Snark

The Snark, also known as the Squeak Grenade, is a small, red and bulbous creature, with a large (in relation to body proportion) single green eye and a pincer-like mandible. Snarks are normally calm creatures that show little signs of intelligence; however, if they see any living creature other than another Snark, they immediately begin to attack it.

Overview
Snarks seem to colonize in the form of an egg sac and only emerge to attack. They attack aggressively, persistently, and erratically, leaping and biting at their target. After attacking for about twenty seconds, a snark will explode in a spray of acid. Despite their size, they are very dangerous, doing as much as 10 damage with each quick bite, easily draining health as a player can normally only take 100 damage. At each bite they release a squeak, which becomes progressively higher in pitch as the time they have left to live shortens. At the end of their 20 seconds, they release a last squeak before exploding.

Application


Gordon Freeman can obtain an egg sac containing 5 Snarks which can be used as weapons. Snarks have an unlimited lifespan while held and still show an aggressive nature (as two comical idle animations show: one with the Snark struggling to get free and the other with it snapping at Gordon as he teases it with his finger). Once thrown, the Snark's twenty-second life span begins. If there is nothing for the Snark to attack, they will return to attack Gordon (a good reason why the player should be on higher ground than the target when they are thrown).

Each Snark is relatively fragile, therefore a single swing of the crowbar can kill one easily. However, when attacked by Snarks, most players will begin to spray wildly with whatever weapon they have at the moment. Given time and experience with Snarks, players begin to develop their own strategies of dealing with them, including running backwards and constantly swinging the crowbar to stop any attacks, using the shotgun to kill large groups at a time, or even using explosives such as the MP5/M4 grenade launcher. In multiplayer deathmatch games, Snarks provide a useful way of distracting other players (particularly multiple players), facilitating escape or a means of a more leisurely kill. It is not at all uncommon for a player to be seen running through the map chased by a pack of Snarks.

Snarks can also be used as organic grenades, given their explosive death. When thrown with the primary fire button, they'll run across the ground in a straight line, bouncing off walls (like the Tau Cannon). When the player releases the Snark, it starts off with a straight line and will bite anything in its path (only once for inanimate objects and some Xen aliens such as Xen grunts and Vortigaunts). It will generally seek out human enemies (of which include Headcrab Zombies) and then repeatedly jump on them and bite them. There is no secondary attack option. The player can carry up to 15 Snarks at a time, and can release them all at once to cause a tremendous amount of chaos. A word of warning - Snarks will not attack most Xen aliens, and if a Snark does not sense a nearby human target they will turn on whoever released them. Snarks will however, attack Race-X aliens. This should be kept in mind when facing them.

Snarks only have 2 health points so any weapon can kill them in a single shot; this is easier said than done though as they run and jump with great speed. Furthermore, Snarks always die in small acidic explosions, therefore it is preferable to kill them when they are still distant. The acidic burst is less damaging than a bite though, so it is worth taking some damage in order to end their attack.

Xen forces have learned to use snarks to their advantage. In the chapter "Forget About Freeman", there are Snark Mines that hang in the air with the use of webbing which, when shot or tripped, the lasers on it will release snarks to attack the player and slows down the player's progress, acting like biological tripmines.

Trivia

 * The sack was probably supposed to walk, as the model file has animations called "walk", which are the sack walking with its "legs".
 * The HD sack model seems to have piece of ribcage attached into the sack, perhaps providing a food source for the snarks inside, as blood is seen in it.
 * In Opposing Force, there's a model for snark which have Adrian Shephard's arms, but instead of a Snark, there's a penguin. The penguin acts similarly to the Snark, as it has same animations, same sounds, but instead of bursting, it has a grenade attached to its back which detonates after 20 seconds. This model is inclued in Opposing Force CTF, where the penguin nest looks like a snowman carrying a sign where it is written "beware the penguins". Each nest contains 3 penguins, and the maximum that can be carried py the player is 9 penguins. This weapon can still be obtained in the regular single-player game, by typing: give weapon_penguin, but not by typing impulse 101.

thumb|300px|left|An example of the Penguin Weapon

Behind the scenes
A use similar to that of the Snark was to appear in Half-Life 2, but instead of a Snark, the player could use the Brickbat to throw Headcrabs.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar