Dividers are tall, thin Necromorphs with the unique ability to break apart into smaller creatures. They are encountered in Dead Space, its remake and Dead Space 2.
The Divider's head component, known as the Creeper, can take control of other corpses once separated from its original body, creating a form of Necromorph called the Shambler, which is only fought in Dead Space 3.
Overview[]
The Dividers encountered on the USG Ishimura are composed of deceased high-ranking officers of the ship, judging by the tatters of blue clothing. However, the ones met aboard Titan Station were seemingly created from scientists who were wearing a white lab-coat. The major organs have fallen out or been assimilated, along with most of the skin tissue. The limbs have been elongated and become very slender, while the fingers have fused together into elongated claws. Most of the muscle has fallen off, with just enough left to hold the Necromorph together. Because the major organs are missing, the abdomen has been exposed, creating a large hole in the torso. Despite this, the Divider is an audibly loud creature, emitting deep whale-like bellows when idle and high-pitched shrieks when agitated. The Divider uses a long tongue to strangle its victims, and also uses its arms to slash its victims to death, though it prefers to suffocate them with the tongue from a long distance if possible. The mutation has allowed the arms and legs to become self-aware, able to move on their own once the host body has been destroyed.
The head itself is the main Necromorph. Its arms and legs are used to crawl and leap on different surfaces, as well as to strangle its victims. The head attempts to suffocate the victim by latching onto one's neck and, once the victim is weak, it uses its powerful appendages to cut off the head from the rest of the victim's body and hijack it with its arms, taking control of the host's nervous system presumably by attaching itself into the spine.
If the Divider takes sufficient damage, it tries to fool its victim by supposedly collapsing dead on the ground, before the head, arms, and legs separate and become independent creatures known as "Components" or "Divider Spawn." The Divider sub-sections are very fast and will damage and attempt to strangle a victim, but they are much weaker than the original Divider.
The arms appear to be snake-like creatures that use their three feet/arms to move. They are able to climb on walls and like to enter vents and attack unsuspecting victims. The feet appear to turn into smaller and slower creatures that have three feet, made from nerves and muscle combinations. They move on the ground and leap onto its victims, providing a powerful punch.
The main purpose of these components is to distract the victim while the head tries to latch itself onto a new host. However, if the head is gone, the rest of the Necromorphs pose a much lesser threat, beyond being difficult to hit due to their small size.
Dividers tend to be loners, but a pair, or a single Divider backed up by Exploders, is not unheard of.
Strategy[]
- In the original Dead Space and its remake, Dividers are always heard shortly before they are encountered, as they emit a deep, loud bellow. However, in Dead Space 2, they instead creak and crunch like dry wood.
- When contact is established with one, freezing it with Stasis and using a the Flamethrower or Contact Beam to destroy it is a good tactic. The Flamethrower is best because it affects the whole body, and the Contact Beam knocks it down and can often take out the component creatures all at once with one blast.
- The Force Gun is also effective, as it is easy to knock a Divider down - several shots will split it apart, and one more well-placed attack will destroy all of its remains at once.
- The Plasma Cutter, when upgraded, is surprisingly effective on Dividers. About 4-5 shots will break the body and any split component can be finished off with one shot, provided the player has good aim.
- Once a Divider has been split apart, it's effective to use Stasis on all the components as they're just breaking off of the body on the ground. One well-placed Line Gun mine can kill all of the components.
- Dividers can't use vents to chase you if you run out of a room, so if you aren't going to be coming back to that area again, you can just Stasis and run.
- In Dead Space 2, you can fire the Javelin Gun to make it stop charging, then fry it with the Alt Fire to give it even further damage. With a non-upgraded Javelin, it will only take three shots and three bursts of electricity to kill it, with one reload to account for the weapon's default capacity. On the third burst of electricity, the body will disassemble, and all the parts will be fried and killed.
- This is a surefire way to get the Shock Therapy Achievement/Trophy in the game if you haven't gotten it already.
- If equipped with both the Line Gun and Force Gun, an easy takedown is to shoot a mine from the Line Gun in front of the Divider and then stasis it as it charges you, passing the mine. Quickly switch to the Force Gun, and when the mine explodes, the Divider will be broken apart, and its separate limbs will fly towards you in slow motion. When the limbs get close, use the primary fire of the Force Gun to kill all the Divider parts. With moderately upgraded weapons, this strategy is a safe and ammo-efficient way of dealing with Dividers.
Death Scenes[]
The Divider has two death scenes when it attacks Isaac Clarke:
- The Divider extends a long, thin appendage from its mouth, which wraps around Isaac's neck. If Isaac fails to remove the appendage in time, the Divider decapitates him. If Isaac succeeds, he will take a grip around the appendage and strike it with his gun so it is torn apart. This will stun it for a short period of time.
- Upon splitting apart, the head component of the Divider can jump on Isaac and attempt to strangle him with its appendages. This initiates a quick-time event that has Isaac bashing the head component to death with his weapon if performed successfully. If Isaac fails, the head component will tear his head off and sink its tendrils into his body, turning him into a Shambler. It then clumsily lumbers away with Isaac's body (with the head hanging loosely from the base of Isaac's severed neck, then using Isaac's hand to push it into a more proper position), and emits a roar before the screen fades to black.
It also has a death scene when it attacks Gabe Weller in conjunction with a Slasher:
- If Gabe does not remove the Divider before the last Save Station, Store and Bench (where the Oracles get Lexine), a Slasher begins attacking too. If he fails, the Divider decapitates him, and both proceed to maul the dead Gabe. The Slasher will stab him, and the Divider will stomp him.
Trivia[]
- The concept of the Divider appears to be based on the eponymous creature from John Carpenter's The Thing, as, like the Divider, every piece of the Thing is an individual organism that, when separated from the main body, continues on its own.
- Although the Divider itself does not strictly appear in Dead Space 3, the head component appears as its own Necromorph, part of a pair called the Creeper and Shambler.
- In Dead Space 3, the Shambler is able to throw its head off - the Creeper - if the body has been damaged enough. The Creeper displays a very slight form of intelligence, being able to control weapons when it takes over a body, although very, very inaccurately.
- Dividers are among some of the rarest Necromorph variants encountered in the series. Only 10 Dividers in total appear: 6 in Dead Space, and 2 in both Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 2: Severed.
- In Dead Space 2, the second Divider is even optional and will only appear if you enter the emergency supply room across from the Bench in the Project Annex room in Chapter 13. Shortly after entering this emergency supply room, you can hear the Divider breaking out. When you leave the emergency supply room, the Divider will be in the Project Annex with you.
- There is a glitch with the Hand Cannon where if a Divider is shot immediately after spawning, the game will freeze. This can be avoided by giving the Divider time to approach.
- There is a glitch in Dead Space 2 in the first encounter with a Divider; if any explosive is used to kill it, the Divider's body completely disappears without it dropping an item. If a powerful enough explosive is used (such as a Detonator mine) then some or all of the component parts may also die instantly without any additional input from the player.
- In Dead Space 2, if the player decapitates the Divider without killing the rest of it and allows the head component to kill Isaac, the decapitated Divider will simply stand and watch as the head kills Isaac and takes over his body. The head component then walks away with its new body, while the old body follows behind.
- The death scene in which the Divider's head (or Creeper) attacks Isaac is one of two death scenes in which Isaac's body is seen turning into a Necromorph, the other being the Swarm Infector's in Dead Space 3.
- In the remake, two complete Dividers can be seen frozen in the cryogenics lab in Chapter 5.
Gallery[]
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