Boss zombies on ZA-Z, the Knox Heavy and Patient Zero
ZA-Z has two boss zombies, both from our own mod ZA-Z's Essentials. The Knox Heavy is a walking tank: 70 health (a normal zombie has about 2), full body armour, immune to critical hits, and nothing knocks him back or down. Patient Zero is a sprinter in a hospital gown and gas mask who runs 1.6 times faster than any normal sprinter and screams to pull every zombie within 150 tiles onto you. Neither spawns naturally: the chance of meeting one in the wild is zero. They appear only when an admin sets one loose, usually for an event.
#How do I spot a boss zombie?
| Knox Heavy | Patient Zero | |
|---|---|---|
| Looks | Hulking, armoured head to toe: sealed helmet, plate carrier, gorget, spiked pauldrons, arm, thigh, knee and shin plates, military boots | Hospital gown and a gas mask; can be a man or a woman |
| Moves | A heavy run at 80% of sprinter speed | Sprints at 1.6 times sprinter speed |
| Sound | A roar when he locks onto you, then again every 30 seconds while he chases | A scream when it sees you, then every 45 seconds while it can see a player |
| Heard from | Up to 100 tiles away, and up to 17 floors up or down | Up to 100 tiles away, and up to 17 floors up or down |
If you hear either sound, something big is hunting near you.
#Where do boss zombies spawn, and how often?
- Admins only. Bosses are placed by hand, for events. There is no natural spawn chance at all.
- No lookalikes. If the game ever dresses an ordinary zombie in a boss outfit by chance, the server quietly removes it. Any boss you meet is the real thing.
- They stay put until killed. A boss survives server restarts and picks up where it was.
- Distance heals them. If everyone leaves and the area unloads, the boss comes back at full health. Do not try to wear one down over several visits.
#Knox Heavy
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 70 (about 35 normal zombies' worth) |
| Most damage from one hit | 5, so at least 14 hits whatever you use |
| Critical hits | Never land on him |
| Melee damage | 15% of normal |
| Knockback, stagger, knockdown, shove | None. He cannot be turned into a crawler either. |
| His wounds on you | 4 times the normal damage |
| Speed | 80% of a sprinter |
#How do I kill the Knox Heavy?
- Bring guns and plenty of ammo. Melee does 15% damage and a shove does nothing at all. In testing, a Knox Heavy with 100 health took about 100 rifle rounds; he now has 70.
- Aiming skill counts. Your damage per hit still scales with Aiming. It is the critical hit and the knockdown that are gone.
- Fast fire beats big hits. No single hit takes more than 5, so a heavy one-shot weapon is wasted on him. Many hits are what kill him.
- Keep your distance. He does not flinch, so he keeps coming while you shoot. At 80% of sprinter speed, a sprinting survivor can open a gap, but only until your endurance runs out.
- Bring friends. Every shooter's hits count, as long as they are within 60 tiles of him.
- Do not let him touch you. Every wound he lands does four times the damage, and a bite from him is a bite like any other: see the Knox Antidote and the Immune System.
- Finish the job. Walk away and let him unload, and he is back to 70.
The kill counts toward your zombie kills like any other.
#What does the Knox Heavy drop?
His corpse carries 2 boxes of 12g rounds, a box of 5.56x45mm, a box of 9x19mm, a sterilized bandage and a bottle of painkillers, plus every piece of armour he wore:
| Piece | Bite | Scratch | Bullet | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knox Heavy Helm | 100 | 100 | 100 | 0.5 | Full helmet; no vision or hearing penalty; never falls off |
| Knox Heavy Plate Carrier | 30 | 30 | 24 | 9.0 | |
| Knox Heavy Gorget | 100 | 100 | 14 | 1.0 | |
| Knox Heavy Pauldron (left, right) | 100 | 100 | 14 | 3.0 each | Spiked; slows your swing 5 to 10% |
| Knox Heavy Vambrace (left, right) | 30 | 55 | 14 | 1.0 each | Slows your swing 3 to 5% |
| Knox Heavy Thigh Plate (left, right) | 30 | 55 | 14 | 1.0 each | Running speed x0.9 |
| Knox Heavy Knee Guard (left, right) | 30 | 50 | 14 | 0.5 each | Running speed x0.97 |
| Knox Heavy Greave (left, right) | 30 | 55 | 14 | 1.0 each | Running speed x0.9 |
| Knox Heavy Codpiece | 100 | 100 | 14 | 1.0 | Running speed x0.97 |
| Knox Heavy Fatigues | 20 | 30 | 0 | 3.0 | Boiler suit; running speed x0.9 |
| Military Boots | vanilla | vanilla | vanilla | vanilla | Standard army boots |
The helm is the trophy:
Taken off a Knox Heavy. Stops teeth, nails and bullets, and you still see and hear everything.
The set weighs 27.5 before the boots and every leg piece slows your running, so most survivors keep the helm and the pieces that suit them.
#Patient Zero
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 6 (about three normal zombies' worth) |
| Speed | 1.6 times a normal sprinter |
| Scream | Every 45 seconds while it can see a player; pulls every zombie within 150 tiles toward it |
| Hits | Taken the normal way: critical hits, knockdowns and staggers all work |
| Drops | Only what it wears: a hospital gown and a gas mask (no filter) |
#How do I kill Patient Zero?
Fast. It is fragile next to the Knox Heavy, but you cannot outrun it, and every scream drags in the zombies for 150 tiles around. Knock it down and finish it in melee, or put a few rounds into it the moment it shows up. Then move: the horde its last scream called is already on its way, and your gunshots only add to it.
For what else is out there to find, see Loot.