Strider

"Oh my God... Striders really tore the hell out of this place..."

- Alyx Vance

The Strider is a tripodal Combine Synth first seen in Half-Life 2 and a successor to the Combine Super Soldier.

Overview
Consisting of a beetle-like carapace and three jointed legs, aesthetically similar to the "Tripods" from the movie "War of the Worlds" Striders serve as the Combine's main heavy ground assault unit in Half-Life 2. The three long legs of the Strider are tipped with sharp spikes for impaling targets and clearing debris. While walking about or attacking, Striders produce a host of different, electronic sounding vocalizations, such as growls, groans, whoops, and howls - when killed, they give a mournful cry. In addition, Striders will leak a yellowy substance when damaged and apparently contain a biological cerebral unit that looks very much like a human brain, providing evidence to their being a fusion of living flesh and machine.

Application


Individual Striders are often used to patrol off-limits city streets and provide heavy support for groups of soldiers. However, in full-scale military combat, striders are used instead as heavy artillery to destroy all structures in an area as a means of removing all entrenched hostile forces. Striders fit both roles well due to their various weapons and remarkable (considering they are tripods, and extremely large) maneuverability on even the harshest terrain. Despite their height, Striders can crawl through tunnels to chase enemy combatants and "dig" through underground obstacles using their warp cannon.

In wilderness areas, Striders are often accompanied by Hunters which act as escorts to destroy smaller targets. During the Combine offensive against White Forest, Striders are used to destroy the outer buildings surrounding the Resistance base, including the Magnusson Device teleporters.

Striders may also be transported to and from combat zones by dropships. When being transported they will fold their legs into a compact shape that allows them to be transported.

Weaponry
Besides impaling targets with their long legs, Striders are also armed with two ranged weapons. The first is an anti-personnel pulse turret mounted between a pair of compound eyes on the front of the Strider's carapace. The second (and by far more powerful) weapon is a "singularity cannon" mounted on the Strider's belly. This cannon not only causes scenic destruction but also inflicts massive splash damage that will vaporize anything in proximity to the area of impact. Prior to the warp cannon's discharge, a thin blue laser indicates where the Strider is aiming and the air surrounding the cannon's barrel will be distorted by a blue aura.

Tactics

 * Striders tend to follow specific patrol routes when tasked with defending a certain area, making them fairly easy to avoid, so long as shield scanners are not being used. When shield scanners do accompany a strider, they function as spotters for it, searching inside buildings and other places of concealment for targets the strider would otherwise be unable to see. Some traits are similar to the Guardian from Doom 3 after the Battle of the Nexus but that is the only time where they use this symbiont behavior with the shield scanners.


 * The RPG is by far the most efficient weapon for killing Striders, as its rockets do the most damage, though it takes more than 5 rockets just to kill one. Hand grenades, SMG grenades, and energy orbs do about half the damage of a rocket. Unlike Gunships, Striders tend to ignore all projectiles launched at them, focusing on attacking the player instead.


 * To destroy a Strider during the Battle of White Forest, pick up a Magnusson Device with the Gravity Gun, launch it at the Strider's main body, and then set the Device off by hitting it with any gun. Do not attempt doing this until all nearby Hunters are destroyed, as they will fire upon a Device as soon as they see it.

Behind the scenes

 * Its attitude was intended to be a combination of a giraffe with a gorilla.
 * It was originally white, like the Combine Super Soldier, the Combine Assassin or the Overwatch Elite.
 * Early concepts depict the Strider with a different head, consisting in a simple cannon.
 * It was originally to be met in the Coast levels, at least at the Air Exchange.

Trivia

 * The only way to spawn a Strider via the console is to activate "noclip", go up to at least the Striders height, and typing into the console "give npc_strider". It will not use its warp cannon and will only walk if its target moves out of its line of sight and the map has the necessary node structure.
 * Striders closely resemble the "tripods" described in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, especially the "Gravity-Warping Cannon", which is much similar to the Heat-Ray from the aformentioned novel
 * Striders are the only Synths known to possess any "organ" at all. This is shown in Episode Two when Dog attacks a strider and tears its brain out.
 * The accuracy and rate of fire of the Strider's pulse turret was increased in Episode One.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two