Zombie

Lumbering undead monsters, Zombies are stealthy foes in the Catacomb Adventure Series that are animated by Nemesis's evil necromancy. They first appears in Catacomb Abyss, and show up again in Catacomb Armageddon.

They resemble pale-skinned humanoids with red eyes, pale skin, and tattered clothing. They also have messy hair in Catacomb Armageddon.

In Catacomb Abyss


The Zombie is a threat that nicely encapsulates exactly how much more aggressive than Catacomb 3D the sequel trilogy is. Despite being the first enemy the player will encounter in The Towne Cemetery, the Zombie is actually fairly dangerous. It has 5 Hit Points and is more damaging than the Orc was in Catacomb 3D.

What makes Zombies a different caliber of threat entirely is that Zombies do not start visible or active, and emerge from below ground when the player gets close enough, effectively lying in wait. Even worse, Zombies do not show on the Crystal Sphere until the player has the Purple Jewel, which makes them extremely good at ambushing the player. Making matters worse, their damage is quite high for an early-game enemy.

The good news is that Zombies are extremely straightforward and, once you have the Purple Jewel, you can easily tell when one is getting ready to attack since it will show up as a purple dot on the Sphere. They aren't hard to focus down with Magick Missiles, and big clusters of them can be handled rather easily. Multiples at close range are perfect fodder for an Xterminator.

When destroyed, they are torn limb from limb by the player's magic and collapse in a pile of bloodied remains.

In Catacomb Armageddon


The Zombie returns as a common foe in the early levels, albeit with a graphical facelift. It now has messy brown hair. Like the original, it tends to hide underground until it detects the player, at which point it burrows up and attacks.

Statistically it's similar to its counterpart in Catacomb Abyss, doing the same damage, but it's slightly tougher, with 8 hit points. This makes them a little harder to put down, and means that they can do more damage before being put down if not detected.

Like the Zombies in Abyss, the ones in Armageddon are only visible on the Crystal Sphere if the player has the Purple Jewel.

Trivia

 * The Axe Zombie from Blood rises up from the grave and uses melee attacks against the player in a very similar fashion.