Lets talk Demolisher Zombie Theory-Tips-Ideas-Fixes?

[Pichii]

So, lets try to keep griping to a minimum here. If you have a complaint about it, lets try to throw out a solution too.

 

*Theory*

Demolisher Zed has ALOT of tanky attributes to get that bomb to you. Also, due to the 800 entity explosion damage, and high physical damage resistance, this is one big bad dude.

He is also fully immune to spikes.

 

So then, how do we go about planning and killing these big boys?

Well, id say sniper nests are gona do big wonders to him and targeting priority is now Demolisher->Cops->Weights

But, that seems pretty straight forward. How do we kill THEM without our bases getting blown up!?

Well, due to the 5,000 hp damage to blocks, this means there is only ONE material in the game that we can craft that is capable of taking a demolisher blast.

Reinforced steel concrete. With 7,500HP and MASSIVE explosion resistance, its the ONLY block that has a chance of withstanding such a blast.

That means that your interior kill floor/area must be totally encased from the inside with reinforced steel.

Reinforced steel in A18 only takes steel and concrete blocks so eyy! We have that going for us!

Another option if you are the trappy type is to have skill jump and run a electric wire across the jump so that when they jump, they fall into a spinning blade trap and get destroyed without blowing up.

 

I see no other real solution to these zeds as far as base defence goes. (Electric fences just wont kill him before he explodes)

 

*Ideas for fixes*

This zed spawns WAY too early for how much damage he does and materials it takes to prepare to defend against this monstrosity. You cant damage him to death with any trap expect blade and if we use turrets hell just eat up all that ammo and maybe explode anyway.

Game Stage 100ish is REALLY early for such a monster and I highly suggest GS 150, 200 for this guy so people have a chance to save their stuff unless your goal is to force everyone to bypass raids later game till they get a 2nd raid base started.

He should spawn RIGHT before bosses have the ability to spawn. He NEEDS to be a late game check, not a early one.

I could also see having some fun as having these be SLEEPER zombies and not Blood moon zombies till LATE game stage.

 

Thoughts all?

[RipClaw]

A combination of dart traps, blade traps and electric fences does a lot of damage. However, the blade traps should not be placed at head height as they can trigger the explosion. The dart traps must be placed behind arrow slits to avoid damage in case of an explosion. The electric fences are only to stun the demolisher so that the other traps can do their job.

 

The difficulty is to sort out the other zombies beforehand as the blade traps wore out over time and may not last all night if they are used against other zombies.

 

Two sections with traps will be necessary. The first section consists only of electric fences and dart traps. These are sufficient to kill the weaker zombies. In the second section blade traps are added. This should not put so much strain on them.

 

If you have a clear view of the outer areas of the base you could use barbed wire to slow down the zombies. So you could try to kill the demolisher with a sniper rifle and some head shots.

[Kattla]

Headshots with a rocket launcher helps. It did not trigger the countdown the ones i tried it with. And the rocketlauncher can be modded with a 2x scope for better aiming, although, prepare to miss a couple shots. Maybe, just maybe, the rocketlauncher is good for something else then selling.

 

And like RipClaw says, electric fences are good for stunning him.

Blade traps have too high a chance to trigger the countdown.

Turrets, even when shooting it from behind also have too high a chance to trigger the countdown.

Dart traps shooting him in the back while stunned in electric fence are good for single demolisher, but imo not good enough for true horde defense. Still, could weaken him before shooting him with AP rounds or rockets.

[Onarr]

Personally my tactic is build several layers of defense. He blows up first, i retreat to another and so on. For now I play with 3 layers, Iam on day 46 and have not encountered him yet

[USSF06]

I haven't had a problem after two horde nights with demolishers present.

 

I learned after the first horde night that I damn sure wanted them dead before reaching my base. I just finished the second (Day 42) horde and I'm happy to say not a single zed reached my horde base. It is very simple, one of the oldest designs. Just a cage surrounded by about 8 rows of spikes.

 

Whenever a Demolisher appeared, I would take out the M60 and rip him apart. If his bomb triggered before he came close, I'd just let him detonate. I had one that triggered at my first row of spikes, but I just kept hitting him with the M60 until he died (which disables the bomb, for some reason).

 

I find the cops and vultures far more annoying due to ranged attack, but the demolisher definitely gets all of the attention when he shows up.

[Kattla]

Thoughts all?

 

Perhaps double the time for the countdown.

It has a high damage when it blows up, yes, but it do make upgrading to steel more urgent.

 

edit: I don't think it would be nice to have the demolisher as a sleeper. 1, it destroys to much if exploding inside, and 2, it is quite easy to lure it out and then just blow it up on the streets.

[ChJees]

Maybe if the Demolisher has a sound cue so that we easily can identify it. Much like the Tank had one in Left 4 Dead.

[RipClaw]

Maybe if the Demolisher has a sound cue so that we easily can identify it. Much like the Tank had one in Left 4 Dead.

 

He makes different sounds than other zombies and he has a green light on his chest so you can see him even in the dark. However, he runs just like all other zombies on horde night. So it's not easy to spot him before he reaches the base.

[Kattla]

Logicly, i should aim for their heads, but at the moment i find their legs safer to shoot.

 

Disclaimer: Video is only about 3 demolishers at a time. Not a horde video, sorry.

[Ghostlight]

Another option if you are the trappy type is to have skill jump and run a electric wire across the jump so that when they jump, they fall into a spinning blade trap and get destroyed without blowing up.

 

Are you saying that a Demolisher falling vertically onto a blade trap will be killed and his bomb not triggered? I don't think that's the case.

 

Anyway the absolute easiest way to deal with it is to ride around all night on a Bike. Way to go devs.

 

Also agree he comes too early. In single player it's been OK but with GS weighting in multiplayer we had them on day 21 horde and the base was breached. Far far too early to have a decent Steel kill box to contain it.

[HungryZombie]

Are you saying that a Demolisher falling vertically onto a blade trap will be killed and his bomb not triggered? I don't think that's the case.

 

Anyway the absolute easiest way to deal with it is to ride around all night on a Bike. Way to go devs.

 

Also agree he comes too early. In single player it's been OK but with GS weighting in multiplayer we had them on day 21 horde and the base was breached. Far far too early to have a decent Steel kill box to contain it.

 

You can already turn off bloodmoons entirely s why is avoiding them by riding a bike all night a big deal?

[Scyris]

Headshots with a rocket launcher helps. It did not trigger the countdown the ones i tried it with. And the rocketlauncher can be modded with a 2x scope for better aiming, although, prepare to miss a couple shots. Maybe, just maybe, the rocketlauncher is good for something else then selling.

 

And like RipClaw says, electric fences are good for stunning him.

Blade traps have too high a chance to trigger the countdown.

Turrets, even when shooting it from behind also have too high a chance to trigger the countdown.

Dart traps shooting him in the back while stunned in electric fence are good for single demolisher, but imo not good enough for true horde defense. Still, could weaken him before shooting him with AP rounds or rockets.

 

I'm more intersted in the lore behind the demo zombie, like who rigged a damn zombie with a suicide vest, heavy armor and a hair trigger n the explosives in the first place?

 

Also do not underestimate electric fence poles, they aren't used for damage, they are used to stun, while you shoot or melee them, or have traps go at them. a motionless target is a easy target usually. Then again we got players who can't hit the broad side of a barn from 20 yards at times.

 

I however do think that if it doesn't already exist in the game, when a demolisher spawns, it should alert the player in some way, so the player knows to get on the roof and find him and snipe him before he gets close. Preferably have them spawn farther away than normal zombies. as 5000 block damage is bloody insane. However the way explosions work in 7dtd, the only blocks that will take the full damage are the ones hes right beside, each block of distance reduces explosion damage by a percentage. If your 4+ blocks away from the explosion it'll probally do little damage to you or blocks usually. I think he'll get tones down some eventually, 2000 block dmg on the explosion is still pretty high, but not so stupidly high that its near impossible to deal with. As for steel, I;m on day 15 or 16 in my current dead is dead warrior game and just found teh crucible schematic at a trader. I have 0 in int only int perk I have is adv engineering level 1 and the main reason I even have that is for the crafting speed increase, as my trader has a working forge I could have otherwise used. I got a chem lab in my base I bought off the trader for 7200 or so got a cement mixer for 4500 too (I got the cigar so 10% discount), but I still do not have a workbench in my base, but there is a poi nearby that has one I can use, so I just use that one. I'll eventually find the schematic or a trader (there is 3 by my base within 1-1.5km) will sell one I can buy or the schematic.

[pApA^LeGBa]

Fully immune to spikes? You gotta be kidding me. Worst kind of trying to create a challenge imo. How about they stop spraying us with ammo and guns from day one and put the forge way back to unlock. No need to create stupid zombies for challenge then.

[Synvastian]

I'm more interested in the lore behind the demo zombie, like who rigged a damn zombie with a suicide vest, heavy armor and a hair trigger n the explosives in the first place?

 

The Duke maybe? Seems the type just from the whole "dumping us naked in the wilds" maybe he was a brawler type NPC that the Duke let turn (no idea how just a theory) and released with a bomb vest as a joke

 

Demo zombies are fun for me as a melee only fist character XD (not really, dear lord trying to kill one is a nightmare and a half) Ended up letting the whole horde die to traps and waited for morning to kite his butt around while I jabbed his head and ran away between swings

[myrkana]

Are you saying that a Demolisher falling vertically onto a blade trap will be killed and his bomb not triggered? I don't think that's the case.

 

Anyway the absolute easiest way to deal with it is to ride around all night on a Bike. Way to go devs.

 

Also agree he comes too early. In single player it's been OK but with GS weighting in multiplayer we had them on day 21 horde and the base was breached. Far far too early to have a decent Steel kill box to contain it.

 

its not too early. We just had day 28 horde and got them for the first time. We used concrete and traps to make a base and it worked fine even with one getting to us and blowing up. You can easily see them from far away, shoot their chest and they blow up at a safe distance. We could have had this base day 21 but we were being lazy and screwing around a lot lol we used a ramp base before that and it probably would have worked well against them.

 

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Maybe if the Demolisher has a sound cue so that we easily can identify it. Much like the Tank had one in Left 4 Dead.

 

it has a giant green light on it's chest, its pretty easy to spot

[theFlu]

Sandbags.

 

Not the literal game block, but whatever cheap terrain blocks (or regular wood blocks) coating a secondary position couple layers deep.

See him, lure him to 2nd, see dirt fly.

[Feycat]

Is he actually in the game now? O.o

[FA_Q2]

in exp ^

 

His explosion is not really that bad. Rconcrete can take it, I had several blow in my last rconcrete hallway and it withstood the damage. The only real change I would like to see is not allowing other sources to set off his bomb. That really restricts traps and it should not. The bomb should be a player only thing.

 

It has also made my blade traps moot because if he is accidentally set off then the traps are gone. Without the oil schematic they are super expensive. I have not the oil to keep them replaced.

[Scyris]

in exp ^

 

His explosion is not really that bad. Rconcrete can take it, I had several blow in my last rconcrete hallway and it withstood the damage. The only real change I would like to see is not allowing other sources to set off his bomb. That really restricts traps and it should not. The bomb should be a player only thing.

 

It has also made my blade traps moot because if he is accidentally set off then the traps are gone. Without the oil schematic they are super expensive. I have not the oil to keep them replaced.

 

I'd have it worse, I never get intel in my games, and I just grab adv engineering 1 for the forge craft time reduction which stacks nice with a anvil, so any blade traps I get are bought off traders until I happen to find the schematic for them.

[RipClaw]

in exp ^

 

His explosion is not really that bad. Rconcrete can take it, I had several blow in my last rconcrete hallway and it withstood the damage.

 

Rconcrete can take it once. A second explosion in the same spot and the Rconcrete is gone. Only steel withstands multiple explosions.

 

The only real change I would like to see is not allowing other sources to set off his bomb. That really restricts traps and it should not. The bomb should be a player only thing.

 

Yeah, that's really a problem. Dart traps at head level don't seem to trigger the explosion, but they are weak against the armor.

 

I'm missing something equivalent to AP ammo for traps. I could imagine something similar for traps like loading steel darts into the dart trap instead of iron darts. The steel darts are unlocked by a schematic you have to find and they cost twice as much as the iron darts. You also need a crucible to make them.

[Carl_Bar]

its not too early. We just had day 28 horde and got them for the first time. We used concrete and traps to make a base and it worked fine even with one getting to us and blowing up. You can easily see them from far away, shoot their chest and they blow up at a safe distance. We could have had this base day 21 but we were being lazy and screwing around a lot lol we used a ramp base before that and it probably would have worked well against them.

 

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it has a giant green light on it's chest, its pretty easy to spot

 

 

Bear in mind different people play with different brightness settings. Personally as someone's who's been out away from streetlights after sundown with a partial moon i find the default way too dark on a night. But my relative i play with insists on sticking to defaults and he can't see anything till it steps into a strong light source. If he doesn't have that they can be beating on iron bars he's stood up against and he's only 50/50 odds on seeing them.