Half-Life fans who have been playing the series for a while now, know that Nihilanth is the inhuman entity responsible for wreaking havoc on Earth and keeping the portal between, Xen and Earth open. This entity is an alien-like being with its head larger than the body, legs which are both too short and thin by default or have been mutilated following some kind of injury and hands resembling a fork with two pointed tines. Since Nihilanth has abnormally deformed legs, it is unable to move without the help of an aiding device. Therefore, it uses a levitation device to help it move across the site and universe.
Nihilanth’s Abilities
Nihilanth, apart from keeping the portal between Earth and Xen open, is capable of communicating via telepathy and teleporting too. It is shown in numerous instances that Nihilanth teleported its minions for their safety to various parts of Xen and its lair. Its telepathic abilities are also shown when it communicates with Gordon Freeman via messages heard by him.
How Nihilanth Attacks?
Despite its physical inability to move, Nihilanth being the final boss is still able to launch deadly attacks on its enemies. Since Half-Life is a role-playing game (RPG) where players enact as Gordon Freeman who is charged with the mission to kill this creature by the Black Mesa Research Facility, they need to understand how Nihilanth attacks and ways to defeat him.
Once the enemy, Gordon Freeman enters its lair, Nihilanth makes use of different kinds of energy orbs in order to launch attacks on him. These include green-colored, slow-paced orbs which teleport Gordon to other heavily populated areas of Nihilanth’s lair, where he has to fight numerous Xen alien creatures before finally returning to battle Nihilanth.
Apart from green orbs, Nihilanth makes use of bluish purple-colored energy orbs which are far more lethal than the green ones and cause substantial damage to the freeman’s character if he gets hit by them. However, the bright side is that these bluish purple-colored orbs have a very small radius, hence they cannot reach out to their target if it is standing far off position.
Nihilanth attacks its target by emitting energy in the form of rays from these orbs using its forked hands. Since Nihilanth rarely misses its target, it is really important that players make use of rocks or any other thing they can find to shield themselves from its attacks.
How to Take Down Nihilanth?
Nihilanth, in addition to being powerful enough to emit deadly rays, is protected by a third form of energy orbs surrounding its head. These orbs have a golden-orange aura and keep circling in spheres round Nihilanth’s head to protect it from possible damage. The power sources of these orbs are the crystals that are installed on top of the walls of Nihilanth’s lair. These crystals are also golden-orange in color and refuel Nihilanth’s protective energy orbs as soon as they lose their strength following the damage caused to Nihilanth by Freeman’s attacks. How? Simple, when Nihilanth is damaged due to Freeman’s attacks, it uses energy from these orbs to gain back its strength and repair any damages. Frequent use of these energy orbs leads them towards depletion and in order to replenish them, the energy crystals play their part.
Since Nihilanth is a powerful attacker who is protected too, the best strategy for players enacting as Freeman to take it down is discussed in steps below.
- Find a hiding place: As mentioned before, players must, first of all, locate a rock or any other item which helps them hide and shield themselves from Nihilanth’s attacks.
- This hiding place must be somewhere near Nihilanth’s position so that the players can target its crystals and destroy them first before attacking Nihilanth itself.
- Once the crystals are destroyed, Nihilanth becomes vulnerable in a sense because it has lost its power sources and is now left with whatever energy its protective orbs hold.
- The players must begin shielded attacks with any gun of their choice on Nihilanth.
- Repetitive attacks will render it vulnerable and its head orbs will disappear once they have been used to their maximum strength.
- After the disappearance of head orbs, further attacks will lead to Nihilanth’s head breaking open into two parts revealing its brain.
- By this time, Nihilanth must have become so weak that it is unable to fire more than one energy strike.
- Players must now attack its brain unless its full power has been utilized.
- Once Nihilanth’s powers have been exhausted, it will float up in the air and explode.
- This explosion is the indication of Nihilanth’s death.
Useful Tips to Remember While Taking Down Nihilanth
Some useful insights on how to take down Nihilanth easily include using Gluon Gun as the attacking weapon. Gluon gun possesses the ability to vaporize almost everything it hits and this includes Nihilanth’s energy crystals too. It is the best device to be used against Nihilanth so that it is rendered defenseless without any damage occurring on part of Freeman.
Secondly, it is also advised that players must target Nihilanth’s head preferably. Hitting other parts of Nihilanth’s body might hurt it a bit but the main organ which needs to be destroyed in order to kill this creature is its brain locked inside its head. To expose its brain, keep targeting its head until its skull breaks open into two parts and the brain is exposed.
Once Nihilanth is ready to die, at first it emits green-colored energy and then bursts in an explosion.
The detailed description of taking down Nihilanth in the grand finale of Half-Life gaming series has been explained above. Players, who have been unable to succeed for a long time, can read and incorporate these tips into their battling methods. They will surely be able to defeat Nihilanth, the great enemy of the human race then.
