Zombies

The Zombies are a Game Mechanic unique to The Nemesis, as well as non-player Characters, that were implemented into Dead by Daylight in Patch 5.0.0.

Overview

The Zombies, a female and a male one, spawn only in Trials against The Nemesis.

They roam freely about the Trial Grounds and provide intelligence to The Nemesis, as he can read their Auras at all times.

If they come across a Survivor, they will start to pursue them until the Survivor manages to lose or destroy them or the Zombies are successful in contaminating, then injuring, and finally downing the chased Survivor.

Behaviours

Roaming the Realm

By default, the Zombies roam freely, but aimlessly about the Trial Grounds.
This state is indicated with their arms hanging by their side their shambling gait.

In this state, the Zombies have no special use other than informing The Nemesis that there is seemingly no Survivor in the Zombie's immediate vicinity.

Investigating Noise

If nearby Survivors (<6 metres) make noise (i.e. repairing a Generator) or cause Loud Noise Notifications, the Zombies will begin to investigate the source of the commotion if they are within range, but have no direct line of sight of the perpetrators.
It should be noted that Aura-Flare-ups are ignored by the Zombies, unless they are accompanied by a scream, which is considered a Loud Noise.

This state is indicated with the Zombies moving more quickly and with more direction, shambling significantly less, but still with their arms hanging by their side.

The following Loud Noise Notifications trigger this state:

• Performing rushed actions:
  • dropping a Pallet or vaulting it at fast speed
  • vaulting a Window at medium or fast speed
  • entering or exiting a Locker at fast speed
• failed Skill Checks
• sabotaging Hooks
• unhooking other Survivors
• completing a Generator
• accruing three Stillness Crows
• triggering certain Notification Perks:
  • Deception
  • Discordance
  • Diversion
  • Eruption
  • Hoarder
  • No Way Out
  • Red Herring
  • Scourge Hook: Hangman's Trick
  • Spies from the Shadows
  • Tinkerer
  • any Perks causing Survivors to scream, creating a Loud Noise
• triggering explosions with Items:
  • Firecrackers
  • Flash Grenades

It is possible for this state to override an on-going Chase of another Survivor.

Chasing Survivors

If an idling or investigating Zombie sees a Survivor within their Detection range (<14 metres) and within their Field of View (±95 ° from the centre), they will initiate a Chase and actively pursue the Survivor in an attempt to attack them.
The Zombies will continue to pursue a Survivor until their attention is drawn away with a nearby Loud Noise Notification or the Survivor manages to lose line of sight or gain enough distance from the Zombie for them to lose interest.

This state is indicated with raised arms.

Attacking Survivors

The Zombies can attack any Survivor, if they come within striking distance and will do so repeatedly if the Survivor stays within range.
There are two scenarios of what happens on an attack:

1. A Survivor who is not contaminated with the T-Virus will become Contaminated upon being hit, but not take any other damage, regardless of their current Health State.
2. A Survivor who is Contaminated with the T-Virus will take damage upon being hit.
   Repeated hits will result in the Survivor going down.

Attacking a Survivor causes Zombies to shrink their hitbox, allowing Survivors to slip past them.
This is to prevent Survivors from getting cornered too easily.

Attack values:

• Attack Open time: 0.2 seconds
• Attack Hit time: 1.3 seconds
• Attack Cool-down time: 0.5 seconds

Zombies can only ever deal 1 Health State worth of damage per hit and do not apply double-damage on Exposed Survivors.

Losing Line of Sight

Zombies will lose line of sight when Survivors enter Lockers, even when doing it right in front of them.
This will also happen if they are blinded or the Survivors gains too much distance (>20 metres) to them or breaks line of sight long enough.

Interactions

The Nemesis

The Nemesis can interact with the Zombies by hitting them with his fist or his Tentacle.
Both actions will disintegrate the Zombie and cause it to respawn below a random Hook after 12 seconds.

Destroying a Zombie using the Tentacle will also fill his Power Gauge a bit.

Survivors

Survivors can blind a Zombie using Flashlights, Firecrackers or Flash Grenades, which stuns them for 15 seconds in addition to the default Stun time of the Item used.
This will also cause them to lose line of sight.

Survivors can disintegrate a Zombie by stunning it with a Pallet or using a Stun Perk such as Head On on them, which will cause it to respawn below a random Hook after 45 seconds.

Miscellaneous Values

• Initial Spawn delay: 12 seconds
  • This refers to how long it takes after loading into a Trial for the Zombies to spawn.
• Destruction animation: 3 seconds
• Spawn animation: 3 seconds
• Blind Stun timer: 15 seconds
• Fall height threshold: 0.5 metres
  • This refers to how far a Zombie must drop to be considered falling.
• Fall Stun timer: 3.43 seconds
• Idle timer: 1.5 seconds
  • This refers to how long Zombies idle before starting to patrol after (re-)spawning.

Trivia

• It is a common phenomenon amongst Nemesis Mains to give the Zombies a unique name (as they have no official one) and to refer to them by those names during Trials, especially when praising them for successfully attacking a Survivor.
• The Zombies generally only walk at their maximum speed of 1 m/s when investigating or chasing a Survivor, walking more slowly when in their idle state.
• The female Zombie is voiced by Roxana BL, the male Zombie by David AB.
• It is possible to spot the spawn Hook of one Zombie under specific circumstances.
  • Zombies are loaded into the Trial like Survivors, spawning them above ground at their spawn Hook.
    When the Trial begins, the Game teleports the Zombies below ground.
    Since the teleportation command is not initiated until The Nemesis' camera panning elapses, it is possible to spot an above-ground-Zombie during one's own camera panning, and, for Survivors, potentially for a second or two after theirs has elapsed, due to the fact that the camera panning is not synced across all Players.

Gallery

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  Zombie Detection Radius and Angles visualised.