Snark
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| Snark | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Faction |
Xen |
| Type |
Biological weapon |
| Individual information | |
| Health |
2 |
| Weapon(s) |
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| Game information | |
| Entity |
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| Designer(s) | |
The Snark, also known as the Squeak Grenade,[1][3] is an enemy which doubles as a biological weapon. It can be found in Snark Eggs, and will attack the player when these are tripped. However, the nests can be picked up and snarks can be used as weapons and be thrown towards enemies.
Contents
Overview[edit]
Snarks are small, beetle-like creatures with four legs, a single bright glowing green eye, and a thick, dark red, segmented shell. They are social and highly territorial, making nests and protecting them at all costs. The fleshy nests themselves are about the size and shape of a road sign, and dark green with translucent red pods and four claw-like branches on each corner.
When their nest is threatened, Snarks will leap out and charge at their intruder, bouncing around madly and biting with their sharp beaks. These bites are powerful, doing as much as 10 points of damage each and easily crippling the player if they are not careful. To add insult to injury, a snark will explode about twenty seconds after it starts attacking, spraying acid everywhere.
The Snark emits a high-pitched squeak with each bite, which gets higher and higher in pitch the longer it stays in its "attack mode" before finally exploding.
In Half-Life: Alyx, Alyx Vance is shown to own a pet Snark at her hideout which she keeps in a large glass jar. The Snark will react to tapping on the glass and being fed.
Application[edit]
The player can obtain an egg sack containing 5 Snarks which can be used as weapons. While held, Snarks have an unlimited lifespan, but still show aggressive tendencies (as two comical idle animations show one animation with the Snark struggling in Gordon's hand, and the other with it snapping at Gordon as he teases it with his finger). Once thrown, the Snark's twenty-second "attack mode" begins, and it will immediately charge at the nearest living thing and attack it. If there is nothing for them to attack, they will turn around and attack Gordon instead (which is why the player should always be sure to throw them from a higher vantage point).
In multiplayer deathmatch games, Snarks provide a useful way of distracting other players (particularly multiple players), facilitating escape or a means of a more leisurely kill. It is not uncommon for a player to be seen running through the map while being chased by a pack of Snarks.
Xen forces have learned to use Snarks to their advantage. In the chapter "Forget About Freeman", there are Snark Eggs that hang in the air with the use of webbing. When shot or tripped, the lasers on them will release snarks to attack Gordon and slow down his progress, acting like biological trip mines.
Related Achievements[edit]
| Half-Life: Alyx | |
|---|---|
|
Good Grub |
| Feed the snark. | |
Behind the scenes[edit]
The Snark was intended to blink in Half-Life. The unused eyelid textures can be found in Half-Life SDK. The Snark nest has unused "walking" animations.
An item similar to that of the Snark was to appear in Half-Life 2, but instead of a Snark, the player could use the Brickbat to throw Headcrabs.
The Snark was used for the Dynamic Environmental Interaction demo of The Orange Box branch of the Source engine as the "npc_blob" entity which can be spawned in the Source Particle Benchmark.
In Half-Life: Alyx, the Snark model has a number of unused animations including walking, jumping, and being held sequences indicating that it was once planned to have a more active role and could actually be picked up by Alyx. Additionally, it also has some unused scripted animations intended to be used in an unspecified lab location. In the final game, the only lab location visited is Russell's Lab.
Trivia[edit]
- In third-person mode, the player can be seen petting the Snark.
- In the Opposing Force CTF maps The Wonderland, HairBall, and Paradox Park - The Command Point Issue snowmen can be found and picked up, which will give Penguins, mostly a reskin of snarks but with its explosion much bigger than normal and slow deploy.
- The teasing animation for the viewmodel was inspired by Chuck Jones's cat at the time, Blue.[4]
Gallery[edit]
Concept art.
HUD icon.
Worldmodel.
High Definition version.
Half-Life viewmodel.
High Definition version.
Opposing Force viewmodel.
High Definition version.
Blue Shift viewmodel.
High Definition version.
Snark nest.
High Definition version.
A Snark Egg.
Nest walking animation.
Half-Life: Alyx model.
Alyx's pet snark
The table in Alyx's hideout with the jar.
Coffee box used by Alyx to store Snark food.
Dynamic Environmental Interaction demonstration room[edit]
Dynamic Environmental Interaction sign.
Snarks swarming.
Snarks avoiding fire.
Snarks jumping on crates.
Other[edit]
Unused Steam emoticons.
List of appearances[edit]
Main games[edit]
- Half-Life (First appearance)
- Half-Life: Opposing Force
- Half-Life: Blue Shift
- Half-Life: Decay
- Half-Life: Alyx
Other[edit]
- Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
- Source Particle Benchmark (Non-canonical appearance)
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, page 25
- ↑ Stephen Bahl as quoted on Marc Laidlaw Vault on the ValveTime Forums
- ↑ Half-Life SDK
- ↑ Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Documentary
