All Zombie Types In The Last Of Us Explained

Fans have seen The Last of Us zombies in all their glory, each with different characteristics and designs. Based on the 2013 Naughty Dog video game, the series stars Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Ellie. The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic story after the breakout of a mutant Cordyceps fungal infection devastates the United States, turning most of the population into mindless zombies called “the Infected.” The Cordyceps work by engulfing humans and transforming them into unrecognizable monsters.

The Cordyceps zombies grow in stages. Those that have most recently been infected look comparatively human, and those that are a few weeks past infection have growths. Each successive stage involves the zombie becoming more and more fungus-like until it looks nothing like the original host. While Joel and Ellie facing The Last of Us zombies provided lots of excitement in the series, The Last of Us never uses the term “zombies.” However, they maintained their video game representation.

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Stage 1: Runners

Two Days – Two Weeks

When someone is first infected by the Cordyceps fungal virus, after two days, the infection reaches their brain, and they become The Last of Us zombie known as a “Runner.” At this point, the Infected lose their hair and develop lesions across their body. The eyes of the victims are the first to go, leading to zombies with poor eyesight but who retain their other human senses, resulting in a horribly uncanny version of the infected human.

The one unknown is what stage the brains of the infected individuals are in. These are the zombies that viewers see in the premiere episode of the HBO series. Joel and Ellie faced off with these zombies more often than almost any other since they were the ones that attacked as soon as they turned, so they were there to attack at any given moment when someone was infected.

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Stage 2: Stalker

Two Weeks – One Year

Soon after the initial stages of the Cordyceps infection, The Last of Us zombies enter the next stage and become “Stalkers.” They are the most horrific form of zombie in The Last of Us because while they have a large fungal infection erupting from their head, usually half their face is left intact and the rest of the body is decidedly human. The Stalker is as fast as a Runner, about the same as a normal human but even more aggressive.

They plan their attacks, hiding away until their prey gets close to ambush them, hence their name. In the premiere, Joel and Tess find a Stalker who has grown into the wall. They approached Tess in the second season and almost killed Ellie and Riley in the seventh season, and they proved to be way more dangerous than the Runners.

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Stage 3: Clicker

One Year – Several Years

By the time the Cordyceps had infected a human host for over a year, they barely looked human except for their human arms and legs. At this third stage of infection, The Last of Us zombies are known as “Clickers” and their human heads have been completely engulfed by grotesque fungal growths. Clickers get their name from the “clicking” noises they use to echolocate and move around obstacles and find prey since the infection blinds them.

This clicking noise is one of the signature sounds of the franchise, and Joel, Tess, and Ellie run into two of them at the abandoned museum in Boston. This is where they realized how dangerous these zombies, as when they see a human, they go berserk and won’t stop until they kill or are killed by their victims. It takes a good gun or a Molotov cocktail to take one out.

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Final Stage: Bloater

Several Years After Infection

If one of The Last of Us zombies survives long enough, it becomes a “Bloater.” These hulking creatures are the most dangerous stage of the Infected and are completely covered in the Cordyceps fungus to the point that it is essentially armor, and incredibly difficult to penetrate without fire. Bloaters are much slower than the earlier stages, and their echolocation abilities have dulled because of the extent of the fungal infection, but they are superhumanly strong.

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Last Of Us’ Zombie Hive Mind Makes The Infected Scarier Than The Games

The Last of Us episode 2 introduced one of the first major changes from the original game in the form of tendrils, a terrifying hive-mind-like aspect.

This monstrous zombie is rare and particularly dangerous. The Bloaters made their first appearance in The Last of Us season 1, episode 5, and there is almost no way to beat them. When it rose from the fire, it was almost indestructible, and that is what makes them different from the Shamblers, which have yet to make their first appearance but are easier to kill than Bloaters.

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Final Stage Variation: Shambler

Several Years After Infection

An Infected zombie that survives several years in a wet environment becomes a “Shambler” rather than a Bloater. The two are similar in appearance, but a Shambler’s fungal infection has frozen the host’s mouth open wide so that it cannot bite to spread the infection. Instead, they release explosive bursts of spores out of acidic pustules covering their bodies. The Last of Us chose not to include Shamblers in season 1 of the series.

With them not appearing until the second video game, there is a chance they make their debut in the second season. This is one of two Last of Us zombies who have yet to appear in the series, with the only other one the anomaly variation that has most fans excited for its arrival.

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Anomaly Variation: The Rat King

The Final Version

As a fungal infection, the behavior of the Cordyceps virus will take on some unbelievable and horrifying appearances throughout The Last of Us series. In some certain cases, the evolution of the infection can result in a unique zombie monstrosity. “The Rat King” from The Last of Us Part II is one of these anomalies. This creature formed decades after the outbreak of the virus and is the result of the Infected growing into each other to form a giant Infected The Last of Us zombie.

If this zombie appears on the show in later seasons, it will no doubt be the greatest threat Joel and Ellie have to face. The Rat King is a horrifying zombie that The Last of Us will have to wait a season or two to show while showrunners build the characters, outline the story, and populate the world. This is clearly one that Joel and Elle have never seen, at least not in the series.

How Often Do Joel & Ellie Encounter Each Type?

The Runners are the zombies appearing the earliest in the first season of The Last of Us. They appear for the first time in the season premiere and attack Joel with blazingly fast speed. They are also the ones that show up often since they are the freshly changed. Joel even mentions to Ellie in the fifth episode that it isn’t sure if the real person is still inside once anyone changes into a Runner.

As for the Stalkers, they show up in the second episode and are not finished there. Ellie and her friend Riley come across one of them in the seventh episode, and Ellie was actually able to kill one with a knife, but she took some bites before she could end its life. The Clickers also make their first appearance in the second episode of the series when Joel, Ellie, and Tess make their way through an abandoned museum. The first Bloater appears in the fifth episode and seems almost indestructible.

While the Shamblers haven’t shown up yet, the fans are mostly anxious to see The Last of Us zombie, The Rat King, although there is likely no one in the series who will be happy when they show up.

The Last Of Us

8/10

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Directors

Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado

Writers

Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin