Firing bullets or throwing shuriken at something with an armored exoskeleton is as stupid as anything done in Stormship Troopers (which is one of the classic all-time stupid movies). The only way to beat monsters like this is with subtlety. I'd first dust them with a fine penetrating powder to clog up their airholes. Whether it was anthrax or carbon or a hallucinagen wouldn't matter nearly as much as the particle size. If they can't breathe, they can't think, and ought to pass out. If I used carbon or another industrial lubricant, their joints might slip so badly that they couldn't stand up. If an aerial dusting didn't work, I'd drop glooey gloppy stuff on them. If it has the same tensile strength as spider webs, that would be nice, but the basic purpose is to completely coat the creature, again so that it could not breathe. Immobility is an added bonus. Dust BEFORE glop! If there is something living inside the exoskeleton, it must catalyze nutrients for repair and growth... and must exchange oxygen as part of that process. If dusting and glopping didn't work, the next weapon in the arsenal is sonics. Rattle their bones? Hell, no! Get them thoroughly rattled and aching all over! If you can find the right frequency, maybe the limbs would fall off. :very wide, very evil grin: If dusting, glopping, and sonics don't work... there is electricity, magnetism, and shock waves (the reason cars have crumple zones is to absorb the shock... I doubt if these guys have crumple zones). After that, I'd go with heat and/or cold. Alternating extremes will cause granite and metal to break from fatigue, so ought to work on these pups. If the material in their skins is shrinking and stretching, it WILL be fatigued faster than they can repair it. Please note that ALL of these forms of attack are from a practical, safe distance, preferably from above. Only a nincompoop would run into hand-to-hand combat with naked bellybutton and exposed groin. Carolly Evil OverMistress of the UnderDark and Successful Conqueror of Alien Worlds