Image: Naughty Dog / PlayStationOfficial screenshot from Naughty Dog / PlayStation.
Bloater
Bloaters are stage four infected covered in armor-like fungus. They are slow and blind but kill you instantly if they grab you, and they throw bursting sacks of mycotoxin from range. Fire is the way to beat them.
- Threat
- High
- Type
- Infected
Good to know
- It takes years of infection to reach this stage, and bloaters are the rarest infected.
- There is no escape from a bloater grab, not even with a shiv.
- Bricks and bottles don't stun them, and shivs can't kill them.
- Their mycotoxin clouds damage you over time, so move out of them.
- You must fight bloaters in Lincoln and at Lakeside Resort; the ones in Pittsburgh, the University and the Salt Lake City tunnels can be avoided.
How to kill one
Throw a Molotov or use the flamethrower first. Burning strips the armor so lighter weapons work, and the shotgun finishes a stunned bloater well. Two shots from a fully upgraded El Diablo or hunting rifle also kill one, and the Power and Armor Piercing rifle upgrades cut the shots needed. A nail bomb on a burning bloater adds a lot of damage. Keep moving: even a burning bloater can grab you.
Shoot the sacs
Each bloater grows three throwable sacs: lower right belly, upper left chest and upper right back. Shooting them off lowers the damage needed to kill it, and removing all three stops its ranged attack completely, leaving it to charge you.
Bow and melee
Arrows always break on a bloater. They only hurt it after you crack the plates on its head, so it takes at least four arrow headshots. A machete can hurt one too, but three or four hits up close is risky.
- BoulderBoulder, Colorado is where Joel and Ellie search the University of Eastern Colorado for the Fireflies in The University chapter. Left Behind's present-day story picks up nearby at the Colorado Mountain Plaza mall, so this region covers both the campus and the mall.
- LincolnLincoln is a small Massachusetts town a few miles from Boston and the setting of Bill's Town, the fourth chapter. Joel and Ellie come here to call in a favor from Bill, a paranoid survivor who has rigged the whole town with traps, because they need a working vehicle.
- PittsburghPittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a former quarantine zone now run by hunters who ambush anyone passing through. Joel and Ellie spend two chapters here, Pittsburgh and The Suburbs, and meet the brothers Henry and Sam. Expect heavy human combat and the largest pile of collectibles in the game.
- Salt Lake CitySalt Lake City, Utah is the last stop on Joel and Ellie's search for the Fireflies. It is an abandoned quarantine zone where the Fireflies hold Saint Mary's Hospital, and you play the Bus Depot and The Firefly Lab chapters here in spring 2034.
- Silver LakeSilver Lake is a snowbound Colorado resort town and the setting of the Lakeside Resort chapter, where Ellie is playable for most of the winter. A group led by David lives here. Its surroundings include an abandoned coal mine and the Whitefish Lake rest area.
Related enemies
- Infected
Infected
The Infected are people taken over by a mutant Cordyceps fungus, and they are the main threat between every human fight in The Last of Us Part I. In Part I and Left Behind you meet four stages: runners, stalkers, clickers and bloaters, each harder to kill than the last.
- Human
FEDRA
FEDRA, the Federal Disaster Response Agency, is the military government that runs the Boston quarantine zone. Its soldiers are the best-equipped enemies in the first chapters, and you fight them while smuggling Ellie out of Boston.
- Infected
Runner
Runners are stage one infected, people turned within the last couple of days. They still see, move fast and swarm in packs, so the danger is numbers rather than any single runner.
- Human
David's Group
David's group are a group of survivors from a town at Silver Lake, Colorado who hunt Joel and Ellie through the winter. You fight them at the University of Eastern Colorado, in Left Behind at the Colorado Mountain Plaza, and around Lakeside Resort.