The Zombies

The real stars of the show are the zombies. They’re dead, they’re unhappy, and they won’t stop until you’re history.

Waves

Zombies appear in conveniently numbered waves. While some of the more specialized zombies may have set points at which they appear (for example, a bunch of Bombers appear when you open the gate to the Salt Mines) regardless of what wave you’re on, they become a regular fixture of each wave after the wave in which they initially appear.

In each successive wave, the zombies get incrementally tougher, more of them appear, and more zombie varieties make an appearance at once. Wave 12 is where things begin to get seriously dangerous. Plan to have accumulated at least a couple of upgrades by that point.

After completing a wave, dead characters are revived, downed characters get back on their feet, and all characters receive a grenade if space allows.

In addition, the more powerful zombies may sometimes appear in conjunction with a new wave. If you don’t kill them, they will stick around even after the wave ends. As you move on to later waves, it also becomes more likely that you’ll run into “jump scare” zombies. These creatures will spring out of the ground or drop from the sky at any time.

Types

There are five types of “typical” zombies. In general, they wait to spawn as part of a standard wave until you either reach a set point of progress, or you reach a specific wave — whichever comes first.

Wicht

WAVE: 1

STRENGTHS: NUMBERSWEAKNESSES: HEADSHOTS

The most commonly encountered enemies in Nazi Zombies are the classic zombies, known as the Wichts. These standard variety are quite predictable, slow (although many can jog), and easy to kill. When fighting them alone, they’re simple to defeat, although many have a bad habit of popping up out of nowhere in your blind spot. It’s important to note, however, that they’re lethal in packs.

As a general rule, if it looks like a zombie could hide in an object, assume they can. Zombies can spawn from any window, doorway, crawlspace, or pile of snow in the game world. If they’re completely out of options, they may just spring up from the ground or fall out of the sky. Zombies are very fond of creative ambush tactics.

Pest

WAVE: 5

STRENGTHS: FAST, SMALL, HARD TO HITWEAKNESSES: LOW HEALTH

When you get right down to it, arms really just slow you down. Real go-getters like the Pests ditch those extraneous limbs in exchange for raw speed. In a footrace, they’re about as fast as a normal player character (not upgraded) moving at a full sprint. They’re also quite adept at ducking underneath your field of vision. They have very little health even in later waves, but have a much faster attack speed than other zombies and can drop a player in seconds.

Pests comprise every fifth wave of zombies. With this information in mind, set up in an appropriate area ahead of time and establish a clear field of fire. As a reward for surviving these “pest” waves, you receive a free Taschen Voll power-up, which refills your grenades and ammunition.

Pests also comprise a significant number of the zombies in every wave after the fifth one. You can often hear them well before you see them, as they’re constantly surrounded by buzzing insects.

Wüstling

WAVE: 8

STRENGTHS: HIGH DAMAGE, QUICK LUNGES, HIGH HEALTH

WEAKNESSES: SLOW WALKING SPEED, BACKSIDE

Wüstlings, the big sluggers of the zombie world, appear as part of waves, but technically aren’t connected to them. You don’t need to defeat them to consider the wave “over;” in fact, don’t feel obligated to do so. They’re only worth 200 Jolts and it takes a lot of punishment to kill one on your own (two players or more can bring them down quickly using focused fire).

If you see a Wüstling drop to one knee (it looks like a stun animation), it signals that they’re warming up to attack in a headlong charge. This attack ends in a shattering, overhead blow with their bludgeon arm and can cause an insane amount of damage. It’s possible for a clean hit from the Wüstling’s bludgeon to deplete a character’s entire health bar.

Try to attack them from behind. The open wound on their backside is their weak point. Shooting it is a damage multiplier that’s more effective than standard headshots. It’s a bad idea to attack them from the front because this enemy has damage resistance against frontal attacks, with the exception of rockets.

Bomber

WAVE: 9

STRENGTHS: SURPRISINGLY SNEAKY, HIGH-DAMAGE EXPLOSIONSWEAKNESSES: BOMB

The first clue that a Bomber is on the scene happens when he blows up in your face. The Bomber is a flesh-crafted nightmare with several extraneous arms attached to a second head, all of which are devoted to keeping an aerial bomb held in position on its back. A Bomber will charge and detonate the shell when given the chance, inflicting massive damage to you and anyone within the blast radius.

A typical Bomber is slow and ungainly. If one attacks from medium range, it’s trivial to take him out before he can detonate. The bomb will explode if the player deals enough damage to it or if the player shoots the bomb directly at most four times. This means even hopelessly underpowered weapons can trigger the bomb.

In addition, a Bomber likes to sneak in behind the Wichts and Pests, so you may not see him until it’s too late.

If you kill a Bomber without setting off his bomb, the shell remains present in the world until something sets it off. Once Bombers become a regular feature of zombie waves, you can expect to find unexploded shells strewn randomly throughout the map. It takes more than one shot to set off a shell; try to use them as improvised mines!

On rare occasions, you may also encounter a Bomber’s more benevolent cousin, the Treasure Zombie. The secret to the Treasure Zombie’s appearance has yet to be learned…

Brenner

WAVE: 10

STRENGTHS: NEARLY INVINCIBLEWEAKNESSES: GIANT FUEL TANKS ON HIS BACK, RELATIVELY SHORT RANGE

Much like the Bomber, the first clue that a Brenner has entered the fray is that your entire screen is suddenly a roaring sheet of fire.

Effectively the “minibosses” of Nazi Zombies, a Brenner is a major threat that requires coordination and sustained firepower. You can kill a Brenner with direct damage to its front, but it takes a lot of firepower to bring one down. In the meantime, he’s unleashing his wrist-mounted flamethrowers all over the map. Nukes and Shellshock are effective against him, but that’s the best you can hope for.

If he’s distracted, you can target the weak point on the Breener: the fuel tanks on his back. Target them to cause a brief explosion of flame. Keep hitting him there and eventually the tanks will explode and set him on fire, which also disarms his flamethrowers.

Make use of distraction techniques (like Frontline) to control where a Brenner is aiming, stay one step ahead of him, and make him your top priority until he’s dead. It’s important to note that another weak point is their lack of effective range. A Brenner is fast enough to stay on top of you, but his flamethrowers are barely more than melee weapons. If you end up at long range from a Brenner, there isn’t much he can do besides charge.

When a Brenner dies, it drops its head as an item that you can equip. Unlike most equipment in the game, Brenner Heads remain where they are dropped until they’re moved.

As a weapon, the Brenner Head is virtually useless, although there’s a certain fun to be had in beating a zombie to death with the skull of another zombie. However, Brenner Heads are the key to unlocking the later secrets in Nazi Zombies…