The Snow Beast

The Snow Beast was a massive Necromorph that roamed the frozen surface of Tau Volantis. Towering roughly fourteen feet tall, it was very likely the reanimated form of an ancient ocean dwelling crustacean, transformed long after the planet froze. Resilient and unusually cunning, it stalked Isaac Clarke and John Carver across the planet, ambushing them again and again before its final defeat.

Origin and form#

Because of its great size, around fourteen feet tall, the Snow Beast was very likely a Necromorph form of a crustacean that lived thousands of years earlier in the oceans of Tau Volantis, back when the planet was still liquid. It caught prey with its long tentacles and an incredibly fast tongue. Yellowish tissues on its back tentacles were particularly vulnerable; when those tentacles were severed, a secondary set appeared whose destruction critically wounded the creature, though the damage regenerated over time. The Beast was resilient, powerful, and relentless, yet intelligent for a Necromorph, and it would retreat once it was injured rather than press an attack to its own destruction.

The creature had been known to the Sovereign Colonies forces who occupied the planet roughly two hundred years before, when research teams compared it to a yeti in their logs and described it as extraordinarily resilient. The presence of dead Snow Beasts elsewhere on the surface, along with an old set of facing harpoons, suggested those forces had hunted and killed the creatures during their own time on Tau Volantis.

Stalking Isaac and Carver#

The Snow Beast first appeared after the crash on Tau Volantis, when Isaac and Carver followed a trail of flares left by Ellie Langford. It lunged from a cliff, knocking the two to the bottom, then vanished. Its roar could be heard as they explored the area, and it was glimpsed climbing the buildings around the pipeline, stalking the pair as Isaac searched for an Arctic Survival Suit at a nearby waystation.

The first true confrontation came at Facility One, where the Beast ambushed the two in a cargo lift; its weight sent the lift crashing, though both men and the creature survived, and after a short fight they drove it off. It struck again as Isaac returned through the staging yard, only to flee once more after further damage to its tentacles.

The final confrontation#

The Snow Beast made its last appearance when it attacked a cargo lift carrying Ellie, Carver, and Jennifer Santos. Ellie and Carver escaped, but Santos was trapped in the cage as the creature''s weight began to collapse the cliff. Despite Isaac''s attempts to save her, Carver cut the lift cable, sending both Santos and the Necromorph plummeting. The Beast survived the fall and climbed back up, breaking away the cliff edge so that Isaac, Carver, and the creature went down together. After recovering, the two found a pair of large mounted harpoons and, when the Beast made its final attack, used the harpoons to pin it. Isaac activated a winch that retracted the harpoons, tearing the enormous Necromorph in half and ending it for good.