Headhunter

Headhunter is a minor antagonist in Katana Zero. She is considered to be the final boss of the game.

History

Headhunter was a NULL soldier who fought in the Cromag War. Although her NULL rank is unknown, she is most likely not a Gamma NULL due to how she refers to only Fifteen as being a Gamma, excluding herself. She has precognition abilities similar to those Zero uses throughout the game, although the level of these abilities relative to Zero is never mentioned.

After the Cromag War Headhunter became a professional assassin, working for one of the NULL founders, Omar Al-Qasim. Al-Qasim had her eliminate targets in exchange for Chronos, and seemingly was attempting to find a way to rehabilitate Headhunter (or at the very least was pretending to).

She first appears in the Chinatown mission, where she is seen speaking with Fifteen moments before Zero interrupts. Zero, as usual, plans out the fight with his precognition, and sees himself making a solid hit and killing her. In real life, she turns the hit into a glancing blow and for her part is extremely surprised because she foresaw herself killing Zero and winning.  Realizing that Zero is a NULL like herself, she flees.

She encounters Zero again at the end of the Bunker Mission. She tells him that there isn't enough Chronos for all the NULL subjects running around and expresses an interest in drinking the Chronos from Zero's blood to sustain herself for a few more days. She also bemoans how they have the powers of gods but are going to have to fight one another like two junkies over their last hit. Ultimately, she is killed by Zero when he throws a combat knife into the explosives on her body. As she dies she asks Zero to get revenge on the people who did this to them. Zero then decapitates her corpse and uses her head to activate the retinal scan and open the vault.

Appearance

Headhunter is an average sized woman (approximately Zero's height) with a pale complexion.  She wears her New Mecca army uniform with a beret, and covers her face with a visor or mask. She has brown hair that she keeps ponytailed.

Personality

While much of her personality is unknown due to her limited dialogue, Headhunter shared Fifteen's strong desire for revenge against those involved in the NULL project. However, over the course of the years that passed, she ultimately decided to put herself first and worry about the creators of Chronos later, being unwilling to assist Fifteen not just from how long they’ve been fighting, but because of her Chronos withdrawal. Despite being unwilling to talk with Zero, she does offer him the chance to surrender during the battle against her. She also holds the belief that instead of being slaves to their Chronos addiction, NULL subjects should use their powers to hold positions of power, akin to gods.

At times during her battle with Zero, she seems deeply remorseful about them having to fight. When she is eventually killed by Zero, she pleads desperately for him to destroy the people involved in the NULL Project.

Equipment

Headhunter wears the standard NULL uniform, covering her face with a blue visor or mask. It is unlikely that the uniform provides any extra protection. She also wears an explosive vest under her uniform during her boss fight, which she can detonate with a dead-man's switch.

Headhunter carries 4 weapons, a high energy laser rifle, a machine gun, a small grenade launcher, and a combat knife. Her laser rifle has to be charged for a moment before it can fire, and causes the player to rapidly combust upon contact with the beam. Her machine gun fires standard bullets which can be reflected, but has the highest fire rate out of any gun in the game. Her grenade launcher fires round grenades that explode after a short timer, similar to Mr. Kissyface's grenades. She fires 3 grenades in two patterns, one spread around the player, and one volley directly at the player. The latter is quite deadly, as it knocks back and stuns the player.

Headhunter lastly carries concussion grenades, which she uses to make escapes whenever she's hit.

Abilities

Headhunter, being a Null soldier, has a similar level of precognition to Zero and Fifteen, but hers is slightly more limited, due to her possibly being a lower-ranked NULL, and also suffering from Chronos withdrawals.

Headhunter's fighting style is less confrontational than Zero's and Fifteen's, mostly focusing on ranged combat, though she is capable of utilizing a dash similar to Fifteen’s. She uses her concussion grenades to retreat whenever she takes a hit, and utilizes her explosive jacket to try to kill both the player and herself in a last ditch effort.

Similar to Fifteen, Headhunter has the ability to move faster than the eye can see, appearing to teleport around during her boss fight.

Trivia

• Her name, Headhunter, isn't mentioned anywhere during the gameplay, her name was found in the game files under her sprites.
• Headhunter is the only NULL soldier who wears her New Mecca army uniform after the Cromag War. According to a post on the game's concept art, this was done so she could represent the NULL program as a whole.
• It was at one point theorized that Headhunter was the daughter of The Psychiatrist, since when Zero visits his office after the Bunker level, the Psychiatrist mentions that he's been unable to contact his daughter all day. However, this theory was debunked in a Tweet by the game's lead developer, Justin Stander.
• Headhunter's final boss theme is "Full Confession" By ludoWic.
• Despite Headhunter's final boss status, she is NOT a major antagonist of the game.
• After defeating Headhunter, she will crawl along the ground for a moment before stopping. If time is slowed down here, her body will continue to slowly move until she is decapitated, implying that she was possibly still alive yet suffering from her withdrawal. It is unknown if this is intentional.
• Before the final battle in Bunker 2, Headhunter claims that she and Zero have already fought and killed each other thousands of times, to the point where she doesn’t feel it anymore. This statement likely implies that the final battle is simply one of the many attempts that Zero has made to kill her, as she can additionally comment that she has seen Zero make certain mistakes if he is killed during the battle over a hundred times now.
• The mask that the Headhunter wears bears resemblance to the visors of the RIG suits in Dead Space.
• The name "Headhunter" is likely a little ironic joke played by the devs as she is decapitated in the end.

Gallery

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  Walking
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  Shooting
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  Crawling
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  Concept art of Headhunter
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  Ditto
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