Houndgar Creature Guide and Details | Subnautica 2

Blink and you might miss them! It zooms through the water like a jet!

Houndgar (tentatively Teuthis courser). A squid that dazzles prey for marrowbreach ambush.

[1] Squidlike body plan
Shares a basic bauplan (body plan) with terrestrial squid - a beaked head, eight arms, a long soft body, a pair of fins. Developed fin structure suggests a different evolutionary history than Earth's boneless squid. Two spiracles pass water for an internal gill.

[2] Camouflage display
The houndgar's eight arms are joined by four membranes, which the houndgar displays to prey. Millions of chromatophores (biological pixels) create patterns of motion camouflage to conceal the houndgar's approach.

[3] Marrowbreach partnership
Houngars are ideal prey for marrowbreaches, but the two species hunt together. The houngar flushes prey from hiding, then distracts and marks them for the marrowbreach's poor vision by performing a display. The houndgar gets the scraps - the bigger the prey, the more the houndgar benefits.

[4] Powerful beak
The houndgar's parrot-like beak tears tough flesh: important because everything the houndgar swallows passes thought the center of its brain.

[5] Speculative social structure
Squads of houndgars must spot good prey for their marrowbreaches or become food themselves; marrowbreaches must attract good houndgar squads by yielding more of their kills. Houndgars push the marrowbreach to take ever larger prey. The negotiation of an ongoing contract between houndgars and marrowbreach is a reminder of Alterra Alms' mantra that 'we all need to be needed'.

Assessment: houndgar displays may signal an imminent marrowbreach attack. Possibly intelligent, perhaps trainable.

If you see one, swim away! A Marrowbreach is not far behind.

Also, scan the Houndgar and the Toxic Sponge with your Bioscanner to unlock the Chum Cloud Biomod.

Biomod	Effect
Chum Cloud	Release a cloud of delicious bait to distract predators.