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Tyhrranoids, often shortened to simply 'noids, are a hostile species that feature as major recurring enemies in Up Your Arsenal. They are stalk-eyed bipedal creatures from planet Tyhrranosis that served as the primary infantry force of Dr. Nefarious during his war in the Solana Galaxy, and were enemies of the Galactic Rangers. They have four common variants of different sizes with a different number of eyes, denoting their rank, size, and strength. Most tyhrranoids fight as foot soldiers, though they also make use of combat vehicles. After Nefarious attacked Metropolis with the Biobliterator, the tyhrranoids were transformed into robotic forms, known as robonoids.[1]

The tyhrranoids attacked Veldin at the beginning of Nefarious' war, where they were confronted by the Rangers. This prompted Ratchet and Clank to return to the Solana Galaxy to fight them. The tyhrranoids later launched a surprise attack on the Capital City, Marcadia, attacking the presidential palace of President Phyronix, but were opposed by Ratchet and the Rangers. Following this, they fought the Rangers on Tyhrranosis, where Ratchet defeated the Momma Tyhrranoid and also captured one of their remote military bases. They later attacked Blackwater City, Rilgar, and attempted to ambush Ratchet at the Holostar Studios. After this, they invaded Metropolis, Kerwan, where the Biobliterator transformed them into robonoids, and also fought the Rangers at Outpost X12, Aridia. Finally, they defended Nefarious' command center on planet Mylon.

After the war against Nefarious ended, tyhrranoids were mentioned a few times.

History[]

Up Your Arsenal[]

Intro movie 6

Darla Gratch reporting live from Veldin.

The tyhrranoids were first seen when they attacked planet Veldin without warning, an attack officials believed was orchestrated by Dr. Nefarious. Darla Gratch reported on this attack for Channel 64 News, in which she stated that they may destroy the planet within hours despite Galactic Ranger resistance.[2] The attack prompted Ratchet and Clank to return to Veldin. In "Save Veldin!", Ratchet and Clank met up with the Rangers to drive them from the Kyzil Plateau, then in "Eliminate the Enemy Forces", Ratchet and the Rangers traveled to F-Sector to defeat the remaining forces.

Later, the tyhrranoids attacked the Capital City, Marcadia, in another surprise attack. After President Phyronix sent out a distress call, Sasha Phyronix, captain of the Starship Phoenix, deployed the Rangers in response, while Ratchet traveled himself.[3] In "Get to the palace", Ratchet fought several of them before reaching the presidential compound. There, Operation: IRON SHIELD commenced, in which the Rangers defended the palace. Ratchet first drove the tyhrranoids away from the compound and defended the area, first on ground fighting infantry, and then with a turret fighting the tyhrranoid dropships, before getting automated turrets online to defend the compound. A few tyhrranoids later appeared in "Repair the Laser Defense Shield", trying to slow Ratchet down from reactivating the city's defense shield.

Find Nefarious' Office cutscene 1

Ratchet using the Tyhrra-Guise.

Ratchet obtained the Tyhrra-Guise, a device that could disguise him as a one-eyed tyhrranoid and allow him to speak Tyhrranese,[4] from Annihilation Nation. He interacted with many other tyhrranoids in the Deep Sea Hideout, Aquatos, during "Find Nefarious' Office", managing to convince a few of the tyhrranoids that served as doorkeepers to let him through.

Destroy the Momma Tyhrranoid cutscene

Qwark claims credit for Tyhrranosis.

The Q-Force and the Galactic Rangers then launched an assault on Tyhrranosis, the tyhrranoids' homeworld. In Korgon Base, during "Take out the power generators", Ratchet destroyed the generators powering the mortar cannon defenses, and in "Destroy the plasma cannon turrets", Ratchet destroyed four plasma cannons allowing him to enter the base. This led to "Destroy the Momma Tyhrranoid", in which Ratchet defeated the Momma Tyhrranoid in its lair, only for Captain Qwark to claim credit.[5] After this, the Rangers led an assault on a remote base on the planet on Kavu Island, in Operation: ISLAND STRIKE. Ratchet and the Rangers defended their base on the island, before capturing a hovership and using it to defeat the enemy forces, then capture the tyhrranoid base. This gave the Rangers complete control of the island.[6]

The tyhrranoids launched yet another surprise attack on Blackwater City, Rilgar, causing devastating damage.[7] Ratchet returned to defend the planet, in Operation: BLACK TIDE, pushing back the tyhrranoids and then capturing their base. In "Escape the Tyhrranoid Ambush", the tyhrranoids also ambushed Ratchet in Holostar Studios, while Ratchet was waiting at Clank's trailer following the filming of "Maxmillian Strikes Back".

Find Dr

A tyhrranoid being turned into a robonoid.

Later, the tyhrranoids attacked Metropolis, Kerwan, which Nefarious had vowed to one day return to and destroy.[8] Ratchet fought them in "Find Dr. Nefarious", though while fighting them, Nefarious used the Biobliterator, transforming them all into robonoids. After defeating these robonoids, Ratchet and the Rangers fought off another robonoid attack across several towers in another area of Metropolis in Operation: URBAN STORM. During this operation, Ratchet destroyed several explosive charges placed around the city, before fighting off several more robonoid invaders on foot, with a hovership, and with a turret.

The robonoids attacked Outpost X12, Aridia, in an operation led by a few robonoid commanders.[9] Ratchet returned to defend the base, commencing Operation: DEATH VALLEY. The robonoids attacked the Ranger base before being driven out to Red Rock Valley, where they ambushed the Rangers before Ratchet defended the Rangers with the hovership. After this, Ratchet assassinated the robonoid commanders leading the assault, activated the auto-turrets placed around Red Rock Valley by the Galactic Rangers to reclaim the valley,[10] and then captured the robonoid base while they retreated.

The robonoids launched no more invasions, but defended the command center on planet Mylon, where Nefarious was preparing the second Biobliterator for launch. In "Battle your way to the launch site", Ratchet fought many of the three-eyed robonoids and robonoid commanders defending the base, who had been upgraded to a more powerful form with darker grey metal skin. Ratchet also use the Tyhrra-Guise to fool two one-eyed robonoids that operated impenetrable forces and turrets protecting the command center.

After Up Your Arsenal[]

The tyhrranoids were mentioned a few times in Deadlocked. Tyhrranoids also appeared in a reality dating show featured in a commercial for DreadZone,[11] and a holovision show aired named Queer Eye for the Tyhrranoid,[12] A three-eyed tyhrranoid was seen as a corpse beneath the Eviscerator's photoshoot. Later, believing that the DreadZone Station was about to be destroyed, Dallas Wanamaker confessed to putting a tyhrranoid in the locker of a woman named Susie Binkleton, which resulted in them going to therapy.[13]

A few tyhrranoids appeared on the Prison Planet during Secret Agent Clank.

Characteristics[]

Biology[]

Momma tyhrranoid promo render

The Mother Tyhrranoid

Tyhrranoids are stalk-eyed, bipedal creatures, with reptilian skin of varying colors. They have a variable number of eyes, determining their rank,[14] and tyhrranoids with more eyes are also larger and stronger. The tyhrranoids have a vaguely similar shape, with round bodies, two arms and legs, and a mouth on their torso. This covers the upper portion of the torsos on larger variants, or the entire torsos of the smaller tyhrranoids. The robonoids mostly retained the physiology of the tyhrranoids, though they had metal skin.

Tyhrranoids appear to be unintelligent beings. During combat, they are seen throwing themselves at enemies even when they stand little chance of survival. Though the tyhrranoids speak very elegantly, they are also easily fooled, although they became more intelligent as robonoids.[15][16] The tyhrranoids make extensive use of technology in their weaponry, vehicles, and in their habitats on Tyhrranosis, though it is possible that this technology was provided by Dr. Nefarious.

Behavior[]

Tyhrranoids have mindless behavior during combat, simply charging towards a foe with little thought put into it. The tyhrranoid invasions of planets seemed hard to predict, however, as they launched surprise attacks on Veldin,[2] Marcadia,[3] and Rilgar.[7] When they were transformed into robonoids, they became more coordinated than before.[17] Aside from the one-eyed tyhrranoids, the tyhrranoids used ranged weaponry or vehicles primarily.

Society[]

Find Nefarious' Office gameplay 1

Ratchet, disguised as a tyhrranoid, conversing with another.

Though tyhrranoids were never seen outside of their military force, Ratchet learned a little of their technology through communicating with the tyhrranoids in their native language, Tyhrranese.[4] Though their language consists of gestures and unintelligible noises, when translated, they speak politely and elegantly toward one another.[15][16] However, slight errors of Tyhrranese can translate to crude insults or gibberish, as demonstrated with Ratchet's use of the Tyhrra-Guise.[18] Tyhrranoids are fans of holovision shows, including Secret Agent Clank,[15] and Amoeboids Gone Wild.[16]

After Nefarious' war ended, the tyhrranoids appeared in reality dating shows,[11] including one named Queer Eye for the Tyhrranoid.[12]

Units[]

Infantry[]

The most common tyhrranoid is the one-eyed tyhrranoid, which serve only as the weakest ground troops, often attacking in waves. They are sometimes seen guarding gateways and passages in secure installations. The two-eyed tyhrranoid are only seen directly in combat once, on Veldin, where they used simple blasters. Otherwise these are the primary units seen operating mechanical weapons and vehicles. The three-eyed tyhrranoid is the most common shock troop, often utilizing more advanced tactics like relying on cover. The 'noid commanders are the strongest units, with long range plasma pistols and their own hoverpack, but they are subsequently also the rarest.

Vehicles and machines[]

The tyhrranoids utilize various mechs, flying ships, and defensive installations, most of which are operated by the two-eyed tyhrranoids. The mecha-tyhrranoid (and its ultra version) are bipedal mechs with twin laser cannons, whereas the tyhrranoid saucers are aerial support vehicles with short-range attacks. The tyhrranoid attack ship is a large airship capable of stationary flight with a single repeating machinegun turret, although they were also only seen on Veldin. The tyhrranoid dropship on the other hand are a mainstay in all tyhrranoid invasions, capable of quickly airdropping in any ground-based units while also offering offensive aerial support with their twin cannons.

The only stationary emplacements used by the tyhrranoids are the gatling turret and 'noid missile stations. The former always come in pairs, guarding their bases in various operations, whereas the latter are not used as much but are very effective against flying vehicles, such as hoverships.

Behind the scenes[]

Tyhrranoids concept art

Concept art of Tyhrranoids from Up Your Arsenal

The tyhrranoids were programmed by Tony Garcia, and ended up comprising most of Garcia's time during development of Up Your Arsenal. Unlike previous games, in which every enemy was programmed differently for each level even if it reused the same model, Garcia was required to use the same tyhrranoid codebase for every single level, meaning they had to pathfind in every situation, leading to potential bugs.[19] The goal with Up Your Arsenal was to introduce more consistency in the enemy design and to reuse the same enemies across different levels rather than have every enemy in each level be different, to save art and animation time to be used elsewhere.[14]

Momma Tyhrranoid concept art

Concept art of the Momma Tyhrranoid.

The tyhrranoids were given different ranks based on their eyes.[14] Concept art for a five-eyed tyhrranoid can be found in the sketchbook of the Up Your Arsenal Special menu.[20] This tyhrranoid was envisioned in the design phase and cut in the art phase as there were no resources for it.[21]

Converting the tyhrranoids to robonoids became a problem in memory. After the Biobliterator transformed the tyhrranoids to robonoids, all tyhrranoids from previous levels would also be converted, meaning that by storing a robonoid alongside the organic type would effectively mean doubling the memory use by enemies in that level, when only 32 megabytes were available on the PlayStation 2. The tyhrranoids were already very expensive in memory due to their mesh design and textures being more complex, so this was not feasible. This was set as a hard requirement by Brian Allgeier, the design director for Up Your Arsenal, who insisted that the programmers find a way due to the story reason despite programmers protesting in several meetings that it was impossible. To resolve this, Al Hastings instead created a texture-swapping system that could retexture the tyhrranoids on loading the level, swapping them entirely so both types did not have to be stored.[22]

The tyhrranoid species appear as a skin in the multiplayer of Up Your Arsenal and the multiplayer of Full Frontal Assault.

In Jak 3, a course can be unlocked for the gun course, where the targets were tyhrranoids.

Citations[]

References[]

Video games
Bibliography
  • Greg Off (2004). Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal Official Strategy Guide [Book]. BradyGames. ISBN 0744005000.
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