Time Devourer

The Time Devourer is a common enemy that will only spawn after you've gone through the Time Portal at least once. "Hi, you teach a man to fish, it keeps the doctor away, y'know how it goes..."

- The dev team

Description
It is unknown what the Time Devourer really is, or where it came from, although one thing is known: Whenever there is an interference with the natural flow of the many timelines, these beings are sure to infest whichever place has been altered. They have the appearance of deformed green massses filled with many rotating teeth inside a big opening on its front, which is surrounded by multiple eyes arranged in a circle. It is capable of reproducing by fragmentation, meaning that if it is divided into pieces, each of it's pieces will be a living clone, and just as ferocious and merciless as they once were.

Behavior
This creature can easily end your run in a matter of seconds. They are relatively slow when far away, but don't be fooled, as when approached they propel themselves on top of your ship and their rotating maws can deplete your hull integrity faster than you can say "We Need To Go Deeper". They have high health and will not instantly die once it depletes - rather, they will split into two smaller versions of themselves, each of which can split into two even smaller versions, which can finally be killed without dividing. Each smaller version is quicker, but deal reduced damage and have lowered health, and the smallest possible pieces - the Time Fragments, are small enough to breach the Submarine, wherein they will chase and attack anyone inside, and will release infectious particles that will afflict anyone that touches it with the Time Plague, a deadly illness that corrupts the very flesh of the host, slowly killing them and releasing even more infectious particles into the vessel.

Tactics
The best method for avoiding these creatures is shooting a torpedo at it to push it away, since it's impossible to outrun even when you're 3 speed on The Espadon, with a minigun upgraded into harpoons also working decently well. These creatures can be found once you've been teleported back after the boss fight on the last level. They appear quite frequently afterwards, sometimes even appearing 4+ times a level. They have a very large health pool, requiring a lot of sustained fire to kill. Once you manage to do enough damage, it will split into two smaller versions of itself. Once you do enough damage to the smaller version, it will split again into two small fragments. These can be killed without it splitting. Though you can, killing them is inefficient as another will spawn shortly after at full size. It is best to use guns and torpedoes to knock it away and keep it at a distance. Additionally, it can easily be detected due to a terrifying noise it makes whenever it gets close, so listen for it!

Trivia

 * On a Dev Stream, the developers were asked for a quote about the Time Devourer. Their response was "Hi, you teach a man to fish, it keeps the doctor away, y'know how it goes...". It was promptly added to this page.
 * Before the Sturdy Update (0.8.1), Time Devourers were immortal.