Overloading Worm

The Overloading Worm is a returning boss monster in Risk of Rain 2. Being a boss, the Overloading Worm may be encountered after initiating a stage's Teleporter Event. It can otherwise spawn naturally during extremely high difficulties. An Overloading Worm is guaranteed to spawn at the beginning of the twelfth stage of a run, on Rainstorm or Monsoon difficulty.

The Overloading Worm is a stronger variant of the standard Magma Worm. The Overloading Worm is not considered an elite version of the Magma Worm, but instead a unique monster. As a result, beating an Overloading Worm in Monsoon difficulty will not complete the Deicide Challenge.

Attacks
Overloading Worms attack largely in the same fashion as Magma Worms, in that their primary form of offense is damaging targets that make physical contact with it. But while Magma Worms turn the screen brightly orange upon exiting the ground, Overloading Worms will instead turn the screen pitch black. Instead of traditional attacks, the Overloading Worm instead has multiple modes of movement. The Worm will erupt out of the ground and launch itself into the sky, before burrowing back into the ground. The Overloading Worm will attempt to emerge from the ground close to its target to damage them, and it will aim at a target as it returns from the sky. Balls of lightning are flung out from the ground as the Overloading Worm exits and enters the ground, similar to the Magma Worm's molten rocks. However, when a ball makes contact with the player or the ground, a lightning bolt strikes down on its position, inflicting those caught in it with serious damage. The Worm will snake quickly from the ground and remain in close proximity to its target. While a leaping Overloading Worm will remain airborne for quite some time, a grounded Overloading Worm will rapidly enter and exit the ground as it assaults the player. With that in mind, lightning balls do not erupt from the ground in this mode of movement.
 * Leaping
 * Grounded

Tips

 * Fighting an Overloading Worm is generally the same as fighting a Magma Worm. To that end, it is best to fight Overloading Worms in large open spaces.
 * It is strongly advised to fight the boss from a distance, the damage-on-contact and near constant lightning strikes make fighting Overloading Worms a grueling task for close-quarter survivors like Mercenary. As Overloading Worms can only spawn at extremely high difficulties, players who have chosen survivors like Mercenary should consider spending the later parts of their runs investing heavily in powerful, long-range equipment to make up for their lack of range.

Trivia

 * 'The reminder' is a reference to the original Risk of Rain, wherein Magma Worms could spawn with the 'overloading' Elite prefix, which became infamously hard to kill.