Flood ranged form

File:ExtraGalactic.jpg

The Ranged Form

The Flood Ranged Form is a type of Flood from Halo 3. It is formed when a Flood Stalker Form is damaged or chooses to mount itself in a stationary position either on the walls or on the ground. It has a mouth-like protrusion that opens up to reveal a living missile platform of regenerating spikes that they relentlessly pelt the player with whenever exiting cover. They also exhibit a behavior unlike any other in the Flood arsenal- when firing upon these forms they will curl up and seemingly 'die', only to return seconds later to continue raining spikes down on you. To fully disable them the player must continue firing at them while they are playing dead until they drop off the wall they are normally attached to (it is far less common to see a Ranged Form on the ground). They can be compared directly with Carbine-carrying Sniper Jackals earlier in the game in regards to range, damage, accuracy and relative annoyance.

Killing Ranged Forms

Ranged Forms are nearly omniscient of the battlefield and thus are extremely difficult to dispatch without first exposing yourself to fire. The only way to attack them without exposing yourself is to throw down a portable cover and shoot through it. Your first goal should be to close the distance as normally you can only tell which direction they are firing from- they blend in quite well in the dark places they inhabit and are hard to see. When you are within sighting range, any weapon with any sort of range to it will do- the Plasma Rifle and the Brute Spiker used in short bursts seem to do just as well as more accurate weapons like The Carbine and the Battle Rifle, and are more common on a Flood infested battlefield so they may be your only choice. The Ranged Form is an anomaly in the mostly mêlée-based Flood combat and are normally hard to kill due to the simple fact that you do not normally have the ranged weapons required to take one out. In this case, well-placed Plasma and Spike Grenades work well, and so does a Firebomb, which requires much less accuracy as it explodes on impact next to the enemy. Ultimately, if you get within mêlée distance of a Ranged Form they are just as easily destroyed as any other combat form with weapons like the Mauler, Shotgun, Gravity Hammer, Energy Sword or a mêlée attack with any weapon.

The brute shot is a good choice for these forms as one or two grenades will, while not killing them out right, knock them off the wall they tend to be stuck to allowing you to get close enough to kill them effectively. The brute shot's higher than normal mêlée attack damage should kill them in one hit after knocking them off.

Like many Flood forms, Ranged Forms possess a small cluster of sensory appendages emitting from the "mouth". These are located at the base of the main body, below the rows of projectile spines. One of the simplest ways to dispatch a Ranged Form is to target this sensory cluster while it is in a dormant ("dead") state. While Ranged Forms can absorb impressive volumes of damage while dormant, a few well-placed shots to the "mouth" will kill them.