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

The Tick is a small, flat creature that wanders the map without a care until a semibot pulls out their grabber. At that point it launches itself at the grabber, locks on, and refuses to let go until it has drained enough health to reach 100 HP. It starts at just 10 HP, so the deflated version is trivially easy to kill, but getting a clean shot at it before it spots your grabber is the real challenge in R.E.P.O.

Behavior

In its default state the Tick roams aimlessly and ignores players entirely. The trigger is the grabber: the moment a semibot activates their grabber within the Tick's line of sight or proximity, it emits a warning sound and lunges at the grabber. If a player tries to grab the Tick directly, it latches on instantly without any warning. Once attached, the semibot cannot release their grabber, and the Tick drains 10 HP per second while healing itself for the same amount. It keeps draining until its own health hits 100, at which point it drops off on its own and becomes docile, wandering away and no longer interested in grabbers. If the Tick takes damage while attached, it compensates by draining extra health to make up the difference, so trying to chip it down while it feeds only prolongs the drain. Multiple Ticks near the same tractor beam will repeatedly intercept each other, making the situation increasingly dangerous for a lone player.

Hidden usefulness

Killing a Tick after it has drained health releases a green healing aura that restores HP to every semibot standing inside it. Because the aura heals everyone even though the Tick only drained from one player, a coordinated team can deliberately let a Tick drain one player and then kill it to hand out free HP to the whole group. If the Tick was fully fed at 100 HP when killed, it also drops a small Enemy Valuable orb on top of the healing aura.

Weaknesses

The Tick starts with only 10 HP in its deflated state, meaning almost any hit will kill it outright before it can latch on. A Boltzap one-shots it cleanly. Tumbling into a deflated Tick also kills it instantly if you have at least 5 HP to spare. Once it has latched on and started growing toward 100 HP it becomes harder to kill quickly, since damaging it just makes it drain faster to compensate. The stunned state is a partial opening: it can still attach while stunned but detaches immediately without dealing any damage, which gives a brief window to grab and slam it.

Strategy

• Put your grabber away entirely whenever you know or suspect a Tick is nearby. Even grabbing a door rather than a valuable will alert it.
• Before picking anything up, scan the whole room visually. Spotting it early and killing it first saves a lot of trouble.
• If it latches on and you have teammates nearby, stay calm and let them heal you or help deal damage. Panicking and using your grabber only makes things worse.
• If you have more than 90 HP and no reliable way to kill it quickly, consider letting it drain you to 100 HP on purpose. It becomes docile after that and can be grabbed and slammed freely.
• Having a teammate heal the drained semibot while the Tick feeds is a safe way to reach that docile state without anyone dying.

How to kill

The easiest kill is before it latches: a deflated Tick has only 10 HP, so a Boltzap shot one-shots it cleanly as long as you fire before it spots your grabber. Tumbling directly into a deflated Tick also kills it instantly as long as you have at least 5 HP. If it is already attached and feeding, the fastest path is to have a teammate slam it repeatedly while it is locked onto the first player's grabber. You can also let yourself get grabbed intentionally and immediately start slamming it, but you need to be fast since damaging it causes it to drain extra health to compensate. The stunned state can help: a stunned Tick will attach if grabbed but drops off without dealing damage, giving you a safe slam window. If killing it mid-feed is not viable, let it reach 100 HP so it detaches and goes docile, then pick it up and slam it at will. Killing it after it has drained any health rewards the group with a healing aura, and killing it at full 100 HP also drops a small orb.