Sand burrower

"Nasty critters."

- Kyle Katarn

Sand burrowers were large carnivorous worms that lived under the dune sea of Blenjeel. Jaden Korr witnessed a sand burrower swallow a survivor that was stuck on the planet when his ship crashed there, and was forced to avoid them as he searched for spare parts to repair his ship.

They were extremely sensitive to ground vibrations and were capable of tracking down the location of the source of vibration before traveling under the sand at astonishing speed and rising from the sand directly under the prey to snatch it in its mouth, and sinking down into the sand and dragging the prey with it.

Physical description
The sand burrowers were short and stubby worm-like creatures with tanned brown carapace and a few short leg-like appendages on its body. Despite their appearances, they were surprisingly fast underground, able to outrun a normal humanoid and eating it. Its eyeless head is punctuated with a large circular jaw-less mouth nearly as wide as the thickness of the body, with hundreds of small teeth pointing inwards to prevent the prey from escaping its maw. Their traveling under the sand is clearly indicated by sand being thrashed upward, which also means that the burrowers move close to the surface.

Behind the scenes
These sandworms appear to be based on the sandworms of Frank Herbert's Dune or the graboids of the film Tremors.

With the planet being virtually devoid of any smaller lifeforms that the burrowers can feed on, it is unknown how they survived on Blenjeel and how they multiplied to such numbers and density. It is suggested, but not confirmed officially, that they also devour smaller individuals of their kind.

Sand burrowers are capable of swallowing absolutely anything that is an organism and walks on the ground, including the Rancor and even the gargantuan Mutant rancors. However, in turn, Rancors and Mutant rancors can also grab the burrower from underground and consume it. Their failsafe ability of devouring a target without having to deal any damage (as long as the prey is in the area that they can travel) arguably makes them the most dangerous entities in the entire game.

An effective method of avoiding the sand burrowers is to fire some blasters near the burrower, which mistakes it as a prey and follows, and luring it to somewhere far away before rushing to a safe area. A similar feat can be achieved with Thermal detonators, except that three of them are actually capable of killing a burrower if it swallows it, mistaking the vibration it caused while rolling on the ground. However, with the number of sand burrowers being at least eight (exact number may differ in every game, and can reach up to fifteen, according to observations), it is impossible to eliminate the burrowers completely, though doing this can help reducing the threats considerably.

It should also be noted that it is impossible to outrun a burrower once followed, although using Force jump can help in avoiding the burrower momentarily. It is also a good idea to utilize Force speed and run from objects to objects, avoiding the burrowers. The broken ship parts and standing columns are perfect for this purpose (and probably were installed for the very reason by the designers). However, care must be taken so as to never fall off the column, since once the player stands on top of one of the columns, it starts sinking into the sand, exposing the player to the burrowers and increasing the danger.

Typing the cheat "npc kill all" kills all sand burrowers on the map, allowing the player to accomplish his mission without danger of any kind.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy