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On the surface, inDead Spacethe Necromorphs may seem like mindless abominations. Drooling and screaming as they wander around the vents and hallways looking for victims to tear apart or dismember, or mutilate someone just enough that they’re unable to fight back as they’re converted by an Infector and added to the growing horde.
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But this rotting army is far from aimless, they’re funneled and aimed with a dark purpose by a malevolent force controlling all of them. From the smallest Lurker, to vast groups of Stalkers and the largest Brutes, all do the bidding of a creature known as a Hive Mind. These seemingly omniscient beings are monstrous in size and are only encountered briefly in each game. To shine a light on these shadowy creatures operating behind the scenes, here’s the Hive Minds in Dead Space, explained.
This article contains spoilers for Dead Space (2018), Dead Space (2023), Dead Space 2, and Dead Space 3.
What Is The Hive Mind?
The Hive Mind, or Nexus Organism, is a title given to a massive creature in each of the Dead Space games. There’s no singular behemoth controlling all of the Necromorphs across the universe. Instead, eachHive Mind acts as a control point for the local system. They take direct orders from the dark intelligence hidden within the Markers, and connect to whichever Marker is the closest in a star system, usually on the same planet, and then amplify its reach to encompass the full system and orbiting starships with ease.
The way they operate is similar to the Hive Minds of theTyranids of Warhammer 40,000, as each one is colossal in size, heavily defended, andtaking one out, or cutting off its connection to the local Markers, renders it and any nearby Necromorph Infestation inert. Without direct commands, these rotting subordinates simply stop moving and being to rapidly rot and decay.
Over time, these decomposing hordes are rendered down into a putrid organic sludge that’s mostly harmless. However, if reconnected to a Marker or Hive Mind again,this goop will reform into corruptive coverings that will spawn Infectors and the whole cycle begins anew.
Hive Mind Biology
Studying and dissecting aHive Mindwould be almost impossible. Each is different, colossal in scale, and their organic parts are not their own, aseach one is formed from thousands upon thousands of bodies, rendered down and repurposed into these massive beasts. There’s no logic or reason to each mutation, and so they can take quite monstrous shapes depending on the climate, or original host lifeform as was the case in Dead Space 3.
They all share some common factors though. Theirextreme size,multiple appendagesthat funnel victims or other organic matter into equallylarge jaws, and abulbous yellow weak pointlocated somewhere on the creature. Control is exerted amongst the smallerNecromorphcastes through antenna-like protuberances on their backs, and their multiple eyes make sure nothing escapes their sight. A super predator in its own right, the biology ofHive Mindsis intense and terrifying.
The Formation Of A Hive Mind
Hive Mindsare not naturally born, they takethe combined organic matter of an entire colony’s worth of people rendered down into their component partsto make. Once an infestation of Necromorph at a site, or onboard a ship reaches a certain critical mass,a Hive Mind will form to better direct its decrepit kin.
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It’s a bit like theOvermind of the Flood in Halo, containing the combined memories of those encompassing it and possessing a surprisingly vast intellect of its own. They’re often found either at the heart of a nest, as was seen withthe Leviathan that tried to form onboard the USG Ishumura, or buried deep within the earth for its own protection, as shown by the Aegis VII Hive Mind that Isaac Clarke has to deal with at the end of Dead Space. Able to influence humans and Necromorphs alike, it’s hard to put a Hive Mind down, even when you’re immune to the Marker.
Notable Hive Minds
The Markers and Hive Minds go hand in hand, they’re small parts in a bigger cycle that culminates in thebirth of a Brother Moon– planet-sized Necromrophs that serve as the final stage of their life cycle – but before that, they can still inflict a lot of loss and damage.
They come in different shapes, sizes and not all are alike, as they’re just as diverse as their lesser and smaller brethren that scuttle about below. To better showcase this species variety, here’s a brief rundown of some of the most notableHive Mindsto appear in the Dead Space games.
Aegis VII Hive
The first Hive Mind encountered in the series, this beast is encountered in the original Dead Space at the end of the game. It’s found within agiant cavernous pit at the center of the colonybeneath layers upon layers oforganic corruptioncomposed of the bodies of the site’s previous staff.
Utterly gigantic in scale,it’s the largest Necromorph encountered in the first game by Isaacand features as the final boss right at the end of the game. This towering behemoth is capable of deadly slams and sprays of corrosive bile in a wide burning arc. It was also only coaxed out after the Red Marker was removed from the pedestal, severing the creature’s connection to the Marker and enraging it into revealing itself.
The Ubermorph
Whilst not strictly a Hive Mind due toits lack of size and being more mobile,the Ubermorph that turns up in Chapter 13 of Dead Space 2 is arguably the proto-form of a Hive Mind. Stalking in slowly as a wave of smaller Necromorphs storm ahead of it after power is cut in the EarthGov Facility, it’s hinted that it does exert some small amount of control over its brethren.
Especially telling of its intelligence is how it seems to single Isaac out in what comes across as a personal vendetta whenever it appears in the back half of the game. It even resembles a Hive Mind creature with its similar glowing eye stalks and propensity to rapidly regenerate any damage. But whether this is a proto-form Hive Mind or just an experimental evolutionary offshoot, it still seems to wield some influence within the wider horde.
The Nexus
Awoken at the end of Dead Space 3, theNexusis a more parasitical variant of the Hive Mind caste. Instead of taking the form of an amorphous blob of limbs, flesh, and gaping teeth-filled maws, ituses the gigantic host body of the alien species on Tau Volantis, with some mutative modifications of course.
Giant pincers and insect mandibles dominate a crustacean-like appearance.Its only weak points are glowing sacs within a sealed chest cavity.It’s more than capable of swallowing both Isaac and Carver whole, and thankfully it’s the only active one on Tau Volantis, as all the others were frozen centuries ago by an alien devicebefore the planet succumbed to a Convergence Event.
