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Infected
April 26, 2026 at 03:14 PM
Initial expansion of infected article from stub (2026-04-26)
The infected are the zombies that fill the streets of post-outbreak Seoul in Nakwon: Last Paradise. They are the environmental half of the game's PvPvE loop, sitting alongside other survivors as the second pressure on every expedition. The official framing puts the player on the back foot: this is a world where zombies hunt humans rather than the other way around, and players are expected to hide, run, and survive rather than win every fight. For an introduction to how the infected fit into the wider game, see the overview.
Every infected encountered during an expedition shares the same core sensory model. They are drawn to sound, they chase on sight, and they vary in threat profile depending on what they were before they turned. The closed alpha press materials describe all six special infected types as highly sensitive to noise, which makes audio discipline the single most important skill in the city.
Loud actions pull infected toward the source. Gunfire is the loudest thing a player can do, so pulling the trigger on a firearm is rarely a free decision. A burst of shots solves an immediate threat but seeds the surrounding blocks with new aggro and signals the player's position to nearby human survivors at the same time. Quiet melee weapons are the default tool for clearing single targets. Players can also flip the noise rule on its head and use deliberate noise as a tool: a thrown distraction or a single shot fired into open ground draws infected toward the sound and away from the player's intended path.
The closed alpha confirmed six distinct special infected types. Each has a recognizable silhouette, a backstory rooted in who the person was before they turned, and a behaviour pattern that calls for a specific response.
Type | Identifying Features | Behavior | Threat Note |
|---|---|---|---|
Runner | Standard infected silhouette, fast movement | Aggressively rushes players | Closes distance quickly; expect to fight or flee |
Screamer | Helmet with headlights that sway with movement, telegraphing line of sight | Does not attack directly; on spotting a player it screams to alert and attract other infected | Force multiplier: silence it before it converts a sneak into a swarm |
Gatherer | Gear similar to player gear, recognizable as a former scavenger | Pre-infection scavengers who supplied resources to NAKWON; killed in combat and turned | Body language reads almost human, easy to mistake for another player at a distance |
Armored | Wears makeshift body armor; the armor generates noise when moving | Pre-infection survivors who crafted body armor and turned despite the protection; wide range of motion | Audible at range; the same plating that kept them alive now flags them through walls |
Butcher | Severe eye and head injuries from before the turn | Specialized melee threat | Built for close-quarters violence; do not let one corner you |
Policeman | Pre-infection police uniform and equipment | Pre-infection identity carries through into post-turn movement and fighting style | Behaves like the trained officer it used to be, less predictable than a Runner |
The Screamer is the only special infected whose primary danger is not its own attack. Its headlights sway with its head, which doubles as a stealth tell: the cone of light shows the player exactly where the Screamer is looking, and stepping out of that cone is enough to keep moving. If it does spot the player, the scream is the threat, and the response is to silence it fast before nearby Runners and other infected close in.
The Gatherer and the Policeman both lean on their pre-infection identity. Gatherers carry gear that resembles player loadouts, which can fool a tired player into reading them as another survivor for half a second longer than is safe. Policemen retain their training-era movement and fighting style, which gives them a less mechanical feel than the rushing Runner. Armored infected are the audible ones, and Butchers are pure melee specialists who define their threat through close-quarters violence and visible head and eye trauma.
Detection is not a constant. The day-night cycle and weather both bend the audio and visual rules in either direction. Daylight makes a player easier to spot on sight, while night reduces visual range and tilts the encounter toward sound. Heavy rain is the third confirmed environmental state and muffles ambient sound, which makes both the player and the infected harder to detect through audio alone. Rain is therefore an opportunity and a risk at once: the same dampening that lets a player slip past a Screamer can also hide an Armored infected whose creaking plates would normally give it away.
The player's options against the infected are built around audio control, line-of-sight management, and the loadout brought into the run. The sensible starting fundamentals:
Crouch and walk between cover. Sneaking is the default movement, not a special-case ability.
Watch the Screamer's headlights to read its line of sight. Step out of the cone instead of fighting through it.
Lead with quiet melee where possible. Save firearms for fights you cannot avoid or for noise plays you actually want to make.
Use deliberate noise as a tool. A single shot, a thrown distraction, or breaking glass can pull a patrol away from a path you need.
Treat heavy rain as a stealth window for both sides. Move with it, not against it.
Keep
stocked; a bad infected encounter that does not kill the player can still cripple the rest of the run.
Know where the exits are. If a fight goes wrong and HP hits zero, the
state still allows the player to attempt an extraction.
Specific Skill Traits adjust how this toolkit performs, from quieter movement to more efficient melee, but the underlying audio-and-sight model is the same for every build.
Infected fill the city outside the Yeouido safe zone and are present at every named expedition area. The current alpha map covers fourteen landmarks across Jongno, and each one has its own density and patrol patterns. Indoor landmarks tend to favour Butchers and other close-quarters specialists; open plazas and parks favour Runners and Screamers with longer sightlines.
Mintrocket's January 2024 dev roadmap, published after the first pre-alpha playtest, listed zombie enhancement as a priority for future builds. The roadmap explicitly committed to new zombie types alongside more satisfying zombie kills and an increased zombie threat level. The six special infected confirmed in the closed alpha are therefore best treated as the current roster rather than the final one. Additional types are likely in later builds, and existing types may have their behaviour tuned. Until those changes are publicly confirmed, only the six types above should be treated as canonical.
Information current to the closed alpha that ran 11 to 16 March 2026. Subject to change in later builds.
