Slashers
From Dead Space wiki
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[edit] Description
Slashers are the most common Necromorph form encountered in the game. Their main weapons are the two blade arms coming out of their shoulders, with two pairs of grabbing arms coming out of the abdomen. They attack through pure melee combat (with the exception of the Female slasher, which can also shoot acidic spheres a small distance.), and when up close, like to grab Isaac and bite into his neck.
Enhanced Slashers are created when an Infector infects a host, and are characterized as having louder growls and being black or dark brown in appearance with glowing eyes. Enhanced Slashers are stronger, faster and more aggressive. Their melee capabilities combined with sudden bursts of speed against their victims makes Slashers quite dangerous when they catch Isaac up close and in numbers. Slashers are normally seen in groups and are seldom caught alone unless they were just created by an Infector or in some cases chasing down an unfortunate victim. They also like to play dead to surprise their victims, and are capable of limited locomotion even with both their legs missing, dragging themselves along with their claws; some start out like this.
Additionally, some Slashers are later created from humans in a military RIG suit of a similar design to Isaac's. These suits had stasis modules which have become fused with the body as a result of the infection process. As a result, these "twitcher" variants are insanely fast, capable of rushing across a long room in only a couple seconds. Other slashers are former security staff of the Ishimura, and have the remnants of body armour on their legs. This armour makes it virtually impossible to dismember a leg before the slasher has closed the distance between itself and Isaac; aiming for the arms instead is greatly recommended. Fortunately these particular variants of slasher are few and far between.
Slashers are easily recognized by their distinctive appearance and their loping and flailing gait when running, both of which also give them a distinctive shadow.
 Isaac battles Slashers |
 Concept Art |
 Isaac is surrounded by Slashers |
 Isaac faces a group of Slashers |
 Isaac dismembers Slashers |
 Don't be fooled |
[edit] Variants
[edit] Male
One of the most common types of Necromorphs encountered, they brandish their blades and charge towards their victims en masse as their primary means of killing. Simply shoot their limbs off for an easy kill. It's also possible to trick them into playing dead, at which point you can just run over and crush them into a pulp with a well-placed stomp; you may, however, prefer a ranged kill to avoid their arms.
The nature of the victim determines, to a degree, the Necromorph itself:
- The weakest are Slashers made out of Ishimura civilians, and are third only to Super Slashers and Twitchers in their charge speed. These Slashers's blades are also made by having the blades come out of the hands of the corpse, unlike the other Slashers.
- Slashers that were formerly engineering personnel can be seen wearing the remains of their overalls; they have a slower charge but are slightly more resilient to damage.
- Slashers made out of Hydroponic workers have limbs that are easier to remove, but require more dismemberment than other slashers.
- Finally security personnel that have fallen prey to Necromorph infection have an armoured uniform remaining around their legs, making them very resilient to leg dismemberment, combined with their tendency to charge early makes the latter especially dangerous.
[edit] Female
Female Slashers have the same attacks and behavior of a Male, but they also have the ability to spit miniature organic bombs that explode on contact.
They possess only two arms (as shown) as their normal arms have been directly mutated to have the blades grow out of them, they also maintain the green clothing of the former human female as well as their breasts. This gives them a slightly more distinctive, human-like appearance, and makes it easier to determine them from Male Slashers.
[edit] Enhanced
Fast and deadly - two words that describe the Enhanced Slasher well. An Enhanced Slasher is made whenever an Infector infects a corpse. The first enhanced Slasher Isaac encounters is in Chapter 2: Intensive Care at the Morgue, which also happens to be what was formerly the corpse of the Ishimura's Captain, Benjamin Matthius. The flamethrower seems decently effective against them, but stay back; they can deal some serious damage, even on the Easy difficulty, easily taking out half of Isaac's health (in an unupgraded RIG) in a short flurry of attacks.
[edit] Twitcher
See Twitcher
[edit] Hunter
See Hunter
[edit] Strategy
These guys seem to be the bread and butter enemy in Dead Space. You can deal with them in several ways. Chop their legs off to kill at your leisure or blow away their arms. Against two or more of them you can consider using a crowd control weapon like a Line gun when you clump them together.
[edit] Dead Space
- Slashers have a wide variety of responses depending on which body parts are severed.
- Severing both arms seems to immediately kill slashers and is the recommended way to dispatch them.
- Severing one or more legs will cause them to use their blade arms to crawl along the floor to try and attack Clarke. This slows them down to make them more manageable and makes the arms an easier target. However, it is easier to lose track of them once this happens, especially in areas with many obstacles.
- If you decapitate a Slasher, this will not kill them. It only makes it much harder for the Slasher to find you. They will flail around and slash wildly in an attempt to find Isaac. They will eventually recover and act normally however. Female slashers cannot use their projectile attack upon decapitation, but simply killing the slasher before it can do this is more practical.
- Not recommended to fight in melee combat as they are noted to block incoming blows, and can take more than a dozen hits to kill (much more on higher difficulties). If you must fight one in melee, use Stasis so the creature cannot fight back.
- Slashers sometimes like to feign death upon taking minor damage, and will come back to life when you turn your back or shoot at it.
- Whenever you happen to come across a slasher body inconspicuously lying on the floor, shoot the arms. It's another of the Slasher's "playing dead" tricks, and they will jump at Isaac if he gets too close.
- Clarke can also use his Telekinesis ability to check that the seemingly "dead" slasher is actually dead. If he can pick it up, it's dead. If he can't pick it up, take aim at the arm joints and fire away, give it a good foot-stomp, or use Telekinesis to launch a nearby sharp object (this includes severed Slasher blades) at its arms.
- Some Slashers, rather than charge at Clarke head-on, will instead leap into a nearby vent (where they won't be exposed to danger) and travel to a vent closer to him and burst out from that vent to attack you. Be wary of the location of vents in a room with multiple Slashers; stay away from them and listen for persistent bumping sounds in the ventilation system.
- A Slasher can grab Isaac, prompting an action sequence that, when followed through, Isaac shakes it off and whacks its head off.
[edit] Dead Space Extraction
- Slashers generally behave the same in Extraction. The same general rules apply to killing them as in Dead Space. However, there are some notable facts that are worth knowing.
- Cutting off both arms is still an insta-kill.
- Cutting off one or both legs will cause it to crawl at you. However, they now tend to require both arms to be shot off while crawling, instead of the original game, where they usually died after having just one blown off.
- Melee is even less effective now. The unlimited ammo Rivet Gun is much more useful.
[edit] Trivia
- Interestingly, in the movie Dead Space: Downfall, the creation of male Slashers differs in comparison to their creation in the game. In the game, the male corpse's arms shift downwards to the abdomen while the bladed arms burst out at the shoulders, whereas male Slashers in the movie have the blades burst directly out of the palms of their hands while a new pair of grabbing claws burst out from the abdomen. However, some of the male Slashers in the game have the blades coming out of their palms like the movie depicts them, including the grabbing claws depicted in the film, so what becomes of the corpse's arms is considered random.
- In chapter 10, an Enhanced Slasher appears to be playing dead in one of the male restrooms of the crew's quarters. But when shot, it actually turns out to be a dead Necromorph as it does not attack the player. This was probably put in to fool the player.
- It should also be noted that while a good portion of slashers in the game are naked; the ones in the movie appear to retain most of their original clothing.
| Necromorphs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Forms | Brutes • Dividers • Drag Tentacles • Exploders • Flyers • Guardians • Infectors • Leapers • Lurkers • Pregnants • Slashers • Swarmers • Twitchers • Wheezers | |
| Bosses | The Leviathan • The Hunter • The Slug • The Hive Mind | |
| Deleted Material | Grabber • Graverobber | |
