Headcrab Lifecycle?

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who is gman?

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What is the headcrab lifecycle? Does a headcrab drop its host after a while? Does it need a host to grow to the final (I assume) stage - the gonarch? Do the ones with hosts even grow to the final stage?

I found a website with some "facts" but I think it is almost definitely fabricated.

http://www.freewebs.com/jandor/xenwildlife1.htm
 
No one can say for certain. I'd assume that eventually, a corpse host becomes too decomposed / damaged to use and that they abandon it.

Ignore what the site says: the gonarch seems to be some other completely different caste or the other gender, much like how most insect societies work, with a queen in charge of reproduction.

Still, for all the errors that site has, I like the term 'mawman' for a zombie title.
 
who is gman?, can you come up with all your questions and PM them to a mod or something instead of making 10 threads a day? :sleep:
 
He's after some variety in answers, I guess.

Still, it would be a better idea to group five or so questions together in one thread.
 
The most common theories are:
Gonarch gives birth to headcrab
Headcrab matures and takes host
Host mutates into mawman
Mawman mutates into gonome
Gonome mutates into gonarch
Gonarch gives birth to headcrab

or some think that the fungi seen around Gonarch's Lair and other places are headcrabs that are maturing into gonarches either after having taken a host or not having taken a host at all.

I prefer another theory; that headcrabs are a hive species. There isn't really much evidence to support it above anything else, but I like it.
 
Proof that no one reads the stickies. :LOL:

Also, that site is so wrong...I never fault anyone for trying (because at least they're trying) but...whew, wrong. And some of the things he wrote are just silly; "a soft but tough exoskeleton," well how does that work? You're either one or the other, and there's no exoskeleton anyway. They clearly have an endoskeleton, and their skin's got more of a rubbery consistency than anything.

Headcrabs will attack anything, too, not just bipeds with round heads. They're aggressive. Rarely have I seen anything pass by that a headcrab will not attack, whether its head fits in its maw or otherwise.

The one year thing is wrong, absolutely no evidence to support that whatsoever...host is most definately alive while the headcrab is controlling it to prevent body decay...bleh I'd end up picking at this all day. Also, very important, none of the headcrab mutations were Combine created. Not one. Headcrabs macroevolve incredibly fast; the fast crabs and poison crabs are the result of mutations after reaching Earth (or possibly before Earth, it's totally up to debate because Laidlaw gives cryptic answers).

Anyhoo, Piggy linked you (thanks Pig), so read that. I guarantee you won't have any more questions about headcrabs after reading it. Seriously, you better not. -_-

:p
 
I have read darksides headcrab portfolio, and i totally agree, the one thing i just cant get on board with the evolution to gonarch, it seems something important is missing. I dont like the idea that a gonarch evolves from a gonome, an advance evolution of a human zombie, it doesnt make sense that any type of host eventually evolves into a gonarch, as earth hosts and xen hosts are very very different.
 
Thanks for the link it's a real help.

Hey, "Oppressor", I'm curious. Your like a parent who says not to ask to many questions. Besides, what's the point in signing up to a forum if I don't post my queries here??? Anyway I come up with questions one at a time.
 
I don't like the idea of a gonome turning into a gonarch. Just because these are the stages we see in the games doesn't mean they're the only stages.
 
Maybe it goes like this:

Gonarch gives birth to headcrabs
Two types emerge
Type 1 Headcrab matures and takes host
Host mutates into mawman
Mawman mutates into gonome
Type 2 Grows large and eventually is a gonarch
Gonarch gives birth to headcrabs
 
Thing is, parts of the gonome are already becoming parts of the gonarch: the back, the appendages. It's also developing acidic secretions akin to those the gonarch will eventually launch out of its shell.

And yes, there are missing pieces that we haven't seen. I personally think it's two or three; in the article I wrote "up to four," because that's as many as I could see it being. I definately can't see five mutations between gonome and gonarch. In all honesty three is probably the upward limit.

Arms and legs continue to harden, shell hardens, exponential growth in size. I imagine that the second-to-last stage of the headcrab resembles the gonarch minus the egg sac. Then it gathers food, mutates again, this time with an egg sac and no maw. So that's like two or three more stages that we'll probably never see.

I've never found it plausible that unhosted headcrabs could ever mutate into gonarchs. Some people like that idea, I don't. Namely because the gonome is showing signs of becoming a gonarch, and the idea that a headcrab would choose NOT to take a host is a very bad idea, from a survivalist point of view. The headcrab that doesn't take the host is both A) going against its nature as a parasite and B) dead. Seriously, hostless crabs are the worst-off creatures on Xen. If your species puts all the hope of future generations into a standard headcrab that is somehow supposed to grow that large and reproduce, your species is pretty dumb.

That theory also suggests a class diversion within the headcrab species (type 1 and type 2, type 2 becomes breeders) that leads to thoughts like a headcrab "society" and a hive mind. That's another idea some people like, I personally do not.
 
.............................
I meant like there is like a queen headcrab every once in a while or something. Gonarchs are rare aren't they?
 
No queens. :)

They're rare because it takes a long time (presumably) to become a gonarch. Furthermore, Xen's a hostile place. Almost everything is carnivorous and aggressive. So imagine you're a headcrab and your goal is to get a host and mutate into a gonarch. That's what all other headcrabs are after. But then you've got bullsquids, stukabats, vortigaunts and grunts (which are probably your main hosts), you've got the controllers and antlions and tentacles and possibly hydras. Houndeyes and panthereyes (you've probably never seen a panthereye; imagine a very large red houndeye with four legs instead of three, sharp claws and a large mouth). Nearly EVERYTHING on the planet is out to get you. So gonarchs are rare because everything's killing your species!
 
But then how could they exist before finding humans? A headcrab is only suited for latching onto humans, and nothing else! It doesn't fit on anything else. The origin of the Gonarch is a mystery, but doesn't involve zombification at all. Why headcrabs only fit onto humans and no Xenians is very strange indeed.
 
Headcrabs can fit over vortigaunt and grunt heads as well. In addition to that they don't need actual "heads." In theory a headcrab could stick itself on the back of a bullsquid and take over, turning it into a zombie bullsquid.
 
So then after latching on does something come out of the maw of the head crab and burrow into what ever creature it latches on to, and maybe tap into the nervous system for a more direct link to the brain if it does not latch to a head.?
 
who is gman? said:
Hey, "Oppressor", I'm curious. Your like a parent who says not to ask to many questions. Besides, what's the point in signing up to a forum if I don't post my queries here??? Anyway I come up with questions one at a time.
Click to expand...

Hey, don't misunderstand me now. My point is that if every new member posted so many new threads there would be one million of them. Search the forums first, almost everything can be found. Cheers
 
that1zombie said:
So then after latching on does something come out of the maw of the head crab and burrow into what ever creature it latches on to, and maybe tap into the nervous system for a more direct link to the brain if it does not latch to a head.?
Click to expand...
Just the nervous system. Brain unnecessary as the headcrab itself acts as the brain of the host and controls all motor functions from then on.

And yes, there appears to be a flap inside the maw where a cord protrudes out of and jacks into the host.

Oppressor said:
Hey, don't misunderstand me now. My point is that if every new member posted so many new threads there would be one million of them. Search the forums first, almost everything can be found. Cheers
Click to expand...
Indeed. Search is your best friend!
 
Darkside55 said:
No queens. :)

They're rare because it takes a long time (presumably) to become a gonarch. Furthermore, Xen's a hostile place. Almost everything is carnivorous and aggressive. So imagine you're a headcrab and your goal is to get a host and mutate into a gonarch. That's what all other headcrabs are after. But then you've got bullsquids, stukabats, vortigaunts and grunts (which are probably your main hosts), you've got the controllers and antlions and tentacles and possibly hydras. Houndeyes and panthereyes (you've probably never seen a panthereye; imagine a very large red houndeye with four legs instead of three, sharp claws and a large mouth). Nearly EVERYTHING on the planet is out to get you. So gonarchs are rare because everything's killing your species!
Click to expand...

I think we can safely assume that the gonarch in hl1 was evolved from a voritgaunt, or grunt (im more inclined to believe vortigaunt as the grunts are a newer edition to the xen arsenal, and also wear a helmet) this is where my doubts come into mind, how could a gonome, evolved from a human, turn evolve into a gonarch like the vortigaunt gonome equivalent. It doesnt make sense that humans and vorts, two very different species from different parts of space, could eventually evolve into the the same thing a gonarch.
This leads me to believe that perhaps humans are unsuitable hosts, we are yet to see evidence that human hosts can become gonarchs, so maybe humans do not have the right physical or genetic attributes. Either that or perhaps humans evolve into a very different type of gonarch, albeit with the same purpose of producing headcrabs, which may have been the cause of new species of headcrabs. I too, dont like the idea of 2 different types of headcrabs being produced, it makes the headcrab intended to take hosts seem pretty pointless, as the only purpose they would serve would be to defend the gonarch, but at best the headcrabs seem ill equipped to do that.
I personally feel the gonarch may be an entire bio weapon on its own, produced by xen. We know the xenians produce bio weapons, ie the alien grunts, and they have no issue with gene manuipulation. This would explain how the gonarch was produced, why it produces organisms with the sole purpose of incapacitating host organisms, and it would also explain why there is no obvious lifecycle for a headcrab. However i dont like this theory much either, as its quite unsatisfying.
 
I just played xen warrior and houndeyes and headcrabs are wild, they attack you, so I guess it is possible that they could just attach to anything and become a bigger monster..... But I think that humans that were taken over by heacrabs can't change into a gonarch.
(_)
(..) < headcrab, sort of...
(..)
 
The Combine have Gonarch egg maws in the Citadels.

Source - HL2 beta model, some figuring and some fantasy.
 
Yeah doesnt specify where they came from, or what host they were produced from, or even how the gonarch from which the egg sag was taken from came to be.
 
Darkside55 said:
Headcrabs will attack anything, too, not just bipeds with round heads. They're aggressive. Rarely have I seen anything pass by that a headcrab will not attack, whether its head fits in its maw or otherwise.
Click to expand...
They don't attack bullsquids or vortigaunts in HL1. They do attack vortigaunts in HL2 though and bullsquids attack headcrabs.

Darkside55 said:
The one year thing is wrong, absolutely no evidence to support that whatsoever
Click to expand...
But also no evidence to assume it's wrong :p. He's just making stuff up, something that you are an expert of.

Darkside55 said:
...host is most definately alive while the headcrab is controlling it to prevent body decay...
Click to expand...
Actually, HL2 and EP1 provide evidence that the host is actually, at least partially, rotting. Firstly, baracles will not eat a zombie, but they will eat the host. They will also not eat clearly rotting bodies. Why would a baracle eat a headcrab yet not have an appetite for a host? Possibly because it's rotting. Also, in EP1 Alyx sometimes references how bad zombies smell. Could be a result of their mutations, but coupled with the previous evidence it sounds like they're rotten. Of course, this could just be due to malnurishment, while a healthly host will continue to live, grow and metamorphise an unfed one could stagnate, halting development and causing the host to slowly die and rot.

Darkside55 said:
bleh I'd end up picking at this all day. Also, very important, none of the headcrab mutations were Combine created. Not one. Headcrabs macroevolve incredibly fast; the fast crabs and poison crabs are the result of mutations after reaching Earth (or possibly before Earth, it's totally up to debate because Laidlaw gives cryptic answers).
Click to expand...
Laidlaw didn't give a criptic answer. He said that both varieties came through from the Portal Storms and then made a joke about the poison headcrab finding something nasty and adding it to its arsenal. Some people just take it too damn litterally. Also, that page was written well before Laidlaw's e-mail.

Darkside55 said:
Anyhoo, Piggy linked you (thanks Pig), so read that. I guarantee you won't have any more questions about headcrabs after reading it. Seriously, you better not.
Click to expand...
Yes, because all the crap you made up is superiour to all the crap that everyone else made up :dozey:

Darkside55 said:
No queens. :)
Click to expand...
I'm sure you have proof of this? (Please no vague RtB quote :p)
 
Piers89 said:
Either that or perhaps humans evolve into a very different type of gonarch, albeit with the same purpose of producing headcrabs, which may have been the cause of new species of headcrabs.
Click to expand...

But that would meen that Zombines would probably evolve into a different Gonarch.
Although, they'll probably get squished inside the suit.
 
Slug Advisor said:
But that would meen that Zombines would probably evolve into a different Gonarch.
Although, they'll probably get squished inside the suit.
Click to expand...

They are still humans though, despite all the organ removal and technology implants.
 
Please stop using the word evolve so incorrectly. The word you're looking for is metamorphose or maybe even mutate, but not evolve.
 
Piers89 said:
...this is where my doubts come into mind, how could a gonome, evolved from a human, turn evolve into a gonarch like the vortigaunt gonome equivalent. It doesnt make sense that humans and vorts, two very different species from different parts of space, could eventually evolve into the the same thing a gonarch.
Click to expand...
Headcrabs wouldn't latch on if they couldn't become a gonarch, and judging by the timeframe with which they mutate I'm certain they've gotten to the point where they can turn a human into a gonarch. Plus (again I go back to the article), provided that we have similar genetic codes then humans would be easy enough to metamorphose into a gonarch.

riomhaire said:
But also no evidence to assume it's wrong :p. He's just making stuff up, something that you are an expert of.
Click to expand...
Yeah because honestly, Riomhaire's right. I really just pull shit out of my ass and call it facts. Nevermind all the time I actually put into it, he's right. I never studied headcrabs for a second. I didn't spend a fvckload of time looking at their behaviors ingame, checking out their code, watching their movements in the SDK, researching and drawing upon biology and science. I didn't look at popular theories for headcrabs and weigh them against each other or try to extrapolate new theories and data from them. And never mind that there's only ONE thing, ONE, that I came out and said, "this is pure fact and cannot be any other way" that was a theory. 'Cause I call everything facts, even though I slap eight million "possibly," "theory," and "unknown" tags on it. Honestly guys, to be honest with you, I've never even SEEN a headcrab.

Actually, HL2 and EP1 provide evidence that the host is actually, at least partially, rotting. Firstly, baracles will not eat a zombie, but they will eat the host. They will also not eat clearly rotting bodies. Why would a baracle eat a headcrab yet not have an appetite for a host? Possibly because it's rotting. Also, in EP1 Alyx sometimes references how bad zombies smell. Could be a result of their mutations, but coupled with the previous evidence it sounds like they're rotten. Of course, this could just be due to malnurishment, while a healthly host will continue to live, grow and metamorphise an unfed one could stagnate, halting development and causing the host to slowly die and rot.
Click to expand...
If the classics are rotting it's at an extremely slow rate. The only ones that are actually rotted are the poison zombies (full-body necrosis) and the fast zombies. I should ammend though that the host does not necessarily need to be alive; the host can be dead and the body's kept alive independently. See the zombines. Alive in this case means that there's still blood flowing and motor functions and the like...it's not like a puppeteer reaching cords into a dead body and moving it around. The body still functions and is "alive." The host could easily be dead though.


Laidlaw didn't give a criptic answer. He said that both varieties came through from the Portal Storms and then made a joke about the poison headcrab finding something nasty and adding it to its arsenal. Some people just take it too damn litterally. Also, that page was written well before Laidlaw's e-mail.
Click to expand...
You can interpret it two ways. It's a cryptic answer if you can derive two or more meanings from it. At the very least I'm accepting the fact that either of these theories could be correct, although, oh wait, I'm supposed to lay down everything as fact.

Yes, because all the crap you made up is superiour to all the crap that everyone else made up :dozey:
Click to expand...
You know what? MAYBE IT IS. I'm sure that's the answer you were looking for.

I'm sure you have proof of this? (Please no vague RtB quote :p)
Click to expand...
Where's the proof FOR it? Honestly, every time the queen thing's been brought up, I've shot it down. There's a whole section devoted to me shooting it down. You're certainly entitled to your opinion though, even if I think it's wrong and there's mounds of evidence against it. If you'd like to believe the gonarchs are queens, by all means, please do.

I don't want this post to get too long but seriously I've gotta say it: Riom, you piss me off man. You KNOW how long it took me to write that article because everyone on this friggin' board knew what I was up to for that month. What I spent an assload of time on. And everytime I say something about headcrabs you have the audacity to tell me, "You're just making stuff up." You even bitched when my article went up and got stickied. Well shit on a stick man, if I spent a bunch of my waking free time just "making shit up" then I ought to be commended on that alone! Give me a merit for an outstanding imagination.

What I REALLY did, well I already said earlier in this post. And I say it a lot, everytime you come around crying that I'm making something up. But you seem to ignore that. It's like, "Darkside didn't do anything. Darkside didn't look at anything. Darkside didn't take this further than anyone and try to do something nice for the community so that people wouldn't ask all these headcrab questions. He just made stuff up." You're always jeering at me dude. Always. Sometimes I don't even want to reply to these things, especially about headcrabs, because I'm wondering, "When's Riomhaire going to pop up?"

I try not to be an asshole on these forums, I really do. I try to be nice and civil because, well, not only do I WORK here, I like it here. I like the people and the atmosphere and I love debating back and forth with people because it's fun. And I like helping people out with their questions, which is one of the reasons I was motivated to write the articles I write. But I think I'll let a bit of my a-hole character break out and ask you, what the hell have YOU done for this community? What have YOU written, what contributions have YOU made? I mean honestly, you're a big whig when it comes to whining about stuff people have said or done, but what've you done, man? You remind me of an anecdote about the newscaster and the weatherman. The newscaster says,

"Well, Bob, looks like it didn't rain yesterday after all, ha ha."

To which the whetherman replies, "Why you pompous ignoramous! You sit there behind your desk and read what has already happened! I'm trying to predict the future!"

You're the newscaster, Riom. You only regurgitate what's come before you. At least I took the data, not unlike a weatherman, and tried to extrapolate something for it. And if I'm wrong and it didn't rain, at least I fvcking tried to say something that hadn't already been said.
 
I don't know what's wrong with the type 1 and 2 theory. Hey, maybe type 2 looks completely different than type 1 and type 1 protects and feeds etc type 2.

Bees and ants have very complex "different type" systems. Why can't headcrabs have a relatively simple "different type" system?
 
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