Dead Space-verse Strategy Guide

 

How to be OP in the Dead Space-verse.

Local Scale Threats:

In the distant future of the 2500s, humanity has exhausted the resources of Earth and begun to mine and strip planets and stars as far as they can for resources for the ever growing need of the expanding human population. Human desperation for more and more resources, combined with human expansion and depletion of resources has led humans down a darker path societally and the finding of a strange unknown device known as the "Marker", a seeming source of infinite energy was too good to pass up. Unfortunately the markers had...other effects on people.

So the first thing to consider about Dead Space at this tier isn't even the Necromorphs; it's the verses highly advanced technology. Dead Space-verse humanity has progressed past a type 2 civilization. Weapons in use hundreds of years ago could cleanly tear off the limbs of people or destroy them entirely, where are generally wall level feats in the kilojoule range. Modern Era plasma and energy weapons get well within the megajoule to low building level. Twitchers, Necromorphs locked into stasis mode are bullet-timers around speed of sound with most powerful characters in the verse being able to react to them and move close enough to them. As such the stat limit is supersonic low building level.

However Dead Space technology includes many more versatile techs. The discovery of the graviton made the manipulation of gravity as easy as manipulation of electricity, even weaponized. Stasis allows for slowing an object down in time and Kinesis allows for telekinetic manipulation of objects. Medigel can prove fast healing to people and conversely sterilization gases can in seconds eat through any biological matter it's exposed too. The verse has shield technology and scanners so advanced they can detect things in other star systems. There exists also technology to affect one's mind, causing hallucinations.

However the verse's big threat are the Necromorphs, the reanimated corpses of humanity caused by the Markers. Necromorphs are a mass of undead cells infected by Necromorph Bacteria that resemble highly warped versions of humans and are most well known for their inhuman endurance. You can knock off the limbs of a Necromorph and most the time they will continue to move. They need no oxygen or food. Mostly simplistic in thought they do demonstrate rudimentary hunting tactics, playing dead, or surprise ambush.

There are many varies of Necromorphs from the blade-handed slashes to the large heavy brutes. Wheezers convert oxygen into a poisonous gas and Fliers....well fly. Exploders self-detonate, and Stalkers are known for their stealthy approach. Infectors can infect entities to turn them into Necromorphs and there are numerous ranged attacks, most notably the acid attacks of Spitters and Pukers. The Twitchers are Necromorphs locked into Stasis mode which can move at relative superspeed and the Creeper dissolves and absorbs biological material it comes into contact with. More then endurance, Regenerators regenerate their limbs and can only die from being burned. There are enhanced versions of all of these, with incredibly strong Necromorphs like the Hunter and the Ubermorph having power like the Brutes, stealth like the Stalkers, and the same regeneration as Regenerators. There are more types but these are probably the most important.

And probably the biggest threat in this tier; the Markers themselves. Alien Objects that convert all nearby dead tissue into necromorph tissue. The Markers are the source of Necromorphs. The Markers also mess with the minds of living entities, making then go mad, turn violent, see hallucinations of dead people and so on. This may sound like a decently strong passive ability but the real kicker is the range. The Marker's psychic range extends to the point of affecting people on a spaceship in orbit around a planet the Marker was on. It requires a strong will to resist.

So how can you actually fight this verse? Before we get into weaknesses I wanna say one type of character that absolutely can not be used and that is the undead. Any character whose tissue is already dead will have their tissue turned into Necromorph tissue which is the opposite of winning. Being undead is sort of an anti-counter to the verse.

In fact genenerally not being made of biological matter offers benefits. It avoids potential for Necromorph infectation, it prevents biological weapons of DS-verse humans from affecting the counter. This leads me to what I think is a good idea in general for counters, that being: Robots. The DS-verse doesn't seem to possess AI but a good robot would be really strong in the verse. Robots generally have a better resistance to acid, can often avoid mind hax via not having a biological brain and can avoid or manuever the environmental puzzles better then a silly human can. Things like zero gravity, heavy radiation, very low temperatures to the point of freezing, fast moving machine areas, corridors of biological corruption, rooms of the poisonous gas of Wheezers; none of these would faze a solid robot build.

Necromorphs also have their infamous weakness; dismemberment. Removing certain limbs from a Necromorph can finally disable them. Which ones depends on the Necromorph which makes it difficult for most counters to effectively utilize the weakness, as they need both a way of figuring out where their weakness is and the precision and calmness to hit the right limbs when under the pressure of a Necromorph swarm. This is why I suggest robots vs other inorganic entities as most superpowered robots in fiction have things like scanners and cybernetic precision along with a lack of fear in high pressure situations. That said a sufficiently high skill or intelligence build would probably also be effective here as most of the necromorphs lack advanced thought. 

With that said, who would be a good counter? Well the first idea you could do is

Cutie Honey from Cutie Honey.

Cutie Honey's power is said to greater then any human weapon including anti-tank missiles which would be put her in this range, and is consistent with her turning into a mech of low building size. She is also a bullet-timer, which means she should be fairly comparable to a powerful Necromorph. 

Cutie Honey is an advanced android who is skilled enough to fight 10 relative Panther Claw agents at once. She also commonly uses dismemberment as a method, which means she should be easily be able to slice off the limbs of any attacking Necromorphs. Her brain can link up to satelites to scan for information which especially in the Dead Space-verse where scanners can scan for information as far away as other star systems, she should be able to gain information about any type of Necromorph she comes across.

However that doesn't even bring in her greatest weapon; the I-System, a system that can alter air molecules to create anything from thin air. Against Slashers or Lurkers she can summon her signature boomerang to slice off their limbs from outside their range. Against Regenerators she can summon bombs or a flamethrower to destroy them. However the power of the I-System extends beyond even this. Cutie Honey can decompose toxins and restore dead molecules into living ones, shown even bringing plants back to life. The Necromorph Bacteria can only infect dead molecules, so having infected molecules turn to life will cause the necromorphs bodies to dissolve into stray molecules again.

The only possible weaknesses I can see for Honey is that she still has a human heart, and it's possible that the Markers would emotionally torment her by showing her images of Dr. Kisaragi, her father and that the I-System requires massive amounts of food to power and keep energized which may be more difficult to come by. For a counter that is less prone to have difficulty with these, you could use

Undyne from Undertale.

Undyne easily withstood an explosion that destroyed much of her house, which is a low building feat. She also ran there from a distant area quickly, a feat calced around mach 2, consistent with being signifigantly a version of Frisk who dodged literal barks from a dog. Undyne would be quick and strong for the tier. 

Undyne is a monster, a being made of magic, not a biological entity and as such could not be infected by Necromorph bacteria. The Marker's form of mind hax and insanity inducement can be defeated by a strong enough Will, and Undyne's DETERMINATION is one of the strongest in UT, able to restore herself even after her own death. Even if it showed her visions of those she loved who died, canonically as of the Genocide Route, this only increases Undyne's determination as was seen when thoughts of Papyrus made her more determined. The Necromorphs are the scourge of a humanity that has spiritually been decayed but the Determination of a true hero will not break.

Undyne is the highly skilled Captain of the Guard who can summon astral spears from the ground which would skewer any approaching Necromorph with vastly better area control then they have shown, hitting any weak points on them accidentally. She can use her green magic to force her enemy to try to block her attacks before attacking on the metafictional plane. The Necromorphs, space zombies without any sense of self-preservation would have 0 ability to block and would be torn to shreds. But what about regenerators? Well it's actually implied that Undyne has learned fire magic, to burn them.

However she may not even need that. Undertale Monsters attack the souls of their targets. Necromorphs are not seperate entities. They are reanimated bodies controlled by a Hive Mind, meaning all Necromorphs in an area likely share one soul. If Undyne was in Isaac's place in DS1, she would see the soul of the first Slasher, stab it with her astral spear, and possibly end all Necromorphs on the Ishimura clearing the first game in seconds.

The only thing that really makes me worry is monsters take damage depending on their enemies lethal intent. This means if an attack gets through and she doesn't block it, which isn't super likely given her ability to block, but if it does, she'll probably die. For a counter that would be even better.

R2-D2 from Star Wars.

R2-D2 is a small droid from Star Wars that gets all the advantages of being a robot. He has moved fast enough to make numerous afterimages meaning he would be at the speed of Necromorphs outside of the Twitchers, though absolutely would not be able to be blitzed by them given his ability to casually pilot Starships moving millions of times the speed of light and process information in tiny amounts of time. R2-D2 also survives a starship explosion that should make him comparable in raw durability. 

In personal combat, R2-D2 has a taser whose electricity could phase magna guards, vastly stronger then any Necromorph and whose electrical charge would likely course through a necro's body to any weak points. He also stores a lightsaber within him which could easily slice off any limbs he needs too. And he would easily be able to do this as most necromorphs would be unable to recognize him as an enemy due to his small size, lack of humanoid shape, and lack of any vital signs. In contrast, R2-D2's life scanners would allow him to detect the presence of any Necromorphs and the species of their bodies, allowing him to likely tell any weak points. R2-D2 is also a surprisingly skilled droid, defeating combat droids by himself. R2-D2 actually has limited flight capabity to navigate Zero-G areas and he can use the same rocket boosters to roast and fully kill Regenerators.

However none of this is R2-D2's greatest strength. The reason Isaac Clarke could defeat the Necromorphs' when no one else could wasn't because of his combat ability. He was not soldier. He was an engineer, an amazing engineer. Isaac manipulated the advanced tech of his verse to defeat the Necromorphs. R2-D2 has insane technological manipulation feats. He was easily able to, for instance, control technology that far newer astrotechs thought was impossible to control. Bear in mind the Star Wars Universe is a Type 3 civilization with tech far more advanced then the Dead Space-verse. R2-D2 would be able to easily hack into the tech of the Ishmura, vent the Necromophs into space outside the big ones and then use the cannons of it on the big ones like Isaac did the slug from the first computer of the ship.

Regional to Planetary Scale Threat:

Here we have the boss necromorphs and our hero Isaac himself. The Boss Necromorphs are what are created from massive accumulation of Necromorph tissue, often skyscraper sized tendrils of necromorph flesh that tend to grow tendrils to grab and melee and shoot large blobs of acid to destroy organic material against them. Most worrying of them are the Hive Minds, the central Necromorph minds that can command the smaller ones. 

For the most part the Necromorph abilities don't really change here, particularly because Hive Minds can create the previous types of Necromorphs. All that really changes is that the stat range grows to supersonic large building level.

What DOES change is counter strategies. Intelligence builds are not as helpful due to the advanced abstract alien intellects of Hive Minds. Dismemberment isn't helpful against enemies that don't have limbs. Traditional combat skill also isn't super helpful here.

What is helpful here is a related skill. Boss Necromorphs do have their own weak points, these little yellow sacks on their body. This combined with their lack of range for their sizes suggests that a good counter would be a sniper strategy. High range and accuracy could kill the Boss Necromorphs before they could effectively counter. This brings me to my first counter

The T-800 from Terminator. 

The T-800 survived an explosion calced at 8.5 tons of TNT, putting him at high end of Large Building Level. He also has supersonic reactions, able to catch a bullet with his teeth.

The Hive Mind Necromorph may have the collective information of the matter it has absorbed, but T-800 has access to all the collective data uploaded by humanity, giving him an intelligence and skill beyond even the Necromorph Hive Mind. His cyborg nature also makes him immune to most Necromoprh tactics from infectation, acid (he has shown explict acid resistance) or marker control. 

He also has a massive advantage in range, senses and accuracy. The T-800's sensory range with his various types of scanners can extend miles away, which would allow him to snipe the weak points of a Boss Necromorph from well outside it's attack range. This isn't even taking into account his ability to utilize the technology of the verse.

The only real threat here would actually not be the Necromorphs, but Isaac himself. Isaac's technical knowledge and more esoteric abilities like time slow might be able to beat the T-800 if he gets him into close enough range, though the T-800 does still have the stealth and range advantage. For a counter that could fight Isaac better you could use

Coco and Lolo from Magical Girls of the End

The Zombie Magical Girls each scale above 6 tons of tnt and are comparable in speed to Living Dead M who can block multiple bullets at once.

The Two Girls' necromancy is the ability to control the dead, animating them under the control. As all Necromorphs are dead material, it's likely Coco and Lolo could control them. Regardless they both have their unique powers, repel and attract, giving them together the same telekinetic power of Isaac's Telekinesis. 

They can also regenerate so long as their wands aren't destroyed, something none of the verse would have know to try as it's such an outside context fight. Against the tier, the two could command the Necromorphs to fight against Isaac while telekinetically ripping him in half using their powers. Biggest point for them though is their range, a speciality of the verse. The two can hit buildings very far away, well father then any of the Boss Necromorphs have ever shown. 

The only weakness they have is that they probably could be controlled by the Marker, lacking much of a strong will. For a character that can fight the verse on their own terms you could use

The Thing from John Carpenter's The Thing.

In canonical comics that are sequels to the film, The Thing demonstrated the ability to turn into a giant form that dwarfed trees and was able to turn into a fish able to swim from South America to Australia in a relatively brief time, requiring supersonic speeds. As such, with enough assimilated matter, the Thing should be able to have similar stats of a Hive Mind.

The Thing and a Necromorph Hive Mind would actually be fairly similar, both able to quickly regenerate or shift their biomatter into weapons as they will. However the Thing would have two major advantages. The Thing's cells are each living and will act to protect themselves and assimilate any biological matter it comes into contact with while Necromorph Bacteria can only infect dead cells. This means that The Thing could infect and assimilate Necromorphs but the same could not happen in reverse, as the Thing is a living organism.

The other weakness is even more damning, The Thing could use Isaac's own form of tactics. The Thing is actually very technologically accomplished, able to turn human scrap into a flying saucer quickly. It can use not just biological but also technological means to fight the verse. The Thing is basically a Hive Mind but with Isaac's ability to use technology. It can even turn human form for stealth purposes, something the Hive Mind certainly wouldn't, to catch Isaac off guard.

The Thing basically has every weapon of the tier at it's disposal. In the comic, it even displayed minor psionic abilities and has the accumualted mind and will of each person it has assimilated it probably has the willpower to resist the Marker. 

Galactic Scale Threat:

The harvesting of all life for biomass in the form of the necromorphs is an endless cycle in the galaxy created by the Brethren Moons.

The Breathren Moons are moon-sized Necromorphs who created the Markers as bait for the little vermin species of the galaxy so they could accumulate their mass and add it to their own. They are fast enough to quickly travel the galaxy and can seemingly move at the same speeds as Dead Space starships, speeds of likely millions of times the speed of light.

In terms of abilities, they have galactic scale telepathy with which they use to communicate, they can absorb biological matter and have advanced minds of countless galactic cycles. They were also the creators of the Markers and the ones who gave them their abilities, suggesting they may have similar psionic abilities along with their telepathy.

They don't have many abilities but already MFTL+ Planetoid level entities with galactic telepathy, possibly mind manipulation and biological assimilation is tough threat. So what are the weaknesses?

The first weakness is their arrogance which can be combined with their size. The Brethren Moon are used to casually eating all biomass and would not fear another small vermin. The other weakness they have is the natural superadvanced technology of the verse, strong enought to affect the Brethren Moons. The Plot of Dead Space 3, involves Isaac using the Tau Volantis Aliens, an ancient race that frozen themselves on a planetary scale along with a Brethren Moon to give the next species in the galactic scale a way of defeating them. The verse has technology that can mine off whole continents from a planet, and can crack open a planet, and over the course of DS 3, Isaac using the verse's technology to perform the unprecedent feat of killing a Brethren Moon. As one was beat by freezing it with tech, putting it into a sleep, I think that Freezing, Sleep Manipulation or Technopathy are all legit ways to defeat the Brethren Moons.

So who would be a good counter? Well my first thought would be

Cirno from Touhou

Cirno scales to Moon Rabbits who regularly travel interstellar distances meaning she should be at least comparable in speed. While her power is a lot less, it really doesn't matter.

Cirno is a Fairy associated with Cold meaning she can regenerate so long as cold exists making her functionally immortal to the verse. She has freezing capabilities, and could likely danmaku her way into a Brethern Moon, freezing it's core putting it into a state of dormancy for a cosmic cycle. 

But what about Marker control? Well Cirno scales in resistance to the True Moon which can control all humanity, a mind hax feat equal to the power of the Markers. Cirno could very likely resist the control of the Markers.

However what makes her an especially good pick is the Brethren Moons would greatly underestimate her. She looks non-threatening and she is weak compared to most of Gensokyo (though strong for a Fairy), so if the Brethren Moons tried to telepathically or by intelligence figure out her threat level, they would be think she is a weak entity and she could surprise freeze them. That said it would take her quite a while given her lack of area of effect compared to a Moon and they may be able to figure out a tactic. For a counter that could win quicker, you could use

SA-X from Metroid.

SA-X is a X-Virus fused with Samus' prior suit gaining her old abilities. This includes the ability to keep up with Gorea who quickly destroyed a galactic civilization and is far stronger then Aether Metroids who survived a portion of the energy of a planet level impact. This means while weaker, SA-X shouldn't be massively inferior to the Brethren Moons and equal in speed.

SA-X has the abilities of both the Varia Suit and the X-Parasite. The X-Parasite is the ultimate absorber, able to absorb and control biological matter and technology alike. They could beat the Brethren Moons at their own game, absorbing their biological matter as X spreads much faster then Necromorph Bacteria (X-Parasite also revives and keeps alive organic matter, so it can't be infected regardless) and use the native technology against the Brethern Moons in ways Isaac could only dream off.

SA-X also has access to the Varia Suit's including numerous sensors that can tell it information about the Brethren Moon and ice-based weapons that could freeze the Brethren Moons, including large stretches of them at once. It''s power bombs could also likely one-shot them as they can actually destroy planets themselves. 

SA-X can infect Moon and advanced starship alike to spread at a massive rate, freezing the moons before absorbing the rest or blowing them up with more advanced bombs or turning the verse's planet cracking tech on them.

That said, it is still weaker then them in raw power, and could possibly be defeated by a combined assault, unlikely though that is. For the best counter, I would suggest

The Great Leviathan from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime.

The Great Leviathan was powerful enough to create a global storm calced at moon level and was relative to the Egyptian Gods who could fight Zorc who could create an eclipse, a planet level event. In speed, the Great Leviathan scales to regular duel spirits from the end of the universe giving it MFTL+ speeds. It would be able to match the Moons in stats. 

The Great Leviathan can absorb energy, even the energy of the Gods, rising to their power level, a power beyond the Brethren Moons. More unconventionally it created the power of the Oricalchos which can steal souls, something nobody in the verse is resistant too.

More specifically the Leviathan can bind others using their sins. Leviathan is born of the rage and hatred of the verse. The Arrogance and lack of empathy of the Brethern Moons means they could not kill the Leviathan for it would feed on their sins. Leviathan could only be beaten by Yugi converting the darkness of humanity into light; finding redemption by convering the weakness of their sins into the strength of virtue. In the spiritually deprived verse of the Dead Space, a verse where humanity has fallen into corruption and the Brethren Moons, the rules of the verse, are ruled by arrogance and vice, the Leviathan would be in it's perfected form and totally invulnerable. 

And that's how to be OP in Dead Space-verse.