Breaker
Breakers are hulking male Freakers that soak up huge damage and can knock you flat with one swing. Treat each one as a mini-boss: stay at range, lead with explosives and finish with headshots.
- Threat
- High
- Type
- Infected
Appears in
Found in
- Crater LakeCrater Lake is the far southern region built around the real lake and Wizard Island, the Militia's headquarters. It opens in the second half of the story and has the most encampment jobs and NERO research sites in the game.
- Red Cross Plane CrashA wrecked Red Cross supply plane on the Ripper side of the Lost Lake border. In Playing All Night, Deacon sneaks into Ripper land to find antibiotics for Boozer here and has to kill a Breaker to get them.
Good to know
- A Breaker can take more than 100 rounds from most automatic weapons.
- It runs almost as fast as you and can climb, so running away rarely works.
- Explosions and headshots do the most damage. Fire barely slows one down.
- A powerful enough rifle can kill one with a single headshot.
- Axes and sledgehammers can stagger it, but melee is still a bad idea.
- Once it starts charging, only explosions knock it back.
- Breakers attack other Freakers on sight and tear Swarmers apart.
- The Executioner skill lets you stealth attack heavy Freakers like Breakers.
- Killing a Breaker, Reacher or Rager with a knife earns the Silver trophy This is a Knife.
How it behaves
One hit from a Breaker launches you backward, and a grab deals heavy damage. It resists flinching from bullets and most melee hits. It keeps pace with you on foot and climbs after you. Flashbangs and smoke bombs are your best way to break contact.
How to beat it
Fight from a hidden spot. Open with pipe bombs, grenades or mines, then switch to headshots with a shotgun or sniper rifle. When it closes in, blind it or smoke it, move to new cover and repeat. Do not stand and trade blows.
Where you meet it
Your first Breaker guards the cargo at the Red Cross plane crash in Playing All Night, deep in Ripper territory. It is busy killing a Swarmer when you arrive. More show up as the game goes on, especially around Crater Lake. Deacon's journal treats them as a fairly new mutation.
Easy to miss
With Executioner unlocked, sneak up on an unaware Breaker for a stealth kill. That counts as a knife kill for This is a Knife.
Related enemies
- Infected
Reachers
Reachers are fast, hairy Freakers that charge, maul you, then back off to set up an ambush. They hit as hard as a Breaker with about half its health, so steady aim matters more than raw firepower.
Image: Bend Studio / PlayStationHumanRippers
The Rippers are a Freaker-worshipping cult that shaves, scars and drugs its members and hunts anyone who will not join. They hit the northern regions hardest, and with no body armor they go down fast if you hold a choke point.
- Infected
Bleacher
Bleachers are pale, shirtless Swarmers with about 50% more health and a harder hit. They are a newer mutation you meet later, and the same tactics as Swarmers work if you bring a few extra rounds.
- Human
Deschutes County Militia
The Deschutes County Militia is Colonel Garret's army in the south and the best-trained human force you meet. For much of the second half you work for them at Diamond Lake and Wizard Island. Their soldiers are also the toughest humans in the game to kill.