Pole Plant



Pole Plants are cleverly hidden plantlike predators which, at a glance, look like any other pole to be climbed on.

Behavior
When awaiting prey, a Pole Plant will wrap its leaves around itself and stand perfectly straight upwards, mimicking a simple pole for climbing.

When a creature grabs onto a Pole Plant, it will reveal its true form, latching onto the creature tightly with its red leaf-like appendages, and subsequently pull the creature down into its den to be eaten. If the creature manages to escape, however, it will attempt to follow its movement.

Sometimes, as a creature walks past a Pole Plant, a leaf or two will pop out. They may even pulse their leaves outwards, revealing telltale flashes of red. If a creature were to stand directly at the base of a Pole Plant in its dormant state for too long, it may attempt to grab it and pull it down into its den.

The pull of a Pole Plant is strong enough to grab even creatures as strong as a vulture, but Pole Plants do have low health compared to most other creatures, typically dying to a single spear throw unless playing as the Monk.

Relationships

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Combat
If a piece of rubbish is thrown at a Pole Plant, it will writhe around in annoyance and enter an active state. While in an active state, Pole Plants have a tendency to grab any creature within range and actively attack any creature that passes by it. Activating a Pole Plant can be an effective way to get away from pursuing predators, such as lizards, as most creatures are afraid of them. If the player is grabbed, hitting the Pole Plant with rubbish or spears will cause it to let go.

Hitting a Pole Plant with a spear will cause it writhe around in pain. In this panicked state, the plant cannot actively grab the player; the player has a window in which they can retrieve the spear before the plant retreats underground. (However, if the Pole Plant is killed by the spear throw, the player may accidentally grab the Pole Plant's corpse instead of the spear, causing the player to be softlocked and trapped in the den until the rain comes.)



Evasion
Pole Plants can be distinguished from normal poles, as they are slightly redder than real poles and will always have missing rust spots along the edges. Another way to discover Pole Plants is to open up the map view; as the map only shows solid geometry, "poles" which are not visible on the map will always be hidden Pole Plants instead. Additionally, Pole Plants can be detected by the yellow overseer, which will indicate the Pole Plant's location with the flashing red and yellow predator "warning" symbol (along with the region's threat music playing, assuming the region has a threat theme).

Pole Plants will only activate if they are grabbed, so the player can avoid them by walking or jumping past. If a pole plant is accidentally grabbed, the player has a small window to escape before they are pulled in.

Trivia

 * Pole Plants cannot be tranquilized by Spitter Spiders' Dart Maggots.
 * Pole Plants tend to face upwards, but can also be found facing sideways (in Sky Islands) and downwards (in one room in Farm Arrays). These variants of Pole Plants are much more difficult to escape when activated due to not having level geometry near them to aid evasion and combat.
 * Certain Pole Plants can lineage into Monster Kelp after being killed enough times. This can cause certain routes to become much more difficult, as Monster Kelp tend to be much harder to evade than Pole Plants. However, Monster Kelp may alternatively cause the surrounding area to be safer, as they actively attack other creatures whereas Pole Plants will only attack when provoked.
 * The insects released by Beehives will not attempt to attach to Pole Plants. In addition, Pole Plants will not block thrown beehives.
 * Even as they die, Pole Plants can sometimes grab on to creatures that are too close and pull them in.