Flood Carrier Form

The Flood Carrier Form is a type of normal Flood form primarily used to create and transport Infection Forms thus spreading the Flood.

Overview
Carrier forms are formed by the Flood from species with insufficient calcium reserves for transformation to Combat Forms or from Combat Forms. Carrier Forms perpetuate the Flood species by acting as incubators for newly created Infection Forms and keeping them safe until they're fully developed.

Once the Infection Forms are ready, the Carrier simply explodes spontaneously, sending the new Infection Forms into the air. As soon as the Infection Forms are released, they begin searching for new hosts. It should be noted that Carrier Forms will not wait until full maturation has occurred.

If potential enemy hosts are nearby it will simply get close to them and explode, sending the Infection Forms flying at the unsuspecting and often injured or killed enemies. The explosion of a Carrier Form is like the explosion of a fragmentation grenade and deals damage to any players nearby.

The Carrier form has a simple mindset, which is to release the Infection Forms it carries to a suitable host. Other than organic bodily sounds, they cannot speak or make any other sound. Though they can somehow communicate with other Carriers, possibly through a Gravemind or Proto-Gravemind, in order to inform them of a potential sentient being.

Creation


When an Infection Form takes over a body that is unsuitable for combat, or has insufficient calcium reserves for transformation to a Combat Form, or once a Combat Form has been damaged beyond it's usefulness, it will become a Carrier Form. Eventually when a Combat Form has lived long enough, it too will transform into a Carrier, regardless of damage taken.

Combat
Carrier Forms are usually considered slow and of little threat unless they are close to the player. However, one particularly dangerous trait of exploding Carrier Forms is the explosive chain reactions they can cause. A Carrier explosion will cause any other Carrier Forms close enough to explode also. They also cause any nearby explosives or objects to explode. This means a single Carrier can cause a massive explosion filling much of a small area. This can be used to a soldier's advantage if there are Combat or Infection Forms surrounding the Carrier(s).

Any direct explosion eliminates the threat of the Carrier Form, as well as any Infection Forms that were incubating inside it.

Trivia

 * In Halo: Combat Evolved, a Carrier form could rapidly gain speed for a short time.
 * In Halo 3, Carriers are more or less common but come in groups of 2-4 which are even deadly on Easy difficulty and are notably most resistant to Human firearms.
 * An easy way to get rid of Carriers and the Infection forms inside them is to stick them with a Plasma Grenade.
 * To kill Flood Carriers without letting out any infection forms out by sticking them with a Spike, Firebomb or Plasma grenade.
 * Carriers seem to let out about 10 to 20 infection forms.
 * In Halo 3, it is dangerous to hit a Flood Carrier with a vehicle because they can damage your vehicle or flip it over.
 * It is dangerous to be a Flood Carrier when it "pops" because the "pop" is like a grenade so the "pop" can take down your shields or kill you.
 * In Halo: Combat Evolved, a Flood Carrier Form's "pop" is devastating, almost surely can kill you. However in Halo 3, it would just take down your shields.

Related Articles

 * Flood
 * Shielded Flood Carriers