If you just finished watching the fifth episode of HBO The last of us, you might be wondering what that giant infected was, which the show made a big deal about but didn’t bother to explain. Well friends, what you’ve seen is colloquially referred to as a bloater by characters like Joel and Ellie, and it’s a focal point of certain enemy encounters in The last of us games. But you wouldn’t know that based on what the show has actually portrayed so far. So let’s talk about why these big villains are so influential for game fans.
What is a bloat?
Bloating is considered one of the end stages of infection for victims of the Cordyceps fungus that is ravaging the world The last of us. Unlike the more common clickers, people who have reached the bloat stage are pretty much completely enveloped in the fungus that grows from an infected person’s head. This happens when the victim has been infected for years and somehow managed to “survive” for so long. As Joel mentions in episode two, most infected only live about a month, but clickers and flatulence have been infected for so long that the fungus has desecrated their eyes and they have to use echolocation to navigate. Clickers are plentiful, but if an infected lives long enough to become a bloat, their massive physique and exploding pus Sacks – oh yes, it has exploding pus Sacks it throws at Joel and Ellie – makes it much more dangerous.
How does flatulence work? The last of us games?
Bloaters appear as mini-bosses in several places in both The last of us and its continuation. Originally, the Enemy debuted in Bill’s fortified city, but because the show took a very different approach to this story in episode three, the bloater didn’t debut until the Kansas City episodes. A Bloater is a particularly powerful enemy that will take you out in one hit if it grabs you. Perry’s Death in which the bloat ruptures his head off his body, is a homage to a death animation in the games where a Bloater can grab Joel or Ellie and do just that. The games make a hard cut to black before showing the extent of the damage, but still show enough to give a sense of just how gruesome death will be. Thanks to HBO for filming this scene remotely so we didn’t have to watch Perry’s execution in agonizing detail.
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Unlike clickers, bloats aren’t vulnerable to a stealth kill with a knife or Ellie’s switchblade, so you’ll have to take them out the old-fashioned way with bullets and Molotov cocktails. However, both games have a few bloaters that you can sneak past, so you can avoid fighting them entirely. But if you don’t manage to do that, you’ll inevitably use up some of your supplies when you take them out.
Continue reading: The Great Ways The last of us View changes The history of the game
Is flatulence the end form of an infected person?
In theory, a standard infected either survives long enough to turn into a bloat, or dies and the Cordyceps fungus continues to grow out of their body and into the environment around them. In episode one, Tess and Joel stumble upon a dead infected that has grown quite a bit into the wall in Boston’s quarantine zone. However there The Last of Us Part II As illustrated, environmental factors can influence the development of cordyceps at different stages of infection.
The Last of Us Part II takes place primarily in Seattle, and it is there that Ellie faces another variant of late-stage infections called shamblers. Similar to Flatulence, these infected are covered from head to toe in the Cordyceps fungus, but instead of hurling fungal explosives at the player, Shamblers spray acid from their bodies and explode when killed. Although the reason for this divergence in infection is never confirmed, the player can find notes in Seattle suggesting that this is due to the rain and humidity in the city. That seems reasonable enough, but Shamblers make an appearance, too Part II‘s late-game Santa Barbara sections. This might just be an example of how gameplay gets in the way of world building, but anyway, there are other possible fates for an infected than turning into a Bloat…though we may not see them until the show upcoming second season.
The most advanced form of infection The last of us has shown was in an infamous boss fight Part II with an entity called the Rat King. This was the peak of mOn the lower floors of a hospital in Seattle, the city’s infection center, several infected people coalesced into a massive, vicious beast. This phenomenon has only been seen once in the series so far, and it occurred under circumstances so specific that in the world of The last of us.
While flatulence is a rarity The last of us‘ universe, every time they appear in the games, it’s an awe-inspiring moment. The Bloater’s first appearance on the HBO show was pretty big, but we’ll have to wait and see if anyone actually bothers to explain why he was significant in a future episode.
