The Hunter

The Hunter
Description:	The Hunter is similar in appearance to a Slasher, though it is larger and is able to regenerate any dismembered limb.
Attack(s):	The Hunter closes in, slashing and impaling victims with its blades.

"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 to Isaac Clarke

The Hunter was a Regenerator type Necromorph, 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 some sections of the Ishimura directly into the cranium of a live, unknown crew member thought to be Brant Harris.

Overview

The Hunter physically resembles a Slasher, possessing large blades that are attached to a pair of elongated arms jutting out from its shoulder blades. It is noticeably bulkier and taller than the standard Slasher and its original arms appears to be bound inside the flesh of its torso similar to a straitjacket. Unlike other forms of Necromorphs, it is able to regenerate lost limbs in seconds, meaning that conventional dismemberment tactics only served to temporarily incapacitate it. The Hunter's voice can be compared to a deep throaty roar as it is opposed to the Slasher's usual form of screaming and shouting. Just like other Regenerating and Enhanced Necromorphs, the Hunter's eyes are glowing, although not as strongly as the other Regenerators'. The victim's jaw is gone with 4 tentacle-like veins hanging in place along with the neck frozen into a 45-degree angle. The big toes severely enlarged into sharp claws. The body is greatly covered in muscular tissue with no original skin left due to the mutation. Pieces of different bones can be seen pointing at different body parts. The spine and the pelvis bone can be seen at the back.

The Hunter first appeared during Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion. Challus Mercer kept the creature stored in a stasis tube in the Chemistry Lab on the Medical Deck, just outside the Cryogenics Storage Room. When Isaac entered the lab to mix the poisonous compound, Dr. Mercer awoke the creature in an attempt to kill Isaac. Isaac eventually escaped after learning about the creature's regenerative abilities. The creature stalked Isaac throughout the chapter as he attempted to complete his objectives. Isaac finally faced it down in the Cryogenic Lab where he managed to freeze the creature inside a cryogenic tube, supposedly taking care of the problem once and for all.

However, as the game progressed, it was hinted that the creature was thawed and was once again stalking Isaac as Isaac heard the creature several times and even saw it once while in the main elevator in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8, shortly before the first Store, the Hunter could be heard growling and sharpening it's claws.

The Hunter reappeared in Chapter 10, just after Isaac collected the third Navigation Card. Immediately after grabbing the card, Dr. Mercer contacted the player and revealed that he thawed the creature. Right after this transmission, the Hunter burst out of a ceiling vent and attacked, forcing Isaac to retreat.

Toward the end of the chapter, when Isaac went to test fire the engines of the shuttle in the Executive Shuttle Hangar Bay, the Hunter once again revealed itself and attempted to kill him. To defeat it, Isaac lured it toward the back of the shuttle, stalled the Hunter via either Stasis or dismemberment and test fired the engines again, completely incinerating it. It dropped a Power Node where it died.

Strategies

• Use your environment to your advantage.

Look for ways to stop or, at the very least,  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. But note, there are a series of ceiling vents that the hunter will use if blocked, so plan your movement.

• Dismember, then Stasis.

Cut off the limbs of the creature, most effectively done with a Line Gun or Ripper, 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 it 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. Likewise, near the end of Chapter 10, the Hunter must be lured to the back of the shuttle and then put into stasis and/or dismembered. There, you should activate the engines to incinerate it for good.

• Do not waste your ammo.

The Hunter does regenerate, but under serious 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 it onto the ground and slow it down.  An alternate solution to dismemberment is by using the Force Gun or the Contact Beam's secondary fire, which can knock down and briefly stun the creature. This tactic also gives you time to escape.

• 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, then stasis it and run. In a crowded room however, do not simply think stasing it will cripple it. Watch out for any movement it makes as it can score a few hits on Isaac if he's too distracted even when slowed down, which can be fatal on Impossible.

• Use Your Stasis.

Keep a Stasis Pack or two handy when in chapters encountering the Hunter. Also, make sure that you upgrade your Stasis Module so that you have more shots AND that the shots have a longer effect. 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 it needs to be in a certain place (quarantines, the shuttle hangar, etc.). 

• 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. This tactic is especially useful when there are Twitchers around, as the Twitchers can kill you quickly if you choose to ignore them. 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.

• Selective Dismemberment

If you're low on Stasis energy and Kinesis isn't effective enough, you can slow it down by blowing off its legs (or one leg to save ammo). Don't forget to watch out for its support. The Hunter will only regenerate its legs when you are far from it, so running around can prevent it from regenerating.

• Snub it

While it is the "boss" of the level, the Hunter's primary threat is being a bullet sponge. If there is enough room, ignore it, kill any other Necromorphs and outrun it until you're in a position to defeat it.

Trivia

• There is a glitch in Chapter 10 in the room where you have to wait for Kendra to open the door. If you see the Hunter coming through the door into that room, if you shoot it with the Force Gun and the door closes, the Hunter will be unable to enter the room. It will still reappear later in the Chapter.
• It is unclear how Mercer manages to avoid being killed by his own creation while he guides it through the ship - although the same could be said of how Mercer seems to evade all the other Necromorphs on the Ishimura.
• The actual, and possibly only invulnerable point on its entire body is its torso. Any and all regenerations seems to stem from it (an arm/leg severed in half will regenerate a WHOLE new limb to replace it). Killing it by the shuttle engine's test fire is actually obliterating its torso, thus preventing any further regeneration.
• The Hunter's severed arms, like those of the Slasher, can be used as weapons when launched with Kinesis.
• The Hunter appears at the end of the Dismemberment Demo for Dead Space, appearing much earlier than it does in the full game. The Hunter only appears to kill Isaac and end the demo, its appearance triggering an unavoidable cutscene.
• In the Dead Space Dismemberment Demo, if Isaac has the Pulse Rifle equipped, then during the cutscene when the Hunter is supposed to kill Isaac, if the player has their gun drawn, they can stop the Hunter from killing Isaac. However, even though Isaac will reload when he needs to, he will stay in place, no matter what you do, and when your gun is out of ammo, you can't switch, and you'll be stuck like that until the Hunter kills you.
• It is possible that the Hunter is Brant Harris, as Dr. Mercer had expressed interest in studying him to learn more about the Necromorphs.
• The Hunter can actually be seen in Chapter 7, very briefly, when going down the elevator from the second floor to the final, if you look in C deck as the elevator passes it, you will see the Hunter sharpening its blades.
• In Chapter 5, when you're in the Cryo Lab after you freeze the Hunter, if you walk to the right of the Control Room door, you can see several slashers frozen in ice.
• At the start of Chapter 8, when going down a hallway, the Hunter can be heard growling and sharpening its blades.
• It is unclear where the Hunter gets the biomass to regenerate with - the amount of energy and matter that it would take to regrow lost limbs would be enormous.
• The Ubermorph - a Necromorph similar to the Hunter - makes an appearance near the finale of Dead Space 2 after the NoonTech machine. Its appearance has drastically altered, forgoing the appearance of rotten, decaying flesh to something more refined like H.R Giger's Aliens. Despite this, it moves just the same, and will regenerate its limbs after they are severed. Unlike its Dead Space counterpart, the Ubermorph cannot be killed without the use of a glitch, and must be outran until the end of the game. In Dead Space 3, a new variant of Hunters are encountered aboard the CMS Terra Nova, created from the bodies of members of the Deep Dig Team on Tau Volantis. While the Tau Volantis Hunters resemble the original Hunter more than the Ubermorph, how they came to be is presently unknown.
• In Dead Space 2, when you enter the USG Ishimura, the tube the Hunter was in and the tube next to it is empty; most likely due to the cleanup operation.
• While you're in the room with The Hunter in Chapter 10, if you block yourself with the beds you can see The Hunter waiting and roaring indefinitely.
• During Dead Space: Martyr, Micheal Altman suffers a nightmare where a Necromorph approaches him, looking like a "man with his skin flayed", which he dismembers with a Ripper. However, the Necromorph suddenly regenerates its arms and legs and gets back up. This suggests that the Necromorph in question is a regenerating Necromorph, much like the hunter.
• The Hunter's blades look very much like scythes.
• The Hunter's eyes let out a faint green glow; the reason for this is unknown.
• The other Regenerators also possess glowing eyes but they are red in color and much more visible.
• If the player cuts one (or both) of the Hunter's blades, it will proceed to autotomize and regenerate the whole arm rather than just the lost portion.
• Sometimes the Hunter will become stuck in an infinite loop, circling one area for no reason until the player intervenes.
• There is a Hunter in Dead Space 3, although it is dead. You can find it in the optional mission from Chapter 17, Artifact Storage. As soon as you exit the first elevator, you will find an Audio Log and a box near the stairs, the Hunter is inside it. At first it may look like a Tau Volantis Hunter but you will find out that it's the original model from Dead Space.
• In the Prima Guide and the official art book for Dead Space 3, the Regenerators are referred to as Hunters.
• In the game files of Dead Space 3, the Regenerators are also referred as Hunters.
• In the novel Dead Space: Salvage Captain Benedykt Malyec has a nightmare after touching a bunch of Marker shards. In this nightmare he is being chased by a Hunter.

Death Scenes

Dead Space - Hunter Death

Isaac's Hunter Death Sequence.

• The Hunter has a special attack that will be signaled by it rearing its blades back. If Isaac is hit by this attack, the Hunter will sink both of his blades through his torso, lifts him up, then violently stab him two times. The Hunter then slices off his legs and left arm, and lowers Isaac. Isaac struggles to hold up his right arm, almost as if pleading to the Hunter. It then cuts his head off and finally slices him in half. The Hunter will perform this move if Isaac's health reads yellow or lower.
• If Isaac is slashed with the Hunter's blade while he has moderately low health, whatever part of him is hit will be torn off as he dies.

Gallery

The Hunter looking at the player after finishing off Isaac

Isaac confronting the Hunter

The Hunter is finally killed by the intense heat from the shuttle engines test firing

Hunter game model

Dormant Hunter

The Hunter looking at the half dismemberd Isaac

The Hunter in Dead Space 3

Hunter in Chapter 7 of Dead Space.

Hunter render.

Appearances

• Dead Space
  • Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion (First appearance)
  • Chapter 7: Into the Void (Shadow only)
  • Chapter 10: End of Days

"Dead Space: Salvage" Captain Benedykt Malyec's nightmare

See also

• Slasher
• Dr. Mercer
• The Ubermorph
• The Regenerators

Videos

Dead Space Hunter Ubermorph Regenerator Necromorph Sound Effects HD

Dead Space 1 The Hunter Regenerator boss fight