¨The chemical attack glued it to whatever object happened to be nearby. Now, it uses this to deal extremely strong blows.¨
The Goon is an uncommon infected in Dying Light and returned as monster in Dying Light 2: Stay Human and Dying Light: The Beast.
Overview
A physically large and strong infected that towers at roughly 8 feet tall, goons carry a heavy rebar (typically a section of concrete with rebar acting as a handle) which it uses to smash into the ground and swing at the player.[1]. It can also use its left arm to bat the survivors away, which works as a secondary attack. Goons are much stronger than regular infected, but are very slow-moving and entirely unable to climb objects and buildings.
The goon's rebar swing is slow with an equally low reload rate, giving the player time to either attack or retreat between swings. Like the demolisher, its attacks damage other infected and can be used to the player's advantage.[1] However, it should be remembered that every strike that the player lands on the goon makes it more aggressive and attack more quickly.
Goons come in 3 different ranks, which begin to appear as the player progresses through the game. The first type wears an orange rubber industrial worker's uniform and is first encountered in the story quest First Assignment. The second type wears a black firefighter's outfit and is first encountered in the volatile nest skyscraper in the quest Siblings. The third type is shirtless with black pants and is missing much of its skin, exposing its muscles. Additionally, a rare variant of the third type also exists in the Slums, after completing The Pit. It is appears similar to the regular third type, but has a green hue and wears hot pink pants as opposed to black, with a rank 1 range. These goons appear once the player reaches Old Town. Each successive rank of goon has more health, and the shockwave from when they slam their rebar into the ground has a larger radius, with the rank 3 goon's shockwave having a radius of nearly 20 feet.
02 February 2022
12 February 2016
30 January 2015
Attacks (DL1)
The goon has has 4 attacks.
- Swing: The goon swings its weapon making a giant shockwave.
- Heavy swing: When a goon is hit by a player and it has noticed said player, the goon will proceed to swing its heavy rebar much more slowly but dealing more damage. This can only happen as a first attack.
- Rotation swing: The goon can at times spin while holding its rebar, dealing massive damage. This is similar to the player's ability to spin with heavy weapons as a critical attack.
- Smack: Name explains itself, the goon simply smacks the player across the face as mentioned in paragraphs above.
Freaks of Nature
There is one freak of nature goon in the Countryside
- Thor is the leader of goons and a larger than the standard goon located in the north east of the Countryside map at the end of a highway. An easy strategy to take him out is to use ranged weapons to avoid the large swing of the rebar.
Strategy (DL1)
- The first goon encountered, as part of the story quest First Assignment, has about 500 health on normal difficulty and requires about 20+ hits from the starting melee weapons to kill. He can also easily be killed by using the many explosive tanks scattered around the area where he is fought. Later rank 1 goons have a little over 900 health. By the end of the game, rank 3 goons will have roughly 2,000 to 2,300 health and will require higher-level melee weapons to kill.
- Early in the game, the most effective melee weapon to use against goons are their own heavy rebar clubs, which deal a little over 200 damage and will kill a goon in about 5 hits.
- Firearms, bows/crossbows, and throwing weapons such as throwing stars and knives can easily eliminate these infected as they can kill the goon from a distance instead of risking your life and weapon condition. For example, if you're on an elevated platform with a police rifle, an aimed shot to the head will almost always result in an instant kill. Although, a safer alternative is to just avoid the creature or give them the slip.
- The Gust of Wind can one hit kill a Goon with headshot at low levels, making it the perfect weapon for painlessly killing Goons. At higher levels it can take 3-4 bolts as a headshot to kill one.
- Hitting the goon with a flammable liquid, followed by a molotov will also allow you to kill the goon safely from a distance. Also you can do the same, but with a fire weapon.
- Bait the goon's initial overhead swing, then run in and hitting him a few times, before falling back from the second swing, repeat this several times, and he'll go down.
- Use your drop kick to stun, rush in and strike a few times, and repeat until he goes down.
- Drop kick appears ineffective, but tackle or upgraded (drop bomb) drop kick stuns for 2—3 swings of a fast weapon before he swipes with his arm.
- Like any other large enemies, goons cannot be vaulted over, drop kicked to the ground, or killed with takedowns.
- Like demolishers, their attack can knock you down for a considerable amount of time and leave you susceptible to other enemies' attack.
- Immune to freezing throwing stars, but vulnerable to the stasis field projector.
- Can be instantly killed with the melee throw ability with weapons supporting ~667 base damage or higher.
- With a weapon at ~600 damage, a power attack can one-hit kill even the 3rd form of goon.
- Using the Grappling Hook, you can move in on them extremely fast just after an attack, allowing up to two attacks before they can react. This makes killing them extremely easy with high damage weapons, with little risk.
- Another simpler and effective method for dealing with a goon would be to throw firecrackers towards the nearest explosive barrel or canister. As a goon will take a swing at firecrackers as it's popping, throwing some near an explosive canister would result in the goon smashing it, and thus, causing an explosion at point-blank range, dealing significant damage.
- Using exploding throwing stars can easily weaken and kill the goon depending on its level. Throwing 10 exploding throwing stars and other explosives have a higher chance to kill the goon.
- On normal difficulty it is effective to throw heavy rebars at them. You can save them up to throw more than one rebar.
- 5—9 shots from the ranger revolver in the head can kill even a level 3 goon.
- If you time your jumps, you can completely avoid the shockwave of the overhead swing. This is far more useful against level 3 goons, since their shockwave is much larger. This can help you keep close for follow up attacks.
- The power attack skill and focus skill make quick work of the goons. All one handed power attacks make the goons flinch, giving you time to dodge away before they swing again.
- If you have the Harran Ranger Bundle DLC, if you collect many materials, you can craft the Ranger Bow and some arrows as early as the first encounter with the level 1 goon. You can one-shot him if you shoot a fully charged arrow to his head. Also works with any level 1 goon you encounter. It'll take more arrows if their "level" is higher.
Testimonials
- Against "Level 1" (Orange Jumpsuit): Repeated success using Tackle when his arm isn't in a "blocking" position, stunning him for 2—3 swings of an 80+ handling weapon, then leap back, repeat. Can also, as mentioned above, simply throw a couple weapons at him (137 power 2H Axe + ~100 power Sickle) to drop him from afar. (~Riley, 3/24/15)
- Against "Level 3" (Gray, shirtless, etc.): Many, many successes via letting him strike, hitting him about 2—4 times with an orange weapon (generally in the +2400 damage range) and backing away when he starts to strike again.
- Against "Level 3" (Gray, shirtless, etc.): Repeated success using a Crossbow (upgraded or otherwise). A direct hit to the head around the eyes will kill him.
Trivia (DL1)
- Their attacks ignite oil, so avoid standing in it when fighting them.
- When they attack, it will hit you regardless if you're above them, below or in front, so long as you're in range.
- Goons share similar aspects to Dead Island's thug, as they are both tall and muscular, and also the wrestler because they both can make shockwaves by slamming the ground. An interesting thing to note is that the words "thug" and "goon" mean the same thing.
- Sometimes, killing a goon will cause him to change facial expressions from a saddened distressed look to an angry scowl.
- In early versions of Dying Light, they appear to wear green jumpsuits as seen in the Gamescom 2014 demo.
- It is never stated or seen on how goons got their rebar. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but maybe the goons at some point found these sculpted somewhere in Harran.
- When shone on with a flashlight, they can sometimes groan in pain and cover their eyes with their free hand while looking away for a brief moment.
- Goons might actually be smarter than most other infected, as they are the only infected in the game that appear to actually seek out and use weapons (While biters probably just turned with a weapon in their hand) as opposed to using their hands, because every single goon you encounter can be seen with their rebar.
- If you play Dying Light: The Following and have acquired the Upgraded Crossbow, 2 shots to the head on a level 3 goon will kill it instantly.
- The goon's rebar may be a reference to the rebar club used in Fallout: New Vegas.
- The Green model with hot pink pants is a direct nod to The Incredible Hulk.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
The Goon makes its appearance and can be found in parts of Villedor. Instead of dragging a concrete rebar section, this Goon has its rebar rammed through its right palm and sticking out the upper arm. Its always found shirtless with tattered pants and withered gray skin. When attacking it will swing its club which deals heavy damage to survivor caught in its range. Though the weight of the club throws the Goon temporarily off balanced with each switch.
The standard version of the goon has a large, unhinged lower jaw and grayish tough skin with some open wounds. Higher level variants have started growing the same blackish, rock like tumors that the Charger and Demolisher have. These high level variants also have a split jaw like a Volatile, and brightly glowing sores and open wounds on their body full of THV GenMod 2 that make them easy to spot at night.
Strategy (DL2)
The Goon is a durable but slow Infected, with wide sweeping power attacks for better or the worst including a Whirlwind styled 360 swing, a Overhead swing,a slap to space enemies, a 360 degree aoe stomp, and a high arcing swing to hit players on small buildings.
The Goon can be used to hit other infected by baiting it's whirlwind attack infront of a group of zombies to send them flying away at worse or to death at best and will generally be vulnerable for a short time frame after swinging(cation whirlwind does have a bit of a back swing) to allow 1-3 attacks with a one handed weapon and will than do a zoning move to get the player off them.
Weaknesses ; Slow telegraphed attacks with a predictable pattern and is still able to be staggered by drop kicks & the like
Notes
The Goons in the original Dying Light closely resemble Thugs from Techlands previous game Dead Island, while Goons featured in Stay Human more closely resemble a Wrestler from its sequel, Dead Island: Riptide.
Gallery
References
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