Strider



First Seen: Half-Life 2, Chapter One - Point Insertion
 * Health total: 5 (Easy) 7 (Normal) 9 (Hard) RPG hits. Grenade/Pulse Rifle orb hits do half the damage of RPG hits. Generator orb hits in the Citadel do about twice.
 * Weapon damage: Pulse Turret (5), Warp Cannon (instant death, or massive splash damage if indirectly hit), leg impalement (instant death)
 * Entity:

Consisting of a beetle-like carapace and three jointed legs, Striders are the terrestrial equivalent of a Gunship. Nose-mounted is a powerful pulse turret. On the belly is a warp cannon that causes scenic destruction and inflicts massive splash damage vaporizing anything in close proximity. Prior to the cannon's discharge, a thin blue laser indicates where the cannon is aimed with the surrounding space around the cannon's barrel distorting enveloped by a blue aura, followed by an audible shrill report. Their legs are tipped with sharp spikes, which impale targets and clear debris. Striders have compound eyes, two on each side of the pulse turret.

Individual striders are used to patrol off-limit city streets and provide combat support for groups of soldiers. However, in full-scale military combat, striders are used in a role similar to manhacks on a city-wide scale, destroying possible shelters and flooding an area as a means of removing all enemies. Because of their greater effectiveness and value, they are used mostly in a defensive role. Striders fit this task well due to their destructive ability and remarkable maneuverability on even the harshest terrain. A strider will destroy an entire building in order to strike a handful of targets inside. Their long legs can climb over any resulting debris or any barriers several meters high. They can crawl through small tunnels "digging" through barriers using their warp cannon.

Striders tend to follow specific patrol routes when tasked with defending a limited area, making them 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. Striders also work with Combine dropships, folding their legs into a compact shape that allows them to be transported. In Half-Life 2: Episode One, a citizen remarks: "I hear they put babies in those Striders," although this is very unlikely as the Combine's suppression field has been in effect for many years by that point. The newest trailer for Episode Two demonstrates that the striders can be defeated with a small device (dubbed the "strider buster") that sticks to the strider and drains its power supply, allowing the strider to be destroyed with non-explosive weapons.

Striders can only be damaged by explosives, though by throwing a grenade straight into the air, it will detonate at a height which is roughly equal to the height of a strider's "head", allowing them to do damage.

As a side note, striders closely resemble the "tripods" described in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. In addition, a smaller variant of striders, dubbed "Hunters" (referred to as "ministriders" in the game's files), have appeared in Half-Life 2: Episode One.