Magno

On a whim, playing HALF-LIFE 2, I took Dog's toy, a defused magnetic mine, along with me, just to see how far I could take it. The magnetic mines are kind of cute, bouncing along, pursuing you. This one, which I dubbed "Magno," became a kind of pet and/or sidekick for me on the game for awhile, bringing unanticipated benefits -- sure, Magno could be used as a deadly projectile by the zero point energy projector (aka, "Gravity Gun"), and would wander back to you in its bumbling way.

Magno had no problem squishing even the big toxic headcrabs.

It served as a great headcrab-squisher, as if you weren't in the area (since it always tries to come back to you), it'll track after anything else moving in an area, and it proved excellent at chasing down and squishing headcrabs.

See? Zombies that would normally
be going after me are busy with Magno!

What's more, lobbing Magno into a zombie area worked like hotcakes, as the zombies would fixate on Magno, trying futilely to pummel it, leaving you alone -- basic zombiebait. I'd lob Magno at them, and it'd roll right up to the zombies, fully occupying them.

Magno fucking up a toxic headcrab.

 Then I'd just snipe at the zombies until they were gone, then pick Magno back up again and move on. The one liability with Magno is that if it got anywhere near fire or explosions, it would blow up, too. Otherwise, Magno was very useful, and it was great fun watching it go after enemies.

You can just make out Magno in this mass of zombies.

I managed to take it through Ravenholm, where it was a huge help, and even (after some effort) found a way to get it to Father Grigori, who didn't know what to make of Magno, and would shoot at it. The Ravenholm linkup was a bit of a challenge, as there was some kind of programming firewall that kept Magno from accompanying me all the way in the gondola -- it would be repelled by something midway through. However, I was able to launch Magno into Father Grigori's "parish" (hahah, "perish") and know it got there successfully by Grigori shooting at it with his shotgun.

Father Grigori (l) clearly flummoxed by Magno.

Magno was a huge asset against the mass of cemetery zombies, as they just dogpiled the chirpy mine. I had to move Magno to the fenced-off area that advances you to the next level, just because of all the fire and explosions that occur in the main area. But with Magno happily bouncing behind the fencing, the zombies just piled up there, trying to get at it, making them prime targets.

A moment in the gondola, before Magno gets repelled.

I took Magno with me down into the mine, actually dropping it ahead of time, since that mine is packed with all types of headcrabs. It's normally a pretty horrifying place to be, but with Magno chasing after irate headcrabs, "Benny Hill"-style, it was amusing. The fast headcrabs would gesture in irritation, too, clearly trying to come to terms with their tormentor.

Magno, last seen in the mine at Ravenholm.
Note the dead headcrabs (r).

Sadly, I couldn't take Magno with me the entire way, because magnetic mines explode when they come into contact with water, and there's an area in the mine where you have to swim through a flooded part of the mine in order to escape, and if Magno goes beneath the water, it detonates. I couldn't find a way around that, so I left Magno in the main part of the mine, to chase down headcrabs and squish'em.

Magno gets in a Fast Zombie scrum, driving'em bananas.

At least other Lambda operatives could find aid from Magno, if they got down there. I hated to leave it behind, since I wanted to ultimately return it to Dog, hadn't counted on it being so useful in the game.