Zombie hulk/doc

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The information present here is from 0.D (Danny) and might not apply to the current version of CDDA.

Zombies may evolve, and many of the later evolutions are extremely deadly; even there, however, the Hulk is the deadliest zombie in all of the game - and it can be seen even when the player begins the game. However, it does become more common as all the zombies evolve; this is why you always train your combat skills and kill as many zombies as you can before this happens, and bring heavy artillery to later cities you encounter...

This monster will easily splatter weaker characters and even stronger characters will still have trouble. A powerful firearm or a fast and heavy vehicle can help, as can good melee skills. Despite its bulk, it can still be stunned and knocked back just fine. A tazer can very easily stun the Hulk, leaving it vulnerable to quite a few uninterrupted gunshots, this is one of the Hulk's greatest weaknesses.

Can smash you away. Take stimulating meds to keep your speed and dexterity high to prevent high damage from being smashed. Never stand between a hulk and a strong obstacle, as getting smashed into obstacles hurts way more than just being smashed away. Note that the smash attack takes a while (20 turns) to recharge and costs 400 move points.

Hulks will attack monsters in their way. This is mostly a gimmick later in the game, as a hulk's regular attack is weaker, slower, and less accurate than a late-game survivor's fists, and the hulk will only smash the player.

Avoiding contact

If you have located it before it locates you, you can also try to lure it into traps (particularly spiked pits) or a raging fire. As a zombie, it will fall into every single pit it encounters, no matter how obvious it is. The Hulk is significantly faster than a drugless survivor and will destroy terrain in its path, so retreat can be tricky. Vehicles make great obstacles as hulks haven't (yet) learned how to fling them like L4D Tanks do.

Killing in melee

With high enough melee skills, you don't even need dexterity or dodging to not get hit. In order to strike first, you want to stand 2 tiles from the hulk and use the wait command. Wait command makes you wait exactly till the start of the next turn and hulk can move at most 2 tiles in a turn. Due to the way move points accumulate, stepping away at lower (than the hulk's) speed isn't as reliable as waiting. Using a fast and accurate weapon (possibly just fists) combined with something like the Power Hit technique (from Brawling martial art; unlocked at lvl 5 unarmed, but works with weapons) will make it much more likely you'll stun and knock back the hulk, preventing it from ever taking a move while standing next to you.