Dead Space / Characters

Characters listed here are from:

open/close all folders

Isaac Clarke

"Oh yeah. Good times!"

Played by: Gunner Wright

The star of the series, Isaac Clarke is an engineer with the CEC, dispatched on the USG Kellion to repair the Ishimura. He is also looking for his girlfriend Nicole who is stationed there. He quickly finds that the Ishimura has been overrun with Necromorphs and has to fight through all of them while repairing the ship and rescuing Nicole. By the time of Dead Space 2, his sanity has taken a couple of hits and he has been locked away in an asylum on Titan Station. Unfortunately, another Necromorph attack happens there and Isaac has to once again fight to survive. In Dead Space 3, he travels across the galaxy in hopes of stopping the Necromorph threat permanently.

Action Survivor: Isaac starts the series as a repairman.
Aesop Amnesia: It doesn't occur to him that the Marker signals are what is driving his Romantic Rival, Robert Norton, insane during the events of Dead Space 3. This is in-spite of having survived two outbreaks, having the Marker blueprints implrinted directly into his brain, built one Marker and destroyed two, thus most likely being humanity's foremost expert on how Marker's work.
Badass Bookworm: He's a very competent engineer who also happens to be a better One-Man Army than the actual Army.
Badass Normal: Isaac is simply an engineer with no military training yet has killed more Necromorphs than an average soldier and had survived several outbreaks. In fact, he can actually take on actual soldiers using engineering tools.
Berserk Button: He already had a longstanding mistrust of Unitology, but it turned into outright hatred after the events of the first game.
Beware the Nice Ones: He is a pretty kind, level headed, and well meaning guy, but see Rage Breaking Point, Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and Unstoppable Rage below. Just those trope names should give you an idea of what happens when you finally piss him off.
Character Development: Goes from barely surviving the Ishimura outbreak to fighting space zombies, government troops and religious fanatics. By the third game he's "The Marker Killer". After the third game you could probably go ahead and call him The Moon Killer or something.
Combat Pragmatist: Isaac will use just about any advantage offered in melee.
Cool Old Guy: Isaac is actually in his 40s, according to his official bio. In the first game he was 43, in the second he's about 46, though a lot of that was in stasis so it might not count.
Crazy Sane: Tormented by Marker hallucinations constantly by Dead Space 2 (as well as some honest-to-goodness symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during the Ishimura level), he managed to continue to persevere in spite of this, even though his psychological record would draw some rather uneasy glances.
Dead Man Walking: Unless Isaac can cure himself of the nasty things in his brain in the second game, he's doomed to go crazy and die. Struggling to find a way to solve this is the major impetus of the game.
Deadpan Snarker: Isaac has turned into one of these by the second game, perhaps courtesy of being Suddenly Voiced. It's understandable, given what he's been through.
Ellie: This seems like a really bad idea.
Isaac: Stick around. I'm full of bad ideas.
- When Isaac is keeping the deck of the Drill Tank clear, Ellie asks him if he's fine:
  Isaac: Oh yeah. Good times!
- Is turned up somewhat for Dead Space 3.
  Ellie: Be careful.
  Isaac: What, you think there's something out there that's trying to eat me?
  Ellie: Not funny.
  Isaac: Yeah. I know.
Determinator:
- Isaac Clarke is not going to let a ship full of horrors stop him. He does his repair jobs alone despite the circumstances, he manages to repeatedly punch out Cthulhu, refuses to relent when betrayed and left to die, and his Heroic BSoD lasts all of five seconds when he finds out that Nicole's dead.
- And in the second game, Isaac doesn't let the fact he's been locked in a mental asylum for the past three years and he's wearing a straightjacket stop him from evading Necromorphs, fashion a plasma cutter and a stasis module out of surgical tools, before suiting up and fighting his way through yet another outbreak.
- Up to Eleven in the 3rd game. Lampshaded by Danik, "Isaac, is that you? You are unbelievably hard to kill, are you aware of that?".
Disappeared Dad: It's mentioned that Isaac's father vanished during an extended off-world mission, building ships for the Marine Corp. Due to his work being highly classified, Isaac's attempts to track him down have been thus far mostly futile.
The Dreaded: Come 3, he's known as "The Marker Killer" by Unitologists, and even the Brethern Moons sees Clarke as a big threat enough to the Necromorphs that they personally tries to kill him in 3.
The Engineer: Isaac's definitely the Combat Engineer variety. This characterization is much better reinforced in the second game than in the first game, where his status as an engineer was more of an Informed Attribute. This time around, his first tools are improvised devises he jury-rigs out of medical equipment, and he occasionally has to do a little rewiring of control panels in the form of a hacking mini-game to bypass inoperative doors. It's taken even further in Dead Space 3, where Isaac is able to make his own guns.
Gadgeteer Genius:
- In the first game, an Informed Ability on par with Dr. Freeman's Theoretical Physics degree, but in the second game Isaac's first tool is a Kinesis Module he cobbles together out of parts he rips from a malfunctioning hover-bed. His new plasma cutter is a mash-up of a flashlight and a surgical operating laser, and his new guns in Dead Space 3 will be made from scratch. By him, customized by you.
- The second part of this (the Genius part) is what makes him so effective at combating the Necromorphs and the Marker. Several logs indicate that smart people that come into contact with the Marker are more functional afterwards than people of less intelligence. Isaac takes this to the natural conclusion: the smartest people are able to defeat the Marker, rather than being consumed by a desire to replicate it.
Giving Up on Logic: In Awakened, the Playable Epilogue Downloadable Content to 3, he notes that he's taken on this approach a long time ago with respect to the various issues he comes across. It's hard to blame him, all things considered.
Isaac: I quit trying to make sense of it all back on the Ishimura.
Gray Eyes: In regular gameplay and most cutscenes, they're gray. During the infamous Eye Scream sequence, they appear blue under direct, bright lighting.
Guest Fighter:
- Appears as part of Team EA with Faith in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition. Also appears as a skin in Dante's Inferno, Skate 3, and a suit of armor said inspired by him is a DLC bonus in Dragon Age II. Also a costume for Sackboy in LittleBigPlanet.
- Isaac makes his fighting game debut as a playable character in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale.
Heroic Neutral: After the events of Dead Space 2, his response to Norton's request for help is a resounding no. But then he learns the Ellie is missing, and Unitologists try to kill him.
Heroic Mime: In the first game, with nothing but Voice Grunting and screams. Interestingly, he does have things to say if you look at his notes on the objectives. He's intelligent, and not gullible or naive. He is, however, scared out of his mind. The grunts and screams are somewhat on the extreme side, almost making him a Screaming Warrior. Entirely justified in that, when he's stomping the crap out of the monsters he comes across, he's scared to death, and likely is trying to resolve some of that fear any way he can.
- Subverted in that he actually does speak a single line - namely, "Come on!" - near the end of the game, when trying to get the shuttle door open. However, he screams those words in such manner that they can be easily missed and mistaken for another unintelligible grunt.
Heroic Sacrifice: In 2, he willingly sacrifices himself to stop the Golden Marker's Convergence, but Ellie will have none of that. Again in the end of 3 to shut down the Marker signal from the Tau Volantis Brother Moon... but it doesn't work. Luckily, he's still not dead.
Heroic Willpower: Isaac takes debilitating hallucinations quite well. At least one other character mentions that out of everyone exposed to the Marker, he was by far the most stable. In the end, this is what saves him. In fact, his Battle in the Center of the Mind seems to even destroy the giant Marker! No surprise he looks totally drained afterwards.
Hollywood Atheist: Supplemental lore unlocked in the New Game + mode for the first game reveals he's actually very negative towards Unitology, mostly because his mother joined the group and spent money that was supposed to pay for his college education on getting up the ranks, forcing him to go to a substandard college, which severely impacted on his career choices. It's zigzagged in that, according to setting lore, atheism is the norm in the Dead Space universe, and he's actually validated in disliking Unitology, what with The Reveal of the church over the series as a mad cult worshipping the Necromorphs.
Informed Ability: Averted more and more as time goes on: Isaac must physically rewire control panels in order to activate different machines or devices, which certainly requires more engineering know-how than simply pushing a button on a screen. He can also make guns as of Dead Space 3, which definitely requires a lot of know-how. Justified by the developers as a way to highlight and emphasize Isaac still being an engineer rather than a Space Marine.
Ink-Suit Actor: Averted at first, as he had no actor to begin with in the original. But then played straight in the sequels, with him Suddenly Voiced, which called for a redesign of his appearance to fit Wright's.
Irony: Since Nicole's body is never found and she killed herself in a manner that would leave herself open to infection, it's possible that she might have been one of the countless Necromorphs killed by Isaac, whilst he searched through the Ishimura looking for her. His hallucinations of Nicole guilt-trip him with this as he makes his way through the Ishimura a second time.
It's All My Fault: Sees Nicole's death as this, due to pushing her to take the job on the Ishimura in the first place.
Kleptomaniac Hero: Isaac steals more or less everything he comes across. Mostly justified, since the previous owners are all dead. Everything he doesn't steal is readily purchased from your local Ishimura Store terminal. With looted money. That he acquired by selling other stolen stuff.
Made of Iron: Let's see, he has survived the outbreak on the Ishimura, the destruction of Aegis VII, the destruction of the Sprawl (during which he got 2 Javelin Spears through his chest and palm), has defeated several massive creatures, and recently killed a moon. Did the destruction of the moon kill him? Nope. He survives that too! And in every single one of these instances, he constantly gets injured or attacked, and yet he keep on trekking. This man refuses to die.
Danik: "Isaac, is that you? You are unbelievably hard to kill. Are you aware of that?"
Meaningful Name: A meta version. Isaac (Asimov) (Arthur C.) Clarke - which of course was mocked by Zero Punctuation.
Mind Rape: Repeatedly suffers these during Dead Space 2 as a result of what happened in 1.
Mysterious Past: Very little is known of Isaac's past. Some logs in the first game indicate strong familiarity with the crew of the Ishimura such as Gabe Weller, implying that in addition to Nicole, he had several friends serving onboard at the time. Some have even theorised that Isaac himself may even have served on the ship previously or at least repaired it a few times and that was how he found out about the job opportunity for Nicole.
Parental Neglect: You will find in Isaac's bio that he was not priority number one for his parents.
- Somewhat justified in the case of his father, who vanished during an extended mission off-world whilst building ships for the Marine Corp. That said, his father did make sure to spend the first four years of Isaac's life on Earth with the family. His mother on the other hand, threw herself into Unitology out of loneliness and later depression when her husband disappeared. Her fanaticism lead her to blow most of their family's wealth on getting herself risen to the rank of Vested within the Church, preventing Isaac from attending a prominent engineering college in the process and driving a permanent wedge between them.

Precision F-Strike: At the end of Dead Space 2:
"Fuck you! And fuck your Marker!"
Rage Breaking Point: For the most part of his adventures, he is running scared out of his mind (literally), completely surrounded by mutated horrors that want to tear him into bloody chunks (when his own insanity isn't trying to force him to kill himself). But in 2 and in 3, he eventually reaches a point where he has had enough and starts gunning for the monsters themselves. When this happens, he has been shown capable of killing what are essentially cosmic eldritch gods.
Reluctant Hero: In 3 due to his experiences. This shakes off when he's told to help Ellie.
Right Man in the Wrong Place: In Dead Space 1 he was just an engineer that only volunteered to go to the Ishimura in order to find his girlfriend, only to get way more than he bargained for with Necromorphs, yet he still managed to eliminate the Necromorph scourge on Aegis VII. In Dead Space 2 he's yet again caught in the middle of another Necromorph infestation, and manage to stop a Convergence event from happening.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he believes Ellie is killed, Isaac loses it, rushing ahead with the intent to put a bullet in Danik's brain.
Sanity Slippage:
- Isaac suffers from hallucinations because some of the Red Marker's influence still lingers.
- He's cured of the hallucinations at the end of 2, although there are signs he suffers from lingering mental trauma. He relapses into hallucinations in the Awakened DLC, mostly because there's an entire Eldritch Abomination race trying it on him and Carver.
Second Love: Subverted. Isaac and Ellie initially got into a relationship after the events of the second game, but broke up by the beginning of the third, when Ellie wanted him to face his demons. Isaac, however, was of the mind that some things should just stay buried. Double subverted by the end of the game, when Isaac and Ellie share one final kiss before he takes on the Brother Moon.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: The events on the Ishimura have quite an impact on him. The Sprawl does as well in terms of both trust and horror.
Suddenly Voiced: In Dead Space 2. As the game drops the "Alone in a Haunted House with Apocalyptic Log" storytelling, it makes sense he'd speak to other characters about his... problem. Though some find his new voice a bit less... imposing... than some of his grunts in the original game would suggest. Maybe it's just the Sanity Slippage. He also speaks at the end of the first game, though hard to miss. On the final chapter a muffled and disgruntled "Come on!" can be heard when Isaac is banging on the door for it to open.
Survivor's Guilt: After the events of the first game. Also because Isaac was the one to push Nicole to take the job on the Ishimura in the first place, thus indirectly making him responsible for her death.
10-Minute Retirement: Had slipped into a life of seclusion after the events of 2, tired of hunting down Markers. Fortunately for the galaxy, The Call Knows Where You Live and pulls him out of his brief retirement.
Took a Level in Badass: He was just an engineer, but was forced to take a level at the beginning of the first game.
Unwitting Pawn: To Kendra, the Golden Marker, and eventually the Brother Moons.
Unstoppable Rage: The man is perfectly capable of taking on undead legions while running scared witless, but once the forces that be manage to piss him off he is capable of slaughtering necromorphs, trained soldiers, religious fanatics, and Eldritch gods. He is a pretty nice guy, but you have no chance if you finally managed to get on his bad side.
Danik: Where is everyone?!
Unitologist Soldier: All dead! Isaac Clarke... he shot the rest!
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: He tells Carver this towards the end of 3 when he asks if is his actions have helped him atone for his past mistakes.

Zach Hammond

Played by: Peter Mensah

"Your lack of confidence in me is duly noted, Ms. Daniels, but I have a mission to complete and that's exactly what I intend to do. With or without you. Do we understand each other?"

Zach Hammond is the Chief Security Officer of the USG Kellion. Hammond was one of three survivors aboard the USG Kellion that made it past the flight deck on the USG Ishimura, along with Isaac Clarke and Kendra Daniels.

Ask a Stupid Question...: Hammond and company are stranded onboard a starship infested with the zombified remains of the crew, which have already proven themselves to be a genuine threat. At one point, they realise that they must retrieve the Captain’s security clearance to proceed, and when they locate him lying dead in the Medical Bay, Hammond seems genuinely shocked and even asks how he died. The man was the Captain of a ship that became overrun with monsters, is it any real surprise that he’s dead?
Badass Normal: Unlike Isaac who has a powersuit and powerful tools improvised as anti-Necromorph weapons, Hammond only has the basic uniform and a Pulse Rifle that's not as effective. He still manages to survive completely on his own wandering the Ishimura and take down a presumably large number of Necromorphs himself.
Bald, Black Leader Guy: A very good example of it; visibly African by race, completely bald, and he's the leader both by his official role aboard the Kellion and by his actions in the game.
Bald of Awesome: He's completely clean-shaven, and it's a look which works well for him, given he's a strong and honest guy who manages to fight his way through the necromorph hordes despite having one of the worst weapons in the game up until almost the end of the game.
Character Development: Goes from being dead set on completing the mission to simply wanting to get off the Ishimura. Justified as ten minutes aboard the Ishimura will tell anyone it's a lost cause.
Cruel and Unusual Death: The Brute who attacks Hammond first pulls off his leg slowly, than pounds him repeatedly with it's giantic armored limbs and finally smashes him through thick safety glass.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Starts the game all business and being rather demanding. However, he does show concern about Isaac's search for Nicole, and eventually abandons the repair mission in order to get his surviving crew off.
Locked Out of the Loop: Kendra accuses him repeatedly of hiding secrets. He insists he has no idea what's going on. He's telling the truth, It's Kendra who is the military spy.
Mission Control: Isaac is ordered around by a lot of people, but he is the main one.
Red Herring: You would think throughout the first part of the game that he has something to do with the Marker and Unitologists. You'd be wrong.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Along with Kendra, you don't physically interact with him except for three moments in the game, though he's constantly sending you updates over his coms link.

Kendra Daniels

Played by: Tonantzin Carmelo

"More of what?! What the hell are those things? Is that the crew?!"

Kendra Daniels is the computer specialist aboard the USG Kellion emergency maintenance team. She does not get along with their commander Chief Hammond, but is more friendly towards Isaac.

Ambiguously Brown: She's modeled after her voice actress, who's Native American.
Asshole Victim: She murders Dr. Kyne and tries to strand Isaac on the Ishimura rather than return the Red Marker to its pedestal on Aegis VII, despite being told it's the only way to stop the Necromorphs. Then she traps Isaac, steals the Marker back (reawakening the Necromorphs) and mocks him over Nicole being dead but Isaac being in denial. She's well and truly deserved it by the time that the Hive Mind crushes her.
Badass Normal: She manages to survive on the Ishimura by herself despite being even less equipped than Hammond. While she does spend much of the game holed up inside a secure control room, she does move around the ship by herself at several points and at the end she has several scratch marks that indicate she's gone toe-to-toe with Necromorphs and came out on top. The fact she's secretly a government special agent probably helps a lot.
Big Bad: Of 1, being sent to cover up the Aegis VII incident.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even before the plot twist, Kendra's behavior is just as out of line as she claims Hammond's to be, constantly throwing him under the bus, acting with snark, as well as (given the situation, understandably) refusing to respect her current superior despite at least some logical decision making. The plot twist itself just serves as a final nail in the coffin to show her to be an utterly despicable person by leaving Isaac to die in the Ishimura and taking the Aegis VII Marker, but she also takes the time to rub it on Isaac's face that he was used by her to get the artifact, and then later does it again at Aegis VII, this time with Nicole's death. She's not only a complaining crew member, she's a gloating, sadistic traitor.
Cruel and Unusual Death: While attempting to escape Aegis VII, the Hive Mind smacks her off a platform and then rolls her around with one if its tentacle before throwing her to a sharp corner of a building so hard that two of her limbs are ripped off and her head is destroyed. As her body landed, her remaining two limbs are also crushed, leaving only her limbless, headless body on the ground.
Curtains Match the Window: Her hair and eyes are the same color.
Evil Costume Switch: After revealing herself as The Mole, she removes her white jacket and runs around in a black undervest.
Karmic Death: After stealing the Marker that was keeping an Eldritch Abomination imprisoned, she gets killed by said newly freed abomination.
The Mole: She's actually working for the government and put on the rescue mission by her higher-ups.
Manipulative Bitch: Plays Isaac and Hammond against each other and acts friendly towards Isaac so she can get him to do most of the work.
Only Sane Man: She frequently argues with Hammond to abandon the mission and rightly stating that he's out of his league. Of course, this later turns out to be an act.
Smug Snake: Once she shows her true colors.
Too Dumb to Live: She really shouldn't had taken the Red Marker out of its pedestal, as it is the only thing pacifying the Hive Mind.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Like Hammond, she spends most of the game visibly absent and instead talking to Isaac over his comms, providing information and guidance.

Corp. Chen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chen_0.jpg

Corporal Chen is the pilot of the USG Kellion, and a member of the shuttle's security detail.

Chen was the first individual to communicate to the Ishimura. He is able to successfully crash-land the Kellion aboard the planet cracker despite a failure in the auto-docking procedure.

Chen was later killed, however, by a slasher in the Flight Lounge

Flat Character: He’s the Pilot of the USG Kellion and one of Hammond’s two Troopers, that’s about the bulk of characterisation he receives before he’s bumped off several minutes into the game.
Red Shirt: He exists only to get killed off and reveal the dangers infesting the Ishimura.
Token Minority: He’s the only known Asian character in the first Dead Space Game.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies alongside Johnston in the opening of 1 to the first Necromorphs that come in.

Corp. Johnston

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnston.jpg

Corporal Johnston is the co-pilot of the USG Kellion. Like Corporal Chen, Johnston was also under the command of Zach Hammond. Johnston was the first crew member of the USG Kellion to be killed by a Necromorph. A Slasher sneaks up from behind and decapitates him.

Flat Character: He’s the Co-Pilot of the USG Kellion and one of Hammond’s two Troopers, that’s about the bulk of characterisation he receives before he’s bumped off several minutes into the game.
Red Shirt: He exists only to get killed off and reveal the dangers infesting the Ishimura.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies alongside Chen in the opening of 1 to the first Necromorphs that come in.

USG Ishimura Crew

Capt. Benjamin Mathius

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/benjamin_mathius.JPG

"Don't tell me what to do, I'm the captain! This is my ship!"

Played by: J.G. Hertzler (Dead Space), Jim Cummings (Dead Space: Downfall)

The original Captain of the USG Ishimura. He is secretly a devout Unitologist.

Asshole Victim: His willingness to abandon countless people to madness and death to protect his precious holy relic means we have no sympathy for his death.
Ax-Crazy: The Marker starts driving him into this, to the point that he begins to threaten the lives of the surrounding crew.
Authority Equals Asskicking: For no particular reason, the good Captain is the first enhanced Necromorph you face.
Came Back Wrong: His corpse is infected and transformed into an enhanced slasher by the first infector in the series, although Isaac, who happens to be nearby, fixes that problem.
The Captain: This is his official rank aboard the Ishimura, and until Marker Sickness turns him into a raving, paranoid lunatic, he was very popular with his crew.
Eye Scream: Via a syringe that was intended to sedate him. In the game we only get to hear the event occur via audio log, though his corpse in the morgue can be momentarily seen with the needle still jabbed in his eye. In Dead Space: Downfall it's shown in all its squickly detail onscreen.
Knight Templar: He's a devout and fanatical follower of Unitology.
Sanity Slippage: Thanks to Marker Sickness, he became increasingly paranoid, obsessed and erratic, until it got so bad that Dr. Kyne declared he had to step down under space-navy law as unfit for command. He tried to resist and got himself killed in the process.

Dr. Terrence Kyne

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kyne.jpg

Played by: Keith Szarabajka

"We have been deceived into believing there are space gods; Unitology is a lie. That is the mechanism of their control, the lies that brought us here under false pretenses."

Chief Science Officer of the Ishimura and devout Unitologist. Fearing what would happen if the Necromorph outbreak spreads, he sabotaged the ship, until visions of his deceased wife shows him how to stop the outbreak.

The Atoner: All he wants to do is make things right after helping cause the Necromorph outbreak.
Action Survivor: He was on the Ishimura at the very beginning, and managed to survive the ship's massacre and the events of the game up until the the last chapter aboard the Ishimura.
Big Good: Arguably one. Everything that he does is to ensure that the Necromorphs do not spread beyond the system, which would have saved countless lives had his effort been successful.
Cloudcuckoolander: He's been driven over the edge by a combination of Marker Sickness, the horrors he's seen and survivor's guilt.
Dead Person Conversation: Chats with his dead wife.
Failure Knight: Despite trying to do the right thing, he constantly fails and in many situations he makes things worse, such as when he actively sabotages the Ishimura.
Only Sane Man: Ironically, when it comes to the Marker.
Reluctant Mad Scientist: As shown by his actions in the game proper, he doesn't really like what he does.
Sanity Slippage: After the Marker is brought on board the ship, he starts seeing and talking to his dead wife.
The Smart Guy: He's a scientist, after all, but he was trusted with being able to decipher and decode the Marker found on Aegis VII.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to doom the entire crew of the Ishimura, but most of them are already dead and killing the rest will prevent what happened to them from happening anywhere else.

Dr. Challus Mercer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mercer_4.jpg

"Your future, the future of our race ends here!"

Played by: Navid Negahban

Another Mad Scientist and Unitologist on the Ishimura. Audio logs Isaac finds detail how the Necromorphs drove his already unstable mind into full blown Ax-Crazy. When Isaac finds him Mercer has been experimenting on humans and Necromorphs, the results of which he unleashes on Isaac.

Arc Villain: As the only actually intelligent being Isaac meets during his run on the Ishimura, Dr. Mercer's insane beliefs make him the antagonist (as opposed to the necromorphs, whose lack of personality means they are little more than obstacles).
Ax-Crazy: He's gone completely over the deep end, murdering people to help spread the necromorph infestation and actively trying to engineer even stronger strains of necromorph.
Beard of Evil: He has a short-trimmed, chin-hugging beard & mustache combination, and he's a batshit insane lunatic who is actively antagonisti towards Isaac.
Belief Makes You Stupid: Dr. Mercer emphasizes the fact that being a Unitologist basically makes you extra-vulnerable to the insanity caused by Markers. Mercer worships the necromorphs, believing that the transformation into a necromorph is the promised "Convergence" of body, mind and soul preached by his cult, so he actively tries to "assist" others in becoming necromorphs.
- Emphasizing the fact that Mercer is an unhinged fanatic even by the standards of the other Unitologists, there's a looping video in one of the dorms before you encounter the Hunter for the second time where he tries to convince a band of offscreen Unitologists to accept that the necromorphs are the Convergence promised by the church — and fails, as they turn their backs on him in disgust.
Disc-One Final Boss: Played with. Mercer is the closest thing to an antagonist during the second half of the Ishimura arc, and ultimately Isaac does have to kill him... but, he's an Anti-Climax Boss who simply gets turned into an ordinary Enhanced Slasher — a quick player can even prevent him from being infected altogether.
The Dragon: Has one in the form of the Hunter. He is also acting as one to the Hive Mind.
Evilutionary Biologist: As part of his delusional faith, Mercer experiments with the necromorph virus, which ultimately allows him to create the Hunter.
The Fundamentalist: He's an absolute religious fanatic, and believes that the only fate humanity is "worthy of" is to achieve his religion's promised deliverance.
Knight Templar: He will happily torture and murder people, and bring about the extinction of humanity, because he believes that this will bring about the ascent to his religion's paradise.
Mad Doctor/Mad Scientist: Creates stronger Necromorphs by experimenting on human beings.
The Man Behind the Monsters: While not leading the Necromorphs directly, as their true leader is the Hive Mind, he is helping to advance the Necromorph infection and create new, more powerful types of Necromorphs.
Meaningful Name: Mercer is an old term for a dealer of textiles. Seems he's a man of the cloth. Another interpretation: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a type of bacterium responsible for numerous difficult-to-treat or outright incurable ailments in human beings. It's abbreviated MRSA, and the abbreviation is often pronounced "Mer-sah" or Mercer.
Omnicidal Maniac: Mercer's master plan, such as it is, is to use the Ishimura to transport a group of Necromorphs to Earth, where he'll unleash them to turn the entire planet into Necromorphs. This plan's not particularly realistic given the current condition of the Ishimura, and he eventually forgets about it entirely and feeds himself to an Infector.
One-Winged Angel: After Isaac kills the Hunter, Mercer lets an Infector turn him into a Necromorph. His transformation isn't anything special though, as he just becomes another Enhanced Slasher. The process can even be averted if the player is fast enough to kill the Infector before Mercer transforms.
Sanity Slippage: Like everyone else exposed to the Marker, he's gone completely screaming off the deep end, to the point he has taken to worshipping the necromorphs and wants to turn all of humanity into them.
Torture Technician: In one of his audio logs, he says that a test subject has volunteered his services, and is calm and complacent. And yet, we hear terrified screaming in the background. Calm and complacent, my ass...
Worthy Opponent: He respects Isaac's ability to survive and constantly compliments his efforts, even if he does believe Isaac's only fighting the inevitable.

Nicole Brennan

Played by: Iyari Limon & Tanya Clarke

"Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you."

Isaac's long-term girlfriend, a medical officer stationed aboard the Ishimura at Isaac's suggestion. Nicole didn't suffer any negative effects from the Necromorphs, and managed to send out a message to Isaac saying that the place is falling apart (though she doesn't say what the problem is), alerting Isaac that something is wrong. Isaac spends most of the game looking for her. Nicole also makes cameo appearances in Downfall and Extraction.

Better to Die than Be Killed: Her reason for committing suicide, she preferred to die by her own hand rather than be ripped apart by Necromorphs.
Dead All Along Died long before the Kellion crew reached the Ishimura.
Distressed Damsel: Isaac's initial goal is to rescue her, believing she's trapped in some kind of terrible situation. This is strengthened when he finds out about the space Zombie Apocalypse aboard the ship, but it's subverted in the cruelest of ways; she's already dead by the time he sets out.
Driven to Suicide: She killed herself via lethal injection to spare herself a painful death at the hands of the necromorphs.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's got beautiful blonde hair and, from all appearances, was a very nice woman in life.
Hospital Hottie: She's a fully trained and accredited nurse, and very beautiful to boot.
The Lost Lenore: She becomes this in 2, although Isaac's Second Love, Ellie, displaces her more or less by the time of 3.
The Other Darrin: Her voice actor changes between 1 and 2, and her character design was also changed as a result due to the series' use of facial capture for the characters' faces.
Never Found the Body: Isaac at one point encounters the room she's later revealed to have died in, but her body is no longer there. This suggests that she did indeed end up become one of the Necromorphs onboard the Ishimura and ironically might have been one of the countless number killed by Isaac as he ventured through the ship searching for her. The Nicole hallucination pointedly guilt-trips Isaac about this in Dead Space 2.
Proper Lady: She is very kind, sweet, compassionate, and calm. When the Marker vision of her isn't guilt-tripping Isaac, that is.

Jacob Temple

Acting Chief Engineer of the USG Ishimura after most of the crew is dead. His story is chronicled through various logs Isaac finds, where he attempts to repair the Ishimura and find his girlfriend, Dr. Elizabeth Cross.

Determinator: Despite the necromorph outbreak and being there on the Ishimura at the very start, he resists Marker Sickness and fights his way through the infested halls until late into the game, only for Mercer to get the jump on him and murder him.
Hero of Another Story: His journey through the Ishimura mirrors Isaac's, with him trying to repair the ship and finding his girlfriend.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Finds Cross... only for them to be Together in Death thanks to Challus Mercer.

Gabe Weller

"Isaac isn't the only one fighting through the Sprawl."

Played by: Ramon Tikaram

A security officer on the Ishimura and the second player character in Extraction. He is sent down to Aegis VII to retrieve the bodies of the mass suicide and happens to meet up with his old friend, Nathan McNeill. The bodies are found to be gone, and he and Nathan have to escape Aegis VII as they soon discover what the bodies have transformed into.

Weller is the main character in Severed, re-appearing alongside Lexine as the two try to get off the Sprawl.

An Arm and a Leg: Loses a leg from a grenade in Severed.
Badass Bookworm: Although he's a security guard, rather than an engineer, he's just as capable of rewiring panels as Isaac.
Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of Severed, he is badly injured and has to sacrifice himself to save Lexine.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As abrasive as he can act, it's made clear that he's a good guy deep down who really wishes he could save people from what's going on, but fate just keeps conspiring against him.
The Mean Brit: He's got a British accent and is a bit of a jerk.
Late to the Tragedy: His chapter one in Severed starts off just as the Necromorphs are attacking the hospital, but by the time he gets there, Isaac is long gone and the place is in even worse condition.
Red Herring: One is naturally inclined to assume he's the one who becomes the necromorph at the end of Extraction, since the shadow of the slasher depicts it with two human arms and, well, McNeil only has the one.
With This Herring: Averted, unlike Isaac, he's pretty heavily armed from the get-go.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Nathan McNeil.

Karen Howell

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catherine_howell.png

Played by: Archie Panjabi

Catherine Howell, also known as Karen Howell, was a doctor and botanist of the Hydroponics section of the USG Ishimura who managed to survive on the Ishimura by herself for a while before the rest of the Dead Space Extraction group meets up with her.

Action Girl: She fought off hordes of Necromorphs and even killed a Brute.
Ankle Drag: Karen Howell is dragged away by a tentacle, she doesn't make it because Warren Eckhardt abandoned her when she called him out for seeding Unitologists in the Ishimura's ranks.
Deadly Doctor: She starts out with a Ripper. One can only wonder why she was carrying it.
India: Where she probably comes from.
Lower-Deck Episode: She has one level starring her. She kills a brute protecting Lexine, but she dies when she calls Warren out for seeding Unitologists into every corner of the ship. Immediately afterwards she is attacked by a tentacle and left to die by Warren while he yells about his "god" having different plans. This leaves the player in serious doubt of his character.

Alissa Vincent

Played by: Nika Futterman

"My name is Alissa Vincent. I may be the sole survivor. We encountered an alien life form. They have taken over the bodies of the crew. The colony was lost. My team is dead. It is my belief that the artifact we discovered on the surface is somehow responsible. If you find this recording, the Ishimura and the artifact must be destroyed."

Alissa Vincent was the Security Chief of P.C.S.I. Security of the USG Ishimura and the protagonist of Dead Space: Downfall.

Action Girl: What else would you expect from a woman who heads a spaceship's security team? Alissa's job entails cracking heads when she needs it.
The Cassandra: She realizes the Marker is behind all the chaos and even tries to send out a warning for others to destroy the ship, but unfortunately, her efforts are in vain.
Dark-Skinned Redhead: Justified; humanity has become so mixed-race by the time of the setting that unusual gene pairings like hers are quite plausible.
Heroic BSoD: Has one when her entire team is killed and she realizes that the crew of the Ishimura is beyond saving.
Heroic Willpower: She is among the last of the Ishimura's crew to be affected by the Marker signal, and it took her literally cuddling up next to it for it to make her hallucinate.
Honor Before Reason: Determined to protect as much of the crew as she can, leading her to stop Kyne from crashing the ship.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: In her effort to rescue any survivors aboard the ship, she becomes indirectly responsible for every following necromorph outbreak, the rise of militant Unitologists, the overthrowing of Earth Gov, and the Brethren Moons finding and consuming Earth's population. If she had just allowed Kyne to destroy the ship, and thus destroy the Marker, then humanity may have avoided becoming food for a long time.
Senseless Sacrifice: Records a warning message to any who come looking for the Ishimura, telling them to destroy the Ishimura and the Marker, then opens an airlock in order to launch the transmitter beacon, getting sucked out into the vacuum of space with it. Too bad that the message was too garbled for the investigation team to understand, leading them to head for the Ishimura thinking that their communication systems needed to be repaired.
Unwitting Pawn: She is convinced by a hallucination of Ramirez to send out a distress beacon, making sure more will come for the Marker.

Ramirez

Played by: Hal Sparks

"You falling apart on us, Sarge? Maybe Irons here can sign you up with the Unitologists; they seem pretty at peace with this bullshit."

Ramirez was a Security Officer of the P.C.S.I. Security team led by Alissa Vincent.

Bald of Awesome: Not a hair on his head and is one of the longest surviving members of movie's cast.
Deadpan Snarker: See the above quote.
Dying as Yourself: Allowed himself to be killed by the Necromorphs, instead of going insane and trying to kill the only living friend he had left.
Fighting from the Inside: When the Marker signal finally starts to get to him, you can see him visibly sweating, and he is calmly chatting about himself and why he joined the Ishimura crew, obviously trying to distract himself. When he starts to lose the fight, he warns Vincent and sacrifices himself to keep from attacking her.
Heroic Sacrifice: When the Marker signal starts driving him insane, he freely communicates this to Vincent in order to warn her that he will soon become a danger. Immediately after this, he seals a door shut between them, trapping himself in with a horde of approaching necromorphs to protect Vincent from both the necromorphs and himself.
Heroic Willpower: Manages to resist Marker induced insanity longer than almost any of the other main characters.
Lovable Coward: Subverted. He admits that he became a security officer on the Ishimura, instead of joining the army, not because of cowardice, but because he prefers to avoid unnecessary confrontations.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: If he had let himself go insane, killed Vincent, then killed himself; then the distress beacon may have never been sent, Isaac's crew may have never been sent to investigate, and the fall of humanity may have been held off for just a little while longer.
Reluctant Psycho: Averted. When the Marker signal finally started to drive him insane, he chose to commit suicide instead of falling into insanity.
Senseless Sacrifice: After his death, the Marker uses his image to fool Vincent into sending out a distress beacon by opening an airlock, both killing Vincent and ensuring someone would be lured to the Ishimura.

Shen

Played By: Kelly Hu

"These guys ain't that tough."

Shen was a P.C.S.I. Security Officer and a member of Chief Vincent's team aboard the USG Ishimura.

Action Girl: She's a female member of the Security team and the most gung ho among them. Only reason she bites it is due to being ambushed by someone who was friendly just a few minutes before.
Bare Your Midriff
Blood Knight: She enjoys fighting the Necromorphs abit too much.
Deadpan Snarker
Delinquent Hair
Fingore: When Hanson stabs through her abdomen with a plasma saw, she reflexively tries to grab the blade. Since a plasma saw is basically a chainsaw/lightsaber, her fingers get sliced off as soon as she touches it.
Half The Woman She Used To Be: Gets painfully vivisected by an insane Hanson using a plasma saw.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Hanson

"I think we should consider abandoning ship; if these things have spread, there's no stopping them."

Hanson was a P.C.S.I. Security Sergeant and a member of Chief Alissa Vincent's team.

Ax-Crazy: Thanks to the Marker signal hitting him like a ton of bricks, he ends up as this.
Boom, Headshot!: How he is finally put down while trying to kill Vincent, thanks to Ramirez.
Deadpan Snarker
Dirty Coward
Driven to Madness: By the Red Marker.
Made of Iron: He takes a pretty bad series of stabbings from a Lurker while the team is moving through hydroponics, but is still formidable enough to pin Vincent to the floor and nearly kill her.
Sanity Slippage: He is one of the people most affected by the Marker signal.
Slasher Smile: Has a massive grin while murdering Shen and trying to murder Vincent.

Pendleton

Pendleton was a P.C.S.I. Security Officer and a member of Chief Alissa Vincent's team.

An Arm and a Leg: During the team's first encounter with the Necromorphs, one manages to cut off the hand he was using to shoot with....before then tearing off his jaw and ripping him to shreds.
The Big Guy: He is the biggest member of Vincent's security team.
Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Double Whammy with Black Dude Dies First.
Black Dude Dies First: While not the first person in the movie to die by far, he is the first member of the security team to get killed.

Samuel Irons

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/irons_movie.JPG

Played by: Kevin Michael Richardson

Samuel Irons was an engineering specialist and Unitologist who worked aboard the USG Ishimura. He was a very large man with strong faith in his religion who is cut from a much calmer cloth than his fellow worshippers.

The Big Guy: Tallest and stoutest member of the team. Takes this role on the team from Pendleton after the latter's death.
Character Death: Though he does die praying, he dies nonetheless.
Face Death with Dignity: While starting out as a devout Unitologist, he readily admits the teachings may have been wrong once he sees the Necromorphs, but this doesn't stop him from kneeling and calmly accepting his fate once he is cornered by them. He dies saying a small unitology prayer.
Genius Bruiser: He is an engineer, after all, so his skill with technology is equivalent to his massive physical strength.
Gentle Giant: Despite being a huge and strongly built man, he's patient, even-tempered and friendly.
Heroic Sacrifice: Gives his life so the others can escape the hordes of necromorphs.
Magical Native American: Not only is he visible Native American, he's also the only Unitologist in the entire series who is not evil and does not go insane, which makes him pretty damn magical.
Nice Guy: He's just a generally affable sort of fellow.
Only Sane Man: Out of all the Unitologists we see in the series, it's clear that he is one of, if not the only one who thinks that there might be something very wrong with the idea of "Enlightenment".

Aegis VII Personnel and Residents

Sam Caldwell

An engineer stationed on Aegis VII and Lexine Murdoch's boyfriend. What was supposed to be a routine planet crack changed due to the discovery of a mysterious red artifact. He and his team are sent to extract what everyone is now calling "The Marker"...

Decoy Protagonist: He winds up being gunned down at the end of his chapter of the game.
Player Character: He's your player character in the first chapter of Extraction.
Through the Eyes of Madness: Kills his entire crew, believing them to be monsters. Or, at least, that's what Nathan MacNeil claims; we don't know if he really did just hallucinate them all, if he was Mistaken for Murderer as a result of legitimately defending himself against necromorphs, or if it's something in between.

Nathan McNeill

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nathan.png

Played by: Joseph May

A detective stationed on Aegis VII and the player character whose point of view is shown through most of the game. He was investigating the bizarre rash of murders and insanity since the extraction of the Marker, until he meets up with his old friend Gabe Weller from the USG Ishimura. He soon finds himself trapped on a madness-ravaged Aegis VII, along with an alien threat known as the Necromorphs.

Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The Spider impales his arm with a spike before leaving, ultimately causing his infection and death.
Nice Guy
The Hero Dies: Sadly turned out to be the one that became a necromorph at the end of Extraction, forcing Lexine to kill him.
Private Detective: His original job was as a privately employed detective, examining crime amongst the colonists of Aegis VII.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Gabe Weller; the two snark and bicker constantly, but they have each others' back.

Lexine Murdoch-Weller

Played by: Laura Pyper

A surveyor of Aegis VII and girlfriend of Sam Caldwell. As the Aegis VII colonists go mad, she tries to find sanctuary in the security office, but joins Nathan and Gabe as they all try to escape from the Necromorph attack.

Lexine reappears in Dead Space 2: Severed, once again trying to escape from Necromorphs.

Action Girl: She protected Gabe and found painkillers, off-screen.
Damsel in Distress: She's stuck in the hospital during the second Necromorph attack. She's also one of the Key Subjects Tiedemann marked for Termination alongside Isaac, and the Church of Unitology wants her as well.
The Chick: Most of the time, she has to be protected by Nathan and Weller, but you do see her use a gun and defend herself later on.
Doom Magnet: Everyone close to her winds up dead.
The Immune: She is immune to Red Marker influence like Michael Altman, and imparts resistance to it to those who remain in close proximity.
MacGuffin Super Person: In Extraction, she somehow has the ability to nullify the Marker hallucinations which is why the Church of Unitology is after her. In Severed She was one of the subjects in Tiedemann's project, likely because of her ability to cancel out Marker-induced hallucinations. It's revealed that she's pregnant, and her and Gabe's child was also of interest to the government.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite having an entire DLC centered around how important she was to EarthGov and the Unitologists, she disappeared from the series after 2. May also be a case of her being Put on a Bus because of her pregnancy.
Zettai Ryouiki: She wears this distinctive outfit on top of normal pants.

Warren Eckhardt

Played by: Jon Cartwright

Executive Director of Colonial Mining Affairs for the Concordance Extraction Corporation. He survives the crash that wipes out the shuttles, and relies on Nathan, Gabe, and Lexine for protection, as he possesses the keycodes needed to operate the last working shuttle off the planet.

In the Back: After shooting Weller, he's fatally impaled through the back by a Slasher.
Karmic Death: After figuratively stabbing Weller in the back, he's literally stabbed in the back by a Slasher. For added irony, the necromorphs are essentially the angels of his religion, even if his religion initially denies it.
The Load: He doesn't really do anything for the party after giving them the shuttle, mostly whining and complaining.
The Mole: He's secretly working for the Church of Unitology all along, first to help them secure the Marker, then to secure Lexine. His traitorous nature is revealed when he gets Karen Howell killed by a Tentacle, then cemented when he turns on Well at the game's ending.

Abraham Neumann

A P-Sec officer and the protagonist of a comic prequel to the game.

Noble Bigot with a Badge: Has a very dim view of Unitology, based on his ex-wife's devotion to it. He's not hesitant about spouting off his distrust of it, even around his Unitologist partner. Despite this, he is generally trying to help people. Given what happens to many Unitologists later, it isn't completely unjustified.
Only Sane Man: Not quite, but he figured the Marker was bad news as soon as it was dug up.
What Happened to the Mouse?: After leaving a final recording, he wanders off into the Necromorph-filled hallways of the colony, likely killed by them. Isaac can find his recording in-game.

USG O'Bannon Crew

Caleb Campbell

Played by: Graham McTavish

The captain of the USG O’Bannon.

Alliterative Name
Drowning My Sorrows: After the Aegis VII incident involving many deaths of his crew mates and Kuttner’s insanity, he was seen in Stross’ flashback drinking a bottle or two.
Expy: To Benjamin Mathius of the USG Ishimura, where aside from the scar on Campbell’s left side of his face, they shared a similar appearance and status as captain. However, he could also be considered a Good Counterpart because Campbell clearly wants nothing to do with the shard, knowing that it’s affecting his psyche and was more concerned about his crew, while Mathius goes further insane, determined to get the shard back home, not caring what happens to the people onboard.
Retirony: Before he sacrificed himself to save the remaining crew, Campbell wanted someone to tell his now-widowed wife she was right about retiring before his final mission.

Nolan Stross

Played by: Curt Cornelius

A scientist that experimented on a Marker in Dead Space: Aftermath. Stross went insane and was locked up on the Sprawl after he killed his wife and son (whether he was hallucinating or if they had turned into Necromorphs is unknown). In Dead Space 2, Stross knows Isaac since they both had information about the Marker, and insists that he knows how to destroy it, but his incoherent ramblings make him hard to understand.

Ax-Crazy: After the Marker is done with him, he goes completely insane with a penchant of sticking screwdrivers into people's eyes
Asshole Victim: His hubris is directly responsible for everything that happens on the O'Bannon in Aftermath. Even before he came under the Marker Shard's influence and brutally murdered his wife and infant child, he was still an arrogant dick. Supplemental material shows that he was cheating on his wife, planned on leaving her, and thought too highly of himself to consider that he shouldn't be playing with the Red Marker fragment. When all hell broke loose, he panicked, leading directly to a lot of people's deaths.
Bullying a Dragon: Granted, he was completely bonkers by that time but seriously, attacking an armored Isaac Clarke in close-combat with a screwdriver is not a good idea. Same thing could be said about gouging out one of Ellie's eyes, since all it achieved was pissing her off enough for her to finally open a can of whoopass on him.
Buried Alive: Stross' greatest fear, as manifested by the interrogation chair, is being buried alive and left to die.
Canon Immigrant: He appeared in Dead Space: Aftermath before Dead Space 2.
Foreshadowing: Stross' purpose in the game is to provide clues to what Isaac needs to do in order to complete his mission to kill the Marker. Isaac actually goes out of his way to save Stross because he believes Stross holds the key to understanding how Isaac can stop the outbreak.
Face–Heel Turn: The further down his sanity spirals, the less helpful he becomes, until he's actively hindering your progress. It's born of a desire to not accept responsibility for what he's done.
Heroic BSoD: He killed his wife and kid while hallucinating. The guilt eventually leads to his death.
Madness Mantra: As he grows increasingly insane, Stross starts babbling constantly about the "three steps", with no greater context for what those mean.
The Millstone:
- Stross is a completely useless liability. While he tells Isaac where the Marker is, and claims to knows how to destroy it, Stross degenerates rapidly into a Madness Mantra and has nothing to contribute after that. Once he becomes violent, Isaac struggles with him and kills him. Turns out, his help was unnecessary, anyway. To the point that the developers put an audiolog on his body, in the extremely likely event that the player would want to abuse his corpse.
- He was also this in Aftermath, culminating with him hesitating to throw the Marker Shard inside the ship's engines to destroy it, while the other survivors were fighting for their lives against the Necromorphs.
Never My Fault: His Fatal Flaw. As Dead Space: Aftermath showed, he was responsible for the death of several people after breaking a seal on a door, which let a necromorph slaughter a crew of workers. Driven insane by it, he brutally murders his wife, Alexis, and their son, by his own hands. By refusing to accept responsibility for his actions, the Marker slowly drives him crazy in 2, to the point he starts attacking Isaac and Ellie, forcing Isaac to kill him in self-defense.
Shadow Archetype: To Isaac. Isaac and Stross were both brought to the same colony and suffer from similar delusions under the Marker's influence. However, Isaac accepts his girlfriend's death and stays sane, while Stross let's his guilt consume him.
Sanity Slippage: Starts out fairly coherent and helpful, and gradually degenerates through the course of the game as the Marker eats away at his mind, until he's a violent maniac.
Through the Eyes of Madness: He kills his wife and kid because he saw them as a slasher and lurker, respectively.
Your Cheating Heart: With Isabel Cho, despite being married, though Stross claims his family is important to him.

Dr. Isabel Cho

Played by: Gwendoline Yeo

The O'Bannon's doctor as well as the woman Stross was having an affair with.

A Fate Worse Than Death: Being lobotomized in a drooling vegetable and framed as the one responsible for all the deaths that happened on Aegis VII, the Ishimura, and the O'Bannon. What else could you call what Earth-Gov did to her?
Ms. Fanservice: In some of the Flashbacks. Notable as she's the only Dead Space human female shown having sex or partially nude
Heroic Willpower: Said to have a notably strong will that kept her resistant to both the Marker and the Earth-Gov conspiracy's temptations. Sadly her resistance to the latter leads to her downfall when Earth-Gov decides she's a liability.
The Scapegoat: Cho is turned into this by Earth-Gov in order to cover up the events that transpired at Aegis VII as punishment for refusing their job offer in studying the Markers. She's lobotomized to keep her quiet and framed to the public as a terrorist that massacred the crew on Aegis VII, the Ishimura and the O'Bannon before being held at the Sprawl to be tried for her "crimes".
Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Despite Cho’s fate and only being mentioned in a log, what happened to her during Dead Space 2 hasn’t been brought up.

Nickolas Kuttner

Played by: Christopher Judge

The Big Guy: As a buff and big ex-marine, he's the strongest of the survivors and the one known for taking out the biggest Necromorphs. He even managed to fight his way out from the Earth-Gov interrogators before unintentionally killing himself.
Outliving One's Offspring: His daughter Vivian died prior to the movie, which was the source of angst that the Marker Fragment takes advantage of.

Alejandro Borges

Played by: Ricardo Chavira

Artificial Limbs: A rarity seeing as most people just get cloned ones in Dead Space's future.
Cluster F-Bomb: Swears like a sailor in response to all the horror he's seen.
Handicapped Badass: He’s missing an arm, but he makes up for it with a cybernetic replacement. He survives the Necromorph outbreak on the USG O’Bannon, and is able to keep himself sane while a majority who encounter the Marker go crazy. He’s only killed because someone shoots him in the back when his guard is down.
Hope Spot: Led to believe he was getting away unharmed before he got shot in the head.
It's All My Fault: Said this word to word after his cousin died in Aegis VII.
Only Sane Man: Remained resistant to the Marker's influence like Cho, and the only male to show no change in attitude in response to the events on the O'Bannon. Lampshaded by Borges himself.
Alejandro Borges: Seriously, am I the only one who didn't go batshit crazy back on that damn planet?!
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Was seen surrounded by Necromorphs before being cutoff from Captain Campbell in Stross’s flashback and later revealed to survive in one piece in Cho’s flashback, clearly fighting them off while creating weapons to fight against them.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Gets his head blasted when the Earth-Gov interrogators decided he wasn't useful since he hadn't made direct contact with the Marker fragment.
You Killed My Father: Holds a grudge against Kuttner for killing his cousin in Aegis VII.

Personnel, Residents and Crew of The Sprawl

Vandal, aka Karrie Norton

Played by: Anna Vocino

A newly converted Unitologist who takes on a secret mission to sabotage the Sprawl, believing it is some sort of protest against EarthGov, but is actually a way for the Necromorphs to reach the Sprawl. After a My God, What Have I Done? moment, Vandal starts working with Tiedmann to keep the Necromorphs from reaching the residential part of the Sprawl. The protagonist of the Dead Space iOS game.

Action Girl: Being female in no way stops her from fighting her way through a spaceborne Zombie Apocalypse. Of course, it's not initially revealed that she's female.
The Atoner: After causing the Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, Vandal works to keep it contained.
Chainsaw Good: In contrast to Isaac, who was limited to punching Necromorphs, Vandal starts out with a one-handed plasma saw (a chainsaw with an energy blade) for melee attacks.
Left Hanging: After killing the Boss Necromorph, Vandal suffers serious wounds, and messages Tiedemann, saying they aren't going to make it. Soon afterwards, all that's left is their helmet, and a trail of blood. Whether Vandal escaped, or was turned into a Necromorph is unknown.
One Steve Limit: There's nothing to suggest that Karrie Norton is related to Robert Norton.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Vandal is the codename given to Vandal by Tyler Redikov, Vandal's handler.
Samus Is a Girl: The shocking twist behind Vandal's true identity in the ending proves that this trope is not dead yet.
Sanity Slippage: Vandal struggles with this throughout the game.

Ellie Langford

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ellie_ds2.jpg

You stay back. You wanna talk, talk from there. And don't say you're here to help. The last person who said that tried to kill me

Played by: Sonita Henry

A Class 4 heavy equipment pilot working on the Sprawl when all Hell breaks loose. She and a few of her friends lasted for a while, but by the time Isaac finds her she is the only one left. She is at first reluctant to trust Isaac, but goes along with his plan to destroy the new Marker and stop the Necromorphs.

Action Girl: A CEC Class Four Heavy Equipment pilot. She kicks major ass and calls Isaac a nerd.
Action Survivor: One of very few characters to survive a Dead Space game. And only one of three people who has survived two outbreaks.
Aesop Amnesia: Just like Isaac in Dead Space 3, Ellie seems to have completely forgotten that Marker signals drive people insane, claiming that she has no idea why her boyfriend, Norton, is becoming increasingly hostile toward Isaac and possessive towards her. This is after she had survived the Necromorph outbreak on the sprawl, has seen first hand what Marker signals do to people, and was so knowledgeable on Markers that she was the lead on an expedition to find the source of the Markers and shut them down.
Ambiguously Brown: Ellie's apparently modeled after her voice actress Sonita Henry, who's mixed-race.
Bad Ass Bookworm: When you first meet her, she's fighting off Necromorphs. No big deal, right? Except she's knows they can rip her apart, and is safely taking them apart from behind a security fence. No one else thought to do this in the chaos of the outbreak.
Defrosting Ice Queen
Determinator: After Stross gouges out her eye her RIG shows she only has about 15% health left, yet she struggles on and continues to kick ass unabated.
Electronic Eye: In 3, having two eyes of different colors and no coordination problems. Isaac even mentions having gotten it. It was a replacement after all.
Eyepatch of Power: After Stross gouges out her right eye roughly two thirds of the way into 2, she covers the wound up with an eyepatch.
Eye Scream: When you reach a certain point in 2, Stross goes nuts and tries to impale her through the eye-socket with a screwdriver. He "just" gouges it out instead due to her struggling against him.
Faux Action Girl: In Dead Space 3. Granted, she is still a helpful asset to Isaac and barely avoids Chickification by not being a Distressed Damsel for the most part. However, she hardly does anything to defend herself onscreen despite having to be shown as an Action Girl in the previous game.
Girlish Pigtails: In 2, despite a severe girlishness deficiency otherwise.
Major Injury Underreaction: Her eye gets gouged out by a madman with a screwdriver, and her response to this is to insist Isaac owes her a new one after kicking the assailant's ass.
Second Love: Zig-zagged. She and Isaac became a couple after the events of "2", but she broke up with him by the start of "3", ultimately starting a relationship with Captain Norton. After Norton's betrayal and death, their love blossoms again.
Stiff Upper Lip: Given her mixed heritage and accent, she's British. She pretty mellow for losing an eye.
Survivor Guilt: She was the only member of her CEC crew who escaped the CEC facility on the Sprawl and displays some shades of survivor's guilt. She's reluctant to team with Isaac at first, and is not happy when Isaac forces her to leave on a shuttle while he prepares to go off on a Heroic Sacrifice. In 3, she does it again.
Took a Level in Jerkass: To a minor degree in 3, as she's revealed to have broken up with Isaac because he refused to face his demons in lieu of simply running from his past. While her frustration is somewhat understandable and it would put pressure on any relationship; considering she knows Isaac's survived two Necromorph outbreaks, spent three years being tortured in a hospital for information and been subjected to a ton of Mind Rape by the Markers, you'd think she'd understand why he's so shell-shocked and reticent to deal with it?
Uncertain Doom: She ends the third game by shocking back to Earth, which Awakening reveals is already being fed upon by the other Brethren Moons. However, she may be able to escape being eaten because she's already in an FTL capable ship, though there really isn't anywhere to flee to. Word of God is that they were planning to have her be the protagonist of Dead Space 4, which apparently would have taken place after the destruction of Earth.

Hans Tiedemann

Played by: Lester Purry

The director of Titan Station, he was the one running the project that extracted the knowledge in building Markers out of Isaac's head and is partially responsible for the new Necromorph outbreak. He spends most of the game trying to stop Isaac and Ellie from getting to the Marker.

Bald, Black Leader Guy: He's the director of Titan Station and the man behind the Marker Project. He's also African. Naturally, he's completely bald.
Boom, Headshot!: Possibly his death. Combined with Impaled with Extreme Prejudice right before it.
Determinator: It doesn't matter that the station is almost destroyed, all his men are dead, monsters are everywhere and he himself has horrific injures - while he is alive, Tiedemann will not let you reach the Marker. And he's justified in trying to do it too.
Facial Horror: Towards the end of the game, he is caught in an explosion, resulting in him losing a lot of the flesh on his face, as well as his entire nose. And he's still alive.
For Science!: Tiedemann's excuse. Partly justified as the game suggests that all attempts to replicate the Marker (including the serious scientific ones) are in fact manifestations of the Marker's influence on the human mind.
The Heavy: He acts as the persistent direct antagonist for Clarke for most of the game, trying to impede his progress.
I Did What I Had to Do: Whilst he does inhibit Isaac, he does occasionally show empathy for him, and even states that, under different circumstances, he'd find his persistence admirable. An audio log later in the game also reveals that, despite the demands of his superiors, Tiedemann made sure that a decent amount of people could escape.
Knight Templar: He is determined to find way to solve humanity's looming energy crisis. Even if this means abducting people and performing torturous experiments on them in order to decipher how to build a miraculous energy-providing statuette from their brains. Despite knowing that said "miracle engine" also causes a Zombie Apocalypse.
Pet the Dog:
- Near the end of the game, you find logs that reveal that Tiedemann's order to evacuate Titan Station, given near the start of the game, was directly against the wishes of his superiors. Evacuate everyone except the people who came in contact with the Marker, who are to be killed by Sprawl Security, that is... which, considering that the Marker's architects are required for its activation, has its justifications too.
- In Dead Space Mobile, Tiedemann is quite reasonable towards Vandal and is rather quick to be willing to work with her after she explains she's not his enemy. This is quite a contrast to his no-compromise, kill-at-all-cost attitude towards Isaac.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Aside from his attitude towards Isaac, which is quite justified considering the situation, he orders the evacuation of the civilians from the Sprawl despite his superiors ordering him to leave them to the infected, even telling security to buy them time. His interactions with Vandal also border on outright friendliness.
Villainous Breakdown: The closer Isaac gets to the Marker in the second game, the more unhinged he becomes. Tiedemann goes from being polite and respectful to screaming lunatic. This also shows up in the ways he tries to stop Isaac's progress. At first, he removes Isaac and Ellie's security protocols so they can't access the systems. By the end, he's cut a tram's tracks in half with a solar beam, and sent two hundred armed guards to kill Isaac personally.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Yes, he tries to kill you multiple times, and yes, he's the one who left you to rot in an asylum for three years, and yes, he's a dick, but it's implied he had ultimately good intentions and was following orders. Also, he refused to let the civilians of the Sprawl under his care die and issued an evacuation against direct orders of his superiors.
Worthy Opponent: Considers Isaac to be one in 2, though this begins to drop off as Tiedemann undergoes a Villainous Breakdown.

Nicole Brennan Hallucination a.k.a. The Golden Marker (12B)

Played by:Tanya Clarke

A hallucination Isaac experiences repeatedly during the game. In contrast to the real Nicole, this Nicole is mean-spirited and spiteful, alternating between belittling Isaac and flat out yelling at him.

Assimilation Plot: Her/its ultimate goal, if her/its Boss Banter is anything to go by. Confirmed by the ending of 3, which finally reveals the true nature of the Markers.
Big Bad: Turns out to be the true evil behind the necromorph outbreak in 2, and must be slain to stop it.
Blue and Orange Morality Only cares about pushing Isaac to complete the Convergence, whether this entails tricking him or killing him.
Dead Person Impersonation: The game flips between whether she is or isn't the "real" Nicole or is something else. Ultimately revealed to have, at least most of the time, been the Golden Marker trying to push Isaac to help it complete its mission to create a Brother Moon.
Eldritch Abomination: She's a psychic image from a statue that creates a Zombie Apocalypse and which will ultimately result in the zombies merging into a singular undead organism the size of a small planetoid. This is as good a title for her as anything.
Evil Is Hammy: During the final boss mission, she gets extremely hammy, ranting and raving incessantly.
Humanoid Abomination: Every time she/it appears to Isaac, it/she appears as a bloody, corpse-like version of Nicole with Glowing Eyes of Doom and a Throat Light.
Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Capable of inflicting this on Isaac if he doesn't fight off her influence. Including having him cause a Neck Snap to himself.

Daina LeGuin

Played by: Tahyna Tozzi

The first person to contact Isaac once he breaks out of the asylum. She says she knows how to make the hallucinations stop, and spends the first third of the game directing Isaac to her.

Asshole Victim: With The Reveal that she was only out to rescue Isaac so that she could spread Markers across the galaxy and annihilate humanity through Convergence, she elicits no sympathy whatsoever when an EarthGov gunship shreds her and her last surviving followers.
Awesome Aussie: Definitely Aussie, definitely NOT awesome: she's a religious nutjob who wants to assist in the extinction of humanity for religious reasons.
Ax-Crazy: Considering that she plans for you to build markers for them to spread "glorious Convergence" across the entire galaxy, it's safe to say that she's a loon. Although she hides her Marker-obsessed insanity enough to get Isaac to trust her.
Big Bad Wannabe: She wants to use Isaac to spread "Convergence" across all of the human colonies in the galaxy. But she ends up being unceremoniously killed off by EarthGov once they find her.
Big "NO!": Her Famous Last Words before a gunship, having arrived on the scene, opens up on her and smears her over the walls.
Expy: To Kendra. Both were your Voice with an Internet Connection, female, and well-endowed. And they both betray you, only to be killed shortly after. Lampshaded by Isaac when they meet in person.
- Also to Mercer: Both are religious maniacs whose delusional beliefs are being used to justify plans to commit genocide.
Isaac: You're a Unitologist? Of course you are. Why did I trust you?!
False Friend: She pretends to want to help cure you. It's a damnable lie.
Karmic Death: Dies within seconds of revealing her insane plan to have you build markers.
Ludicrous Gibs: After declaring her victory and ordering her men to put Isaac in stasis, a gunship arrives on the scene and rends her to fish chum in a hail of bullets.
Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: A variant; she never acts insane when she's directing you through the comms, but when you meet her, she reveals how unhinged she is and always has been.
Omnicidal Maniac: Plans for Isaac to build Markers so that the Church can spread the necromorph infestation across the galaxy.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Finds herself on the receiving end of this trope when, as she was gloating about how she fooled Isaac into trusting her and starts exposing her plans, a gunship appears and promptly tears her and her henchmen to shreds with heavy machinegun fire.
Treacherous Advisor: Was actively planning on screwing Isaac over from before her agent even found him, and when he does reach her, she has her goons grab him before she even bothers to look at him.
Voice with an Internet Connection: During the early part of Dead Space 2, she's in constant communication with Isaac, guiding him on where to go.

Dr. Foster Edgars

Played by: Rick Cramer

A doctor who experimented on Isaac and Stross. When Isaac runs into him, he cuts Isaac out of his straitjacket, apologizes for what he did, and slits his own throat.

Asshole Victim: You don't really care about him killing himself when you realize he was one of the doctors experimenting on the unstable Isaac. Several logs you find reinforce he really, really doesn't deserve any sympathy.
Ax-Crazy: The Marker eventually makes him crack and kill at least several medical staff when the Sprawl Outbreak begins.
Dr. Jerk: Even beyond the fact he's involved in illegal experiments that border on psychological torture, he's shown to be a real asshole.
Driven to Suicide: In a classic case of Marker Sickness, after a brief spree of murder, he ends it by killing himself.
Faux Affably Evil: In Aftermath, he politely welcomes Stross to his new home, aka being trapped in a stasis pod that keeps its victim conscious and only being taken out to be cruelly experimented on. The recordings of his patient sessions show him to be merciless in his experimentation on Stross via the decoding machine, ignoring Stross' pleas not to be sent back in.
Fighting from the Inside: Fights off his insanity momentarily to help Isaac.
My God, What Have I Done?: Realizes too late that helping with the creation of the Marker was a BAD idea.
Must Make Amends: He helps Isaac escape from the medical facility, to make up for the years of experimentation.
Pet the Dog: His last words are an apology.
Redemption Equals Death: He manages to regain just enough of his sanity to free Isaac from his straight jacket, then give him a health pack and flashlight, before apologizing and committing suicide.
Sanity Slippage: While originally just an asshole of a Doctor, after the outbreak he apparently murdered several members of the medical staff. How many were killed due to the liquidation order, and how many Foster killed due to his Marker induced insanity, is unknown.
Slashed Throat: He commits suicide by slicing open the length of his throat with a scalpel.

Col. Victor Bartlett

Appearing only in Severed, Bartlett is Weller's superior officer. Despite the Necromorph outbreak, he directs Weller around the Sprawl and tries to help him reach Lexine.

Eye Scream: Gets his eyes torn out by the Oracles. Doesn't stop him from lethally wounding Gabe though.
Face–Heel Turn: Initially it seems like he's helping Gabe, however, he sics a gunship on Weller and tries to kill Lexine.
I Have Your Wife: Sort of, he calls you at multiple times in chapter 2 to remind you how he's tracking her down and going to kill her.
Just Following Orders: Although he has no personal grudge against Weller and Lexine, his orders are to kill Lexine, and he has no intention of disobeying them. When he dies, he says these exact three words whilst doing so.

In general

I'm a Humanitarian: Low supplies and desperation led to some of the S.C.A.F trying to extend their resources by eating killed necromorphs. Naturally, this backfired on them horribly, turning them into a new strain of necromorph nicknamed "Feeders".
Kill 'Em All: Once they received the Liquidation order from Command, they scuttled all vehicles, purged all data, and killed absolutely everyone.
Leave No Witnesses: Part of the Liquidation order was to exterminate anyone who might be able to pass on the infection, or even tell people where they could get infected.
New Meat: There was a civil war on Earth occurring during the same time period of the excavation, so Sovereign Colonies Command mostly sent those who they judged weren't vital to the war effort, plus a few veterans to keep them in line. Many of the more experienced soldiers lambasted that, "half of these guys don't know how to hold a gun, and the other half run for the hills when they hear one go off."
Posthumous Characters: Everyone, considering their time on Tau Volantis was 200 years before the series proper. With the exception of the Feeders.
Senseless Sacrifice: If they'd gone down into the city and activated the machine, they could have destroyed the Brethren Moons forever. Instead, they wasted their lives by simply offing themselves and destroying the Codex instead, in a classic bout of Lawful Stupid.
- This was mostly due, in no small part, to the many MANY Markers (and their creator) being in such close proximity. Giving everyone on the planet and in orbit a solid dosing of Marker signals, driving them insane.
Undying Loyalty: Granted, not 100% loyalty, but there are enough fanatically loyal soldiers present that a Liquidation order is met with near-universal acceptance in the military attachment. One text log describes a soldier retrieving a body bag, sharing a last smoke and speech with the author, sitting down inside and then calmly offing himself.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The "Liquidation" procedure. It's official title is Scenario 5, part of a set of procedures generated for first contact situations. Scenario 5 is only to be invoked in the most extremely lethal of cases, where a bio-outbreak that threatens the extinction of humanity occurs.

The 163rd "Reapers"

An elite band of black-ops soldiers, the Reapers were specifically chosen to guard the Tau Volantis research mission, with their own dedicated barracks near the Research Compound.

Brainwashed and Crazy: The 'Reapers,' are apparently psychologically conditioned to accept orders. In their barracks, they have their own version of the Liquidation order, which is instead a series of repeated instructions plus many subliminal images.
Initiation Ceremony: Zigzagged with the Horrific and Humiliating varieties; they play off their treatment of Private Myers as a hazing ritual to make him prove he's worthy of joining the Reapers, but the reality is they're just doing it for laughs and have no intention of letting him in.
Kick the Dog: Several files found in their barracks talk about their brutal psychological torment of a hopeful aspirant, Private Myers, culminating in them making him clean the toilets with his bare hands for a week — and with no showers in between — before they finally reveal they never were going to let him join.
- The Dog Bites Back: Snapping as a result of what they did, Private Myers took their claims he would become a Reaper only when all of them were dead literally, grabbing an axe and decapitating all of them in their sleep.
Mockstery Tale: When Isaac initially enters their barracks and finds severed heads laying everywhere, the stage is set for an ancient, horrifying mystery to unravel. By the end of the next room, Isaac's found the three logs which anti-climatically explains the details, and lets him get on with looting the barracks.
Sociopathic Soldier: The Reapers are explicitly stated to be bloodthirsty, brutal, psychotic killers. In fact, they earned their reputation doing black ops and "wetwork" (assassination, torture, and other usually-illegal activities) during the early parts of the Seccessionist Wars.

Maj. Gen. Spencer Mahad

Played by: Keith Szarabajka

Leader of the S.C.A.F. ground unit at Tau Volantis.

Boom, Headshot!: He kills Caufman, and then kills himself, with a single shot to the head each.
Four-Star Badass: He managed to stop the outbreak on his world dead, even if it was at the cost of both his life and everyone else's.
Honor Before Reason: Even after Caufman tells him that Serano knows a way to stop the Necromorph infestation, and the Codex is the key to salvaging everything, he still views the situation as beyond recovery and fulfills the Liquidation order anyway.
Murder-Suicide: After executing Caufman, he turns to a Sovereign Colonies flag, salutes it, and then kills himself.
My Country, Right or Wrong: Even when his orders involve killing everyone under his command and protection, and then himself, he obeys without hesitation.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Could have stopped the Necromorphs from existing 200 years before the first game if he'd only trusted Serano's claims that the Codex could also be used to activate the "Necromorph Destroy Mode" of the Machine.
Only Sane Man: Of the command trio, he's the only who thinks experimenting on Markers is a bad idea. He's absolutely correct.
Peeling Potatoes: In a log, he threatened to dole out this punishment to Caufman if he doesn't find the munitions depot key by sundown.
Posthumous Character: Like all S.C.A.F characters, he was alive two centuries before Isaac and company were even born.
Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- He got involved with the Marker experiments only to try and avert the looming energy crisis for humanity. Furthermore, the level 5 containment action is only to be activated in the case of an "extinction level" biohazard outbreak — and freeing the Brethren Moon would certainly count as that.
- It's shown that he had his doubts about the mission from the start; he would've preferred spending his time fighting what would eventually become EarthGov, and clashed with Admiral Graves and Doctor Serrano over it.
You Are in Command Now: Pulled this on himself, as he relieved Admiral Graves and took command of the expedition after Graves started to lose her marbles.

Pvt. Tim Caufman

Played by: Scott DeFalco

An S.C.A.F. Private, Caufman was part of a mission to Tau Volantis 200 years before the incident on the Sprawl.

Adorkable: He is a naive and well-mannered, but inexperienced soldier who still attempted to stop the horrors on Tau Volantis.
Cowardly Lion: He panics at the sight of the Necromorphs, but still fights his way through.
Decoy Protagonist: He's the player character in the prologue, and like the rest of the S.C.A.F. expedition to Tau Volantis, he ends up getting killed.
Determinator: Most of his comrades dead, his leadership dead, hasn't had much (if any food) in days, undead horrors trying to kill him, his partner constantly saying that the mission is doomed (if the player is playing co-op), and being a green as grass support troop who was never even trained to deal with this kind of situation would not stop him from finding the Codex and stopping the necromorph threat. Too bad that his insane General and a loaded revolver could..
Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Other then the "God" utterance, he most of the time never swears or uses profanity, even when panicking.
New Meat: His inexperience shows through his constant panic. He also forgot to grab ammo before setting out to find the Codex.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: He struggles to retrieve a cylinder containing data for Doctor Serrano, but is killed by General Maheed, who deletes all of the data before killing himself.

Pvt. Sam Ackerman

Another S.C.A.F. Private, he appears alongside Caufman if the prologue is played on co-op.

The Cynic: Is extremely critical of his and Caufman's chances of accomplishing the mission, given that the necromorphs have already killed everyone else (most of whom were more experienced and better trained than they were). He was absolutely right.
Determinator: He was trapped in a very small bunker with dozens of necromorph infected, cannibalistic soldiers (who were more experienced than him), he hadn't had food in days thanks to the shortage (and refusing to eat necromorph tissue). Yet he still manages to escape, trap his insane comrades in the bunker, and then set off on a mission to find the Codex. It took the flaming wreckage of a crashed space ship and an avalanche to finally stop him.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Caufman may avoid being crushed by the falling spaceship midway through the prologue, but poor Ackerman doesn't.
I Did What I Had to Do: You can find his logs in the Feeder barracks. He hid in a back room for days, and eventually locked his unit in when he ran. Since they were going crazy at the time, it's pretty justified.
Only Sane Man: Of his unit, he was the only one not foolish enough to start eating Necromorph flesh to bolster their meager meals; conversely, he was the only one who didn't become a Feeder.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Caufman's blue, but with only a few lines of dialogue, it's hard to tell.

Admiral Marjorie Graves

The leader of the S.C.A.F. expedition to Tau Volantis, and commander of the ship CMS Roanoke.

Meaningful Name: She lead the expedition to their graves.
Room Full of Crazy: Her quarters are absolutely covered in scrawlings, ranging from Marker script to pleas for somebody to "Turn It Off!"
Sanity Slippage: Was one of the earliest sufferers in the S.C.A.F. forces. General Mahad would order her confined to her quarters, where she wound out writing "Turn it Off" in Marker script all along the walls.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She sought the Markers in order to try and save humanity from the resource and energy crisis that had consumed them, and believed that finding the source of the Markers would greatly aid the Sovereign Colonies in their war.

Lt. Tucker Edwards

Pilot of the CMS Terra Nova. When the Liquidation order came in, he killed his commander and barricaded himself in the ship's conning tower.

Dead All Along: If Isaac chooses to go into the Conning Tower to nab Tucker's supplies, you'll hear audiologs from him, taunting you as you progress. Given that he lived 200 years ago, this doesn't count as a spoiler, as it's not much of a surprise when you get to the end of the road.
Determinator:
- The tally marks on the floor indicates he lived ten years and seven months by himself after the order was given. Though this brings up the question, why didn't he just leave if there was a shuttle and he was a pilot? See headscratchers page for more detail.
- Considering that the bodies of those infected by The Virus were lurking in the exact same ship he was in, he probably barred himself in to stop them from killing him.
Driven to Suicide: Eventually, loneliness and guilt overcomes him and he kills himself.
I Don't Want to Die: His logs constantly talk about how he wants to survive, and he killed his captain, the woman he loved, rather than let her shoot him. He then retreated to the Conning Tower and rigged it full of booby-traps to protect himself from any S.C.A.F forces coming after him. Subverted when, years later, realizing he was the only one left caused him to give up and commit suicide anyway.
Mad Bomber: Rigged bombs and other traps all around the Conning Tower.
Optional Boss: Visiting the Conning Tower is entirely optional; you get quite a lot of loot for persisting through all his traps.
Villainous Breakdown: Not much of a villain, but the deeper you progress, the more unhinged his audiologs become. He starts out somewhat boastful, before just repeating that he doesn't want to die, before realizing that he should have accepted the Liquidation order.

Doctor Earl Serrano

The head researcher of the Sovereign Colonies expedition to Tau Volantis, the player can find audiologs throughout the game describing his discoveries and research on Tau Volantis.

The Faceless: His face is shrouded in darkness in the audio log that explains existence of the Brethren Moons. We do find his body, but, being two hundred years old, it's desiccated.
Fling a Light into the Future: Not wholly intentionally, but his audiologs and research prove to be quite useful instructions for Isaac Clarke.
My God, What Have I Done?: The only time we hear him sound defeated is when he explains that the SCAF expedition has doomed humanity by awakening the Moon.
Nightmare Fetishist: He's fascinated by both the Necromorphs and the alien species that lived on Tau Volantis.
Only Sane Man: Unlike almost any other scientist who worked on the Markers, Doctor Serrano remained completely sane and rational. Of the Sovereign Colonies expedition, he realized the truth about the Markers and attempted to activate the machine, however, Mahad's killing of Caufman and his own injuries stopped him from doing so. His audiologs tend to be quite helpful to Isaac Clarke, however.
Title Drop: He performs the only one in the entire franchise when he realizes in his final audio log that mankind never encountered alien life in centuries of space travel because the Brethren Moons turned much of the galaxy into dead space long before humans ever got the chance to make first contact.

USM Eudora Crew

Sergeant John Carver

Played by: Ricardo Chavira

An Earth Defense Force Space Marine from the colony world or Uxor, home of the Site 4 Marker. Carver lost his family after a Unitologist terrorist attack destroys the shroud surrounding the Marker. He later joins the crew of the USM Eudora with Isaac Clarke on a mission to Tau Volantis, hoping to destroy the Markers once and for all.

Adult Fear: After the Site 4 Marker was exposed, an outbreak of Necromorphs erupts and he cannot contact his wife and child, both of whom are completely vulnerable.
The Atoner: He expresses a desire to make up for his past towards the end and questions if his actions up that point have at least partially made up for it. Isaac tells him You Are Better Than You Think You Are.
Brains and Brawn: In the co-op, he serves as the Brawn to Isaac's Brain; as a soldier, he's not very good at puzzles, but he is good at killing necromorphs and keeping Isaac safe.
Co-Op Multiplayer: Serves as player 2 in Dead Space 3 dropping in and out of the action depending on the number of players.
Deadpan Snarker: Practically everything that comes out of his
Death Equals Redemption: A side mission reveals that following a domestic abuse incident involving his wife and son, Carver attempted to kill himself only for his wife to interrupt.
Deuteragonist: He serves in this role for Dead Space 3, adventuring alongside Isaac to the very end of the game, although he's only directly fighting alongside him in a co-op campaign.
Domestic Abuse: A side mission reveals that Carver has been suffering from PTSD pre-game, and he even ended up assaulting his wife in front of his son. Despite therapy and understanding from his family, he later tried to kill himself out of guilt.
Doomed Hometown: His home planet of Uxor is destroyed by a Necromorph outbreak.
Driven to Suicide: An audio log on one of Carver's side missions reveals he was on the verge of killing himself from guilt before his wife unexpectedly walked in.
Fire-Forged Friends: With Isaac. During their first conversation he tells Isaac quite flatly, "We're not friends," but by the end there is a mutual respect between them.
Good Is Not Nice: He's willing to Shoot the Dog if necessary, such as letting Santos die, but the guilt clearly weighs on him.
Good Scars, Evil Scars:
- As the second protagonist in Dead Space 3, his facial scars are considerably less horrific than other physical deformities in the franchise.
- It's not even as horrific as the other heroes! During the game's final cutscene, it's Isaac with a scalp gash, while Carver remains unblemished. This is true even during co-op play, when Carver is actually involved in the shooting. Throughout the game, only Isaac's character model of the two of them changes.
Heroic Sacrifice: Stays behind with Isaac to prevent Convergence, even knowing that this means dying when the Brother Moon slams into Tau Volantis.
I Did What I Had to Do: How he feels about cutting the cable holding up the Elevator, allowing it to fall and killing Santos in the process. It was about to bring the whole cliff down around them.
Jerkass: He's taciturn, ruthless, and has zero people skills. If you play solo, he mostly just comes across as a goon with a gun, although he does Pet the Dog once or twice such as when he backs Isaac up after Isaac shoots Norton. The co-op game and side missions show him as having quite a lot of Hidden Depths, though.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though unpleasant and sometimes bitter, it's clear he's a good person at heart.
Parental Neglect: He wasn't the best father to his son, which features in his hallucinations.
Parents as People: He wasn't able to spend as much time with his son as he would have like to, because of his job.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The choleric Manly Man to Isaac's melancholy Sensitive Guy.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Markers make Carver see remnants of his dead family and the horrors he has experienced as a soldier. One of his side-missions reveals he's been suffering from PTSD and hallucinations before his wife and son were killed.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Swears even more than a freaked out Isaac Clarke.
Space Marine: He's an Earth Defense Force soldier fighting Necromorphs throughout space.
Staking the Loved One: When he finds his family, they've both been killed by Danik and claimed by the infection, forcing him to re-kill them both when they attempt to kill him.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's a rage-filled Space Marine, as opposed to melancholic engineer Isaac Clarke. His visor even matches.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Invoked. The visor lights in military RIGs all glow red to make them look more threatening.
Unreliable Narrator: Playing as Carver results in the player seeing things that the less-insane Isaac cannot. His second side mission begins with entering an elevator, only to find out in the end that they've been standing in the elevator for five minutes and Isaac's just waiting for him to push the button.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Near the end he confesses to Isaac that he is not a good man and has made a lot of mistakes. Asking if he thinks fighting and potentially dying to stop the Necromorphs makes up for all the bad stuff he's done. Isaac assures him that despite all his mistakes he means well, and that that alone makes him a good man.

Capt. Robert Norton

Played by: Robert Gant

Leader of EarthGov's last remaining battalion after the Unitologists wiped out most of the military. He searches for Isaac on Ellie's behalf, as Isaac's the key to stopping the Necromorph threat to the galaxy.

Asshole Victim: Nobody is crying when Isaac finally kills him, especially seeing as how he had just sold them all out to the Circle. In-Universe, the only one who is upset is Ellie, who isn't there when he tries to sell Isaac to Danik.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Subverted. He's the leader of the group and the only coward among them. While everyone else is risking their lives to stop the Necromorphs for good, Norton is always complaining about the odds or trying to convince them to escape instead. Eventually, no one bothers to listen to him anymore.
Boom, Headshot!: Isaac accidentally shoots him in the head in self-defense.
Came Back Wrong: Ultimately his corpse gets infected by the Necromorph pathogen and attacks Isaac and John, who quickly kill him the second and final time.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Acts this way to Isaac about Ellie, but assumes it's the other way around. Ellie even calls him out on it in Liberation, but he shrugs it off with a Kick the Dog.
The Danza: He's obviously called Robert Norton because he's voiced by Robert Gant.
Deadpan Snarker: Part of his Jerkass persona, he can't answer Isaac's questions without it dripping in sarcasm.
Dirty Coward: Once he sees that Ellie is safe, he'd rather use the shuttle to get as far away from the Necromorphs as possible.
Enemy Mine: How he views his deal with Big Bad Danik against Isaac.
Fake Ultimate Hero: Seems to believe he's the hero rather than Isaac, but shows signs of indecision, cowardice and possessive behaviour towards Ellie.
Jerkass: To Isaac in 3 and to Carver and Ellie in Liberation, with him telling Carver immediately after he had to kill his family that the Necromorphs are Classified Information despite Ellie objecting, and telling the latter to go and help the former because she "likes helping screwed up basket cases". It leaves one wondering what exactly Ellie sees in him.
Jerkass Has a Point: For all the headbutting he and Isaac exchanged with each other, there was only one thing he and Isaac could wholeheartedly agree upon... That their mission to Tau Volantis would be a one-way trip.
The Mole: He tells Danik where Tau Volantis is and sells out Isaac to him in exchange for safety for Ellie and himself. Shockingly, Danik lied.
Murder the Hypotenuse: Norton attempts this and becomes the target of it instead when Isaac kills him in self-defense.
The Neidermeyer: His indecisiveness and cowardice drastically affect his ability to be an effective leader.
Pet the Dog: Even at his worst, he would rather fire warning shots than shooting his own subordinates.
Ungrateful Bastard: After Danik reneges on their deal and tries to kill them all, Isaac saves Norton from Danik. Then Isaac rescues him again from a huge Necromorph. Norton still tries to kill Isaac.
Unwitting Pawn: To the Markers, through his obsession with Ellie.
We Have Reserves: In Liberation, this is his position about Carver's Sanity Slippage and need to Kill the Ones You Love. He says that Carver can be easily replaced with any other soldier... even though he can't, which seriously pisses off Ellie.
Yandere: Is willing to kill Isaac and sell out the whole universe to keep Ellie for himself.

Mark Rosen

Crewmember of the USM Eudora.

Jerkass: Very hostile against Isaac, to the point where Isaac even outright calls him an asshole. Likely an imitation of his superior's own Jerkass attitude towards Isaac. To drive the point home, Isaac doesn't even mourn him, more relieved that his corpse was not Ellie's when he dug it out.
Mauve Shirt: Played with. There is considerable effort to keep them alive only to be killed off violently along with Locke during the Crozier's crashlanding.
Off with His Head!: Gets his head sliced in half horizontally by debris on the way down to Tau Volantis.

Locke

Crewmember of the USM Eudora.

Action Girl: Naturally, since she's military. She holds her own against the Necromorphs aboard the Roanoke while Isaac is restoring ship systems.
Last-Name Basis: Her first name is never revealed in the game.
Mauve Shirt: She's a competent fighter who lasts through the first few chapters of the game, but ultimately dies before reaching Tau Volantis.
Stuff Blowing Up: What kills her during the descent down to Tau Volantis: an exploding panel next to her rips her apart.

Marker Ops Team

Jennifer Santos

Played by: Michelle Johnson

An engineer Ellie Langford brings along to Tau Volantis to help figure out how to get rid of the Necromorphs.

Bald Woman: She wears her hair very short-cropped to her scalp.
Black Dude Dies First: Inverted, she is the last character of Isaac's group to die in 3.
Break the Cutie: As the game progresses, and more and more of the team dies, she slowly becomes this, going from chirpy to when she and Isaac meet, to her screaming to Isaac not to let the Snow Beast get her.
Cruel and Unusual Death: When the elevator she’s riding is attacked by the Snow Beast, she ends up falling down a cliff to her death. When Isaac (and in Cooperative play, Carver) falls too and manages to survive, the player will find that she was also buried under a tonne of heavy snow and ice. Ouch.
Nightmare Fetishist: She thinks the Nexus is beautiful, and she sounds a little too eager when she tells Isaac that they'll have to crawl into one.
The Smart Guy: She's the most intelligent and studied member of the team. Buckell even calls her the "little lady with the big brain."

Austin Buckell

Played by: Frank Ashmore

A Marker researcher Ellie Langford brings to Tau Volantis.

Cool Old Guy: He's the oldest member of the team, but he managed to survive whilst stranded in the S.C.A.F fleet with its ancient necromorphs, despite his injuries. He's also one of the nicest members of the team.
Heroic Sacrifice: The team manages to find winter suits in an outpost but there weren't enough for everyone. He volunteers to be left behind without a suit.
I'm Cold... So Cold...: Dies of his hypothermia and existing wounds.
Nice Guy: One of the friendliest characters in the franchise to Isaac, which may explain why he unfortunately was the first one to die when they actually reach the surface of Tau Volantis.
Obi-Wan Moment: Out of all the characters of the Dead Space universe, Buckwell arguably has the most peaceful death. He isn't torn apart by Necromorphs or shot, but dies of hypothermia and existing wounds.
Senseless Sacrifice: Probably due to Gameplay and Story Segregation, but, there's a kinesis-activated generator not twenty feet from where Buckell is left behind, which Isaac uses to restore the heating to the building so he can survive long enough to get his own suit. Buckell could have had the team turn that on and wait for them.

Members of The Circle

A violent and fanatical sect of Unitology, the Circle rebelled against EarthGov following the Marker experiments that occurred in 2. They serve as the primary human antagonists in 3, seeking to kill Isaac Clarke and bring about Convergence to humanity.

In General

Ax-Crazy:
- Despite the fact that how eloquent or polite some, like Danik, make themselves out to be, it's clear that they are very, very insane. Especially considering that they tend to kill everyone living they see that isn't them.
- The Cultists in Awakened are worse, hunting down others that aren't into their way of thinking and tearing them apart as offerings to their gods, as well as cutting their own limbs off as offerings and replacing them with metal blades.
Belief Makes You Stupid: As always, being Unitologists makes them crazy doomsday cultists who consider the annihilation of humanity to be a good thing.
Church Militant: A militant Unitologist sect.
Driven to Suicide: Several times on Tau Volantis, Isaac can stumble across a lone soldier who screams a Unitologist proverb before shooting himself. At one point, he witnesses several members performing a ritual before they all slit their throats.
Elite Mooks: Certain Circle troops wear black gear and have more durability. They also tend to carry heavier weapons.
Evil vs. Evil: EarthGov undoubtedly trampled on the rights of its citizens, performed unethical experiments, and manufactured Markers like crazy. The Circle overthrows them, guns down civilians left and right, and deliberately engineers Necromorph outbreaks.
Eviler Than Thou:
- Unitologists weren't a pleasant bunch to begin with, but The Circle makes mainstream Unitologists look like saints in comparison. Also pull this off by toppling EarthGov.
- The Cultists in Awakened are this to the members of the Circle who haven't lost their minds.
Glass Cannon: As they are normal human beings, they are much easier to kill with gunfire than most Necromorphs. However, since they're similarly armed, they can be a substantial threat.
N.G.O. Superpower: They're members of a cult that has the resources to undermine and overthrow EarthGov.
Omnicidal Maniac: Their goals are to trigger what is a massive planet-wide species harvesting by their Eldritch Abomination "Gods." And they will even express this through indiscriminate shootings and massacres.
Sanity Slippage: The DLC Awakened features Circle members who have completely lost it, outright worshipping Necromorphs (when in the base game artifacts show that they previously had considered them abominations caused by heretics messing with the Markers), and engaging in self-mutilation.
Selective Obliviousness: In the core game of Dead Space 3, they insist that necromorphs are "perversions" of Convergence born of tampering with the Markers, rather than the actual intended result. Averted with the splinter-cult in Awakened, who have come to accept the truth.

Jacob Arthur Danik

Played by: Simon Templeman

Leader of The Circle. After bringing ruin to EarthGov and its colonies, he hunts down Isaac as he's the only one capable of stopping his plan of bringing Convergence to the galaxy.

The Bad Guy Wins: At the end of 3, he succeeds in waking the Moon, which in turn wakes it Brothers and tells them about Earth. The series ends with them consuming humanity. So Danik posthumously gets exactly what he wants.
Belief Makes You Stupid: He may think otherwise, but he's just as much of a deranged loony as the rest of the Unitologists. Even when Isaac directly confirms that the Markers are used to gather food for the Brethren Moons, he refuses to accept it, insisting his interpretation of Unitology is truth.
Enemy Mine: He allies temporarily with Captain Norton against Isaac.
Evil Brit: He has a very strong British accent and mannerisms, but he's a genocidal lunatic.
Faux Affably Evil: He speaks in a polite and refined manner, and even hands out compliments to his adversary. However, he usually follows it up with a death threat, and his compliments always have an smarmy, insincere tone to them.
The Fundamentalist: Although he claims what he does is For Science!, every word out of his mouth hints at the religious fanaticism that he denies.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: Seems to hold firm to this belief.
Hypocrite: When Danik tells Isaac to stop messing with things he doesn't comprehend, Isaac's quick to point out the hypocrisy.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In a near standing position, with a stalactite.
Ink-Suit Actor: Looks a lot like his voice actor, Simon Templeman.
Karmic Death: Bites it by being impaled with a stalactite that falls due to him turning off the machine that was preventing Convergence.
Knight Templar: Like all Unitologists, he truly believes he's doing the right thing by forcibly "ascending" all of mankind through Convergence.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Insists on making grandiose statements about the "true purpose" of the Markers, when in reality he's a deluded fanatic who knows absolutely nothing about the reality of things.
Man in White: He dresses completely in white, which probably references how holy he thinks he is.
Non-Action Big Bad: He's the Big Bad of Dead Space 3, although he does very little to directly threaten Isaac.
Sinister Shades: He always wears dark glasses over his eyes, which add to his sinister mien.
Smug Snake: When things are going his way, he tends to gloat and carry a polite facade. When things don't go his way, however, the facade quickly breaks down.
Stalactite Spite: Turning off the Alien Machine causes tremors, which results in a massive, jagged spike of rock falling from the ceiling and impaling him.
The Unfought: He gets impaled by a stalactite before Isaac or Carver can kill him.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Like all Unitologist villains in the series, he genuinely believes that "Convergence" will mean an end to all individual suffering and want. He's just stubbornly blinding himself to what Convergence actually means, both immediately and in the long run.

"The Prophet"

Leader of a cult of followers in the Circle who believe that they can ally themselves with the Necromorphs by becoming like them through bodily mutilation. He serves as the Dragon-in-Chief of Dead Space 3: Awakened.

Ambiguous Ending: On a personal level for him alone. The Prophet is the only boss in the whole franchise that doesn't need to be actually killed to advance the story. Once his Boss Battle is won and he's kneeling before Isaac and Carver, it's up to the player(s) whether they put him down for good or simply leave the room for their next objective. Both choices have a separate achievement attached, and due to DS 3's Franchise Killer status it's never been made clear which ending is considered canonical.
Ax-Crazy: Considering his plans, this probably shouldn't be a surprise.
Bandaged Face: Though considering his methods, this is probably better than the alternative.
Dark Messiah: The Brother Moons even call him "the prophet" to their "god".
Dragon-in-Chief: Of Awakened, sort of. He isn't in direct contact with the Brother Moons, but he is trying to help the goal along in his own way.
Final Boss: The last boss you meet in Awakened.
The Fundamentalist: He's even more fanatic than Danik.
Implacable Man: Due to Isaac and Carver's Hallucinations, he appears capable of Flash Step and Nigh Invulnerable, though it's highly likely they are simply missing. Once they manage to subvert the Moons' hold on him and wound him, things get a lot easier.
Made of Iron: When Isaac and Carver manage to hit him, he still takes a lot of punishment for someone who never wears a shirt.
Mouth of Sauron: He speaks for the Brother Moons.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Subverted. He wants this, having put Slasher arms into his back, but he doesn't actually have it.
No Name Given: Even the title, "the Prophet" is only given to him by the Brethren Moons and he's only called it once in the entirety of the DLC. One of the Unitologists, Randall Carr, knows most of the people in Danik's crew and not even he can figure out who the Prophet is any more.
Self-Harm: How he seems to have put the Slasher arms on his back.
Time Stands Still: Has access to a Stasis module. How he uses it is unknown.
Touched by Vorlons: He seems to have some control over the hallucinations that Isaac and Carver suffer as a result of his connection to the Moons.
Walking Shirtless Scene: He walks around barechested throughout the Awakened DLC. Probably relates to his Sanity Slippage.
Zero-Effort Boss: Once he's actually found after the Let's You and Him Fight and his wounding in a hallucination fight, he doesn't even fight back. He just sits on his knees, bowing and mumbling his Madness Mantra over and over like his followers until Carver and/or Isaac kills him. The two don't even comment on killing him.

NOTE: Some of the Necromorphs are Walking Spoiler, and their descriptions are unmarked. You have been warned.

Necromorphs

Dead bodies reanimated by an alien virus and turned into giant monsters that go out and kill everything, making more Necromorphs.

In general

Animalistic Abomination: The eldritch nature of this affliction is made extremely clear through the effects of the Markers and the godlike beings tied to them, and it has absolutely no qualms with infecting the bodies of animals, as seen with the Dog Lurkers in 3 and the Necromorph fish in Martyr
The Berserker: Their disregard for injuries and straightforward attack patterns make them this. Only infectors and forms with ranged capability are exceptions, but even then they don't seem to pay too much attention to taking cover when fired upon.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Doesn't get much weirder than hive-minded alien bacteria that reanimates necrotic flesh. Also the fact that limbs are their weakness; since the only goals of the Necromorphs are to kill and further spread the infection, by removing their limbs and thus their mobility, there's little point in an infected individual remaining active. Isaac might not be so much killing them, but simply rendering them dormant. Heck, they defy biology as we know it.
Body Horror: Almost all of them are, in some form, human at one point, although the larger ones tend toward several corpses fixed together. It sometimes goes up to a truly absurd degree where you can get confronted by what was once a normal corpse and now a borderline-Eldritch Abomination in terms of physiology.
Came Back Wrong: The natural result of when a dead body becomes infected by a pathogen that induces Body Horror and Unstoppable Rage.
Creepy Long Fingers: Some subspecies have elongated, clawed fingers.
Elite Mooks: Several have a black version with Glowing Eyes of Doom and enhanced strength.
Eldritch Abomination: As a whole, they’re definitely this. The biology of the infected forms tosses all known medical science out the window, they’re spawned when dead flesh comes into contact with a marker signal which also scrambles the brain of any living people exposed to it, turning them completely Ax-Crazy and making them scrawl alien runes on the walls, and by 3, are revealed to be the extensions and by proxy, the spawn of the Brethren Moons, incomprehensible entities of almost godlike power.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Most of their names are exactly what they are or do.
Humanoid Abomination: Any humanoid variant of Necromorph is this by default, as they are horribly mutated corpses reanimated and driven by an ancient, incomprehensible Hive Mind that would cause the psyche of those even slightly exposed to it to succumb to madness and suicide.
Human Aliens:
- Completely subverted, but in an ironic way, since all the Necromorphs are made from human corpses and have just enough recognizable human parts for a fully-horrific Uncanny Valley feel.
- After the going into the Eye Scream machine in Dead Space 2, their screams and grunts sound distinctly less animalistic and more like the shrieks of humans in agonizing, unconscionable pain.
It Can Think: Despite their straightforward attack plans, it still seems that they are still quite smart, judging by the fact that they set up ambushes and hunt in packs of mixed individuals.
Nightmare Face: All of them, since they are based on human bodies.
Organic Technology: They're more like organitek robots jury-rigged out of corpses than proper zombies. Without a marker signal within range, they degenerate into raw biomass.
Our Zombies Are Different: Type P. The Necromorphs are spread by a virus that reanimates and mutates dead bodies. But the person has to be dead for it to work, no slowly becoming weaker until they die. That said, the person can be dead remarkably recently (as in immediately) and it still counts, which is probably why the Necromorphs infect by stabbing with giant mandibles.
Perpetual-Motion Monster: Necromorphs don't rot and can survive centuries with little to no problem, suffer no damage from being frozen, and to top it off rarely if ever seem to need to eat.
Super Strength: The Virus transforms anything not required in the mutation into additional musculature, making them much, much harder to overcome in close quarters.
Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration:
- Type II. Necromorphs, despite their appearance, do not rot and appear to get stronger the longer they last; Necromorphs formed 200 years ago are equally as potent as Necromorphs infected in the modern day. Shooting them in the midsection does little damage, while dismembering them only disables them; they can get reinfected and come back later. Only by destroying the entire body (whether it be by grinding it up, melting it, or through gratuitous use of Isaac's stomp ability) will permanently put an end to them.
- The Hunter, Ubermorph, and Regenerators take this even further, being Type IVs capable of rapidly regenerating damaged limbs and surviving all but catastrophic damage.
Undead Abomination: Mysterious creatures born from the corpses of other living creatures, they overrun planets until they combine into grotesque living moons. Given that they come from strange, alien markers, it is unlikely that they are natural.
Unstoppable Rage: The majority of Necromorphs are designed to kill to spread the disease, which they will gladly express by ripping available victims to bloody chunks while roaring/screaming like rabid animals.
Viral Transformation: A virus that really transforms you. Cranked Up to Eleven.
The Virus:
- The Necromorph Recombination Virus. Interestingly it only affects dead bodies, which the already-created Necromorphs are ready to make.
- They don't even have to be dead for this to take effect. Like Franco in 2 and the Feeders in 3

Slasher

The most common type of Necromorph as well as the first type Isaac encounters. Attacks with razor-sharp arm blades.

Cutscene Power to the Max: in 1, a slasher is able to cause the infection of the USM Valor all by its lonesome.
Elite Mook: The Enhanced version are much faster, have more health and deal more damage.
Mascot Mook: If any Necromorph is going to appear in promotional material, it's this one.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: They have a pair of vestigial arms sprouting from their abdomens in addition to their original arms, which are mutated into swords. In DS3, they have a couple more sets when encountered after they've been freeze-dried for 200 years.
Off-Model: A unique slasher in Downfall has a third talon growing out of its belly.
Playing Possum: One of their favorite tactics. If you see an intact Slasher corpse it's probably not dead...
Sinister Scythe: Their primary weapons are their arms, which have mutated into extended talons shaped like a scythe's blade.
Underground Monkey: There's actually several different varieties of Slasher that you encounter in each game. Some are mere cosmetic reskins, but others have unique abilities. Female Slashers have been separated into a new species entirely, called "Spitters". One variety of Slasher has armored legs, making leg-shots useless on them. In 2, there are some (usually the ones wearing surgical scrubs) who have proper mandibles instead of a broken lower jaw, and some wearing clerical robes who keep their lower arms in the Sign of the Marker; these guys have tendrils coming from their eye sockets. And, of course, Enhanced Slashers are dark-fleshed, decayed-looking Slashers who are twice as tough.

Spitter

A variant of Slashers made from female corpses that spit balls of acid at their prey.

Breath Weapon: They can attack from a distance by vomiting up acid globules or explosive tumors at Isaac.
Dark Action Girl: They're female and just as deadly as the males.
Distaff Counterpart: The girl version of the slashers
Fan Disservice: In DS2 they appear completely nude, with their original arms pulling their chest muscles apart. They also have no skin on their backsides.
Gender-Restricted Ability: Averted in 3, as we find male Spitters, although these have had to grow an organitek cannon after the relevant organs were repurposed into muscle, wasting biomatter to acheive something that just happens automatically on someone with two X chromasomes. If there are girls around, it's played straight.
Sinister Scythe: Like Slashers, they prefer to get up close and personal with huge scythe-blade claws, occasionally stopping to spit when Isaac's too far away.

Leaper

A scorpion-like Necromorph that attacks with its large tail.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Their "legs" have twisted into a long, fleshy tail tipped with a blade. Naturally, their main method of attack (other than leaping at you and trying to bite you with their protruding fangs) is to lash you with it.
Elite Mook: The Enhanced version has more health and damage output.
In a Single Bound: They can make enormous leaps and use these to quickly grapple Isaac. Especially in the Zero-G segments.
Lightning Bruiser: In the second game, which significantly beefed up their speed and power.
Scary Scorpions: Undead corpse, human-based scorpions.
Wall Crawl: They have the ability to clamber over walls, which combines with their massive jumping ability to make them extremely maneuverable and very annoying.

Lurker

A disturbing Necromorph created from infants or dogs that can attack with its tentacles as well as barbed projectiles.

Black Comedy: Isaac's Lurker kill animation has him try to kick the zombie baby/dog for a field goal.
Beware of Vicious Dog: Dead Space 3 shows that dogs are suitable candidates for Lurker transformations as well as humans.
Combat Tentacles: Three. Cutting them off is an easy way to kill them.
Elite Mook: The Enhanced version has more health and damage output.
Enfante Terrible: The original Lurkers are zombified babies that attack with Combat Tentacles.
Raising the Steaks: The version in Dead Space 3 is based on infected dogs.
Undead Child: When made from a baby.
Wall Crawl: Like Leapers, they can clamber on walls. Unlike Leapers, they can also climb on the ceiling and attack from there, due to being lighter.

Infector

A Necromorph whose sole purpose is to spread the infection. While it is physically weak, it is a credible threat thanks to its ability to turn corpses into Necromorphs.

Composite Character: In 3, Infectors are dramatically changed, resembling Swarmers in function. They travel in large groups, are much smaller than before, and attack like Swarmers.
Expy: In 3, they get a redesign; instead of a large mass of flesh with a proboscis, Infectors are now much smaller, and bear a great resemblance to headcrabs.
Gameplay and Story Integration: One if the tenents of Unitology is that the bodies of the Faithful must be preserved and protected until Convergence. Bodies that are too mutilated can't be turned into Necromorphs by Infectors, only digested by the Corruption or repurposed into multi-corpse forms.
Glass Cannon: It doesn't take much to kill one, but if given enough time it can revive a whole room full of Necromorphs.
Puppeteer Parasite: Their basic purpose is to clasp onto corpses and transform them into full-fledged necromorphs.
Mook Maker: They can revive the dead bodies of the crew as Necromorphs, typically Elite Mooks.
Starfish Aliens: Unlike many Necromorphs, these are just....flaps of skin and a proboscis. Or a blob of flesh on Spider Limbs. The flaps of skin and proboscis variety is still visibly human, despite how deformed they are.

Pregnant

A bloated-looking Necromorph that carries Swarmers in its stomach. Damaging its belly will release the Swarmers, making it a difficult Necromorph to deal with, especially in large groups.

Attack Its Weak Point: Subverted, unlike most others. Shooting a Pregnant in the stomach, the most obvious weakpoint on it, is one of the worst things someone can do when facing one.
Dead Weight: Although being heavily bloated doesn't slow them down much.
Kill It with Fire: The flamethrower, though objectively a lousy weapon in the first game, has the benefit of burning their Swarmers to death as they pour out.
Outside-the-Box Tactic: The Force Gun can be used to shoot Pregnants even in the stomach and avoid releasing Swarmers.
Mook Maker: Shooting them in the stomach unleashes Swarmers or a Lurker.

Exploder

A very dangerous Necromorph with a bloated (and highly explosive) arm which it detonates in a suicide attack if it gets too close.

Action Bomb: If that wasn't bad enough, they often appear in large groups. On the plus side, friendly fire is in full effect here, and you can even steal the bomb if you sever it from the arm.
Attack Its Weak Point: That big, glowing, orange thing on its arm? It might be a good idea to shoot it before it gets too close.
Glass Cannon: Not counting the bomb, two shots will put one down. You don't even have to aim since it's so thin. It's a walking stick with a bomb attached.
Took a Level in Badass: To a very minor degree, but in 3, they now crawl, dragging their explosive behind them, and move faster than before; this makes hitting them before they get in close slightly harder.

Divider

A tall, thin Necromorph that splits into several smaller Necromorphs upon being attacked. In Dead Space 3, only the head-entity reappears, nicknamed "The Creeper".

Chekhov's Skill: In Dead Space 1 and 2, the head part had a move where it jumped on Isaac, and could replace his head. This is their gimmick in 3, able to revive fallen enemies, including gun-wielding ones.
Detachment Combat: Goes all to bits when "defeated" and attacks Isaac as 5 little buggers.
It Can Think: If the head part hijacks a corpse that has a firearm, it will know how the weapon works and open fire on Isaac, although their aiming skills are very poor.
Out of Focus: They were an uncommon enemy in the first game, but still showed up often enough that you kept an eye out for them. In the second, there are a few separate parts and maybe one or two complete Dividers in the whole game. They come back into the spotlight in the third with a different gimmick, their old gimmick of "changes when dismembered" having been given to the Waster. Only Divider heads looking for new bodies show up, with no intact Dividers to be found.
Puppeteer Parasite: The "head" piece. Which makes for one of the most disturbing deaths in the entire game. In the third game, this is their new power; Divider heads can show up after a battle with Unitologists and posses their corpses by decapitating them and replacing the head.
Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: In 3, when piloting a dead Unitologist Space Marine. The undead head is a weak point.
The Worm That Walks: It's a bunch of thin, tentacle creatures (one of which is wearing a skull) latched to each other to form a monster, and breaks apart into those creatures when damaged enough.

Twitcher

Soldiers whose stasis modules fused with them upon being turned into Necromorphs, making them extremely fast.

Bullet Time: Thanks to the stasis modules fused with their flesh, these creatures exist out of synch with the normal time-flow, which makes them incredibly fast.
Fragile Speedster: Can be killed in one shot with the best weapons if you can hit them.
Super Speed: Thanks to the stasis unit. These things can close in on you in seconds.
Nightmare Face: Even more so than most of the others in Dead Space 1, as due to the violent fusion between their flesh and the stasis module, their faces are completely static.
You Are Already Dead: One particular death scene has a Twitcher kill Isaac so fast that when he raise his weapon to counter his entire body falls apart.

Guardian

A mass of flesh attached to a wall that spews out smaller, weaker Necromorphs to defend itself. Often encountered one at a time, but can sometimes be found in pairs. One of the most extreme cases of Body Horror in the franchise for a single human body.

And I Must Scream: And scream it does. Apparently, the Guardian is still alive, and in hideous agony. It is also unable to move. Luckily, you can kill it.
Attack Its Weak Point: The various tentacles springing from its chest have to be shot off to kill it.
Combat Tentacles: Used to kill Isaac if he comes into close proximity with one, and seemingly made from intestines.
"Instant Death" Radius: Getting too close has them decapitate Isaac with a tentacle.
Mook Maker: Constantly spits out tentacle pods to help defend itself. In 3, it produces Swarmer/Infector hybrids instead.
Piñata Enemy: Drop a circuit board or a box of goodies depending on which game you're playing
One-Hit Kill: Its only direct attack is to lash out with its tentacles if Isaac gets close, which instantly decapitates him.
Screaming Birth: The Guardian constantly lets out an agonized wail anyway, but its shrieking definitely goes up an octave when it spawns a Pod.

Swarmer

Tiny, swarming Necromorphs that, despite their small size, can easily overwhelm Isaac with sheer numbers.

Composite Character: The new Infectors in 3 are a combination of Swarmers and the original Infector; they are small, appear in large groups, and their attack is lifted directly from the Swarmers.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: Individual Swarmers do pitiful damage and can be swatted off before they even do damage. However, as their name suggests, they're much more deadly in groups, and can severely injure or kill Isaac if he's caught in a large swarm.
The Swarm: You always encounter these in massive numbers that work as one.

Brute

A massive and deadly Necromorph that uses brute force as its only tactic.

Attack Its Weak Point: Its armored shell blocks most frontal attacks, but its joints and entire back side are vulnerable.
Body of Bodies: Made from at least three corpses.
Elite Mook: Even more so in its Enhanced version.
Lightning Bruiser: It's deceptively fast for its size.
Made of Iron: Most of its body, aside from a few weak points, are completely immune to damage. When playing on hard or impossible difficulty, one main concern isn't its attacks, but running out of ammo white fighting one. Hope you saved up some stasis so you don't have to worry about missing...
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: One shows up out of nowhere on the Valor and delivers one to Hammond. They can also do this to Isaac.
Piñata Enemy: These big bastards will either drop a power node, enough money to buy one, or a semiconductor that sells for enough money to buy one.
Top-Heavy Guy: Somewhat similar to a Tank, they have huge, bulky arms but tiny, spindly little legs.

Wheezer

This type of Necromorph only appears in one chapter, whose only form of attack is slowly poisoning the air. They are often supported by more combat-oriented Necromorphs.

The Cameo: Makes an appearance in Dead Space 3 in a co-op mission.
Deadly Gas: Its only form of attack. Standing next to one too long will suffocate Isaac.
Gotta Kill Em All: Their only appearance consists of this, in order to keep the air in the USG Ishimura safe to breathe.
Mook Maker: A variation. Killing one will summon several Necromorphs to Isaac's location.
Vader Breath: Easily located by their loud, well, wheezing gasps for air.
Zero-Effort Boss: You don't even need to waste ammo on these guys. A few stomps from Isaac's mighty boot or punching them will put them down.

Drag Tentacle

Presumably part of a larger Necromorph, the Tentacle grabs Isaac and drags him towards its lair unless Isaac can shoot it off.

Attack Its Weak Point: Because this is the only way to hurt it and if you don't you be dragged into a hole in the wall and killed horribly.
Attack of the Monster Appendage: The Tentacle. Type 1, as you'll never see the rest of his body.
The Cameo: In 2, Isaac has a flashback of being attacked by a tentacle during the Nostalgia Level, and is actually flung into a zero-gee area of the Titan mines by one. They also show up in 3, infesting the Roanoke's power core.
Hope Spot: Often when Isaac is dragged all the way back to their hole he tries some desperate form of escape only to be killed almost immediately. When the second tentacle that appears pulls him near the hole it loses its grip just long enough for Isaac to stand back up before brutally grabbing his head and yanking him the rest of the way in.
Interface Screw: Whenever one grabs Isaac it messes with his aiming controls, making it much harder to hit. However, the weakpoint is very large.
Nothing Is Scarier: We never do get to see what is on the other end of this thing, but Isaac might.

Puker

A Necromorph whose main attack is vomiting caustic bile at Isaac, as well as a ball of caustic material that slows Isaac down, allowing it to close the distance.

Cast from Lifespan: These necromorphs are severely damaged by the acid they spew. Word of God says they eventually liquefy completely.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: They, well, puke on you.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Unlive and well in 3, despite canonically digesting themselves to death.
Hollywood Acid: They're all about throwing up super-corrosive sludge on you.
Poison Is Corrosive: The Puker spits highly acidic bile at its enemies, reminiscent of The Spitter. While it's sizzling any Human player's armor, he's unable to run. In multiplayer, this can range from annoying (on the objective carrier, who can't run anyway) to lethal (human players rushing toward an escape point).
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Given that they puke to attack, it goes without saying that their vomiting is shown in all its slushy, disgusting glory.
Zombie Puke Attack: Their basic concept is a necromorph ("space zombie") that attacks by vomiting at you.

The Pack

Children that have been turned into Necromorphs. Weak, but attack in swarms.

Boom, Headshot!: So weak that any dismemberment is fatal.
Enemy Chatter: One of the two subtypes that communicate with each other. It's just that the noises they make are incomprehensible.
Enfante Terrible: They're former children turned into claw-fingered zombies.
Just a Kid: Being kids, they are small, and a fairly easy kill individually... but they are fast, and always attack in groups.
The Swarm: You never, ever face the Pack one on one; they always come in groups.
Undead Child The result of when the body of a child is infected.
Zerg Rush: Extremely frail, but fast and numerous, so they charge you blindly in huge groups.

Crawler

Tiny infant Necromorphs whose bodies are filled with a volatile, yellow fluid that explodes when Isaac is close. They are tiny, making them hard to hit, and they come in packs, but can be killed easily.

Action Bomb: They explode. Like the Exploders, a headshot will put them down and leave the bomb intact for you to use.
Enfante Terrible: It doesn't get much more terrible than a zombified baby filled fit to burst with explosive and/or corrosive slime.
Undead Child: They're zombified babies.
Wave of Babies: How they tend to attack. However, a Downplayed Trope, in that they tend to come only two or three at a time.

Cyst

Stationary Necromorphs that spit out an explosive, living pod when something gets too close.

Land Mine Goes "Click!": They're organic land mines, and instead of going "click," they gurgle and hiss loudly.
Unfriendly Fire: They go off regardless of what touches them, whether it's a living human, an inanimate object, or another Necromorph. Their own pods also kill them as well if the Cyst is too close to another surface or if they're on the ground and gravity brings the pod back down.

Stalker

Necromorphs that resemble velociraptors. They attack by running at high speeds toward Isaac, ramming him, and running back. They love to attack in large rooms filled with boxes to hide behind, though you can find an odd Stalker in a random room once in a while.

Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Well, for a certain definition of "better". They bear a strange resemblance to velociraptors.
Enemy Chatter: Their shrieks and squeals are how they talk. They're actually pretty verbose, with different noises meaning different things.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: They only show themselves to attack you, and you have a window of about two seconds to hit them (preferably with a Stasis blast or Javelin) before they tackle you and retreat to cover for another round.
It Can Think: They are the only type to cooperate with each other to kill prey and even take cover to avoid getting shot at.
Raising the Steaks: Appears to be partially constructed from animals.
Raptor Attack: They're not technically raptors, but they look and act so much like them that it's fair enough to make the comparison.
Shout-Out: The achievement for beating your first encounter with them is called "Clever Girl."
Twin Telepathy: Made from twins or triplets and pieces of their pets. The bond they shared in life is apparently what makes the resultant necromorphs work so good together.

Tripod

A large, three-legged Necromorph made from several corpses fused together. Very big and strong.

Attack Its Weak Point: There's an obvious yellow bulb on its tongue.
Body of Bodies: And unlike the Brute, who is bulked up by the extra mass, the biomass is more effectively used, making this creature arguably more dangerous than a Brute.
Elite Mook: They're not full-fledged bosses, but they're much stronger than the conventional necromorphs.
Lightning Bruiser: Moves fast and hits like a truck.

Flyer

A small weak necromorph that, like its name implies, flies around and tries to attack with its tail. Only appears in Dead Space: Extraction.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Like Lurkers, they mainly attack by slashing with a tail consisting of a bone barb on the end of whip-like sinews.
Flight: The only known Necromorph capable of taking to the air.
Living Gasbag: Have a pair of mutant lungs growing out of them that act like balloons.

Grabber

A necromorph that can extend its neck to attack from a distance. Encountered only in Dead Space: Extraction, though it appears in Dead Space: Aftermath.

Nest

A powerful Necromorph that is very similar to a Guardian. In fact, it's strongly implied that it is the female version of a Guardian.

Distaff Counterpart: It's essentially a female version of the Guardian.

Fodder

A Necromorph that takes the form of a decaying human wielding melee weapons.

Development Gag: Based on an early concept for the Necromorphs in general: an octopoid Puppeteer Parasite wearing a corpse that erupts into a mass of Combat Tentacles when injured.
Dual Wielding: Always carries two weapons, whether it be ice picks, axes, bone saws, or wrenches.
Expy: Of a Divider, in how they change their form once they lose their legs, growing tentacles from the stump.
Humanoid Abomination: This Necromorph bears the most resemblance to a man, with an absence of tentacles and extra limbs and can pass for human at a distance. Doesn't change the fact that it's the furthest thing from human as you can get.
It Can Think: This necromorph won't go for bone blades or barbs (at first anyway) and will settle with beating you to death with a crowbar, wrench, Ice picks and other vicious, blunt or sharp weaponry that appeals to it's desire to kill.
Improvised Weapon: The only Necromorph thus far to use an actual weapon aside from what they spit or have attached to their bodies.
Metamorphosis Monster: sprout Combat Tentacles when their limbs get dismembered.
They Look Like Us Now: Looks like a human.

Feeder

Naked, emaciated Necromorphs resulting from humans desperate enough to eat Necromorph flesh.

Ax-Crazy: The S.C.A.F staff foolish enough to eat infected flesh to stave off starvation started began to turn insane, violent and cannibalistic when they started to turn. Sam Ackerman had to run from his own comrades and trap them by disabling the elevator when they tried to kill and eat him. Fast forward 200 years later and it's a safe bet that there's nothing human about them mentally anymore.
Boom, Headshot!: Surprisingly, one of the only Necromorphs where headshots are the best way to take them down, tying into their Technically Living Zombie status. The regular variants are weak to any attack, but when facing Enhanced versions, aiming for the head is a must.
Disability Superpower: They're nearly blind, but have acute hearing to make up for it.
Expy: A taller, slightly more durable version of the Pack. The main difference is there are Advanced Feeders, who aren't so squishy.
Fragile Speedster: One or two rounds will take a standard Feeder down, but they close the gap between you and them fairly quickly, and attack in droves.
Fate Worse than Death: Unlike other Necromorphs with the exception of the Guardian, these poor bastards are still alive despite their utterly horrific state.
Full-Frontal Assault: They aren't wearing anything at all, though there's not much left to show.
Gorn: They explode when you shoot them.
Horror Hunger: People becoming them retained mental capacity to some degree. They just seemed willing to eat anything.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Has extra teeth formed from the jaw bones.
Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Rail-thin, starving pseudo-zombies come about from desperate men eating the flesh of creatures best left untasted. They don't have ice or Psychic-Assisted Suicide powers, disqualifying them from the Wendigo trope despite the frozen setting.
Technically Living Zombie: Unlike other variants, Feeders appear to be just mental transformations and extended life. This extends to their Fragile Speedster status.
You Are Who You Eat: They were humans who ate necromorphs, and so turned into necromorphs.
Zerg Rush: Attack aggressively in waves.

Shambler

Corpses taken over by the heads of Divider necromorphs.

Boom, Headshot!: The divider head is a weak point; removing it is an instant kill.
Fastball Special: When on low health, it throws the controlling head at you.
Parasite Zombie: They're corpses animated by a singular parasite, and if the body is destroyed, the parasite can attempt to claim a new host. Unusually for this trope, the parasite is another corpse's independently zombified head.

Alien Necromorphs

Necromophed members of the original alien species that once ruled Tau Volantis, these abominations have been waiting for over 2 million years for new prey, and they weather damage as much as they've weathered time.

Airborne Mook: One variation is a sort of flying jellyfish, encountered during Zero-G sequences. It has float-sacs and four tentacles that throw homing wisps or smack Isaac when he flies to close.
Boss Rush: Every Alien 'morph is essentially a dangerous miniboss in its own right, and they have the nasty habit of attacking in groups of three or more. One particular battle near the end of Dead Space 3 has them spawn indefinitely from at least three directions, to the point where you can be fighting six or more of them at once.
Enfant Terrible: The Crawlers that it spawns from its chest? They're made of the Alien species' spawn, just like they were made with human infants before.
Expy: The 'Brute' variation is much like the old Brute. It's slow moving but can quickly charge, has tremendous resilience, and has ability to spawn exploding pods from a orifice in its chest.
Made of Iron: Although they don't possess the indestructible plates of the human-based Brutes, they lack any glowing yellow weak point to attack and have huge amounts of health. Worse, they're the only type of necromorph in the franchise that can't be dismembered, meaning killing one comes down to pumping ludicrous amounts of firepower into its twisted body until the creature finally drops dead. Taking down a human Brute, even an enhanced one, could be done with as little as half a dozen good hits to their weak points, but fighting Alien 'morphs involves the very real danger of running out of ammo mid-battle.
Piñata Enemy: The Alien Brutes drop three items upon death. You'll sorely need them to replenish your depleted stocks of ammo and medkits.
Starfish Aliens: Or Starfish Necromorphs, due to the species that they were formed of. However, their infections parallel our own; their facial structure looks relatively intact and have similar growths fusing and adding new limbs as suited.

Regenerator

More of a scheme of Necromorph than a type in and of itself, this is a typically bipedal Necromorph that takes on a variety of names depending on its incarnation. The main constant, however, is that it can regenerate lost limbs, making it nearly impossible to kill. Goes by three different identities across the games; the Hunter in Dead Space 1, the Ubermorph in Dead Space 2, and the Regenerator in Dead Space 3. Game-specific tropes are covered in the Boss Necromorphs folders.

Continuity Snarl: The existence of the Ubermorphs and Regenerators from the second and third games; the Hunter from Dead Space 1 was explicitly the result of experiments by Mercer to create a super-necromorph, so there's no reason given why it should show up in the second game. On the other hand, regenerating 'morph species could just be a regular part of any larger outbreak, and since the Regenerator in DS 2 looks markedly different from DS 1's Hunter, the latter might just have been brought into being by the Markers whispering one of several methods of creating this particular menace into Mercer's insane mind.
Determinator: Due to being nearly impossible to kill, it doesn't see much reason not to try following a target forever.
Do Well, but Not Perfect: If you go overboard in dismembering it, it will actually grow its limbs back faster, since the game wants it chasing you at all times. If you only minimally cripple it (one arm and one leg), it'll hobble after you for a bit before the regeneration kicks in.
From a Single Cell: Dismembering it until it's nothing more than a torso will simply make it angrier. The only real way to kill it is to obliterate the entire creature.
For the Evulz: Unlike the other Necromorphs, who will simply skip to slaughtering you when it has the chance, some of the regenerator creatures have been observed to stop and sharpen their claws/blades briefly before resuming the hunt, seeming to take pleasure in the hunt.
Menacing Stroll: Fortunately, they don't move very fast, which is a mercy given their nature. Doesn't make them any less intimidating.
Mighty Glacier: Powerful, but slow and easy to cripple (about halfway been a mook and Elite Mook in damage resistance). It just keeps coming, though.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Due to a healing factor, it cannot be destroyed by conventional means.
Shapeshifter Baggage: With varying plausibility, they regenerate limbs seemingly from within their own bodies.
Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Type 4, being able to regenerate from lost limbs.
Super-Persistent Predator: It does not stop coming ever.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The various types each mimic the first game's "Hunter" in how they move and their kill animations.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The only way to kill these creatures, considering that anything other than completely disintegrating the creature will slow it down at best or have no effect at worst.

Creeper

An amorphous necromorph in Dead Space: Martyr.

Blob Monster: Basically the mobile phase of the Meat Moss found throughout the Ishimura. Think a slime-mold made out if rotting skin cells instead of fungal spores.

Splitface:

A spider-like necromorph seen in Dead Space: Martyr.

All Your Powers Combined: It's got a Lurker's whipping tentacles, an Exploder's Action Bomb attack, a Spitter's organic grenades (although it launches skulls instead of tumors), and a Brute's size.
Captain Ersatz: of one of the monsters from The Thing (1982).

Brethren Moons/Brother Moons

You can kill the prophet, but you can't kill the god! Your chance to warn the Earth has come and gone. We are coming. We are hungry. We are here.

The Bigger Bad species of the series, these are the culmination of Convergence events, as Necromorph organisms so large that they can easily be misconstrued as "moons". Having eaten every other advanced species between their point of origin and human space, they have created a massive area of "dead space" that is why Absent Aliens seems to be in effect.

For one example of this kind of Necromorph, see under "Boss Necromorphs in Dead Space 3".

Big Bad: As of Dead Space 3: Awakened they are the biggest Bads there are. Literally, even.
The Chessmaster: A whole race of them. Manipulate everyone in the series at one point or another, both in the present and the past.
Eldritch Abomination: Massive, inhuman, incomprehensible, and seemingly have limitless power. More so than any other type of Necromorph.
Evil Sounds Deep: Contrasting with the high-pitched screams of most Necromorphs. They are also the only Necromorphs that can speak.
Faux Affably Evil: While speaking through the Prophet, they are calm and cordial with Isaac, all while trying to break him and stall him while he tries to warn Earth about the incoming danger.
Genius Loci: The race so large per individual, they can be easily misconstrued as moons.
A God Am I: The immense power and knowledge they have has invoked a god complex in them.
Greater-Scope Villain: Of the entire series, being the source of Markers and Marker signals, and therefore, Convergence events.
It Can Think: As revealed in Awakened, not only can they think, they can talk too, though they use a proxy.
Mind Rape: They're the actual source of the debilitating Marker signal that keeps causing almost all of the trouble that goes down throughout the franchise. Its effects on the human mind range from simple, often suicidal and always homicidal insanity, to a compulsive urge to construct more Markers. Only those with an iron will can power through the hallucinations and come out more or less sane, but even these rare individuals can't prevail against the signal strength emitted by the Moons on a war/hunt footing, which can mind-rape entire planets from light years away.
Planet Looters: Their goals don't seem to include much in the way of replacing what they eat. And "what they eat" is entire biospheres of planets.
Serial Escalation: The single largest boss type and Necromorph encountered by far in the entire franchise.
Starfish Aliens: Sapient planetoid aliens, to be precise.
That's No Moon!: Though it's easy to make a mistake about that, considering that they look just like them.
Time to Unlock More True Potential: Even as Earth is being converged, they ask Isaac to make them whole, implying that they`re just another instar of necromorph development.
Ultimate Life Form: A post-Convergence Necromorph the size of a moon., although reading between some of their lines indicates even these abominations may not yet be the final stage in the necromorphs' unlife cycle.
Walking Spoiler: They only debut at the end of the third game, so any kind of details on them is a massive spoiler in itself.

Boss Necromorphs in Dead Space 1

The Hunter

A special type of Necromorph created by Dr. Mercer, made from injecting Necromorph tissue into a live victim's skull. It constantly regenerates limbs, requiring Isaac to stop it using his environment. For the type, see "Regenerator" in the Necromorph section.

Hopeless Boss Fight: Except in two circumstances, it cannot be defeated. You just have to hold it off long enough to get through the next door.
Implacable Man: The Hunter Necromorph reappears throughout the levels it's in (albeit in fixed locations), regenerates from any damage you do to it, and even returns a few levels later to menace you after you think you've stopped it by trapping it in a cryogenic freezer.
Kill It with Fire: You ultimately destroy it by incinerating it with the biggest torch available: the engines of your escape shuttle.
Tactical Suicide Boss: In both instances where you can defeat it, it's in a room which has the exact thing needed to stop it. This is especially bad in the first instance, as Mercer had the bright idea to make you fight it in a cryo-storage facility.

The Leviathan

A Necromorph that has barricaded itself in food storage and is poisoning the Ishimura's atmosphere as part of a biological terraformation. Takes the form of an enormous wall of flesh, with a central orifice surrounded by tentacles. Fights Isaac by flailing its tentacles and shooting exploding pods at him.

Attack Its Weakpoint: Its core is dead center in its mouth. Every time it roars, it will expose the weakpoint for a few rounds of spitting explosive orbs at you.
Combat Tentacles: Three. After destroying them it reveals its weak point allowing Isaac to finally kill it. The tentacles regenerate periodically.
Damage-Sponge Boss: It's not uncommon to waste all your ammo trying to kill this thing. It's so bad that ammo pickups and explosive canisters spawn periodically and the boss can be damaged by his own projectiles.
Tactical Suicide Boss: The explosive orbs it spits at you can be thrown back with Kinesis, not to mention the room is filled with explosives.

The Slug

A huge Necromorph that attacks from outside the Ishimura by flinging debris. Isaac fights and kills it with the ship's turret system.

Combat Tentacles: It uses them to pitch debris at you, which you must destroy if you don't want the hull to rupture.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Considering Kendra's status as The Mole, and how the Valor's mission would Leave No Witnesses, its presence may have saved Isaac's life.
Spanner in the Works: Its presence on top of the communications array prevents Kendra from being able to radio a warning to the Valor.

Hive Mind

The Hive Mind is the last boss in the game and has been controlling the other Necromorphs through telepathy. It kills Kendra after she betrays Isaac and attempts to make her escape before turning on Isaac himself. After a heated battle, Isaac manages to destroy it and barely escapes with his life.

Ankle Drag: Does this to Isaac during the second stage of the fight, snatching him off of the ground by one foot and holding him upside down in front of its advancing maw.
Combat Tentacles: Its favorite type of melee attack is swinging its tentacles at Isaac. After dealing a significant amount of damage it will grab him with them and lift him up in the air where he'll have a short amount of time to destroy its remaining weak spots or be ripped in half.
Cruel and Unusual Death: If Isaac should fail to destroy the remaining two pustules on the Hive Mind's head when grabbed, a scripted death scene follows. It will force Isaac into its mouth, chew on him for a bit, then pull him out violently, ripping off both of Isaac's arms. As Isaac screams in pain, the Hive Mind grips him between its teeth. Another painful scream is heard from Isaac before the Hive Mind tears him in half at the waist, swallowing his upper torso and throwing his legs to the platform. OUCH.
Eaten Alive: It rips Isaac apart with its mouth in the most hideously deliberate way in the game.
Eldritch Abomination: Looks more like one than any other boss Necromorph in the game.
Final Boss: It's the very last thing you need to defeat in order to end the necromorph infestation and escape Aegis VII.
Half the Man He Used to Be: It will bite Isaac in half if it kills him.
Hive Queen: As the name suggests, this thing seems to be the controlling intelligence behind the necromorphs of Aegis VII.
Kaiju: The thing is enormous, towering over any building in the nearby starport.
Mook Maker: Starts spitting out Pregnants if you take too long to defeat it.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: It has an enormous, toothy mouth it uses to menace Isaac.

Boss Necromorphs in Dead Space: Extraction

The Urchin

A large Necromorph of unknown origin that appears in chapter 6.

Combat Tentacles: It mostly attacks with enormous tentacles, which ironically also double as weak-points.

The Spider

A massive Necromorph that that is found crawling on the exterior of the USG Ishimura. Serves as the boss of chapter 9.

Non-Indicative Name: It actually looks more like a centipede than a spider.

Boss Necromorphs in Dead Space 2

The Tormentor

A huge Necromorph that attacks Isaac in the Church of Unitology basement. Isaac has to shoot off one of its arms, then run as fast as he can to escape it.

Cutscene Boss: Gameplay wise, it's not so much a battle as a timed aiming minigame. Shoot the right target before it can eat you.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: After dodging the gunship, it turns out the Tormentor's lurking in the basement of the Church of Unitology for... some reason, tries to eat Isaac, and ends up being killed in a massive explosion.
Non-Indicative Name: With a name like 'Tormentor", you'd think it would persistently chases Isaac throughout the Sprawl. Nope.

Ubermorph

A Necromorph Isaac encounters near the end of Dead Space 2. Like the Hunter, it is impossible to kill by normal means; unlike the Hunter, its origin is unknown. It is also the only Necromorph that looks like an alien, not a mutated human.

Lord British Postulate: You're supposed to just run away from the Ubermorph and continue on to the final boss, yet players have found that it can be killed permanently by pushing it into a fan in the last room it appears in. This is probably a glitch; it isn't indicated anywhere in the game that you can kill it like this, it doesn't appear after this anyway, and it disappears instantly upon touching the fan instead of playing a death animation. It can also be killed by abusing pathfinding glitches and collision detection to crush it with an airlock door.
Palette Swap: It is literally the Hunter with a different skin. It even shares the death animation with the Hunter.

The Golden Marker

Once the Convergence Event starts, the Golden Marker tries to get Isaac to kill himself so it can be made whole, via a Battle in the Center of the Mind. In the battle, Isaac has to fight off swarms of The Pack while shooting and dodging the Nicole hallucination.

Attack Its Weak Point: After shooting Nicole enough, its weak point: a central "heart" is revealed. Attacking this is the only way to hurt the Marker.

Boss Necromorphs in Dead Space 3

The Regenerators

A Necromorph type first encountered about the USM Terra Nova. Like the Hunter and Ubermorph before it, it regenerates lost limbs at a rapid pace, making killing it permanently a difficult proposition. Unlike the Hunter and Ubermorph, there's more than one Regenerator.

Bonus Boss: Although the first set of Regenerators (aboard the Terra Nova) are unavoidable, a later set is encountered in an optional mission towards the end of the game.
Kill It with Fire: Subverted. These guys are fireproof, so flame-weapons have no effect on them whatsoever.
Palette Swap: Looks a bit more like the Hunter than the Ubermorph, except its skin is very pale and has Marker runes carved all over it.

The Snow Beast

A large Necromorph that is encountered on Tau Volantis.

Combat Tentacles: Has a trio of them on its back, plus another set in its face.
Cowardly Boss: In the first two encounters, it retreats after enough damage has been done.
Giant Enemy Crab: It looks a lot like an enormous, alien crustacean. Fittingly, given that Tau Volantis was originally a water-world before the Aliens froze it solid as part of their Heroic Sacrifice.
Half the Man He Used to Be: Isaac ultimately finishes it off by using two harpoon guns to impale it and then pull it in half.
Healing Factor: Can regrow its back tentacles repeatedly.
Super-Persistent Predator: It attacks Isaac shortly after he crashes on the planet and continues to stalk him throughout most of the game. Even after he fights it off several times, it keeps hunting him.

The Nexus

Several giant Necromorphs Isaac and Ellie find frozen on Tau Volantis. Isaac has to explore the inside of one to locate the origin of the Markers, which thaws it out.

Expy: Similar to the Hive Mind from the first game; even the game's achievement text calls it the Hivemind, probably because it is one, albeit one made from aliens, not humans.
Mook Maker: Similarly to the Hivemind, except it spawns Enhanced Feeders.
Womb Level: Twice. During the second time, you are promptly swallowed whole and forced to kill it from the inside.

The Moon

A Brother Moon that has gone into hibernation due to the machine that turned Tau Volantis into an ice planet, this unfinished Convergence Necromorph is masquerading as Tau Volantis' broken moon, using the Marker signal to call other humans to it to wake it up and "make it whole." Due to this, it serves as a Bigger Bad, manipulating EarthGov, Unitology, and many more for its cause.

The Chessmaster: Manipulated everyone in the series at one point or another until 3. Those who it didn't tended to end up dead, except for a select few.
Chekhov's Gunman: Seen prominently throughout the game, shown on various posters and promotional material, literally hiding in painfully obvious sight from the protagonists throughout the entirety of the game.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Isaac and Carver, two characters who barely measure up to the size of its teeth, manage to not only go toe-to-toe with it, but end up doing what the aliens failed to accomplish and actually kill the Brethren Moon with the Machine.
Eldritch Abomination: It fits the bill more so than any other Necromorph. It has the ability to send out signals to its brethren to awaken them, cause hallucinations and madness, is incredibly massive with enormous Combat Tentacles, and swallows entire planets.
Eye Scream: Its weak points are its eyes, and it can only be weakened by hurling Markers at them.
Final Boss: The final boss of 3.
Genius Loci: A representative of an entire race of creatures that seem moons.
Greater-Scope Villain: Of the entire series up to 3, being the source of the Marker signals in human space.
Hidden in Plain Sight: It's the moon of Tau Volantis, so it's kind of hard to expect it would be the Big Bad of the third numbered game.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Isaac repeatedly impales it with the very Markers it used to control the Necromorphs.
It Can Think: It's certainly smart enough to manipulate people through its own version of Marker visions.
My Death Is Just the Beginning: Before its death, it sends out one final signal to reawaken the remaining Brethren Moons. At the end of the DLC, Isaac and Carver arrive at Earth just in time to see that the Moons are already there and are well on their way to devouring the planet.
Planet Looters: It's presumed that after finishing its own birth, it would have roamed the galaxy, homing in on humanity's Marker signals and eating everyone.
Serial Escalation: The single largest boss and Necromorph encountered by far in the entire franchise.
Starfish Aliens: Sapient planetoid aliens, but still. Also the justification for the Absent Aliens trope—the Brother Moons ate them.
That's No Moon!: Appears to be a broken moon of Tau Volantis when it's really a giant Necromorph whose birth is stalled.
Ultimate Life Form: A post-Convergence, size-of-a-moon ultimate Necromorph.
Walking Spoiler: As the final boss of Dead Space 3, virtually all information about it is a spoiler.

Characters / Dead Space

Edit Locked

Isaac Clarke

Advertisement:

Zach Hammond

Kendra Daniels

Corp. Chen

Corp. Johnston

Capt. Benjamin Mathius

Dr. Terrence Kyne

Dr. Challus Mercer

Nicole Brennan

Jacob Temple

Gabe Weller

Karen Howell

Alissa Vincent

Ramirez

Shen

Hanson

Pendleton

Samuel Irons

Sam Caldwell

Nathan McNeill

Lexine Murdoch-Weller

Warren Eckhardt

Abraham Neumann

Caleb Campbell

Nolan Stross

Dr. Isabel Cho

Nickolas Kuttner

Alejandro Borges

Vandal, aka Karrie Norton

Ellie Langford

Hans Tiedemann

Nicole Brennan Hallucination a.k.a. The Golden Marker (12B)

Daina LeGuin

Dr. Foster Edgars

Col. Victor Bartlett

Advertisement:

In general

The 163rd "Reapers"

Maj. Gen. Spencer Mahad

Pvt. Tim Caufman

Pvt. Sam Ackerman

Admiral Marjorie Graves

Lt. Tucker Edwards

Doctor Earl Serrano

Sergeant John Carver

Capt. Robert Norton

Mark Rosen

Locke

Jennifer Santos

Austin Buckell

Jacob Arthur Danik

"The Prophet"

Advertisement:

NOTE: Some of the Necromorphs are Walking Spoiler, and their descriptions are unmarked. You have been warned.

Slasher

Spitter

Leaper

Lurker

Infector

Pregnant

Exploder

Divider

Twitcher

Guardian

Swarmer

Brute

Wheezer

Drag Tentacle

Puker

The Pack

Crawler

Cyst

Stalker

Tripod

Flyer

Grabber

Nest