Ticker

Walther's Notes - Restored
This note was found lost in the streets, wet and muddied. It has since been partially rewritten through conjecture.

''One of the things to comprehend are the workers of many jobs out there, formerly ready for duty. Those did not take long to show around the city, people in hazmat suits moaning and roaming for flesh. They cannot eat because of the mask, but they can still harm and is more than willing to do so. Perhaps to speed up the manslaughter? The actual threat, however, are those little cylinders of theirs. Spilling toxicity and radioactivity all over the place, a true living bomb. It is very crucial to never shoot them from behind as you won't be killing to dispatch of the problem, but creating another. Fortunately for you, cancer itself won't be the cause of ceasing your adventures.''

Summary
Tickers are slow and durable zombies that emit radiation from themselves. They do more damage than a regular infected, and can deal low to high amounts of damage with their radiation. When a Ticker's tanks (found on their back) are damaged enough, the tanks will explode, dealing damage to (and possibly killing) all nearby zombies and the survivor who has shot the tank. The explosion will leave a large pool of liquid radiation, which will deal constant damage to nearby survivors. Radiation damage will become more severe the closer a survivor gets to the Ticker or pool of radiation. Since the radiation damages through walls, Tickers are ideal for damaging and forcing out stationary and camping survivors.

Background Story
Tickers are trapped within a hazmat suit. At first, many believed they were some poor souls who were sent to contain this virus, but due to their sheer numbers, this is impossible.

Since they also have tanks that contain extreme levels of radiation and perfectly fine suits with no damage or signs of attacks, it is safe to assume that these zombies were not created on the day the outbreak began, and someone, or something, is out there, stuffing zombies in suits, giving them radioactive waste in tanks, and sending them to kill survivors.

No matter where it came from or why it is like it is, this Infected is deadly to an unprepared or holed-up survivor.

Some say that the Tickers came from a place owned by some company, hence the logo on their uniform. Some survivors have talked about possibly tracing them to find the source, but that's not a realistic idea. Maybe some day.

Controls
Basic Claw: Basic attack which deals 10 damage [excluding Radiation]. Consumes no energy.

Rush: Run in a straight line in the direction you are currently facing. Upon contact with players or a solid object, you will blow up. This action will continue until you make contact or run out of energy. You have to run 2 seconds before you explode. If you hit a wall before that, you get tripped unless you are wearing the Halloween or X-Mas version of the Ticker.

Survivors

 * A Ticker can move backward with the intention for you to make them explode. Explosions instantly kill you at close range, and push you back if the explosion is non-lethal.
 * Get a safe distance from them to then blow them up by shooting their tanks.
 * This still has some push, even if you're not hurt by the explosion. This can cause you to go in unprecedented ways, and possibly take fatal damage not even from the explosion.
 * Knock it down with melee attacks and cleanly shoot their head until it dies.
 * They can easily hide in crowds of zombies and are more common than you think.
 * If you see a Ticker far away, attempt to shoot it before it gets close, as someone can shoot the tanks.
 * If close, melee it and flee before getting blown up.
 * Ticker puddles take about 3-4 minutes to go away.
 * If impatient, you can easily take out the puddle with a Fire Extinguisher.
 * After taking some Vitamins, taking some radiation damage is recommended to stop the temporary health from going down.
 * Shotguns and automatic guns are very dangerous to use around Tickers.
 * Tickers are one of the three zombies to be immune to the Flamethrower, the others being both Elementals.
 * However, they can be damaged by the Flamethrower if they are knocked down by a Fire Extinguisher beforehand.
 * Those tanks could be your friend.
 * If there's a Ticker in a middle of a horde, shooting those tanks could easily wipe out the majority of the crowd.
 * After the Ticker's initial death, its' tank can still be blown up only if it didn't explode yet.
 * Shooting a Ice Gun, while a Ticker is rushing, may not be a good idea as once they fall to the ground, they explode.
 * Bringing the Bulldozer II armor is a good idea, since you have a higher chance of surviving a rush.
 * Bringing a Flakvest is the best way to survive a Ticker rush.
 * You will still be stunned, however. Being stunned can easily get you swarmed by other mobs and zombies, enforcing how important it is to stay with your teammates.
 * Watch out for radiation warnings! It might be a Ticker ready to rush at you.

Zombies

 * Try to stay behind or under walls and ceilings. They can provide protection for you and you can damage survivors with radiation with ease.
 * If they blow you up then, the radiation pools left will drain their health twice as fast.
 * People can be affected by Radiation, even through walls.
 * This is helpful if you want to try and weed out campers from their spots.
 * Tickers are slightly slower than the average zombie.
 * You have the same exact speed as a Survivor, so chasing someone down isn't the best idea.
 * Having your back at a survivor at close range might end up the survivor shooting the tank, which will kill the survivor.
 * They do however, have to be very close to you for them to die.
 * You will not get the 120$ for killing a survivor if your radioactive field kills them before you can damage them yourself.
 * This also applies if you kill survivors either by exploding on them or if they get too close to radioactive puddles on the ground.
 * Rushing to the Gas Tank in Campfire Chaos or the Minecart in Zero Kelvin Station will deal a huge amount of damage on the survivors, as long as they're grouped together in one spot.
 * The Ticker is banned on Outpost 21, don't bother trying to wait around for one.

Trivia

 * The Rush ability was nerfed in v1.2.8, whereby the damage for non-direct impacts was decreased.
 * This was further nerfed, requring 2 seconds before exploding in v1.3.0.
 * The front of the Ticker became mesh instead of drawn detail in v1.1.6.
 * Presumably, this is the Boomer from the Left 4 Dead series, and the Ticker is Reason 2 Die: Awakening's counterpart.
 * Oddly enough, the puddles of radioactive waste may also relate to the Spitter from Left 4 Dead 2, as it drops a damaging patch of acid when killed.
 * Furthermore, after the rush was added into the game, this zombie is also similar with the Charger from Left 4 Dead 2.
 * Before v1.1.6, the Ticker used a Pinewood Emergency Team Hazmat Uniform, hence the emblem on the front of the suit in first version.
 * Before v0.7.9, the explosion caused by shooting the Ticker's pack affected everyone in the blast range, but today, it will only affect the one who shot it and will also kill zombies near it.
 * Ticker puddles can fail to despawn, and after a new map is loaded, the puddle may still be around affecting everyone who goes near it.
 * The name of the creature is based on the sound the radiation makes when you get close to it with a Geiger Counter.
 * In the earlier stages of DEMO, zombies were able to damage the tanks on the Ticker, as seen below.