Zombies: Weaknesses

6th

The zombie's strength level is at normal human-levels, but they are considerably slower that average humans, possessing poor agility and coordination. Most zombies have difficulty with simple mechanical objects and obstacles such as doorknobs, latches, stairs, and fences. When confronted individually, zombies appear rather weak, but the creature's true threat is revealed when they are encountered in huge numbers. These relentless legions of tireless, flesh-eating machines will assault you on every side and corner until you fall and there comes the lunch.

kaimera

weakness: vulnerable to headshots?

chin_grin

Complex algebra. Hurts their braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains.

edit: sorry to make a serious post, how about a helicopters rotors. Seem to be VERY effective.

Doctor DooM

6th wrote: »

The zombie's strength level is at normal human-levels, but they are considerably slower that average humans, possessing poor agility and coordination. Most zombies have difficulty with simple mechanical objects and obstacles such as doorknobs, latches, stairs, and fences. When confronted individually, zombies appear rather weak, but the creature's true threat is revealed when they are encountered in huge numbers. These relentless legions of tireless, flesh-eating machines will assault you on every side and corner until you fall and there comes the lunch.

Decapation. Works for most undead, as well.

Possibly some kind of combine harvester machine for when they attack en masse?

Duggy747

Any serious blow to the head can have the potential to either stumble them to the ground for a few seconds or hopefully extinguish their existence.

Their limbs can be removed much easier due to rapid decomposition. So if one does grab you from the front try grabbing one arm and kick them square in the chest. Hopefully they should become detached from the arm thus giving you a few valuable seconds to flee. Beating the zombie down with his own arm is optional though ill-advised.

Dragan

Just don't set them on fire. It doesn't work half as well as you think it would and then you have burning zombies trying to eat you.

Creature

I would have thought that zombies have higher than human strength? After all they are seen tearing people apart, pulling off limbs etc.

Anyway their greatest weakness is their mindlessness/lack of intelligence.

Feral Mutant

I'd say one of their greatest weaknesses is the whole being dead thing. It means they can't heal. When we get cut or bruised we heal, when they get cut or bruised they stay that way. When we over-stretch a muscle it grows back stronger, when they over-exert they never will again. Give it three to five years and without their cells regenerating, zombies will basically erode.

TomCo

Depends on the type of zombie tbh

Cravez

Dragan wrote: »

Just don't set them on fire. It doesn't work half as well as you think it would and then you have burning zombies trying to eat you.

I would agree, don't want some grilled rotten corpse knawing at me but i do believe that zombie's do not favour fire at all and will try to avoid it if necessary. Those small wieldable propane torches would be ideal to bring along to drive them away from getting any closer to you

I guess it all depends on the type of Zombie we are dealing with. If they are merely re-animated flesh, then severing limbs will just lead to severed limbs coming after you.

Ieatzombies

Deleted User wrote: »

I guess it all depends on the type of Zombie we are dealing with. If they are merely re-animated flesh, then severing limbs will just lead to severed limbs coming after you.

Yeah, but how would arms,legs...etc. turn you undead? I mean, arms could give you a good whacking, but besides that they couldn't bite you. Plz reply!:p

SmileyPaul

I would have actually thought that because they have no pain receptors they can use their full potential of strength, which I've heard is up to 5 times that of a normal person.

Along with the point about fire, I would say any bright or flashing light would totally dazzle them, if there brain works slower than a normal persons (making them seem stupid) that would also include the rate their pupil would close... this should mean that a very bright light will blind them for a lot longer than it would blind a normal person, has this ever been taken into account?
could be interesting

Nerin

woah, a zombie thread on the zombie forum. been waiting a while for this

Micky Dolenz

First thing to remember is they don't feel pain, so the brain has to be destoryed, although cutting one up is fun, if they are able to move they will.

I have found fire an effective weapon against them but you need to keep your distance, as pointed out if you directly set them on fire they will continue to try and eat you, the no pain thing kicks in.

I'm all up for no frills, a heavy object to the skull area is usually enough to put them down permanently.

Mac Masters

Well if Buffy the Vampire Slayer has taught us anything, which it has! The weakness of the undead are hot females who know martial arts and how to kick ass! Fact!

Professey Chin

Dragan wrote: »

Just don't set them on fire. It doesn't work half as well as you think it would and then you have burning zombies trying to eat you.

Youve been training with Burn, Zombie, Burn! also I assume:)

uber gamer

I say let them keep burning(it allows you to see them better).

cyberwolf77

I like taking advantage of their poor sense of balance. Lure them close to a pit of some kind. Knock them in. Shoot fish in barrel.

Sabre0001

If Left4Dead is anything to go by; pipebombs. The beeping noise appears to draw them in...and then ends their existence in a shower of body parts. Quite a beautful sight!

cyberwolf77

True, a radio left playing somewhere is a great way to lure them into the slaughter zone.

X AcT X EviL

Radio + Mounted turret + Zombies = Bloodbath!
Also
Deep pit + High Explosives + Zombies = Big Mess!

cyberwolf77

Try this:
Deep pit+ Acid+Zombies= No more zombies & ease of cleanup.

Olterior

How about
BIG GUN WITH UNLIMITED AMMO + ZOMBIES= OVERKILL ?

X AcT X EviL

Olterior wrote: »

How about
BIG GUN WITH UNLIMITED AMMO + ZOMBIES= OVERKILL ?

Its never overkill with zombies......

ScumLord

I thought we went over all this super human zombie stuff?

First of all and most importantly zombies are dead! Even if their just infected they're still not going to be able to match a humans strength for any length of time. People have argued outside this thread that because they can't feel pain they could reach the full potential of their strength which is false. If they over excert their muscles they will tare the muscle apart, pain discourages the living from doing this but anyone that lifts weights will know about muscle tares.

The dead won't be able to move fast for the same reason. They'll be in a state of decay and unable to regrow any tissue, including muscle. Without food the body will have to devour itself and won't be able to provide the proper substances to sustain the body at peak condition or anywhere close to it.

This is true for infected too, there is no illness that makes you better at anything.

Valmont

TomCo wrote: »

Depends on the type of zombie tbh

There is only one type of zombie, and it doesn't run.

Kareir

ScumLord wrote: »

I thought we went over all this super human zombie stuff?

First of all and most importantly zombies are dead! Even if their just infected they're still not going to be able to match a humans strength for any length of time. People have argued outside this thread that because they can't feel pain they could reach the full potential of their strength which is false. If they over excert their muscles they will tare the muscle apart, pain discourages the living from doing this but anyone that lifts weights will know about muscle tares.

The dead won't be able to move fast for the same reason. They'll be in a state of decay and unable to regrow any tissue, including muscle. Without food the body will have to devour itself and won't be able to provide the proper substances to sustain the body at peak condition or anywhere close to it.

This is true for infected too, there is no illness that makes you better at anything.

So logically, newer Zs are much stronger?

then we could just wait them out for a while, (which in ireland with rain wouldn't be too long.. ) then smash them when they're weak?

Also, Rabies can make you better at something: It means you're not affected by seditives.

_Kar

ScumLord

Kareir wrote: »

So logically, newer Zs are much stronger?

then we could just wait them out for a while, (which in ireland with rain wouldn't be too long.. ) then smash them when they're weak?

Also, Rabies can make you better at something: It means you're not affected by seditives.

_Kar

I would say new zombies would be like drunks, they wouldn't have their full health strength, they may have temporary seemingly superior strength until they damage their muscles at which point they become permanently damaged and weakened.

SmileyPaul

ScumLord wrote: »

I would say new zombies would be like drunks, they wouldn't have their full health strength, they may have temporary seemingly superior strength until they damage their muscles at which point they become permanently damaged and weakened.

thats been my point since I joined this forum, we're going to be looking at sprinters that will quickly turn to shamblers, and once shamblers the decay will slow down too prolonging their existance

Micky Dolenz

What do they say about assuming, it makes an ass of you and makes me dead.

If the infected were sprinters first, they could get a good week out of their bodies and not all people will be infected in week 1, so for the first couple of months there will be freash sprinters.

On another point who's to say how the infection acts on the body, it may preserve flesh and muscle, we just don't know and should be prepared for the worst.

Fail to prepare, prepare to die

SmileyPaul

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

What do they say about assuming, it makes an ass of you and makes me dead.

If the infected were sprinters first, they could get a good week out of their bodies and not all people will be infected in week 1, so for the first couple of months there will be freash sprinters.

On another point who's to say how the infection acts on the body, it may preserve flesh and muscle, we just don't know and should be prepared for the worst.

Fail to prepare, prepare to die

I have the strangest feeling you've gotten those sayings wrong my friend :P
but still..... you make sense! we could be just looking at some sort of rage virus... then we are boned :P

ScumLord

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

What do they say about assuming, it makes an ass of you and makes me dead.

If the infected were sprinters first, they could get a good week out of their bodies and not all people will be infected in week 1, so for the first couple of months there will be freash sprinters.

On another point who's to say how the infection acts on the body, it may preserve flesh and muscle, we just don't know and should be prepared for the worst.

I have some experience with lifting weights and the point of doing that is to over excerpt your muscles which causes micro tares in the muscles, these tares heal back twice as strong which would not happen when your dead, there's also the problem of fueling the muscles where does it get all this energy from? With a complete shut down of the digestive system the only food these zombies will have is them selfs.

The only time I've lifted 100kg plus was at a party off me head, my arms and chest where ****ed for a week afterwards, i didn't feel anything at the time but within an hour or two I was like a rag doll (not recommended I was lucky my heart didn't explode). Zombies without pain to protect their bodies would be ****ed within hours of over excerpting them selfs. I also don't think things like the inner ear will not survive to well after death making complex movement like running impossible.

The human body is complex and even the loss of one of the dual organs will seriously impact it's ability to operate.

Micky Dolenz

They'll get their energy from eating human flesh.

I think it is misleading to discount what a Zed can and can't do, well atleast until after Zed day when they can be observed in their movement and mannerisms.

For starters we have no idea what form of zed they will be. I for one, will not be taking the chance that they will be only shamblers come Z Day.

A much bigger problem than the zeds will be other humans, who will try and steal and kill you after the collaspe of society. My defences will be geared toward human attackers. If it can stand an assult from a group of humans, I would be confident that it would survive an attack from a possibly weaker enemy like zeds.

All I am saying is prepare only for shamblers at your peril.

Valmont

You all may as well prepare for vampires and goblins if you're preparing for sprinters. Zombies don't sprint, the source text behind our devotion to preparation for Z day even says so. If you think zombies run then go and read some of the factual accounts of small outbreaks that are in The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.

The very thing I like about the whole zombie thing is that they don't run and you think that you could outrun, outfight and outsmart them but through sheer tenacity, endurance, and quantity, they can still overwhelm towns and cities.

Running zombies, despite not being very plausible at all, take all the things I love about the zombie thing and throws it out the window, Hollywood style.

Valmont

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

I think it is misleading to discount what a Zed can and can't do, well atleast until after Zed day when they can be observed in their movement and mannerisms.

For starters we have no idea what form of zed they will be. I for one, will not be taking the chance that they will be only shamblers come Z Day.

You need to get your hands on The Zombie Survival Guide ! All these questions have been answered.

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

A much bigger problem than the zeds will be other humans, who will try and steal and kill you after the collaspe of society. My defences will be geared toward human attackers.

This I completely agree with. Once you have settled in and defended against the zombies, you have to worry about bandits.

Micky Dolenz

Valmont,

There's another book written by four dudes who claim they met and saw the son of God, didn't care for that one either

When Zed day arrives we will have no idea how it will affect the human body.
They may be a new breed of zed and I for one am not willing to chance my life on it, are you?

Great if there shamblers cos we can point and laugh at them and poke them with large sticks. However I will be prepared for the worst case scenerio. My defences will be human proof and this should protect me from any hybrid/infected zeds.

ScumLord

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

They'll get their energy from eating human flesh.

There are more problems here, it's been mentioned in a thread before that once your body dies it starts digesting itself. The contents of your stomach and bowels start dissolving through into the abdominal cavity but even assuming this doesn't happen the heart has stopped. How does that food get from the bowels to the muscles? How do the non functioning lungs get oxygen to the inactive heart? The only way I could see human flesh sustaining a zombie would be if it bathed in blood.

I'd say it's more likely the body will go into starvation mode getting all it's energy from it's own tissues, which is a slow process with obvious side effects.

Micky Dolenz

You are assuming how an unknown enemy will operate. If there is a battle readiness manual that would be on the Don't do list.

I am convinced that when Zed day arrives it will be the fault of humans trying to engineer some sort of biological weapon/vaccine/<insert animal name here>Flu strand or super soldier ala 28 days or I am a Leg End.

I hope for my sake you are right and I hope for your sake I am wrong.

Netherless when the day comes I will be prepared for almost any outcome.

SmileyPaul

I've just been thinking about this..... what do butchers use to tear all the dead meat off of a carcass? a proper power hose, could be handy to keep one somwhere once the Z's start decomposing

glennb

what about water no one has said how water will afect them like in dawn of the dead at the end when they went on the boat i no they probley dide but if it was all planned right that you tricked out a ford transit good for nine people to get in and enough tined food and some bottled water you could drive to a river get a few empty boats and out wait the zombies in the middle of the the river and when suplies are out go back to the transit and go back to where you got first suplies from (mine being navan shoping center easy wasy in for humans) and a car park so there will be a transit

ScumLord

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

You are assuming how an unknown enemy will operate. If there is a battle readiness manual that would be on the Don't do list.

I am convinced that when Zed day arrives it will be the fault of humans trying to engineer some sort of biological weapon/vaccine/<insert animal name here>Flu strand or super soldier ala 28 days or I am a Leg End.

I'm not really making wild assumptions I'm using what I know about the facts of nature and laws of physics. It could be an engineered virus or a cocktail of virus and bacteria but the problem with a bioengineered weapon is your hardly going to drop a weapon that makes the enemy smarter and stronger most bio weapons are designed to kill the other side.

Even if they where engineering something to make a super soldier they're not zombies. They're juiced up people that can be killed and that still suffer from all the normal drawbacks to being a living thing. Your describing something similar to someone on steroids, which in a living organism would still see the person a shivering wreak within hours if they're running around like a mad thing.

Mantel

glennb wrote: »

what about water no one has said how water will afect them like in dawn of the dead at the end when they went on the boat i no they probley dide but if it was all planned right that you tricked out a ford transit good for nine people to get in and enough tined food and some bottled water you could drive to a river get a few empty boats and out wait the zombies in the middle of the the river and when suplies are out go back to the transit and go back to where you got first suplies from (mine being navan shoping center easy wasy in for humans) and a car park so there will be a transit

Theories vary slightly but most point to the slow to medium decompositon of the zombies while under water (compaired to a normal non-aminated corpse) Worst case is that animals won't feed on them it's more so the sea water/fresh water acting on them. Which means they roam the bottom of the ocean/sea/lake/river until they break appart. If you drop anchor you better have a guard watching it for Zeds that like to climb.

If your pretty unlucky the Zeds that have been underwater for awhile will bloat up and start to float to the top and then towards your boat.

Xenoronin

A zombies greatest weakness is range. They cannot do much else other than use themselves as weapons as they don't understand how to interact with objects like guns, etc. Keep a nice distance away using ranged weapons and you should be a bit safer.

Anybody thinking about the day/night cycle and how it will affect zombie behaviour?

Micky Dolenz

ScumLord wrote: »

Even if they where engineering something to make a super soldier they're not zombies. They're juiced up people that can be killed and that still suffer from all the normal drawbacks to being a living thing. Your describing something similar to someone on steroids, which in a living organism would still see the person a shivering wreak within hours if they're running around like a mad thing.

It is possible that a super soldier type going horribly wrong, Even Zombies don't constantly go, unless they have something to go after, so there would be rest periods.

If an angry horde of humanoid type non humans are trying to get into my safehouse, I will not wipe my brow and go "thank fcuk there not classic zombies"

When zed day arrives, Facts about human limits and capablities will be throw out the window.

cyberwolf77

SmileyPaul wrote: »

I've just been thinking about this..... what do butchers use to tear all the dead meat off of a carcass? a proper power hose, could be handy to keep one somwhere once the Z's start decomposing

*Makes note to raid firehouse after Z-Day* Thanks for the idea.

ScumLord

I've written out a complete explanation of the zombie virus (as I see it) to explain the stages of the zombification process.

http://irritainment.biz/bowels/node/23

SmileyPaul

ScumLord wrote: »

I've written out a complete explanation of the zombie virus (as I see it) to explain the stages of the zombification process.

http://irritainment.biz/bowels/node/23

dont forget to say how you should NOT incinerate the body, this makes the virus airborn again

ScumLord

SmileyPaul wrote: »

dont forget to say how you should NOT incinerate the body, this makes the virus airborn again

Would the intense heat not kill any living organisms? I didn't really go into what should be done, it's more of a these are the facts you deal with them article.

Valmont

Micky, you're a bit late on the zombie bandwagon. There have been zombie outbreaks, some which are meticulously chronicled in The Zombie Survival Guide. Max Brooks even went so far as to research the disease behind the living dead.

Zombies, by their very definition, as I understand it anyway, do not run or sprint. If a zombie sprints, it isn't a zombie anymore. Having zombies run changes the whole equation of how people think about zombie survival and in my opinion it spoils the fun, mystery, and allure that zombie survival has in the first place.

The running zombie is a very recent invention by Hollywood producers trying to remake old zombie classics by making them more sexy and exciting. If you even watch the original Dawn of the Dead, you'll see that this was a pointless exercise as there was nothing wrong with some of the better older movies.

Here's a good article on the subject
Simon Pegg on real zombies

Even Romero (I suspect his movies are based on some real experience), the father of the zombie genre insists that they don't run:
Romero

Add to this Scumlord's points about the impossibility of zombies actually sprinting and there you have it.

Valmont

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

You are assuming how an unknown enemy will operate.

If it is unknown then why do we have a forum dedicated to discussing survival in the event of a zombie outbreak.

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

If there is a battle readiness manual that would be on the Don't do list.

Argh, there is such a manual. The Zombie Survival Guide !