Zombie (TFTD)

Zombie
Time Units		40
Health		84
Energy		110
Reactions		40
Strength		84
Bravery		110
Firing Accuracy		0
Throwing Accuracy		0
MC Skill		0
MC Strength		90
Front Armour		4
Left Armour		4
Right Armour		4
Back Armour		4
Under Armour		4
Hidden Attributes
Melee Accuracy		80
Energy Recharge		20
Victory Points		18
Standing Height		18
Kneeling Height		18
Intelligence		3
Aggression		2
Other information
Armour category		Triscene/Zombie
Possible Ranks		N/A
Unique Attributes		Melee Attack

Zombies are the unfortunate victims of a Tentaculat's attack. Any humans attacked by a Tentaculat will turn into these shambling creatures, which are completely loyal to the aliens and will roam the battlefield and bludgeon or strangle their enemies with inhuman strength. When killed, a Zombie will "hatch" into a new Tentaculat, unless the killing blow was of an Incendiary (phosphorous) nature, which seems to interrupt the hatching process.

An aquanaut attacked, but not killed, by a Tentaculat will still undergo zombification, though this has some strange consequences (no points or morale will be lost, the Zombie and resulting Tentaculat will retain the original unit's handheld weapons, which they may use only for reaction fire. (Note: These additional effects apply to Chryssalids in EU and need to be verified for TFTD)

Luckily for X-COM, Tentaculats are never deployed in Terror Missions, so there is no danger of civilians getting zombified.

Zombies cannot be stunned or captured, nor do they ever leave Zombie corpses. They do not have an in-game research topic or UFOPaedia entry.

Tactics

In terms of combat capability, Zombies are rather like slow Calcinites. The most important things to keep in mind when facing them is that they have no ranged attack and that they're significantly less dangerous than the Tentaculats that "hatch" from them. Be careful with reaction fire and Particle Disturbance Grenades when there are Zombies around - one mistake and you may have suddenly have to deal with a much more dangerous alien at an inconvenient moment.

When you decide to kill one, make sure to have enough aquanauts and TUs to kill the resulting Tentaculat too. If this is not possible, the best course of action is usually to simply keep away from the Zombie until you get sufficient backup. If you have Magnetic Ion Armor, you can simply "fly" out of their reach.

Remember that a Zombie cannot move on the turn it is created (e.g. if created on Alien turn 3, it will only be able to move and attack on Alien turn 4).

Notes

The following are some miscellaneous notes. Zombies:

• Take 0.9x damage from AP, Phosphor, High Explosive, and Sonic ammunitions, and 0.8x damage from Gauss weapons, but 1.1x damage from melee attacks.
• Their melee attacks have a power equal to their Strength, making them very dangerous. They do 1.6x damage to unarmoured Aquanauts and 0.8x damage to SWSs.
• Have constant stats regardless of the original human's skills or difficulty level (not true in OpenXcom).
• If killed with an Incendiary weapon, they will generate a corpse that looks like a Tentaculat and the death scream will sound like that of a human.
• Research seems to indicate (in UFO:EU) that if you don't shoot the zombies, they will never hatch on their own. This, however, is contrary to many eye-witness accounts.
• Any damage done to the Zombie's armor will carry over to the resulting Tentaculat, in % terms (needs verification).
• An exploit exists whereby it is possible to gain permanent control of a Tentaculat (see below).
• Data corruption can provide a Zombie research topic, but this crashes the game.

Note: Not to be confused with Zombie, the user, Longtime X-COM community member, tactician and number cruncher.

TO DO: Unlike EU Zombies, these guys apparently take 90% damage from stun attacks. Test to see what exactly happens to them if stunned.

See Also

• Gaining permanent control of a Chryssalid/Tentaculat
• Tentaculat