In lower difficulty settings, Combine can easily be defeated without too much knowledge or use of tactics--just point and shoot, right? In higher difficulties, this is no longer the case. If you can manage to figure out what they're saying to Overwatch as they fight you, and what they're saying to each other, perhaps fewer tears will be shed.

But before we can get into the meat of this guide, we have to understand how we can actually figure out what these guys are saying. Being an alien organization, the Combine are famously hard to understand, especially in their radio chatter. Grunt speech is easy to make out, but for Chargers, APFs, and Ordinals? You have little chance.

Our best bet is to turn on subtitles. You can choose how you go about this, but the most important thing is that they're synced with gameplay, so you can see the words before or as they're spoken. This will allow you to identify immediate threats, and respond to longer-term attack strategies.

Of course, I'm not making you do anything. You can choose not to turn on subtitles. But I will judge you for being a masochist.

The Combine use a small, versatile set of codewords, which they apply to both their people and enemies. These codewords are a lot like legos: with a very limited set of tools, a wide variety of situations can be addressed.

Unfortunately, since most Combine chatter is context-specific, it cannot be analyzed without making this guide way, way longer than it needs to be. However, what is here will give you a far greater grasp of what the Combine are doing than the average anticitizen.


Echo (One, Four, and Seven) - Combine grunts are always Echo units. In combat, a grunt will usually refer to themselves as Echo One, and sometimes just as Echo.

Wallhammer - Charger. These are the big guys with the shotgun.

APF - Antibody Protection Force, AKA the bug-eyed minigun dudes.

Ordinal - Combine commanders that can deploy manhacks. They are darker colored than grunts.


Bouncer / Extractor - Fairly simple: just means grenade. Be aware that they will not always call it either of those things--sometimes they will just call it a grenade.

Breakdown - Refers to breaking cover.

Daggers - Weapons. 'Refilling daggers' means reloading, and 'daggers on' means preparing to shoot.

Flash / Blinder - Refers to the effect a charger's shield has on the player if looked at for too long.

Outbreak - Refers to a situation that has gotten out of control.

Pressing / Pressure / Pushing - Advancement on a target.

Prosecution / Oppression - Blanket term for offensive action in general.

Quiet - Death of player or Combine, or evasion on the part of the player.

Radials - Area around a Combine combatant.

Ripcord - Full retreat, or request for such.

Shade - 'Finding shade' is similar to ripcord, but used during a smaller-scale threat.

Shadow - Evasive action either on the part of a hostile or friendly actor. Can also be used generally to refer to cover, or covering fire.

Sharp - 'Going sharp' indicates beginning of a firefight with a hostile actor. 'Staying sharp' means staying vigilant in a non-combat situation.

Spikes - Refers to gunfire, or active ranged attacks.

Stimdose - Exactly what it sounds like. Be aware that when this is mentioned, combatants will not always heal immediately, or at all.

Sundown - Death of a combatant, friendly or otherwise; i.e. 'Condition Sundown'

Time Limited - Injured, or near death. Basically the polite version of "up sh!t creek".

Viscon - Sightlines on an active threat; i.e. 'Viscon lost'


Animal / Primary Target / Contaminant / Target One / Jackpot - That's YOU, baby!

Biotics - Unspecified organism, intelligent or otherwise.

Parasitics - Headcrabs.

Necrotics - Zombies.

Viscerator - Manhack. When a combatant is sending one out, they will usually say so.

Virome - Antlions, or other similar creatures.


Audible - Sound information. Can be a qualitative descriptor, or an actual statistic.

Biodat(s) - Biological data. This is stuff like heart rate, genetic information, etc. I don't know how the Combine get this information, but maybe it's better not to.

Boosters - Weapon upgrades. Combine will sometimes alert each other if they recognize an upgraded gun.

This is obviously not a full comprehensive list of combat voicelines. Such a thing would be potentially interesting, but not nearly as useful as many people think it would be. That's because, while the vast majority of Combine dialogue is confusing and weird, it is also fairly self-explanatory. This guide was just designed to help fill in the blanks on unknowns, and elucidate common sources of confusion among players.

So in conclusion, when in combat, always remember to keep one eye on the subtitles. They may just save your life.

~~~

If I missed anything, or if there's any dialogue someone wants me to explain or clarify, let me know in the comments!

P.S. If you're one of those types who likes to scream about "but muh immersion", please dismount the massive high horse you have somehow climbed up onto and go play Vermintide 2 or something, idk. This is a guide for people who want/need it, and if you don't want/need it, great! Go somewhere else and do something else with your life. Just don't bother me about your weird ~h4rdc0r3 g4m3r~ hang-ups, I have better things to do.

Edit: damn this bload up, while your all here www.yahoo

All images come from BlinkJisooXPS on Deviantart, here[www.deviantart.com]!