Dante Alighieri vs. Alex Mercer: Warrior Profile Alex Mercer

*updated with one more power
 The genius unethical scientist who first created the Blacklight virus, when he was killed in as the result of a government cover up attempt his own creation bonded with him, turning him into the living embroidment of the most deadly virus in human history.

Long Range: Whipfist

 Alex Mercer's greatest ranged power is the Whipfist. Useful  when you want to jack helicopters or pull a fleeing enemy closer, this power morphs Alex's hand into a long tentacle with a blade on the end, which can extend up to eight feet! This can be used to grab, hurl enemies great distances, and can be charged to inflict even great damage.  Great video of the Whipfist can be found here

 The most devastating attack the Whipfist can do is the so called "street sweeper".  This is when Alex charges his tentacle and then swings in a wide circle, cutting whatever is in the path of the strike in half.The blade cuts through people, cars, light posts, telephone polls ect. With the exception of the street sweeper, the Whipfist doesn't really do much damage and its main use is keeping stuff at bay/long range grabbing.

Mid Range: Hammerfists

While the fists alone would qualify as close range, the area of effect puts it in the mid range category. Plus I had to find something that would go here...

 When Alex activates this power large amounts of biomass shift to his fists, which creates massive hammer-like hands.  The fists work excellently as anti-vehicle , being able to smash them open in a few swings.  With upgrades he can grapple people and pound them into the ground, hurl himself many yards unto the enemy, or  even do a elbow dive/body slam  from a 1000 feet up sending any nearby enemies flying. The downside of this power is that it is rather slow to pull off, giving any agile enemies ample time to run away.

Close range Claws, Blade
Claws:

  The first power  that Alex unlocks is his wicked claw power. When activated  Alex shifts his biomass into three-fingered, one-thumbed talon-like appendages that he can use to shred through human enemies with ease. When upgraded with the groundspike ability, Alex can stab the ground and cause massive spikes of Biomass to erupt around a target, killing it and anything else in proximity.

 While a great anti-personnel weapon, it fails to hold up against armor or stronger biological enemies. The Groundspike ability leaves Alex vulnerable to a particularly agile foe, as he has to remain stationary to use it.

Blade:

(also in armor form)

       Perhaps Alex's most powerful weapon, the blade is great against both armor and flesh. While not as fast as the claws, it makes up for it in pure amount of damage it can cause, and it is able to take out some of the toughest enemies in the game in a couple hits. The so called "frenzy" move is particularly great against a fast opponent.

 Its one weakness is ironically one of its most powerful moves, the air blade. An instant kill to most enemies, it is very easy to move out of the way from, and a more agile enemy could dodge and then counter. Other then that a wonderful power, and certainly will be one of Alex's greatest source of kills against Dante.

Some new screenshots indicate that this power may be duel wielded with the claw one, allowing for the benefits of both.














Special: Muscle mass Form

  Of all Alex's forms, this is the least physically altering. When activated, it diverts biomass to Alex's fists and lower arms, giving him immense strength and increased attack speed. At its base level, a charged attack will turn any human enemy it strikes into bloody chunks; once upgraded, even a normal blow will cause this. Objects thrown with Musclemass will hit harder, fly further, and move faster than objects thrown at Alex's normal strength. Uppercuts will send men flying in the air, often several stories.

 The weakness of this power is that it only makes his base (fist ) attacks more powerful, it doesn't introduce anything new. It also doesn't have any range whatsoever, being limited to only the area around his fists.

Armor/Attire:Normal: Button up, plain grey hoodie, black leather jacket, plain blue jeans and black shoes

       On his upper body he wears three layers of clothes: the first is a button up white shirt that's not buttoned all the way up, the second is a plain gray hoodie that he, again, always keeps up, and the last is a black leather jacket with a tribal design on the back. On his lower body he wears plain blue jeans and plain black shoes.

 Now onto armor powers(note these two cannot be used together but can be combined with some weapon forms).


Defensive power 1: Armor form:

   When this power is activated a thick layer of biomass covers his entire body,  giving him an increased resistance to, but not immunity from, damage. The thick layer of biomass also greatly reduces movement speed and agility, also it allows him to smash through objects while running.

The Armor provides an alternative to the Shield. Unlike the Shield, which completely negates damage at the cost of having a finite ability to absorb punishment, the Armor significantly reduces the damage taken by Alex without losing effectiveness. It also reduces damages from all attacks, whereas the Shield will only negate damage from attacks that impact the Shield itself. It is ideal for close combat, allowing Alex to go toe to toe with the strongest foes without taking large amounts of damage. Conversely, running from a fight is somewhat more difficult, and Alex's ability to dodge attacks is hampered.

Defensive power 2: Sheild

  An awesome power, upon activation a large amount of biomass forms in his left arm . Unlike armor, the sheild renders Alex completely invulnerable-from frontal attacks. Attacks to the side and the rear will still do the regular amount of damage, and the sheild itself may be broken after substaining enough hits. Alex's mobility is not hindered at all when armor is equipped. When hit by bullets, the sheild will actualy deflect the projectiles back at their owners and it can be used to ram through entire crowds with ease, giving it offensive capabilities as well.

Can be be breifly seen here

Natural Abilities/Devastators/ miscellaneous powers

Strength: Superhuman: 

       Alex Mercer is capable of picking up tanks and throwing them whole blocks. He can punch clean through a guy's mid section with ease, even when his victim is wearing body armor.

Regenerative Powers/durability:Great 

Alex is capable of low grade regeneration without absorbing something else.
     Amazingly Alex takes less damage from modern firearms(even explosives!) then he does from melee attacks. This may hurt him against the almost completely melee Dante, who also uses holy attacks. He does not take fall damage whatsoever.

Speed/Agility/endurance:  Superhuman  



Alex's speed and agility is greatly enhanced by the virus. He can achieve running speeds surpassing vehicles, around 60 mph, and he can perform amazing parkour feats such as flips and rolls and maneuvers over and around vehicles and debris with little trouble. His leg strength allows him to leap nearly ten stories into the air.
Alex can run up sheer vertical surfaces and cling to walls for an indefinite period of time. Alex is also capable of gliding, by making his biomass lighter in the air and ejecting small amounts of mass for further propulsion. In addition he never seems to run out of energy.

Devastators/Biological powers: 
(while in the game there are six  devastators, I will be taking out the three  air variants  for this fight since he won't be fighting an air opponent)


  Alex Mercer's most devastating powers can all be found in the devastator category. These release a massive amount of biomass to inflict the maximum amount of damage on whoever he is fighting.  There's a catch however as his most powerful attacks are severely draining and cost a significant amount of health to execute. Should one of these attacks fail he may not have the strength to carry on much farther in this fight....


Tendril Barrage Devastator

     Massive amounts of tendrils made of biomass erupts from within Alex's body that impales everything around him, then brings back some material. Wide area of affect, and excellent against numerous organic enemies (hunters, humans, infected). It is rather ineffective against armor.

Groundspike Graveyard:

The Groundspike Graveyard is similar to the Groundspike power granted by the Claws. When used, it causes massive spikes of biomass to erupt from the ground, creating a deadly circle of spikes in close proximity to Alex. It is highly effective against hardened targets like Armor and buildings, but less effective than the Tendril Barrage against living enemies due to its shorter range and smaller amount of spikes. This Devastator can usually destroy a military base or Hive in two hits, three in later stages of the game. 

Critical Pain Devastator: 

   Critical Pain fires a hard mass of tissue from Alex's hands to crush a single target. It is the single most damaging move in the game, but can only be used to hit a specific target. Anything that happens to be between Alex and the target will also be affected. Its power is such that, short of bosses and buildings, there is nothing (Except the top three bosses in the game) that will survive more than two hits.  

Thermal Vision:

  Thermal vision allows Alex Mercer to highlight intense and/or biologically generated heat to see past debris and smoke to track Infected, military, police and pedestrians at the cost of a limited visual range.

Disguise: 

    The disguise power is one of Alex's most reliable powers. When activated he takes on the appearance and personality of whoever he had last absorbed.While in disguise he keeps his super strength, agility and regeneration, but cannot use any other power without being forced to switch back.  Alex can use his disguise to avoid the military, to sneak up on people and assassinate them, or to infiltrate bases. While Dante may be a little weary of letting someone close to him after his time in hell, Alex can still find other uses for this power. He could use it to begin a sneak attack, possibly get out of a dangerous fight or even observe his prey for a while before making his move....

X-factor Categories:

Experience/skill in fighting : High

  Alex Mercer pretty much absorbed/killed off every major player in New York during the time of the infection, fighting off numerous attempts by the infected and military to kill him. From the unknown multitude of absorptions he has gained those victim's fighting knowledge, martial skill, and abilities. 

Motivation: Revenge,  Achieve his full potential  

   While in the beginning he desperately wanted to find out who he was (he had no previous memories before waking up in the morgue), once he gathered enough information about his past his goal quickly turned to revenge. General Randall, Director Mcullen, Colonel Talbert, Elizabeth Greene.....all are names of the people who had fought over control of New York and all were killed by Alex.  Now that  they are all dead Alex's new motivation is to achieve his full biological potential, and he will certainly be seeking out notable people to absorb to gain more powers/knowledge/skill. Could Dante be one of them?

Personality/Tactics: Vindictive, borderline sociopath, quiet, does not tire, biological super weapon, genius, excellent tactician 

   






























  Alex pretty much killed every single person who ever fucked with him over the course of the game, sparing no one and going to great lengths to track these people down. He shows a little concern for his sister, but he doesn't really give a shit about anyone else, as historically everyone who he has has betrayed him. This is evident when he smashes the vial containing the virus in the beginning of the game, starting the outbreak, and how he now actively seeks to spread the infection.

     Alex Mercer is a biological super-weapon, equipped with numerous  powers and abilities that he will try to use to get an edge over an opponent. He never tires and will never give in to exhaustion.   Alex  possesses a genius level intellect and a keen strategic mind. He works with the military in order to consume Greene, and works with the infected to cause havoc in certain military installations. In the end of the game he tracked down marine colonel Talbert in order to consume him and sneak aboard an aircraft carrier. Morals don't affect his tactics.  A notable quote of his

""How do you catch the attention of an officer? You start killing all of his men."