Breeder

The Breeder is an enemy Cryptid appearing in the Call of Duty: Ghosts Extinction map, Nightfall. It serves as the strongest Cryptid on the map.

History[]

The Breeder was hatched by David Archer in the hatchery sometime before the Nightfall facility outbreak began. Archer brought Samantha Cross out to the hatchery to give her a break from translating the Obelisk so that she could witness the Breeder hatching, an incident which traumatized Cross. Archer was very proud of the Breeder's creation. The Breeder is loyal to Archer, and Archer used the Breeder's hatching capability to create cryptids in the Nightfall facility. These cryptids would proceed to begin an outbreak in the Nightfall facility itself, which prompts Cross to send out a distress signal in which she pleads for intervention to kill Archer and his Nightfall program. After this message was received, CIF Team 1 is dispatched to the Nightfall facility to attempt to control the situation in the hopes that nuclear intervention can be avoided.

During the outbreak, the Breeder impales and kills a soldier that was attempting to escape the facility with CIF Team 1. Afterwards, the Breeder hides in a large pile of snow at the far end of the compound, and when all hives in the area are cleared, Godfather will alert CIF Team 1 to warn them that the source of the outbreak is nearby. After this encounter with the Breeder, the Breeder will fall back and hide around the facility buildings.

Once CIF Team 1 is preparing to enter the facility, the Breeder will reveal itself once more for a brief moment before it falls back again.

Once CIF Team 1 returns outside after clearing out the hives inside the facility, the Breeder will block CIF Team 1 from pursuing Archer, ensuring Archer evades capture and boards the newly acquired Stormbreaker with Cross in, and engaging in one last battle with CIF Team 1. The Breeder does not survive its encounter with CIF Team 1, and is killed. Another Breeder would never be hatched afterwards.

Appearance[]

The Breeder is an enormous, spider-like creature that is armed with large claws. In the trailer, the Breeder is seen stabbing a person in the chest with sharp claws. The Breeder is capable of using its sharp claws to badly wound or even down players who are too close to it. The Breeder is capable of scaling buildings effortlessly, and most of its body is covered in armor plating, making most of its body imprevious to small arms fire. Its only weak point is its head, which can be consistently struck to deal damage to it. However, this weak point can temporarily become impossible to hit when it's launching its gas attack, but this is an uncommon and inconsistent occurrence.

Its back contains the means to its three ranged attacks. When it begins to gather energy, it will proceed to open two guns on its back that will rapidly fire energy-based projectiles at enemies in a concentrated volley of fire. The Breeder can also launch red balls in a mortar-like trajectory that will spawn toxic red gas, harming and disorienting players. Finally, the Breeder can launch 2 to 3 eggs which can hatch Hunters if the eggs are not destroyed quickly enough. When the Breeder is using or beginning to use its projectile attacks, it will not be able to use its claws to attack those who are too close to it, allowing players to get face to face with the Breeder.

The Breeder has four sacs on its abdomen, one of which will begin to glow yellow if it is badly hurt. These sacs can be targeted to deal extra damage, but this is only relevant in the last battle against the Breeder.

In-Game[]

In both battles against the Breeder, the Breeder's health bar is shown in the top left corner of the screen.

During its battles, cryptids will spawn and attack the player, so players should be mindful to protect themselves from the Cryptids as well. Once the Breeder is depleted of all health in its first fight, it will retreat. This fight will have a challenge associated with it. In solo play, the challenge will always be to defeat the Breeder in less than 120 seconds. In Multiplayer, the same challenge can be given, but there is also the option for a challenge associated with destroying Breeder eggs before they hatch will be given as well.

The Breeder appears at the entrance of the indoor facility once the second sector is cleared of hives. It will block the entrance to the facility momentarily and then retreat. No damage can be dealt to the Breeder in this encounter.

The Breeder's final appearance is after all hives are cleared and CIF Team 1 returns outside, with CIF Team 1 tasked with destroying the Breeder once and for all. In this fight, the Breeder has significantly more health. The Breeder can now move in addition to being able to re-orient itself a full 360 degrees. The Breeder's machine gun attack will last much longer, and cryptids will once again spawn during the battle.

The Breeder has full access to the attacks it used in the first battle. The Breeder's machine gun attack lasts much longer in the final battle. When the Breeder is sufficiently damaged, it will fall on its side and expose another major weak point - one of four sides on its abdomen will glow bright yellow. Players can pummel the weak spot to deal massive amounts of damage for about fifteen seconds until the Breeder recovers and gets back up. The Breeder will wince in pain if a lot of damage is dealt in that window. There is a hard limit to how much health can be depleted this way, usually around 1/3rd to 1/2 of the Breeder's health.

Once the Breeder loses about half of its health during the fight, it will retreat and climb to the top of the facility, staying up there for roughly ninety seconds. Players will know the Breeder is about to retreat since the Breeder will become momentarily invulnerable when it is about to leave. While the Breeder waits on top of the facility, the amount of cryptids that spawn in ramps up severely, with the player(s) usually having to deal with a Rhino and a Phantom in the meantime. The Breeder is still capable of launching gas and eggs in this state, but it will never fire its machine guns when in this position. Players cannot hurt the Breeder until it returns to the middle area.

When the Breeder returns to the main combat area, two hive corners at random will have large flower-like structures sprout. When the Breeder is down to roughly 1/4 of its health, it will try to regenerate a portion of it by absorbing it from the hive flowers scattered around the facility. During this state, it will not attack. The flowers can be destroyed to end the Breeder's healing state prematurely, or not allow it to even heal at all, although the player is fully capable of just attacking the Breeder directly when it does this anyway, as the Breeder becomes extremely vulnerable while doing this, since it stands still and doesn't attack while attempting to regenerate its health. If the flowers are destroyed before the sequence begins, the Breeder will not attempt to heal. It is possible to interrupt the healing process by damaging the Breeder to the extent that it falls to its side.

Once the Breeder is depleted of all health, it will have two of its legs separated, causing it to collapse. Cryptids will still spawn for a short time after the Breeder's health bar is depleted, so players should focus on protecting themselves while the Breeder is in the process of dying, as the Breeder cannot hurt the player in its dying moments. Once the Breeder is killed, the mission is completed.

Achievements/Trophies[]

Survived Nightfall (20 / Bronze Trophy ) - Kill the Breeder for the first time in Nightfall.
Speed Slayer (20 / Bronze Trophy ) - Kill the Breeder in less than 5 minutes in Nightfall.
Nightfall Completionist (30 / Silver Trophy ) - Complete all challenges and kill the Breeder in Nightfall.
Throttled Survival (30 / Silver Trophy ) - Kill the Breeder while using a Relic in Nightfall.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Breeder is what lays the eggs in Extinction mode.
The Extinction Prestige level 10 features the Breeder as the symbol.
When the Hypno Knife is used on the Breeder, its eggs will have a rainbow explosion when destroyed.
At the beginning of the game, when the Breeder kills the lone soldier, it is possible for the Breeder to injure the player if the player is too close to the fence, the fence bashing the player away as it happens. It will take away about 40% of the player's health.