Leaper

The Leaper is one of the many strains of Chimera and is a product of a Crawler's failure to find a suitable host form.

Description
In the process of transforming into a Leaper, a Crawler begins a search for a means of sustenance whether it is through human or animal corpses. Once they have gorged themselves, the Crawler transforms into a Leaper Pod which is a protective pupae state. After which, the Leaper is spawned once the pod reaches maturity. Young Leapers are voracious creatures that attack their foes with their claws and teeth. While easily dispatched at range, the Leapers are deadly when they are encountered in large numbers.

Leapers usually attack by hitting their foe but will sometimes jump on its opponent and bite him/her much like the Menial's common attack. Before making an attack, Leapers are known to make an ear splitting scream which has been known to terrify their foes. Toward the end of their life, Leapers turn into Rollers.

Queen Leaper
An advanced species of Leaper is present in the Resistance 2 Co-op mode known as Queen Leapers. Queen Leapers can be found in both Bryce Canyon and Chicago. They are at least 3 times the size of a normal Leaper and are reminiscent of Chimeran Primarchs or Overseers. They usually control an extremely large amount of Leapers, and are very agile for a creature of their size.

It is strange that the Leapers have a command unit knowing that they grow into Rollers. It's unknown if the Queen Leaper also grows into a command unit for the Rollers or if it does not suffer from the same age-related breakdown that Rollers have. It's also unknown how Queen Leapers are created knowing that Leapers transform from crawlers, it's possible that they transform from a yet unseen Crawler command unit or they could be created the same way as any other Chimera strains from the bodies of human beings.

Resistance: Fall of Man
Leapers are weak, and can be killed with a single shot of virtually any weapon in Hale's arsenal. The problem is that they attack in large swarms, especially in the level Manchester, the Cathedral. Keep moving to prevent yourself from being overwhelmed, and use your M5A2 Folsom Carbine to plow through the hoards of Leapers that will charge straight for you. The XR-003 Sapper gets the job done too.

Another good Weapon for killing leapers is the Bullseye. Its spread makes it perfect for dealing with large numbers. If you are playing through the second playthrough, a Backlash Grenade is the perfect alternative. Simply throw the grenade at your feet to create a defensive barrier around yourself, and the Leapers will walk straight into it and kill themselves. The Rossmore 236 Combat Shotgun can also be employed very effectively against Leapers as the spread of the fire can take out several with each pull of the trigger (if you are willing to let them get close enough for the weapon to be at its best). When timed correctly, you can take out a small batch of hatching Leapers with one shot.

Resistance: Retribution
In Resistance: Retribution, Leapers are really easy to kill with a Razor or Storm Rifle if you use the aim assist. If you challenge yourself by turning off the aim assist, Leapers can be such a pain if you don't know how to kill them. To easily kill swarms of Leapers you can use the Razor's charge shoot. To do so, the player need to charge his/her Razor half the way (don't fully charge it in case you miss) and shoot, then the energy blade will kill them in just split seconds.

Trivia

 * The Leapers in Resistance 2 resemble more to the Rollers, and that they even spit acid much like the Rollers (possibly a side effect from the new conversion process).


 * Like in Resistance: Fall of Man, the Leapers in Resistance 2 will sometimes jump on Hale and begin to bite into his flesh and the only way to get them off is to, like in the first game, shake the SixAxis controller around until Hale knocks the creature off.