Sandspear

 

The Sandspear is a small, aggressive ambush hunting lifeform.

Appearance

The Sandspear can be found as a juvenile or adult. While similar in appearance, they have noticeable anatomical differences. They possess a light purple conical body that tapers towards the tail, which has a fin on either side, giving the impression of fletching on an arrow.

Around two-thirds of the way up the body are three pairs of legs. In juveniles, these are little more than spines, but in adults, they are full, segmented limbs. The legs are grey and terminate with a black claw, which is the only part of the leg visible in the juvenile.

The dorsal side is protected by pale grey shell plates:

• Juveniles: Possess four dorsal plates.
• Adults: Possess eight interlocking dorsal plates.

The foremost dorsal plate is a head shield bearing a large medial eye toward the back and two small pairs of lateral eyes behind the mouth. Smaller plates are present on the sides of the head. The head shield has a triangular notch in the front which interlocks with a protuberance on the posterior of the crescent-shaped horn. The eyes are black with yellow irises and slit-shaped pupils.

Oral Appendages

The Sandspear has eighteen oral appendages falling into three types:

1. Outermost (6): Largest appendages used for grasping prey like a beartrap. They are long, strongly curved, and have serrations close to the base.
2. Ventral (6): Similar structure to the outermost pairs but smaller. They form a basket structure beneath the main grasping appendages.
3. Mouth (6): Situated directly around the mouth, these are much smaller and recurved. They bear medial serrations up their entire length and are used for shearing the flesh of captured prey.

A long, pale blue proboscis extends from the mouth, resembling an anchored lifeform. When buried, the Sandspear holds this proboscis above the surface as a lure.

Behavior

Sandspears are commonly seen drifting slowly at the bottom of caves or the seabed. They are hostile and will attack players when approached, triggering a cutscene similar to those of larger predators.

They burrow into the ground, leaving only their teeth and a plant-like lure exposed to ambush prey. A burrowed Sandspear will get startled by light and swim away a short distance.

Note: Upon scanning a Growbed, the player receives a PDA message suggesting one should "consider growing juvenile sandspears for home defense." This is not currently possible in-game.

Databank Entry

Source: Scan a Sandspear

Psalidoprosopon kryptokonton, the scissor-faced hidden spear. A lurking ambush predator with a devastating spring-loaded bite.

1. Strandulate A crustacean-like organism with a segmented body and hard exoskeleton. Lacks the spinal nerve braid seen in this world's fish, but retains a nerve strand. The tail appears smooth and unarmored due to thickening of the intersegmental membrane. The sandspear's forward body is almost all jaw.

2. Ambush predator The sandspear burrows into soft sand and sediment, then waits for prey to pass above its jaws before striking. If its position is exposed, it will flee.

3. High tension jaw Hunting sandspears hold their glass-edged jaws under tension with a biological pulley system. Closure velocity exceeds 20 meters per second, penetrating plasticized armor and shearing through soft tissue.

Assessment: Be alert for sandspears lurking in the seafloor. Use light to expose and drive away.

Developer Remarks

• Remark A (Nahema Nakota): "Nothing needs to bite this hard. You wouldn't know it from the way they go after Tadpoles, but older specimens are actually pulling their bites. Maybe the hard-biting sandspears all break their jaws and die young?"
• Remark B (Zygimantis "Mantis" Tarvydas): "Is there a point to adding remarks? When Zip got reset NoA wiped her databank too."
• Remark C (Nahema): "Don't comply in advance, old timer. The more work NoA has to do to reset us, the happier I am."

Gallery

In Game

    

Development

Other

Trivia

• The Sandspear was initially proposed as a creature design for Subnautica: Below Zero.
• The Subnautica 2 iteration of the Sandspear was first shown in the Subnautica 2 Early Access Cinematic Trailer.
• The Sandspear somewhat resembles and shares behaviors with antlion larvae.
• The genus name "Psalidoprosopon" was suggested by a fan on the official Discord server.