What are the clickers in The Last of Us? The 4 zombie variants of the horror series explained

In The Last of Us we roam the dystopian USA with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey): 20 years after a fungal infection started turning humans into bestial monsters. Right from the start, the HBO series inspired audiences with its unbelievable closeness to the video game template. In Episode 2, we finally get to know the most terrifying threat from the original.

Here we meet for the first time the so-called clickers. These nasty and extremely noise-sensitive horror creatures aren’t the only zombie variant that scares us. In this article we explain them to you four different stages of Cordyceps infection and why the mushroom zombies in The Last of Us aren’t actually zombies.

Attention, follow spoiler!

The Last of Us zombies aren’t actually zombies at all

The Last of Us is no ordinary zombie series in which the undead shuffle through the post-apocalypse and humans seek their lives. The grueling horror end-of-times drama is much more and can hardly be pigeonholed into a predefined genre. The same applies to those infected who are controlled by the mutated Cordyceps fungus resist clear classification as zombies.

The The Last of Us trailer shows the mushroom zombies in their horrid glory:

The infected in The Last of Us are no zombies in the classic sense. A zombie is actually a walking corpse that has been resurrected, for example by a virus or supernatural forces. The Cordyceps fungus, on the other hand, does not kill its host. While the infected behave like frenzied undead, they are living and willless organismsthat are externally controlled. If they die, they don’t come back.

Another peculiarity of the Cordyceps infected will be revealed in episode 2 of the horror series. Unlike zombies, these can communicate with each other through the fungal organism. Touching an overgrown fungal lichen can attract the attention of associated infected people.

How is Cordyceps transmitted and what types are there?

In The Last of Us, the outbreak of a mutant variant of the real existing cordyceps fungus
in 2003 for the start of the apocalypse. Originally, this fungus spread through foods containing grain. Other ways of spreading are late bites by infected people or direct transmission through fungal tendrils that sprout from the mouths of infected people.

After the Cordyceps fungus gets into the host’s brain, the transformation into a zombie-like creature begins, which is completely externally controlled by the fungus. be there four different stages over time go through before the formerly human body completely dissolves and becomes a mushroom-like network on walls or floors:

Infection Level 1: Runner

become a runner newly infected people referred to, of which we already get to see some in the first episode of The Last of Us. Since the fungus hasn’t taken over their entire bodies yet, runners still look mostly human. True to their name, these infected race towards their victims to spread the fungal infection.

Infection Level 2: Stalkers

Few weeks after cordyceps has established itself in the brain, the fungus makes its way out of the host’s head. At this stage, the fungus emerges more clearly from body openings such as the eye socket and slowly spreads over the entire body of the infected person. Stalkers are also fast, but are more likely to attack their victims from hiding.

Infection Level 3: Clicker

Approximately one year after infection the clicker stage begins. Once the growing Cordyceps fungus can’t find room in the infected’s skull, it begins to crack open and a large fungal lichen emerges where there used to be a face with eyes. Since the host is blinded in this way, the clickers have extremely precise hearing. They use their horrible clicking noises to orient themselves.

Infection Level 4: Bloater

The fourth stage of infection has already been seen in trailers for the series and will become a new threat to the characters in one of the upcoming episodes: the bloaters. After years of infection the fungus has overgrown the entire body of its host and formed a kind of protective armor that is difficult to penetrate with weapons. Although bloaters move much more slowly than clickers and the like, they are immensely stronger. In the game, they can even throw Mushroom Bombs around, spreading the infection even more effectively.

More stages and forms of fungal infection in The Last of Us games

In the world of the two The Last of Us games, there are two other variants of infected people that we don’t get to see in the first season of the series adaptation. These appear for the first time in The Last of Us Part II, so a small one at this point Spoiler alert: Read on only if you want information on details that won’t appear in Season 1 of the series.

In addition to the bloaters, the so-called shambler represents an alternative fourth stage of infection. This variant arises when the infected are exposed to high humidity. The shamblers are completely engulfed by the fungus, bloated and covered with pimples filled with acid.

The last and absolutely nightmarish “zombie” version is the so-called rat king from The Last of Us Part II. This is a super-organism, a mutated entity made up of several infected people of different levels that have grown together. Who knows, maybe we’ll see this monster in Season 2 of the HBO series. The only question that remains is whether we really want it.

The Last of Us Podcast: We talk spoiler-free about the first season

In the spoiler-free podcast review of the full first season of The Last of Us, we talk about the incredible closeness to the video game template and the differences to the zombie hit The Walking Dead, among other things.

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