Stray

Stray
Give me your skin, George
Attributes
Appearance	Tall humanoid with no skin
Attack Damage	25 (Projectile)
Health	1.5
Support Priority Rank	0
Damage Modifiers	Silver Nails - 200% Silver Sawblades - 200% Shotgun Projectile Boost - 200% While airborne - 150% While on fire - 150% (Excl. explosions and fire DoT)
Weight?Weight determines the behavior of the enemy. Whiplash reels Light enemies towards the player. Light to Medium enemies are affected by magnet pull. Light to Medium-heavy enemies are susceptible to knockback. Superheavy enemies cannot be dashed and slid through.	Light
Susceptible to fall damage	Yes
Other/Misc	Stands in place lobbing projectiles at you

Strays are Lesser Husks that first appear in the mission [ 0-1: INTO THE FIRE ]. They serve as rank-and-file projectile enemies that attack V1 from a distance.

Appearance

Strays are tall, skeletal humanoids. Their bloody muscle and bones are exposed and seem to lack internal organs and eyes.

Combat

Stray attempts to back up from the player as it approaches.

Strays will always try to stay at a medium distance from V1, backing up when V1 gets too close. If V1 strays too far, Strays will follow V1 until within range. If cornered, they will face V1 and attack as normal.

Nails from the Attractor Nailgun deal twice their usual damage to Husks.

Attacks

Strays only have one attack, in which they charge up and throw a single red projectile that deals 25 damage. It is telegraphed by the Stray drawing back their right arm and forming the projectile in their hand. The projectile can either be shot as it forms in the Stray's hand to blow it up, or parried as it travels to launch it back at the Stray. They can also be parried right as they throw their projectile. On Brutal difficulty, Strays will actively attempt lead their shots.

Terminal Data

For more information, see Terminal.

TYPE: LESSER HUSK

DATA:
While their tall stature may seem intimidating, Strays are afraid of most danger and will try to stay at a safe distance, only attacking via projectiles formed with Hell Energy.

Although controlling and manifesting this energy is a complicated task, Strays have very low intelligence and are only able to do so via pure instinct.

Nevertheless, humans were unable to replicate this level of accuracy and control, particularly^[sic] the Stray’s ability to cause the energy orbs to selectively ignore other Husks.

STRATEGY:
- Most weapons will be effective against them, but a Revolver headshot is the quickest and surest way to eliminate a Stray.

- Due to their static nature and slow rate of attacking, they are an excellent target for projectile parrying.

Rending Apart

Strays are weak, and have only slightly more health than Filth; however, unlike Filth, they stay at a distance from V1 and don't tend to cluster up together, making explosives and most other area-of-effect damage options far less effective for taking out multiple Strays.

Due to their weight, Strays can be pulled towards the player using the Whiplash and making them an excellent source for quick and easy blood, although watch out for Hard Damage.

Strays can be instantly killed by Revolver +HEADSHOTs or +LIMB HITs, Knuckleblaster punches, any shot from the Alternate Revolver, and by point-blank Shotgun blasts, among others. Landing multiple consecutive Splitshots with the Marksman Revolver is a very fast way to clear out a room of Strays. The Attractor Nailgun also deals double damage to Strays, making it a viable option for mowing them down. Additionally, the Attractor Sawblade Launcher and the Overheat Sawblade Launcher is also viable against a group Strays and other husks as the Silver Sawblades grants 200% more damage to Strays as well as being an excellent crowd control tools. Strays are a good target for JumpStart Nailgun, which, coupled with magnets, can clear a sizable area from weaker enemies.

The Stray's attack can be interrupted. The red ball must be shot immediately after they create it - if they start to throw the ball, it's too late.

The Stray's Hell energy projectile is very predictable and relatively slow, making Strays one of the easiest enemies in the game to parry. Their projectiles can be parried as they travel, and the Strays themselves can be parried right as they start to throw their projectile.

A Stray's attack can also be interrupted if the player shoots the projectile with the Revolver as it charges in the Stray's hand. A consistent way to do this is to perform a +RICOSHOT at the exact moment a Stray begins to charge an attack, which will automatically target the projectile in its hand.

Trivia

• Strays make no unique noises, sharing sound effects with Schisms.
• Similarly to the Filth, there is a least one Stray present in every normal level (The only exceptions being [7-2: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT] and [7-S: HELL BATH NO FURY]).
• The Stray, alongside with the Filth and the Mannequin, has a Puppet variant, distinguished by its completely red body. These variant needed to be killed to fed the trees in [7-3: NO SOUND, NO MEMORY] in order to make progress.
• Soldiers are mechanically augmented Strays.
  • It was revealed that Hell itself was responsible for these modifications to Strays as a form of entertainment for itself.
• The Stray is called the projectile zombie when modified by the Spawner Arm.
  • This applies to the other very old enemies, such as the Filth being dubbed Zombie, and the Schism being named the "Super Projectile Zombie".
• The Stray is based on a real world creature, known as a Twitter user.

Gallery

Old appearance of the Tall Husk before the redesign (before the name "Stray" was adopted)

Stray preparing a projectile

The old Stray model that can be spotted as a burning corpse in [1-2: THE BURNING WORLD]

Stray on a train in [7-1: GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS] boss fight acting as a blood source

A Stray Puppet preparing a projectile in [7-3: NO SOUND, NO MEMORY]

Stray with bunny ears as seen during the Easter Seasonal Event

Stray wearing a santa hat as seen during the Christmas Seasonal Event

Stray with a pumpkin as a head as seen during the Halloween Seasonal Event