Editing Endbringers (section)

===Tactics===
As the Endbringers intend to constantly escalate over roughly 300 years<ref name="reddit eLifespan" /> in their war against [[Eidolon]],<ref name="II19.z e6" /> they hold back on a tactical and strategic level in their fight against humanity.<ref>She only grinned.  She reached over to the bedside table and retrieved a pen and notepad.  Her grin fell from her face as she wrote something, then tore the page free, handing it to me.
:he’s going easy on us.  all Endbringers are.  but Behemoth holding back, even from moment he arrive.  taking more hits than he should.
“We already knew that they’re holding back for some reason,” I said.  “The way they space out attacks, they could accelerate the timetable or coordinate their strikes if they wanted to fuck us over.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/crushed-24-3/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.3]]</ref><ref name="24.3" /> [[Wildbow]] speculates that sandbagging Endbringers are straightforward fighters, using raw power instead of finesse and catching opponents off guard with a few of their obvious tricks.<ref>'''Wildbow:''' It's worth saying that Endbringers tend to show up on the scene and appear pretty straightforward.  Just bring raw power to bear, fuck shit up, let a few of their tricks (Kill aura, tidal waves, 'lose the war' precognition) catch people off guard.<br>Then as time goes on, they pull out more tricks, reveal they have things up their sleeve, etc.  (attacking the island with water pressure underwater, pulling on the thinker powers of people in scream range, pulling on tinker tech & powers in the same way) - Comment by Wildbow on Parahumans Discord</ref> When their enemies think they are comfortable fighting them, sandbagging Endbringers will escalate<ref>“Essalated,” I managed.  “Esc-”<br><br>“Escalated,” Sveta said.<br><br>“It did.  Like an Endbringer.” - [[From Within 16.9]]</ref><ref name="reddit eLifespan" /> and gradually unveil new tactics<ref>''That'' was what I was waiting for.  My limited experience with Endbringers had taught me one thing.  When someone actually found a way to respond, to cancel out the attacks or to deliver a measure of real damage, they changed tactics.<br><br>Some capes were already responding.  Captains and leaders were giving orders, and various barriers were being reinforced or thrown back up.  Some were trying to give the warning, but their voices disappeared in the midst of the chaos around us.<br><br>“Take cover!” I hollered, and my swarm carried my voice.<br><br>It was only two or three seconds later, as the second wave of spheres drifted to Behemoth and began to cut into his torso and groin area, that he responded.  His ‘mouth’ opened, the craggy spikes of obsidian ‘teeth’ parting.<br><br>And he roared.  A sound that was slow at first, growing steadily more powerful. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/crushed-24-3/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.3]]</ref><ref name="24.5 eHitRunTactic">I didn’t deny it.  “There’s one more reason we should go, though.  He’s going to-”<br><br>''Retaliate.''<br><br>Behemoth rose from beneath the ground a distance away.  In a heartbeat, things shifted from a near-quiet to chaos.  He was still glowing, and his claws crackled with electricity as he struck quickly, violently, and indiscriminately.<br><br>Three capes taken down, struck out of the sky by the bolts of electricity.  Even if they’d survived that much, the kill aura and the radiation would end them.<br>[...]<br>''It’s the Endbringer’s pattern.  We hurt them or stall them enough, they change tactics, hit us back.'' - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref> and ways to leverage their existing powerset as they figuratively speaking have a lot of cards up their sleeves.<ref name="24.x e1">Then he’d taken command of a team, and he’d seen the process of trial and error, as they learned their opponents’ capabilities, saw how Leviathan or the Simurgh could keep tricks up their sleeves for ''years'', before using them at a critical moment.  Even now, they didn’t fully understand the Simurgh’s power, how long it might take someone to recover, if recovery was even possible. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/interlude-24/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 24.x]]</ref><ref name="29.1 e1">“Way I understand it, she needs to have a tinker in her sphere of influence to borrow their schematics, or a specific device, if she wants to copy it.  Thinkers, too, I think she borrows their perception powers as long as she’s tapped into them.  Might be why she’s attached to me.  Either way, she didn’t have schematics or anything she’d need to modify the guns.”<br><br>“Or she ''can'' modify them, and it’s a card she’s been keeping up her sleeve for the last while.  I mean, it was only three years ago or whatever that she really showed off her ability to copy a tinker’s work wholesale.”<br><br>Tattletale nodded.  She frowned.  “I don’t like being in the dark.  But that’s the gist of it.  She made cosmetic changes because she couldn’t make concrete ones.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/venom-29-1/ Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.1]]</ref><ref>“The Simurgh!  Pay attention, even if you won’t be fighting her.  You can’t know what will happen!” Legend announced, and he was confident, assured.  If the head injury had impaired his faculties any, it didn’t show.  “Our analysis of the Simurgh comes from years of experience!  I can tell you, don’t let your guard down.  She ''will'' surprise us.  She will throw curveballs at us.  In all the times we’ve engaged with her, she has had new tricks.  Stay the course! - [[Last 20.1]]</ref><ref>'''AutobotYoung1:''' He [Behemoth] is literally a walking nuke, everything he touches is radioactive and yet the city [New York] is mentioned constantly as if it’s not a fallout wasteland. What the hell is going on?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Keep timeline and the gradual unveiling of powers in mind. Endbringers keep tricks up their sleeves to reveal later. There's no guarantee he was even demonstrating his ability to use radiation back then. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit</ref><!-- https://redd.it/y9stye -->

An Endbringer that goes all out would better leverage their existing powerset from the start without worrying about their lifespan.<ref name="SB eSmartLeviathan">I think part of the reason Anzer'Ke isn't necessarily getting it is that he's imagining some scenario where Leviathan throws himself at the enemy.<br><br>Quite frankly, if Leviathan wants to win (and if he's not in Earth Bet and he's not dormant, he will) he's going to do it smart, which is something he is capable of (see his actions during the timeskip, hitting multiple cities). He's not going to surface, and he's just going to call tidal waves and rainstorms down on the enemy until they stop moving (see his literal first appearance in story - he interrupts the strategy meeting by hitting them with a wave before he shows himself. Now remove the 'show himself' element). If they're on boats (they're often on boats) he may well gut the boats from beneath. The only ones standing are going to be the ones who have special ships and/or powerful devil's fruit abilities.<br><br>What happens after that? Well, maybe they can block the waves or simply weather them, but can they resupply? Or does he simply occupy them and prolong the fight until the fruit users get tired or exhausted, make a mistake, or start to falter for lack of sleep and/or food? There are a lot of advantages to being nonhuman in nature.<br><br>I stopped watching shortly after Ace's execution arc, so I can't speak to the individuals who appear after (or the fishmen) but I suspect Anzer'Ke is simply making the classic mistake of underestimating Leviathan. - Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref><!-- https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/16048226 --><ref name="IRC eLeviathanTactics" /><ref name="Rjla e6" /><ref name="reddit eLifespan" /> [[Wildbow]] speculates that Endbringers are exactly as strong as they appear: non-sandbagging Endbringers still work within their established rules and power levels.<ref>'''KreenWarrior:''' I think the non-jobbing Endbringers thing is less about taking power limiters off and more about turning the difficulty on the AI way way up.  Suddenly they never miss skillshots and can read your controller inputs<br>Except at the highest levels they just wipe your hard drive<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' More that they have a lot of cards they keep up their sleeves.  A lot of things they can do that do technically fit within the established rules and power levels, that they don't unveil until you think you're comfortable fighting them.<br>Leviathan attacking the island shelf underwater to sink Kyushu.  The Simurgh pulling tinkertech together using the collected knowledge of all scanned tinkers in her radius.<br>Or they retreat when they're at 70%, implying that their health bar is a lot smaller.  But really they can keep fighting as skeletons. - Conversation with Wildbow on Parahumans Discord</ref> After tanking [[Phir Sē]]'s time bomb in [[New Delhi]],<ref name="24.4 eBehemothEighty" /> [[Behemoth]] started burrowing underground<ref>“He went underground,” Eidolon informed us.<br><br>“He ran?  It’s over?”<br><br>“No,” Eidolon said. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref> and using hit-and-run tactics for the first time.<ref name="24.5 eHitRunTactic" /> He then stayed underground for an extended duration<ref>The sound of the fighting stopped with a crash.  Where was the motherfucker?  I rose higher to check, but saw neither Behemoth nor the cape who’d been binding him.  He’d burrowed.<br><br>It was ''quiet'', all of a sudden, if not quite silent.  The defending capes were spreading out, and were hovering in place or holding positions, rather than bombarding the landscape.  The lightning and fire had stopped, and no shockwaves ripped through the city.  The rumbling was intermittent, mild when it wasn’t almost imperceptible.  The ringing in my ears was louder than the ambient noise.<br><br>This was his new tactic, burrowing, surfacing.  But where was the retaliation?  Their whole damn pattern centered around repaying us twice over for any abuse we inflicted on them.<br><br>The armband crackled, and I jumped, despite myself.  The first message didn’t come through the static, but the second was clearer.  “''Be advised, seismic activity suggests the Endbringer is still local.  Regroup and form defensive lines''.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref><ref>Where the hell was the bastard?  I was a little caught off guard by how ''quiet'' things had gone.  He was giving us a chance to regroup?  Or was he letting us gather, so he could take us all out at once? - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref> to use shockwaves in key areas to set up fissures<ref>As if reminding us of the culprit, there was a distant rumble.  It grew steadily in intensity, then stopped abruptly.  As far as I could tell, with bugs spread out over the area within two thousand feet or so, the Endbringer wasn’t moving any closer to us.<br>[...]<br>There was a rumble, with a shaking that affected the whole structure.  Something distant, beyond my power’s range.  A heavy crash.  Somewhere in a northwesterly direction. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref><ref>“Probably,” I agreed.  “But my guys are moving out anyways.  We’ve never done this much damage to him, and yet he’s sticking around.  What I’m wondering is, ''why''?”<br><br>Defiant glanced at Dragon, then spoke.  “He’s-”<br><br>The ground shuddered.  Again, as before, the rumbling intensified.<br><br>This time, it didn’t stop.  It got worse with every passing second.<br>[...]<br>The rumbling reached the point where capes were unable to keep their balance.  I raised off the ground, but the movement of the ''air'' in response to the shuddering was enough to make me sway. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref> and shatter the above landscape.<ref>Behemoth emerged with a plume of gray-brown smoke, and the landscape ''shattered''.  It was Tecton’s natural power, taken to an extreme.  Fissures lanced out in every direction and disappeared into each horizon.  ''Secondary'' fissures crossed between each of the major ones, like the threads of a spider’s web.<br><br>As far as the eye could see in every direction, terrain shifted.  Hillsides abruptly tilted, standing structures fell like collapsing houses of cards.<br><br>A full quarter of the temple collapsed.  The bugs I’d kept to the edges of the room could sense it as a small share of the capes who were in the entry hall were caught beneath the falling rubble.  The ones furthest towards the back.  Eidolon’s protective effect kept the remainder intact.<br><br>Behemoth emerged from the smoke.  He was more robust than he had been, but that wasn’t saying much.  Seventy percent burned away, perhaps.  The regeneration had slowed, but it was still functioning to a degree.  He’d recuperated, built his strength, and he’d used the time to, what?  Burrow through strategic areas?  Had the distant rumbles been controlled detonations or collapses at key areas?<br><br>The temple was the one building that stood.  Everywhere else, there was devastation. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/crushed-24-5/ Excerpt] from [[Crushed 24.5]]</ref> A non-sandbagging Behemoth would fight from beneath the city at the start.<ref name="Rjla e6">The reason the Endbringers haven't destroyed the Wormverse, in large part, is that they're jobbing every fight. The post that follows will assume that Leviathan and Behemoth are going full-strength and Simurgh is using her powers as detailed in the story (where she's jobbing, in large part).<br><br>As I see it, the Endbringers have the attacker's advantage. Assuming the two sides don't have prior knowledge of one another, the Simurgh can use the same tactic she used in Lausanne. Be ''benign''.<br>[...]<br>Lay groundwork for maximum amount of time allowed, psychic scream not audible, read the future, turn a city of people into individual rube goldberg devices. More time = more people and more complex machinations.<br>[...]<br>The Simurgh sees how long she can scan/sing, Leviathan and Behemoth just stay where they are, in Gotham bay or beneath the city.<br><br>If the Endbringers reach the point where they can set the above scenario in motion, they're basically forcing the Justice League to devote time and effort to saving lives, and they change the paradigm of the fight. The heroes have to save the city from itself, rescuing people who may turn around and try to kill them, slow them down, or attack other civilians. Picture a city of B-list Jokers. Or the worst possible people finding a cache of Bane venom. Kill squads going after Batman's associates. - [https://redd.it/2sju2u Wildbow on Reddit]</ref>

Several situations exist where Endbringers will stop holding back. If they realize they are currently fighting a legitimate threat to their life (e.g., [[Gray Boy]]), they will go all out against that threat.<ref name="IRC-1" /> When [[Leviathan]] attacked [[Battle against Leviathan|Brockton Bay]], he used non-optimal tactics such as letting [[Skitter]] walk right by him without retaliation.<ref>I felt him arrive, a small few bugs still inside him, though most of the rest had been washed away in his swim.  There were so few I’d missed his approach.<br><br>Leviathan.<br><br>People ran back inside the shelter, screamed and pushed, trampled one another.  I was forced into the corner by the door as they ran into the shelter, tried to make some distance between themselves and the Endbringer.<br>[...]<br>And he was there, climbing through the vaultlike door, so large he barely fit.  One claw on either side, he pushed his way through.  Stood as tall as he could inside the front door, looking over the crowd.  Hundreds of people were within, captive, helpless.<br>[...]<br>Leviathan took a step forward, putting me behind him and just to his right.  He lashed his tail again.  Another dozen or two dozen civilians slain.<br>[...]<br>One hand on my shoulder to steady my throbbing broken arm, I slipped behind Leviathan, hugging the wall, slipping around the corner and moving up the vault door with padded feet. - [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> However, Leviathan immediately goes all out against [[Scion]] after Scion attacks him; he tries out multiple different attacks.<ref>Scion raised one hand, and a ball of yellow-gold light slammed into Leviathan from behind, sent the Endbringer skidding across the length of the street, past Bitch and I.<br><br>Leviathan leaped to his feet, reared around, swung his claws at the air ferociously.  Water around him rose, rushed towards Scion, a wave three times as high as Bitch was tall.  Three times as tall as I might be if I could stand.<br>[...]<br>Leviathan lunged up to the side of a half-ruined building, leaped down to a point three-quarters of the way between himself and Scion.  His afterimage slammed into the hero.<br>[...]<br>Leviathan grabbed a car, twisted his entire upper body to toss it in the style of an olympic hammer-throw.  The car hurtled through the air, and Scion batted it aside with the back of one hand.  The vehicle virtually detonated with the impact, falling into a thousand pieces, each piece glowing with golden-yellow light, disintegrating as they splashed into the water. - [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> After his attacks prove ineffective, Leviathan then tries to run away;<ref>Leviathan heaved himself out of the rubble, turned to run, only for water to rise and freeze solid in one smooth movement, forming a wall as tall as Leviathan was, a hundred feet long.  He paused for a fraction of a second, to gauge which way he might go, poise himself to leap over.  Scion caught him with another golden-yellow blast before he could follow through. - [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> he tries out multiple tactics to cover his retreat.<ref>Eidolon froze the water around Leviathan’s four claws, giving Scion the opportunity to land another blast.  Leviathan turned, raised a spraying wall of water to cover his retreat.  Scion sent out one blast of his golden light to strike the wave, following up with a second blast before the first even made contact with the water.<br><br>Seeing the second blast coming, Leviathan leaped to one side.  No use – the blast of light curved in the air to head unerringly for him, struck him down.<br>[...]<br>A tidal wave appeared in the distance, at the furthest end of the street, near the horizon.<br>[...]<br>Another blast of golden light, and one side was stopped, stalled.  A third blast was spared for Leviathan, who was getting his hands and feet firmly on the ground, crouching in preparation to run.  The Endbringer was knocked squarely to the ground.<br>[...]<br>When the flow of water was past us, I could see a fifth blast of light following Leviathan, who had used the cresting water to swim away.  He was making his way to the coast.  Scion rose, flew after his target with a streak of golden light tracing his movement.  Eidolon followed soon after. - [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> Endbringers will also go all out if they are fighting enemies in an unknown world (e.g., Leviathan in [[w:c:onepiece:World|One Piece]]<ref name="SB eSmartLeviathan" />) or when the stakes are too high for their plans (e.g., [[the Simurgh]] against the [[Titans]] and [[the Wardens]]<ref>''We began this fight when you broke, child'', the Titan Fortuna thought, trying to communicate to the battered kernel of human consciousness within herself.<br><br>''She began this two years ago, when Gold Morning occurred.  It doesn’t matter that we have a hundred times her strength.  She’s within paces of the finish line, and she’s no stupid rabbit racing a tortise.  Nearly every action she could take brings her closer to a checkmate.'' - [[Radiation 18.z]]</ref><ref>It did not matter that she couldn’t see the remainder of that meeting in the lobby of the headquarters.  Were she to fly closer and gather information by emitting her signal, she might be able to piece together the events, but it did not matter.  She was entirely assured of Cryptid, Chris Elman’s trajectory.  There was no reality she could interpret where the result wasn’t entirely to her favor.<br>[...]<br>So it went.  Machines tore into her and studied her.  This would play a part in removing three more threats from play.  Later, a subversion of this network in coordination with her integration with Titan Fortuna would let her spread her signal.<br><br>In two minutes, the Wardens would come to the near-unanimous conclusion that the Simurgh was their first priority, too dangerous to be left alone as they enacted dangerous plans.  In twelve minutes, after everyone had gathered, they would announce this.  In sixteen, they would leave the lobby and attack her.<br><br>She abandoned the Machine Army, having given them what they would need later, and flew to the battlefield.  She was already prepared. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/23/infrared-19-z/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.z]]</ref>).