Booster

Booster
Gender	Male
Abilities	Emanates viral fumes that cause regular nearby zekes to become temporarily stronger by making them tougher to kill and capable of pinning down survivors by themselves Attacks with swipes that can infect players with enough hits
Attacks	Infectious swipe
Other names	Reeker

The Booster is a special zombie in World War Z. He became a permanent addition to the undead horde in the Booster Zombie Update.

The Booster emits potent fumes all around himself that make any nearby zekes resilient to damage and tougher to kill.

Physical Appearance

The Booster is a zeke dressed in a white coverall suit with blue lines underneath of a damaged blue Level A hazardous material suit with orange lines, a broken yellow full face respirator facepiece with a black breathing hose connected to the suit's built-in orange filter canister, a black protective glove, and black rubber boots.

Six damaged Virus Sample containers are strapepd to the Booster on a slightly torn dual shoulder sling, with three on his front and three on his back. Each one is fastened by a pair of side release buckles.

The hazardous material suit worn by the Booster has been ripped open on the left side with the left arm sleeve torn off entirely. Several patches of tape are haphazardly placed around the suit. The suit's large visor has been shattered, causing the section of the suit that would normally be held up to lay down and stretch across the front and back. A piece of the shattered visor is embedded on the Booster's chest through his white coveralls and two other pieces are embeddened behind his right shoulder through his hazmat suit. The visor on his yellow facepiece has been shattered and the upper section has been broken off with the top strap ripped. He is missing his left glove, revealing a deep gash across the dorsal side of the Booster's hand. He also has a cut on his forehead above his right eye.

The Booster's damaged containers have spilled their biosamples all over himself, leaving bright green stains all over his protective clothing. The containers also create a small bright green fume cloud that permeates all over his lower body and trails behind him as he moves around.

Abilities & Behavior

Much like the zekes around him, the Booster isn't that much different in terms of overall behavior. He does stand out with very deep and unsettlingly creepy groans, though this tends to get mix in with the crowd once he begins spreading his powers around.

Unlike most other special zombies and enemies whose strengths and abilities help them to more easily harm, incapacitate, and kill survivors, the Booster has the ability to empower regular zekes and help make them a bit more special themselves. This is done with the fumes exhausted from his work attire that will make any zeke standing nearby to become strong enough to take down a survivor by themselves and possibly live through deadly damage.

The Booster can be seen in some regards as a pack leader among the regular zekes thanks to his ability to directly buff them. Likewise, the Booster relies on them just as much since his ability would be nothing without them. As a result of this unique synergy, the Booster demands the utmost attention in any situation as the power he can spread will only pile on more trouble onto the chaos that a regular swarm already causes.

Strategy & Tactics

"Boosters make surrounding zombies more dangerous, but when they're dead the fumes will disperse and affected zombies will return to normal." ― Tutorial Tips

Role

The Booster strengthens nearby zekes with his contagious aura, allowing him to make regular waves of zekes more intense to fight against. The longer he is allowed to move around, the more opportunities he gets to spread his buffs onto more enemies.

General

• Listen carefully. The Booster makes very deep and unsettling groans. However, any zekes that get powered up will make similar noises too. Although the pitch of this sound is low, this sound becomes very pronounced as more zekes get boosted.
• Always mark your targets. As with all special zombies, marking lets players know where a particular threatening zeke is and/or where it is about to go. The red outline can be seen through obstacles and is hard to miss, so press the key that marks them and make their appearance even less of a surprise. The Booster is not particularly tough, but outlining him out from a crowd of zekes can still be helpful to more quickly eliminate him before he strengthens any more of the zeke.
• Be aware of alternate routes. Most special zombies prefer to arrive through paths and areas that are less common than the ones where many zekes congregate towards. Be mindful of your surroundings, watch your back, and keep note of any uncommon spots where special zombies may appear from.

Against

• When a zeke is boosted by the Booster, they become powered up in two ways:
  1. They become more powerful, capable of immediately pinning a survivor down with a single attack. Although this does not affect the damage of their attacks, they can now singlehandedly take you down. Under normal circumstances, zekes are only able to accomplish this by having many of them attack a survivor multiple times. With the Booster's influence, just one zeke and one hit is enough to achieve the exact same results. This strength draws comparison to the main abilities of the Lurker, Bull, and Rat Packs, all of whom can pin a survivor by themselves. However, since many zekes can be affected by the boost at a time, they can use their advantage of numbers to overwhelm you as they advance or spread out to attack multiple survivors.
  2. They become more resistant to harm, capable of taking significantly more damage, survive highly damaging attacks, and even regenerate back up if not finished off properly. The effects of the boost make regular zekes tougher than normal as they can withstand more damage from all sources. On top of that, it is possible for them to survive the damage as they will go into a downed state first. This makes extremely powerful heavy weapons or explosive equipment somewhat less effective as it will not immediately kill the zekes as it would normally. If left alone or insufficiently damaged while in this state, the zeke can rise back up from their injuries. These strengths draw directly from the Infector, who naturally has this regenerative ability and supernatural toughness. Like the Infector, a downed zeke can be swiftly killed with a melee finisher. However, they are much easier to gun down in that state since they lack naturally high health. However, they recover faster as it only takes them eight seconds to get back up.
• The Booster can only strengthen zekes that stand close to him. Although the small fume cloud he produces appears to be an indicator of his ability's reach, the actual area of effect is bigger compared to it. Overall, his ability is still limited to a relatively short radius around himself. Additionally, the fume trail he leaves as he moves around does not contribute to boosting zekes. Approximately four seconds within close proximity of the Booster is required to pass before the beneficial effects activate, indicated by a fume cloud that floats around the head of affected zekes. Affected zekes will also develop a deep, guttural growl.
• The regular full duration of the Booster's power up is about 24 seconds. Unless continuous exposure is maintained, the effects will eventually wear off. Killing the Booster will cut off the source of the increased strength for zekes, ensuring any of those affected will eventually lose their boost. However, the same can still occur if affected zekes simply stray away from him for long enough as well.
• The Booster's fumes can affect a limitless number of zekes. It is also possible for a zeke that eventually loses the boost to be powered up again. Although the Booster's main target for his ability are the zekes, it is also possible for the effects to transfer to recently infected soldiers and survivors. Given how much tougher they are compared to regular zekes, having them strengthened by the Booster will prove just a bit more challenging to kill. However, this is fairly situational and with all cases, the main concern should be the Booster running loose strengthening the zekes to begin with.
  • Special zombies and enemies are incapable of being strengthened. This includes the Booster himself who cannot benefit from his own ability. The buffs provided by the Booster can only spread to normal zekes.
• When the Booster spawns, he will almost always be accompanied by several zekes. This ensures that there will be zekes for him to strengthen so that he won't have to attack the survivors alone, especially if he were to spawn near an area that's already been cleared of zekes. Since the zekes are likely being spawned very close to him, this will almost guarantee a few of them getting the boost just before encountering the survivors.
• The Booster is capable of infecting players with his swipes. Unlike the Infector who is capable of infecting a survivor with just one swipe, the Booster is required to hit a survivor four times to achieve the same effect. The Booster is typically unsuccessful in this endeavor since he doesn't have that much health, making him an easy target to take out before he manages to hit his target enough times to cause infection. While the Booster's ability to infect players goes unnoticed most of the time, it becomes more of a danger when he's aided with the zekes he boosted. If they manage to attack and pin a survivor down, the Booster can easily take advantage of their helplessness to strike enough times to cause infection. The extra resistance and regenerative abilities of boosted zekes can also act as an obstacle for survivors trying to save their pinned ally, making it take longer to save them and increasing the chance they succumb to infection. If the infected survivor gets incapacitated, the zekes can act as a physical obstacle that prevents teammates from reaching them on time before they turn.
• In spite of his appearance, the Booster does not drop Virus Samples or any collectible rewards on death. Unlike his fellow special zombie, the Bomber, the Booster does not carry loot of any kind that can be earned by killing him in a particular way. Like most other special enemies, there are no rewards for killing the Booster.

Class-specific

Gunslinger

• At level 10, the Gunslinger unlocks a core perk called Seek and Destroy. This perk's utility gives all teammates an advantage on any special zombies that come within range. Although the Booster is fairly visible already with his attire and trailing green fumes, it is still important to have the Booster marked. In case you get pinned by the Booster's powered up zekes, your teammates can use the red outline to single him out, potentially preventing him from infecting you and stopping him from boosting more zekes.
• At level 11, the Gunslinger can unlock a perk called Bounty Hunter. This perk's utility expands across every special zombie in the game. However, this perk does not extend to the boosted zekes.
• At level 16, the Gunslinger can unlock a perk called Judo. This perk allows you to automatically free yourself from the Booster's strengthened zekes if they have you pinned. The only downside to this perk is that it has a three-minute cooldown so do your best to get away from the boosted zekes before they try pinning you down again.
• At Level 20, the Gunslinger unlocks a core perk called My Bad. This perk alleviates half the damage done to teammates you accidentally shoot, making friendly fire less punishing. While you should never shoot at a teammate, accidents happen, especially when it comes to saving a pinned survivor. Since the victim falls to the floor while pinned by zekes, it should be fairly easy to shoot off the offending zekes without targeting your teammate. However, it is still good to have the perk unlocked to minimize friendly fire, especially in higher difficulties where it becomes more unforgiving.

Hellraiser

• At level 2, the Hellraiser can unlock a perk called Here Kitty. This perk allows you to draw in the Booster and any zekes he affected towards a C4 charge shortly after deployment. While the blast will most likely kill the Booster, the zekes he managed to power up will only be downed, requiring you to follow up on them to put them down for good.

Creation

Nickname

The nickname "Booster" derives from his primary ability to strengthen other zekes when coming in close contact with them, giving them a boost in power and resistance. In-game, he is only referred to as "Reeker," derived of the verb "reeking", describing a stench that has a really strong smell. This is likely in reference to his appearance where he creates a visible green fog all around him not unlike how foul odors tend to be portrayed in media. In spite of this, no mentions of a foul smell from the Booster are ever expressed by the survivors.

Origin

The Booster was most likely a worker that handled biohazard and chemical materials, much like the Gasbag. It could be possible that the Booster was also a researcher, and that he was was more focused on learning more about the virus. As expected, the Booster pre-infection had taken the necessary precautions for handling and collecting infectious material. His oddly-designed sling appears to have been made for quick, secure storage of full Virus Samples, allowing to easily move with several fragile containers at once as he worked.

While his suit would likely protect him from inadvertently contracting the virus and infecting himself, it served no protection when it came to zeke attacks. As shown, his protective suits have been severely damaged, being torn and broken in, and all of his samples showing heavy wear and leaking infectious material all over himself. It is unclear if he was infected directly by a zeke or if one of his damaged samples caused his infection.

Sounds

As with all special zombies, the Booster produces unique sounds to differentiate himself from regular zekes. As his gas mask managed to stay on during his transformation, it can be safely presumed that the disturbing and low sounds produced the Booster is the result of his groans being reverberated through the mask's breathing tube. The Booster's suit still produces a squeaking sound whenever he attacks or moves, much like the Gasbag's own suit. The sample containers also produce a notable clinking sound whenever he falls as well as when he attacks.

Interestingly, all zekes that the Booster strengthen start to produce low growls as a side effect of being affected to the viral fumes.

Gallery

Booster art

World War Z - Booster teaser

Booster reveal teaser clip