Mr Skops

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• This article is about the character's role in Rayman fan games. For the character in official games, see Mr Skops.

Mr Skops
Mr Skops
Alignment	Bad
Appears in	Rayman Redemption, Rayman ReDesigner, AlteRayman
Location	Molten Depths, Mr Skops' Stalactites
Portrayed by	{{{portrayed by}}}
Resistance	(Rayman Redemption) (Rayman ReDesigner)
Attacks	Claw, energy balls, sting
Sex	{{{sex}}}
Species	Scorpion
Relatives	{{{relatives}}}

Who dares disturb my beauty sleep? You will not get away with this! Drown in lava!

—Mr Skops, Rayman Redemption

You're still here? I'll teach you not to disturb a scorpion's sleep! I'll cut you into pieces!

—Mr Skops, Rayman Redemption

In Rayman Redemption

Mr Skops is a giant, dark-pink scorpion with a single massive claw, and yellow spikes on his body. He is the fifth major boss in Rayman Redemption. Rayman first encounters Mr Skops at the beginning of Molten Depths, sleeping on the other side of a bridge of spiky platforms. Mr Skops, angry at his sleep being disturbed, smashes the ground, causing the bridge to collapse under Rayman's feet, dropping him into the depths below.

After Rayman successfully navigates the deep, lava-filled caverns, defeating Darktoon in the process, he challenges Mr Skops again in his domain - Mr Skops' Stalactites. The scorpion lures Rayman into his lair, alternating between claw and energy ball attacks, which Rayman must avoid. Although it is possible for Rayman to launch his fist and lure the energy balls back into Mr Skops, they cause no damage to the scorpion at this stage. Only when the final battle begins, Mr Skops' health bar becomes visible and he becomes vulnerable.

• 
  Mr Skops as first encountered in Mr Skops' Stalactites.

In the final phase of the battle, Mr Skops alternates claw and energy ball attacks. Rayman must jump over the claw as it sails towards him and again as it returns. The energy balls that Mr Skops launches actually track Rayman's fist, which is the secret to hurting Mr Skops - by throwing a punch at the scorpion at the right moment, Rayman will not only avoid being hit by the energy balls, but will cause them to hit Mr Skops instead, taking off one hit point.

After every two hits taken by Mr Skops, he will drop a boulder, then walk towards Rayman and off the screen. Rayman must use the boulder to jump over the scorpion, as touching his claw will hurt Rayman. While off-screen, Mr Skops will attempt to sting Rayman from above four times. The tip of the sting always aims at Rayman's location and is visible right before it is launched. Rayman must quickly move to avoid being stung. When Mr Skops returns to the screen, he will resume the alternating attack pattern.

In the second half of the battle, after Mr Skops has suffered 4 hits, instead of launching his pincers straight ahead, the claw will track Rayman on the screen four times, making it harder to avoid. The rest of the patterns remain the same.

Mr Skops partially appears again in Mr Dark's Dare as parts of the Dark Chimera, his claw and head being merged with Mr Stone, his feet with the Menace and Space Mama, and his tail and body with Moskito. Skops is fought again in the Boss Rush and the True Boss Rush, gaining a purle and grayish-blue color-scheme in the latter as well as improved moves, such as a sparking a flame projectile going in both directions when stinging the ground with his tail, or shooting four energy projectiles after the pincers attacks no matter how much health he has left.

• 
  Skops as fought in the True Boss Rush.

Mr Skops also appears in the ending after he turned good, seen sleeping at Eat at Joe's beach and holding a drink between his pincers, relaxing alongside three Electoons, the Painter, Joe, the light fairy and even Darktoon all enjoying a drink together.

• 
  Mr Skops in the ending.

Achievements

• Defeating Mr Skops grants the Let Him Sleep achievement.

In Rayman ReDesigner

Mr Skops returns in Rayman ReDesigner as an invincible chasing boss and the main antagonist of the default level Revenge of Mr. Skops. In Revenge of Mr. Skops, the giant hasn't slept for over a week and he chases Rayman across two sections, and is subsequently fought in a third part, in an improvised boss battle involving collecting colored Tings after dodging Mr Skops' attacks and jumps, until a cloud appears to allow Rayman to escape.

Through the second page of the enemies tab in the level editor, the player can place as many instances of Mr Skops in a level as they like, flip or link him to events, and make him behave in different ways by placing chaser triggers. Skops can thus react to them by turning, jumping, stopping, or by attacking, the latter making him shoot his telescopic pincers in a straight line.

As a chaser, Mr Skops only starts moving once he spots the player, which occurs whenever Rayman is about six and fourteen tiles away in front of him. Any physical contact with the scorpion will push Rayman away, even under the effects of the Invincibility power-up. Mr Skops turns back on his own if he meets any solid tile on his path. He also falls from any platform's ledge, even if there are no special tiles that can be passed through directly next to them, including the map's edges if they aren't blocked by any solid collision. A gap must be at least eight tiles wide to let Mr Skops fall through it.

A carving of Mr Skops' face is found on a wooden fence from the Caves of Skops template. His music theme can also be selected as a level's music, including from the music starter object since version 1.4.0.

In AlteRayman

In AlteRayman Mr Skops was brainwashed at night. When he awakens, Mr Dark start to control him. When Brainwashed Mr Skops losing in battle with Rayman, he gets mind back.

Trivia

• In Rayman Redemption's early production, one of Darktoon's dialogues referred to Mr Skops as "one of Mr Dark's most loyal servants", something which was changed due to the giant scorpion spending most of his time sleeping instead of actively working for the evil sorcerer.
• Despite not being featured in Rayman Redemption's Gameplay Demo, Mr Skops's hud icon can be found in the internal files, and so does the loading screen featuring the scorpion.
• One of Mr Skops's lines in Rayman Redemption's early production was also different in Mr Skops' Stalactites, being "Burn in lava" instead of "I'll cut you into pieces!". This implies the early first phase of the battle could have been more similar to the original one in Rayman 1.
• Mr Skops didn't speak in Rayman 1, and is one of the few returning bosses in Rayman Redemption to have gained any form of dialogue, alongside Mr Sax and Space Mama.
• In the original Rayman, the spiky platform bridge and chase sequence were both part of the same encounter in Mr Skops' Stalactites. Rayman Redemption split them into two separate, simplified encounters. Rayman no longer has to stay on a slowly collapsing bridge while avoiding Mr Skops' claw, and the chase sequence has no rising lava.
• Mr Skops' sting and tracking claw attacks in the final battle are new to Rayman Redemption, and did not appear in Rayman 1.
• Rayman's fist can still hit Mr Skops when he's out of bounds in his final battle in Rayman Redemption, as the sound of the fist hitting an invincible foe can be heard when punching from the right edge of the arena. This however serves no purpose.
• As cages are no longer required to unlock the level after Mr Skops' Stalactites in Rayman Redemption, Mr Skops cannot be skipped like it was possible in the PC version of Rayman 1 and its ports.
• When playing in the 16:9 aspect ratio, two stone walls will frame Mr Skops' arena. As most returning bosses, this was done in order to not stretch the original background art and to keep gameplay the same between 4:3 and widescreen formats.
• In Rayman ReDesigner, if an immobile Mr Skops is standing on any chaser mechanism except the stopping one or turning one, he'll perform his chasing animation without actually moving, while the turn trigger will cause him to keep flipping endlessly on himself. His movement will resume working properly once he spots Rayman. However, he'll remain stuck with the turning mechanism despite performing his moving animation, which will make him appear as if he's two afterimages of himself.