- "That is what we found, in the core of the planet… Mercer calls it the Hive Mind. It's the source…controlling the Necromorphs telephatically."
- —Dr. Kyne explaining the Hive Mind to Isaac.
The Hive Mind was a massive human hive mind Necromorph variant. It was encountered in Dead Space on Aegis VII.[1]
History
Initially seen on a blurred video shown by Dr. Terrence Kyne and worshipped as a divine being by an insane scientist named Dr. Challus Mercer, the Hive Mind appeared to be the controlling intelligence of the Necromorphs in the Aegis VII System.
The Hive Mind was unwittingly created as a result of military testing of the experimental Marker 3A over two centuries prior to the events of Dead Space on the remote planet called Aegis VII. When the Marker proved to be too dangerous to wield as a weapon, further experimentation with it was aborted and it was used one last time in order to suppress the Hive Mind which was a massive Necromorph. The Hive Mind retreated into a massive complex cave system underneath the surface for the next 200 years. The Marker was also abandoned somewhere next to the creature's resting place.
Events of Dead Space
200 years later, the mining company CEC discovered the planet and found out that it was a goldmine of resources. Regardless of the restrictions for traveling to the Aegis System due to classified information regarding the First Aegis VII incident, the CEC decided to begin constructing a colony on the planet to begin tearing it apart.
Some time before the arrival of the USG Ishimura, a small team of miners found the Marker. Immediately upon it's discoverance, it began the first phase of the second Necromorph outbreak by slowly turning the crew of the mining colony insane. As the Ishimura arrived to the planet, the colony began the extraction of a large portion of the planet. As the piece of the planet was moved away, the Hive Mind was exposed to the surface. Not too long after the planet crack, the Marker's influence finally reached it's final potency, turning the dead into Necromorphs. As all hell broke lose, the Hive Mind re-awoke from it's slumber with new pawns to command which began smashing and killing anything that came close to it's nest and tried flying away. Some survivors managed to get a few seconds worth of footage of the massive beast before they are smashed to pieces.
As the colony fell apart, so did the Ishimura as the Marker was brought on board the vessel. In a matter of hours, the colony and the ship are lost.
After Isaac made his way to the ship, he met a slightly crazed Doctor Kyne who explained the Hive Mind to the engineer and how returning the Marker to it's original position would calm it down, ending the terror. Isaac decided to do so, but Kendra Daniels, a member of the repair crew sent to the Ishimura along with Isaac betrayed him and killed Kyne, attempting to flee back to Earth with the Marker. Thanks to the Marker's influence over Isaac, it made Isaac pull the escape shuttle back to the Ishimura that forced Kendra to flee in an escape pod that landed somewhere on the planet. Isaac successfully regained the shuttle containing the Marker and landed on the planetside colony, tearing his way through the Hive Mind's forces to the pedestal site where the Marker launched it's first EMP strike that drove the colony insane. Finally reaching the pedestal site, the Hive Mind launched it's final attempt to stop Isaac, but was set dormant for a brief moment as Isaac returned the Marker where it belonged. However, returning the Marker set out a similar EMP strike from earlier that this time disabled the gravity tethers that kept the chunk of the planet in the orbit in place. With the impending doom on the way, Isaac headed back to the shuttle, but was stopped by Kendra who stole the Marker. This event once more re-awoke the Hive Mind that became even more aggressive, attempting to slam down the colony structure in an attempt to retrieve the Marker. As Kendra and Isaac reached the shuttle pad, the Hive Mind ambushed the two, smashing Kendra into pieces and beginning the final fight with the engineer, putting everything that it had on him.
Isaac put it down with shots on it's weak spots. The Necromorph emitted it's final cries of pain until slamming down on the landing site before sliding to the massive crater below. As Isaac barely escaped the chaos, what was left of the Necromorph presumably burned into dust when the chunk of the planet fell down.
Overview
The Hive Mind resembles an enormous worm, with many tentacles along its length. Its full size is never truly shown, as an unknown portion of the creature is hidden inside a crater, but it appears to have a defined "head" and thorax. Just like any other big Necromorph, the Hive Mind was created from multiple bodies, possibly hundreds if not even thousands. The Hive Mind has a very fleshy appearance on its lower thorax, almost resembling the human skin with muscle tissue covering certain areas.
The head's most prominent feature is a massive circular mouth, consisting of two sets of jaws, each with their own rows of teeth. The Hive Mind is able to spit acidic pods from its central mouth. Around the mouth, there are five eyes made from the yellow explosive fluid. The thorax features several branched appendages serving as some sort of arms (exact purpose of them is unknown, although they can be found on the Alien variants of the Necromorph) on the back and a frontal cavity which shelters five more yellow sacks, which serve as the Necromorph's vital organs with a rib-cage serving as protection for them.
The Hive Mind rested underneath the excavation site of the planetcrack, withnin a maze of Corruption created from the victims of the first outbreak.
The Hive Mind is capable of utilizing its immense tentacles for manipulation and offense. It uses three of them during the fight with Isaac; however it almost certainly has more than three. The tentacles grow from some part of the creature that is well below its thorax area. The sizes of these tentacles vary, as some are meters in thickness and tens of meters in length as some are hind and possibly even smaller in their size, which the Hive Mind uses mainly as grabbing objects meanwhile the bigger arms serve as crushing its victims or doing other damage, or blocking off the victim's escape route during Isaac's and the Necromorph's encounter.
While initially thought to be a sentience and the 'command center' for the Necromorph hive-mind, it is now known that it was merely a drone. The true controlling source were the "Brethren" Moons, or more specifically, the Tau Volantis Moon and is one of many other hive mind Necromorphs, similar to the Nexus on Tau Volantis.
After reawakening, the Hive Mind became aggressive and attacked Isaac and the escaping Kendra as they made it into the shuttle bay. After killing Kendra, it curled it's tentacles around Isaac, forming an inescapable enclosure, initiating the final fight. In the following fight, Isaac managed to defeat the Hive Mind by destroying what appeared to be it's vital organs and it fell off the edge of the colony. What happened to the Hive Mind afterwards is unknown, but it can safely be assumed that the Hive Mind was ultimately killed, either after it's battle with Isaac when the portion of the planet initially removed by the USG Ishimura fell on top of the colony and the Hive Mind or when Aegis VII was destroyed.
Hive Mind as seen in Extraction.
The Hive Mind made a brief, but impacting appearance in Dead Space: Extraction. After making their way through the Megavents, the newly assembled group proceeded to fight their way to the last remaining shuttle on the colony.[2] Just as the "firefight" seemed to be subsided, a large tentacle bursted through the ground, the camera panning up as it towered overhead and slammed down near the group. Gabe Weller did his best to repel the Hive Mind as Nathan McNeill fought his way through another wave of Necromorphs, frantically trying to open the shuttle doors. The full scope of the Hive Mind was seen as it tried to swat the shuttle out of the sky after launch.
Strategy
Battle Phases
The battle with the Hive Mind takes place in several stages:
- In the first phase of the battle, the Hive Mind will roar at Isaac as it smashes a tentacle down on him. Use these opportunities to aim, shoot and destroy three of its five mouth-organs to begin the next stage of the battle.
- After three pustules lining the mouth have been destroyed, it will drag you up in the air in an attempt to devour you. In this stage, you will be hanging upside down and your aiming will be reversed. The Hive Mind will also shake you around to hinder your aiming. When the last two organs are destroyed it will release you, beginning the final battle phase.
The Hive Mind awakens
- At this point there are five explosive sacks in the middle of its chest which are now occasionally exposed. Beware of the Pregnants and the explosive projectiles it now spits out at Isaac along with the tentacle slams. Destroy all five sacks in its chest and the Hive Mind is defeated.
Tips
- One of the Hive Mind's most common methods of attacking involves smashing you with its two tentacles, one at a time. This is easy to dodge, as the Hive Mind sways backwards and coils a tentacle. Watch out for this action.
- To avoid the tentacles, move right and left to the far sides of the screen. The left tentacle always falls first, so quickly move to the far right side, then quickly to the left as the right one prepares to fall.
- Be wary of your position relative to the explosive canisters laying around, as any canisters hit by the tentacles will detonate, injuring Isaac if he's close by. It would be a good idea to detonate the canisters before entering the boss area, unless you intend to use them as weapons by throwing them with Kinesis.
- If you intend to throw the explosive canisters using Kinesis, aim high, as the canisters' ballistic trajectory will simply cause them to miss if they are shot directly at the target.
- During the first phase of the battle, it is a good idea to equally weaken all five pustules around its mouth to the point where they only need one more shot in order to be destroyed. Then, eliminate the three pustules on the right side of its mouth first, as they are very difficult to shoot while in midair, and initiate the second phase. This way, you will only have to land a total of two successful shots, one on each of the remaining pustules. It is suggested to test how many shots a single pustule will take before exploding before weakening the others, as the amount changes based on difficulty.
- While in the air, it is best to use the Plasma Cutter or Pulse Rifle to shoot its two remaining weak points, due to the weapons' projectiles' high traveling speed and precision. Temporarily reversing the X-axis and Y-axis alignment to your controls can also be an effective method to improve your aim during this phase.
- During the third phase, the Hive Mind will only spit out Pregnants if you do not destroy at least one sack when they are exposed.
- A well aimed mine from the Line Gun or the Force Gun will sometimes destroy more than one sack in its chest, making it easier and faster to kill it. (Note that if the mine destroys all but one sac, you cannot use another mine to destroy the last one.)
- The Contact Beam, in most cases, destroys a sack in one shot. Use this to your advantage, but beware, it has a long charge time if it is not upgraded, which may make you miss.
- When the Hive Mind is defeated, while it's swaying in the midst of its death throes, do not stand near the edge of the platform because it falls onto that particular platform edge and you could be crushed.
Trivia
- During the scripted death sequence, Isaac's RIG will still retain the same amount of health despite having both arms ripped off.
- After defeating the Hive Mind, look at the bottom of the crater: you will see tentacles appearing occasionally making a horizontal swipe; then disappearing.
- The"Mindless Prey"Achievement/Trophy can be earned after defeating the creature.
- A Hive Mind Tentacle appears in Dead Space: Extraction, while you are heading to a shuttle to get off the surface of Aegis VII. It kills two fellow detectives, and attacks the group you are in. You do not fight it, however, as it is merely part of a cutscene.
- In the graphic novel Dead Space: Salvage, the Hive Mind is seen on the Ishimura while Stefan Schneider is crossing across the outside of the ship.
- The "mouth" of the Hive Mind can be seen behind the Marker's Heart in the final boss battle of Dead Space 2. During the same battle with the Gold Marker you can hear the call of the Hive Mind echo after "Nicole" speaks to Isaac. This is easier to hear before engaging her for the first time. {Side note: This mouth could also possibly be the mouth of the Tau Volantis moon, however, due to lack of information, this was not speculated until the release of Dead Space 3 and is still not confirmed, although still highly likely.
- The Hive Mind's roar is reused in Dante's Inferno, also made by Visceral Games. It can be heard when Phlegyas rises from the river Styx.
- The Hive Mind's roars can be quietly heard in the main menu of Dead Space 2, possibly as a side effect of Isaac's traumatic experiences on Ishimura and Aegis VII, similar to the static noises of Nicole and her gory appearance in the game.
- The roars are also used in Dead Space 2, in the main menu, that can be heard when the player moves around the sections of the menu as well as during the last boss fight when Isaac shoots the giant pustule (that possibly represents the Hive Mind in Isaac's mind). They are also heard in Dead Space 3 but are more quiet.
- In Dead Space 2, there are two Necromorph types, namely the Ubermorph and multiple Slasher variants, that bear the characteristics of the Hive Mind's head and face.
- In the scripted death scene, Isaac's scream is a very common scream and reused sound effect used in many movies and games.
- In Dead Space 3, an even larger Necromorph called the Nexus appears and bears a striking resemblance to the Hive Mind, even with a similar weak spot. In fact, the achievement awarded after killing the creature describes it as a Hive Mind.
- Dead Space 3 features the first insights of the inner structure of a hive mind (although very briefly when Isaac was swallowed by it). Inside what appears to be its stomach has 3 Nests that serve as weak spots. Killing these Nests ejects the player and presumably kills the Nexus/Hive Mind.
- It was originally hypothesized by Dr. Terrence Kyne that the Hive Mind was the controlling intelligence of the Necromorph infestation on Aegis VII. Kyne's theory was eventually proven false when it was revealed the Hive Mind was not a sentient Necromorph controlling the other others, but rather a pawn being controlled by a nearby Brethren Moon.
- It is possible that The Boss from Dead Space Mobile is an immature Hive Mind.
- Common sound effects of a squealing pig were distorted and used for some of the Hive Mind's roars.
- The Hive Mind greatly resembles the Gravemind from the Halo franchise. Both are incredibly large creatures composed of thousands of compiled bodies with innumerable tentacles and a large mouth for a head.
- There is a bug regarding the large unmoving tentacles of the Hive Mind: sometimes when the creature dies and Isaac is standing close to the tentacle that blocks the exit, he will become "trapped" in it. The objective locator still states that he has to return to the shuttle, but the only movement he can make will be back and forth along the length of that particular tentacle until a save game is reloaded (and the Hive Mind needs to be re-defeated), or unless the player kills themselves, restarting the previous checkpoint. This is effective if you don't want to re-fight the Hive Mind.
- Sometimes the player gets trapped on top of the tentacle, with a similar fate.
- The model of the Hive Mind is missing its lower piece, due to the fact that the player can never see it fully in the game. The exact true size and appearance of the creature is unknown.
Death Scene
Dead Space - Hive Mind Death
Hive Mind — Death Sequence 1
- If Isaac should fail to destroy the remaining two pustules on the Hive Mind's head when grabbed, a scripted death scene follows. It will force Isaac into its mouth, chew on him for a bit, then pull him out violently, ripping off both of Isaac's arms. As Isaac screams in pain, the Hive Mind grips him between its teeth. Another painful scream is heard from Isaac before the Hive Mind tears him in half at the waist, swallowing his upper torso and throwing his legs onto the platform.
Dead Space - death by Hive Mind
- If Isaac gets hit by a tentacle, he will be dismembered completely, including his upper torso.
Gallery
Appearances
- Dead Space
•Chapter 12: Dead Space (First and only appearance) - Dead Space: Extraction
- Dead Space: Martyr
- Dead Space: Catalyst
- Dead Space Salvage
Sources
Videos
Dead Space Final Boss Battle - Hive Mind (HD quality)
The Boss Sound Effects
Dead Space Hive Mind / The Boss Sound Effects
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