History VideoGame / ContagionMonochrome

** The [[StuffBlowingUp grenade and IED]] are certainly awesome to use, but beyond killing riot zombies or very large hordes like in Roanoke P.D.'s lockup, they take up an inventory slot, can only be used once, and their large SplashDamage tends to end up hurting other players and even the one who deployed the explosive.

* BoomHeadshot: A headshot from any weapon will nicely pop a zombie's head (or anyone's head, for that matter), and [[PinkMist make a nice and moist shower of brain and bone pop out the other side]]. This is important, because zombies can otherwise soak a few dozen bullets before dropping (though their overall durability was lowered in the 2020[=/=]2021 updates), which means you'll run out of ammo after only killing a couple of zombies if you aim for the body. Averted with [[HeavilyArmoredMook Riot Zombies]], who [[KungFuProofMook don't take any extra damage from headshots]], and normal zombies with riot helmets. Downplayed with arrows, which are potent enough to make bodyshot kills viable.

** Melee weapons. They cost no ammo to use, are especially useful against riot zombies, and a properly aimed charged attack will kill most things in a single hit. On the downside, using one eats a large amount of stamina, only some like the baseball bats or the sledgehammer can kill reliably, and putting yourself in melee range equals puttting yourself in a range where zombies can actually hit you, which on higher difficulties means you're very likely to [[ZombieInfectee get infected]].

* HeavilyArmoredMook: The riot zombie's armor gives it an assload of hit points and total headshot immunity. It takes quite a lot of bullets, an explosive or a skilled player with a melee weapon to bring one down. A Desert Eagle headshot can also break their helmet and kill them, but Desert Eagle ammo is rare and even finding the gun can be hard on some maps.

* LightningBruiser: In the Panic gamemodes, players are put in the shoes of a slightly weaker Riot zombie. With the ability to sprint, strafe and actively pursue players, however, they become a much larger threat.
* LogicalWeakness: The Riot zombie is completely clothed in bulletproof armor from head to toe. What's the easiest way to deal with him? [[StuffBlowingUp Explosives]]. Also, the armor also doesn't seem to protect them at all from melee weapons.

** The over-under shotgun averts this with a very tight spread. Its high damage and sharp accuracy can allow players to dispatch human enemies and riot zombies with ease within most engagement distances. The downside is you're unlikely to kill more than one zombie at a time.

** HandCannon: A .50AE Desert Eagle was added as a pistol in a 2021 update. It's powerful enough to break a riot zombie's helmet with one shot, but ammo for it is very rare.

*** Three assault rifles - the AR-15, the AK-74U and the SCAR - are present, taking up roles as the JackOfAllStats of firearms. They boast high firepower, decent recoil, and a healthy magazine size, giving more individual bullets per ammo box than any other weapon. The AR-15 or the SCAR are the weapons to use for any battles at long range, as the AK is less accurate but has a bigger magazine. All three are good picks to take down riot zombies quickly.

* SuperPersistentPredator: The Riot zombie will continue to pursue players throughout the entire map until it is killed.

** On a similar note, the Colt 1911. It has most of the SIG's benefits, with one exception: the magazine size on it is a meager 7, but this is offset by .45 ACP ammo pickups coming in big 30-round boxes.

** As mentioned before, the grenade. The weapon possesses a large explosive radius, deals a huge amount of damage to anything within it, and has an awkward throwing arc (it flies straight). Usually, a poorly-aimed toss ends up hurting or even killing allies and the throwing player. In Hunted, however, there are no allies to be careful of. Suddenly, it becomes a surprise weapon fully capable of clearing out entire streets, hallways, and passages. The one-use nature of it removes the need to find ammo for it, and its straight throwing arc allows it to be thrown both in and out of openings. The large damage area ensures that anyone nearby will be hit, making it effective as a suicide weapon, a means to flush out campers, or a method to finishing off runners.

** The IED, a StickyBomb made from a cell phone and a block of explosives. It must be placed by hand and can't be thrown, [[FridgeBrilliance presumably because an impact could dislodge the cell phone wired to the explosive]].

* LogicalWeakness: The Riot zombie is completely clothed in bulletproof armor from head to toe. What's the easiest way to deal with him? [[StuffBlowingUp Explosives]]. Also, the armor also doesn't seem to protect them at all from melee weapons, [[FridgeBrilliance which makes sense: in real life, tactical armor works decent against bullets, but isn't so hot against blunt force trauma or blades]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the original two ''VideoGame/ZombiePanic'' games.

* UniqueEnemy: Added to the 2020[=/=]2021 update to the Camp Whitner map in Escape mode is the [=PvE=] mode's only human enemy, Sebastian, a cult leader[=/=]drug dealer[=/=]arms smuggler who serves as the ArcVillain of the map. You fight him in the escape tunnel at the end of the level; he's armed with a powerful Desert Eagle and can soak almost 2 full mags of submachinegun fire before going down.

* DeadlyGas: Green gas leaks out of the manhole leading to the first [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewer]] section of Montclair. You have to find the evac zone in the park to get a gas mask to proceed through; climbing down into the gas unprotected, or removing the mask while down there, is guaranteed death.

** Big caliber firearms aren't that useful in general. They trade ammo capacity and firing speed for range and damage, however very few firefights are long-distance ones. The Remington 700 in particular gets a niche use in Barlowe Square to clear out the zombies further ahead on a street you have to go through, but that's it. The semi-automatic [[CoolGuns/BattleRifles M1 Garand]] [[TruthInTelevision is very inconvenient to reload from a not-emptied clip]]. The BLR, revolver and Desert Eagle fare a bit better for medium-ranged combat, but even so, the rarity of their ammo types and tiny max reserve make them less than practical. The Desert Eagle at least has some unique utility in that it's the only weapon that can one-shot the HeavilyArmoredMook zombies with a headshot.

** SniperRifle: The Remington, the BLR and the M1 Garand. While the first is your normal run-of-the-mill scoped bolt-action rifle, the second is a lever-action with a detachable magazine, and the Garand is [[CoolGuns/BattleRifles the Garand]]. Only the Remington has a scope by default, the others have iron sights but can take rails to mount red dot sights on.

* ZombieInfectee: Unless it's turned off before a match, if you get grappled[=/=]bitten by a player-controlled zombie (or a regular mook zombie in higher difficulties), you run a high chance of becoming infected. If you do get infected, you will die and respawn as a zombie after a couple minutes. Your only hope is to find an Inoculator.

* {{Abandonware}}: For a while. Though the game was still up for sale, the community was still active and making mods and at least one of the devs kept an eye out on Steam forum discussions, the game didn't have a significant update from mid-2016 up until Christmas 2019 when development picked back up.

* BoomHeadshot: A headshot from any weapon will nicely pop a zombie's head (or anyone's head, for that matter), and [[PinkMist make a nice and moist shower of brain and bone pop out the other side]]. This is important, because zombies can otherwise soak a few dozen bullets before dropping, which means you'll run out of ammo after only killing a couple of zombies if you aim for the body. Averted with [[HeavilyArmoredMook Riot Zombies]], who [[KungFuProofMook don't take any extra damage from headshots]], and normal zombies with riot helmets. Downplayed with arrows, which are potent enough to make bodyshot kills viable.

** The 2020[=/=]2021 updates added regular zombies wearing riot helmets. They're also resistant to headshots, but since they don't have armor on their torso you can take them out with a few dozen bullets or a few shotgun blasts.

* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: A headshot with any gun or a charged melee weapon strike will kill anything in the game that isn't a riot armor zombie. Yes, even other players. It's impractical to kill zombies with anything other than headshots, because they can otherwise soak a very large amount of damage before dying[[labelnote:+]]''one single zombie'' can take about 31 shots to the chest from the SIG SAUER before dropping dead; that's practically a full horde that you could have killed with well-aimed headshots[[/labelnote]]. The sole exception is the arrow-based weapons, that can kill a zombie in three body shots.

* ArtificialStupidity: A.I.-controlled Bots were officially added to the game in 2022. They're decent at fighting zombies if you crank their skill level up to max setting, but they have trouble following you through the level and have no idea what to do if a zombie manages to get into melee range. Overall they act ''remarkably'' like ''[[VideoGame/HalfLife Half Life 1]]'''s Barney, which may not be surprising given that their A.I. is apparently based on that of ''VideoGame/CounterStrikeSource''. Overall they're decent for Horde mode and more open hub-based maps like Camp Whitner, but terrible for close-quarters linear maps like Roanoke Police Department.

** [[HeavilyArmoredMook Riot/SWAT zombies. They're extremely resistant to damage, soaking up bullets like a large sponge soaks up water (it takes at least a full mag of assault rifle fire or 7 shotgun blasts to kill them)]], [[KungFuProofMook and headshots don't do any extra damage to them)]].

** The 2021[=/=]2022 updates have added "boss" zombies to Flatline horde mode, including an armored charger and a mutated zombie with enormous health.
* GlassCannon: Living players are nowhere near as durable as zombies, but they've got firepower backing them up.

* HeavilyArmoredMook: The riot zombie's armor gives it an assload of hit points and total headshot immunity. It takes quite a lot of bullets, an explosive or a skilled player with a melee weapon to bring one down.

** Big caliber firearms aren't that useful in general. They trade ammo capacity and firing speed for range and damage, however very few firefights are long-distance ones. The Remington 700 in particular gets a niche use in Barlowe Square to clear out the zombies further ahead on a street you have to go through, but that's it. The semi-automatic [[CoolGuns/BattleRifles M1 Garand]] [[TruthInTelevision is very inconvenient to reload from a not-emptied clip]]. The BLR, revolver and Desert Eagle fare a bit better for medium-ranged combat, but even so, the rarity of their ammo types and tiny max reserve make them less than practical.

* MultiMookMelee: The finale of each Escape game involves the player(s) holding out against a ''massive'' horde of zombies, while attempting to accomplish an objective such as activate a generator then waiting for a gate to open or a rescue helicopter to arrive. Provided you have enough ammo and manage to avoid being boxed into a corner and overwhelmed, you ''could'' wipe out a whole horde, but there was just enough breathing room before another shows up to complete a few more objectives, run to get more ammo, or use a health kit; with the newer updated, the flow of zombies is constant and much harder to negotiate.

* HandCannon: A .50AE Desert Eagle was added as a pistol in a 2021 update. It's powerful enough to break a riot zombie's helmet with one shot, but ammo for it is very rare.

** RevolversAreJustBetter: The Revolver has about 3 times the stopping power of the 9mm SIG pistol and can kill a survivor with 2 shots to the chest, but ammo for it is rare and you can't carry much.