Noodlefly

Noodleflies (frequently nicknamed "Noots" or "Nootflies") are neutral creatures, often seen flying around in groups of a single adult leading several infants.

Appearance
Adults have long, wiggly bodies, four wings, two oval eyes, vestigial legs and a stretchy tube-like mouth. They also possess a retractable needle which they use to fend off predators and other Noodleflies. Their bodies are mostly monotone, featuring a lighter strip of color in the middle, and slight gradients on the legs. Their teardrop-shaped wings are usually shades of white or grey, though they sometimes may transition into more vibrant colors closer to the body. The needle is initially white at the tip and a pale red near the mouth, and turns black shortly after being exposed to the air.

Combat
Adult Noodleflies are frail but fierce, making up for their low health with high mobility, which makes it very difficult to hit them from a distance while airborne. They utilize two attacks in combat: the poke - a quick, close-range, temporarily stunning jab, and the stab - a lethal, long range lunge with a well telegraphed wind-up. If dodged, the stab usually lodges the Noodlefly into a wall or floor, trapping it for around 3–4 seconds. They're unable to do anything while stuck, making those few seconds the perfect opportunity to kill it with a. Making contact with the very tip of the needle is often stunning, and may cause the Slugcat to drop any held items.

Evasion
Running away through tunnels or pipes makes for a good evasion strategy, since adults are unable to attack while slinking through one (however they may still attempt to attack from outside of a tunnel). Alternatively, the player may attempt to get very close (practically touching the Noodlefly's head), as doing so makes the Noodlefly unable to perform the stab, and may even cause it to fully retract the needle for a short amount of time.

Abilities & Behavior
Left unprovoked, Adult Noodleflies fly across the region with their offspring. They spend most of their time in the air, but are also capable of slinking through pipes and tunnels. Adults mainly keep to themselves, watching other creatures like the at a distance (with the exception of other Adult Noodleflies, who are always hostile to one another).

Dodge
Adult Noodleflies can swiftly dodge thrown objects such as Spears and. This move is on a very short cooldown, rendering them practically unhittable mid air.

Aggression
If an Adult Noodlefly perceives another creature as a threat to either it or its offspring (including when a is being held by the player), it becomes aggressive and begins hunting down the offending creature. Within the game's code, a value called tempLike determines a creature's relationship with an Adult Noodlefly. This number slowly increases over time, but certain actions lower it. If it falls below -0.25, the adult becomes hostile for as long as it stays there. Notably, being the closest to an injured Infant Noodlefly instantly sets this amount to -1, the lowest possible, which is why an adult can often stay aggravated for an entire cycle if it was angered this way. Attempting to chuck Spears or Rubbish at the Noodlefly, and hitting it with Rubbish also decreases the value. In practice this means that missing 50 throws with Rubbish, 12 throws with a Spear, or hitting one 16 times with Rubbish turns it hostile for a short period of time.

Infant Noodleflies
Infant Noodleflies share many physical traits with adults but are much smaller. They have slim, mostly monochrome bodies with a lighter strip of color in the middle, four wings, oval eyes and a mouth, but only two vestigial legs. They also produce much higher pitched sounds when compared to adults.

Infants are passive but try to stay away from other creatures. They stay close to their parent, sometimes holding into its tail as they fly around. Infant Noodleflies can be eaten, but cry out when grabbed or otherwise killed, alerting the nearest adult in the region.

Variants & Attributes
Adult Noodleflies have a large color range, sporting various shades of red, pink, purple, white or black, even blue and cyan. The ends of their wings and legs are oftentimes differently colored, but seem to use the same palette as the body. Their eyes are most often grey or white, but may very rarely be different colors instead. Infant Noodleflies have less variation in their palette, which mainly features many shades of red with a little pink, and some grey as well.

* Notes:
 * Every color is represented proportionately to its likeliness.
 * Only the main body color is shown here; various highlights, gradients, and differently-colored body parts may be added to it.
 * These colors are subject to change slightly depending on the palette of the room they are seen in. The ones shown here correspond to the default Outskirts palette.

Trivia

 * Noodleflies were added in the 1.5 update.
 * When grabbed, Infant Noodleflies die after a second, even if they are immediately released.
 * Infant Noodleflies can be hit with Rubbish without them crying out.
 * Dead Infant Noodleflies that are carried to the next cycle in a shelter cry out after taking a bite out of them, however the adult won't be alerted.
 * If an Adult Noodlefly is killed while stuck in a surface, it'll stay that way for a few seconds before falling off.
 * It's possible for two Adult Noodleflies to stab each other and die simultaneously.
 * When an Infant Noodlefly cries out, the nearest adult attacks the closest creature to the offspring, as opposed to the one that injured it. This makes spearing an infant from afar, or grabbing and tossing it a niche way of dealing with predators, and eating the infant without alerting the parent.
 * An Adult Noodlefly can also aggro onto an if it happens to be the closest. However, their stab is incapable of killing it, effectively locking them into chasing it around for the whole cycle.
 * If a Noodlefly parent is killed in a hibernation chamber and the children are still alive when hibernating, on the following cycle, the children spawn in the chamber whether they were there before or not.
 * If the previous glitch is performed and the babies are killed/eaten, a new Noodlefly spawns and starts hunting the player.
 * When used against other creatures, the stab deals a little more damage than a Spear thrown by the Survivor (1.22), and the poke deals the equivalent of 5 pieces of Rubbish (0.05).
 * If a Noodlefly has more than one target, it targets the closest one.
 * If the two targets are of similar distance away, it switches between them often causing it to miss.
 * Noodleflies might eat popcorn plants. If so, they likely use their needle to open the plants, and proboscis to suck out the nutrients.