tails they are able to jump and sprint over rough terrain quickly, closing the distance to their foes. For those who came unprepared, they can easily overwhelm even veteran adventurers.

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Mountain Grilgora

These mountain-dwelling variants have evolved to blend into the rocky terrain. They pile dirt and rubble on their backs, serving as effective camouflage, often making them difficult to spot until it's too late. They have also learned to incorporate their surroundings as a form of self-defence. Piling up rubble is not just an aesthetic choice, these mountain dwelling variants can utilize the stones and pebbles on their backs as projectiles when foes are in close proximity.

They have been observed purposefully flicking around their tails, tossing sharp edged rocks in a radius around them to ward off attackers while making their escape in the ensuing clouds of dust.

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Overgrown Grilgora

Perhaps the most visually striking variant, Overgrown Grilgoras are found most commonly in lush caverns and jungles, but have been known to appear around their marshland counterparts. They have bushes, mushrooms, or other small flora growing directly on their bodies, which helps them blend seamlessly into their lush surroundings.

These Grilgora have evolved from their base counterparts with their very own venom sacks, making their otherwise safe saliva toxic, and lethal in large doses. These Grilgora tend to keep their distance, attempting to dissuade attackers with a rain of venomous saliva. Get too close, and their simple bites may also leave a lasting mark.

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Behind the Scenes Details

The Grilgora has more than 10 different skin variants across three distinct types that share some gameplay mechanics but introduce new and unique ones to keep their encounters fresh.

Here are some stats on the Grilgora and it's development:

• Length: They will range anywhere between 3.5 to 4.5 meters in length as adult creatures.
• Development Time: The entire process from design, modeling, texturing and in-game implementation took about 200 hours (across 2 months).
• Model Complexity: They average around 11 bones for their models, with anything between 35 and 90 components comprising it's various details.
• Animations: We've opted for a baseline of about 11 distinct animations for each Grilgora with its variants having 1 or 2 more for their additional abilities.
• Textures: Working hard on minimizing resource pack sizes we've successfully fit all variants on two 128x128 textures with space left over for future variants.

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Animations

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Coming Soon to Ithero

We've been testing and fine-tuning the Grilgora's behavior and combat mechanics to ensure it provides an engaging and challenging experience. Our design and development team has worked tirelessly to bring this creature to life, infusing it with unique animations, sound effects, and more.

As always, we'd like to thank the Lumenshard community for your ongoing support. We're excited to bring the Grilgora to you and can't wait to see your encounters with this new creature. Stay tuned for more updates on its release and other upcoming developments!

Happy adventuring!

The Lumenshard Development Team

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Supporting Lumenshard's Growth

This project is currently being funded entirely by the developers of the project, and as we continue to grow in experience and in community we can’t help but be so deeply appreciative of the support we’ve been receiving from you all as of late.

If you’re feeling generous and would like to become a paid supporter of the project to help us with continued development, please feel free to check out our Patreon. All of the public facing behind the scenes content we share is through our Discord so be sure to stop by there as well.

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