When I first had to deal with the Erchius Ghost, I found it underwhelming and annoying, as I found it to be little more than a way to make mining more difficult without adding much challenge; as the Ghost is rather easy to avoid, but is unable to be destroyed. However, I found the basic concept of an Erchius-related enemy that makes gathering fuel more difficult to actually be an interesting concept. I personally think the Erchius Ghost could be turned into a boss-like encounter. Erchius Ghost changes: Spawning changes: Rather than spawning and drawing near the player upon picking up fuel, obtaining either form of Erchius Fuel would cause a countdown to start before the Erchius Ghost spawns. The countdown gives a lot of time to gather fuel, but it goes down faster as the player collects Erchius Fuel, until it becomes a short while (It peaks at a 1-minute countdown, and starts at a 1-hour countdown). The countdown is graphically shown by the Spooked debuff "wearing off". Erchius Ghost changes: Health changes: The Erchius Ghost becomes vulnerable to damage, but has 10000 health (More than the Ruin). Behavior changes: 1-The current health drain radius as it currently stands is removed. 2 The Erchius Ghost has several new attacks: 1: Ghost Hand: One of the Erchius Ghost's hand will be extended and begin to chase the player. If they get to touch the PC, they will grab the Player and drain his/her health. In order to break free, the hand must be killed ( The hand has 250 health). 2: Erchius Bomb: The Erchius Ghost will spit Erchius Bombs from it's "mouth". The bombs will stop moving after a short while. They explode after 3 seconds or upon contact with the PC. After exploding, they will drop several Erchius Shards, which deal damage and will explode into more shards upon hitting the ground. The shards spawned after that act similar to fires caused by Molotov Cocktails, but despawn more quickly. 3: Erchius Beam: The Ghost fires a beam similar to that of the Erchius Horror from it's mouth. It will charge up first, allowing players to take cover, as it is highly damaging. 4: Erchius Blast: The Ghost summons an Erchius Ball and fires it at the PC. The ball fires secondary Erchius Plasma bolts which deal additional damage. The ball itself can be deflected back by shooting at it or hitting it with a melee weapon, which deals a lot of damage to the Ghost if it connects. 5: Erchius Plasma: The Ghost begins to shoot Erchius Plasma bolts from it's hands. The attack is inaccurate, but it shoots a lot of bolts. The bolts can also split into 2 more bolts mid-flight. 6: Summon Spectres: The Ghost summons Erchius Sprectres, which act as smaller, less powerful (As in Biome mob-level) versions of the Ghost. 7: Mega Beam: If 7 Erchius Balls are shot and none are reflected back at the Ghost, it will fire a Mega Plasma Beam. The Erchius Balls will orbit around the Ghost itself (Without shooting Erchius Plasma, that is). Once 7 are orbiting, they will be absorbed into the Erchius Ghost's mouth. After that, a huge (6 blocks thick) beam will be fired. It deals literally 9001 unblockable damage. This attack can only be used if the Erchius Ghost has at least 5000 health (This means that screwing up when it's nearly dead won't cause this attack to void the long time the fight would have taken). 8: Erchius Storm: This attack is triggered in the same circumstances as the Mega Beam, but the Ghost's health must be below 5000. The Ghost will put it's hands together and the balls will float into the hands. After that, it will then raise the "palms" towards the sky. Then, an Erchius Cube will appear in the Ghost's hands. The Ghost will throw the cube into the air. The cube will then shatter into several Erchius Blades. The Erchius Blades will then fire in random directions each, and will also change their direction 3 times (Once per second), making them unpredictable. Erchius Ghost Loot: You'll most likely be thinking "It's though as ****! I won't defeat it and it's loot will be horrible", and defeating it is an endgame challenge (If you do so early-game, you deserve a lifetime supply of cookies). It would be a pointless gimmick if the drops were rubbish, so here are the possible drops. 1: 500-750 Crystal Erchius Fuel. 2: A ton of Pixels. 3: A random Rare weapon (The drops scale up with the Player's tier). 4: 4-7 Manipulator Modules. 5: 8 Tech Cards. 6 1 Erchius Core, which can be turned in at Treasured Trophies for 5 weapons: 1: Erchius Blaster: This is an unique Shotgun which emulates the Erchius Plasma attack. It fires a high amount of pellets, and has a high fire rate. It is notable for being the only Shotgun with Spray 'n' Pray. The pellets will also split mid-flight.2: Erchius Launcher Unique Missile Launcher that emulates the Erchius Blast attack. It fires large Erchius blasts that shoot Erchius plasma bolts (These ones don't split). The secondary is a charge-up attack which causes it to fire a huge, slow beam at the target.3 Erchius Beam Gun: Unique Sniper Rifle based on the Erchius Beam attack. It will fire a hitscan beam that pierces through enemies by default. The secondary fire makes it less powerful, but it becomes able to fire through walls.4 Erchius Spear (Placeholder name): Unique Spear. The main attack causes it to act as you would have expected. The secondary attack will cause Erchius "waves" to be summoned and move through terrain.5 Erchius Staff: Unique Staff. It's primary attack summons a cluster of Erchius Blades. The secondary spawns a temporary area of effect which causes Erchius Spectres to chase any enemies that enter it.
I'm not talking about the boss, I'm talking about the appearance of the monster near fuel. On the topic, you forgot about the arena.
The arena is the Moon itself. Think of it as a randomly-spawning boss. As for the Ghost appearing near fuel, are you referring to how it behaves currently, or how it's suggested to spawn?
It is very uncomfortable arena, especially at depth. Like I said, this is not successful and a primitive restriction on fuel extraction.
Take into account that the current Erchius Ghost also puts a restriction on fuel extraction, and the current one spawns upon getting fuel, rather than having a countdown.
Sadly, as the devs added it, they most likely won't simply remove it, both because it means players have to buy fuel to get it safely, and so players want to get Engineers in their crew in order to save up on fuel.
The same way the player is doing so, assuming they're still extracting it after Erchius Ghosts began to appear.
erchius ghosts are implied to be a recent event by the devlog lore, maybe have this as a post-ruin superboss that stops normal ghosts from spawning in that universe.
The original intent of this suggestion was to make the Erchius Ghost more interesting, as there were quite a few complaints of it just plain being annoying back then.
will this be a mod soon? it seems like a pretty cool boss. though, maybe making the health a tiny bit lower would make it more easier to fight, and fair on the player.