The Gunk: Enemies And Alien Materials

Wondering how to defeat enemies in The Gunk and collect alien materials? It's not a very long game, as evidenced in our guide answering the question "how long is The Gunk". Your trek through an uncharted planet will take you roughly four to six hours to complete. However, along the way, you'll have to battle various creatures. Here's our guide to help you defeat the regular enemies so you can amass alien materials in The Gunk.

The Gunk: Enemies And Alien Materials

Restoring HP And Alien Materials

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The Gunk doesn't have an HP bar in the traditional sense. However, taking damage will slowly cause the edge of your screen to turn dark. You'll want to go outside the corrupted area (i.e., a thin, red outline on the ground) to restore your health. This is denoted by Rani flashing green periodically. Alternatively, an equipment upgrade called the ATP Extractor heals you when you pick up alien materials.

Speaking of alien materials, these are dropped by Gunk Critters, Gunk Spitters, and Gunk Beasts, which we'll discuss further below. Moreover, make sure you scan each type of hostile at least once. Doing so will help level up your scanner to unlock more equipment upgrades.

Regular Gunk And Droplets

Technically speaking, the first type of enemy you'll encounter in The Gunk is, well, gunk. These blobs of slime are stationary, and can be vacuumed using Rani's bionic glove. Being able to clear sections will reveal verdant areas with new passageways. Be careful, though, because standing inside slime growths will smother your character until she dies.

Likewise, you might want to watch out for bulbous growths on the ceiling since droplets would fall from them. If you're standing on a red circular outline, then you could take a bit of damage.

Aggressive Gunk

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Compared to Regular Gunk, Aggressive Gunk will either move around a spot or beeline straight for you (i.e., the goop will try to expand and cover an area).

Gunk Critters

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Shortly after seeing Aggressive Gunk, you'll also get introduced to Gunk Critters. These are small, insect-like creatures that mostly dash to your position. You can use your power glove to vacuum them. They can be tossed to the wall or to other Gunk Critters, killing them instantly and making them drop alien materials.

Gunk Spitters

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Gunk Spitters are a type of enemy in The Gunk that'll annoy you to no end. They fire large projectiles that explode on contact. You need to catch these with your power glove, then toss them back at your foe. Once stunned, run up to the Gunk Spitter and pull it free. This will cause it to explode and drop alien materials.

To be clear, though, there are areas in the campaign where you can't reach them normally. That means solving certain puzzles or clearing the room until you can find platforms or ledges to get to them.

Gunk Beasts

Gunk Beasts (seen in the image below) are encountered only a handful of times in The Gunk. These lumbering bulls will aggro and charge toward your position once they flash red.

Ideally, you'll want to hang back and coax them into ramming a wall, an obstacle, or even another Gunk Beast. This will cause it to get stunned. Go behind it and "vacuum" the core at its back. This needs to be done three times before the creature explodes and drops its alien materials.

The Final Boss

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The final boss in the campaign is something that we won't spoil too much. However, you can refer to our guide to The Gunk Gardener boss fight if you need help with that battle.