Nosk

A mimic or shape-shifter which mimics the shape of faces it finds in the memories of bugs in order to lure those bugs to its lair. Within its lair, several creatures can be found hanging from the ceiling, including Dirtcarvers, a Stalking Devout, and various Vessels. Nosk can be seen at several locations around Deepnest where it takes the shape of The Knight.

Behaviour and Tactics
Nosk has four attacks:


 * Charge: Nosk rapidly scurries towards The Knight. It will traverse its entire lair with this attack and it will not stop if it hits The Knight.
 * Leap: Nosk will leap 1-3 times around their lair. It will use this manoeuvre to traverse its lair but will also use it to target the Knight at times.


 * Eruption: Nosk will spew two blobs of infection at its feet and sixteen more blobs everywhere else in parabolic arcs leaving small gaps in between each blob. Each blob will linger for half a second. Nosk will always run up to the centre of the arena to use this attack.
 * Rain: Nosk will leap into the ceiling of its lair, disappearing from sight, and rain blobs of infection down on The Knight. Nosk will stay out of sight for about six and a half seconds, dropping a blob or two every half second after the first blob. These blobs will linger for half a second. Nosk can take about one and a half seconds upstairs before dropping the first blob.

Nosk moves quite fast, and its slightly unpredictable nature makes it hard to find a good time to heal.

The player should use the room layout to their advantage. When Nosk charges, the best place to be is right up against the side of the platform in the middle of the area. The player can then get a hit in, but must immediately relocate to the other corner to avoid being struck on his return charge. Nosk may also rarely hit the player with the Leap Attack and the Eruption Attack while they are in that spot, though cases of this are few and far between.

Even though Nosk is out of sight during the Rain attack, its hitbox is still present in the ceiling and charms such as Grimmchild or Glowing Womb can track and hit it. Further, more hitting it with a Nail in this state is also possible, and using charms like Longnail or Mark of Pride can make it easier when trying to do so.

Nosk primes its dash always with a quick small screech, using this sound to cue to predict when it is about to dash from off-screen can be very significant.

Using a spell, especially the high-damage Abyss Shriek when hiding in one of the corners, can deal a lot of damage to Nosk and kill it quickly.

Location
A breakable wall in the room directly left of the Deepnest Hot Spring will reveal a secret section that contains a Grub. Breaking another wall behind the Grub leads to the tunnels that lead into its lair. Note that Monarch Wings or Crystal Heart are required to access the room.

When first encountered in Deepnest, Nosk looks exactly like The Knight and will appear in several places that are always out of reach. Once the player reaches the location where it appeared, Nosk will have vanished.

Once reaching its lair, it will reveal its true form through a transformation sequence before roaring and beginning the fight.

=Winged Nosk= A boss only found within Godhome. It is first encountered in the Pantheon of Hallownest, after which it can also be fought in the Hall of Gods. It resembles Nosk but takes the form of Hornet instead of The Knight. Other than being smaller and having a different "head", its most notable trait, as stated by its name, are the wings it has.

Behaviour and Tactics
Winged Nosk has four attacks, 3 are similar to Nosk's attacks, and one is a summoning attack instead of a leap (In Nosk's case):
 * Scurry: Similar to Vengefly King's dash attack. Winged Nosk will swoop down and quickly skitter across the platform, and then will swoop up.


 * Summoning Screech: Winged Nosk will screech and summon 2 Infected Balloons. There is a maximum of 6 Infected Balloons that can be alive at once.


 * Downpour: Winged Nosk will fly up, disappear into the ceiling and drop down a wave of Infection blobs each separated by a small gap in a very short amount of time. Unlike Nosk's rain, Winged Nosk doesn't jump downwards and instead goes back to the left or right of the arena.


 * Vomit: Winged Nosk will release a cluster of Infection blobs from its mouth covering roughly 80% of the platform, similar to Nosk's Eruption. Due to the lack of a higher elevation in the arena, there is no shelter for the player to hide during this attack. Winged Nosk can only use this attack near the far sides of the arena, giving the blobs much more coverage.



Trivia

 * When it dies, Nosk drops the same shell that The Knight drops upon death.
 * The same is true with its winged form, but with Hornet's shell.




 * Nosk's other form, Winged Nosk, could possibly be a reference to its original design idea where it had wings and a longer tail.


 * The way to Nosk's lair is filled with corpses of other bugs, that when Dream Nailed, will express confusion and despair, referring to how Nosk takes the image of loved ones to lure its preys.

Носк Nosk