Barnacle Grapple
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This article is about the weapon. For the enemy, see Barnacle. |
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| Barnacle Grapple | |
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| Production information | |
| Affiliation | |
| Type |
Organic weapon/grapple |
| Technical specifications | |
| Damage |
25 (per bite) |
| Operation |
Shoots out tongue to latch onto organic objects |
| Usage | |
| Used by | |
| Entity / spawn codes |
weapon_grapple |
The Barnacle Grapple, also known as Specimen 1176, is a detached Barnacle which can be used as both a weapon and a grappling hook. Its tongue can be shot out to latch onto organic objects, such as enemies or Spore Launcher spores.
Contents |
[edit] Tactics
The Barnacle Grapple is most useful for latching onto Spore Launcher spores attached to Race X moss, occasionally bearing ammunition for the Spore Launcher weapon, and pulling the player to otherwise inaccessible places. It is also useful as a handy melee tool to devour Headcrabs and Shock Roaches.
The weapon's secondary trigger makes the Barnacle keep its tongue out to let its user come down with less or no injury.
When latching to a larger creature, the user will be pulled along with the gun instead of the creature pulled towards the user, but may nonetheless be eaten the same way as smaller enemies.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Half-Life: Opposing Force
In Opposing Force, it is learned that the Black Mesa scientists working in Sector E's Biodome Complex have been able to successfully detach a Barnacle (named "Specimen 1176") from its point of gestation, in good health, and were able to coerce it into latching onto organic materials, such as creatures, fungi and moss, and convert it into a portable weapon.
In the Specimen Testing Lab within the Biodome Complex, Adrian Shephard watches a holographic message from a scientist to Walter Bennet explaining the work achieved on Specimen 1176. He then proceeds to the Specimen Containment Room where the creature can be found in a case near other Xen flora specimen in other cases, and equips the unique creature as a weapon. He then can test the weapon in Testing Lab BDRC-101 on several things: a Headcrab, a Houndeye and a crate and rocks, the latter being there to show the weapon's inefficiency against non-organic materials. In the Specimen Cultivation Rooms nearby it is also learned how to use the Barnacle Gun on Spore Launcher spores to cross deep pits.
Shephard then carries the gun with him on his quest through Black Mesa until finally reaching the Gene Worm, against which the weapon is instrumental in defeating the creature, as it helps bridging a gap to reach the second of the two cannons Shephard uses to defeat the creature.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- The idea behind the Barnacle Grapple appears to have been recycled from an idea proposed early during the development of Half-Life and eventually rejected, involving a tentacle-based weapon severed from an enemy and deployed as a kind of slimy "squirtgun".[1]
- Its specimen number in Opposing Force, "1176", may be a thinly veiled reference to the film THX 1138, one of many Lucasfilm references hidden in the game.
[edit] Gallery
The Barnacle Grapple HUD icon.
Upper side of the worldmodel.
Viewmodel.
Xen flora and the Barnacle Grapple stored in cases in Black Mesa.
The Barnacle Grapple in its case, next to a Xen Fungus.
[edit] List of appearances
- Half-Life: Opposing Force (First appearance)
