Poison Zombie

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Poison Zombie
General information
Faction	Xen wildlife
Type	Brood-bearing Zombie variant
Personal information
Health	175
Attack(s)	Throw Poison Headcrabs Slash (20)
Game information
Entity	npc_poisonzombie
Designer(s)	Ted Backman David Speyrer

 

The Poison Zombie is the resulting Zombie of a human host under the control of a Poison Headcrab. The mutations that take place produce a bloated, slow-moving zombie that is capable of carrying additional Poison Headcrabs.

Overview

Poison Zombie at Bridge Point.

Poison Zombies are bloated, reddish-purple, slow-moving zombies. They are almost always seen carrying an additional 2 or 3 Poison Headcrabs on their back. It appears to have a stooped posture and shuffling gait possibly because of the weight of the attached headcrabs and that it is missing most of the supportive muscles from its back (as shown by the exposed spinal column and ribs.)

The Poison Headcrabs riding on the zombie's back can leap off when needed to attack alone, but cannot reattach themselves to the poison zombie once left.

Another trait that distinguishes the Poison Zombie from other zombie types is its endurance. Poison Zombies can take 3 times more damage than other zombies before collapsing.

Poison Zombies themselves are not venomous and rely on the attached Poison Headcrabs to attack first. Then, it resorts to its claws. Poison Zombies can be detected by their loud, strangulated breathing and muffled groans. They also emit howls.

Poison zombies are unique in the fact that the headcrabs attached to their bodies appear to be interacting with their host. While other Headcrab Zombies serve as a host for individual headcrabs, the poison headcrabs attached to a poison zombie appear to gestate on the body. The fact the poison zombie is off-color and bloated would suggest that the headcrabs are either sucking nutrients from the body (which would explain why the headcrabs on a Poison Zombie's body seem to pulse), are causing enough damage to make the host lose almost all of their blood, or are using the body to store or create their acute neurotoxin. It has also been speculated that poison headcrabs may lay their eggs in their hosts' bodies, which would explain the hosts' bloated appearance and the multiple poison headcrabs which cover them. It should be noted that, unlike other types of zombies, Poison Zombies cannot be cut in half.

Poison Zombies are first encountered in Half-Life 2 Chapter 6: "We Don't Go To Ravenholm".

Tactics

Poison Zombies can take a lot more damage than other zombies (roughly 300%), and have better attack capabilities.

An effective tactic when facing a Poison Zombie at close range is to move around while attacking to avoid being hit by the thrown headcrab. Normally there are 3 headcrabs riding the Poison Zombie. When a thrown Poison Headcrab comes into contact with the player, health points will drop to 1 but will gradually increase by increments of 10 as the HEV Suit administers an antidote to the poison (Though the player will permanently lose some health). It is advised not to use the crowbar against incoming thrown headcrabs, as the thrown headcrabs travel at a greater speed than a jumping Poison Headcrab. Instead, avoid the thrown headcrabs.

A fairly effective weapon against Poison Zombies is fire; when hit, the zombie will set alight the headcrabs as well when dying. A very effective tactic is to grab a propane tank or gas canister, pop out of cover, throw it at the zombie then take cover before it throws headcrabs. It will die and take its headcrabs with it. If no flammable objects are present, throw hand grenades or fire Submachine Gun grenades.

If none of the methods above can be utilized, another tactic, when the player has spare energy cores, is to equip the Pulse Rifle and use its alt-fire on the Zombie. It will disintegrate the zombie with all passengers because as soon as it dies, all headcrabs will detach, but they instantly touch the energy core as well, which kills them.

Because Poison Zombies tend to move quite slowly and are a big target, it shouldn't be hard to hit them. Emptying a magazine into a Poison Zombie from a Submachine Gun or other such bullet-based firearms will usually kill it. Explosives, such as Submachine Gun grenades and regular grenades are far more effective against Poison Zombies. A longer-range weapon may be advisable because one does not want to get too close to this zombie.

If there is no available AR2 secondary fire, SMG secondary fire, grenades, or flammables to kill the zombie with, another tactic is to wait until all its headcrabs are thrown off and killed. The player should then be able to gun it down with the Shotgun, Submachine Gun, or Pistol.

Trivia

There is limited difference between the Poison Zombie and the Half-Life 2 leak "fat zombie". The spine on its back and the skin showcase some of the most significant examples. The Poison Zombie appears to be several times stronger than its brethren. On multiple occasions, Poison Zombies destroy entire doors. In Half-Life 2: Episode One, at the hospital level, several regular Zombies are seen trying to break open a doorway, but it is not until the Poison Zombie arrives that the door is destroyed by the Poison Zombie's physical attack. When the Poison Zombie dies, there are two sounds for his death. One of the sounds ends with wheezing which could be interpreted as a laugh. This could be because the hosts were in so much pain due to all of the toxins in their blood, they are relieved to be put out of their misery. Oddly, some of their sounds seem to be reversed donkey and bovine sounds. When a Poison Zombie makes it into the path of a Barnacle, the game will crash. This can be seen without the use of cheats/mods towards the end of Anticitizen One in the tunnels after Alyx is captured. The player should lure the Poison Zombie toward the nearest Barnacle using the chain-link fence as a ramp. No attempts have been made to fix this. The file cfg\skill.cfg suggests that Poison Zombies originally had a "spit" attack, which would have done 20 damage.

Gallery

Pre-release

• 

  Fan-made restoration of one of the old Poison Zombie models found only as textures in the leak in materials/Models/Zombie_Poison/old/. The folder also features two alternate "body" and "rear_legs" textures.

• 

  Ditto, without Headcrab.

• 

  The texture folder for the leak Poison Zombie features an alternate set of textures, applied here to the model.

• 

  Leak Poison Zombie.

• 

  Leak Poison Zombie, without Headcrabs.

• 

  Leak Poison Zombie, back, without Headcrabs.

• 

  Model preview image showing the leak Fast Zombie with a Headcrab with broken textures.

Retail

• 

  Poison Zombie.

• 

  Poison Zombie, without Headcrabs.

• 

  Ditto, back.

• 

  A Poison Zombie roaming the streets of Ravenholm.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Roaming the abandoned house near NLO.

• 

  A Poison Zombie in the laundry room.

• 

  Dead Poison Zombie on a table in the Hospital.

• 

  Poison Zombie and Headcrab Shell in the Hospital.

List of appearances

Main games

• Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Other

• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar