Creatures and the Bestiary

Every kind of infected creature you'll meet, what it does, how to beat it, and how the Bestiary rewards you for killing them.

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The infected come in hundreds of kinds. Most of them are a twist on a few basic bodies, and every one has a tell you can learn. This page covers the ones you'll meet and how to fight them. Press Escape and open Collections, then Bestiary, or type /bestiary, to see the full list with your kill counts.

Health numbers below are the base. Deeper sewer floors multiply them (see Infested Districts and the Sewers).

The Basics

Creature	Health	How to fight it
Zombie	105	Go for the head. Killed any other way it may free its headcrab, and a blast or buckshot can leave its torso crawling on.
Fast Zombie	75	It shrieks before it leaps. Step aside as it jumps, then shoot. It outruns you and climbs ledges, so turn and fight.
Poison Zombie	370	It growls before it throws a poison headcrab from its back. It only throws from range, so get close or kill it fast.
Zombie Torso	55	What a blast or buckshot leaves of a zombie. It crawls slowly but still bites, so finish it.
Headcrab	30	It hangs from the tunnel ceiling and drops on whoever walks beneath. Shoot it down before you pass.
Fast Headcrab	30	It rears up just before it leaps, and leaps again quickly. Sidestep on the rear-up.
Poison Headcrab	105	It rattles and rears up. Its bite leaves you on 1 HP until the poison wears off, so kill it before it reaches you.
Barnacle	35	Its tongue hangs from the ceiling and grabs whoever walks into it. Look up and shoot it.
Antlion	65	It buzzes its wings before it leaps. It outruns you, so stand and shoot.
Antlion Worker	130	It keeps its distance and spits acid, and bursts into acid when it dies. Never kill it at arm's length.
Antlion Guard	700	Hitting an antlion hive brings it up. When it snarls and charges, put a tree or wall between you so it crashes, then shoot it while it's dazed.

Barnacles come in about 25 kinds, like the Bloated Barnacle that bursts into gas, the Ember Barnacle whose bite sets you alight and the Golden Barnacle that pays ten times a normal one. Each kind's Bestiary entry has a one-line warning.

Sewer Specials

These show up on the floors named in the table, and often on the ones below. The top floor has only the first two.

Creature	First floor	How to fight it
Crawler	Top	Its bite slows you. Don't let it pin you for the others.
Thrower	Top	It keeps its distance and lobs debris at you. Keep moving, then close in. It's weak up close.
Sprinter	Inner Tunnels	It roars before it bolts. Sidestep on the stomp.
Zombine	Inner Tunnels	Hurt it badly and it pulls a grenade. Shoot it during the pull to make it drop it.
Faker	Inner Tunnels	It lies among the dead until you're close. Shoot the bodies you pass.
Spitter	Inner Tunnels	It growls before it spits acid at you. Cut sideways as it spits.
Gunner	Inner Tunnels	It plants and sprays a burst after a short aim. Break its line of sight, or hit it hard while it aims.
Hexer	Inner Tunnels	Its slow orbs follow you. Shoot them down, or hit one with a melee weapon to send it back.
Strangler	Lower Sewers	Its tongue drags you in from afar. Shoot it to break free, or get behind a wall.
Pouncer	Lower Sewers	It crouches and screeches, then pounces from far off and pins you. Shoot it off, or cut sideways as it leaps.
Bomber	Lower Sewers	It runs at you with a live grenade. Kill it before it gets close.
Howler	Lower Sewers	It howls to call a pack from behind you. Kill it or hurt it hard to cut the howl short.
Shaman	Lower Sewers	It hangs back and raises the dead. Kill it first, or shoot it mid-chant.
Bloater	Lower Sewers	Shoot it from afar. Up close it retches bile and you can't see. It bursts when it dies.
Powderkeg	Lower Sewers	Shoot it while it's among the others. If it reaches you and starts hissing, back off and it calms down.
Gloom	Lower Sewers	Near it your sight keeps going dark. Kill it before the next pulse finds you in a crowd.
Hulk	Lower Sewers	When it rears up, step back. The slam reaches a few paces.
Witch	Lower Sewers	She sobs where she sits. Keep your distance and your light off her. Startled, she comes for you.
Lancer	Lower Sewers	It comes for whoever holds out of reach. Its beam crackles as it charges, so get out of its sight or hit it hard to break the charge.
Sniper	Lower Sewers	A red laser marks who it's aiming at. When the laser stops moving, step off it. It's frail up close.
Tankback	Lower Sewers	Shoot the fuel tank on its back. It blows up and takes the infected near it along.
Stormcaller	Lower Sewers	Its storm hunts you while it channels. Run from the storm and kill the Stormcaller, or hit it hard.
Lich	The Depths	Nothing hurts it while its orbs circle it. Break all three within 10 seconds of each other, or the broken ones come back.
Marauder	The Depths	Its shield stops every shot. Wait for the green flash as it winds up and hit it then.
Regenerator	The Depths	It grows back from anything while its glowing parasites live. Shoot the limbs they sit on, then finish it.
Swift Twin and Heavy Twin	The Depths	Kill one and the other raises it in 8 seconds, stronger. Bring both down together.
Wraith	The Depths	Its shield counts hits, not damage. Fast guns and shotguns break it. It comes back at two-thirds and one-third health.

A few auras are rarer still. The Ember burns on hit and bursts into flame when it dies. The Blight poisons and slows you with its cloud, and when it wheezes its spores blind everyone in sight. The Shade only moves while nobody is looking at it, and appears behind you if you shoot it.

Variants

Any creature can roll a stronger version. A variant has a coloured name on its plate.

Elites

An elite has three times the health and pays 3.5 times the cash. It carries one trait.

Trait	What it does
Bloated	Splits into headcrabs when it dies.
Armoured	Its hat stops headshots until you knock it off.
Shielded	Soaks damage with a shield that comes back after it's been left alone.
Screaming	Its scream drags everyone it can chase toward it. Hit it hard to cut it short.
Frenzied	Moves faster.

Elites can drop a magazine of special rounds.

Elementals

An elemental is tinted and shelled, tougher, and every hit it lands carries its element. Hit it with its weak round and it takes extra. It drops a core you can trade to Maddox for rounds.

Element	Weak to	Drops
Blazing	Cryo rounds	Blazing Core
Frozen	Incendiary rounds	Frozen Core
Charged	Poisoned rounds	Charged Core
Toxic	Stun rounds	Toxic Core
Void	Explosive rounds	Void Core
Sanguine	Incendiary rounds	Sanguine Core

Two elements on the same creature react. Hit it with fire and then electric and you set off Overload, which hurts the infected within about 3.8 metres of it and shoves them away. The other pairs are Melt (fire and ice), Superconduct (ice and electric), Combustion (fire and toxic), Corrosion (toxic and electric), Cauterize (bleed and fire) and Sepsis (bleed and toxic). Corrosion, Superconduct and Sepsis leave the target taking extra damage for a few seconds.

Arcane and Radiant

An arcane creature is an elite and an elemental at once. It's rare and only shows up for players with enough Bestiary progress on that creature. A Radiant creature is gold. It has twice the health and pays ten times the cash, and it drops a Radiant Shard.

Apex Creatures

Apex creatures are named individuals that replace an ordinary spawn. Everyone who did enough damage shares the kill.

Apex	Kind	How to fight it
Patient Zero	Zombie	The ones near it run faster and a pale line ties them to it. Kill it first and they reel.
Old Knuckles	Zombie	Body shots barely scratch it, so aim for the head. When it roars, a headshot does triple.
Pack Rat	Zombie	It never fights. Keep hitting it or it slips down a drain with its haul.
Rattler	Fast Zombie	You hear it before you see it. Light it with your flashlight, or catch it when it stops.
Nimble Nell	Fast Zombie	She steps aside from whoever aims at her. Hit her mid-leap or spray with a shotgun.
Magpie	Fast Zombie	Quick and shy, it hugs the walls. Keep hitting it or it's gone with everything it took.
Plague Doctor	Poison Zombie	It cleanses fire and poison off everything near it. Hurt it while it casts to break the spell.
The Brewer	Poison Zombie	It throws a flask where you stand and the infected in its cloud heal. Drag the fight out of the cloud.
Sump Bloat	Poison Zombie	It drifts away through the water. When it bursts the poison stays where it fell.
Crab King	Headcrab	Its court fights beside it and scatters when it dies. Go for the King.
The Tick	Headcrab	It latches on and drinks. Shoot it off, or have a friend hit it.
Glimmercrab	Headcrab	Worth a fortune and it burrows away soon after you find it. Every hit shakes cash loose.
Antlion Queen	Antlion	She lays eggs as she fights. Break them or they hatch.
Sandblaster	Antlion	When it rears up, get out of the line in front of it. The sand slows you to a crawl.
Gilded Antlion	Antlion	It digs out of reach soon after you find it. Bring it down fast.

Apex creatures can drop a pet skin of their own. See Pet Items, Candy and Upgrades.

Mutations

A mutation is an ordinary creature with one new rule. Every kind has a tell, and the Bestiary shows it once you've killed one. Here are the families and a few examples.

Family	Kinds	Examples
Zombies	21	Riot Zombie has riot gear that stops shots from the front, so get behind it. Bonehead shrugs off headshots, so shoot its legs. Divider splits in two unless you finish it with a headshot.
Fast Zombies	36	Prowler backs off while you watch it. Ripper leaves you bleeding. Glassrunner is very fast and one good hit kills it.
Poison Zombies	43	Mortar lobs acid where you're heading. Hazmat barely feels fire, gas or explosives. Amalgam takes in every creature that dies near it and grows.
Headcrabs	14	Mimicrab hides among the junk. Voltcrab arcs its bite to the next person. Clinger latches onto your face and blinds you.
Antlions	8	Menace fires a quick volley and burrows. Hivewarden never attacks, but heals the antlions near it.
Synths	12	Hunter sticks flechettes round your feet that burst. Searchlight lets every ranged creature aim true while its light is on you.
Thralls	8	Arcbinder jumps lightning from you to whoever stands near. Nullifier has a bubble that stops every shot from outside.
Turned	16	Taskmaster has a front shield and sends every ranged creature after whoever it names. Engineer builds turrets that pay nothing. Goliath grows with every kill.
Wildlife	2	Crow dives in a flock. Rook drops spore bombs where you're heading.

Mutations show up on every sewer floor. Poison Zombie mutations and Hunters start on the Lower Sewers. Synths, Thralls and the Turned start at the Inner Tunnels. Wildlife only lives in the forest.

Plates and Danger

Every creature has a nameplate with its level. A red plate means it outlevels you by a wide margin, and a floor's entry card warns you when most of what lives there is red to you. Training your Bestiary tiers against a creature brings its plate down.

The infected ignore players who are in a vehicle, in noclip, invisible or in god mode.

The Bestiary

The Bestiary is your kill journal. Every creature has an entry, grouped into families like Zombies, Fast Zombies, Poison Zombies, Headcrabs, Barnacles, Antlions, Sea Creatures, Synths, Thralls, Turned and Wildlife. Open it with /bestiary.

How Tiers Work

Each creature has its own tiers, and every kill counts one. Tiers come at set kill counts. A common zombie has 20 tiers, a heavy or a ranged creature has 15. Bosses and the rarest variants also have 15 and need only a few kills per tier.

Tier	Zombie kills needed
I	5
II	10
III	15
IV	25
V	50
X	750
XV	10,000
XX	25,000

Each tier pays you:

Character XP (the tier's number times 5, from tier II).
Bits (one for each five tiers, rounded up).
Four bonuses that only apply against that creature.

The four bonuses grow a little with each tier. At a creature's last tier they are:

Bonus	At the last tier
Damage against it	+200%
Damage taken from it	30 resistance points, about 23% less damage
Kill pay	+30%
Scavenge chance	Doubled

Discovery

An undiscovered creature shows as "???" on its plate and in the Bestiary until your first kill. The first kill pays 5 Character XP and teaches you its tell.

Milestones

Every 10 tiers you reach across the whole Bestiary is a milestone. Each milestone gives +1 max Health. Some also pay Character XP and unlock titles.

Tips

Read the tell. Almost every creature telegraphs its big move with a sound or a wind-up.
Kill the support first. Shamans, Drummers, Howlers, Taggers and Hivewardens make everything near them worse.
Match rounds to elementals. Hitting the weak round does extra damage.
Fight with space. Many of the worst creatures are only dangerous up close, or only dangerous from range.