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The upcoming expansion to the already incredible factory-building title Factorio is shaping up to be one of my most highly anticipated releases of this year. With over 1,000 hours—rookie numbers to some—in the resource management meets base builder, the promise of new content to explore is alone enough to excite me. But every Friday, developer Wube Software has been showcasing a new feature, system, or element that will be present in Factorio: Space Age. And today, they revealed our first new threat in the expansion: terrifying Pentapod creatures.

In the base game for Factorio, the alien planet on which we build our factory is inhabited by a unique creature: biters. These alien creatures are the primary threat throughout Factorio, soaking up the pollution your factories spit out which causes them to grow in size, health, and damage. They eventually evolve into another type as well called spitters, which allow them to shoot projectile acid at you. Aside from those two mobile creatures, they are also immobile worms that are immobile but more resistant to damage and also shoot acid projectiles at you which can be tedious.

The new creatures featured by Wube in today's Factorio Friday Facts are Pentapod's, almost starfish-looking creatures with five limbs. The lowest tier of Pentapod is the Wriggler, a creature that isn't too threatening alone, but when grouped up with many others can be quite overwhelming. The next step are are Strafers, rather fragile creatures but with the ability to launch Wriggler's at you as if they are hominig missile. On impact, the Wriggler will not only hit you but begin to attack you as well. They kind of remind me of Brood Lord's from StarCraft, which I know is an odd comparison but hey, this is an odd creature.

Finally, we have the gargantuan beast highlighted in the featured image for this article, the Stomper. The massive creature is super tanky and tough, which a short-range spit attack. However, its primary attack is to stomp on you with its colossal feet, dealing splash damage. Upon defeating a Stomper, its core shell will crack open releasing a bunch of Wriggler's that will then attack you. You know, kind of like those videos where someone squishes a spider only for a ton of baby ones to swarm out. Pretty terrifying stuff all around.

Perhaps most interesting about the reveal is that all of these creatures seem to be exclusive to the planet Gleba, one of four new planets coming in Factorio: Space Age. Not only are the creatures themselves unique, but the environment leads to some interesting ways for combating them. For example, pollution on Gleba works differently. The environment of the planet is already in CO2, so direct pollution itself isn't what attracts the new enemy. Instead, a fungi that you need to grow in order to progress and build new things on Gleba have an aroma that attracts the Pentapods, causing them to attack and evolve much like the Biters. Also, in terms of the terrain, it's usually a solid strategy to use cliffside as a sort of wall when defending against Biters. But the Strafers and Stompers can both scale cliffs, making it a lost cause.

The Pentapods and the unique challenges and even opportunities they present in Factorio: Space Age is very fascinating when you consider that this is just one of the four new planets in the expansion. Who knows what other challenges or creatures we will face on the other three planets. Factorio: Space Age looks like it's going to have a ton of content for an expansion, and I simply can't wait to explore everything new it has to offer when it releases on October 21, 2024.

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