Jotun

Jotuns are the tallest variant of Gatekeeper, towering over players as masked giants with enormous bulk. They wear heavy coats over thickly padded combat armor, with their gear covered in seals, artifacts, and other equipment that reinforce their imposing battlefield role.

They are commonly found alongside other Gatekeepers, usually positioned on vantage points where their automatic cannons can reach enemies at long range. Jotuns are hostile to anything that is not a Gatekeeper, Defense Robot, or Corrupted Robot, and will alert nearby Gatekeepers if they can. In combat, they do not try to keep their distance, and will happily fire at targets from point-blank range. Their first live encounter can be found in Cloud Reactor, where one stands on a stone pillar holding a Gatekeeper banner near two Defense Robots.

The GATE Compendium identifies the Jotun as both a Gatekeeper echelon and the name of the clandestine bio-enhancement program run by Synaptic Labs that created these living titans. The program used hyper-generative biomaterials recovered from Anteverse 42 to dramatically increase human size and strength. The process was developed through experiments on the largest Neophyte volunteers, and while the treatment could produce extraordinary gains in muscle mass, height, and stamina, it was also traumatic.

Jotuns are slow, heavy-hitting bruisers with strong offensive and defensive power. Their Hardlight shield is always active and must be broken before they can be harmed, though a Jotun can still be damaged or even killed if caught unaware before it fully reacts. Once engaged, they rely on a mix of sustained gunfire, melee force, and explosive pressure.

• Gatling Fire: automatic fire that starts slowly and accelerates quickly; it can cause Bleeding and eventually requires reloading.
• Wallop: a close-range fist attack.
• Cluster Grenade: a delayed explosive that breaks into several smaller munitions.

Their shield makes them vulnerable to setup and burst damage. Sneaking up on a Jotun can allow players to hurt or kill it before the shield fully becomes a problem, and weapons that disable Hardlight shields make the fight much safer. Acid and Holy damage are especially effective once the shield is down, while Electricity and Explosives do not have any special interaction beyond normal damage. Rockets can bypass the shield and kill a Jotun in a single hit if the projectile passes through them cleanly, but nearby solid objects will cause the rocket to detonate early instead. Interrupting their firing rhythm can also help, since Jotuns only reload after emptying their magazine and are less dangerous when repeatedly forced off tempo.

A defeated Jotun can drop Arcane Scrap, .308 Ammo, GATE Defense Rune, and Lodestone Fragment. Harvesting the corpse can yield Head of a Giant, Kevlar Scrap, and sometimes a Giant's Pack.