Chevalier

The Chevalier is a Bloodsucker type enemy found typically in the Courtyard, though it can also appear in the major regions of the Estate if Infestation is high. With its large health pool, 30% Protection, high damage, and ability to stun multiple heroes, it is easily one of the toughest enemies in the Courtyard.

While their fellow Bloodsuckers maintain a humanoid form, Chevaliers stand out for being far more insectoid, with their wigs and coats being the only thing indicating that they were once human. As their name indicates, Chevaliers are likely to have held high ranks of knighthood in their past; after their transformation, this high rank translates to great combat prowess. They also lack The Thirst and thus cannot spread the Crimson Curse, but their raw damage and resilience make them a great threat regardless.

Behavior
The Chevalier's skill selection is simple, having an equal chance to do either Buried Blast or Subterranean Skewer on any given round. However, Buried Blast has a cooldown of 3 turns, so it typically will just do Subterranean Skewer.

It only has a slight bias towards marked targets, with 2x and 3x chance to target on Veteran and Champion, respectively.

Strategy
One of the most dangerous enemies roaming the Courtyard (and elsewhere, once the first Courtyard mission is completed), the Chevalier is a heavy-hitting damage dealer that is found in the back ranks of many parties. Both of his abilities are terrifying to face:
 * Subterranean Skewer deals heavy damage to a single target and inflicts bleed. If it connects, it can easily bring a relatively healthy hero to Death's Door—especially if it crits, which it does with horrifying regularity.
 * Buried Blast is not any better, as it hits two targets hard with a chance to stun and apply a massive dodge debuff. Mercifully, it cannot crit.

Alongside his offensive prowess, the Chevalier is no pushover and cannot be killed easily. His extremely high move resist prevents him from being moved from his perch in the back, making him shrug off shuffles and pulls. Furthermore, his hefty health pool and his 30% PROT ensures that it will take most parties some time to take him down. Fortunately, he does not deal Stress damage (outside of crits) and he cannot afflict heroes with the Crimson Curse.

His primary weakness is stuns —his stun resist is low enough that he is relatively easy to stun for multiple turns consecutively. The Bounty Hunter's Flashbang can target any position, and has a higher stun chance than similar skills like the Plague Doctor's Disorienting Blast. However, it lacks the corpse clearing of Disorienting Blast, which can be important at the end of a battle to quickly pull the Chevalier forward.

Because killing the Chevalier often takes multiple turns, it is often wise to focus on weaker, lower-HP enemies first. You cannot reliably out-heal a Chevalier, so try to keep him stunned if you can't kill him towards the end of a fight when you are healing. When preparing for Courtyard missions, consider ways to counter the Chevalier's dangerous arsenal, such as bringing extra bandages to limit bleed damage, and equipping your healers with trinkets that increase their speed, stun resist, and bleed resist. Furthermore, make sure your team has enough damage output to take him out quickly, and failing that, assure yourself that your time won't be wasted by hacking through corpses by packing a move that clears them. Although it's immune to move skills and thus can't be shuffled, the Plague Doctor excels in supporting a team against these horrors, stunning the backline, sometimes composed of two Chevaliers, with Blinding Gas, stunning it alone but removing the corpses protecting it from frontline attacks with Disorienting Blast, and preventing deaths with Battlefield Medicine, which both provides a minor heal and cures bleed from Subterranean Skewer.

Abilities
Veteran =

Champion =

All Areas

 * Supplicant
 * Sycophant
 * Gatekeeper

The Courtyard

 * Manservant
 * Esquire
 * Courtesan

Bosses

 * Crocodilian
 * Baron
 * Viscount
 * Countess
 * Garden Guardian