Charged Zombie

Charged Zombie
The fastest zombie. It cannot be stopped once it has chosen a target.
Main Stats
Health 10 Melee Damage 45 Melee Damage (crit.) 50
Crit. Chance	100%
Crit. Damage	10%
Speed	5 (normal) 120 (charge)
Rage Drop	2
Behavior Stats
Agility	25
Aggression	25
Detection Range	300 (against human units) 175 (against the bus)
Morale Stats
Charisma	-48
Charisma Radius	50

Charged Zombie (CZ) is an infected dressed in black pants covered almost entirely by mud and dirt. It has blue eyes and a glowing blue nervous system.

Overview

Charged Zombie is a special infected that is unable to attack normally. Instead, it rushes into units with lightning speed, upon detecting them from a long distance. Prior to running, CZ will charge itself up for 3 seconds, warning the player about the initiation with an audio cue. Once it makes contact with a unit or a support item, it deals them guaranteed critical damage and instantly dies. This attack has an extended hitbox: it's capable of hitting units that are positioned slightly away from CZ's path.

Charged Zombie's long detection range is only applied against human units. It won't charge into support items from afar, but it will do that after walking up close to them. In case of the bus, it will charge into it from a distance that's just out of Bill's reach.

Strategy

CZ is one of the most difficult standard enemies players will face, being able to ruin any kind of push and heavily damage, or even destroy, the bus thanks to its insanely powerful ability. Because of this, CZ should always be a prioritized target upon its appearance on the battlefield, especially if they come in pairs or any bigger groups. It is more rare for this to happen though it is possible.

It is crucial to eliminate CZ before it starts running if possible. The most efficient way to do so is to drop Empty Barrel or Red Barrel on it during or before it charges, as they do enough damage to kill CZ and can serve as physical obstacles against any future ones.. Another method is to simply use rage abilities as obstacles. These should be placed right at the end of the battlefield, so CZ will simply bump into them. Red Barrel and Generator are the best options for this, although Red Barrel is more recommended since it costs less rage points and prepares faster, with an explosion that can hurt nearby zombies. Despite this, Generator remains as a formidable option as it has notably more health. CZ can also get hit by stray bullets from ranged units with a high rate of fire or spread damage. If CZ is facing Flamethrower directly straight while he is currently firing his weapon, Flamethrower can exploit CZ's low health to usually kill it in one hit, thereby stopping it from hitting anything.

In many cases, cheap spam units such as Redneck/Private Rodriguez or Mechanic can be used as a meat shield. Although it is advised to only do so when it is impossible to use rage abilities against CZ and when it comes on the battlefield towards the very beginning of the mission. Policeman Diaz is an excellent unit at being a meat shield thanks to his unique melee resistance, and his shotgun blasts can occasionally kill off-screen CZs. Bringing Medkit along can also aid in keeping him alive longer and allow him to survive more charges though Medkit will for ever.

CZ gains a bigger hitbox when charging. This can lead to situations where it will run into units and objects who aren't exactly in its direct path but somewhat near it. Although this could put more units at risk, it can also be used to players' advantage. Due to CZ having a decent detection range, it will begin to charge off-screen when units are too close to the barricade, especially melee units currently attacking it. With a bigger hitbox, players can simply put a few stationary units down around the end of the battlefield for the best chance of stopping CZ no matter where it charges from.

 Trivia

• Charged Zombie's journal entry states that it cannot be stopped once it has chosen its target. However, this is technically wrong as there are several methods to stop and kill CZ before it gets the chance. Ranged attacks may occasionally catch it, and fire pools could chip them. Rage abilities may either kill them directly or get in their way, technically stopping them as well. However, apart from using barrels to block or kill them, there's not much point in stopping CZ through these methods.
• In update 2.9.2, Charged Zombie's journal entry doubled all of its listed stats. However, these stats are not reflected when fighting Charged Zombie in-game, making them incorrect.
  • Ram's journal entry is also affected the exact same way. This may be due to the fact that both Charged Zombie and Ram always deliver critical hits on human units. It's possible that only the damage stat was meant to be changed to better reflect this, but an oversight led to all other stats accidentally being doubled as well. However, since Charged Zombie and Ram still cannot deal crits on non-human entities (i.e., the bus and rage abilities), this stat change would still be incorrect.

Gallery

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  Journal entry.