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| “ | He won't last five minutes on foot. It's spawning season for the Antlions! | „ |
| ~ Leon about the Antlions. |
Antlions are recurring antagonists of Half-Life 2 and both of its Episode DLCs, and make a reappearance in Half-Life: Alyx. Antlions are an insectoid alien species from the world Xen who were teleported to Earth during the Black Mesa incident.
Biology[]
Antlions usually make their hives in dark underground places, such as abandoned Earth Mines, they posses the ability to fly, and burrow into the sand to ambush prey when they feel them trend on the sand. However, Antlions are easily spooked by high seismic activity, which The Combine use to their advantage through the use of a device called a Thumper, which creates high amounts of seismic activity within a certain radius.
Antlions come in many forms, the first of which is the Antlion Soldier, which is the basic Antlion variant, soldiers attack in swarms, can fly and divebomb their prey, or lie in wait under sand to ambush unsuspecting victims and rip them to shreds with their sharp legs and fangs.
Antlion Grubs, are infant Antlions that are only found in nests, very fragile grubs can easily be killed by even the slightest pressure and can drop Grub nuggets which heal Gordon.
Antlion Workers, also known as Acid Antlions, or Acid-lions, are the Antlions that are usually found guarding the nests, workers glow white and have a noticeably different appearance then the soldiers but possess similar animations, the biggest difference however is that the workers are capable of producing a highly acidic venom, that according to the Vortigaunts, can melt through stone to make tunnels, they will spit balls of this venom at Gordon, and when killed they will explode into a cloud of venom.
Antlion Guards, are the praetorian of the Antlion hives, either protecting the nest or leading swarms of soldiers to either expand their territory or hunt for prey, guards have a far more durable exoskeleton compared to the soldiers but lack the ability to fly. However, they retain the ability to burrow but rarely use this and prefer to take their prey head on. Guards attack by either charging or launching objects at Gordon and primarily attack him up close by headbutting.
Antlion Guardians/Queens, the leaders of the Antlion hives, Queens, commonly referred to as Guardians, protect the larvae within the deepest parts of their nests and are seldomly seen outside. Queens look almost identical to guards with the exception that their bodies glow bright green, Queens possess the same attacks as guards as well as the same durable exoskeleton, however the Queen's exoskeleton is highly venomous and contact with it will poison Gordon similar to the workers and Poison Headcrabs.
Biography[]
Half-Life 2[]
Antlions are first encountered on the Coast after Gordon obtains his objective to get to Nova Prospekt. Antlions attack Gordon all throughout the Coast, which Gordon must make use of the Combine's Thumpers to give himself some breathing room. Soon. Gordon makes it to an area of the Coast in which Antlions are hiding throughout the beach and Gordon must avoid stepping on the sand as to not alert any nearby Antlions. Once Gordon makes it through the beach, he finds himself at a sandy grotto just outside a Resistance camp, he jumps down off of the cliff only for an Antlion Guard to burrow out of the sand, followed by a group of Antlion Soldiers. Gordon triumphs over the Guard as one of the Vortigaunts rips some Antlion pheromone pods (more commonly known to humans as Bugbait) off of it before taking Gordon inside the camp and showing him how to use them.
Gordon finally arrives at Nova Prospekt, only to find that the beach is heavily guarded by Combine Soldiers, Gordon strategically begins disabling the Thumpers lining the beach and using the Bugbait to command the Antlion Soldiers as they rip apart any Combine Soldier they come across. Gordon eventually makes his way inside Nova Prospekt through a drainage pipe and runs into another problem, the Combine soldiers have set up turrets throughout the area in an attempt to combat the infestation, with Gordon spotting on cameras the soldiers fighting against the Antlions as Gordon uses the soldiers to fight back against the Combine forces.
Gordon eventually stumbles into a laundry area where he encounters a group of soldiers attacking something, upon entering this room it's revealed that they were attacking an Antlion Guard as all of the soldiers are swiftly killed by the towering alien before it sets its sights on Gordon as the Bugbait has no effect on the Guards, Gordon, however triumphs over the Guard again and continues through, spotting another Guard on a security camera as it massacres more Combine soldiers, Gordon later passes through this area only to find the Guard slain. Soon Gordon enters the bathroom sector only for another Guard to break through some nearby doors and attack Gordon who, once again, is triumphant over the mighty alien.
After leaving Nova Prospekt, Antlions are never encountered again.
Episode 1[]
Antlions return in the Half-Life 2: Episode 1 DLC, where Gordon and Alyx first encounter them in the tunnels underneath City 17 after they escape the Citadel. Antlions make use of their burrows, which have broken through the pavement of the city's streets to continue flooding into the city and endlessly attack Gordon and Alyx. However, Gordon is able to use the wreckages of cars strewn about the city to plug up their burrows.
Later, as Gordon and Alyx are fighting their way to the train station, they come across a group of Combine Soldiers as well as a Combine APC attacking an Antlion Guard accompanied by Antlion Soldiers coming up from burrows as the Guard swiftly crushes the APC and kills the soldiers as it sets its sights on Gordon and Alyx who kill the Guard and plug up the burrows.
Episode 2[]
Antlions make another appearance in the Half-Life 2: Episode 2 DLC, where they are seen at the beginning flying around as well as fighting Zombies. A group of Antlions later crowd around Alyx after she is wounded by a Combine Hunter as Gordon can only look on as he was trapped under the rubble of a building after the same Hunter smashed it in an attempt to kill Gordon. As they prepare to devour the unconscious Alyx, she is saved by a Vortigaunt who also frees Gordon from the rubble. As they attempt to find help for Alyx, Gordon enters an elevator as it breaks loose and plunges him deep within the caves below.
Gordon finds himself inside Victory Mine, which has now become a massive Antlion Hive, as he sees Antlions running around and fighting back against Headcrabs and Zombies, he then catches his first glimpse of a Worker as it runs through a tunnel beneath him. Gordon then finds himself within the Antlion hive where he sees the Antlion's Grubs, even mistakingly or intentionally killing them as both Soldiers and Workers attack him before he finally arrives at a small Resistance outpost manned by the Vortigaunt who is hard at work healing Alyx as well as two human Rebels named Griggs and Sheckley, who Gordon joins in fighting the incoming swarms of Antlions using reprogrammed Combine hopper mines and turrets, however as more and more are attracted to the outpost, the turrets are destroyed but the three still manage to hold out against the never ending horde, as the center detector shows three lights, the three brace themselves only for dead antlions to rain from the tunnel as the Vortigaunt's kin arrive to help heal Alyx, when suddenly every detector suddenly shows three lights signaling massive hordes of Antlions coming from each end as Gordon, Griggs, and Sheckley, who are then joined by the three Vortigaunts that arrived moments before fight together against the massive horde of Antlions and ultimately prevail.
Later, Gordon and the main Vortigaunt head into the nest to retrieve Antlion Larvae to heal Alyx's wounds as the two fight through hordes of Antlions eventually having a brief run-in with the nest's Queen, confirming the nearby presence of larvae. However, the two are forced to separate when the Vortigaunt stays behind to hold off the groups of incoming Antlions and Zombies, but not before telling Freeman that should he encounter the Queen, not to kill her or the Larvae would become useless. As Gordon continues into the nest on his own, he begins attempting to head up towards where he thinks the larvae is, only for his path to be cut off by the Queen as she begins charging after Freeman who has no choice but to run. As he evades the Queen throughout the tunnels in the nest he eventually evades her and meets back up with the Vortigaunt as the two are able to collect the larvae and heal Alyx. As the Vortigaunt, Gordon, and Alyx leave the mine they see the Queen, now enraged after they stole some of the larvae.
Outside, the three are attacked by a horde of Antlion Soldiers and Workers as they run forwards fighting the Antlions, The Queen bursts through a nearby Mine entrance as she is quickly joined by an Antlion Guard who bursts through the other mine entrance as a still weak Alyx is unable to fight and the Vortigaunt protects her and fights the other Antlions, Gordon must take on the Antlion Queen and Guard by himself ultimately emerging victorious as the Queen and Guard are both slain and the other remaining Antlions retreat. After this, Antlions aren't encountered again throughout the rest of the DLC.
Half-Life: Alyx[]
TBA
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Antlions on the Half-Life Wiki
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 / Villains
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The Combine Aperture Science Xenians United States Government | ||