Puker

The Puker was a ranged Necromorph whose host body had been remade by its own caustic fluids, able to hurl and spray corrosive bile at survivors from a distance. It appeared during the outbreak on Titan Station and later on Tau Volantis, and it was among the few Necromorph forms that fought primarily at range.

Origin and anatomy#

The Puker was made when a host body was steadily reshaped by its own digestive acids, which melted and merged the flesh. The legs entwined together, and a clump of intestines, nerves, and muscle grew down to form an additional leg. The fingers fused into three long claws on each hand. The eyes were lost entirely, and the jaw fused with the neck, freezing the face in a hollow, blank stare. On the torso the lungs were left visible and yellowish, storing a limited quantity of bile to be ejected from the mouth. The constant, messy expulsion of caustic fluid had eaten away the creature's facial features and the skin and muscle of its torso, leaving the organs exposed and what flesh remained hanging loose around its frame.

A sickening gurgling and choking sound announced an approaching Puker, rising into a shriek as it prepared to throw acid. Despite its ravaged body it was quite fast, able to charge up to a victim and unleash a swift rain of acid.

Methods of attack#

The Puker fought in four ways. Its first and most distinctive attack was a ball of corrosive bile thrown over long distance, which burned its target, corroded and rusted armor, and prevented those it struck from running. Its second was a projected stream of bile at medium to close range. Its third was a melee strike with its claws. Its fourth was a grapple, in which it seized a survivor by the head and arm before vomiting onto the neck and mouth to dissolve the seal of a helmet and tear it away. The Puker also carried a unique defense: when dismembered, its severed limbs would spurt corrosive fluid for a second or two, as dangerous to anyone nearby as the creature's deliberate attacks.

The Puker could absorb heavy punishment. It was known to survive the loss of its legs, arms, and head all at once and still manage to spew bile, though destroying the head robbed it of the ability to project bile over distance. Removing both legs sometimes left it crawling toward its prey. Because the bile it threw was also harmful to other Necromorphs, a stray glob could destroy creatures caught in its path, and a survivor could catch a thrown glob with Kinesis and hurl it back to deadly effect.

Variants and later appearances#

The Enhanced Puker was a stronger form, marked by glowing eyes and slick black and green skin tissue but otherwise resembling the standard Titan Station creature. It moved faster and struck harder. Only two Enhanced Pukers were encountered in the events of Dead Space 3, with three more during the Awakened outbreak.

The standard Puker seen on Tau Volantis differed noticeably from the Titan Station form. It was a strange green color, faster, quicker to react, and more aggressive, changes attributed to its having aged and decayed far longer. It appeared to wear green clothing, most likely a S.C.A.F. uniform, its face caved completely into the skull and its hands smoother than the fresher form. Its legs were its host's own and intact, rather than rebuilt from intestines, though the rib cage and lungs remained visible as a green, jelly like substance. Where the Titan Station outbreak rarely produced more than a single Puker at a time, the creatures sometimes appeared in packs on Tau Volantis, a constant threat of incoming bile.