HBO’s “The Last of Us” takes place in a world endlessly modified by a cordyceps mind an infection attributable to the cordyceps fungus. The fungus turns folks into highly effective, mushroom-y zombies (although the present by no means makes use of the phrase “zombie,” as a substitute utilizing “contaminated”). The contaminated have ravaged by America, wreaking havoc on the nation and the folks dwelling there, together with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
The present is primarily based on the online game of the identical title, and that recreation first launched the taxonomy of zombies that the present makes use of: runner, stalker, clicker, and bloater. Ahead, we’re breaking all of them down and the way every zombie stage flows into the opposite.
“The Last of Us” Zombies: Runners
Runners are the primary kind of zombie, reworked from people who find themselves newly contaminated. If an individual is bitten of their higher physique, they’re going to flip right into a runner zombie in mere minutes. If they’re bitten on certainly one of their extremities like an arm or leg, it may take as much as 24 hours. Based on the present, the transformation appears to occur much more rapidly in smaller and shorter folks, like youngsters. Runners, as their title implies, are extraordinarily quick, and so they typically journey in packs.
“The Last of Us” Zombies: Stalkers
Stalkers are the subsequent part of the zombie an infection cycle. They have extra seen fungus progress on their our bodies, that are additionally decaying. Stalkers are nonetheless fairly quick, however they’re good at staying quiet and lurking, like their title implies. Some of them even grow to be hooked up to partitions, rising outward.
“The Last of Us” Zombies: Clickers
Clickers are in all probability essentially the most well-known of “The Last of Us”‘s zombies; one even made it into Pascal’s SNL promos. In clickers, the an infection has grown a lot that the zombie can now not see. They use echolocation by way of their tongues to seek out their manner round — and find people — inflicting their iconic clicking noise. The solely technique to keep away from sending a clicker after you is to be as quiet and sluggish as doable, however even then their echolocation can nonetheless detect you.
“The Last of Us” Zombies: Bloaters
A bloater — additionally referred to as a shambler — is an contaminated whose physique has been utterly taken over by the fungus. They are huge and intensely sturdy, as seen in episode 5 of “The Last of Us,” the place one causes some main harm. They’re additionally extraordinarily exhausting to kill as a result of the fungus acts as a type of physique armor. The greatest technique to face one is to run far, distant.
“The Last of Us” Zombies: Rat King
In the second online game in “The Last of Us” sequence, avid gamers face off in opposition to the Rat King. In the actual world, rat kings are when a hive of rats grow to be entangled into one writhing mass. (Gross, we all know.) In “The Last of Us,” it is when all of the various kinds of zombies grow to be entangled in an identical method. We have not seen one within the present but, and there is no assure they’re going to ever seem, however they’re going to be extraordinarily disgusting in the event that they do.