Pregnant

### Description:

* Resembles a Slasher with a massive, swollen stomach, shorter legs, and wider, thicker blades.

### Attack(s):

* They typically charge and slash prey with their large blades.
* Necromorph swarms are released when the stomach is damaged.

**Pregnants** are specialized Necromorphs. They are named due to the enormous sac that extrudes from their abdominal area, the contents of which are other, smaller forms of Necromorphs which burst forth when the sac is damaged.

## Overview

 File:Charging pregnant ch3.png  Pregnants appear to be created from a single human corpse, albeit one that has been radically mutated.

The skull's lower jaw has been detached, and what appear to be tentacles now hang from the mouth.

This Necromorph sports two massive arms coming out from its back, each ending in a large bone-like scythe, which is used to slash and rend an opponent in the same manner as a Slasher does. The host's human arms appear fused into the massive sac that has developed on the torso. This sac hosts smaller Necromorphs inside of it. When heavily damaged, Pregnants tend to claw open their own abdominal sacs in order to release their spawn in an effort to ensure their victim's demise.

Their abdominal sacs usually host Swarmers but sometimes they may carry deadlier payloads of Necromorphs, including Lurkers as well as small creatures composed of miscellaneous body parts, identical to those that come from Dividers .
In order to accommodate its great weight, a Pregnant's legs have become shorter in order to balance the creature by lowering its center of mass, and the overall leg structure has been altered. As a result, although their weight hinders their speed, they can move at a brisk enough pace to out-walk their target when they are determined.

Pregnants, unlike most Necromorphs, do not commonly travel in packs, however they do tend to travel with other Necromorphs. Unlike Lurkers , Pregnants can really wreak havoc when they have Slashers or otherNecromorph forms accompanying them.

Pregnants in *Dead Space 3 Remastered*are different in appearance from previous games. Their bodies are overall mostly one color and their abdominal sacs appear much more swollen. When their sacks burst, they release the Swarm rather than Swarmers.

## Strategy

* Like all Necromorphs, it is a good idea to use Stasis on Pregnants. This gives you plenty of time to pick off their limbs without worrying about them getting too close.
* Just like the Slashers, a Pregnant aways will die if both of its blades are severed. The shoulder is an excellent place to shoot the Pregnant as it will not release the payload and, with some weapons, will sever the head and the scythe with one shot.
	+ Note that if you shoot its head off, the Pregnant will behave much like a Slasher in that it will flail wildly with its scythe-like arms, possibly hitting other Necromorphs near them.
	+ Its blades make perfect weapons against weaker Necromorphs because of the large bladed tip which does more damage than a Slasher blade.
* One should avoid hitting the Pregnant's sac directly, with any weapon other than the Force Gun, as it will rupture, releasing its payload.
* If the player does happen to shoot the sac, it's best to kill its payload when it first emerges from the Pregnant's body. Wait for all of the Swarmers it carries to emerge before firing to prevent additional ammo consumption.
	+ Sometimes after the payload escapes, the Pregnant loses the ability to walk and will drag itself towards you.
	+ Once slain, a Pregnant can no longer release its spawn. Not even if the player directly shoots its abdominal sac.
* A simple but effective way of reliably killing Pregnants is to sever one leg, and then sever an arm when it's on the ground. If you do decide to go for the legs, your best bet is a horizontally-set Plasma Cutter or a Line Gun, if you aim low enough.
	+ However, shooting off the legs may not be a good idea in *Dead Space 2* and *Dead Space 3* as it is possible for a Pregnant to resort into tearing itself apart after being weakened, releasing their payload. If a hurt Pregnant stops and raises its claws in the air, use Stasis and kill it as quickly as possible.
* A Seeker Rifle round (on Casual or Normal) to the head will completely kill it without releasing its spawn.
* The Flamethrower is not a good weapon against a Pregnant because they will almost always release their payload the second they catch on fire. This means you will have to waste fuel on the Swarmers or switch to a different weapon. It is best just to avoid using the Flamethrower on Pregnants altogether.
* Even if Pregnant manages to unleash its payload, a well-placed Force Gun blast or Javelin secondary fire will incinerate its payload among with any nearby Necromorph.
* You can kill a Pregnant without releasing its payload (or by killing its payload at the same time) with a mine from the Line Gun. However, do not always count on this. Always make sure to look it over after taking your shot, and make sure to stand a safe distance away when launching the mine.
* A Seeker Rifle's fully upgraded Alt Fire will kill it in one shot, even on Zealot difficulty and Hard Core mode.
* In *Dead Space 2 Remastered*, the Pulse Rifle's alt-fire, as well as the Detonator, is a terrible choice when facing Pregnants. The explosive property of both weapons will always cause the Pregnant to release its swarm after being blown to pieces. It would much helpful if you only use the Pulse Rifle's primary fire, or downright avoid using the two weapons at all.
* The Ripper is a good choice for tearing up a Pregnant. Just be sure not to accidentally hit the abdomen when steering the blade.
* In *Dead Space Remastered*, the Contact Beam is a great weapon to use against a Pregnant, as a blow to the limbs or head should kill it instantly without releasing its swarm. In *Dead Space 2 Remastered*, however, using the weapon becomes somewhat of a gamble. While it can still kill a Pregnant with one hit, the weapon's increased dismembering power will also blow up the creature, thus releasing its swarm. Use caution when using the weapon.
* Its arms are much stronger than the legs. It takes two shots to dismember an arm and one shot to a leg when using a fully upgraded Plasma Cutter.
* In *Dead Space Remastered (Mobile)*, applying stasis to a Pregnant and ripping its stomach open with the Plasma Saw or a Ripper will release its payload, its payload will also be in stasis. Then you can stomp on its slowed down spawn and take out the Pregnant easier.

## Trivia

* The very first encounter with a Pregnant happens in Chapter 3 of *Dead Space Remastered*, in the Engine Room, but X-rays of them can be found in the BioLab, indicating attempts were made to understand their anatomy.
* Even though the name would suggest a female host, this doesn't always seem to be the case. X-Rays found throughout the game show male subjects that are starting to show Pregnants' characteristics, namely the sac.
* Pregnants can survive having their payloads released and continue to attack the player much as they would before being damaged. This is more common on the higher difficulty levels.
* In *Dead Space 2 Severed Remastered*, a new form of Pregnant with flesh-colored skin is encountered by Mamoru Chiba in Chapter 2. This new form looks as if it were created from a male host more than the standard form. This version also retains the host body's jaw.
* The Pregnant is the only Necromorph besides the Exploder and Crawler that can kill itself in an attempt to kill its victim.
* It is possible to kill a Pregnant while it is releasing its payload to stop whatever is coming out.
* In *Dead Space: Downfall*, the one Pregnant shown is 10–12 feet in height. In every game, Pregnants are just barely taller than Isaac, roughly 6.5 feet.
* In *Dead Space Remastered (mobile),* during the later part of the game, Vandal encounters  Enhanced Pregnants. This would appear to be the second exclusive Enhanced Necromorph that this game has, the other being the Exploder.
* Mummified Pregnants in Dead Space 3 Remastered seems to have some same parts from the original model, like the blades and 3 sharp bones back of the Necromorph with blood on them. It might be bug in the model, if the developers used the original model to create the new one and just changed some parts and textures of it.
* It may be possible that the Pregnantson the CMS Terra Nova and Tau Volantis may be their enhanced forms. This might be due to the fact that it's appearance in *Dead Space 3 Remastered*is rendered similarly to the enhanced forms of other Necromorphs, minus the glowing eyes, and that the Roanoke outbreak was around 200 years before the events of the game, giving them time to evolve.
* Aside from a Slasher Robert Norton, Pregnants are the first Necromorphs to be encountered In *Dead Space 3: Awakened Remastered.*
* Oddly, unlike Slashers, when decapitated Pregnants continue their regular assault on Isaac rather than swinging wildly.

## Death Scenes

The Pregnants have two death scenes for Abdullah, although one of them is not often considered as a "Pregnant death scene" because the ones who kill Abdullah are actually their spawn.

* If Abdullah's health is critical, the Pregnant will slash one of his limbs off, or even bisect him at waist height.
* The latter sequence is brought on if Abdullah shoots the Pregnant's abdominal sac. Doing this will unleash the Swarmers, which will bite Abdullah to death if the player does not follow the context-sensitive button/key prompt to shake them off.
* This death scene is also present in *Dead Space Remastered (mobile).*