You Don't Know How Predators Work (Ben 10 Explained) 

I always assumed the creatures in the nemetrix were not really specialized predators for one species but rather the apex predator of the food web from where that specific alien lives

I feel like Kaiber started with predators adapted to Ben's favored forms and then got some utility forms to round out the active list

9:28 It's confirmed in the series that he went for the 10 strongest predators in the universe, I thought. That'd explain why he got those two DNA samples. Also, the crabdozers orbit around Pyros before crashing down to feed. Its not crazy to imagine they could drift off to other planets.

I think a little fact that helps even further is that invasive species are such successful predators due to native animals not having adaptations for them, just like pyronites and crabdozer Also seeing a spec evo fan being active in the ben10 community is such a refreshing thing

I usually think that most of these predators are just specialised in specific areas that it should be compatible with other aliens. Crabdozer is pretty much a rhino with 4 legs and a strong body so it could just plow through most aliens like even XLR8 and Fasttrack since they can't budge him. Plus it's a volcanic species so it's heat resistance and could probably walk in lava. Kyber is probably just hunting interesting and strong species that's supposed to counter Ben's original 10, but have moved on since.

My theory is that Khyber was strategic and tried to optimize for the smallest number of predators that could be useful against the greatest number of aliens, and maybe he did try to predict which aliens Ben was more likely to use based on his fighting tendencies. Also, the selection might have to do with the mind game; trying to seem as if he had a predator for every alien when that wasn’t the case, but it didn’t matter as long as Ben thought it was true. I also imagine Khyber didn’t hunt all the predators to get their samples but at least he did with most while for some like Crabdozer he might have bought one from the black market or something and as the hunter he is he still played with it, by hunting it in a controlled setting.

Just because an alien can counter another, doesn't mean they were the intended prey, especially since all the aliens you mentioned come from different worlds where there would be no way for natural selection to take them into account. My theory is that he just took extremely strong apex predators. It's logical to think that Ben's strongest aliens would need an even stronger predator to hunt them. The aliens that Ben constantly use must be extremely powerful in some aspect because why else would he continue to choose them instead of the thousands of others he has.

I'm pretty sure when it comes to the hypnoticks, it's actually stated in the show that they're virtually extinct as they exclusively hunt necrophrigians. Just thought I'd put that out there.

If I remember correctly that crab dude hired Kyber not to collect specific predators, but simply strong predators. And also it is more efficient than travel over 10k worlds for a single DNA, and he might hunt some of them on a same planet. He's a professional hunter after all, so I guess that makes sense that he collected DNA of species that he thought would be enough to defeat multiple aliens with similar powers.

For how the Crabdozer was found on that planet that clearly wasn't Pyros, I think it just sort of got there on its own. I know that sounds stupid and rediculous, but according to word of god, Crabdozers don't actually live _on_ Pyros. They orbit it like asterodes before crashing down on it to feed on Pyronites and then ride solar flares back into orbit. Also, according to DJW, that Crabdozer was in a game preserve. Also, I disagree with the idea that Mucilator would be effective against Ben's other speed aliens for one simple reason: What does it do if Ben's running _away_ from it? Crashhopper is suseptable to the gel sacks because he can't change his trajectory mid-jump. XLR8 and Fasttrack on the other hand can stop and change course almost on a dime.

8:27 this is something I've always wondered about. I mean one of the limitations of the nemetrix is that apparently the species in it lack the same level of sentience as those in the Omnitrix but it's highly improbably that literally every predator has animalistic levels of sentience, especially when according to a word of god dolphin dna is in the Omnitrix. I don't see why you couldn't make a Nemetrix with aliens like Whampire or something. idk you might even be able to make a pair with one for animals like Zed and another for someone more strategic like Khyber. I will partially defend Kuro about the Krabdoze thing because I could totally see at least one rich asshole in space getting too big for their britches or keeping in a reserve or something for someone to hunt. Considering we saw animals as dangerous as the Grakiflint (idk how to spell it) being shipped and almost escaping Duck Danger or whatever his name was someone transporting an extremely dangerous alien only for it to break lose and (in the case of Krabdozer) maybe fall to the planet's surface is not impossible. Also, Krabdozer spend most of their time in orbit before they fall onto the planet and get launched back up later by volcanoes and stuff. It's totally possible that Krabdozer is native to several different worlds at the same time. This wouldn't be the first time this has happened in Ben 10 and especially considering where Krabdozer hangs out the idea that some might fly out of orbit and either die in space or fall onto a nearby planet ages ago and to have sense adapted. I think this still proves your point that Krabdozer doesn't ONLY eat pyronites but I think there are probably a lot of explanations for how an alien like Krabdozer got there.

9:49 actually as we are explicitly told in the episode The war of the worlds part 1 the season finale of the Alien Force season 2 we were told that there are over 1,000,000 DNA samples in the Omnitrix database. Ben 10000 is simply a name, it is not a reference to how many transformations he has.

Honestly, the Idea of Khyber just collecting Species because it i.e. counters X Ability sounds pragmatic but badass. Like, imagine he knew what the Predator of Pyronites was but went "why tf should I travel all the way to Pyros if I can instead take the more powerful krabdozer?" I could also imagine he would've taken a vladad (don't know how to spell it) sample, but didn't because they were literally thought to be extinct. Seeing a Villain Whampire would've been chilling af

The Omnitrix actually has over 1 Million DNA Samples but I understand why you could forget since Ben when he is older calls himself Ben 10.000 Have a great day.

I think Khyber simply picked a selection of generalized predators with a few specialized ones.

Wasn’t there also an episode that explained the Nemetrix was giving off some kind of feedback that was effecting the omnitrix and basically making the randomizer give Ben prey appropriate aliens? Edit: it was the episode where Phil shows back up….Ben keeps getting back to back electric aliens and he mentions it’s something to do with the Nemetrix

The nemetrix also runs an interference that usually makes the omnitrix only transform into aliens that have predators and aliens weaker than those aliens. Think of how anytime he is near the nemetrix. The strongest alien he can turn into is hummongasaur. Despite having Way Big, Atomix, NRG, Chromastone, Alien X, Atomix. Most characters with intangibility usually use density shifting like big chill. Ghost freak uses spatial shifting like all ghosts which is how they are also able to teleport and possess the living

I don't know why but whenever you say "Kaiber" I keep hearing "Kaiba" and that makes me crack up

You can probably also assume that ben has access to ever alien in the nemetrix, there's probably a failsafe that prevents ben from using them due to the effect it would have on his mind.

Many aliens in the Omnitrix, including Heatblast, probably don't have specific predators at all. Kaiber was probably just hired to collect the deadliest and most versatile predators in the universe based on Ben's known abilities. He knows which predator to use because he chose beings that can counter most TYPES of aliens.

a few corrections Mucilator doesn’t exclusively hunt Orthopterrans, it literally just sits still until things run into it’s slime, it’s just really good at hunting Orthopterrans Crabdozer’s orbit Pyros (like Galileans) and only drop down to the planet to feed, they actually are specifically designed to hunt Pyronites as their saliva is a really good fire suppressant, they also had a habit of being dragged onto other planets while orbiting Omnivoracious was actually very effective, they were intelligent to the point the Galvans couldn’t outwit them, they went extinct because of an extreme climate change on Galvan Prime Vicetopus also have very rubbery skin which helps against Cerebrocrustaceans electricity Terroranchula wasn’t grabbed specifically for any one alien, it was more of a test drive thing to see how a Sapient creature like Phil could handle being turned into a mindless predator

Tyrannopedes probably do make for better direct predators of vexasaurians, I mean the terrain was the issue in their initial fight. We clearly see humungosaur has trouble lifting it on top of that even though he can lift and flip him it doesn't do much damage to it and I don't think weapons would either as they seem to have a very durable exoskeleton. One thing that's pointed out is that they also prey on astrodactyl's species and in my opinion I think that's what they typically use their webs for. Snagging them out of the sky using it essentially like a steel cable that's to durable for their energy burst to break. We also can't forget that terroranchula is effective against leppidopterrans seeing that it absolutely cooked stinkfly😂 but as for Khyber collecting specific species he definitely didn't. It's actually pointed out he picked the ones that were considered to be the most dangerous.

I liked the idea of them using non-sentient DNA and I like to believed that Kiba chose only Apex predator that could be used in a verity of ways. Thanks for vindicating me. My friends thought I was crazy when I suggested this.

but in the show didn’t they specifically state that they are natural predators, he says the name then says what it’s the natural predator of. i’m not trying to hate btw, but i just don’t think they would put that in the show so people can make their own theories

I do think some of the Nemetrix predators are 1 to 1 with Ben’s aliens such as Tyrannopede, Hypnotic and Omnivoracious, and others like the Crabdozer were picked due to traits and ability’s.

I would like to think that the Crabdozer is actually a general pretador that preys on several other species in the system pyros is part of, which would make sense considering that those beasts can fricking fly of the atmosphere of a planet like nothing, but we just associate them to Heatblast specifically because his planet is part of the system where these things live.

Great analysis. While it was said that Khyber's main reason to utilize these specific 10 predatory aliens was because they were the fiercest of them all, but i guess it was also to counter ben's fighting style effectively. Ben is a hit first, ask questions later type of guy and thus he generally prefers direct combat and his alien choices reflect on that preferance. Secondly, i do agree that while these nemetrix aliens are said to be direct predators of the said species, it doesn't mean they can't hunt other beings with similar abilities. For example, in the 15th episode of Omniverse "Malefactor" Grandpa Max said that Psycholeopterrans, which are Hypnotick's species, prefer hunting creatures that can also go intangible, which also include species such as Ectonurites (Ghostfreak) and Amperis(Ampfibian), but they just prefer Necrofriggians because they are easier to hunt compared to Ectonurites and Amperis, since Ectonurites can inhibit other beings' bodies to escape or rotate their eyes around their body to avoid being hypnotized and amperis can become pure energy and hide within electrical machineries. But Necrofriggians actually has no other way of defense against Psycholeopterrans since their main line of defense is their intangibility, which is useless against Hypnotick since they can also become intangible. Or same thing with Crabdozer. They can easily hunt any being with fire based abilities but they just find Pyronites to be the easiest prey to hunt since they have no other way of defense against them, whereas a Methanosian would be able to use their chlorokinesis to bind or incapacitate the crabdozer. This doesn't mean crabdozer wouldnt be able to hunt a methanosian, but they just prefer to hunt creatures that will give the least amount of difficulty.

Honestly, at this point you should make a video asking whether or not IRL ecological / evolutionary principles actually apply to Ben 10, cuz honestly it's more interesting if you look at it from that angle. Also the fandom should bone up on actual ecology/evolution since I once met a guy in the 5yl discord who thought humans could become "planetary level" by training?!?!?!?!?

Getting recognised by Ink Tank is like an achievement ngl...almost like wearing a badge that makes you an elite.

I always felt like the nematrix essentially worked like this: If someone were to use the nematrix to find something considerably close to a predator for a human, it would most likely just turn it into a polar bear or something. Not explicitly stated to be our predators as a regular kind of thing, but it is well known they are fully capable and do kill people. So essentially it's something that's native to the planets of the alien in the specific fight, but it's not technically actually the exclusive predator to that alien, just something from the same planet with the capabilities of murder

I think the alien physiology might eliminate a lot of this. Who knows what the predators would consider delicious or poison? Would they be suitably equipped to digest other species? Of course some nemetrix predators could cross over and eat the prey of the others, but I think it's highly unlikely most of them can as from what we know they are highly specialized for the inhabitants of the planet they reside in. For example, the centipede looking Dino can take out both aerodactyl and humungousaur because it's highly specialized for their specific adaptations

I think it was said in the lore that Khyber spent about five years studying Ben while updating the Nemetrix, so he probably didn't have any better ones the first time he fought Ben.

From the way you explained it it make me glad i remembered the side theory i had about the nematix that he selected the most Compatible Predators for as many aliens in the ommitrix that he had or doc Psychobos(greatly miss spelled)knew of it's why he had such a limited pool because instead of going for the eveny pretator of alien in the ommitrix they would only need to collect a smaller amount and use those against ben

I thought that the Crabdozer was an invasive species, similarly to how cats and dogs can wreak havoc on an island despite being foreign to it

I always asumed that Nemetrix had the best predators in the universe and not predator for every single alien. Also since we seen wild crabdozer on regular planet maybe some of these predators were intreduced to their alien prey by acident and are invasive species

I also think the name "Nemetrix" is to foil the Omnitrix and most of the aliens. That's pretty awesome considering how much life is in the Ben 10 Omniverse

I always thought that the reason those preditors were chosen was because when malware got parts of the omnitrix's blueprints, containment information for certain species were leaked, so those would be prime preditors to go after. The only problem being armordrillo, but apparently kevins species is in existance limbo so how ben got armordrillo in the first place is tricky

i swear someone'll prolly make a tierzoo type list for ben10 eventually.

Animals don't evolve to eat just one thing. Koalas: ...

Birds and Owls are actually good to separate because Owls also hunt smaller prey like mice, so separating the two helps differentiate bigger birds and smaller birds

Honestly, I remember kyber just grabbed the strongest predator instead of each and every predator because that would be to much.

There are many reasons why crabdozer could be rogue, perhaps he was being transported to a zoo or was already on a zoo at the time when he escaped captivity, and was then defeated and sampled by khyber.

I had actually thought about this recently too. Likely some of Bens aliens come from the same world, have similar ancestors and similar weaknesses. We know Upchuck has no predator due to them just eating everything so there's nothing that could evolve to counter there as they''d be eaten before too long. But ye I can see a lot of overlap in abilites on these predators, I just think the show runners wanted drama and a gimick so they play it off as "Natural predator" when it's more, this predator is good at eating this species and others like it.

For Crabdozer vs Eye Guy, Eye guy can shoot Freeze rays which could deal with the Crabdozer

I don’t think echo echo has any predators. It’s just living sound inside of a silicon suit.

There's a theory that he analyzed Ben's most common omnitrix selection and only chose the ones he has a habit of using

Khyber most likely only had the data of what Ben could currently able to transform into when he started hunting down DNA, so he focus on aliens that would help battle against what Ben already had, cause if you remember in Omniverse when Max showed Ben and Gwen the Hypnotick Max explained how they normally hunt down prey that can become intangible which Ben's first thought was aliens like ectonurites

I understand how Galvans (Azmuth's species). Prehistoric Galvin Prime must've been an extremely dangerous place for the Galvan species to have evolved their intelligence. Everything must've been after them.

Crabdozers actually orbit around pyros where they spend most of their lifecycle.They crash into the surface when they want to hunt and after feeding they hitch a ride on solar flares back into said orbit. And as shown in omniverse they also have fire-supressing saliva. Crabdozers can also be found in game preserves.

I was telling me friends this exact argument for why crabozzer isn’t heatblast predictor

i was more of a Bakugan guy i can still remember that theme song by heart

I agree with these points, I just want to add my own little bit of trivia: Many of the predators are the real-life predators of Ben’s real aliens BugLizard prey on StinkFly Lizards prey on insects Terrorantula prey on BallWeevil Spiders prey on beetles Omnivoratious prey on GreyMatter Birds prey on frogs Vicetopus prey on BrainStorm Octopus prey on crabs And it might be a stretch but ditto to me seems slightly mouse-ish; small, cute (depends on who you ask), and they’re everywhere Pununcian prey on ditto Cats prey on mice Ironically SlamWorm hunting armodrillo is odd since armadillos eat worms

Didn't Rook Specifically Told Ben To NOT Turn Into A Pyronite Against Crabdozer?

For Omnivoracious, Y-It (the museum tour gide) said that the Galvans simply got lucky. A meteorite hit Galvan Prime, and the resulting climate change killed off the species, allowing the Galvans to become dominant.

The idea of the Nemetrix's species being just a collection of tough aliens makes a lot more sense than them being natural predators because here is a lesson in ecology: PREY AREN'T DEFENSELESS! Even with a slew of adaptations to hunt certain kinds of prey, predators fail in more hunts than they succeed because prey have evolved defenses against their predators, so we shouldn't see the one-sided match ups that we see with most of the aliens in the Nemetrix. Probably the closest to the natural prey/predator relationship is the Tyrannopede and Vaxasaurian match up, as while the Tyrannopede is deadly a healthy adult Vaxasaur _can_ defend itself like how most healthy prey species on Earth can do the same.

The nemetrix aliens may well have been selected specifically to hunt Ben's original 10 aliens but with enough utility to be used elsewhere if necessary. Buglizard is specialised for Stinkfly, Crabdozer for Heatblast, Hypnotick for Ghost Freak, Panuncian vs Wildmutt (can't surprise him with his enhanced senses, so multiply and attack from multiple directions at once), Mucilator for XLR8, Omnivoracious for Grey Matter, Slamworm for Diamondhead (ambush him and try to swallow him whole, then allow the potent acid to dissolve his crystal body), Terroranchula vs Upgrade (the plasma webs are shown to be able to shock targets and I think Galvanic Mechamorphs are vulnerable to electrical attacks), Tyrannopede for Four Arms and Vicetopus for Ripjaws (mostly a guess, as it's the only one that looks aquatic). But, as well as those specialisations, they're all at least somewhat capable of fighting others of the classic 10 and, as we see in the show, aliens outside of that playlist as well.

10:36 to further confirm this and your entire explanation, Khyber says this: I hunted down all the fiercest most savage predators in the galaxy and procured their DNA for the Nemetrix. He himself confirmed he hunted down the predators that were on top of the food chain.

Nano mech is the only one of his species that was created from the Omnitrix itself

This really did change my perception of the nemetrix

I like the Tyrannopede is basically Ben 10’s version of the Ultimasaurus from the canceled Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect toyline

They are natural predators. NATURAL, he just picked the best so he can counter attack MULTIPLE ALIENS OF THAT ABILITY

“Emphasis on most” and you DIDN’T show Diamondhead?!

Personal The crab dozers are probably one of wildvines (i forgot the name of the species) predators because: The crab dozer have thick shells(?) to counter the bombs of wildvine The spikes/ horns would counter the vines And the large bulky-ness to counter the wildvines ambush stuff (it would be a lot harder to ambush a big creature that's like 10x bigger then yourself) their habit is quite floral which would match wildvines theme

Fan of digimon here, also the fusion concept is rad, but just like the ultimate concept defeats the purpose of "walking a mile" in another creatures "shoes" I am a fan of the skurd concept alot, becuase it honestly shows how species could work together in harmony

I always assumed that when malware brought the incomplete omitrix to psycobos that some of the dna was incomplete or shuffled with some others so they hired Kyber to get DNA for predators the arsenal. Because theoretically kyber started this hunt before Ben put the watch on in Alien Force so most of the predators wouldn’t be specific counters as Ben hasn’t unlocked most of them.

7:40 This pred can also upgrade himself, so he's semi untouchable Like how we saw with stinkfly. Producing an electric shock. & if I'm not mistaken, his webs can also absorb some projectile attacks

wasn't NRG's real body like a walking sun

There's a reason why I'm an og Ben 10 fan. It's bc of these controversial topics and theories. It just makes the og franchise even better. Onto your poll I personally loved and still love Yu-Gi-Oh. I'm guessing your favorite one growing up was Bakugan.

U also gotta remember that bens aliens are like the chadiest of the chads of that species. For example bens male 16 year old tetramand or whatever was stronger than a female tetramand who was older and probably more trained and experience. (Females are meant to be stronger) so just because bens humangasaur (probably butchered that name) can beat something up dosent mean an average one will stand a chance

Not that I disagree with you but it is stated that Crabdozers spend a huge chunk of their lives in orbit of planets like Pyros(And Pyros is definitely not a star no matter who tells what) And use high geothermal activity on the planet to launch themselves to space by literally sitting on volcanoes and waiting for them to explode. They eat Pyronites to keep warm and energized in void of space I think? I might be wrong about that last part. The planet we see the Crabdozer was probably another inhabited world in the same solar system as Pyros and it is not unfeasible that Crabdozers are found all around in that solar system due to their life cycle. I don't know if this is retconned now or scrapped in reboot though. It was a long time ago I came across this information. Regardless this would make Crabdozers the apex predator of the entire Solar System Pyros is located at and not just a hyperspecialized predator of Pyronites so your point is still valid.

Each Alien is still from different planets, and dominants of their owns, so its still very fun to create many OC predators for specific aliens, as it would still make sense for such species of its target from Omnitrix being the main target of their predatory. The multi-predation is a fun extra for these aliens still. Kinda funny that humans are both prey and predator of every single animal on earth.

Growing up I always liked Bakugan more since it had more drama. i'll never forget the twist with Alice being Masquerade.

Nanomech isn't a species. He's a being made by the omnitrix after scanning a nanochip and combining it with Ben's DNA

Did anyone ever say that the nemetrix predators were hyperspecialized?

I have always disliked the "fact" that all of Ben's aliens have a perfect predator for them because if you imagine food web on the top of it would upchuck's species because they literally eat their own planet P.s alien-x's species is nowhere on the food web because they are god like

Kiri when seeing every predator: "Sir, If You Have a Complaint I Suggest You Submit It Through Our Celestialsapien retcon System." Kiri when seeing Crabdozer: "You are done. Fired. Do not show your face in the Nemetrix again. Stay away from Zed. Do not go near her. Ever. Are you listening to me?"

Where's Inktank

Also Khyber collected Psycholeopterran, Vicetopus, Slampede and Tyrranopede - "predators" of aliens that ben also didn't had unlocked when he was 11

Kyber choose to stand by and watch Ben fight. But after that I agree.

Okay, but imagine Khyber working with Psychobos in order to make some ultimate Nemetrix, with DNA from the best predators for all of Ben's aliens.

So the point of this video is that the Nemetrix like the omnitrix has a limited pool of samples to choose from. But still a big one. And I assume Dr Psychobos who made it was also partially the brains behind these sample choices. So its not just Khyber who planned and created this device. But I still think it cant be ignored that while predators generally have a wide scope of prey animal species, they do definitely exist and have adaptations to counter said prey's defenses that they coexist with, most of the omnitrix aliens have one and it makes sense cause most of them still live in more hostile worlds than our own. A vaxasaurian with a spear is pretty much similar to us with one against a tiger its not gonna do much and we can be caught without one or it straight up not being enough. A tyrannosaurus bite is strong enough to puncture the armor of ankylosaurus and triceratops, they have some means to fight back and counter its own adaptations but as is the predator has tools to threaten the prey. And then as to predators being effective against aliens that its never naturally met we do have a thing called invasive species, it makes sense that because no predator can live comfortably being an absolute specialist that said predatory animals can match well against other prey animals like a dingo brought by humans and a kangaroo who are isolated in australia. I feel like the Nemetrix still makes a lot of sense to me it just has more to it in usage than simply being a reactive counter to the omnitrix.

Mine (in order of favorite to least favorite) Pokemon -> Bakugan -> Yu-gi-oh (5ds) -> Bayblades. Yours (in order of favorite to least favorite) Yu-gi-oh -> Pokemon -> Bayblades -> Bakugan

Kaiba has a Tardis? Neat

ive always looked at the nemetrix as a swish army version of the omnitrix fewer options but alot of versatility in what its used for. kyhber chose specific species that i suspect are the top non sentient predators in the universe that way he could be prepared an strategize easier for his hunt on ben. versatility in top options is better then unlimited dna to dabble with.

Thank you for bringing me over to collaborate with you! Although I don't remember making my way to the studio....

I thought there was like 1.3 million different species in the Omnitrixs. Didn’t asthma mention that or something idk i forgot it’s been years since I watched the show

Crazy how Khyber pulled up with absolutely no response to Chamalien and Ben still didn't use him

Something else on this is that realistically a lot of bens aliens don't have predators like humans don't really have a predator since most of the aliens are probably the "human equivalent" on their home world and a lot of aliens feel like they would be predators like wildmutt wildvine and we even know Whampire is a predator species so I do feel the Nematrix is just the strongest ones they could get since kaiber could mess with the Omnitrix to give ben the worst outcomes against the predators Also I straight up did not remember that Brainstrom had a predator when the heck did that happen

I think because we are talking about aliens who live in different planets from eachother for example a heatblast predator could kiil an swampfire but they would nevere came across eachother because they live in different planets thats why they say its a heatblast predator because it leaves near pyronights and not swampfires

I really wish we got to see more predators in Ben 10. They were so cool to see and it was fun to watch Ben fight them, but its cool that the reboot gave us a few more. I also wish we got to see a bit more of Khyber. I feel like he got treated more like a joke in his last appearance instead of this legendary hunter. Also, I was a bigger fan of Bakugan lol. I've probably rewatched it the most out of the rest of those. Have not seen the reboot of it lol.

This is something I would see in Monster Hunter

I think you've well thought out this video, even outside of Ben 10, this can be useful for worldbuilding predator prey relations in scifi in general

Wait wait wait. You said Armodrillo? The alien from the Andromida galaxy? So Kaiber went out of his way to get a predator from some remote place but didn't get a predator for some of Ben's most powerful aliens?

honestly I've always thought that most of the predators in the Nemitrix were a combination of the deadliest predators Khyber could find, and ones that were also at the top of their respective food webs. Honestly some of the predator's adaptations seem more like something developed for defense against a specific species over hunting them. Like Buglizard's gas attack. That seems more like something originally developed to protect itself from Stinkfly's species. Likely in response to Stinkfly's species hunting it for reasons similar to something like a fur trade, where member's of Stinkfly's species sell the leather for profit. Something to note is that Sapient Species tend to have a unique relationship with predators. Using humans as an example, we are NOT APEX predators, at least not naturally. All evidence suggests that in the ancient past humans were scavengers, gatherers, and possibly opportunistic predators. Humans just got smart enough, and aware enough to essentially remove ourselves from the natural food web, and made tools to aid us. So, the relationships with most of these predators is likely more along the lines of them developing a lot of these tools to deal with being hunted by the sapient life forms on their home world, while also making them more affective at hunting. I mean are you seriously going to tell me that Heatblast is the only thing on his home planet that can shoot fire? Now some things to note; 1) Tyrannopede was wiping the floor with Humungousaur as in the clip you grabbed that still image from, it showed Ben being crushed by Tyrannopede as it was too heavy for Humungousaur to lift. Although you do bring up a good point about how most members of Humungousaur's species likely do carry weapons on them. 2) Vicetopus is the natural predator of Brainstorm, and has some limited electricity immunity. Meaning it could counter a number of Ben's electrical aliens as well. 3) Omnivoracious was confirmed to be the top predator on Galvan Prime, not just preying on the Galvan themselves but eating everything in their environment. They only went extinct due to an Ice Age. 4) The Hypnotick is the only predator I can think of that is hyper specialized for hunting Necrofriggians, and honestly the lore actually supports this and your point by saying that the Hypnotick species is on the verge of going extinct. Something else to look at is that originally Big Chill's species were supposed to be the only things capable of living on their home planet, and the only other species we can confirm as having lived there is the Hypnotick. With that information it isn't hard to assume that we are seeing the death of a predator species that developed to hunt the only kind of prey the planet had.

On screen we see Khyber collect the DNA or have it be used of 3 predator species from the same planets as aliens that Ben wouldn't unlock until later. Terroranchula, Mucilator, and Slamworm. My personal headcanon is that Terroranchula is a general counter for electric based aliens because of what we see Phil do as a hybrid of that species(something you seem to agree with). And the other part of my headcanon is that Mucilator and Slamworm were intended to be good stand-ins for what would have been the main counters for Cannonbolt and Diamondhead respectively had Arburia and Petropia not been destroyed when Khyber was collecting DNA. This of course is entirely based on the notion that each alien in the Nemetrix was intended as a counter for each of Ben's most used aliens. Which thinking about it, the first 5 nemetrix predators were. Buglizard-Obviously Stinkfly, the only alien Ben had at the time that could fly really well, so it needed a counter. Crabdozer- Clearly intended for Heatblast with one thing you missed, Crabdozer saliva can extinguish the flames of a Pyronite, flames we know can get as hot as a supernova because of "Don't Drink the Water". Terroanchula-At the time Ben had several aliens that could produce electrical attacks of some kind: Upgrade, Frankenstrike, Eye Guy, and Feedback. Mucilator- Cannonbolt is easily an alien we can consider a go to for Ben seeing as it was the first alien he decided to turn into when he had access to his old aliens again, so it can be reasonable to assume Khyber thought he would need a counter to the fast nature and with no Arburia to go to to collect the native predator, he had to improvise and chose something that could stop Cannonbolt it it's tracks. Slamworm- Hands down Ben is the most skilled with Diamondhead, so Khyber likely had to find a counter to him as well. He likely hoped the Slamworm would be good enough, to crack through the Petropian. The later 5 are easier to explain because they aren't convoluted. Hypnotick- It was right there when Malware was doing his thing in the flashback in Malefactor. He probably grabbed DNA for the nemetrix out of convience. Tyrannopede-We don't know when Khyber got it so it could easily have been obtained post Ben 10 Returns and Khyber hears about Hummungousaur. Vicetopus-Insurance for Psychobos Omnivoracious-Malware likely had Khyber include it to deal with Azmuth. Panucian-Easiest one. A new pet to replace Zed, likely used instead of another of Zed's species so as a repeat of what happened with Zed doesn't occur. And there are my ramblings on the thought process behind every predator choice.

I suggest you start running cuz like the entire Ben 10 fandom is 10,000 meters from your location and approaching rapidly Not trying have this be like a threat or anything

I mean the way predators work ain't "one predator to one species" it's many predators to one species and others"

Hold the phone. What is Heatblast predator?

Maybe Kyber should’ve got more DNA samples? For the poll: I used to be a fan of bakugan. I still like it, but I never bought or used their toys and cards. That was a thing my cousins did. However, we all still have both new and old beyblades that we use during the summer because it’s fun to watch them either fly off the unprotected arena (set up that way on purpose) or explode or hit one of us anywhere except the face or groin. We only did this during summer because our hideout lacks sufficient heating and is cold af the rest of the year… also never got ’into’ Yugiyo (don’t even know if I spelled it right.

Then what predator is crabdoser?