All 6 Zombie Variants in The Walking Dead Explained

The Walking DeadThe zombie variants can be divided into types, depending on the abilities they possess and the manner in which they were. For the most part, zombies in The Walking Dead Are slow, incapable of mental reason, and driven only by a desire to chomp on the nearest source of meat. Gradually, however, AMC’s zombie apocalypse franchise has introduced higher grades of undead referred to as “Variants.” Many questions about the true nature of the souped-up zombies remain unanswered, but different classes of variant are already beginning to emerge. The Walking Deads various points.

For the purposes of this list, variants will be defined as zombies that are inherently different to a normal victim of The Walking Deads zombie virus. This excludes regular zombies that have been superficially altered by their environment, such as the rock-covered corpses of Those who live And the sewer-dwelling Zombie King – a mashup of several zombies melted together – seen in Dead City. The monsters are altered on the outside, although true variants inside The Walking Dead have, for one reason, mutated in a cerebral or biological way.

6

Natural super-zombies

Featured in: The Walking Dead: World Beyond

The rarest, and probably also the most dangerous, form of variant in The Walking Dead Is the type that begins to show some unconventional skills immediately after reanimation. The only clear-cut example of this naturally occurring super-zombie in the franchise so far came during The Walking Dead: World BeyondIt’s the end.

Shortly after he was shot, an unnamed French scientist reanimated and ran to the door of the facility, knocking on it repeatedly. This type of variant demonstrated speed, strength, and enough intelligence to immediately find the exit door An hour before, don’t stammer around.

It remains unclear exactly how this type of variant came into being, however world beyond Offered a few important clues. The gunman who shot the scientist accused his victim, and her scientific team, of creating the zombie virus and then making it “Worse,” which could be interpreted as meaning the particular variant mutation was an unintended consequence of guilty researchers trying to cure the outbreak.

The Walking DeadDr. Jenner also mentioned “Variant cohorts“It exists in France but not the United States, suggesting that a naturally occurring variant strain exists, but has not spread worldwide since The Walking Dead Season 1. No obvious zombie of this type variant has surfaced in Daryl Dixon Still, despite the show’s French setting. Their absence would indicate that natural super-variants are incredibly rare, or the phenomenon is somehow exclusive to scientists who worked on the virus.

5

Artificial super-zombies

Featured in: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Many of the variant zombies that appear in Daryl Dixon are similar to the type of world beyondBut created by artificial means. Daryl DixonThe main villain group, Genet’s Pouvoir du Vivant, has developed a serum that can turn a regular zombie into a super-zombie not all that different from the natural kind spotted in world beyonds French laboratory.

Created by Dr. Lafleur, This breed of walker gains improved speed, strength, heightened senses, and is significantly harder to killBut instead of becoming more intelligent, they are seized by an uncontrolled bloodlust. As such, the variants of Pouvoir are prone to attacking each other, prioritizing pure violence over getting a meal.

How Dr. Lafleur’s serum works has not yet been explained by The Walking DeadBut the process may have something to do with decapitated heads. The lab at Pouvoir’s Maison Mère HQ and the facility on the boat that captured Daryl both contained jarred zombie heads connected to test subjects via tubes, possibly indicating an important ingredient in The Walking DeadThe zombie variant recipe is derived from reanimated brains. A chemical that occurs in the brain upon death may be the key to unleashing more potential from a resurrected corpse.

4

Burners

Featured in: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Burner variants are another grotesque creation of Pouvoir’s Dr. Lafleur. While this class of variant does not move quickly or show more intelligence than ordinary members of The Walking Deads ever-expanding undead club, it compensates with acidic blood. This feature makes a burner much harder to kill, because the survivors must dispatch it without getting a single speck of gore on their skin. But because of the rotten flesh, A bronzer’s acidic innards will leak out of his body. The mere touch will leave a significant burn – as Daryl Dixon found out the hard way.

The Walking Deads burners were created as part of Pouvoir’s ongoing experimentation in strengthening zombies. At some point, however, the creation either escaped or was considered a failure and became independent. The fact that the artificial super-zombies, Lafleur’s more recent creations in Daryl DixonAre much more advanced maybe points to the latter explanation. Nevertheless, knowledge and rumors of Burner variants seem to have spread around France’s population, suggesting the strain is a relatively common one.

During her first meeting with Daryl, Isabelle curiously described Berners as one of several unique zombie types populating FranceBut the exact meaning behind this line remains ambiguous. Isabelle may have been referring to commonly-occurring variants like the one seen in world beyonds French laboratory, but she could just as easily have been talking about other failed experiments unleashed on France courtesy of Dr. Lafleur, or even the kind of variants that were glimpsed in the United States during The Walking DeadIt’s the end.

3

teachers

Featured in: Various

One of the earliest zombie variants in The Walking DeadLurkers are the kind most survivors would prefer to face if given a choice. As the name suggests, Lurkers stay stationed in one placeOften lying down and completely silent. The main danger with lurkers is how difficult they can be to spot.

Although most zombies have a habit of making their presence known, the quiet stealth of lurkers means that an unsuspecting survivor can be bitten out of nowhere. As demonstrated in the military base scene of The Walking Dead The season 11 premiere, some lurkers will remain completely oblivious that people are nearby unless something – a loud noise or a drop of blood, for example – wakes them up.

Based on how early they started to appear in The Walking DeadTeachers must be a natural phenomenon. Something in the resuscitation process is to make the subject less restless, so while the hunger for meat is very much still present, a lurker will be happy to wait for food to come to them. Because every zombie in the aforementioned military base was of the lurker variety – a statistical improbability if becoming a lurker comes down to chance – it is logical to conclude that A regular zombie can become a lurker if left alone for a long time.

2

rumours

Featured in: The Walking Dead

Along with lurkers, roamers are mentioned by Aaron as another in-universe name for a specific kind of zombie. Unfortunately, they are much harder to define compared to their slower, lurking cousins. The defining trait of a roamer is aberrant behavior Atypical of a normal zombie, although whether the behavior is caused by increased intelligence or lingering memories of their old life remains uncertain.

The “roamer” tag could be used to describe Morgan’s wife, who tried to enter her old house even as a zombie. This could also apply to the young zombie girl Rick encountered at the beginning of his journey, when she picks up her teddy bear from the ground before running forward. Roamers tend to replace the herd-like tendencies of an average zombie in The Walking Dead with more individualistic traits, and could be viewed as the antithesis of lurkers.

Both types are present since the beginning of the outbreak and occur naturally, but although lurkers are defined by a decrease in mental and physical activity, roamers show higher levels of activity. Despite how they remember the echoes of their former lives, No room in The Walking Dead Has shown no mercy so far To someone they once loved. No retained memories are strong enough to overpower the need to feed.

1

Climbers

Featured in: The Walking Dead

Despite the name, “climbers” has become something of a catch-all term among The Walking Deads survivors, used to describe a zombie with higher cognitive and motor functions. Although this typically manifests as ascending ladders, climbing over vehicles, scaling walls, etc., Climbers have also been shown using nearby objects To achieve their goal of a free lunch. Several climbers picked up rocks to carry as weapons, while one blocked Lydia’s oncoming knife when she tried to stab it. Even without the speed and strength of other variants, a climber’s intelligence makes even one a sizable threat.

Climbers are, by nature, close to roamers in terms of their abilities. Although roamers seem to be driven by their past memories, however, climbers exhibit better awareness of their surroundings at any given moment, and can analyze situations in a rudimentary way to gain a strategic advantage. The most interesting aspect of climbers is how they disappeared for almost a decade of The Walking Deads timeline. Zombies could be spotted using rocks and climbing fences as early as season 1Then effectively disappeared until The Walking Dead Season 11.

The real explanation for variants are absent is likely that The Walking Dead Didn’t fully cement his virus rulebook in season 1, and didn’t come up with the variant twist until much later. A universal explanation is more difficult to provide, and it is impossible to say with any conviction whether climbers account for a small percentage of the total zombie population, were created by human experiments or evolved naturally over the course of several years.