power of the headcrabs

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Great Grizzly

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I have always wondered how powerfull headcrabs are. In the hl games the headcrabs always seem to zombify humans. How do they do that so easily. Its not like the people will just put their hands behind their back and let the crabs take them. Headcrabs are very large, with small legs, very inefficient at taking prey. the fact that they have no way of "grabbing" their prey would make it near impossable for them to get anyone. THey jump at the head, but what is the chance that they will get hold of anything on their jump? They dont have any digits on thier limbs so its near impossable to grab large prey.

THe only way i think they are even slightly effective is that they work together to take down an orginism. Like they keep jumping untill one gets hold, or knocks the victim down. THen they can capture him. I think they then use this victim to help them capture more victim. I also belive that they can animate already dead people.

Its assumed that they leap at the head and grab on and take over. However, their shape, size, and strength make it hard to do so, lowering their effectiveness.

Thats why i think the only way they can get prey is 1)The dead 2)smaller creatures 3)use zombies to help get more prey or 4) swarm their prey
 
They're supposed to have a beak...my guess is that it works like a canopener on a skull...they crack it open to get to the brain. :)
 
Well, they have beaks, acids, etc...

Plus, they're jumps are quite accurate.
 
The only reason to they seem so inefficient to you(Gordon Freeman) is because you're wearing a heavily armored helmet. Yes,the HEV suit does come with one. I can get a screenshot if you really want.
 
There front, things are very strong and can hold onto a host for dear life. Just look at the citizen getting crabed at the end of route canal.
 
The headcrabs are so vunerable to a wack with the crowbar when they jump at your head.
 
exactly, they can soo easily be avoided, its hard to see how they can be effective at all
 
They're pretty effective if your HEV is at 0 and you're down to 10 HP. :p
 
Headcrabs usually crab people with powerful and deadly accuracy.

It's just, as Dr Kleiner pointed out to you, they ph33r your crowbar!

Sometimes Mommy and Daddy headcrabs tell their children stories at night about how if they don't go to sleep then the big bad crowbar will come and get them.

All true!
 
Right before you get the airboat theres that guy you can see just got headcrabbed. The cool thing is if you don't shoot the headcrab dead as I'm guessing most people usually do, you can see it munching and eating away at his skull. It looks really cool, check it out.
 
At the beginning of the first HL, right BEFORE you cross the second security station where you meet houndeyes for the first time (also right where the security guard is reaching for the Health terminal), you can look into the office room where the G-Man was a see a little cutscene involving two headcrabs.

A scientist runs behnind a cabinet and 'lures' headcrab back there by having it jump at him and then running. He then pushes the cabinet onto the headcrab, starts cheering, only to have a headcrab jump on him from behind, and he falls to the floor.

I would have to say that normal Headcrabs have to have some form of paralyzing neurotoxin. Weak humans, like scientists, just collapse immediatle. Strong humans may be able to fight it for a little bit, struggling and thrashing, though growing weaker and weaker until they collapse. This makes sense that the poison headcrab is just one who can deliver a LOT more of this nerotoxin than most.

My question is why headcrabs jump at you from the front when they seem to only couple from behind. All of the headcrab Zombies I've ever seen have headcrabs facing forward... yet they will try and attack you from the front. I'm guess that they attack to administer enough neurotoxin to incapacitate their prey, and then just climb aboard. In some rare circumstances, they are able to perform a really good jump from behind and latch on without having weakened the prey first, and this is when you see people struggling with them.
 
NJspeed said:
you can see it munching and eating away at his skull. It looks really cool, check it out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but when you kill a zombie and headcrab comes off the zombie, you still can clearly see the victim's head or skull which it wasn't eaten by headcrabs.
 
I guess the folks at valve don't even know everything about the war on headcrabism

xen vs. crowbaria
 
ya its probobly the neurotoxins, cause the headcrabs are pretty useless predetors otherwise...
 
The question is... how come the headcrabs can latch onto humans? It's not like they are a large part of the Xen ecosystem :rolling:

Any info on the 'normal' hc lifecycle?
 
The question is... how come the headcrabs can latch onto humans? It's not like they are a large part of the Xen ecosystem
Click to expand...

I've always wondered this. And other than ríomhaire's doctored picture,, I've never seen a Headcrab copulate with anything but humans.

(Note: Please help roimhaire's campaign to stop Cruelty to Vortigaunts),
 
I have noticed something strange. Fast headcrabs have no "beaks". I say beaks as Kleiner said that Lamarr was "debeaked". If it has none then how can it "head couple"
 
If you look closely at Lamarr, the two frontal fangs have been removed. This is probably how the species overpowers the host. I suspect they also have some suction that they apply once they have connected to their victim.
 
also if you shoot the headcrab that is "coupling" with the mans head in route canal, they both go flying at an extremely high velocity. this shows the huge amount of pressure the headcrab exerts on the human skukll
 
ah i see, mabye the fast headcrab has internal beaks? for like, less wind resistance?


Or mabye the headcrabs dont use their beaks for coupling but only as a physical attack to weaken thir prey or predators. Fast headcrabs dont need them and use their big claws instead.
 
I like the sound the poison ones make when they attack you.
Click to expand...

Really? I never liked it. Of all of the realistic sounds in that game, that one always sounded a little "off," like the sound was way to 'swift' of an attack for such a slow creature.
 
What i meant by "I liked it" was i liked how funny it is.

And i'm not talking about the *Swish swish* i'm talking about the *chomp*
 
As for the whole helmet thread on the first page.. in hl 1 you see dead bodies with helmets on, but gordon personally is too tough to wear the helmet.. he doesn't.

ANYWAYS! I found this just tonight! REAL LIFE HEAD CRABS!

http://www.cfgoa.org/us/bulletin/#IS8945b
 
the teeth of these things are amazingly sharp. so with 1naccurate jump they grapple u so hard u cant pull them off
 
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