R.E.P.O. | Monster guide: Bowtie

The Bowtie is a large, puffy, armless white creature wearing a red bowtie, and it looks almost charming right up until it tries to kill you. It roams quietly on its two trunk-like legs, but the moment it spots a semibot, it transforms into something much less cute and starts blasting the room with hurricane-force winds.

As a Level 2 monster in R.E.P.O., the Bowtie sits in that uncomfortable middle ground where it's manageable in an open room but genuinely lethal anywhere near a pit or the C.A.R.T.

Behavior

The Bowtie wanders aimlessly until it spots a player with its line-of-sight detection. It cannot hear you, so crouching and staying out of its field of view is your first line of defense. Once it locks onto a target, it morphs into a wider, squatter version of itself, its face shifting to its torso and its mouth stretching enormous, and unleashes a concentrated wind blast for about five seconds. That gust pushes back semibots, valuables, and other monsters at high speed, dealing damage every time a player slams into a surface. The Bowtie will slowly track its target during the attack if they move out of the cone.

After the attack ends, it either resumes roaming or enters a leave state, breaking into a run to reach a new area. While running it deals 5 damage to anything in its path, and nothing except a stun will stop it mid-run. Other monsters caught in its path during this sprint can be bowled over and stunned.

Hidden usefulness

The Bowtie's wind blast doesn't discriminate between players and other monsters. If you can position yourself safely out of the cone, the gust can knock smaller monsters around and deal physics damage to them, occasionally clearing threats you'd rather not deal with directly. The running leave state is similarly indiscriminate, and a Bowtie charging through a group of enemies can stun and heavily damage anything it runs into.

The wind blast also happens to be one of the fastest ways a player can travel in the game. If you're not near any pits and can absorb a bit of surface-collision damage, letting the gust carry you is a surprisingly quick way to cover ground in a pinch.

Weaknesses

The Bowtie is completely stationary while it attacks. It cannot move or reposition during its five-second wind blast, which makes any player not caught in the gust a free shot. Dealing damage to the Bowtie while it's attacking will also cut the attack short if it survives the hit, giving you a way to interrupt the blast before it runs its full course.

With 200 HP it's not the toughest monster around, and its stunned strength breakpoint drops to 2, meaning almost anyone can pick it up once it's been stunned. It also has a distinct stomping sound while moving, giving you an audio warning before it gets close enough to spot you.

Strategy

• Stay out of its line of sight. It cannot hear you, so crouching and moving around corners keeps it passive.
• Listen for the stomping sound to track its position through walls before it rounds a corner.
• Never engage it in a room with pits. The wind can send you off the edge before you have time to react.
• Keep it away from the C.A.R.T. The gust can launch valuables off the cart, including into pits.
• Do not try to bait it into a mine by letting it see you. It will blow the mine back into your face. Instead, place the mine in a doorway and make noise in the adjacent room by running or jumping, then hide. The Bowtie will walk into the mine on its own as long as it doesn't spot anyone first.
• If you need to deal with it and it's already attacking, circle wide around the gust cone and attack from behind or the side.

How to kill

The Bowtie's attack window is the safest time to kill it. Once it starts blowing, it is completely frozen in place for up to five seconds. Any player not in the cone can walk up to its side or behind it and hit it freely without any risk. Two or three solid hits from a melee weapon, or focused fire from a ranged weapon, will deal enough of the 200 HP to finish it off or at least stun it.

If you stun it first, its pick-up strength breakpoint drops from 7 all the way to 2, so a stunned Bowtie can be grabbed and thrown by almost any player regardless of their strength stat. This is an efficient way to deal physics damage or simply remove it from a dangerous room.

For mine kills, place a mine in a narrow doorway and generate noise nearby without being spotted, running and jumping in the adjacent room works well. The Bowtie will walk through the doorway and detonate the mine itself. Avoid trying to manually bait it over a mine by letting it see you, the blast will send the mine straight back at you.