Flood carrier form

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

Overview
Carrier forms are formed from older Combat Forms or from bodies that are unsuitable for combat. Lieutenant McKay theorised that Unggoy and Kig-Yars couldn't become Combat forms and instead directly converted into Carrier forms, though this theory has been disproved.

Combat Forms may be converted when they reach the end of their life span, or become too damaged to fight. Carrier Forms perpetuate the Flood species by acting as incubators for newly created Infection Forms and keeping them safe until they're fully developed. Eventually when a Combat Form has lived long enough, it will also evolve into a carrier, regardless of its status.

Once the Infection Forms are ready, the carrier simply explodes spontaneously, sending the new Infection Forms flying into the air. As soon as the Infection Forms are released, they begin searching for new hosts. It should be noted that Carrier Forms won't 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 injuring or killing enemies. The explosion of a Carrier Form is like the explosion of a fragmentation grenade, and deals damage to anything 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 Brain Form, to inform them of a potential sentient being.

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 through a chain reaction 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). It is sometimes considered a 'flood grenade'.

Any direct explosion eliminates the threat of the Carrier, as well as any Infection Forms that were incubating inside of it. This means that enough needles from a Needler will kill it, or you can throw a grenade down and kill it.

Carrier Forms are one of the easiest enemies to take down. One shot from any weapon save the Assault Rifle, Plasma Pistol, or SMG will force it to explode. However, there is not a single weapon that can actually blow it up, not even a direct Rocket Launcher. Therefore, this has to be taken into account, strategically. For example, when confronting a large number of Flood, you may wish to destroy the Carrier Form(s), which in turn will kill all nearby Flood. First, allow the Combat Forms and other to get reasonably close. Then, either use a sniper rifle or the BR/Carbine kill the Carrier Form.

In Halo: CE a good tactic is to hook one with a plasma grenade and shoot it with a shotgun. This will kill the infection forms inside.

Variant
In Halo 2 was to be a variant of the normal flood carrier named Shielded Flood Carriers, they didn't make in the final game but this code is encrypted in the Halo 2 disc so they can be modded in the levels that the flood appear.

Trivia

 * The Carrier Form of Flood is the successor of the Simulacrums, from the Marathon (Video Game Series). The Simulacrums were cybernetic humans made to look like the crew of the U.E.S.C Marathon, the only flaw was that they all wore green jump suits, making it easy to distinguish which humans were actually Simulacrums. As soon as you were 3 meters close to them they would explode, heavily damaging the player, or killing the player in the process.
 * Strangely, when shot by the Flamethrower, the Carrier Form will explode and release the Infection Forms, which seem to survive the fire. Possibly the carrier's explosion puts out the fire. This is strange considering that an Incendiary grenade will kill the carrier and the infection forms.
 * Carrier Forms are sometimes nicknamed "popcorn", due to how they "pop" and release Infection Forms. They are also uncommonly called "gasbags" because they release gas and infection forms when they explode, damaging the player
 * Carrier Forms have a slight similarity in physical appearance to the Flood Juggernaut.
 * In Halo: Combat Evolved, a Carrier form can produce short bursts of speed once it spots a target.
 * In Halo 3, Carriers are more or less common but come in groups of 2-4, which are even deadly on Easy or higher difficulties.
 * The outline of the spine of the Carrier Form's former body can clearly be seen in the Halo 3 model.
 * In Halo: Combat Evolved, if you run over a Carrier Form with a Warthog on The Maw and Two Betrayals are the only chances you get to run over a Carrier, it will be sent sprawling to the ground and explode, by which time you are far away. However, in Halo 3 on the level Halo is the only level you can run over a Carrier, if you attempt to run over a Carrier, it will explode immediately, tilting and possibly flipping your Warthog.
 * Carrier Forms have blotches of green on their sides.
 * In Halo 3, Carrier Forms are significantly more difficult to kill with projectile weapons, but they are easily destroyed by Plasma Weapons.
 * In Halo 3, a Spartan Laser beam can only penetrate two Carrier Forms. In turn, this will make the Carrier Forms explode without releasing any Infection Forms at all, similar to sticking a Carrier Form with a grenade and Needler.
 * The Halo 3 Carrier Form has shorter arms than the ones in the previous games.
 * If you stick a Carrier form with a grenade it won't release any Infection forms. This only works in Halo 3. In Halos 1 and 2 this will simply fling the carrier form in a random direction, which upon landing will explode releasing Infection forms.
 * The Carrier form in Halo:Combat Evolved only release 3-4 infection forms while its counter parts in Halo 2 and Halo 3 can release up to 6 infection forms
 * On the final level in Halo 3, while you are driving a ghost, you can move right next to them and they will ignore you, if you don't boost through them and you just slowly push past them, they will be on the front of the ghost for a while, this could save your life and stop them knocking you off a platform, it is very useful to know this when doing the Vidmaster Challenge: Annual achievement.
 * In Ghosts of Onyx, Carrier Forms are used as boarding parties by The Flood during the battle of Installation 05. They are simply pushed from the airlock by some means and drift towards damaged Covenant Cruisers.
 * Flood Carrier Forms are believed to be the inspiration for The Boomers from the Left 4 Dead franchise.

Related Articles

 * Flood
 * Shielded Flood Carriers
 * Infection Form