Overview[1]
12 (Walker); 18 (Runner); >5 (Runner); 6 DPS (Walker); 10 DPS (Runner; 1.5s, 0.6s between hits (Runner); Cloudy Night; deposit: 1 Bone Fragment Basic Zombies are two separate entities in Dead Rails.
Basic Zombies are one of two different entities, which are Zombie Walker and Zombie Runner. They have glowing yellow eyes when alive that go out if they are killed. Friendly Zombies (obtained through Eggslinger, Jade items, or Primordial Soup) have green eyes instead of yellow eyes. Each one uses one of three different outfits, which are: A ripped white shirt with ripped black pants and overalls. A ripped black shirt with ripped black pants and a ripped brown apron. And a ripped brown shirt with ripped black pants and a beige bow tie. Walker Zombies are the more basic type, with their behavior shared with Armored and Banker Zombies. They are very slow and have a higher attack cooldown. Runner Zombies are faster than Walker Zombies and attack significantly more often, allowing them to deal greater damage over time to targets in range. They stumble erratically from side to side when chasing a player, slowing them down but making it harder to land headshots on them.
Stats
- Attackrange
- 5 (Walker) >5 (Runner)
- Behavior
- Hostile
- Blood
- Zombie Blood
- Category
- Zombies, Basic Zombies
- Deposit
- 1 Bone Fragment
- Fuel
- 100/2400
- Hp
- 100
- Location
- Towns Cloudy Night
- Sell
- Unsellable
- Top speed
- 12 (Walker) 18 (Runner)
- Test
- 1.2s
- Cd
- 2.5s, 0.4s between hits (Walker) 1.5s, 0.6s between hits (Runner)
- Damage
- * 7.5 per hit (2 hits per attack) * 6 DPS (Walker) * 10 DPS (Runner
- Dmg
- 7.5 per hit (2 hits per attack) 6 DPS (Walker) 10 DPS (Runner
Mechanics
When a zombie spawns in, they will spawn in sleeping (unless spawned by the Cloudy Night). They may be woken up by the following things: Taking damage. A player or friendly entity getting very close to one. (Very small radius) A player sprinting nearby. (Small radius) Dragging an object towards them (Small radius) A moving Train. (Variable radius depending on speed) A shot from a Crossbow. (Medium radius) A shot from a Ranged Weapon. (Large radius) Explosions. (Large radius) Upon waking up, they will chase the closest player or friendly unit after a short delay. They are able to climb onto the Train or on top of most buildings. It takes a short moment for them to fully climb onto or drop down from something.
Strategy
Melee weapons that deal 45 damage at full charge can take out sleeping zombies before they fully wake up. Simply approach them with a full charge, do a second hit at full charge, and finish off with two uncharged hits or one partially charged hit. Since they are slower than players, they can be easily grouped up for AOE attacks. You can intentionally shoot a gun and kite the enemies until they are together. Make sure to account for the different speeds of Runners and Walkers. If the Train has fuel, you can lure them onto the tracks ahead of the Train itself, sprint back to the Train before the zombies catch up and run them all over at once. Although this comes with the downside of creating lots of lag, it should provide enough fuel to completely fill the tank and won't consume any resources overall. To eliminate the lag, burn the corpses (even if full on fuel). Never go inside buildings when being chased by many zombies. Getting cornered will likely result in death. Banks are an exception since jumping on top of the divider breaks their pathfinding, pausing the chase. Note that they may sometimes jump onto the roof and attack through it. Shooting guns in a Town is discouraged without AOE weapons since it will alert nearly every zombie there, forcing you to move quickly or take them out one at a time. Take out Miner and Sheriff Zombies from outside the zombies' gun detection radius before raiding Towns. You can also use Miner Zombies as a weapon by kiting them into groups of Zombies. Zombies seem to prefer jumping onto the front side of trains.
Patch history
As of 28/3/2026, Sprinter Zombies haven't been added despite developers stating they have added them. This is a similar situation with the Alpha Werewolf and formerly the Spear. It is possible Sprinters have been scrapped and merged with Runners since developers mentioned that Sprinters would be the ones that attack multiple times. In fact, sprinter zombies do exist, but they aren't a type of zombie; rather, they're a zombie mechanic. Whenever you try to escape a zombie using a train, it starts sprinting. Zombies had to have a more simplistic design upon release, having green limbs and a brown torso. Before Update 31/1/2026, zombies had very simple walking animations with their hands out in front. Zombies used to have no line of sight or sleeping mechanics. This meant that as soon as you entered their range they would walk towards the closest player. Category:Entities Category:Hostile Entities Category:Zombies
