Difference between revisions 100533773 and 109871900 on enwiki

[[Image:HalfLife Barnacle.jpg|thumb|300px|A barnacle, as seen in ''[[Half-Life]]'' ('''left''') and ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' ('''right''').]]

(contracted; show full)oment, a player can kill a barnacle attempting to eat it (or even several closely-placed barnacles). It also seems that the Barnacle tries to wrap its tongue around the target tight enough to break bones and kill it. This is based on the observation that [[bird]]s as well as Resistance or Combine troops die before they even reach the main body, merely by virtue of being caught. Turning on closed captions and then being captured by the barnacle reveals the sound file is called "Barnacle Neckbreak"
; also, in a ''Half-Life 2'' concept art, a Barnacle's tongue is seen wrapped around Gordon's neck. [[Gordon Freeman]] is unaffected by the tongue's crushing attempts, probably due to his H.E.V. suit's neck-covering extension. An alternative explanation might be that tongue incapacitates the barnacle's prey by means of some poison. A third theory is that the barnacle snaps the spine of its victim which would explain why it's prey doesn't fight back and dies before consumption and also why the "bone break" doesn't eaffect Freeman.
 
It is interesting to note the manner in which a barnacle in ''[[Half-Life 2: Episode One]]'' deals with a [[Headcrab#Half-Life 2: Episode One variation (Zombie)|Zombie or Zombine]] (a [[transhuman]] Combine Overwatch soldier turned [[Headcrab#Headcrab zombie|headcrab zombie]]): after capturing a Zombine, the barnacle will only eat the attached headcrab, while the beheaded body is dropped. On the other hand, barnacles have been recorded consuming the entire body of unaffected Combine soldiers. This could be considered evidence that barnacles dislike the taste of rotting or decomposed flesh, and would be consistent with their rejection of decomposed bodies thrown at them by the player.

==Barnacle as a weapon==

In the expansion pack ''[[Half-Life: Opposing Force|Opposing Force]]'', Black Mesa scientists have been able to successfully detach barnacles, albeit with a high failure rate. The player can use a detached barnacle as either a weapon or as a grappling hook. Both functions take advantage of the affinity of their tongues for [[Biological matter|organic matter]].

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[[Category:Fictional extraterrestrial species]]
[[Category:First-person shooter creatures]]
[[Category:Half-Life characters]]