Sand Shark

Template:Class 2 Fauna The Sand Shark is an aggressive life form belonging to the fauna category. It dwells mostly in the Grassy Plateaus and the Dunes. They prefer to stay close to the sea floor and rarely wander near the surface.

Appearance

The Sand Shark's body is segmented and their dorsal side is completely covered with an exoskeleton, having a steel blue upperside and a dull orange underside, with a brief gap where its muscle can be seen. Short legs appear in two rows of six on its underside, used to disturb the surface of sand.

The Sand Shark's head features four yellow eyes, which are divided into sets of two on each side, and a large fin-like protrusion on the top. It has a rather large mouth having six rows of sharp, jagged teeth, which continue to go down the Sand Shark's throat.

Behavior

As its name implies, the Sand Shark tends to burrow into the sand and waits for unsuspecting prey to swim by for an ambush attack. When it does so, sand clouds start to form more and more dense in the surrounding area.

Once its prey, or the player themselves, has approached close enough, the Sand Shark will emerge from the sand and chase them. The Sand Shark swims at a rather fast pace and can catch up to the player should they swim in a straight line. To evade this, swim in a zig-zag pattern or retreat to the safety of a submersible. If the player can reach to the surface or evades damage for long enough, the Sand Shark will break off the chase and return to its previous location.

Sand Sharks themselves make no attempts to dodge attacks, simply swimming in a straight line. As such, they are easy to repel with blasts from the Repulsion Cannon or a Torpedo System

Data Bank Entry

A segmented exoskeleton makes this a slow but powerful predator. The rows of feet on the lifeform's underside are ill-designed for ambulation - instead they are used to disturb the surface of the sand so the lifeform can burrow into the ground, from where it may ambush its prey.

Prey: Herbivores up to twice its size

Assessment: Avoid suspicious sand clouds