Hunter-Chopper

"But getting there, with that hunter-chopper on your ass, next to impossible."

- Rebel

Fast and powerful, the Combine Hunter-Chopper is a support aircraft used to provide heavy fire support for Combine forces and, as the name implies, is used for hunting down and destroying resistance fighters and other targets. Like the Combine APC, this vehicle is a conventional human design (resembling certain modern-day designs like Russian Mi-28 Havok or American RAH-66 Comanche), but reimagined by the Combine, using their technology. The most notable change is a large, jet engine-like turbine below the Hunter-Chopper's body, much like that of the Combine Gunship's.

The Hunter-Chopper is crewed by two Overwatch Soldiers, a pilot and a gunner.

Capabilities
The Hunter-Chopper is a fast and maneuverable aircraft armed with a powerful pulse turret which, while inaccurate, allows the chopper to attack and damage multiple targets at once. The pulse turret fires in approximately 3 second bursts, and requires the gun to charge up before firing, which can be heard and used as a warning signal.

The Hunter-Chopper can also drop spherical contact mines which detonate after a set timer or on contact with the target. The chopper is also seen firing guided rockets for more accurate and powerful strikes on stationary targets. Although these rockets are never used against the player, a Hunter-Chopper can be seen firing these rockets into a ventilation tunnel opening near the end of the "Black Mesa East" chapter.

Hunter-Choppers use the explosive mines as an offensive attack by dropping them directly in front of moving targets and on top of weak structures. The mines are also buoyant, making them quite effective against water-craft. Although it is unclear where or if they are stored in the vehicle, Hunter-Choppers seem to have a large supply of mines and they can be dropped either one at a time or very rapidly, effectively saturating an entire area.

The Hunter-Chopper is capable of releasing an enormous number of mines without having to resupply. Far more, it would seem, than a vehicle of its size would be capable of physically storing. One theory is that the mines are collapsible, and take up much less space in their 'folded-up' state, and that they inflate/assemble as they leave the vehicle. The theory that they're 'inflatable' is consistent with the mines' other characteristics. Namely, that they have a fairly small explosive charge for their size (which suggests the charge is around the rim of the mine, not in the center), and that they float. Both of these facts indicate they're hollow.

Employment
The Hunter-Choppers are most often seen in urban areas, including City 17. They are also seen patrolling City 17's Canals, and are used to search out and destroy refugees attempting to escape the city. On the coast, however, Hunter-Choppers are rare, where they have been supplanted by Gunships.

In Episode Two, Hunter-Choppers are seen in the forests outside of City 17. It is unknown whether they originally patrolled these areas or if they were called in from elsewhere after the Citadel's destruction.

Tactics
The Hunter-Chopper is a powerful and tough enemy to defeat. Keep firing at it. Pieces of the chopper will continue to break off until it crashes.

After being severely damaged, the Hunter-Chopper will attempt to kill its attacker by releasing its entire payload of mines as a last-ditch effort.

Behind the scenes
As the Combine were originally to recycle existing human technology, the Chopper was first to be a normal chopper from earth.

Trivia

 * Something never explained in the game is the fact that the pulse cannon on the airboat sounds, fires and charges up differently from the chopper's pulse cannon. Also, in the chapter Water Hazard, two manned pulse turrets are mounted in the windows of a control tower near a Civil Protection outpost. These weapons appear to be of the same type as the pulse turret on the chopper, but do not need to 'charge up' before firing. Gordon uses these to drive off a Hunter-Chopper. Oddly enough, the Civil Protection officers guarding that tower do not use these turrets, most likely because they cannot see Freeman down in the canals.
 * In order to destroy the Hunter-Chopper in Episode Two, the player must use its balloon mines via the Gravity Gun and punt them at the Chopper itself.
 * The Hunter-Chopper's main weapon has many names: pulse cannon, gauss cannon and pulse turret. An official name has never been given.
 * When the Hunter-Chopper's mines - even inactive ones underneath structures - are taken by the Gravity Gun, they beep much louder and flash. Closed Captions mark it as "Mine captured."
 * In Lost Coast, the Chopper acts like (and sounds like) a gunship, and has a gunship's capabilities, such as the ability to shoot down incoming rockets with the gunship-style pulse turret.
 * When attacking the Combine teleporter on top the Citadel, the Closed Captions mark it as Hunter-Chopper Damaged.