Brute

A massive tank that blocks attacks and throws players into chaos — teamwork and perk balance are essential to defeat it.

Description

Brute is a custom zed added to our servers. It’s a large, muscular monster with high health and powerful melee attacks. The Brute uses its arm to block incoming damage, making it extremely resilient. When enraged, it charges at players and throws them around the battlefield, disrupting formations and creating panic.

Behavior

Blocking

• Whenever there is a target, the Brute will block when not doing anything else
• Any shots within the region of the head and the blocking arm cause only 10% of their normal damage
• When not raged, it will attack while blocking. Each successful hit it makes increases a counter which decreases the chance that it will block when attacking, meaning it’ll use other attack animations. As it causes more chaos, it becomes more vulnerable
• Successful hits landed while charging also increase this counter
• When its hand is blocking its head, it can still be shot from the side or back of the head at full damage
• When attacking but not raging, it will attack with its block up — after a few attacks it will perform a normal attack which doesn’t block
• When performing the charging throw, the Brute uses an animation which exposes its head

Charging

• The charging (rage) state is caused by receiving too much damage over a short period of time (50 points in 2 seconds)
• When first entering the charging state, it gradually (over 1-2 seconds) builds up speed
• On all difficulties above beginner, it is locked to the target it is attacking, similar to other specimens
• Whoever causes it to rage will be its first target
• After successfully hitting its target, it will switch to another if they are close enough
• After successfully hitting its target, it will calm down some, slowing its movement speed. Enough hits will calm it down completely and it’ll leave the charging state. It must make 2 hits when there are 3 players or less, or 3 hits when there are more
• It damages any other specimens it charges into
• Charging will also automatically be triggered after a random time (10-15 seconds)

Throwing

• When it hits a player, it will throw them in the direction determined by the angle between it and them, with a fixed Z velocity of 150
• When not charging, its throw strength is reduced by 15%. Additionally, a Berserker gains another 25% throw resistance
• When charging, its throw affects all players in front of it. Slightly less if players are to the side of its front angle

Weaknesses and Strengths

• Berserker gains 25% throw resistance
• It has a 25% melee damage reduction
• 30% reduced HEAD resistance against fire (not body)
• 10% reduced HEAD resistance against anything else (not body)
• When set on fire, it slows the Brute by 15% of its active speed

Combat tactics

Berserker and Sharpshooter are weakest against the Brute — but when working together, the Berserker can turn the Brute so the back of the Brute’s head is opened to the Sharpshooter. This is even easier when the Brute is slowed by fire.

A balanced perk spread across an assembled team is also a good way to defeat it — too many Sharpshooters will not be effective.

The more members on a team increases the Brute’s health just as it would a Fleshpound. This ensures it has enough health to throw players around before it is killed.

On our servers

Brute appears on almost all servers starting from wave three.