Talk:Librarian

I've never been able to stare down a black librarian, I dont think its possible. They're all found sleeping so I think they're set up so thats how you can avoid them. I've tried many times to stare one down, it just doesnt work, although I always play on hardcore mode, so can anyone confirm that staring down is not possible on easier modes? KewlCrayon 17:14, July 3, 2010 (UTC)

i have done it once. I was wearing heavy armor and ran into one of the lower rooms and it was asleep in the middle between some pillars. It looked at me for 10 or 15 seconds and starting approaching me. I backed up and it stopped, turned around and walked away. It was really dark so it could have been a normal Librarian but I am fairly sure it wasn't.

70.51.61.36 18:03, July 3, 2010 (UTC)

Was this near the beginning of that level? There is one normal librarian here along with the sleeping black one. KewlCrayon 18:19, July 3, 2010 (UTC)

No it was fairly far into the military archives. It could haev been a normal Librarian but it looked like a black one to me...

ChrisHambley 18:46, July 3, 2010 (UTC)

I can confirm that staring down a black libarian isn't possible. I had the game set to the lowest difficulty and woke up the one nearest to the military archives, no matter how long I stared at it I still attacked. On a side note their seems to be a random bug were the black libarians act like normal libarians and you can stare them down I do not know how this bug was triggered though. This does mean it is possible to stare one down however it being a random AI bug I wouldn't consider it to be possible as I cant get it to work again GlenIV 06:23, July 28, 2010 (UTC)

thumb||Well I just did it and it didn't seem to bug out at all (got a few pictures of it too). Perhaps its a rare occasion not a bug but I did it to the first black librarian in the level (the one eating the dead body). I was playing on Ranger Hardcore and did it on my first try. Chaos ian7 18:01, May 15, 2011 (UTC)

Make that two within th same playsession-level thing. I also stared down the last one (it was sleeping). Chaos ian7 18:13, May 15, 2011 (UTC)

I did it in my walkthrough before it was cool 21:02, October 21, 2012 (UTC)

Sshhhh. C haos i an  00:49, October 22, 2012 (UTC)

Strategy
I've played through this game about 9 times now. Use this strategy and the Library is trivial on all difficulties. Miller's advice to "stare down" the librarians is unnecessary, but it does help to line up the initial headshot. Here it is:

If you don't have one, pick up the Hellsing during the Nazi Black Station mission. It's located inside the subway train car which is near the generator. The Library is the very next mission, so this is a prime opportunity to get the weapon for free. You can kill a Librarian with anywhere from 1-5 arrows depending on (a) the number of headshots, (b) the game difficulty, and (c) whether it's a grey or black librarian (black seem to be weaker but are immune to Miller's stare-down). Keep the gun over-pressurized as you run through the mission, and be sure to recover your arrows after each fight. If you have average skill as a first-person shooter player, you can easily complete the library on one clip!

Some advice about stealth: don't step on piles of bones and broken glass, if you're trying to sneak into position to set up your initial attack. Some rooms also have metal fence doors laying on the floor that make a loud 'squeaking' noise if you step on them. All 3 of these impromptu alarms will alert the nearby librarian that is sleeping or distracted with its meal.

FarmerBob12 17:00, November 14, 2010 (UTC)

I take issue with the intelligence paragraph: "A notable intelligent action performed by them was placing ammo in a hole in the wall as a trap"...has it been proven it's set up as a trap? Confirmed by developers or the like? You find ammo in many strange places, who is to say it wasn't a coincidence that a librarian just happened to sieze Artyom when he goes to reach for it, as opposed to pre-planning to set it as a trap?

70.55.0.10 18:26, October 21, 2012 (UTC)Octupus8

Possible (Unlikely) Fallout 2 Reference?
Bar and Su mention hearing of an albino Librarian that can actually make words... this is probably just complete coincidence, but in Fallout 2 you find a vault-dwelling tribe of albino Deathclaws who are somehow intelligent and have actually learned how to speak, with a few completely fluent in human language. Librarians are some of the toughest mutants in Metro, while Deathclaws are some of the toughest mutants in Fallout. The Deathclaws have more of a civilization, even having allied humans around to work the vault computers, but it seemed like high-threat albino post-apoc mutant with an amount of human speech was a bit of a similarity. Felt I should at least mention it here, but again, I doubt it's anything more than coincidence, which is why I'm not editing the page itself.

Niko Moldova (talk) 05:53, October 13, 2014 (UTC)

Possible fan theory
I removed a trivia bit saying "The librarians could be a reference to Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels, where the librarian wizard of the Unseen University is transformed into an Orangutan because of a magical incident involving the most powerful book of magic in Discworld. On discovering that being an Orangutan had certain advantages for a librarian - he can climb up to high shelves, for example - he refused to be transformed back into a human and has remained an Orangutan ever since. 'If someone ever reported that there was an Orangutan in the Library, the wizards would probably go and ask the Librarian if he'd seen it.'"

From my time as an admin at another wiki, the use of "could be a reference to" in trivia suggested fan theory, and was deleted. I'm not sure how this wiki takes to that. If the trivia point is ok, feel free to undo. The Cat Master (talk) 03:58, February 25, 2019 (UTC)