Stowaway

Stowaways, also known as Fog Demons or Pipe Mimics, are stationary predators exclusive to the Downpour DLC. They reside in dim underground areas, and utilize camouflage to ambush prey.

Appearance
The body is relatively small, and mimics the texture and appearance of pipes its attached to. Before triggered, the Stowaway's body is shrunken into their perch on the ceiling, with long grey tendrils reaching down to the floor, acting as sensors. When triggered, the body suddenly juts out and opens its maw, revealing five jagged faded pink teeth. Three long pinkish grey tentacles drop down from inside the mouth, almost quadruple the length of the main body. These tentacles each have a jagged hook at the end.

Combat
Fighting against Stowaways can be very tricky, as they're near invisible ambush predators with a fast attack. however, you can dispatch a Stowaway before its ambush is activated. It can easily be killed using a from a distance. Hitting a Stowaway's main body with reveals its exact location, making it easier to avoid or kill.

If the ambush attack is activated and successful, things get significantly more complicated. The Stowaway's three tentacles constantly attack a creature, keeping it in a stunned state, until it starts to pull its prey towards its mouth. Since its tentacles have hit boxes (much like and ), a  thrown into a tentacle at the opportune moment causes the Stowaway to release its grasp. s cause all Stowaways in the area to release their tentacles, before quickly retracting them. Cherrybombs also cause Stowaways to release everything in their grasp. Stowaways take 20 times less damage when a spear hits their tentacles so it is usually only viable to kill them with direct hits to the body.

Similar to other Arthropods, s can kill Stowaways.

Evasion
Evading a Stowaway is a much simpler task - as the ambush attack is only initiated if a creature is touching its sensory tendrils for a prolonged period of time, quickly passing underneath a Stowaway is enough to evade it. In the case that its ambush is initiated, its tendrils can be avoided by quickly running to one side of it until the is out of the Stowaway's reach. Creatures can be thrown or lured into the tendrils to activate them prematurely, since the Stowaway only focuses on one creature at a time, this can be used for safe passage while it's distracted.

Camouflage
Stowaways excel at blending into their environment, being almost completely invisible except for the sensory tendrils they let down to catch food. This is partially due to the environments and regions they reside in, being dark and filled with roots, pipes, and dead vegetation to mask themselves around. They sink slightly into the platform when in wait of prey to cover less surface area and be less visible, and stay that way until their sensors are triggered.

Hunting
Stowaways hunt in a unique and effective way: when the sensory tendrils are set off, they extend out from their perch in the ceiling to get closer to their prey. Then, using the three hooked tentacles they are sporting, they periodically stun their prey, making sure it is immobilized and does not have any way to fight back. Stowaways then bring the food up to their mouth, swallow it, and resume their place stuck snugly in the ceiling. When prey moves around while Stowaways are in an active state, they follow it with their mouth to ensure it is not only closer to being eaten, but so they can effectively launch their tentacles out.

Variants & attributes
The tentacle and tendril amounts never vary, but the teeth amount can, ranging from 4-6. The color of the body isn't variable, a brown-grey with darker grey stripes. The teeth can take on a shade of deep grey to light pink, and the tentacles have a gradient also ranging from grey to pink.

Trivia

 * Stowaways are found on the following rooms: sb_a01, sb_c01, sb_e04, sb_h02, sb_j01, cc_shaft01x, cc_strainer01, cc_sump05, oe_ruin17, oe_tower14, ug_a02, ug_c01, ug_gutter01, vs_b17, vs_d03.
 * Stowaways are one of the 4 Downpour creatures to not have an arena unlock. The other creatures that do not have an unlock are the, the , and the . Unlike the others however, this is likely due to game limitations as even if a player tries to force spawn Stowaways via mods or cheats they do not spawn correctly, usually crashing the game.
 * Spears quickly dislodge when embedded into a Stowaway's tentacles or body.
 * Stowaways bear a very similar appearance and functionality to Barnacles from the Half Life series.
 * Despite following the player with its mouth as if it possesses vision, it is blind, and is completely unaffected by ink.
 * Stowaway sensory tendrils can get caught on the inside of their mouth, leaving them unable to catch prey.
 * Stowaways are the fourth ambush predator added to Rain World, with the, , and coming before it.
 * Despite being creatures, Stowaways are placed into rooms as objects.
 * Due to their rarity, and their property of only activating on certain cycles, it is very common for players to play through the entirety of Downpour without coming across one.
 * Deactivated Stowaways can be awoken by hitting them with objects such as Rubbish.
 * Stowaways can be selected to be controlled in Safari Mode, but none of the controls do anything.