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- "Can you imagine what the next stage of mutation looks like?"
- ―Black Mesa scientist[src]
The Gonome is an advanced form of the Standard Headcrab Zombie. They only appear in Half-Life: Opposing Force.
Overview
While the precise reasons for the secondary mutation remains unknown, it appears that if a Standard Headcrab and their host survive for an unspecified period of time or are subjected to certain conditions, the Zombie will develop into a Gonome. The host experiences a growth in overall body mass, and the gash in the chest cavity develops into a functional, vertical maw. The Gonome also obtains the ability to spew organic projectiles from their maw.
While the host body appears to grow dramatically, the Headcrab controlling the host appears to wither or deflate; the outlines of the host skull's eye sockets, nose, and mouth are visible through the Headcrab's skin. it is possible that the extra mass of the Gonomes's body comes from the Headcrab itself, explaining it's withered appearance.
Behavior
Gonomes generally stay with groups of lesser Zombies and Headcrabs. If they observe any threat, they will first use their ranged attack. Should the enemy get closer, they will resort to manually attacking with their claws. They can sprint if they spot a distant target. In many ways, the Gonome's behavior is similar to that of a Bullsquid.
According to Black Mesa scientists, as Headcrabs can take over the host's nervous system, one of them asks Adrian Shephard; "Can you imagine what the next stage of mutation looks like?"
Behind the scenes
Being an expansion, Opposing Force briefly demonstrates the continued mutations of a Zombie. Various new designs were made by Gearbox in plans for the Zombie models.
It should also be noted that the Soldier zombies and Security Guard zombies were also created by Gearbox. It could be assumed that Gonomes are critically mutated scientists since they're only depicted with plain white scientist pants as seen in the standard-definition models.
Trivia
- In Half-Life 2 no Gonomes are seen in Ravenholm, despite the fact that the Humans there were transformed into Zombies a fairly long time prior to the beginning of the game's events, evident by the fact that Father Grigori had clearly been setting up traps and living alone for a long time.
- As it is known that the Combine were experimenting on Headcrabs to create the Fast Headcrab and Poison Headcrab, it is possible that the Standard Headcrabs in Half-Life 2 have also been modified to prevent further mutations in the host body so as to make Headcrabs and zombies more easy to dispose of.
- The Gonome model has an unseen dancing animation named "veryhappy" in the original model, while it is "sohappy" in the Steam version. It was reused for the scientist model under the name "sohappy" in the original model, and "hambone" in the Steam version, for a scientist seen dancing through a security camera at the start of Blue Shift.
- The Hunter from Left 4 Dead, also published by Valve, uses a very slightly modified Gonome attack sound for some of his melee attacks.
- Unlike their HD package standard zombie counterparts, Gonome's have 'visible' eye sockets and a 'visible' mouth.
Gallery
List of appearances
- Half-Life: Opposing Force (First appearance)
 Xen
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|---|---|
| Creatures | Alien Aircraft • Alien Controller • Alien Grunt • Archer (cut) • Armored Headcrab • Barnacle • Boid • Bullsquid • Charger (cut) • Chumtoad • Fast Headcrab • Fast Walker (cut) • Flocking Floater (cut) • Gargantua• Gonarch • Headcrab • Houndeye • Ichthyosaur • Kingpin (cut) • Leech • Lightning Dog • Mr. Friendly (cut) • Nihilanth • Panther Eye (cut) • Poison Headcrab • Protozoan • Prrobot (cut) • Quiver Creature (cut) • Sand Barnacle (cut) • Snapbug (cut) • Snark • Sphere (cut) • Standard Headcrab • Stukabat (cut) • Tentacle • Unidentified Quiver Creature (cut) • Vortigaunt • Zombie |
| Weapons | Black Hole Gun (cut) • Ceiling Turret • Grenade • Hivehand • Sentry Cannon • Snark • Snark Mine |
| Technology | Healing Shower • Thumper |
| Other | Crystal • Fungus • Healing Pool • Light Stalk • Trampoline • Tree |