Exotech Larva

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SS:TSE
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Exotech Larva

Biographical information

Homeworld

Unknown

Maker

Mental

Status

Deceased

Died

Achaemenid Empire era
Persepolis, Marvdasht, Fars Province, Iran

Functions / Belongings

Rank / Occupation

Time portal guardian
Bodyguard

Attacks / weapons

Plasma cannons (30 direct + 30 splash damage per orb)
Laser (50 per beam, hits twice)

Equipment

Wall Chargers

Abilities

Immense durability and endurance
Large size
Regeneration
Summon Biopods

Physical description

Species

Insect

Gender

Unknown

Height

30 ft (9.1 m standing)

Eye color

Blue-green

Cybernetics

Various

Chronological and political information

Era

Achaemenid Empire

Affiliation

Mental's Horde

Game information

Point value

500,000 (Serious Sam: The Second Encounter & Serious Sam: Xbox)
50,000 (Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter)

Entity name

Larva

"What are you screaming for? The pain hasn't even started yet!"

―Sam after one of the Larva's arms blows apart^[src]

The Exotech Larva is a large cybernetic insect that was created by Mental to serve as the guardian of the Bablyonian time portal in Persepolis. It is the second boss of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter and the third boss of Serious Sam: Xbox and Serious Sam Classics: Revolution. The Larva serves as the secondary antagonist of The Second Encounter.

Biography[]

The Exotech Larva is a large insect-like creature that has been heavily modified and experimented on in an attempt to create an obeying bodyguard for Mental.^[1] With the success of creating similar cyborgs, the Bio-mechanoids, he decided to go even further. Mental created the creature by combining robotic parts with an even simpler organic creature - an insect larva.

The Larva was heavily armed and put into a 'strength multiplicator' device to enhance its abilities and endurance. However, during this process, the Larva tried to assassinate Mental at least 17 times.^[1] After many hours of trying to teach the Larva the difference between himself and a common caterpillar, Mental gave up and decided to give his hideous creation a new job; guarding the time portal inside the Tower of Babel.

Appearances[]

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter[]

Upon arriving at the Tower of Babel in the grand city of Persepolis, Sam is warned by NETRICSA about a "monster" that lives inside the tower. She believes that this beast spoken about in Babylonian legends is actually a creature that was tasked with guarding the Sirian time portal inside.^[2]^[3]

Searching about the nearby yards, Sam acquires three tablets of wisdom, which are needed to unlock the door to the tower. Once inside, a large mechanical door opens, revealing the hideous Exotech Larva, who is ready to fight Sam. During the fight, the Larva attacks him using its energy cannons, summoning Biopods and utilizing powerful lasers, but Sam ultimately defeats the monster, and with that, the time portal activates, sending Sam forwards in time to the Medieval era.^[3]

Behavior and skills[]

The Larva has two attacks; firing large, bouncy plasma balls, and spawning little creatures called Biopods from somewhere on its body. After taking enough damage, one of its arms will blow up and fall off the Larva, making it weaker. When around 2/3rds of its health are gone, the last arm will fly off.

After the creature's second arm has been blown off, it will enter its final phase; the wires that used to connect the arms will start firing deadly lasers that will hit something as soon as they are fired. These lasers do much more damage than the orbs, especially considering that they can hit twice, requiring the player to hide behind cover in order to avoid it. The Larva's plasma balls and lasers can gib players upon killing them due to being capable of dealing over 50 points of damage of the Explosion type. The plasma balls can bounce off hard surfaces easily and will only explode upon impact with a living entity.

Tactics[]

As soon as the player enters the Larva's room, they should skip the cutscene and shoot a charged-up SBC Cannon cannonball at every generator in the room. There is one on the center part of each side of the room. One charged-up cannon shot will destroy each generator in one shot, preventing the Larva from regenerating its health.
- The player can open the door to the Larva's room and destroy a few of the generators in the room beforehand. The RAPTOR Sniper Rifle is a highly useful weapon for this.
Whilst fighting the Larva, make sure to always be near a pillar. The Larva's orbs, and later, lasers, are very powerful, but they'll have no effect if they hit a pillar the player is hiding behind.
If it becomes difficult to hide behind a pillar because of how close the Larva is, switch to another pillar as soon as it's done firing. Being further away makes it easier to hide from its attacks.
The Larva has an alarmingly high 75% resistance to cannonball damage (50% in classic, Xbox, and Revolution), so don't use the cannon against it except as a last resort.
Rapid-fire weapons such as the XL2 Lasergun and XM214-A Minigun will work great against the Larva because it lets the player attack both the Larva and the Biopods it spawns. While the damage may not be as high as something like the rocket launcher, it does make it much easier to kill the creatures the Larva spawns while doing damage to the Larva itself.
In the Serious Sam Classics: Revolution version of the game, using the XL4-P 'Ghostbuster' Beam Gun against it is ill-advised, as while it boasts a high firerate it is incapable of hitting the creatures it spawns. This is likely a bug arising from its inconsistent hitbox.
The MK III Grenade Launcher and XPML21 Rocket Launcher work well against the Larva, but they make it much more difficult to kill the creatures the Larva spawns at close range, as killing one as close range puts the player at risk from being harmed from their own rocket or grenade exploding near them.
When the last arm is being blown off, the player should immediately run to one of the pillars and make sure the Larva can't see them. The lasers the Larva fires are notably more damaging than its orbs are, and being out when it first starts firing will either take away a lot of health or outright kill the player.
During the final phase of the fight, the eerie sound it makes is a big hint that the Larva is about to fire its lasers. As soon as this sound is heard, run behind a pillar and stay there until the zapping sound from its lasers firing is gone. After that, attack it again until its lasers start to fire at the player.
- Should the player run out of bullets and electricity, they can use explosive weapons or the Double Barrel Coach Gun as a last resort.
There is a useful but cheap trick for fighting off the Larva. Between ball volleys, at least one player must run up to the center of it with the P-LAH Chainsaw and start attacking it until the chainsaw starts slicing up the creatures it spawns. The players will be too close for the Larva to hit with its orbs and the creatures will be killed as soon as they appear, which makes it completely harmless. This is very useful in co-op, as it lets the other players attack the Larva without having to worry about things like hiding behind pillars. However, this tactic should be abandoned as soon as the last arm is blown off, as its lasers will be able to hit the players while they're chainsawing the Larva.

Powers and abilities[]

Incredible Durability and Endurance: The Exotech Larva was incredibly tough, given its high amount of hitpoints. Thus, it took a considerable amount of time for Sam to kill it, even with his strongest weapons.
Weaponry: The Larva was equipped with two energy cannons that it would rapidly fire plasma balls at the target. If the Larva's two arms were destroyed, the Larva would resort to its backup weapon - a laser - that could fire powerful and damaging beams at its target.
Summon Biopods: The Larva could, once it sensed it was under attack, create Biopods which would pursue the target and explode into them, dealing damage. The Larva could summon an infinite number of these creatures.
Regeneration: The Larva had the ability to regenerate some of its health, so long as the wall chargers connected to it remained active.^[1]

Appearance[]

The Larva was a large caterpillar or grub-like insect creature with green eyes and gaping maw with a pink "tongue" and multiple rows of serrated teeth. A feature typically found in insects, the Larva had six limbs (four cybernetic ones, two natural), the four of which were cybernetically augmented to its body where it would store its weapons.^[3] The creature possessed a large number of cybernetic parts, most notably the large cable that stuck out of its head, which would provide the creature with power and enabled it to recharge itself if it had taken enough damage.

Related achievements[]

Serious Sam Classics: Revolution[]

Once Upon a Time in Babylon

Kill the boss and complete the Persia episode.

Trivia[]

In the classic version of the game, the Larva's gibs are shown after it explodes, though in the HD and VR renditions, they are not shown.
The Larva's boss music theme is an instrumental rearrangement of "As Above So Below" by Undercode, from their album "Enlightening the World". It was later reused for the Cecil boss fight in Serious Sam 2.
- A modern rearrangement of "As Above So Below", titled "Above All Hope", appears in Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem as the music for the Horus Sanctuary survival map.
In the Serious Editor, there are two SS1 projectile types associated with the Larva: Larva plasma (plasma orbs) and Larva tail (Biopods). The former projectile type was later reused by the Hatchling and Juvenile Antaresian Spiders in Serious Sam Fusion for their green acid projectiles on at least Hard difficulty.
In pre-Fusion releases, an on-screen obituary message reading "Exotech Larva reduced [player name] to pulp." will appear if the Exotech Larva kills a player in co-op.