Vulture Mask

Vulture Masks are objects used to protect weak spots: their heads. They can be obtained by hitting a Vulture's face with a or knocking it off with a powerful explosive. Unmasked Vultures are persistent and will pursue whatever removed their mask across multiple cycles.

After it has been knocked off the Vulture (or looted from its corpse), the mask can be worn in order to frighten off. A countdown timer is started when a Lizard sees wearing the mask, after which the Lizard will no longer run away, and will return to trying to hunt the player. The countdown length is 17.5 seconds for regular masks and 30 seconds for masks. Slugcat will wear the mask when not otherwise occupied with the hand holding it (e.g. while climbing, crawling or swimming). The mask has no collision with projectiles while being held. The mask cannot be thrown, only dropped. As with other items, a Lizard's tongue is capable of ripping the mask from Slugcat's hand.

Most Lizards will react to Slugcat with great fear while they are wearing a Vulture Mask. While they may still bite the Slugcat if they are close, they will typically make every effort to run away. ,, and Lizards are exceptions to this. Black Lizards are blind, and so do not even notice that the Slugcat is wearing a mask. Green Lizards are temporarily pacified around Vulture Masks, rather than scared. King Vulture Masks frighten lizards much more than normal masks, capable of scaring away even a Green Lizard. This is because normal Vultures are unable to eat them and ignore them, while King Vultures do target Green Lizards. Red Lizards ignore both Vulture and King Vulture masks when worn by the Slugcat and pursue them as normal, just as they would Vultures. Vulture Masks are prized by s, who will typically trade most weapons and resources for them, though they are not as highly valued as s. King Vulture Masks are valued even more highly, as high as Pearls, and Scavengers will trade any object for them.

A Vulture's Mask can only be removed by dealing more than 0.9 damage to its face. This means that the is unable to knock it off with standard spears, as its maximum damage is 0.9. Nevertheless, it is still possible to obtain masks as the Monk by using explosives or by relying on other creatures.

Trivia
   
 * While eating an object, Slugcat lifts the mask off their face. However, while swallowing an inedible object, Slugcat simply slips it under their mask.
 * Masks must be held in Slugcat's hands and cannot be swallowed for storage.
 * Red Lizards are the only Lizards capable of taking down Vultures and King Vultures. It is possible that they de-mask them too, which can lead to easy pickings for Slugcat.
 * Maskless Vultures are attacked by other Vultures with masks, suggesting some sort of status lost when de-masked.
 * After being removed from their Vulture or King Vulture, masks rapidly darken and saturate in color.