The Hunteredit
From Dead Space wiki
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- "This time there will be no escape for you, my friend. You have been most resourceful up until now, but my creation is free, reborn in the fierce heat of life itself! Now it's time to play your part..."
- —Challus Mercer[1]
The Hunter is a Necromorph that was biologically engineered by Doctor Challus Mercer on board the USG Ishimura. It was created by inserting a piece of necrotic tissue, obtained from the flesh like growths covering certain sections of the Ishimura, directly into the cranium of an unknown crew member.
The Hunter physically resembles a Slasher, possessing large blades that are attached to a pair of elongated arms. It is larger and more powerful than the standard Slasher variants and, unlike other forms of Necromorph, it is able to regenerate lost limbs in seconds, meaning that conventional dismemberment tactics only serve to temporarily incapacitate it.
The Hunter first appears during Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion. Challus Mercer keeps the creature stored in a stasis tube in the Chem Lab on the Medical Deck, just outside the Cryogenics Storage Room. When Isaac enters the lab to mix the poisonous compound, Dr. Mercer awakens the creature in an attempt to kill Isaac. Isaac eventually escapes after learning of the creature's regenerative abilities. The creature stalks Isaac throughout the chapter, as he attempts to complete his objectives. Isaac finally faces it down in the Cryogenic Lab, where he manages to freeze the creature inside a cryogenic tube, supposedly taking care of the problem once and for all.
However, as the game progresses, it is hinted that the creature has been thawed and is once again stalking Isaac, as Isaac hears the creature several times and even sees its shadow once whilst in an elevator.
The Hunter reappears in Chapter 10, just after Isaac collects the third navigation card. Immediately after grabbing the card, Dr. Mercer contacts the player and reveals that he has thawed the creature. Right after this transmission, the Hunter bursts out of a ceiling vent and attacks, forcing Isaac to retreat.
Towards the end of the chapter, when Isaac goes to test fire the engines of the shuttle in the Executive Shuttle Hangar Bay, the Hunter once again reveals itself and attempts to kill him. To defeat it, Isaac lures it towards the back of the shuttle, uses stasis to freeze the Hunter, and test fires the engines again, completely incinerating it. The Hunter drops a Power Node upon death.
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[edit] Strategies
- Use your environment to your advantage.
- Look for ways to stop or slow The Hunter. If there are points where the Hunter could get caught up on (low ceilings, doors with Node locks, barricades), use them! If there are throwable objects you can use to dismember limbs (Blades of Slashers, sawblades, etc.) or to stun it (exploding canisters, heavy objects, etc.), then use those, too! For example, in Chapter 10, after you collect the third navigation card, lure The Hunter to the room with the movable bunk beds. You can create a barricade to simply protect yourself.
- Dismember, then Stasis
- Cut off the limbs of the creature, most effectively done with a Line Gun and then put it under stasis once its limbs start to regenerate. This will buy you a lot of time to attempt to leave the room.
- Do what the situation requires
- If you can exit the room immediately, do so. In some situations, you will be locked in the room with the creature until Kendra unlocks the door. That's the only time you should confront the creature.
- At the end of Chapter 5, when you confront the Hunter in the Cryogenics room, lure him to the end of the room with the stasis recharge. Make it follow you into the middle section, then take out its legs and / or stasis it, and run into the small room at the other end, which will be unlocked. Make sure the hunter is in the middle section, then use the holographic panel to freeze it.
- Do not waste your ammo.
- The Hunter does regenerate, and under pressure you may not think about that. Use your ammo efficiently by removing its arms to avoid its heavily damaging attacks; slice off its legs to knock him onto the ground and slow him down.
- The Hunter is relatively slow.
- Knocking out its legs to slow it further is a great tactic. Save your stasis ability for after you've taken down a few of its limbs. Slowing down its regeneration process is much more effective than to make it plod towards you at a slower rate.
- Use Your Stasis.
- Keep a Stasis Pack or two handy when in chapters encountering the Hunter. A quick way to escape is to take off most limbs (i.e. leg + arm) while it enters its regeneration stage. Freeze it and run! This is also useful in situations when he needs to be in a certain place. If you're using the Stasis Energy Refill cheat you don't have to buy any Stasis packs.
- Avoid, Avoid, Avoid.
- When other enemies are near while confronting the Hunter, it's a relatively good idea to eradicate them instead of focusing on the major threat. Keep moving, take out a limb or two, and freeze it, then attack the remaining enemies and repeat if necessary. This strategy is wonderful for those of you who "collect" items.
- Lace up your running shoes!
- If all else fails, you can conserve ammunition and health by simply avoiding the confrontation (most of the time) when things just seem too dark to handle! Remember, this is a "survival-horror" title.
[edit] Trivia
- Once the Hunter is frozen in Chapter 5, it's placed next to the other frozen Necromorph specimens, which Mercer planned on taking back to Earth.
- Although there is no proof that more than one Hunter may exist, the fact that Mercer had a second body in a pod next to the Hunter suggests that an experiment might have been under way or that it might have failed. As such, it is impossible to say with utmost certainty that the Hunter encountered in Chapter 10 is the same as in Chapter 5, but it is likely so, especially since he says "my creation is free, reborn in the fierce heat of life itself" before it attacks, probably indicating that he defrosted it.
- It is unknown how Mercer avoids being slain by his own creation when seemingly guiding it through the ship, although the same could be said of how Mercer possibly avoids death at the hand of all the other Necromorphs on the ship. Although, he is always behind some sort of barricade (glass, walls, etc) when the player encounters the Hunter, suggesting that he makes sure the player is in a specific area when the Hunter appears and transports it in a pod throughout the ship. The Medical Deck's Chem Lab and the Crew Deck's Sleeper Deck 3 are notable examples of how the Hunter attacks Isaac. In both cases, Isaac must venture into an isolated place with only one route of escape to retrieve an item, making it a good place for the Hunter to ambush him.
- The Hunter's ability to be able to regenerate its lost limbs resembles that of the Regenerators from Resident Evil 4.
- In the Dismemberment Demo, after heading to the door when completing your objective, Isaac puts the side of his head on the door to check for an ambush and on the other side of the door is your "friend" the Hunter, and, even if you aren't at critical health, the Hunter does the death scene below and ultimately (and very violently) ends the demo, keep in mind this is Chapter 3 and the Hunter appears in Chapter 5.
- It is possible to spot the Hunter in Chapter 7 after gathering the miner's card from Deck B and then going straight down to Deck D. Behind the elevator door to Deck C (which cannot be accessed at that point in time), you can see the Hunter moving towards the door.
- When in Chaper 10, you can block him between some moveable objects. When "taunting" him, you can see him sharpening his "blades".
[edit] Death Scenes
- When Isaac is at critical health (yellow or lower), the Hunter will stab both of his blades through his torso, lift him up, then stab him several times. The Hunter then slices off his legs, left arm and lowers him. Isaac struggles to hold up his right arm as if pleading to the Hunter. It then cuts his head off and finally slices him in half.
- Another, more rare death scene sees Isaac being impaled from behind, lifted up, and decapitated. The Hunter makes no attempts to mutilate Isaac any further.
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[edit] Gallery
 Isaac vs The Hunter |
 The Hunter is finally killed by the intense heat from the shuttle engines test firing. |
[edit] Appearances
- Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion (First appearance)
- Chapter 10: End of Days
[edit] Sources
| Necromorphs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Standard Forms | Brute • Divider • Drag Tentacle • Exploder • Flyer • Grabber • Guardian • Infector • Leaper • Lurker • Pregnant • Slasher • Stalker • Swarmer • Twitcher • Wheezer | |
| Advanced Forms | The Hive Mind • The Hunter • The Leviathan • The Slug • The Spider • The Urchin | |
| Deleted Material | Flytrap • Graverobber | |
