HBO’s The Last of Us: Every type of infected zombie

The Last of Us’ monsters are not your average zombies. Yes, they’re gross. Yes they do bite. But they’re not reanimated after dying. Instead, they’re living people who have been taken over by a fungus called Cordyceps — their whole thing is multiplying and spreading the infection as far and wide as possible.

The Cordyceps infection evolves over the course of an infected person’s lifespan, which makes the Last of Us games’ infected that much scarier. Each stage is a different threat. For instance, the first stage — when a person has first turned — is super fast and can detect uninfected people to chase. A later stage of the disease is called clickers. These people are blinded by mushroom-like growths, which split their faces open and obscure their vision.

We haven’t seen all of the infected types from the games represented yet in HBO’s Last of Us, but they’re probably coming.

Runner

Image: Naughty dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment

As the fungus spreads throughout the body, the first stage of infection occurs. In HBO’s Last of Us, the show’s creators slipped in an infographic to explain how long it takes for the infection to spread inside a person, depending on the bite location: On the head or neck, it’s quick, within minutes. If the bite’s on an extremity, like a leg or arm, it’ll take closer to 24 hours. Coughing, mood swings and muscle spasms are the first symptoms of an infection. Remember episode 1, the elderly lady with the slurred speech? First sign was muscle spasms.

Runners are fast — inhumanly fast — and often travel in big groups. These look a lot like regular zombies, because they haven’t started sprouting mushrooms yet.

Stalker

Image by Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Most common form of infection is Stalkers. They’re slightly more advanced than Runners and have visible changes — fungus grows out of their bodies, and sometimes their flesh is visibly decaying. Stalkers are not as fast as Runners, but they’re very deadly, always lurking, and ready to attack. Stalkers may sometimes climb onto walls and be held in place by mushroom tendrils. When you walk by, they’ll break free in a surprise attack.

We’ve seen these in HBO’s Last of UsIt was fully grown and dead, however. In some cases, it seems like the fungus network may still be alive, but in others, it’s clearly dead and crumbling.

Clicker

Image: Naughty dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment

The creepiest sound on the show and in the game is the Clicker. These are people who have had the virus for some time. They can be seen with mushroom-like growths protruding from their heads, taking control of the eyes. They can’t see, so it’s necessary to move slowly and quietly near them. Any noise will alert a Clicker, and they’re very good at finding their prey using audio cues. They’re easy to identify because of their signature clicking noise, a form of echolocation, and because of the massive fruiting mushroom sprouting from the head. We saw a couple of these on HBO’s Last of Us in Boston’s historical museum in the second episode.

Bloater/Shambler

Image: Naughty dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment

These are the advanced stages, but there are many variants. We haven’t seen one of these on the show just yet, but HBO previously teased a Bloater in one of Last of Us’ trailers. You can tell an infected is a Bloater because of the size — they’re big, grotesque, and, naturally, bloated with decaying mushroom bubbles. They are stronger and slower than Shamblers, but they have the ability to erupt with energy and lunge at their enemies. They are difficult to kill because the fungus acts like an armor. These fungus growths can be ripped off of their bodies, and thrown around to cause acidic reactions. If you get caught by a Bloater in the game, it’s an instant kill — and it rips your head in half through the jaw.

Shamblers can be described as waterlogged Bloaters that are more common on the West Coast. They’re pretty similar, but they emit an acid gas that they spit at enemies.

Rat King

Image by Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment

We’ve only seen one Rat King infected in the Last of Us games, and it’s pretty gnarly: It’s a shambling mass of multiple infected Clickers, Runners, and Stalkers all mashed together. It may be an anomaly, and who knows if we’ll see one in the first season of The Last of Us. In the fight against the Rat King Part 2 of “The Last of Us”The event takes place in two phases, after which the infected monster is broken into separate infected. It’s got all the characteristics of the infected that comprise it, throwing mushroom bombs and emitting poison gas.