How 2 Killing Floor: Understanding Specimens

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How 2 Killing Floor: Understanding Specimens

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So you’ve got tactics, good guns and a few basic rules. Now you need to know what you’re up against and how to take them down effectively and quickly. Here you’ll find a list of all the ZED’s in Killing Floor and how to neutralise them efficiently.

There are ten different specimens, including the Patriarch, each with different abilities and appearances. All specimens take additional damage when they are decapitated. In addition, some can be stunned if enough damage is dealt. Decapitating them will leave their bodies capable only of simple attacks and walking for a short period, with the exceptions of the Patriarch, Scrake, and Siren, who do not survive decapitation. During wave time specimens spawn randomly at pre-determined locations near to the players, providing there is something obscuring the view between all players and the spawn. The enemies are modified by both the initial difficulty setting, and the number of players in the game.

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The Clot: Found in the large numbers in every wave, Clots regularly arrive alongside Bloats and Gorefasts. Despite its weakness, the Clot has the ability to grab and hold while attacking you. The only escape is to either kill the Clot or, on Hard difficulty or lower, jump in the opposite direction. A careless player can therefore be easily surrounded and overwhelmed by a group of Clots, referred to as 'Clot bombing'. Clots cannot grab players using the Berserker perk. A Clot is easily killed with any weapon. With almost any weapon, a shot or two to the head scores a decapitation, rendering them little more than weak meat shields. Keep in mind, as with many of the specimens, the head hit box of the Clot is inconsistent, and shooting the top of the skull or forehead can fail to register a head shot. Aiming for the throat or mid to lower jaw offers more consistent results. Crowds of Clots can be dispatched quickly by any weapons with good area of effect, penetration depth, or high rate of fire. Clots are dangerous as distractions, often holding the attention of players while

A Clot is easily killed with any weapon. With almost any weapon, a shot or two to the head scores a decapitation, rendering them little more than weak meat shields. Keep in mind, as with many of the specimens, the head hit box of the Clot is inconsistent, and shooting the top of the skull or forehead can fail to register a head shot. Aiming for the throat or mid to lower jaw offers more consistent results. Crowds of Clots can be dispatched quickly by any weapons with good area of effect, penetration depth, or high rate of fire. Clots are dangerous as distractions, often holding the attention of players while stronger specimens go in for the kill.
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The Bloat: The Bloat can be annoying at times, if he gets close his vomit will corrode away your armour and health very quickly on the higher difficulties. He carries a small machete he uses sometimes also, your best bet is either to kill him straight up from a distance or get in quickly and kill him. It is a slow lumbering specimen with a short ranged corrosive vomit attack and a medium damage melee attack. On higher difficulties its vomit attack can be fatal to unaware and unarmoured players. Taking his head off is a good idea as he then can’t vomit on you, this can be done easily enough with even the starting pistol so dispatch of him quickly to deal with the other ZED’s. Fire-based weapons deal 150% damage to the bloat.

The bloat will sometimes move while doing the puking animation. The chance for this to happen increase with difficulty.

20% -> Beginner
40% -> Normal
60% -> Hard
80% -> Suicidal/HoE

Total health: The base hit points of the Bloat is 525; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player +131.25 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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The base hit points of the Bloat's head is 25; its total health on normal. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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Bounty:
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The Crawler: The Crawler is a weak specimen that often becomes annoying. It makes its first appearance in the second wave of the game, spawning in unusual places, and is generally faster than the player. The Crawler usually finishes off those who are lacking in health due to their speed and agility, as severely wounded players are more likely to panic and run. Crawlers usually come in groups of two to four, which can make them even more dangerous. One map in particular to watch out for them is MoonBase, these guys can stop your jump mid flight if they make contact, making it impossible to jump and escape, kill them as quickly as you can on this map. On normal maps however, don’t worry too much unless you get swarmed by them.

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The Gorefast The Gorefast is a specimen that appears on all waves of the game. It has a decent speed and will run at its targets when close enough. The blade it wields does quite a large amount of damage compared to most other specimens, 15 damage per hit on normal; something to be avoided. They have a tendency to travel in groups and can easily become fatal to players unable to escape their attacks.

The gorefast may randomly do a charging melee attack when he is within range. The chance varies with difficulty and increases up to 40% on HoE.

10% -> Beginner
20% -> Normal
30% -> Hard
40% -> Suicidal/HoE
The base hit points of the Gorefast is 250; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 37.5 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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The base hit points of the Gorefast's head is 25; its total health on normal. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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Bounty:
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The Husk: On harder difficulties this is someone to watch out for, his Fireball Cannon can aim at where you are going to be using an aimbot and do quite a bit of damage and inflict burning damage. On harder difficulties this is someone to watch out for, his Fireball Cannon can aim at where you are going to be using an aimbot and do quite a bit of damage and inflict burning damage. Due to his Cannon being long range, he can shoot you multiple times while you’re dealing with ZED’s that are closer to you. Aim for the head on this one and don’t use fire based weapons. The Husk is fire resistant so use something like a shotgun or a rifle to take him out quickly.

It can make its first appearance on the second wave, regardless of game length. Its main attack is a projectile fireball, whose speed is similar to that of the L.A.W.'s rocket and inflicts fire-based damage with afterburn. Its melee attack, which it smacks the player with its gun, deals the same damage as the Gorefast's. They are characterised by their resemblance to the Fleshpound, their 75% resistance to fire, and their slightly burnt exterior.

Firing frequency:
* 6.875 - 8.875s -> Beginner
* 5.5 - 7.5s -> Normal
* 4.125 - 6.125s -> Hard
* 3.3 - 5.3s -> Suicidal and H.o.E


The base hit points of the Husk is 600; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 60 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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The base hit points of the Husk's head is 200; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 10 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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Bounty:
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The Stalker: The Stalker is a weak but fast specimen with the ability to render itself invisible. It can barely be seen, and its muttering and breathing is the only sign that one is around. When it attacks, it leaves this camouflaged state, before trying to hide again. You can also track them by watching their shadows on the ground. The Stalker is often found traveling with Crawlers because they share spawn points, but this tactic is a less reliable indicator. Players who have chosen the Commando perk are able to make them out, however. Stalkers will be revealed to them within a specific range, based on the Commando's perk level. Luckily they don’t do much damage unless your play Suicidal or Hell on Earth but anything can take them down. Commando’s also should have priority on killing Stalkers as they need the kills to level up.
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The Siren: Its scream, which gives off a visible red disturbance field, is particularly dangerous; it causes large area of effect amounts of damage, is unaffected by a player's armour, destroys explosives, and causes disorientation, similar to recoil, albeit in all directions, that can make killing her at short range troublesome and even dangerous, as the closer the player, the more disoriented they become. The earliest wave on which it can be found in a long game is the third. Her screams ignore armor, and do direct health damage at a moderate range, and will kill you very quickly if you get to close, or wander into a group of them. Can absorb a considerable amount of damage, so don’t hold back. Aim for the head at range, or close in as quickly as possible for a melee or shotgun kill.

The Siren has a tendency to hide behind other specimens as it approaches, which can sometimes make it hard to spot before they get in range. When it is spotted, it should be treated as a priority target and taken out as soon as possible, a task which can often fall to a Sharpshooter to do.

The base hit points of the Siren is 300; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 30 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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The base hit points of the Siren's head is 200; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 10 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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Bounty:
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The Scrake: This is one ZED you really need to be careful of. The Scrake carries a chainsaw attached to his arm and if he gets to close he’ll cause massive damage with it. If his health drops below a certain point he will rage and charge at you, attacking you very quickly and having the ability to kill you in a few seconds on harder difficulties even with armour. The best way to take out the Scrake is to get a Sharpshooter to shoot it in the head with a Crossbow or have a Berserker run up to it and repeatedly hit it in the head with a Katana as this stun locks it (stun lock doesn't work past Hard difficulty). Don’t shoot him with pistols or you’ll just cause it to rage and potentially kill you and your team (as it does not quit raging until it is dead). Scrakes will rage if it loses 50% of its health. Suicidal and above, the Scrake will rage when it loses 30%.

The base hit points of the Scrake is 1000; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 500 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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The base hit points of the Scrake's head is 650; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 195 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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Bounty:
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The large amount of health the Scrake possesses can make it a troublesome beast to overcome. Assuming normal difficulty, he gains 500 hit points on top of his base of 1000 per additional player on the server. The upshot of this is that with three players on the server he can easily survive the blast from a pipe bomb, and come out the other end within its charge threshold. If the Scrake starts running prior to going within a pipe bombs range, the pipe bomb will go off too late and the Scrake will avoid a large portion of the damage. For this reason it is often advisable to open fire following the explosion to maximize damage.

Unloading a full magazine from any of the £2500+ weapons will be more than enough to take it down under most circumstances and, as always aiming for the head (or upper torso with the M32 or L.A.W.) is advised to maximize damage. Dual handcannons, the crossbow and the hunting shotgun are also effective weapons for taking out the Scrake with their various tactics for use. While the L.A.W. is a very effective weapon against the Scrake; it is not considered a cost-effective strategy due to the cost of the rockets and the Scrake's bounty.

In addition, if enough damage is inflicted in a single hit, Scrakes can be "stunned", rendering him immobile and unable to attack for a few seconds, or "flinched", rendering him unable to attack momentarily but still able to move. Testing have shown that 667 damage or higher is needed to stun a scrake and it will be flinched if an attack does more than 150 damage. Due to the "single hit" criteria, any of the Shotgun type weapons cannot be used to stun or flinch him, since the damage is spread out among individual, weaker pellet shots.

A tactic often used by berserkers playing on lower difficulty levels would be to repeatedly flinch a scrake using a katana, preventing the scrake from retaliating. However, this tactic cannot be used on Suicidal difficulty and above, since scrakes can only be flinched by a melee weapon once on that difficulty. Ranged weapons, while remaining capable of flinch-locking a scrake on higher difficulty levels, are a somewhat risker alternative as headshots are often needed to exceed the damage threshold required for flinching and the danger of not being able to kill the scrake before needing to reload. Players are advised not to use small arms fire on scrakes that are being flinched as doing so will break the flinch and endanger the player who is flinch-locking the scrake.

Stunning a scrake can be done off-perk by powerful weapons such as L.A.W, Pipe bomb, M99 AMR, Husk Fireball Launcher (fully) charged shots or Buzzsaw Bow and Crossbow headshots. Off-perk crossbow users should note however, that scrakes gain a 50% resistance to crossbow headshots on Suicidal difficulty and above and this render the crossbow incapable of stunning a scrake on these difficulty levels. Some off-perk melee weapons are also capable of exceeding the damage threshold required for stunning by hitting the scrake's head from behind with a powerful alt-fire attack, combining the melee backstab multiplier and the headshot multipler together for 2.2 times to 2.5 times the normal damage. Since there are no limits to the number of times a scrake can be stunned on Suicidal and HoE difficulty levels and that small arms fire cannot break the stun, it is considered the safer alternative to flinch-locking.

For a video that basically shows and explains all this, check this out:
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The Flesh Pound: The toughest ZED in the game besides from the boss, The Patriarch. Immediately discernible by his glowing yellow lights, the Fleshpound can cause massive damage to any player who gets close to it using the huge drills on his arms. The Fleshpound will occasionally rage and dash at a player, causing even more damage. A Fleshpound will rage for two reasons, one is where he keeps you in his line of sight for a set time, the second is if he incurs too much damage per second. While it is enraged, it will run much faster and dole out a massive amount of damage, usually killing or leaving players in need of medical treatment.

Due to the Fleshpound being immune to stun effects, the safest way to exterminate the Fleshpound is to do it fast, before it has a chance to rage of its own accord and before it can cause substantial damage. If the player's current weapon is weak, then the safest way to kill him is to do so slowly and to frequently escape his line of sight, so as to not enrage it: inflict less than 360 damage every two seconds and cut eye-sight again in 10 seconds at most. Fleshpound rages under certain circumstances which are incase Fleshpound is in pain and takes 360 damage in 2 seconds, and the other is Fleshpound becomes frustrated and infuriated by staying away from close combat for a 10 seconds at least. That timer can be randomized by adding 0 to 5 seconds more as Fleshpound picks its new target, and can be reset by cutting eyesight letting Fleshpound swing and cause him to avoid a thrown grenade. Note that Fleshpounds are weak against explosives; any explosive grenade that blast too close is capable of enraging him right away. Thus, it is recommended that a Demo with a powerful explosive weapon, take down the Flesh Pound.

The base hit points of the Fleshpound is 1500; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 375 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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The base hit points of the Fleshpound's head is 700; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 210 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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How to effectively kill a Flesh Pound
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The Patriarch: The Patriarch is the final ZED you will face, either on Wave 5, 8 or 11 depending the game length. He has huge amounts of health and is very deadly. He has three main ways of attacking, the first is a machine gun mounted on one of his arms, and this can deplete your health very quickly and even kill you in a few seconds. The second is a rocket launcher mounted to his other arm, this is an extremely dangerous weapon, and it can kill you in a single shot. You can tell when he is shooting one as you will distinctly hear him say “One in the pipe” before shooting. The third attack is a close range melee attack either by spinning round and knocking you or extending a tentacle from his stomach causing massive damage, staying away from him is the best option to kill him. You want a variety of perks to take him down, Medics are good for keeping the team healed and tanking the melee hits with his tough armour, Support Specialist for chipping away at his health, Sharpshooter for head shotting at a distance, Commando to see how much health he has left and where he approaches from when he cloaks, Firebug to light him up when he cloaks to see which direction he runs off too and cause burning damage and Demolitions for laying down Pipe Bombs and blowing him up with explosives. Berserker is not recommended as he needs to be up close to attack which is extremely dangerous when attacking the Patriarch, it is best to switch to another perk. As mentioned above, the Patriarch can cloak when he wants to, usually when he is retreating or coming in for an attack. He can also heal 3 times in a game, each time he goes off to heal, 10 or so ZED’s will spawn to distract you. Don’t stack more than 14 Pipe Bombs in one place each pipe bomb explosion does 7.5% less damage, and after 14 pipe bombs, additional ones will cause no extra damage (on Suicidal and HoE only), and with each pipe bomb exploded in a 2 – 4 second gap he will gain a temporary resistance. Follow the tactics above and you should be able to take him down.

Healing mechanics:
* 1st heal - 80% of max hp
* 2nd heal - 50% of max hp
* 3rd heal - 31.25% of max hp

The patriarch will always restore 25% of his max hp with each heal.

The base hit points of the Patriarch is 4000; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 3000 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth.
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Bounty: (although there really isn't much use for it, other than making it rain)
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Video explaining Patriarch mechanics and tactics:
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General tactics for the Patriarch:

* It is advised to keep the trader time to a minimum in order to reach and/or fortify a good position in time. The squad should therefore reach the trader before they complete the last wave prior to the Patriarch's.
* Try to find cover, even before the opening Patriarch sequence. Occasionally, he may open fire without returning the camera to a player, which makes for an awkward and very dangerous experience. Inversely, if you are quick enough, you may be able to do rough-estimate aim using your player model, and shoot the Patriarch before the sequence is through.
* It is advisable to find cover when he stops to ready one of his firearms, which are:

* His rocket launcher, often a one-hit kill. Splash damage can also kill in one hit. It can set off laid pipebombs and he can use splash damage to kill players under cover.
* His chain-gun, usually fired in two or three bursts. If the target does not find cover quickly, then they will generally incur a great amount of damage within seconds of exposure, and often die on higher difficulties even with high damage mitigation.

* If the Patriarch kills a player with his chain-gun, then he will switch to the next target instantaneously without ceasing fire. This can result in multiple player deaths within seconds of chain-gun fire if caught in the open. Even if player crouches behind a small cover, Patriarch will always miss its chaingun attack without changing target.
* When attempting to dodge a rocket, be mindful of any walls and obstacles around you. Each rocket has a large splash radius, and can inflict severe damage even when the rocket impact is several metres away. The best way to dodge a rocket is to take cover behind a large obstacle that is at least 5 meters away from the nearest wall from your side and staying on the move. However, the Patriarch can still shoot the ground near the obstacle to inflict damage. From a long distance it's possible to move or jump away from a rocket's path.
* After firing a weapon, the Patriarch often charges up to a player while cloaked for a melee attack that knocks the victim backwards. If teammates do not distract the Patriarch, he will usually attack the same target and a second hit often results in death.
* After incurring a sufficient amount of damage, the Patriarch will fall to one knee. This is the best time to throw a barrage of grenades to his possible escape routes to clog them up or focus fire. When he gets back up, there is a chance that he will cloak and flee at an extremely high speed to heal. Once he is sufficiently distant from each player, he will stop to inject himself with one of his vials. It is impossible to outrun him while he is fleeing, but players can catch him in the act of healing and interrupt it by attacking him.
* If a player successfully damages him to his kneel-down threshold almost by himself/herself, Patriarch will charge at him/her once he's cloaked then he will try to flee after a close-quarters melee attack.
* When the Patriarch uses a melee attack, he knocks the player back. If the player jumps immediately before being hit, the player will be knocked back farther with no additional damage from the Patriarch. This would give the player more time to shoot or escape if the Patriarch decides to follow up with another melee attack.
* Players using the Commando perk can see the Patriarch while he is cloaked, and can alert the team of where he is going. As his vitality goes down his cloak also becomes more and more visible. When Patriarch is at low health he tends to rely on his chaingun-rocket launcher platform more than melee attacks.
* A Berserker should always seek to engage him in a melee fight from behind when he's kneeling, preferably with the help of healing grenades. Still, a smart Berserker or even a Field Medic can evade his claw and tentacle thrust attack and keep him busy on his way to escape route with quick melee hits while rest of the team focuses fire to bring him down.
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