Build a herd of spores in the Library and have fun with them.

Posted June 28th 2007, expanded later

• The basic idea
• General fun with your herd
• Chasm shoot
• Shaft shoot on the second floor
• Building up larger herds
• A massive early herd
• Assorted tips
• Spore counting
• Near the third door
• Other levels

In the Library you'll often have a load of spores around you, but why not put your mind to it and actively try to get more? A large herd can be obtained very easily, and if you care to put more work into it you can build up the numbers by systematically harvesting carriers as you advance, repeatedly merging each new harvest of spores with the main group. You can end up with a vast sea of spores swarming about the place. Quite a sight! Forming a herd is quite enjoyable in itself, but you can also have some fun playing about with it, including a rather spectacular 'chasm shoot', all of which I'll elaborate on later.

A quick and easy herd

If you want to get off to a fairly effortless start, you can get a decently sized herd very easily as follows. Play through to the first door - you can pretty much just run there if you're on Heroic or lower - and try to have lots of spores trailing behind as you reach it. Simply avoid shooting any spores along the way and you're likely to have plenty chasing you. When the door opens, head left. That's the wrong way and it's a dead end (with a hidden medkit and shotgun, I might add), but you'll trigger a mass of spores there. They actually make a nice little herd just by themselves, but if you brought a load of extras along, so much the better. Maybe lead everyone back to the area of the first door, a nice large area for playing around in.

Here are some general ideas for fun with a herd.

Ring

For starters, how about a game of 'ring' with the little guys? When you move around in a circle some interesting geometry emerges. They tend to form into a ring as they try to leap at you. A cute little Halo of miniature assassins!

Piranha

Another idea is to let the spores attack head on. They come at you like some sort of gravity-defying waterfall flowing up off the ground. The graphics and rapid popping are pretty funny, but on Heroic or higher it's not such a laughing matter; you'll be dead on the floor in a trice. Death by spore-shower is not a pleasant way to go. I can't help thinking of a piranha attack here. Those little nibblers are vicious!

Watching them play

Here's something else. You know when spores are bobbling around playing by themselves? That can look pretty striking with a big herd; you can use the 2x pistol view to watch from a distance. If you can manage to leave them in the vicinity of a large block or some walls or something, they may play around partly on vertical or other surfaces, not just the ground. They really don't care, just so long as they're bobblin'…

Wipeout

Finally, there's something pretty obvious. Have fun wiping them out with your weaponry of choice! With a destructive activity like this, you ideally want to be doing it just after a checkpoint so you can keep reverting to play again with minimal delay.

It's best to use Legendary or Heroic for this. On the lower difficulty levels, spores are so fragile that the whole herd is likely to get wiped out in a few chain reactions of popping, making your work almost effortless. On Legendary it's a completely different story and you might be surprised at how long it can take to finish the herd off. I have to say, the assault rifle is my favourite for this; the sounds and visuals are great as the spores get shot up. It also feels like the most effective weapon; but try others too.

You can potentially make this activity into a bit of a challenge by backing yourself against a wall or into a corner, or simply resolving to stand still come what may. So if you don't kill the attackers fast enough, you're spore fodder!

I later found a great spore herd activity which I call a 'chasm shoot', involving some truly bizarre and spectacular shooting in the big circular area you briefly pass through near the start of the level. That area is namely the base of the massive shaft that runs up through the level (with the location of the Index visible above). Here's what to do.

Setting up with a handy checkpoint for replaying

Ideally you'll want a big herd before you've ever entered the shaft. That's pretty straightforward; see A massive early herd for talk about the sort of work you'd be doing. After entering the shaft and clearing it of hostiles, bring your herd through. As you near the exit tunnel you should get a checkpoint, and you're now nicely set up for replaying.

The fun

Draw the herd onto one of the eight long teeth pointing into the centre of the shaft. When you're near the end of the tooth with most of the herd close behind, jump to an adjacent tooth and move away from its end a bit, staying close to the edge. There's now a wide chasm between you and the spores. Ideally you want all the spores to go down into that chasm. In their desire to reach you, lots will do so right away if you're well placed. Others are likely to initially stay up at your level and start heading around to get you. When you see this, move along your edge in the appropriate direction to make them change their mind and head into the chasm instead (you're trying to give them a more inviting route). A brief bit of left-and-right movement like this can potentially get most of the herd down.

When most spores are in the chasm, quickly reach the edge between the teeth. It has a bright strip running over it. Stand at the edge and look down. It's quite a sight. Spores are trying to clamber up three sides to reach you, but as they near the top they tend to leap away from the sides, which takes them back down a way. I believe they're actually leaping to attack, but their judgement is hopeless; the programming isn't coping well with their vertical attack angle. You can now enjoy shooting them in mid-air as they leap and fall. It's like clay pigeon shooting but with spores. It's great fun, and I recommend a pistol or plasma rifle or AR. When they pop, it's quite beautiful how the fragments fall away under gravity. I've never seen popping look that good before, and it's all happening against a yellowy haze that makes the spectacle quite other-worldly. Mesmerizing, especially with a zoomed pistol.

You could also try tagging spores in mid-air. Just throw where there's a concentration of spores and you might get one. You can also have fun leaping around from tooth to tooth near the centre, shooting spores in the void and generally toying with them. Experiment.

Tips

It seems best to be using Legendary or Heroic for this activity. On the lower difficulty levels, the relative fragility of spores causes much more extensive chain reactions of popping when you're shooting, which isn't really what you want, and it would shorten your fun of course.

A few extra comments. (1) Some spores may manage to clamber up to nibble you, particularly at the start when there can be quite a rush, but things tend to settle down after a while. (2) You may get a few stray spores coming at you from other areas while having your fun. You can either ignore them or take a moment to pop them (having noticed dots on your motion tracker, or having heard them). (3) You do need to stand close to the edge for the shooting, else the spores become less tempted into rash jumping and will soon be coming up over the edge. Because of this, try not to let yourself get forced back; and if you do get forced back, make it brief else you'll simply be inviting more and more spores up. (4) Actually though, if you stand back just a short way, spores tend to overshoot as they come up over the edge, and you can enjoy shooting them in mid-air (looking horizontally, not looking down).

You can do something similar to the above-mentioned chasm shoot on the second floor. Dead ahead after the first door you encounter on that floor, there's a nasty drop into the shaft that runs up through the level. Get a herd of spores chasing you and stand at the edge, preferably near the middle. Dodge as they leap, causing many to go over. Repeat until they're all over. Looking over the edge, you can see them trying to scuttle up but they don't get very close. They end up leaping away from the surface to fall back down again. Shoot them in mid-air. It's not as spectacular as the chasm shoot as the background isn't as striking and the spores are further away from you, but it's still pretty good, and it's nice that you don't have to worry about getting nibbled this time!

Note: Some carriers drop down behind you after you arrive on this floor. Run straight past to leave them intact until the battle at the door is over, so you can then harvest them for your herd. There will also be carriers in the door battle itself, and in an area off to the right after the door. All in all, you should be able to build a good herd, but you may need to destroy some Sentinels so they don't interfere.

You can enlarge a herd by progressing through the current floor or backtracking to earlier areas where you bypassed some enemies, repeatedly gathering fresh spores and adding them to the collection. You can either herd the newcomers to the main mass (left where they were safe from any danger of getting popped by friendly fire or Sentinel fire) or you can herd the main mass to the newcomers.

Framerate slowdown

Mind you, with sufficient numbers you'll eventually start getting framerate slowdown when near your herd, even when looking away from them. The game is having trouble coping with that many. Slowdown may degrade your fun when playing around with the herd, but perhaps you're just interested in numbers.

Hey, who took my herd?

A further matter is that the game may remove your herd at some point (at a checkpoint I think). For example, I was keeping a herd near the first door where there's a nice large area for play. I was going through the floor harvesting carriers, repeatedly escorting new groups of spores back to join the herd. But after a certain checkpoint, I returned to find my herd gone! Which I suppose was the game's way of saying to me "Hah! That's what I think of your stinkin' spore collection! You think I want to waste all my valuable processing time on spores? Think again. Play the game properly bozo!". Which was just mean, and there's no need for that sort of name calling.

It looks like you can prevent removal by keeping the herd relatively close as you move through the level. The idea is to not leave them in an area the game might consider "finished with". However, you're still not going to able to grow the herd indefinitely; see the next subsection.

If you're concerned about possible removal, here's what you can do as you advance. Whenever you get a checkpoint, check that your herd still exists. If it does, save and continue. If it doesn't, eject the disc and reload to get back to when it last did exist.

Hitting the limit

With a sufficiently large herd, the game eventually seems to go glitchy, making further enlargement problematic. Here's what happened to me on Legendary. On the first floor, I did a fairly careful job of herd building right from the start, and kept the herd close enough that the game didn't remove it at any point. But when I reached the penultimate spawning point for combat Flood (namely at the end of a very long avenue), I got two bits of trouble. Firstly, my weapons had no effect. They were making firing noises ok, but it was as if they were emitting nothing. I was unable to kill combat Flood, which made further progress practically impossible. Secondly, the 'Start' button was being ignored, which made me unable to save or revert.

The upshot of all this is that you're not going to be able to grow your herd indefinitely. How many spores can you have before the game goes glitchy? I'm not sure exactly, but something well over 200.

Taking spores up in a lift

It's possible to take spores up a lift (down too I expect). To try to get most of a herd onto the lift, I suggest you first get the herd concentrated near the entrance, then start heading around the edge of the lift without getting on yet. Part way around, get on, and hopefully a lot of the pursuing spores will get on before it's risen too far. Spores exhibit some weird glitchy behaviour when on the lift (sometimes they seem to be on their side), but they seem ok once they get off.

If you carefully harvest all carriers and keep most spores intact, you can end up with a massive herd by the time you reach the first door; and you'll get a checkpoint once the door opens, ideal for saving. I did this on Legendary for maximum carrier count, but you'll still get a big herd even if you only use Easy (you can expect around 16 carriers on Easy or Normal, 22 on Heroic, 29 on Legendary). If you fancy testing your herd-building skill, give it a go; I think you'll find it an interesting challenge. Here's a bit of elaboration.

Start area

Right at the start there's a carrier around the corner to the left, with plenty of spores nearby. There are also spores around the narrow entrance to the next area, and a few carriers will come waddling through from there. Your initial task is to get all these carriers popped without destroying any spores. Once you've done that, you'll already have quite an impressive gang of nibblers.

Moving on

Draw the spores to the back of the area then run ahead to trigger new enemies. Harvest more carriers and lead spores back to join the growing herd. You always want to keep the herd clear of the action, out of danger. Continue in the same vein. However, you don't always need to take groups back to the main herd; just try to keep them far enough back to be out of danger and out of your way as you harvest.

Finishing off

Eventually you'll be nearing the first door. Once it's clear of any combat Flood and you've only got spores around, go back and bring previous spores along. You'll end up with a huge mass near the door. Finally, approach the door to trigger the Monitor into briefly departing then returning to open the door. A checkpoint follows. Of course, you could now swell your herd still further by going left to get spores from the dead end.

Here are some general tips on building a herd.

Higher difficulty for more spores

The higher the difficulty level, the more carriers you'll encounter, hence the more spores can be harvested. Each carrier yields between 3 and 6 spores. Based on some testing, the yield seems to be quite random and with equal probability for each number. I'd been hoping that on Legendary you'd get 6 more often, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Harvesting

When you encounter some new Flood spawning, try to eliminate the combat Flood while leaving carriers intact. Some care and planning may be needed there, and perhaps some replaying until everything goes well. I'll usually be carrying a shotgun and pistol. The pistol is great for picking off combat forms from distance, something you may need to do if you've backed off from the spawning area (which can be a useful way of keeping things under control). Once you've just got some carriers waddling your way, things are relatively easy to control. At a suitable moment, try to pop one so that it sends others flying off to explode well clear of each other, so you harvest as many spores as possible. You don't want a carrier-pop to kill existing spores.

Keep the main herd out of the action

Always try to keep the main herd away from any action. That's partly to avoid spores getting popped by Sentinels or stray gunfire, and partly to keep them out of your way while you're trying to harvest more.

Herding technique

When herding (i.e. leading a herd along) be careful not to get nibbled, because if one spore pops, it may cause lots more to pop. Luckily it seems pretty easy to stay clear, regardless of the difficulty level you're using. The basic technique is to keep skirting around the edges. As long as you keep moving and you're not heading straight for them, spores will jump at where you just were, and miss. There's sort of a knack to it but I expect you'll soon be herding comfortably. Occasionally you may need to circle back for a moment to keep stragglers in touch.

If you ever misjudge things and find yourself hemmed in so that you have to go through the herd to escape, use a rapid zigzag motion as you go. This tends to throw off the aim of the spores as they jump, and with any luck there won't be any popping. If spores aren't too thick on the ground, you can simply dart through small gaps instead.

In some places there are big glass panels in the floor. Try to keep those intact as long as possible, so spores won't fall through the holes. They'll still be able to scuttle back up, but it takes a while and holds you up when trying to herd them along. Sometimes there are spores underneath the glass; so eventually you may want to shatter the glass to collect them.

Want to count how many spores you've got? Here's my advice.

Pop-counting

As long as you've got a checkpoint to revert to, you can do it by what I call 'pop-counting'. Basically this involves herding them around and gradually picking off isolated spores that are far enough away from the main mass that they won't cause an uncontrolled chain reaction of popping. Keep a running total of the pops, and eventually you'll know how many spores you had. You can then revert to get back the herd.

As to the specifics, I suggest you try to continually back off from the herd, trying to string them out. It can help to lead them over or around obstacles, or through narrow gaps; anything to hinder their progress. When one or more spores at the front jump at you, whack them if they're sufficiently isolated. You can potentially also whack them on the ground of course. While doing all this, you can also be looking out for isolated spores to shoot further back in the herd; perhaps a few stragglers clambering down over an obstacle or suchlike. I'd suggest a pistol or plasma rifle for that.

Combining separate counts

Rather than waiting to do all your counting when you've got your final herd, you could potentially do it in batches along the way. Count your initial herd, and then each time you harvest a group of newcomers, count that group before merging it with the herd. Counting small groups (even up to size 20 or so) can potentially be done just by eye; no popping needed. Add up all the totals and that should be the size of your herd, as long as the game didn't cull your herd while you were away at any point. I don't think the game does piecemeal culling like that. If the game ever does any spore removing, I think it would be the entire herd.

Earlier I mentioned a dead end to the left after the first door, where you can trigger a mass of spores. There's a similar mass of spores you can trigger in a dead end by going left after the third door, up on the second floor. It's the second door on that floor. That's the door you reach after crossing some wide open areas, and then you have to wait around for the Monitor to open the door, during which time some spores drop from a distant ceiling and close in on you. And then when the door does open, there are spores behind it ready to ambush you. Add all those spores to the mob from the dead end and you should have quite a good crowd; and you've got some huge areas to play in! I wonder how big a herd you can get there.

The Library is undoubtedly the best level for building up large spore herds, but there may be some potential in Two Betrayals or Keyes, and let's not forget that you also get some large masses of spores in 343 Guilty Spark when they burst through doors. I haven't investigated those levels for spore fun yet though.

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