Sapper

Sapper
A slow, but nearly invulnerable zombie.
Main Stats
Health 100 Melee Damage 10
Crit. Chance	0%
Speed	5
Rage Drop	1
Behavior Stats
Agility	50
Aggression	50
Morale Stats
Charisma	-24
Charisma Radius	100
Resistances
Melee	70%
Fire	30%
Bullet	95%
Knockback	90%

Sapper is a Dark Skeleton dressed in a black Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) suit and a black combat helmet.

Overview

Sapper is an enemy that boasts multiple resistances. It has very high protection against bullet and melee damage, along with slight resistance to fire, and near-immunity to knockback.

Once defeated, there's a 50% chance that Sapper will "transform" into an Armored Skeleton. If that doesn't happen, then it falls to the ground and dies properly.

Strategy

While melee damage is greatly reduced and bullets have practically no effect, Sapper is vulnerable to fire and explosive damage that exploit its low health pool. Using a properly upgraded Red Barrel is a perfect tool against it, being able to deal heavy damage and set it on fire, potentially preventing it from ever reviving again if it is reduced to ashes. Should it appear in missions affected by rainy weather, Grenadier is one of the best counters. It can be killed easily or gravely crippled with a well-timed throw. Even if the Grenadier fails to kill it on the spot, the degrades are still much easier to deal with, since Armored Skeleton has rather meager health and damage with no melee resistance. When using ranged units, it is advisable to provide them with the Tactical Item Set, which cuts its resistance by half, making Sapper and its degrade much easier to kill.

While melee unit spam may not be the most ideal strategy when fighting against Sapper, it's recommended to use Medkit on a group of units that targets Sapper to keep them fighting longer to potentially make it work. If necessary, use Fury buff to increase their DPS.

Trivia

• Although Sapper doesn't actually die when it degrades into Armored Skeleton (its suit simply breaks down), it still counts as a "kill" due to the game treating them as separate enemies.
  • Due to this, Austin is still able to earn coins from degrading it into Armored Skeleton. A degraded Sapper will also drop item pickups and red aura boosted ones will grant extra rage points, just like any other defeated enemy.
• Although Sapper wears an EOD suit, it lacks the proper protective headwear that covers it from blast fragments, which may explain its lack of explosive resistance.
• Sapper, along with Twins and Cephalopods, has the highest bullet resistance among enemies in the entire game.

Gallery

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  Journal entry.