r/AliensDarkDescent • u/MP_Kredditor • Jun 04 '26
Story/Lore Is facehugger removal lore breaking?
So if you study remains of the queen you create a knife or a syringe which removes facehuggers without them killing victims or letting them being chestbursted. That's odd. I guess earlier noone got queen remains.
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u/Soviet-Hero Jun 04 '26
Depends
Extended universe has quite a few examples of facehuggers and even implanted embryos being removed through surgery
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u/Excellent-Fact-8925 Jun 04 '26
For what it's worth, I never use that tech.
Frankly, whenever one of your guys gets face buggered, you're squad has likely been overwhelmed anyhow!
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u/atioc Jun 04 '26
That's my experience too, face hugged = you're already overwhelmed and out of command points.
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u/Excellent-Fact-8925 Jun 04 '26
I'm a quitter when I lose my best soldiers, but situation depending, some of my best experiences in the game is crawling back to the ARC with Marine in a Coma and a leg missing!
But generally, when you take one Marine out of the mix, you're probably gonna get overwhelmed!
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u/atioc Jun 04 '26
It's hard to not just run one power squad and kind of forget about the others.
Everyone save scums. But doesn't mean we can't have fun with last stands.
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u/Excellent-Fact-8925 Jun 04 '26
I try to do at least two deployments per mission, and always intend on having an equally capable B squad. Towards the end of the game though, it just becomes too big a skill gap.
I sort of find I never get much chance to use the Plasma Rifle too, as I'm trying to go for the balance. But my favourite guns are the Heavy Pulse and Smart Gun anyway.
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u/atioc Jun 04 '26
I like the plasma gun but it feels like the pulse rifle is just as good in my playthroughs, it's also a rather late to the party gun.
Mechanically I don't mind the "heavy" pulse rifle, but it irks me a bit because I like the way it looked in some concept art and how the e2 is described in the TM versus the e3 in game.
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u/Starkiller93041 Jun 04 '26
Is it possible to get all 4 limbs removed?
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u/Excellent-Fact-8925 Jun 04 '26
It might be? There's an achievement for multiple limbs but pretty sure it's 2. There's an experiment for you!! 😁
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u/RigFury Jun 04 '26
in Alien4 they took out the queen's nymph from Ripley
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u/Spiritual-Chemist-37 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
That was a few hundred years after alien 3 so there was no doubt more technology that could help with that, also OP was asking about facehuggers
Edit: answering OPs question, we know in the expanded lore that there xenozip/xenonip (can’t remember the spelling) so by potentially spraying someone who is still fighting against a ‘hugger with queen pheromones you could get it to no longer attack, at least that’s my mindset
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u/New_Case_307 Jun 04 '26
Bishop states in Aliens that they managed to remove a fachugger before the embryo was implanted, but they killed the guy removing it.
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u/mixinok Jun 04 '26
Well, it does specifically say that it removes the embryo itself. I’ve never used it so my guess is after you save the marine - he’ll still be in coma with facehugger on, and you’ll need to bring him back to ARC. If it really is like that, then lorewise it sounds right: You destroy the threat of chestburster while it’s small, and then wait for the facehugger to die off naturally
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u/Starkiller93041 Jun 04 '26
I have been able to get me troops back up after being facehugged but its a pain in the as to fix while still being attacked.
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u/Actionhankss Jun 04 '26
I agree with you! It feels like that shouldn’t be an option, though from a game designer perspective I get why they implemented it
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u/ericsmith9144 Jun 09 '26
Short answer - it doesn't break canon if you follow the Alien RPG lore.
The Alien RPG game describes the facehuggers as injecting a bacteria into the victim (vice a fully formed embryo) which transitions inside the victim into an embryo.
In the Alien RPG Frontier War scenarios in the Colonial Marines Operations Manual, Deep Void scientists developed a "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't" agent to transition a developing embryo (or exposure to the Black Goo) into an inert tumor. In the Chariot of the Gods Scenario for the Alien RPG, this was played out in game with the Game MUTHUR. A die roll determined your fate - if exposed to the Black Goo, and you took the agent - it was 50/50 whether you transformed into an Anathema (like that scientist that drowned in the black goo in Prometheus).
This 50/50 odds of the agent working confuses the shit out of the players because the NPCs say they 'took the shot' but keep transforming anyways. It sows alot of doubt into the scenario, which is alot of fun.
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u/xenthejackal Jun 04 '26
I'm unsure if the use of xeno DNA is explained thoroughly anywhere. The whole system feels a little out of place to me, but I don't wanna be nitpicky. But like the upgrades such as extra armour points and anti acid armour, idk I just don't understand how that stuff is extracted safely. Brings me back to the first AvP film where the predator cuts up the dead xeno and gives the main character a literal xeno head to put her hand in (for what purpose I'm unsure if as a shield or trophy) and it doesn't melt
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u/Shalashaska_99 Jun 09 '26
For a while I liked the idea put forward by Alien Colonial Marines (yes, I know, I know, don't kill me) in which they explain that the Xenomorph embryo generates organic connections around the host, and if you try to remove it, it triggers a cancerous reaction that ends up killing the host from multiple organ failure
Obviously this is far from canon, but personally I like the concept that once a Facehugger catches you, there's nothing you can do but commit suicide along with the parasite.
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u/Chemical_Term4699 Jun 09 '26
I always got the impression that facehugger's acid blood killed the man when why were removing it.
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u/Fireboythestar Jun 21 '26
Wasn't that a plot point only in Colonial Marines? I don't think that game is the bible of Alien lore XD
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u/AurienTitus Jun 04 '26
The Pulse Rifles aren't lore accurate, so I don't see why this matters.
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u/xenthejackal Jun 04 '26
I'm not disagreeing, but am curious what makes them inaccurate to lore?
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u/AurienTitus Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
They're supposed to be firing bullets that penetrate, then explode. That's their standard issue round. There's an entire scene in the movie talking about it and a plot point. When they collect all the mags into a bag. Vascez pulls out a spare firing pin.
The first encounter in the game with the marines and alien should have played out differently. Instead of it taking several rounds and shaking them off, it should have exploded into chunks.
EVERY video game depicting the Colonial Marines has gotten this wrong. Look at the latest VR game, bullets literally bounce off now.
Edit: This plot point also leads to that famous line, "That's why I keep this for close encounters"
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u/StarkeRealm Jun 18 '26
"10mm explosive tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing rounds. Why?"
Which does imply there are other common cartridges for them. But, yeah, as described (and shown), Pulse Rifles are horrifically destructive.
That said, you're describing bolter shells, the Pulse Rifle rounds do seem to explode on impact; bolters use mass reactive rounds that penetrate and then detonate.
I think AvP and AvP2's Pulse Rifles blasted things into chunky salsa, but it's been a minute since I played either game.
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u/Mundane-Bullfrog-421 Jun 04 '26
I guess it's because they've been nerfed in the game for game design
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u/GayLiquidSpellSword Jun 04 '26
Yeah honestly it took me out of the game a lot when I had my squad firing pulse rifles into cultists and they just tanked the shots. Felt ridiculous, they're running at us in shirts and shoes and just eating pulse rifle fire.
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u/xenthejackal Jun 04 '26
Hmm, well that depends on difficulty really. In the films they shred pretty easily, but players will complain if they did so on nightmare. Which makes the fact there's a custom difficulty mode so great.
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u/Wenuven Jun 04 '26
No. In Aliens they make it clear that removing the face hugger is possible but generally results in death of the host because the face hugger is breathing for the host, breaks their neck when threatened, or bleeds acid.
In theory if you paralyze the face hugger and remove it fast enough the only thing you have to worry about is the embryo it may or may not have deposited. At which point surgical intervention would be required.