Various talks about zombies and their details

[redxlaser15]

I don’t really fight hulks that much, since they seem to be much more often than brutes, or even shocker brutes. Simply from their description and their name they sound deadly, and I assume much more than brutes. That said, I have yet to fight one because I always run away/stay out of sight range. I’m at the point where my armor can stand up almost perfect to the more basic weaker guys, but I still tend to take lots of damage from brutes, so something stronger than that seems like a bad idea to fight.
As a side(ish) question, what exactly does the zombie MASTER do? Sounds kinda deadly, and as such I also stay away from him. Is he like an upgraded necromancer zombie?

[proxiehunter]

According to the wikki a zombie master can transform a normal zombie into a shrieker, brute, shocker, or spitter every three turns.

[Aluminumfoil]

Semi-spoilers, obviously.

Hulks are faster, tougher, harder hitting versions of Brutes who can easily smash through most barriers with one hit. Their chase-down potential is what makes them most dangerous: they’re faster than you and walls won’t stop them. Once one gets it into his head to chase you down, he’s difficult to kite and almost impossible to escape. However, if you can go toe to toe with a Brute and come out okay, you should be able to beat a Hulk in honorable single combat with about twice as much injury, pain, and armor damage at the end.

Masters are about on par with a Brute in honorable single combat, but they like to hang back behind other zombies and turn them into special zombies. Kill 'em fast or you’ll be swimming in lightning and acid.

[tarburst98]

masters can turn normal zombies into specials but can also upgrade specials along their path, so if you have a brute and a master together the master will use it’s mojo on the brute and it will turn into a hulk. a boomer will turn into a big boomer, acid into spitter and corrosive, etc. but these take different amounts of time, their power basically adds evo points to the zombie and when they get enough evo points they transform, and different forms need different amounts of points.

[redxlaser15]

Okay then, that’s terrifying. It’s a good thing I left the nearby area fairly fast to make it so that can’t actually do anything. Thank goodness the whole world doesn’t do things at once, how many squares (based off world map) does it take for something to ‘deactivate’ BTW? Luckily my home is super far away from those guys but still…
Also, next time how about I NOT try and ride my shopping cart bike through a narrow gap and end up crashing through a window…

[redxlaser15]

Also, just now found a zombie elite grenadier, lemme guess, stay the heck away from that dude. I mean, elite grenadier is in it, so I assume he throws grenades. Is he like an upgrade of a normal zombie soldier?

[Aggregate]

Oh yeah, definitely stay away from that Elite Grenadier, those suckers have Mininukes.

[mlangsdorf]

It’s possible to kite a hulk to death with moderate strength, throwing 5, and a large pile of throwing weapons, but it’s pretty hard. They’re fast and they’re loud, which means they tend to attract other zombies that distract you from dealing with the hulk.

My preferred solution is sniping with a .50 rifle (if you have time) or vehicular mayhem with a fully restored APC and a ramplate. You may be able to use something smaller, especially if you don’t intend to keep the vehicle, but make sure you have a 5-point harness installed because you’re going to need to hit it a couple of times at 40+ mph.

Elite grenadiers only have so many explosives, so stay 40 or so tiles away from them and lure things you don’t like into their line of sight. I’ve had a couple spawn in swamps near me and you just hear rolling explosions for a bit and then you can go safely loot the corpses.

[redxlaser15]

Excuse me? Mininukes? That’s a terrifying prospect. How far away would you need to be to kill him from range? Would 24 tiles be safe enough? 24 tiles is the farthest I can shoot from with my bow, and my skill in any other weapons is crap and I have yet to find more books on them. He’s kinda sorta guarding a place with some really good bionics inside, so I want to get that. Also, the grenadier is nearby a lone field with SEEMINGLY no enemies, so that shouldn’t make it too hard to kite in terms of obstacles for me.
Just yesterday ingame a zombie master woke me up like a jerkwad. So I just brutally murdered him with my katana. Chances are if he was with a the horde that appeared outside my door upon the morning, he’s be much more of a pain.
The hulk happens to be in an area I hardly care about so I simply won’t go there.
I don’t remember what they are called, but I also recently found what sounds to be an upgrade to a swimmer zombie and an upgrade to a feral hunter, so I just didn’t deal with them. I still don’t trust my 20 bash and 24 cut protection against guys like that.

[Aggregate]

If the Grenadier sees you it’ll deploy bomb hacks, which’ll fly after you and explode. Another problem is that when a Grenadier dies it arms any remaining bombs, causing them to explode and probably destroying (or at least severely damaging) anything nearby.

If you’re only equipped with a bow, the safest option would be simply to come back later, or to lure other monsters, as mlangsdorf suggested.

Edit: If you have hordes on, you could make a loud sound a few map tiles away to draw it away from the bionics. Something like a few shotgun shots.

[redxlaser15]

Okayyyy then. While I guess I won’t use my bow against him, however that poses a side question I have wondered: What is the best ‘bow’ type you can get? Not including the crossbow since that is technically a rifle according to the game.

[Aggregate]

Not used bows much, but I think it’s the reflex recurve bow.

[redxlaser15]

only reflex? But I already got that at level 3 - 5 I think. I certainly hope there is something better, but I did have a slight suspicion it might not be so.

[Aggregate]

Reflex recurve. It’s a different bow.

[druidniam]

Also requires a pretty high archery and fabrication skill to make if I recall.

[redxlaser15]

Yup, have the reflex recurve. Just realized that part of why I could do it PROBABLY had to do with some archery books I had. Still, a little disappointed.

[Sam_y2]

Bow mods are a relatively easy way to make your bow better. Honestly I find them to be a pretty tedious weapon though.

[redxlaser15]

Another thing, what is the different between a regular zombie and a decaying one? Some of the changes are rather obvious, but I’m not certain about these too.
Also, I changed the name above to fit a little better for how the talk is now.

[Aggregate]

Pretty sure decayed is just weaker than normal.

[Rot]

A decent doding skill and armor can pretty much take care of anything melee wise. Find a halberd or awl pike or spear and just kite the hulk. Stay away from the grenadiers though.

I recommend luring the grenadier away rather than fighting, so throw a molotov at night or some firecrackers and they’ll run toward that away from where you’re trying to loot.