Digger

Walther's Notes - Pristine
DO NOT EDIT: This note was found inside a mini vault of a cave system and in good condition. A rare artifact by Walther himself to have not been ruined through the course of time, kept safe by Vincent, his old colleague.

''Familiar to the Ticker. I like to call them that because it drives the geiger counter nuts - they weren't the only jobs to bring havoc, you know. We grew used and naturally started avoiding being close to them without really doing it voluntarily, it's like the body's care for self preservation - there's another job to be aware. We were setting up defences for a last stand since the rescue alerted us ahead of time to be a little off-schedule, and it was pretty darn sturdy until we found a hole behind us. Doesn't seems like miners were safe in their caves, as no other than a infected dug that hell's hole. Hopefully we can adapt to this new threat soon like we did with the former.''

Summary
The definitive "flanker" zombie.

The Digger can tunnel right through the ground, effectively nullifying any obstacles, and then proceed to rip your surprised face off, all without anyone noticing. With a simple touch, you can get sent careening into the air and be left vulnerable to the wrath of the Digger's claws.

Background Story
In the few first months of the apocalypse, governments around the world started to quarantine areas with a high saturation of people. Cities, buildings, and surprisingly, mines were closed off from the rest of the world. With no escape, many people succumbed to the SANI Virus.

For the case of mines, many entrances were blown up to force the cave to collapse. The workers inside had no choice but to die.

These slowly dying workers were unable to summon the dexterity needed to use pickaxes. Due to their self-preservation instinct, the brain-dead miners began to dig desperately in any direction towards an exit.

Even while dying, they weren't allowed to forget the pain of digging through hard surfaces with their bare hands.

When these undead workers finally escaped from their underground prisons, their damaged, broken hands had evolved into hardened claws. In addition to this, due to the minimal exposure to sunlight over the years, daylight's blinding effect on their sight forces them to retreat into the ground. With their claws and their tendency to be within the ground, this led to many referring to the changed miners as "Diggers".

The most notable ability of Diggers is their sharpened claws and unprecedented digging speed, which allows them to dig straight through even the hardest of surfaces.

Controls
Sharp Claw: A basic attack that deals 10 points of damage. Consumes 10 energy.

Sabotage (Passive): If Sharp Claw hits a structure, a Digger deals twice the amount of damage to it compared to a normal zombie.

Charge (Passive): Knocks down the target on contact, ignoring Melee Immunity. Consumes 70 energy.

Digging: The Digger burrows into the ground, and this allows it to move freely through most terrain relatively safely. It cannot dig under water. While digging, it moves slightly slower than it does on land. A small dirt mound appears above where it is digging, allowing survivors to locate it. When digging the hole, the action consumes 50 energy. You can stay underground indefinitely. May also cause disconnection if shot at.

Survivors

 * Take care of Diggers quickly, or else your Buildings may simply be dead weights and a massive waste of money.
 * Try to stun Diggers while they aren't underground to easily take care of them.
 * Since they crawl, they are more susceptible to headshots. Take advantage!
 * Diggers go through an animation while digging underground and while surfacing.
 * This leaves them vulnerable to attack, as they're helpless while the animation is playing.
 * Just generally stay away from them. You never know when they have a charge ready.
 * If a Digger surfaces from the ground from under you, you will be stunned.
 * Pay attention to any particles flying around, and be sure to react in time to dodge the attack.
 * During the last stages of Arena, all Diggers alive will be forced to stay above ground.
 * Don't worry if you see one during these moments. It can't cause a cheap loss for the round.
 * If on the off-chance that a Digger is glitched underground during this phase, you can always Modcall.
 * In Void, use truck to reach those Diggers who may be at the edge of the map, but make sure you slow down as you approach the Digger as you may fall into the void.

Zombies

 * The Digger is designed to give zombies a better chance of approaching heavily armed survivors.
 * You can't dig through everything. If you played R2D 2014, you can compare surface-gameplay to the Crawler.
 * The ability to dig on the allowed maps is a bonus.
 * You cannot dig in:
 * Casius Outpost
 * Victoria Harbor
 * Caved In
 * Bouri Rig 71
 * Blackfield Station
 * S.S. Boliviar
 * M.S Antares
 * No Mercy
 * Blox Harbor
 * The Complex
 * A Winter Wonderland
 * Sunny Seaside
 * New Bloxcoast II
 * Remember to utilise Sabotage to quickly shred through any obstacles survivors create.
 * An easy way to kill survivors is to run up to them, stun, then run away. This leaves them helpless to other mobs.
 * Doing this constantly will cause them to direct their fire at you, leaving them open to other mobs.
 * It's important to plan a safe spot to emerge, otherwise, you will be seen by everyone and be an easy target.
 * Considering you have 340 HP, you can be a little risky in attempting to kill survivors. Don't panic over a scratch.
 * You will be forced out of the ground during Undead Battleground's and Arena's "Kill Remaining Zombies" stage. Be prepared.
 * This also happens with a Pipebomb. If one is thrown down, you will be forced out of the ground.
 * An easy and infamous way to completely kill a Survivor is knocking them off a building, off the map or into water.
 * Though easy and brutal, you do not get any cash reward.

Trivia

 * This is the second zombie that walks on all fours, with the first being the Leaper.
 * This was the second zombie suggestion that was added to R2DA, with the first being the Ticker.
 * This was suggested back in 2016, but it has taken awhile for this zombie to become fully developed.
 * During Debug, the digging speed was much faster than the surface walkspeed.
 * The creator, Rockynic, has stated that the Digger was originally planned to have a mechanical arm to explain the digging ability, but later decided against it and settled on mole-like claws for realism.
 * The first time the Digger was mentioned was in a teaser image posted as a comment on the main page.
 * PlaceRebuilder quickly contacted Rockynic at the sight of it before he even had time to build his suggestion.