The Hunter

The Hunter was a Regenerator-type Necromorph biologically engineered by the Unitologist doctor Challus Mercer aboard the USG Ishimura. Unlike the Slashers and other forms that arose naturally from the Marker signal, the Hunter was deliberately created, grown from a living crew member through a series of surgeries. Its defining trait was its ability to regrow severed limbs within seconds, which meant the dismemberment that brought down other Necromorphs only slowed it. It became a relentless pursuer of Isaac Clarke, stalking him through deck after deck until he found a way to destroy it for good.

Creation#

The Hunter's creation began when the Unitologist Dr. Challus Mercer inserted a piece of Necromorph tissue directly into the cranium of a living crew member, the patient Brant Harris, who then began a slow transformation into the creature. Mercer developed the Hunter further through several surgeries on Harris, refining it into its final form. He undertook the experiment in his attempt to fulfill Marker 3A's demand that "the makers must be absorbed" for Convergence to take place, treating the living man as material for his work. The Hunter was, in this sense, one of the few Necromorphs made by deliberate human design rather than by the Marker signal acting on the dead.

Anatomy#

Born from the body of Brant Harris, the Hunter physically resembled a Slasher, possessing large blades attached to a pair of elongated arms that jutted out from its shoulder blades. It was noticeably bulkier and taller than a standard Slasher, and its original arms appeared bound inside the flesh of its torso, like a straitjacket. The host's jaw was gone, with four tentacle-like veins hanging in its place, and the neck was frozen at a forty-five-degree angle. The big toes were enlarged into sharp claws, and the body was covered in exposed muscular tissue with no original skin remaining, pieces of bone protruding at various points and the spine and pelvis visible at the back. Its voice was a deep, throaty roar rather than the screaming of a Slasher.

What set the Hunter apart from every other Necromorph form was its regeneration. It could regrow lost limbs in seconds, meaning that conventional dismemberment served only to temporarily incapacitate it. No amount of cutting could keep it down for long, and survivors who faced it had to rely on freezing, knockback, or escape rather than the limb-by-limb tactics that worked on lesser forms.

Pursuit aboard the Ishimura#

The Hunter first revealed itself to Isaac Clarke in the Chemistry Lab on the Medical Deck, just outside the Cryogenics Storage Room, where Mercer had kept it stored in a stasis tube to prevent it from attacking him. When Isaac entered, Mercer awoke the creature in an attempt to kill him, declaring that he meant to learn whether death by dismemberment was the missing factor for Convergence to trigger. Isaac escaped after discovering the Hunter's regenerative abilities, and it stalked him as he worked, leading to a confrontation in the Cryogenic Lab where he managed to freeze the creature inside a cryogenic tube. The Hunter was later thawed and resumed its pursuit, confronting and chasing Isaac again on the Mining Deck.

The creature reappeared once more after Mercer killed Jacob Temple, chasing Isaac throughout the Crew Deck, first in the central room where Marker 3A was held and then into the bunk rooms. Its end came in the Executive Shuttle Hangar Bay, when Isaac went to test-fire the engines of a shuttle. The Hunter attacked again, but Isaac lured it toward the back of the shuttle, holding it in place by stasis and dismemberment while fending off other Necromorphs, and test-fired the engines, incinerating the creature completely and ending its long pursuit.