I thought I would do a little review of some AI in the game so people can really get a feel for Destiny's Antagonists. [b][u]Overview: [/u][/b] The Hive are a vicious, impulsive race of creatures. The grimoire card states that, "The Hive are an ancient, festering evil. Their antipathy to the Light transcends hatred." You can tell that they're not very nice. They are the creatures that you would expect to see under your bed as a kid. Enough dicking around, lets take a look at what each [i]"class"[/i] of Hive has to throw at you. I'll be going over best method of attack, their traits and impressions. [u][b]The Thrall: [/b][/u] Darting and weaving, darting and weaving. The thrall are the hivemind controlled by the Wizard. They are meant to get up in your face, they don't really care about damage, they just look for the kill. If you have ever played The Last Of Us, you'll know what the Clickers are. The Thralls are almost exactly like the Clickers, except they are easier to kill. You'll find them in groups making strange noises, once they see you they start to screech and twitch running after you. What you'll want to do at the time is either, get the hell out or get your shotgun and melee ready. They go down quickly but they can be tough to take down when they encircle you. Going through Old Russia, I've met two other subclasses of the creature. The first one is basically a more jacked version of the typical Hive, the [i]"Chosen Thrall"[/i] they have more health and can dish out more damage. Next is the [i]"Cursed Thrall"[/i], he will stutter around for a few times and then run after you. Do not get to close to him as he will explode and either kill you, or get you very close to death. [b][u]Hive Acolytes:[/u][/b] These buggers are more typical, they are the middle class of the Hive. They have three glowing green eyes, two ear like appendages coming out of either side and moldy robes that almost gives a certain sense of ancient royalty. The Acolytes carry an odd triangular gun that shoots singular purple shots. These guys like to hide behind crates and walls and dart out for a few seconds to hit you just when you were starting to recover your shields. They are pretty frail and you'll only see three or four in a group of Hive. You can really use whatever to hit them; shotguns, grenades, melee, etc. They'll go down quick. I'm sure there are more variants then the ones I've found. I encountered the [i]"Chosen Acolytes"[/i] which again, are just a beefier version of the typical acolyte. Then there was the [i]"Hallowed Acolyte"[/i] which had a yellow bar of health and was at level 17. They were impossible to take out at level 8. I stunned them and ran past them to get that delicious 175 glimmer with DontBlinkLink. [b][u]Hive Knight:[/u][/b] The knights are hard to take out. You'll see one or two in a pack of Hive. They are easily noticed as being bigger then the other two mentioned and having a large set of armour. They have three protrusions poking out of their head one on top and one on either side of the head. They also have three glowing, green eyes and a huge sword and gun they carry around. These guys hit big with their guns that shoot big bursts of arc damage. Get too close and you're going to be hit with the sword. Hit from afar and he will create a large shield that will block damage from hitting him for around 10 seconds and also getting recovery. There is no good strategy for fighting these brutes. Do anything for too long and he will shut you down, so try to dart and weave, hitting from afar, melee and a bit of shotgun. Two forms that me and my friend encountered were the [i]"Chosen Knight"[/i] (not even going to) and the [i]"Hallowed Knight"[/i] which was found under the grottos in the Steppe and a secret area in the Skywatch where a Dead Ghost was found. The Hallowed Knights are a noobies nightmare, they deal club hits that kill you in one hit, a big surprise for me the first time I had a date with them. [u][b]Hive Wizard:[/b][/u] "ARGGGHHHH" is all that you hear when you stumble into a group of hive with a wizard in the center. The wizard is the main man of the troupe, having the most detail and uniqueness to it. It has a large sense of ancient royalty to it, as it has almost dress like robes and a very unique and detailed crown to top it off. On The Dark Within story mission, the miniboss is Gotra Eir Spawn at level 3. The Hive Wizard will be floating around in the group not usually found in pairs. I consider it to almost be the Queen Ant of the group. It attacks with arc damage shooting high damaging pulses in rapid succesion. You'll want to take out its orange shield behind cover and get up close with a shotgun after the shields gone to take it out quickly. You'll have to shoot in very quickly because it can teleport very quickly usually above thralls or acolytes. I've only encountered one variant of the Wizard. It was the [i]"Chosen Wizard"[/i] to top off the other 3 chosen Hive creatures. [u][b]Hive Shrieker:[/b][/u] I do not know much about the shrieker. I only decided to include creatures that I had actually met in the alpha, and the shrieker was a very brief encounter. It was level 20, and appeared to be the Hive variant of the Fallen's Devil Walker. It looked like a large purple lava-lamp and shot arc energy as it spun at a high velocity. I died very quickly. [u][b]Overall Review: [/b][/u] The Hive are a special type of creature that Bungie has created. At first glace you would just think of them as the typical Flood or zombie, but they're so much different and unique. The Hive really feel like they fit perfectly into the lore in Density and they also feel alive with each class having a different personality. Part 2 is up! Fallen Guide: http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=65594013&path=1