Outslay

The Outslay is a symbiotic Bydo associated with Gomander; where a pilot will find one, the other won't be far. Often, pilots will encounter the Outslay first. Seeing as how the Gomander is an immobile creature, the Outslay is responsible for defense of the large Bydo and does so by spraying Bydo Shots around the body; each segment can do this. The creature is invulnerable in most missions, but the body can be easily damaged, rendering it incapable of ranged attacks. Diving into and emerging from Gomander will regenerate the body parts. Inattentive pilots who cannot predict the creature's flight pattern will quickly fall prey to it.

Appearances

Covered with a tough shell, these creatures guard the Cyst.

It's referred to as Worm here and Insuloo in the Game Boy port.

A rare subspecies of Outslay accompanies Inexsis in The Cave.

It is encountered along with Gomander as part of the Phantom Cell boss rush in the Bionics Laboratory.

Encountered in Stage 5, along with a Gomander that is floating through space.

Outslay is encountered in Stage 6.0, long before pilots see the inevitable Gomander.

Class: Bydo
Designation: Snake
HP Level: 5
Location: Floating Graves

The Outslay is a snake-like parasite that clings to the giant Bydo, Gomander. It lives off energy leaked from Gomander, returning it inside, where it again cycles to the outside. If the Gomander is killed, the Outslay will die too.

It's called the Enthrew in this mission. Much like the Force units, this creature is no longer invulnerable, though its extremely high hit points render it nearly so. True to the spirit of earlier encounters, commanders may find it easier to destroy the weaker Gomander counterpart.

Description

B-Inthr Enthrew -Sentinel Morphon-

Parasitic organic machine said to be nearly indestructible. Circles the Gomander to act as its guard.

HP: 660
Fuel: 99
Radar: 3
Speed: 1
Evade: 15%

Installations:

Heal

Armaments

Name	Ammo	Power	Range	Hit	Use	Type	Note
Tackle	99	75	1-1	70%	ATK	Ram	Ram attack from larger Bydo organisms. Considered one of the more powerful Ram attacks.

B-Inthr Enthrew Body -Sentinel Morphon-

Enthrew segments which discharge fragments of flesh and bone.

HP: 180
Fuel: 99
Radar: 3
Speed: 0
Evade: 15%

Installations:

Heal

Armaments

Name	Ammo	Power	Range	Hit	Use	Type	Note
Bydo Shell	60	40	2-3	40%	ATK	Missile	Symbiotic Bydo on the Enthrew that burst, shooting damaging particles

B-Inthr Enthrew Tail -Sentinel Morphon-

The Enthrew's posterior, created from the same durable material as the head.

HP: 660
Fuel: 99
Radar: 3
Speed: 0
Evade: 15%

A Single Outslay (localised as Outthru in this instance) is encountered without a Gomander host in Stage 6.2 flying in from the left and making several loops before leaving to the right.

Later, in Strongest Pilot Stage R.10, a digital, wire frame Outthru appears and enacts a similar tactic to the one described above.

Finally, in the remake of R-Type Stage II, as with the source material, an outslay appears towards the end of the level, and guides the player to its host Gomander.

Of curious note, is that this instance retains the Outslay name, perhaps hinting the Outthru is a similar, but separate species.

Trivia

The In-Game Descriptions of the Outslay and Gomander in R-Type Final are seemingly contradictory: The Gomander info says that it needs the Outslay to regulate otherwise-fatal growth, whereas the Outslays' say they take energy from the inside, and cycle it (Indicating it returns to where it was removed from) to the outside of the lifeform.
- This process is paradoxical, as no energy loss would be granted, and anything that was removed is destined to wind back up where it came from. At most, this could delay the inevitable growth, but never completely stop it.
  - The Energy redistribution is never shown in-game, as no matter how many Bydo Shot are fired, the Gomander-interior-regenerated Storage pods neither break, nor shrink, and the only entity shown to attack them is the player. No Shots are fired until the player is in sight, making this dispersion method doubtable
    - As such, What Outslay do with the shed, stored Gomander mass has not been revealed. Seeing as how it's a constant cycle of addition to, and subtraction from the total value of matter, though, it can safely be assumed that it's shed, transferred, or stored somewhere. This would make the cycle more long-term, portraying the Gomander species as an all-consuming sort that would inevitably reabsorb any transferred energy inevitably in time.
The Outslay in R-Type Final - like the Gomander itself - are much larger than any encountered on previous missions, seemingly indicating that the symbiotes grow alongside their host entities.
- This makes sense on a real-world physical level, as the Outslay's responsibility is to regulate the Gomander's mass, keeping it from dying of size. Larger creatures have more mass that needs to be regulated, and as such, the regulator's would need larger storage spaces to accommodate
Given how they've been stated to die without a host entity, be it Gomander, or Inexis, and the boss of the level is SIN-G, it is unknown how R-Type Final 2 Stage 6's Outthru is able to survive.
- Considering the Bydo's ability to enter different dimensions, and the non-beginning level takeoff sequence in the same game uses an identical background to this stage, it's plausible that Outslay posses the ability to detect threats moving through hyperspace, and enter it themselves to counter them.
  - ...or, if going off the previously-listed theory in this section, and how hyperspace allows for vast distances to be crossed in little time, it could be that this particular specimen was heading off to the hypothesised drop-off point in a manner that reduced the risk of host death via excess energy.
    - With the release of Bio Cavity, and specifically how Estoras Gomander's Outslay retains the Outslay name when researched in the Bydo Lab, this may be taken as confirmation the two are similar - perhaps even related - but ultimately separate species.