Crucible Hunter - Bugg (Botani Mark One unit)

Graphic compiled by reddit user starsleeps

The Botani Mark One unit (Bugg for short) is one of the Crucible essence Hunters. This cute little mechanical robot is one of Crucible's more unique characters. Bugg can place down plants as tesla-style turrets. This hunter can also temporarily give powerful shields to himself and nearby allies. Bugg can also fly through the air with his thrusters which look to have no cooldown. Finally this essence hunter can also cropdust the ground, creating an area on the ground that slows and damages enemies.

Bugg is likely to be more of a supportive utility character than a solid DPS like Ajonah. His ability to get height on people could make him very useful to get unique angles to fire from and catch people off guard. The flower turrets have a lot of potential to be used for assassination, hiding them in bushes or under cover. There is a lot of potential in using these turrets to lock down a position behind cover that players can run to when being chased.

Overview

Bugg is a supportive utility essence hunter whose primary focus is on locking down areas of the map with turrets and supporting allies with extra damage, distractions, an alternative firing angle, and massive health buffs in the form of shields. This hunter excels at working with the team and controling objective areas.

Bugg's hunter stats:

Bugg is designed to be a support character whose focus is on utility and mobility. His base health is not particularly high and his damage is possibly low.

Bugg's abilities:

Bugg's abilities focus more on locking down, controlling areas, and working with teammates than it does damage. While Bugg can do damage, it's hard to get the full potential of Bugg without working with the team and terrain.

Thusters

Bugg's thruster ability allows him to fly up into the air at a foward angle to get a height advantage and angles over his opponents. It appears to have no cooldown, so Bugg can do this whenever he wants.

Sprayer

Bugg's primary fire is the sprayer which deals damage to enemies and also activates his seed pods that have been planted. This weapon fires a projectile that travels foward in an arc, going up and then falling back to the ground. These projectiles fire fast but travel relatively slow, making it difficult to hit targets at long ranges.

Seed Pods

Bugg's seed pod ability allows him to place the equivilent of turrets on the ground. These fire like projectiles that follow a similar arc as the sprayer shots. After placing a seed pod, Bugg must spray it once with his sprayer to activate it. After being sprayed it quickly grows to full size and begins zapping nearby enemies for damage. Bugg can have up to 3 pods out at any given time and the ability has a short cooldown. The cooldown activates when the pod has hit the ground, not when it is fired (not confirmed).

The flower lose health when they deal damage, eventually draining away all their HP.

Crop Dust

Bugg drops 5 poison pellets behind him which spray out noxious fumes in the are around them. These fumes damage and slow any enemies that pass through them. Once this ability is activates the 5 pellets drop one by one with no way to stop them or control the timing of their drops (unconfirmed). The pellets drop behind Bugg, players have to be mindful of this when trying to cover a specific area with the crop dust.

The cooldown for this ability starts after the last poison pellet has been dropped.

Shield Charge

Bugg charges up and then releases a shield that is granted to himself, nearby allies, and any nearby plants. This shield is quite powerful and can easily change the tide of an engagement because of all the extra health. Shield Charge has a long charge up and the cooldown doesn't begin until the ability is done casting.

Strategy

Bugg is designed to be a supportive character. Having this hunter on the team makes it much easier to lock down objectives and control points. The turrets create good distrctions, and when placed correctly can deal a surprising amount of damage. Bugg's shield ability can change the tide of a battle almost instantly, and his thruster ability can allow him to get firing angles that enemies cannot deal with.

Generally Bugg wants to play near his team whenever possible to get maximum value out of his shield ability. When fighting over an objective, like the heart of the hive, Bugg can find nearby objects, like rocks, and place his plant turrets behind them. If the team gets pushed back from the objective they can run past these rocks, forcing the enemies to deal with the turrets. Once the enemy has fallen into the trap players can quickly attack back for some easy kills, especially if Bugg's shield ability is ready.

The thrust ability can prove to be extremely useful for taking high ground control in certain areas. Once Bugg has the high ground it's much easier to aim his primary fire sprayer and to place the seed pods accurately. Because Bugg's sprayer travels in an arc, it's dramatically easier to use from high ground than it is from low ground. Not only this, but controling high ground forces enemies to watch two different angles at once, making them vulnerable and decreasing their average damage output.

Essence Upgrades

Bugg has an interesting upgrade path on his skill tree. He can focus more on healing, shields, and mobility, or instead he can increase his damage potential. A mix of both is also a viable option. Players can only choose one perk per level, so choose wisely.

Level 1 Upgrades:

Level 2 upgrades:

Level 3 upgrades:

Level 4 upgrades:

Level 5 upgrades: