YMMV / SAS Zombie Assault

• Awesome Music: SAS 4 has a handful of music in its soundtrack, and it is indeed awesome.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Deadly, Overclock, Adaptive. These are the 3 augments that pretty much everyone slaps onto any gun to make it worthy of using in nightmare mode. Deadly so you have the damage to kill zombies, Overclock to output that damage at a reasonable rate and Adaptive so that damage can actually cut through nightmarish zombies. With a 4th slot being more often than not Piercing or Biosynthesis for events, or Racemoded for even more damage output.
• Demonic Spiders: In SAS, there is an enemy that is pretty much a Lich that calls up big groups of Dem Bones and shoots you with big balls of magic. They are also very durable.
  • In SAS 2 and Insane Asylum, we have chokers. They are very tough and hit extremely hard. Enough to kill you in just a few hits. They had been significantly nerfed in SAS 3, but still have more HP among other fodder enemies.
  • Also in SAS 2 and Insane Asylum, there is a big, fast zombie that spawns Dem Bones from all fallen zombies in a wave that it spawns in. Like the Lich, it also shoots at you.
  • If it has a health bar in SAS 3, it may fall under this trope, but the Devastators and Mamushkas take the cake. Devastators will smash the ground doing an area of effect attack that does an extreme amount of damage. It also spawns in Dem Bones very often. Mamushkas will split into two almost endlessly, making you forced to have very high pierce weapons, or a shotgun.
  • Spitters in SAS 4 fire off big globs of acid that stay on the ground for quite some time. Said acid deals damage extremely fast.
  • Also in SAS 4, we have zombies with mutations, giving them special perks, such as Firey Skin (sets target on fire and immune to fire damage), Poisoned Limbs (poisons target on every hit and is immune to acid-based weapons), Chitinous Hide (75% resistance to physical damage), and Acid Blood (leaves a pool of acid on the ground upon death, causing all players that stand in it to take a ridiculous amount of damage).
  • Yet another one from SAS 4 is the Zombdroid Soldier. It is a rare variant of the other Mecha-Mook, the Zombdroid Servant, that pelts you with gunfire from its dual-wielded squad automatic weapons. Very high health, extreme rate of fire.
  • The Blue Necrosis spawn is possibly the most infuriating zombie to date. What sets it apart from all other zombies is that it can teleport next to you, which usually results in it getting a free hit unless you were lucky enough to already be moving away from where it spawned. This thing has ended many nightmare runs.
  • Red and Green zombie variations in the mobile port of SAS 3 are much tougher and deadlier than their normal counterparts, especially Devastators.
• Fan Nickname: Nantrollium: Nantonium Strongboxes giving poor quality weapons/armor, or the same good weapon/armor multiple times, such as a [RED] 10*** HVM 001, or two of the same [RED] 10*** Ronson 65-a's.
• Game-Breaker: In the mobile port of SAS 3, there are only a few premium weapons that are unlocked at a specific rank. If you get any of the other premiums early, they can fall under this trope.
  • In 4, the RIA Trident and HIKS M1000 are this. While those guns aren't really Dummied Out, they can only be obtained by hacking. Actually, not anymore since they can only be obtained by either winning in Championships or by crafting (which not only takes a HUMONGOUS chunk out of your money and alloy but can only be done at max level).
  • In the tower defense spin-off, all of the upgrades that are buyable with SAS dollars. For example, the Vickers Turret gets the Thundercat Gigashot upgrade, which can fire one million bullets in a single minute! The MLG Turret gains the Hand of Ra upgrade, which trades explosives for a powerful laser that can destroy zombies. The Special Turret can become the "Liquid Clean" Tungsten Cannon, which rapidly fires blasts of heat that leave liquid tungsten on the ground.
    • The SAS soldiers also get some new toys of their own. The MG SAS gets the M41-A Grendal, which has a huge range in addition to its high fire power and firing speed. The Sniper SAS gets the M.A.D Systems One-Point-Oh, which fires very rapidly by sniper rifle standards and deals extreme damage per shot.
    • Even the placeable extras join in on the fun. The razor wires become electrified, dealing massive damage to any zombies that step on them. The sandbags can be turned into titanium after being turned into concrete.
  • Also for the TD spin-off is the Necro Nuke, which explodes in a huge radius, causing massive damage in that area. The only enemy that it can survive the initial blast is the Ruin.
    • The Necro Grenade doesn't have as much blast radius, but it is still powerful enough to destroy any and all zombies except for the Ruin.
  • The Longbow Chopper and Typhoon Runner also exist in the same game. The former sends a helicopter that alternates between bullets and rockets at the zombies, while the latter sends 4 missle dropping planes in a straight line of your choice.
• Goddamned Bats: Worms in SAS 2, Insane Asylum, SAS 3, and SAS 4 can be extremely annoying, as they are very fast, but very weak. They also come in big groups when Bloaters die, leading to big bunches of worms chewing away at your health bar. One challenge in SAS 3 even has the players fending off the hordes which consist of nothing except worms.
  • Puke Worms in SAS 4 are the flunkies of the Regurgitator. They are effectively the regular worms, except far more annoying, as they are even faster and have more health.
  • Shadows in SAS 3 are extremely annoying because they have the ability to pass through walls. This will pretty much ruin the strategy of camping.
• Goddamned Boss: Regurgitators in SAS 4 become this when in groups. Their incessant barfing leaves a massive pool of vomit, spawn in big groups of puke worms, and makes a really squicky noise.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • In the first game, if you bring up the shop menu, your character will be immune to the Lich's projectiles until you unpause.
  • There's a hilarious glitch in 4 involving a gun shooting acid everywhere. What's even funnier is this comment:
  Someone was VERY.sick. A apex spitter
• Memetic Mutation: Lagthrower.
  • WE HAVE DEFEATED ALL THE WORMS!!
• Moment of Awesome: Opening a Nantonium Strongbox to find a 10*** weapon (or 10** armor piece) that has no augments (or the best augments).
• Moral Event Horizon: In Ice Station, after defending the station from the hordes of zombies, the HVM Commander and his soldiers face the ambulance that is being loaded with patients. And if you talk to the commander? All of them shoot at the ambulance until it explodes! And it was all because they were told to do so. Don't worry, you get to kill them all anyways.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Two lightning bolts and the text "HIGH LEVEL GEAR!" shows up when you get a powerful weapon or armor. Zig-Zagged however, as it can be something that isn't preferred for your build, level, etc.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The moans of the zombies, particularly in the first 3 games (and TD). The ambient sounds are another thing as you can hear zombie growls or human screams in the distance, far beyond the map.
  • Necrosis in SAS 4. Don't you find it scary how it crawls towards you?
    • Savage Necrosis is even worse, especially for the fact that it boasts 2.5 million Hit Points. This is what the monstrosity of a boss looks like.
• Polished Port: The mobile version of SAS 3 is far more popular than the Flash-based version, and it has even MORE guns, far more levels, and gets updated more often. It even includes a New Game Plus mechanic!
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The mobile version of 3 introduced the buddy mechanic - essentially, it assigns an NPC to the mission to help you out with the zombies. Sounds good, except your buddy's AI is not very good, to say the least. Firstly, he will likely rush into a horde of zombies without a second thought, perish there almost immediately and screwing you over if you are waiting to respawn. Besides that, his pathfinding is very poor and may result in him hugging the wall and becoming an easier target for zombies. But worst of all, you have to buy guns & armor for him and upgrade them with your cash — including buying the ammunition for him. Essentially, when the buddy runs out of ammo and if you toggle on the option for him to buy the ammo, he will happily do so straight with your hard-earned funds and might potentially drain you of all cash. Equipping him with pistols, which have infinite ammunition, rectifies the last disadvantage, but it does nothing to fix the buddy's biggest weakness — his very flawed AI. The only more or less fruitful use for your buddy is to equip him with a pistol and put him as a distraction against the zombies to give yourself at least some breathing room in tough situations.
  • 4's random boss variance mechanic. Introduced in order to give more randomness and less staleness to games, and allow groups of weaker lower level players to be able to win matches where the boss would normally be too strong for them (especially if other players disconnect and lower the overall firepower), matches may not end up having the strongest possible boss allowed by the total "match strength" (the total level of everyone in the match), and may instead consist of a horde of weaker bosses. While not a big deal in regular matches, as there isn't any difference in reward ^note you still get a single strongbox as boss loot regardless of what you get for a boss fight, the mechanic is a massive pain when it occurs in nightmare mode, to the point where a player could very well end up ragequitting for a few days if it happens too many times in a single day's worth of nightmare games ^note as you're only given 5 free tickets per day to play the mode, wanting to play more requires earning or buying "premium" tickets that are separate your daily 5 and only used after the regular tickets are consumed. In nightmare mode, you fight two sets of bosses, one halfway through the map and one in the normal spot at the end, with the first set using a somewhat higher group level's strength, with the second set being double strength, and your loot is massively increased in both fights compared to a regular match - not only do the bosses drop more strongboxes and with generally higher rarities, but you also get a massive dump of cash that's based on the boss type. It's extremely aggrevating to be playing a nightmare mode match where the total level of all 4 players is 396-400 ^note which allows for an elite savage devastator for the first boss, and elite savage necrosis for the second, the strongest two bosses with the highest cash drops, ~300,000 for the devastator and ~500,000 for necrosis, and can drop elite augment cores in their nantonium boxes, only to get the worst possible boss spawns and only get a group of savage regurgitators for the first boss and wickers for the second, netting maybe 250,000 cash in total, 2 strongboxes per set instead of 3, and no chance of elite augment cores if you get any nantoniums.
• Scrappy Weapon:
  • In 4, the majority of HVM's weapons are this, being hated by many players for being very underpowered even with augmentations. Especially with the HVM 001. There's an exception to this though; it's the HVM MPG, a rocket launcher that's a cut above all of HVM's other weapons. But then again, even their [BLACK] variants aren't helpful either!^note The weapons that aren't the HVM MPG, to be specific.
  • The starting Glock pistol from SAS 3 only has use during the first few ranks, and after you get a better pistol, you will most likely won't bring Glock 17 ever again, aside from challenges, due to its stats becoming inferior to many other handguns.
  • M1 Garand from SAS 3 starts off strong, but gets overshadowed very quickly by fully automatic rifles; not even the full on penetration power is enough to make it viable in the later ranks.
  • The Mark II sniper rifle from the same game is pretty solid in the Flash-based version due to the Not the Intended Use^note You can repeatedly click the left mouse button to spam the shots, as well as a good penetration power and high killing power. The mobile version of said gun has no such luck unfortunately; its fire rate has been nerfed because of the altered aiming & shooting mechanic, right down to one shot per second. Considering zombies always Zerg Rush you and flank you from all sides, the rifle's usefulness is greatly diminished.
  • The HK 221 is the first machinegun you can obtain, and suffice to say, it's not exactly useful at the starting rank. While the firing rate is relatively good, its mag size is meager and your ammo will run out fast — and since when you unlock the machinegun, there's no fast reload perk yet, using HK 221 on early stages is downright suicidal. When you do obtain the fast reload perk, the HK 221 will get outpaced by other machineguns, even by the marginally better Bren gun.
• That One Achievement: Transporter^note Evacuate the VIP without him taking any damage in 4. Expect yourself to become frustrated when a zombie gets close to the VIP when you're reloading. The part where you have to kill the Zombdroid Soldiers is especially the hardest part about this achievement, because the VIP follows you, and he might get hit by the bullets the Zombdroid Soldiers fire.
• That One Boss: SAS 4 features several bosses that fall under this trope.
  • The Zombie Mech has very high amounts of HP, a resistance to physical attacks, and a variety of weapons, including laser cannons, heavy flamers, autocannons, and missile launchers.
  • The Devastator has an One-Hit Polykill attack that hits everything around it, hits extremely hard, and Turns Red when at low health, causing it to move faster, deal EVEN MORE damage, and have a global damage resistance.
  • The Necrosis shoots fireballs and acid balls in a Multi-Directional Barrage, along with it's Combat Tentacles that bounce off of walls. It also moves very fast. When you actually kill it, it splits into three Necrosis Spawn that have very high resistances to physical, acid, and thermal damage, respectively. The one with physical resistance is notorious for its Teleport Spam, the acid-resistant one spits acid everywhere, and the flame-retardant one leaves a trail of fire that does a lot of damage really fast.
  • The Loaderbots are very fast and have a global damage resistance. They also hit extremely hard, and usually spawn in big numbers.
  • The Ruin in SASTD is an extremely intimidating foe: It's big, it has numerous tentacles that is uses for ranged attacks, it's durable enough to withstand numerous Necro Nukes, and if it gets through your defense, it won't leave a single survivor standing.

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