The cordyceps fungi has taken over the whole world for more than two decades but there's a mutation that will terrify everyone as a bloater comes out of the shadows but what exactly are those creatures in The Last of Us?
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us. Read at your own risk!
What Are Bloaters in The Last of Us?
Throughout the series, the show has seen a lot of clickers from the first day of the outbreak to twenty years after it but for the first time, in The Last of Us Episode 5, Endure and Survive, a terrifying monster has come out of the shadows -- a bloater.
In The Last of Us Episode 5, Henry explained that the reason why people are not going through the tunnels, not even Kathleen's people is because FEDRA pushed away the infected underground then eliminated them three years before the present.
It turns out they were still there, just in some other part of it, and thankfully for Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam, they didn't encounter a single one underground. However, that does not mean that the infected are totally gone.
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When a truck of Kathleen exploded through a house, it opened a hole big enough for the infected to come out. Of course, there are the clickers who are blind and just rely on sounds but one surprise climbed its way out, a bloater arrives and Perry perished. It's bulletproof.
In the game, the Bloaters are the infected in the final stages of the infection, where it becomes totally consumed by the cordyceps fungi. There, it could even take days before an infected becomes rabid but in the series, it takes less than a day.
That being said, instead of taking more than a decade to fully become a Bloater, the lesser time of gestation for one to be infected means that Bloaters come up fast, too. It could even take just half of a decade for that to happen, probably even less.
Another difference from the game is how the Bloaters attack wherein they have toxic sacks they explode to make poison clouds but that didn't make it to the series so there, much like the death of Perry, Bloaters are full of rage and strength.
Given that it is bulletproof, how does one kill a Bloater? Players of the game know easily that fire is the best weapon of choice but come to think of it, the Bloater in Episode 5 came out of the rubble of a truck that exploded. Does that mean a Bloater is fire-proof in the series, too?
That's for everyone to find out once another Bloater comes out in The Last of Us, now streaming on HBO Max.
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