Digger

"His law? Clear his lawn or be mowed down by his claws"

―Rockynic

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 artefact 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 seem 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. The panic and adrenaline that once coursed through the dying miner's bodies also leads to these infected being extremely powerful, often knocking survivors off their feet.

Controls

PC	Gamepad	Tablet	Description
			Sharp Claw: A basic attack that deals 10 points of damage. Consumes 10 energy.
			Dig: 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. You can stay underground indefinitely (excludes last phases of Undead Battleground or Arena). When digging the hole, the action consumes 50 energy.
			Knock (Passive): Knocks down the target on contact, ignoring Melee Immunity. Consumes 70 energy.
			Sabotage (Passive): Deals double damage to Structures (Doors & Disruptors included), giving 10$ per hit.

Tips

Survivors

Take care of Diggers quickly, or else your Buildings may simply be dead weights and a massive waste of money.
Diggers may try to tunnel to the surface right underneath you in order to trip you.
- If you want to trick them out, you can pretend that you are AFK, jump out of the way and kick them.
  - This may lead into you being tripped, but if that happens you can easily just get back up, kick it again and then shoot it before it goes underground to escape.
Try to stun Diggers while they aren't underground to easily take care of them.
- The Ice Gun and Ice Bullets help prevent Diggers digging to escape.
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.
- This window of opportunity is small though. Try to use a hard-hitting weapon quickly, like the RPG.
Just generally stay away from Diggers. You never know when they are ready to attack.
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 and Undead Battleground, 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.
- In Void, you can use the M939 or Van 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.
Using the Flamethrower can easily kill Diggers, even if they stun you. The burn damage will most likely kill them before they can land more attacks.

Zombies

The Digger is designed to give zombies, like Brutes or the Skull Champion, 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:
- 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.
- Avoid standing on a survivor after tripping them as they may Punch or Kick you, stunning you.
It's important to plan a safe spot to emerge, otherwise, you will be seen by everyone and be an easy target.
Stay away from groups, unless you are sure you can attack an individual.
- If in doubt, run away by digging to escape.
Considering you only have 180 HP, it can be very risky to attempt to kill survivors. Avoid doing so, unless you're sure that you can kill an individual.
You will be forced out of the ground during Undead Battleground's and Arena's "Kill Remaining Zombies" stage. Be prepared.
- You will get NoobBusted if you try to dig in this stage.
An easy and infamous way to kill or significantly damage a survivor is by knocking them off a building, off the map, into lethal water or into a horde of zombies.
- 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 is the second zombie suggestion submitted by a user that was added to R2DA, after the Ticker.
During Debug, the underground 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.
In v1.3.7, the Digger received some changes.
- The Digger's HP was changed from 340 to 180.
- The Digger's Dig was made to be much faster.
- The price for the Digger was changed from 300$ to 120$.
For some reason the Digger HP is higher in Beginners servers, due to the v1.3.7 update nerfing the HP of the Digger for normal servers.
- It is likely PlaceRebuilder forgot about lowering the HP of Diggers in Beginners servers.
When the Digger was added, it was considered unbalanced, due to the get-up animation playing every time you were tripped. This would cause a player to get continuously tripped until their probable death.
- This caused the animation to be removed.