Zombified Stalker

The  is considered to be a human mutant which appears in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Lost Alpha standalone mod.

"Poor souls subjected to prolonged exposure in Yantar and a few other heavily radiated sectors. Careless stalkers gone mad and turned into walking corpses. Many such corpses wander the Zone, some wander as far as the perimeter. They are beyond help because the destructive process is irreversible. Zombified stalkers are still able to use their weapons, but they are quite dumb and can be heard mumbling meaningless, fragmented sentences to themselves. They gradually lose all their skills and turn into zombies. They are usually very aggressive and can present a serious threat in large numbers."

- Encyclopedia description

Overview

 * Although considered to be a mutant, the Zombified Stalker is also considered to be a Faction in that provision is made within the game code that may allow for information portions to be delivered to the player, such as Stash coordinates (community = 'zombified')
 * Despite this seeming anomaly, members of this group do not actually comprise a faction, they just cease being members of their original factions and get collectively assigned as "Zombified".

Biology

 * Unclear.

Uses

 * In the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Lost Alpha game Zombified Stalkers are lootable for typical items of hardware (including food and drink items)
 * Zombified Stalkers never provide the player with body parts.

Gameplay

 * While being relatively slow, as far as opponents go, the  has exceptional marksmanship abilities.
 * Carried weaponry varies considerably with the player often being able to scavenge items in perfect working order.
 * Unlike Zombies, who have the ability to reanimate, the Zombified Stalker is easily and permanently terminated with headshots.
 * The Zombified Stalker is extremely vulnerable to knife wounds with even a scratch from an opponent resulting in death. This is observed irrespective of armour to such a degree that one knife blow may kill multiple Zombifieds if they are in close proximity.
 * Clearly, there are risks involved in "bringing a knife to a gunfight" and suitable preparation is recommended (a high bulletproof factor coupled with low bleeding factor), but there may be opportunities for the player to stalk undisturbed groupings with the intent of rapid and low-cost elimination (e.g. Yantar and Pripyat Underground in versions to 1.4002. From v1.4005 artifact sourced bulletproofing was severely curtailed, making this tactic more problematic)

Trivia

 * In the Base Game Zombified Stalkers are never lootable for food items. This is not the case in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Lost Alpha where dead instances provide normal looting opportunities.
 * Although generally accepted as being a member of the Mutants classification, the PDA encyclopedia lists the as actually comprising one of the several Factions of humans that populate the Zone.