Land of the Dead – Road to Fiddler’s Green

Land of the Dead - Road to Fiddler's Green
 
Weapons and Enemies Guide: 

March 15, 2006
by Alan Chan (joylock@hotmail.com)

The Usual:
This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. That
being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a) 
don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You 
don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains
unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know 
(joylock@hotmail.com).

Why? 
I wrote this quick FAQ for Land of the Dead after beating the game, 
just for the hell of it. The game might not be very popular and it's 
certainly not too complicated, but I thought an in-depth FAQ for it 
would still be somewhat helpful. Hope it helps.

Version History:

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*                                                                             *
*1.0: Initial Release                                                         *
*                                                                             *
*1.1: Added weapon accuracy, added minor information on multi-player.         *
*                                                                             *
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The latest version of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Combat Tips and Game Mechanics
- Melee Weapons
- Firearms
- Enemies

*********************************
*COMBAT TIPS AND GAME MECHANICS:*
******************************************************************************* 



-  On Easy difficulty, enemies only have 50% health, and do 
   significantly reduced damage.
 
   On Medium difficulty, enemies have 100% health, and do normal 
   damage.

   On Hard difficulty, enemies still only have 100% health, but do 
   somewhat more damage. Additionally, health and ammo pickups are 
   significantly rarer (many health and ammo pickups simply lying out in 
   the open will no longer be there, but most pickups hidden in cabinets 
   will still be available).



-  Overall, enemies aren't actually tougher on Hard difficulty, but the 
   reduction in ammo and health gives you much less margin for error 
   when fighting them.



-  In Multiplayer, zombies do the amount of damage they do on Hard
   difficulty, regardless of "Enemy Resilience". Thus, 5 hits from a normal
   zombie or 3 hits from a weapon-user will kill you.

   "Enemy Resilience" determines how much damage zombies can take. 
   On Pathetic, they can only survive 50% damage. On Normal, they can
   survive normal damage. On Impossible, they can survive 3.5 times
   as much damage as normal (so a regular zombie would have 455 health,
   while a weapon-user would have 700 health).

   Because zombies have so much health on Impossible difficulty, killing
   them with straightforward attacks is very difficult. You can still
   instantly kill them with headshots, however, so dismembering weapons
   such as the revolver or the fire axe are essential. A point-blank
   shotgun blast is also strong enough to kill a zombie even on Impossible.



-  The best way to melee a zombie is to use the melee weapon's alt-fire 
   to knock them down. This prevents them from counter-attacking. 
   When they get back up, you can knock them down again. Note that 
   zombies cannot be injured at all when lying on the ground or when 
   getting back up, so wait for them to fully recover before striking them 
   again.



-  In order to kill a zombie with a headshot, you need to aim at the top 
   portion of their heads. If you aim at the center or lower, you'll just 
   shoot off their jaw, which isn't fatal to them. Optimally, the top half of 
   the crosshair should be empty, and the bottom half should be filled 
   with the top part of the zombie's skull. This works best at medium 
   range, past about a dozen feet. It's very difficult to successfully 
   headshot a zombie at close range. If you do miss and hit their jaw 
   instead, a second shot to the head will kill them.



-  Although you can run in this game, you have limited stamina. The longer
   you run, the heavier your breathing will become until you run out of
   stamina and become unable to run. When that occurs, it you'll have to
   wait several seconds to recover before you can run again.



-  There are two types of health items in the game: small pill bottles,
   and large medikits. Each pill bottle restores 10% of your health,
   while the medikit will restore your health 100%.



****************
*MELEE WEAPONS:* 
*******************************************************************************

As per survival horror tradition, you'll need to conserve ammo for 
your firearms. That's where melee weapons come in. The upside is 
that they don't use any ammo, the downside is that you need to get 
up close and personal with the zombies in order to kill them, which 
makes you more vulnerable to their attacks. 

Melee weapons also do not swing instantly or rapidly, there's a slight 
delay between swings, although some weapons will be quicker than 
others. On the plus side, the alt-fire of every melee weapon is 
capable of knocking a zombie down, preventing them from attacking 
you. Rely on this feature to win most combats against zeds. 

You can only carry one melee weapon at a time, and will drop your 
current weapon every time you try to pick up a new one.



Fists:
Damage: N/A
Speed: Fast 
Range: Short
Hits to Kill (Zombie): N/A 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): N/A 
First Found: Start of the Game

You start the game armed only with your bare hands. With a very 
short range, you need to get right up in a zombie's face to hit them. 
You can punch fairly fast, but that doesn't do you much good since 
your fists don't do any damage at all to your zombie opponents. At 
best, you can use the alt-fire to knock down a zombie and run past it. 
The only upside to the fists is that the alt-fire is quick with almost no 
wind-up time before the swing. As soon as you pick up a melee 
weapon, you'll lose the use of your fists for the rest of the game.



Hammer:
Damage: 20 (primary fire) / 40 (alt fire)
Speed: Fast 
Range: Short
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 7 (primary fire) / 4 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 10 (primary fire) / 5 (alt fire) 
First Found: The Farm (Level 1)
 
The first real melee weapon you acquire. The hammer is rather 
weak, but at least it does some damage. The hammer swings 
quickly, but it lacks punch and worst of all has a very short range, 
requiring you to run right up into a zombie's face to hit them. Thus, 
the primary fire of the hammer isn't much good, since it takes a lot of 
hits to kill a zombie, and gives them plenty of opportunity to hit you 
back. 

The secondary fire is a bit better. It does more damage, and more 
importantly will knock a zombie down and prevent them from counter-
attacking. Dash in, knock the zed down with the secondary fire, back 
off and wait for them to get back up again, and repeat. Still, you'll 
want to upgrade to a better melee weapon as soon as possible.



Shovel: 
Damage: 25 (primary fire) / 50 (alt fire)
Speed: Slow 
Range: Moderate
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 6 (primary fire) / 3 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 8 (primary fire) / 4 (alt fire) 
First Found: The Farm (Level 1)

The shovel is a big improvement over the hammer. While it swings 
more slowly, it does more damage and has a longer range. The alt 
fire in particular has a significantly longer range than that of the 
hammer, allowing you to knock down and kill zombies from a much 
safer distance.

Like the hammer, the shovel's main usefulness is the alt fire, which 
lets you knock down zombies and eventually kill them.

You'll want to upgrade from your hammer to a shovel as soon as 
possible. You can actually find one on the first level, inside the barn 
that the last two zeds burst out off.
 


Baseball Bat:
Damage: 25 (primary fire) / 50 (alt fire) 
Speed: Moderate 
Range: Long
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 6 (primary fire) / 3 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 8 (primary fire) / 4 (alt fire) 
First Found: Detour (Level 5)

The baseball bat is a step above the shovel. It does the same 
amount of damage, but swings slightly quicker and has a much 
better range. In fact, the bat's reach is longer than the reach of a 
zombie's arms, allowing you to hit them from safety. This makes the 
baseball bat one of the best melee weapons in the game, arguably 
second only to the fireaxe.

As usual, you should rely primarily on the secondary fire to smack 
down the zeds to prevent them from attacking. With good power and 
excellent range, the bat will serve you well until you can upgrade to a 
fire axe. 
 


Golf Club:
Damage: 20 (primary fire) / 40 (alt fire) 
Speed: Fast 
Range: Long
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 7 (primary fire) / 4 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 10 (primary fire) / 5 (alt fire) 
First Found: Hospital (Level 6)

The golf club swings quickly, and even the alt-fire swing is quite fast. 
Like the baseball bat, the golf club also has the longest range of all 
the game's melee weapons, longer than the reach of a zombie's 
punches. Unfortunately, the golf club also does slightly less damage 
than the baseball bat, and thus takes longer to kill zombies with. 

Overall, I find the stronger baseball bat to be preferable to the golf 
club, as the miniscule increase in speed doesn't really compensate 
for the lower damage rate. Your mileage may vary, however, and it 
really doesn't matter much anyway since you'll be able to pick up a 
fire axe soon.
 


Fire Axe:
Damage: 50 (primary fire) / 100 (alt fire) 
Speed: Slow 
Range: Moderate
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 3 (primary fire) / 2 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 4 (primary fire) / 2 (alt fire) 
First Found: The Doctor (Level 7)

The most powerful normal melee weapon in the game, the fire axe is 
also the only melee weapon capable of dismembering zombies. You 
can easily chop off limbs with it, and even instantly decapitate 
zombies with a single well placed strike to the head. The fire axe is 
also the only melee weapon with a primary fire attack that's really 
worth anything. The primary fire is a downward swing that's useful for 
dismembering and even decapitating zeds. The alt-fire is extremely 
powerful, and can kill any zombie in just 2 hits. While the alt-fire 
knocks a zombie down, it's slightly unusual in that it actually pulls the 
zombie towards you instead of knocking them backwards.

It takes some practice with the axe before you can consistantly 
decapitate zombies with it, but once you get the hang of it you should 
be able to mow through the undead hordes. The best way to score 
consistant headshots is actually to aim slightly ABOVE the zombie's 
head by aiming your view slightly upward. This helps ensure you pop 
their cranium instead of merely lopping off their jaw.

The only downsides to the fire axe are the fact it has slightly less 
range than the baseball bat or golf club, and the alt fire is somewhat 
slower than average.
 


Lead Pipe:
Damage: 33 (primary fire) / 66 (alt fire) 
Speed: Very Slow 
Range: Moderate
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 4 (primary fire) / 2 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 7 (primary fire) / 4 (alt fire) 
First Found: Override (Level 8)

Extremely heavy, the lead pipe packs a powerful punch, but it lacks 
speed and its range is shorter than it looks. Although strong, the 
primary fire of the lead pipe is ridiculously slow, and it almost takes a 
full two seconds to wind up and swing. However, the lead pipe's alt 
fire is actually marginally faster than that of the other melee 
weapons, and in fact the alt-fire of the lead pipe swings almost as 
quickly as the primary fire of the other melee weapons.   

With the lead pipe, it's the alt-fire or nothing, since the primary fire is 
simply too slow to be of any use. Personally, I find the fire axe to be 
much preferable over the lead pipe anyway. Not only does the fire 
axe do more raw damage, it swings faster and has the ability to 
dismember and decapitate zeds. However, if you'd rather knock 
zombies down than dismember them, the lead pipe might be 
preferable due to the slightly faster alt-fire. 



Kungfu Fists:
Damage: 30 x 5 (primary fire) / 100 x 4 (alt fire) 
Speed: Very Fast 
Range: Short
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 5 (primary fire) / 2 (alt fire) 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 7 (primary fire) / 2 (alt fire) 
First Found: Neighbors (Level 3)

The Kungfu Fists are a secret "joke" weapon that are apparently not 
meant to be taken seriously. To acquire them, you must read the 
secret "Kungfu Zombies" manual found hidden in various locations 
throughout the game. Unlike other items, the Kungfu book is NOT 
highlighted by the game, and thus you'll miss it unless you know to 
look for it. Once you pick up the manual, Jack will utter in a confused 
tone of voice "I know Kungfu?" (duh, Neo) and his melee weapon will 
be replaced by tattooed fists of fury.

Although the kungfu fists have short range, they're powerful and 
VERY fast. The primary fire lets loose a flurry of 5 rapid-fire punches 
within the space of a second. If all 5 punches connect, it will kill a 
normal zombie. The alt-fire hits with 4 rapid punches. These do an 
incredible amount of damage (2 hits will kill any zombie) and still 
knock down regular zombies. The alt-fire is also very quick, without 
the long wind-up time most melee weapon alt-fires have.

Unfortunately, the primary fire has a big weakness: there's a 
second's delay between the first 4 rapid punches and the 5th and 
final punch. This delay is long enough for a zombie to counter-attack 
and hit you. That's why I recommend sticking to the alt-fire. The alt-
fire is particularly useful against scuttlers and weapon users. Since 
these zombie types cannot be knocked down, they'll be hit by all 4 
punches in a row and will die instantly.

The kungfu fists are very powerful. Perhaps too powerful. I 
recommend you play through the game using normal melee 
weapons, and pick up the kungfu fists on a replay, since they make 
the game much too easy. If you do want to keep the kungfu fists, be 
sure not to pick up any other melee weapons, as you will lose them 
and won't be able to get them back.



***********
*FIREARMS:* 
*******************************************************************************

Firearms allow you to kill zombies from a distance, safely outside the 
range of their melee attacks. However, ammo for firearms is 
somewhat limited, so you'll have to manage your firearms use 
carefully. On the easier difficulty settings, there's actually enough 
ammo lying around for you to use firearms quite liberally. However, 
on the hardest difficulty setting ammo can be somewhat scarce, 
requiring you to conserve it by relying more on melee attacks.

Every ammo pickup will give you a full clip of bullets for that weapon. 
So a revolver ammo pickup will give you 6 shots, an M-16 ammo 
pickup will give you 30 shots, etc.



.22 Rifle:
Damage: 35 
Rate of Fire: Moderate
Accuracy: 3/5
Ammo Type: .22 Long Rifle
Clip Size: 4
Max Ammo: 4 + 60
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 4 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 6
Found: The Farm (Level 1)

This bolt-action .22 rifle is the first weapon you'll acquire. Predictably, 
it's also the least useful firearm you can get. On normal difficulty, it
takes a full clip of 4 shots to kill a single zombie, after which you'll
need to reload the weapon before firing again. The .22 rifle also has a 
relatively low rate of fire, as there is a second's delay between each 
shot. Finally, the .22 rifle is too weak to dismember or headshot 
zombies. It also does not do locational damage, so it doesn't matter 
whether your shot hits the enemy in the head or the foot. 

On the whole, the small clip size, limited rate of fire, and low stopping 
power make the .22 rifle fairly ineffective. It's OK for killing individual 
zombies from a distance, but ineffective at close range or against 
multiple enemies.

Ammo for this gun also becomes quite rare in the game's later levels, 
which is even more reason not to use it once you find some better 
firearms.
 


Revolver:
Damage: 25
Rate of Fire: Moderate
Accuracy: 4/5
Ammo Type: .38 Special
Clip Size: 6 
Max Ammo: 6 + 36 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 1 to 6 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 7 to 8
Found: The Farm (Level 1)

Like the .22 rifle, you'll acquire the revolver on the first level. While 
the bullets actually don't do much damage, the revolver packs a 
punch because the bullets can blow off limbs and even heads. A 
single shot to an arm, leg, or head should be sufficient to destroy that 
body part.

The best use for the revolver is to kill zombies with headshots. A 
single well-placed headshot should kill a zed instantly. Remember, 
you need to aim at and destroy the top portion of their head. A shot 
to the center will only shoot off their jaw, a non-fatal wound for a zed.

The rate of fire is somewhat slow (there's a second's delay between 
shots), so you'll need to be precise with this weapon. Don't try to 
spray and pray with it, because it takes more than 6 shots to the 
chest to kill a zed. Only use headshots.

Unfortunately, the revolver is quite useless against weapon user 
zombies, since they are resistant to headshots.



Glock:
Damage: 27
Rate of Fire: Fast 
Accuracy: 4/5
Ammo Type: 9mm Parabellum
Clip Size: 12 
Max Ammo: 12 + 48 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 5 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 8
Found: Override (Level 8)

This semi-automatic 9mm pistol lacks the punch of the revolver, but 
has a much quicker rate of fire. Like the .22 rifle, the glock doesn't do 
locational damage. A shot to the leg hurts a zed as much as a shot 
to the head, and you can't shoot off limbs or heads with it. 

Since the glock doesn't do locational damage, aim for the center of 
the body to maximize the chances of scoring a hit. A series of 5 rapid 
shots will drop a zed, which makes the glock good for quickly 
disposing of zeds in situations where you don't have a lot of time to 
aim, such as at close range.



Sniper Rifle:
Damage: 110
Rate of Fire: Slow
Accuracy: 5/5
Ammo Type: .300 Winchester Magnum
Clip Size: 5 
Max Ammo: 5 + 120 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 1 to 2 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 2
Found: Sniper Rifle (Level 14)

A rifle. For sniping. The sniper rifle is equipped with a scope that 
allows you to zoom in on and pick off zeds from extreme long range. 
The sniper rifle is also EXTREMELY powerful, two shots to the chest 
will kill any zombie, and the bullets are capable of dismembering 
zeds and scoring headshots. Since a single headshot from the sniper 
rifle will kill a zombie, you should try to go for headshots if possible. 
The sniper rifle is so powerful you can even use it unzoomed by 
firing from the hip. Just aim for the top portion of the head to score 
consistent headshots.

The only downside of the sniper rifle is that the rate of fire is quite 
slow (the delay between shots is about 2 seconds).

Ammo for the sniper rifle is quite rare, and when you do find a rifle 
clip it usually only gives you 5 more bullets. However, the maximum 
amount of ammo you can carry for this gun is huge, and you'll start 
out fully loaded when you first acquire it. Since you start with 125 rifle 
rounds and it only takes 1 or 2 shots to kill a single zombie, you 
should be able to get considerable mileage out of this gun before 
running low. 



Shotgun:
Damage: 70 x 16
Rate of Fire: Slow 
Accuracy: 1/5
Ammo Type: 12-gauge buckshot
Clip Size: 4 
Max Ammo: 4 + 32 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 1 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 1
Found: Back Alleys (Level 11)

The shotgun does the most raw damage out of all the game's 
weapons. At close range, a direct hit can blow away a zombie in one 
shot. Unfortunately, the shotgun is also wildly inaccurate and has a 
ridiculously short range, even by FPS shotgun standards. The pellets 
simply disappear past about a dozen feet, preventing you from hitting 
anything at medium range no matter what.

Even though the shotgun can dismember zeds, the weapon's 
inaccuracy means you shouldn't bother trying to aim with it. Don't try 
to aim at a zombie's head, just point the shotgun at the center of the 
chest and pull the trigger when they're a couple feet away. 

The shotgun is a great way to clear a path through the zeds if you 
get backed into a corner. At close range it's one shot, one kill. 
Although you CAN kill multiple zeds with the shotgun, it's actually 
quite difficult to do so. If you aim the shotgun between two zeds 
standing close together you might be able to kill both of them, but 
don't expect to harm a crowd of zeds with a single shot. The pellets 
simply spread too widely and dissipate too quickly to do that.



M-16:
Damage: 18
Rate of Fire: Very Fast
Accuracy: 3/5
Ammo Type: 5.56mm NATO
Clip Size: 30 
Max Ammo: 30 + 80 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 1 to 8 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 7 to 12
Found: The Theater (Level 18)

The M-16 assault rifle is probably the most versatile firearm in the 
game. It has a quick, fully automatic rate of fire and can put out a lot 
of lead in a short period of time. However, the greatest strength of 
the M-16 isn't the ability to spray lots of bullets, but rather the 
strength of the individual bullets. M-16 bullets are powerful enough to 
dismember zombies, so you can use the M-16 to kill zombies with a 
single headshot.

Thus, the most ammo-efficient way to use the M-16 is not as a 
spray-and-pray weapon, but rather as a precision headshot 
instrument similar to the revolver. Aim for the top portion of the head 
and use single shots to kill zombies with single bullets. However, you 
can feel free to go full auto if you get backed up against a wall and 
the zombies are right up in your face. Burst-fire is also useful against 
weapon-user zombies, since they are difficult to dismember and thus 
are easier just to mow down.

You'll actually find a decent amount of M-16 ammo, especially in the 
game's later levels. Each clip also gives you 30 bullets, a relatively 
high amount. Just don't spray recklessly with the M-16 because it IS 
possible to run out of ammo for it.

One downside of the M-16 is that the accuracy rapidly decreases when
you hold down the fire button for full-auto fire. Going full-auto also
results in some moderate recoil that will cause your aim to bounce
around. This really isn't an issue in the single-player game, since
the zombies are so slow, but it can be annoying in multi-player.



Molotovs:
Damage: 90
Rate of Fire: Very Slow 
Max Ammo: 1 + 10 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 2 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 3
First Found: Back Alleys (Level 11)

Beer bottles filled with gasoline which you throw, molotov cocktails 
explode on impact and create a cloud of flames for several seconds. 

Unfortunately, molotovs aren't actually very powerful. Although the 
explosion is powerful enough to knock off a zombie's arms or legs, 
even a direct hit isn't powerful enough to actually kill a zombie. And 
while being set on fire will eventually kill a zombie, it takes a while 
and zombies can still attack you when they're on fire. Finally, molotov 
cocktails take a very long time to throw, making them extremely slow 
weapons. They can also be somewhat difficult to aim properly.

On the whole, you're better off sticking to melee weapons and 
firearms. While you can break up a crowd of zombies with a well 
thrown molotov, setting them on fire will take a long time to kill them, 
during which they can still attack you.
 


Grenades:
Damage: 250
Rate of Fire: Moderate
Max Ammo: 1 + 5 
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 1 
Hits to Kill (Weapon User): 1
First Found: Detour (Level 5)

These are grenades. Grenades explode. They do big damage and 
have a rather large splash damage radius, and will literally send any 
zombies caught in the blast flying. They work very well against 
groups of zombies clustered together.

The downside of hand grenades is that it takes a few seconds after 
they hit the ground for them to explode, giving the zeds time to walk 
out of the blast radius. Grenades also do not explode on contact, and 
unlike in other FPS games you cannot delay throwing them to make 
them explode sooner. Additionally, they have a limited throwing 
range and can be difficult to aim properly.

Grenades are also somewhat uncommon, and you can't carry very 
many of them, so you should use them sparingly. Be careful while 
using them, because being caught in the blast will usually kill you 
instantly.



Minigun: 
Damage: 25
Rate of Fire: Insane
Max Ammo: Infinite
Hits to Kill (Zombie): 6
First Found: Heavy Gunner (Level 22)

The minigun is only available to you on one level, Heavy Gunner, 
where it will be mounted on a vehicle and you'll be firing at zeds with 
it from a fixed position. The minigun has surprisingly decent 
accuracy. Try to aim at the upper body of the zombies, you don't 
want to cut out their legs because that just makes them more difficult 
to hit.



********** 
*ENEMIES:* 
*******************************************************************************

There isn't much enemy variety in Land of the Dead. This games is 
about killing zombies, and one zombie is pretty much like every other 
zombie. That said, there are a few different variations of zombie 
which the game occasionally throws at you for variety.

ENEMY NAME:
Health: How much health the enemy has
Attack Damage: How much damage the enemy does on easy / 
normal / hard difficulty
First Encounter: The level on which you first encounter the enemy


 
Zombie: 
Health: 130
Attack Damage: 5% / 16.5% / 20%
First Encounter: The Farm (Level 1)

Your basic zombie, you'll be fighting these guys for the vast majority 
of the game. In keeping with tradition, the game never actually refers 
to the zombies as zombies ("Why not?" "Because it's a ridiculous 
word", as Shaun of the Dead puts it), but really what else are you 
supposed to call the walking dead?

Zombies will slowly shamble towards you, and attempt to either hit 
you or bite you when they get close enough. Sometimes zombies 
may even surprise you by running short distances in order to catch 
up to you. If a zombie manage to get close enough to hit you, you 
can still usually dodge their swing by quickly sprinting backwards. 
Overall, zombies have pretty slow reflexes, and it's fairly easy to 
avoid getting hit by them unless they back you into a corner or 
surprise you by running at you. 

Zombies have a reasonable ability to track you through a level if you
run away from them, and they can smash through wooden doors. At the
same time, they will lose track of you if you get far enough away from
them, and they are unable to get past metal double doors if you close
them behind you. This is all moot, though, because since zombies are
so easy to kill you're unlikely to leave any alive behind you. 

As per movie standards, zombies often attack in mobs. Fortunately 
for you, zombies in this game are unable to push past each other, so 
what usually happens is that the zombie in front ends up blocking all 
the zombies behind him and thus prevents them from getting near 
you. Zombies can't even get past a zed that's been knocked to the 
ground, so you can use melee alt-fire to keep smacking the front zed 
to the ground, and the guys behind him still won't be able to touch 
you.

Zombies are relatively easy to take down with melee attacks, 
although this may be a slow process depending on the strength of 
the melee weapon you're using. Usually, you need to use the alt-fire 
to knock the zombie down so he can't hit you, then wait for him to get 
back up before knocking him back down again. If you have the 
fireaxe, you can also kill zombies instantly by decapitating them with 
the primary fire (although it takes some skill to do so).

At long range, zombies can be killed with any firearm, although 
headshots from a dismembering weapon such as the revolver, sniper 
rifle, or M-16 are best. Shooting out a zombie's arms or legs isn't 
particularly useful. Even without arms, a zombie can still attack you 
by biting. Without legs, a zombie is slowed down somewhat, but will 
continue to crawl towards you to attack.



Scuttler Zombie:
Health: 130
Attack Damage: 5% / 16.5% / 20% 
First Encounter: Cornfield (Level 2)

These zombies scuttle along the ground on their hands and feet, like 
an insect. They move a bit slower than the regular variety, but their 
low position means that they cannot be knocked down. This makes 
them a bit tougher to fight in melee combat than the regular zeds, 
because you can't stun them. You can still beat on them by moving 
in, hitting them, and then retreating before they can take a swing at 
you, but it's much safer and easier just to shoot them. 

It is possible to melee them with an axe, however, since you can 
decapitate them with a single well-aimed hit to the head. You can 
also melee them with the kungfu fist alt-fire, as two rapid punches 
delivered in less than a second will kill them before they can hit you. 

Be careful of scuttlers, because just like the regular zombies they 
can sometimes move quickly to catch up to you when they get close 
enough. Scuttlers are particularly annoying in a mob or in the dark, 
as it's easy to miss them and get hit while you're distracted by other, 
upright zombies.



Screamer Zombie:
Health: 130
Attack Damage: N/A
First Encounter: Escape! (Level 9)

Screamers don't attack you directly. They don't even move around. 
Instead, they'll stand in one place and, as soon as they spot you, 
begin emitting a high-pitched Body Snatcher shriek at the top of their 
undead lungs. This shriek will attract other zombies to beat on you.

As long as a screamer zombie is alive, other zombies will continue to 
respawn infinitely nearby. To stop the zombies from respawning, kill 
the screamer. Any weapon works and they won't even fight back, but 
ideally you'll want to use something that can do the job as quickly as 
possible, like a headshot from the axe, revolver, or M-16.
 


Vomiter Zombie:
Health: 130
Attack Damage: 6.5% / 21% / 33% 
First Encounter: Back Alleys (Level 11)

Infectious zombies are surrounded by a green cloud of disease. 
Vomiters behave much like regular zombies, except they also have the 
ability to puke a stream of green goo with a range of several feet. 
Contact with this puke will infect you, causing your vision to become 
blurry and your health to gradually drain away for several seconds. 
Vomiters usually start puking as soon as you get within several feet 
of them, and will continue to puke for several seconds before 
stopping.

Zombie puke is dangerous and hard to avoid, so your best bet is to 
use your firearms to kill infectious zombies before they can get too 
close to you. At close range, you're best off using the shotgun to 
blow these guys away quickly, although you can try to decapitate 
them with an axe as well. Melee knockdowns are not recommended, 
as zombies can still get puke on you while they're on the ground.



Burster Zombie:
Health: 130
Attack Damage: 6.5% / 21% / 33%
First Encounter: Back Alleys (Level 11)
 
Like the vomiters, these infectious zombies are covered by a green 
cloud of germy illing. However, instead of puking on you, they will put 
their heads down and start shaking violently when the get within 
several feet of you (all while continuing to shamble towards you). 
After shaking for several seconds, they will explode in a large green 
cloud of disease. This explosion has a large radius and will infect you 
if you get caught in it. Like the puke from the vomiters, the infection 
blurs you vision and does gradual damage, and hurts slightly more 
than a punch from a regular zombie. The cloud clips through obstacles,
so don't think you can avoid it by taking cover behind an object.
The only way to avoid infection is to run outside the blast radius,
or to kill the zombie before it explodes.

There are three ways to deal with bursters. The easiest way is to 
simply shoot them before they get close to you. Alternatively, you 
can slowly approach them until they start shaking, then RUN (don't 
walk) away as fast as possible, allowing them to explode harmlessly 
while you're outside their blast radius. Finally, you can kill them 
before they explode with a headshot from your axe. Don't try 
knocking them down, as they can still explode while on the ground.
 


Weapon User Zombie:
Health: 200
Attack Damage: 8% / 30% / 40%
First Encounter: Override (Level 8)

Later in the game, you'll start to encounter some slightly more 
evolved zombies. Besides being stronger and tougher, these zeds 
are smart enough to use melee weapons. They carry shovels, 
baseball bats, golf clubs, lead pipes, and fire axes. Basically every 
melee weapon except for the hammer. Fortunately, the zombies 
aren't smart enough to use guns (yet).

Tougher than the average zombie, weapon users cannot be 
dismembered or knocked down, and are highly resistant to 
headshots (you need to hit them several times to weaken them 
before you can shoot off their heads). They also can survive 
somewhat more damage than any other zombie type. Their weapons 
also give them a longer attack range and more powerful attacks than 
regular zombies; on normal difficulty, they can kill you in just 4 hits. 
On the plus side, weapon users cannot run at all.

Because they cannot be knocked down or instantly headshot, 
weapon users can be quite dangerous, especially in close quarters 
where they can back you into a corner. If this happens, the best way 
to get through them is to blast them down with the shotgun. 
Otherwise, you can either take them down slowly by hitting and 
retreating with your melee weapon, or gun them down with any 
firearm other than the revolver (which is useless against them, since 
they can't be dismembered or headshot).

If you have the kungfu fists, however, weapon users become 
insignificant, as the alt-fire destroys them instantly.



Otis: 
Health: 250
Weapon: Revolver
First Encounter: Police Station

Not an enemy, Otis is your ally and the only other human you'll meet 
in the game (other than in the cutscenes). Otis is quite tough; he's 
got twice as much health as a zombie, and can survive around a 
dozen hits from the zeds before dying. He's also equipped with a 
revolver, but his A.I. is kind of flaky: sometimes he'll shoot at 
zombies when they attack him, but sometimes he'll just stand there 
staring into space while the zeds try to take a bite out of him.

There are two levels in the game where you'll interact with Otis: in 
one, you'll cover him from the roof of a building with a sniper rifle 
while he runs through a junkyard, in another, you'll follow him 
through the docks in search of a boat to escape the city. Because he 
can take quite a few hits and can even defend himself to some 
degree, it's not too difficult to keep him alive, but be careful because 
the game ends if he dies.



MEANINGLESS TRIVIA: The zombies in this game have 130 health. 130's a 
bit of a strange number. Coincidentally, it's the exact same amount
of health the protagonist of Deus Ex: Invisible War has. Alright,
I'm done.

Copyright 2006 Alan Chan