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Zombie Puke Attack

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Somebody's gonna have to clean that up afterwards...

"Boomer, don't let it puke on you."
Zoey, Left 4 Dead

Zombies are slow, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. So, how do you make them distance threats? No, not Deadly Lunge; give them a ranged attack! But rarely you'll expect them to use firearms or similar, because they're often too mindless to use them. Well, stomach juice, being hydrochloric acid, is strong enough to dissolve certain metals, so how about weaponizing their digestive systems?

Note that it doesn't have to be just stomach juice-infected/corrosive blood; parasites, and smaller zombies are also examples, just so long as they choke them out of their stomachs.

This is used mostly, but not exclusively, in Video Games.

A Sub-Trope of Super Spit; compare Breath Weapon and Bad Black Barf. Involves Vomit Indiscretion Shot. See also: Elite Zombie, which has the "Vomit Zombie" subtype.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • The Junji Ito Kyoufu Manga Collection story "The Supernatural Transfer Student" has one of the characters die and come back as a grotesque, overweight, projectile-vomiting zombie.

    Comic Books 
  • Green Lantern: Red Lanterns can vomit "corrosive plasma". Note that RLs just barely pass on the undead stipulation; they die if they take their rings off.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Some "infected" from 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later constantly hemorrhage high-pressure blood out of their mouths.
  • A variation of this occurs in the Cabin Fever series, in which people who have contracted the flesh-eating virus start puking infected blood once it's advanced enough. They don't specifically try to puke blood on other people, but that's what typically happens anyway.
  • In another example that has to do with cabins, The Cabin in the Woods has among its many, many monsters some named Mutants whose sapience is unknown (unlike the other zombies), but what is known is that their special attack is vomiting corrosive acid on their victims' mouths. Plus, the Boomer makes a cameo in the ending, along with other Left 4 Dead infected.
  • One Day of the Dead (2008) cover depicts a zombie copiously vomiting on something off-camera.
  • The possessed, zombie-like theatregoers from Demons do this.
  • The Zombie in Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed throws up at a news reporter.

    Literature 
  • In The Expanse, before reducing everyone to Meat Moss and spare body parts, the protomolecule infects humans who spread it to others by vomiting a brown slurry containing it on them. These are aptly referred to as "vomit zombies".
  • In The Nekropolis Archives, zombie protagonist Matthew Richter can't digest food anymore, so he has to puke anything he eats back up. He sometimes uses this as a combat technique, as anything stored in his stomach for a while becomes noxious enough to be toxic.
  • The zombies from Newsflesh will spit blood if they can't get close enough to their prey.
  • The zombies from Zombies and Shit tend to puke, usually once they go stupid from decay.

    Live-Action TV 
  • A variation in the Farscape episode "Out of Their Minds", in which the villain of the week is taken ill on board Moya and graphically vomits... whereupon the vomit turns out to be a lifeform that attacks the ship's systems with at least some degree of intelligence.
  • The primary weapon of the Hidiacs, zombie Mooks in Power Rangers Mystic Force. They make a very big kaboom, making these arguably the most dangerous Power Rangers standard foot soldier. The Elite Mook versions called Styxoids favor less messy This Is My Boomstick lances.
  • The "zombie" people in Torchwood: Miracle Day are the ill undead, and thus many throw up regularly for effect in hospital scenes.

    Mythology 

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Angry Birds Epic: Some types of undead pigs, like the Mummy, attack by burping up sludge or sand at your birds.
  • Blood: Bloated Butchers (the fat zombies) hack out a gob of green bile at medium to close range. You can safely crouch under them.
  • Bloodborne:
    • Rotten Corpses (the sewer zombies) attack this way whenever they don't want to use their foot-long claws for some reason. They have so much bile that they bleed it, in fact.
    • Cramped Caskets spit globules of rotting, semicoagulated blood as their ranged attack.
  • Borderlands: Defilers from the DLC The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned use this most prominently, but most of the setting's zombies can every so often. The only zombie that can't is the Torso.
  • Breath of Death VII: Zombie prince Erik has a technique that lets him puke at enemies to inflict poison. Other zombies can do this as well.
  • Cataclysm: Present in both blinding yet harmless and damaging acidic varieties, both referencing Left 4 Dead. The experimental builds also add variants of both monsters. Huge boomers add a long-lasting glowing effect that make it harder to sneak away from the horde, acidic zombies are closer ranged (and FAR less annoying) than spitters, while corrosive zombies trade Area of Effect ability for range and rate of fire.
  • City of Heroes: Vahzilok zombies, Apocalypse zombies, and Mastermind pet zombies all have acid vomit attacks.
  • Darkest Dungeon 2: All Plague Eater-type enemies (technically not zombies, but mutant farmers/farm animals afflicted with Horror Hunger by a mutagenic alien plague) have the ability to consume and regurgitate nearby corpses, splattering their hapless victim with the mangled, acid-soaked remains; in some cases putting the corpse back in play. Hungry?
  • Dark Watch has Oozers which are fat zombies that launch their puke at you.
  • Dead Rising: Queen Zombies and Gas Zombies vomit infected blood.
  • Dead Space 2: Pukers vomit a short-ranged jet of acid.
  • Dead Trigger 2: The Vomitron is a Special Zombie that attacks by expectorating red spit at the player. Said spit causes heavy damage and messes up the player's aim for a short period of time.
  • Diablo III: Wretched Mothers use the "smaller zombie" method of this to act as Mook Makers, as well as the "gob of acid" method to directly attack.
  • Disgaea: The first special technique that zombies gain is "Zombie Puke", which can also poison the target.
  • Dishonored: Weepers attack by puking on you.
  • Elsword: Field Boss Bater (a stronger variant of Zombie Glitters) has an attack where he pukes out poisonous gas at you that will hurt continuously.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic VI: The Putrid Lamassu is a zombie sphinx that vomits parasites at opponents.
  • House of the Dead: OVERKILL: Some zombies puke acid, with Not Using the "Z" Word explaining this as a genetic mutation in the victims.
  • Infectonator!: The blandly but fittingly named "Puker" zombies launch green vomit at humans.
  • Killing Floor: The Bloat uses a wide-angle spray of vomit as its primary attack. The bile does damage over time and also obstructs your view.
  • Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green: Some of the zombies do this; they can be identified by the green gas cloud trailing around them.
  • Left 4 Dead:
    • The Boomer's puke blinds the player and attracts a horde of zombies if it hits, and they release a blast of it when they die. The Boomer's vomit is collected by CEDA in the second game and stored in sterile glass containers for further study. Players can find these bile jars and throw them to force common infected to attack anything covered with its contents, including Tanksnote . While the bile is useful for distracting the infected and slowing Tanks, fresh Boomer Bile overpowers the weaker scent and pipe bombs are better at reducing large numbers of infected while providing a distraction unless you have a fire handy.
    • Spitter's acidic puke acts like the Infected's version of the Molotov, damaging players who stand in the puddle it creates and igniting gas cans during Scavenge missions. The Spitter leaves a smaller puddle of it under herself when she dies.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: The Gibdos aren't technically true zombies as such, being instead some kind of eusocial organisms, but they otherwise strongly resemble and behave like skeletal, shambling zombies, and their winged variant fights using a projectile stream of greenish vomit.
  • LittleBigPlanet 2: One fan-made scenario is a Left 4 Dead clone, which has a zombie that "can puke on you and the puke will summon a horde of zombies that will attack you. He can also swipe at you. If you shoot him, he will explode and his bodily fluids will coat you and also summon a horde of zombies, so shoot him from a distance."
  • Loren: The Amazon Princess: Walking Dead have an ability called "Plague Vomit", which strikes the entire First row for minor (1-3) damage, but inflicts Poison status. They also have the ability Stinking Spit, which is largely the same.
  • Mass Effect:
    • The Thorian Creepers in the first game (grotesque clones made from an ancient and powerful alien organism) are a close analogue to zombies. They vomit green fluid onto the protagonists to deal damage. It also completely ignores your shields. Hope you packed some medigel.
    • According to the fluff exposition in the third game, Cannibals (grotesque monsters made from both alien and human carcasses) vomit on dead flesh to consume it and grow stronger. This was originally supposed to be their Finishing Move against the players, but that was cut out before the final release.
  • Metal Slug: Zombies attack and infect civilians/the player characters solely by this method, although only two variants actually puke the stuff out (the others use disgusting methods to get the vomit out like ripping open their ribcage, squeezing their head until the puke explodes out of their brain, or using their intestines as a hose). When a player character is zombified, their grenade attack is turned into a screen-sweeping Bloody Murder vomit spray, and it's the most powerful attack available to the player in any of the games by a fairly wide margin. The undead clones in the final mission, being clones of one of the playable characters, have access to the same blood vomit attack that you can use.
  • Not Dying Today has a Zombie Nurse boss who can turn One-Winged Angel after her initial defeat, gaining a bloody vomit attack in her second form, in a rather blatant reference to Metal Slug (even using the same animation).
  • Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams: The Lost Souls, zombies of what appears to be former Christian monks, can sometimes puke orange-ish slime as a form of attack. You can also get damaged by stepping in it.
  • Plague Inc.: One of the symptoms you can give zombies created by the Necroa virus is the ability to projectile vomit at humans, increasing severity and combat advantage.
  • Quake IV: The Slimy Transfer "zombies" (that is, marines subjected to failed Stroggification experiments), if not equipped with a Shotgun, are able to spew a gout of green acid that leaves a highly-damaging puddle.
  • Ragnarok Online: Some of the undead have a puke attack.
  • Resident Evil: Zombies sometimes do this, if an enemy (that is, a player character) runs by them in a hallway or staircase, or otherwise aren't able to be grabbed, such as if the zombie is on a slightly lower platform. In Resident Evil 2, this is the only way they can attack Sherry, who's significantly shorter than them.
  • Silent Hill: The "Lying Figures" (the ones that look like they're straitjacketed into their own skin and stumble around like zombies) squirt acid directly from their stomachs. Lore-wise, they are more akin to demons than undead. There are several similar monsters — the Lying Figure (Silent Hill 2) sprays a mist of acid; the Armless Figure (from the Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Revelation 3D films) spews a stream of puke; the Straightjacket (Silent Hill: Origins) projectile-vomits; and the Smog (Silent Hill: Homecoming) continuously leaks and belches a noxious black gas.
  • Singularity: While they're not really "zombies" in the traditional sense (being the result of botched time-travel/de-aging experiments), the Reverts shamble about and attack with a spray of acidic puke when they get up close. Can be weaponized against other enemies using the Reversion power on the TMD.
  • Space Quest V: The Next Mutation: The zombie-like Pukoids try to spit "death loogies" of Mutagenic Goo on Roger in one sequence.
  • Streets of Rogue: The playable Zombie can spend some health to launch a long-range phlegm attack. If a human struck by phlegm is killed and zombified, the resulting Zombie will join you as a party member instead of wandering off on its own.

    Web Animation 
  • Battle for Dream Island: Rocky, while not being a zombie himself, has a Running Gag of occasionally barfing upon everyone, which he usually uses to pursue in challenges. At the end of the season, a spike ball gets lodged inside him and breaks his "infinite matter generator", so he can't puke in Battle for Dream Island Again anymore. Later, in Battle for BFDI, he regains his barfing abilities, after which his vomit has become acidic.
    Rocky: Bulleh!

    Webcomics 
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: While the biggest threat for non-immunes is bites, some trolls can transmit The Plague via breathing (one-meter range) or spitting (range of up to ten meters). The small risk of this happening is one of the reasons non-immunes need to wear breathing masks in places where trolls live.
  • The Zombie Hunters features seven different subspecies of zombie, one of which can attack by vomiting a sort of corrosive poison up to 50 ft. Suitably, they are called spitters.

    Websites 

    Western Animation 

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