With the resurgence of last November’s apex Overgrowth threat right around the corner, we want to tell you all about some of the changes we’ve made to refine and balance the Pinemaw into the challenge we always dreamed it to be: it will still pose a deadly threat, but our hope is that these changes will bring it from being just a hard fight to a hard and fun fight!

The Pinemaw WILL still require the feeding of a special Herbicide to harm it. The Print for this Herbicide will be seeded several times throughout the coming event and will be used for further Pinemaw encounters in the future.

The Pinemaw WILL NOT require a count of Root NPCs to be killed to knock it into Bleed Out. Instead, the puppeteer inside the Trunk will have a Body tally, and players will be able to attack the monster directly with Ranged Attacks and Strikes to the puppeteer’s arms, shoulders, and torso. Attacks to the exterior of the puppet will have No Effect - beat the player, not the prop!

Pinemaw Roots WILL still be present, but they have been very heavily nerfed to better serve a role as small harassers of PCs attempting to engage the Trunk.

The Pinemaw WILL still have a mix of Pheromone and Psionic calls. We have refined them, however, to be distinct in their functions, and more heavily favor Psionics. Pheromone calls are, as before, resisted using the Proficient ability of the Helscape Deathmask, while Psionic calls are resisted with Mental Endurance as normal. If an AoE or BMV call does not possess either of those carriers, it follows other resistance and counter rules as normal!

These changes are OOC knowledge related to what is fundamentally a mechanics patch; in-character, survivors are not intended to take this as a cue that the Pinemaw has mutated, evolved, or changed in any way.

Thanks for reading! Good luck out there, Survivor, and happy hunting!