Fleshpound

“The Fleshpound. Shooting him with small weapons just makes him mad. Think big, powerful weapons for this one!!”

– Loading screen hint

The Fleshpound, the most powerful non-boss specimen in the game, makes its first appearance in the last waves of the game. It has spiked gauntlets that can spin and shred anything in its path, and is also equipped with an adrenaline pump in its chest; if a player deals too much damage to it too quickly or if it spends too long out of combat, the Fleshpound will rage and let out a loud roar, and its pump will turn red and activate. While it is enraged, it will run much faster and dole out a massive amount of damage, usually killing or leaving players in need of medical treatment.

Biology

Appearance

The Fleshpound appears as a tall muscular humanoid with a number of metal attachments. There is a large light on its lower torso and several small lights on its back which change colour dependent on its mood; either amber or red. There are metal plates covering its eyes, groin, spine, feet, and part of its chest. On both arms there are large spiked tubular metal attachments.

Behaviour

While most other specimens will pick and change targets based on proximity, the Fleshpound fixates and will pursue one specific player until it loses line of sight or either one of them is dead. However, since the Christmas Update, the Fleshpound's behavior has changed in that it will automatically target players that are dealing damage to it if the current target is running away or isn't firing on it.

Fleshpounds also have a tendency to rage, signified by their distinctive imposing roar and the red colourisation of their torso light. A raging Fleshpound runs towards its target at great speed and causes massive damage. There are two triggers for this rage, the first and foremost of which is based on damage over time; if a Fleshpound receives more than approximately 320 damage within a 3 to 5 second period it will rage. The second trigger is based on time; if a Fleshpound hasn't made it into attacking range for a variable length of time it will become frustrated and rage anyway. A Fleshpound's rage can subside after it has struck a player providing the conditions for its occurrence are no longer being met, or after a long period of time without coming into contact with a player. There is also no cool down period for their rage, so a Fleshpound can rage again immediately after calming down. Between its inhuman growls and laughter, Fleshpound can be heard hissing "I can't wait!", "Flesh... Pound!", "We will fix you!" words between its teeth.

An interesting point regarding Fleshpound behaviour is their lack of regard for other specimens. A raging Fleshpound will mow through weak specimens to get to its target. If an obstructing specimen is strong enough to survive, like a Bloat or Scrake, they will sometimes retaliate against the Fleshpound, who will in turn engage them in combat instead of the players. Unless disturbed, specimens engaged in fights with each other will ignore players until the fight is over, with the victor usually being the Fleshpound.

Statistics

General Fleshpound Information

See the specimen modifiers page for explanations of each field, as well as calculating for multiple players.

	Beginner	Normal	Hard	Suicidal	Hell on Earth
Bounty	£400	£200	£170	£130
Health	750 (350*)	1500 (700*)	2025 (945*)	2325 (1085*)
Damage	10	35	43	52
Speed	123	130	149	158
Range	55
* Head health

Damage Multipliers

|- class="wikitable"

Multiplier* Damage source

|- | align="center" |2.33× |Torso/head shot from M79, M32, and M4 203 grenades. |- | align="center" |2.00× |Hand grenade, pipe bomb, torso/head shot from L.A.W. |- |- align="center" |1.25× |Leg shot from M79, M32, and M4 203 grenades. |- |- align="center" |1.00× |Leg shot from L.A.W. |- |- align="center" |0.75× |Headshots from M14, LAR, and dud explosives. |- |- align="center" |0.35× |Crossbow headshots on Suicidal and Hell on Earth. |- |- style="border-top-width: 3px;border-top-style: double;" align="center" |0.50× | style="border-top-width: 3px;border-top-style: double;" |Everything else. |} * Multipliers for explosives are not always accurate because of damage falloff that increases proportionally to the explosion's distance from the center of the Fleshpound's body.

Extermination Tactics

In General

• Be carefully not to anger it prematurely; it can mean death on higher difficulties.
• If the player's current weapon is weak, then the safest way to kill him is to do so slowly and to frequently escape his line of sight, so as to not enrage it: inflict less than 360 damage every two seconds and cut eyesight again in 10 seconds at most.

Field Medic

The Field medic lacks any weapon perks that would give it an edge in a straight-up fight with a Fleshpound. However, their incredibly effective body armor gives them a durability that becomes increasingly useful as one reaches harder difficulties. On Suicidal, a Field Medic with intact body armor can safely shield the rest of the team from a Fleshpound as long as they continue to fire on the specimen, allowing them to be taken down with relatively little harm. However, the Medic should always keep tabs on his armor level - once the vest is gone, one swing from the Fleshpound will gib the Medic like any other class. Alternatively a Medic can carry Hunting shotgun and deal heavy damage to the Fleshpound as the specimen is being focus fired by the whole squad. They can also assist in keeping those engaged with the Fleshpound alive; since it can do so much damage in one blow, a competent Medic can save a player from being instantly killed by a follow-up swing or any specimens supporting the Fleshpound.

In solo play, a Medic can kite calmed FPs and use the Lever-Action, M14, or M7A3 to safely chip away at their health with headshots, so long as the Medic has ways of breaking line of sight with the target.

Support Specialist

The massive reservoir of grenades available to the Support specialist class is perhaps the class's best weapon against the Fleshpound due to it's weakness to explosives. Unfortunately, it's incredibly dangerous for the Support class, especially if the Fleshpound is close, and extremely expensive. Much like Scrakes, if a Support has to take down an FP it will take a great deal of ammunition (more than a single drum from the AA-12 depending on the difficulty and perk level), so carrying the hunting shotgun for even more firepower is encouraged. A single grenade throw then a secondary fire from Hunting Shotgun followed up by 2 more grenades will severely weaken Fleshpound or kill it in a blink. Support's biggest issue here is the presence of Siren or multiple Sirens coupled up with Fleshpound as they will exterminate the grenades. In that situation Support's best bet will be his AA-12 to cut down the crowd with Siren or a fellow Firebug or Commando's help to deal with those troublesome specimens.

The Support class can also kite a Fleshpound in solo mode using the AA-12's single shots rather than fully auto, but with the perk's limited run speed, you will have to rely on obstacles and welded doors to keep them from raging regardless.

As a side note, a raging Fleshpound seems to forget to attack welded doors; this is most likely when player manage to do it when the specimen is enraged. You can weld the door up the Fleshpound's face and forget about it for a long while, if he can't find any specimen or player to attack he may have an aneurysm and die behind the door as the players run away from it to a certain distance.

Sharpshooter

The Sharpshooter is one of the more ideal classes for handling the Fleshpound on all difficulties. On some lower difficulties a Sharpshooter can kill a Fleshpound with one headshot from the Crossbow (even with its resistance to that specific weapon), and both the Lever-action rifle and M14 EBR deal an impressive amount of damage with repeated headshots, decapitating him in 2.5 to 5 seconds. While the single 9mm and Handcannon are not encouraged, and should the Sharpshooter suddenly finds himself face to face with one, the high rate of fire of Dual Handcannons or Dual .44 Magnums can possibly save the Sharpshooter's life. While on Suicidal, the pistols are nearly essential for Fleshpound removal, but the massive bonus the Fleshpound receives against them on Hell on Earth makes pistols nearly useless, and makes soloing Sharpshooter far riskier. However, it's possible to use 2 pair of strong dual pistols by switching like Handcannons and .44 Magnums together to decap a Fleshpound at Hell on Earth 6-player. It's a risky move and requires experience with dual pistols to score accurate headshots as well as weakening his head health abit before starting to unload 4 magazines of pistol rounds.

In solo play it is still possible to simply kite them along until you have sufficient range to fire the 2-3 crossbow bolts required, and at higher difficulty levels you can kite safely by using the M14. Keep in mind that once hit from the head by a Crossbow bolt or Lever-action Rifle - if the Fleshpound isn't killed outright - it will instantly rage and target you. Lining up another headshot is difficult (but not impossible) while in this state, but it's recommended that you ensure your safety first before lining up a second shot. When using the Crossbow it is recommended to keep your distance, especially on Hell on Earth difficulty; there should be at least 25 meters between you and the Fleshpound before you aim for a headshot. After scoring 3 bolt headshots it's possible to decap the FP with a mere Handcannon headshot then unloading the rest of the magazine to its body.

In Suicidal and Hell on Earth difficulty, the Lever-action Rifle and M14 EBR have more DPS than the Crossbow due to Fleshpound's resistances, and decapitate this specimen considerably faster with a greater number of quicker shots. Roughly 6-7 Lever-action head shots is enough to kill a Fleshpound, but the Fleshpound will be enraged with your first head shot. You can decapitate the Fleshpound with about 10 head shots from the M14EBR during his enraging animation if you're quick. Before attempting to finish him with the Lever Action Rifle or Crossbow it would be smart to chip his head health with M14 or Handcannon first.

The M99 AMR, while heavy, is capable of taking a Fleshpound's head off in one shot on all difficulties with under 3 players. Even if the first shot doesn't kill it, however, it will still weaken the Fleshpound enough for it to be finished off, either by a follow-up shot or by teammates. Because of the M99's slow reload, it is best to engage the Fleshpound at long ranges, leaving enough time to reload for a follow-up shot.

Commando

Commandos are at a distinct disadvantage against Fleshpounds, as their weapons have plenty of weak ammunition, which is made even weaker by the Fleshpound's damage resistance. In short, they're only truly good for raging the Fleshpound, and should only chip in with the SCAR or FAL when the team opts to focus fire on one - otherwise, the Commando should save his weaponry to mop up the horde behind the Fleshpound so that they won't swarm the rest of the team later on.

In solo play, tackling Fleshpounds is a long and arduous kiting process, which requires cover in order to break line of sight. In wide open areas, a solo Commando will likely have a great deal of difficulty with one Fleshpound, and should expect to be hit at least once if they don't see the specimen in time to unload multiple SCAR, FAL, or AK mags into them. On higher difficulties, it may simply be nearly impossible to win in a solo engagement due to the Fleshpound's inherent resistance. The Commando can compensate for this by taking the M32 or Pipe bomb as an off-perk weapon for Fleshpound removal, but it can only do so much.

Berserker

While their damage reduction bonus isn't as great as the Medic's with armour, Berserkers can pitch in with heavier melee weapons in a team setting. The chainsaw in particular deals an astounding amount of damage, and - coupled with a Sharpshooter's crossbow - can decapitate a Fleshpound very quickly. The katana, claymore, and fire axe can help in a pinch, but in the long run the Chainsaw will help cut down the Fleshpound with minimal loss of life, though on higher difficulties the Berserker will most likely need a supporting Medic during and after the fight.

Soloing as a Berserker may be a bit more challenging. Using a backup weapon to thin out the crowd around the Fleshpound, and then using a fire axe's alternate fire can allow a nimble Berserker to jump in and out of the specimen's range, whacking it in the head repeatedly whilst keeping himself out of harm's way. This takes a great deal of practice, but is effective on every difficulty level, and can even be used to take pressure off your squad in a team game. However, it becomes exponentially more difficult if two Fleshpounds appear in tandem, or if supported by a Scrake or Siren. However, to avoid the Fleshpound raging, be sure not to inflict more than one attack within a two-second period, and make sure that it attempts to attack at least once every ten seconds. It is preferable to soak a Fleshpound attack while it is unraged if necessary.

The Dwarfs!? Axe has a normal attack which can knock Fleshpounds away from the player, and in useful situations, to knock them away from unaware players. If the Berserker has excellent timing, he can lead up consecutive blows to the head, knocking the Fleshpound away while it is calm or enranged, eventually killing them (Higher leveled berserkers will have an easier time doing this.)

A unique strategy when you are either in a solo game, or the last alive, is to have one of the few firebug weapons (Not the Flamethrower) and light the Fleshpound ablaze, and run somewhere where you can break line of sight, and have plenty of distance to keep the enraged Flesphound from catching you. Not only will he help thin the horde by having it run over them, he will be more weakened, which will allow you to deal with them in close combat somewhat easier. The hit and run tactic is still advised.

Firebug

Much like the Commando, the Firebug simply doesn't deal enough damage against Fleshpounds, making it a very risky affair. Firebugs should treat Fleshpounds as collateral much like the Scrake, but must take care not to focus fire on it unless the remainder of the team does - the flamethrower doesn't do enough damage to take down the Fleshpound by itself. When Fleshpound enrages he will shrug off afterburn effects of Flamethrower so it's advised to keep him under fire when he's about to charge. Crisping - and therefore confusing - the Fleshpound is essential in Hell on Earth, especially when the team is having trouble with a seperate mob and can only get rid of the Fleshpound by focus firing. The Husk Fireball Gun provides good damage and range, especially on a fully-charged shot, but this will likely cause the Fleshpound to rage; something to be avoided without an obstacle to block its progress. Firebug should be ensured that the Fleshpound is close to get crisping before he/she lands the fully charged headshot which cause Fleshpound to enrage.

In a solo effort - with enough cover - it simply becomes a kiting game of lighting the Fleshpound on fire and running out of sight, repeating until the specimen keels over. In the open, you're usually better off to open fire with the Mac-10 at long range, then switch to the Flamethrower or Husk Cannon to deal a grievous amount of damage in medium range before the Fleshpound can connect; however, this places a massive strain on one's ammunition stores, and the Firebug of a lower perk level runs the risk of killing themselves with the Flamethrower's self-damage. Concisely throwing a single Incendiary Grenade will break their rage and cause them to lose their target - helpful for when they're being focus fired on and enraging.

Demolitions

Unlike the Scrake, the Demolitions class excels in Fleshpound removal due to the specimen's weakness to explosives. A single grenade/rocket from any of the perk's weapons (barring the bullets from the M4203) does enough damage to make the Fleshpound go into his enrage animation and a smart demolitions player should try to take advantage of this as much as possible; either by waiting until the Fleshpound is directly on top of a Pipe bomb before raging it or by stacking 1 to 3 hand grenades at the fleshpound's feet before setting everything off with his M79 / M32 / M4 203 / LAW. Players should note that explosives fired from the above four weapons does approximately twice the usual amount of damage on a direct hit to the upper torso area of the Fleshpound and the tactics below are written with this in mind.

Despite dealing increased damage to the Fleshpound, the M79 and M4 203 should not be used as a primary weapon for Fleshpound removal. Due to their slow reload rate, the Fleshpound will have finished its raging animation and be charging by the time the weapon is ready for its second shot. If forced to use these two weapons against Fleshpounds, the demolitions player should try to combine it with pipe bombs or hand grenades to maximize the damage dealt in the first attack while backpedaling during his reload animation to buy time for a second shot.

While the L.A.W does very high damage per shot, it is still considered a risky weapon to use for Fleshpound removal as it suffers from the same slow reload rate as the 2 grenade launchers. The demolitions player will usually only have time for two rockets and the Fleshpound will always be charging when taking the second shot. To complicate matters, rockets are easily negate by a siren's scream and the large blast radius of the LAW means the demolitions player have a serious chance of heavily injuring himself while the Fleshpound is charging at him during his second shot. In order to manage the risk of using this weapon, the demolitions player should combine it with pipe bombs or hand grenades like the example given above. If done correctly, a level 6 demolitions should be able to kill a 6-man HoE Fleshpound with his 1st barrage, saving his 2nd rocket as a backup in case anything goes wrong.

If equipped with the M32, a demolitions player can easily get rid of Fleshpounds. The first shot from the M32 will rage the Fleshpound and the demolitions player can continue to empty the rest of his M32 chamber into the Fleshpound while it is stationary and raging; taking between 2 to 7 direct, upper torso grenade hits to kill a 6-man Fleshpound depending on perk level and difficulty. (The 7th, final grenade being shot from the M79 or M203 if the demolitions has one equipped.) To make things even easier, the demolitions player can throw up to 3 hand grenades at the Fleshpound before making his first M32 shot to reduce the number of hits needed. Unless low on ammunition, the demolitions player should never try to throw additional hand grenades during the Fleshpound's rage animation as firing from his M32 will deal more damage within the same amount of time, is cheaper, and has a lower chance of being negated by a siren.

Background

The story behind the Fleshpound is that they were developed by Horzine, to make super-soldiers. Fleshpounds were routinely injected with muscle growth stimulants and adrenaline cocktails to help build a titanic body, however it had the side effect of making them incredibly violent and quick to anger. After a few accidents, each Fleshpound was harnessed with a device to monitor their adrenaline levels, as well as to inject them with depressants and other chemicals in order to keep them calm. However, the device also served as a life preserver, as it would flood the Fleshpound's system with adrenaline and stimulants whenever it was in pain.

They were considered a failure, and the entire population of them was consigned to the lowest levels of Horzine's laboratory. When it came time to destroy them, the drugs used instead triggered their devices into action, allowing them to break free from their bonds and kill the laboratory's staff. However, they were never able to free themselves from the 'mace' restraints used to hold their giant fists at bay, which ironically makes them even better at pounding flesh. Their name stems from the few words that they knew.