Nihilanth (Chapter)

Nihilanth is the eighteenth and penultimate chapter of Half-Life (1998). It plots Gordon Freeman's final battle with the Nihilanth, the giant alien being responsible for maintenance of the dimensional rift opened at Black Mesa.

The chapter consists of two small caves. The larger main cave contains the Nihilanth floating above three organic xenian trampolines, many angular, vaguely stalagmite like structures surrounded by a strange brown xenian sludge. Three crystals - intended by Marc Laidlaw to be the same type used in Anomalous Materials - feed power to the Nihilanth allowing it to regenerate. The second cave is only accessed when the player is hit by the Nihlianth's teleportation attack, and it contains a number of ammunition caches and a number of ledges that must be jumped upon to return to the main cave.

The Nihilanth is defeated by the player and the cave goes dark as green-teleportation balls are launched randomly from its gaping cranium. The player is then teleported to the final chapter, a meeting with the game's one remaining mystery, the G-Man.

Trivia

• the Nihilianth chapter consists of a single map: c4a3.