Lucent Moth

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Lucent Moth
Biographical information
Sect:	Lucent Brood
Purpose:	Empower and shield Hive with Light
Combat information
Abilities:	Overshield Hive Detonate

Lucent Moths are small flying creatures of Light that first appeared after Savathûn managed to gain control over the Light. They can be found fluttering around non-Lightbearer Hive of the Lucent Brood, granting them a degree of shielding. When there are separated from their Hive, Lucent Moths will wander aimlessly until they see an enemy, upon which they will become charged with Arc Light and dive-bomb their target, exploding upon impact.

Biology

"Incredible. The Hives' own bodies transform Light into a parasite! What a wondrous adaptation!"

— Krill

Lucent Moths are a by-product of the existence of Lightbearer Hive. Hive biology treats the Light in their bodies as an infection, causing disease-like symptoms such as headaches, mood swings, and insomnia, and generates an immune response that attempts to isolate it into cysts. However, the properties of Light end up organizing and transforming the encysted Light and Hive biomass into a wholly new and separate organism, more energy than biology, which eventually hatches from the cyst and attempts to protect its hosts. This life cycle was discovered by the Hive Ghost Krill, although the discovery was credited to their Lightbearer, Ubartu-ana.

Gameplay

Lucent Moths are similar to Vex Seekers as they are treated more like a minor hazard than an actual enemy; they do not possess a health bar nor do they have an identifying name label above them. Lucent Moths serve two purposes, one defensive and the other offensive. In their default defensive mode, Lucent Moths will seek out nearby Lucent Hive and grant them something akin to an Overshield. When this Overshield is depleted, however, the Moth will be separated from its host unit and, if the host is killed, will seek another unit to protect instead. When the Moth runs out of units to protect, it switches to its offensive mode as a last resort, overcharging itself with Arc light and flying toward a player before exploding in an Arc blast that can injure or kill Guardians and Hive alike if they are too close to it. This can be useful against Lucent Hive, as the blast is highly damaging and is instantly fatal to Acolytes within a few meters' range. Lucent Moths have two primary weaknesses, after a Moth's host has been killed and it separates from them, it will become vulnerable while searching for a new host, allowing the player to shoot and destroy it. In their offensive mode, when tracking toward a player to hit them, Lucent Moths can simply be shot before they reach their target. A Moth's detonation can also trigger other Moths and cause them to detonate.

Trivia

• Lucent Moths will not overshield Hive Ultras and even if the Ultra is the last living combatant, the Moths will instead go on the offensive.
  • This is the same for Champions and, most of the time, Hive Lightbearers.
• There is a glitch wherein a Lucent Moth attempts to shield an enemy that has just been killed, shielding its corpse. The corpse disappears and the Moth disappears along with it. The Moth will not be separated from its dead host and will be essentially deleted from existence.
• There is a similar mechanic of Lucent Moths where, strangely, multiple Lucent Moths could protect the same host. However, when the host is killed, only one Moth will separate from the dead host, the others mysteriously disappearing.

List of appearances

• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (First appearance)