Atomfall Enemies Guide

The Windscale nuclear disaster brought with it a lot of dangers to its surrounding area, and all of those are now locked with you in the quarantine zone. If you have any hope of escape, you'll need to learn how to handle them.

READ: Atomfall Melee Combat Tips

Here are all Atomfall enemies, and how you can best deal with them, minimizing the challenge and, crucially, precious resource usage in this survival setting.

All Atomfall Enemies

Despite being a relatively short experience, we personally clocked it at around 18 hours played, Atomfall has quite decent enemy variety. Here are all the foes you'll encounter in the quarantine zone:

• Humans- Split into three different factions, these are fairly normal humans (physically speaking, that is).
• Swarms- There are a few kinds of swarms in Atomfall, and they're all equally annoying to deal with.
• Plants- You'll find two different radioactive plants in the quarantine zone, and you should avoid both.
• Zombie-likes- As expected from a nuclear disaster, some humans turned into radioactive zombies. There are three different kinds of these in Atomfall, which we'll get into later.
• Robots- B.A.R.D. brought with them a lot of sci-fi tech, with the highlight being their massive robots. Whether they're holding a massive machine gun or a flamethrower that feels like a Napalm Strike, they're equally deadly.

So how can you deal with each of these threats?

Plants

Hiding From An Orange Plant. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

You should avoid all plants you encounter in Atomfall. The purple ones are literally unkillable, and the green ones are not worth the effort. You can easily take the latter down by rushing in with a melee weapon, but you risk getting poisoned.

They do not drop any loot unless you invest into a skill that will let you harvest spores, which isn't worth it either way because you'll eventually be overflowing with crafting resources regardless. Our recommendation is to ignore them all.

Swarms

There are a few kinds of swarms in Atomfall, which should be handled differently, so we'll go into each of these types individually.

READ: Atomfall- List of all Training Manual locations

Fish

There are massive hungry leeches in a lot of waterbeds in Atomfall. They're big swarms that swim much faster than you can walk in the water, so they'll always catch up to you.

Their attacks inflict bleed, and they're tough to clear, so we recommend avoiding them. Even bigger waterbeds will featured rocks or structures throughout them to help you get out of the water, so just jump out when they're getting close, and get back in when they leave.

Bees

Bees do not attack unless provoked, so simply avoid the huge purple hives spread throughout the quarantine zone and you won't have any issues. If you do anger them, you're screwed.

When being chased by bees, we recommend sprinting away, and swinging with a cricket bat or any other big melee weapon, once you can get the entire swarm in front of you. Avoiding them entirely is much easier, though.

With that being said, you can use them to your advantage if you spot a group walking by a bee hive. Shoot with down and they'll attack whatever is in their range.

Bats

Hunted By Bats. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

Bats are found in caves and don't usually come in too big of a swarm. They're quick and annoying, but they die with one hit each. Simply pull out one of your big melee weapons and whack away.

Rats

If you've read Atomfall reviews or visited the subreddit, you'll know that everyone hates rats, and rightly so. These guys come in gigantic swarms that will spawn endlessly unless you take our their nest.

They're usually found in bunkers or enclosed spaces, and they're quite hard to see in darker areas, so they're truly the stuff of nightmares. If that's not bad enough, their hits don't deal much damage, but they poison you. Great!

To deal with rats, just keep running and ignore the swarm until you whack their nest into oblivion. Once that's taken care of, run away to get some distance from the main swarm, and then turn around and swing while walking backwards. You'll always take damage, but hopefully not enough to get poisoned.

If you have the spare resources, we recommend always keeping an Explosive Lure on hand. These are grenades that attract swarms, and they're excellent at handling rats. Simply take down their nest, run away, and chuck the Lure into the middle of the swarm.

READ: Atomfall tier list- best weapons, ranked

Humans

Following the mysterious accident inside the power plant, the humans that were stuck inside the quarantine zone eventually split into three different factions. Their behavior remains similar, but they carry different equipment. You'll handle them the same way, though.

• Outlaws- Found in all areas of the game, Outlaws are the stereotypical post-apocalyptic bandits, with a punk twist. They'll mostly carry melee weapons, but they can also be found with rusty guns and explosives.
• Druids- Mostly found in the Casterfell Woods, these religious fanatics seem to be a part of the anti-gun movement. You'll only find them using melee weapons and a bow-and-arrow, with the occasional poison bomb throw.
• Protocol Soldiers- In the later areas of Atomfall, you'll encounter the Protocol soldiers, members of a military group that seems to be attempting to terrorize people to keep the "order". They will often be armed to the teeth, wear helmets, and use Stun Sticks.

You should change your approach based on what kind of equipment your enemies own, but the way you deal with human enemies is mostly the same throughout your time in Atomfall.

Surrounded By Angry Druids. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

Ranged opponents should be rushed down, or shot from afar. A single headshot with any gun or bow and arrow will take down any human that isn't using an helmet.

High damage guns can take enemies with helmets down with a single headshot, but pistols and a bow and arrow won't do the job with a single hit. Arrows are easy to dodge, but you can also dodge bullets, as long as you're not close to shooter.

If you're facing a group of humans, use throwables to thin the herd, and handle the ranged enemies first. If they're mostly melee-users, you can aim at them with a gun or bow to keep them away, grouping them for a perfect grenade or Molotov throw.

At the later stages of the game, most humans will be armed and in big groups, so we recommend mostly reverting to using pistols for those without helmets, and rifles for those with helmets, foregoing melee weapons entirely.

Robots

There are two types of B.A.R.D Robots in the quarantine zone, and they are the deadliest enemies you'll find in Atomfall. Thankfully, they're quite slow, and their artificial intelligence isn't the best, seems like Protocol wasn't working with the best software.

Depending on which robot you're fighting, there are different ways to deal with them, so we're tackling each robot individually.

Machine Gun Robot

The Menacing B.A.R.D. Robot. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

This guy is a pain in the ass. He'll spot you from afar and immediately shoot you down. If you're out of cover for more than a few seconds, you're most likely dead.

These robots have a lot of range, so their slow movement speed isn't much of a hindrance. What they don't have though, is a lot of intelligence. They will walk towards you regardless of the situation, and their weak point is their "head".

Shooting the glass part of the robot will eventually break it, exposing the circuitry inside. Shoot the circuitry enough times and the robot will overheat, allowing you to rush in and remove the atomic battery from its back, turning it off.

Using their lower intelligence against the robot is the best way to take it down. Get behind cover as soon as you're spotted, and use that cover to get a line of sight towards their "head", without being seen by their gattling gun.

In our experience, they'll either stand there waiting for you to be vulnerable, or slowly walk towards you trying to get a direct line of sight for a shot. As long as you're never exposed enough to be shot, you can shoot their weak spot until they overheat, without them ever being able to fight back.

Flame Thrower Robot

One Hell Of A Flamethrower. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

Despite how intimidating they might look, Flame Thrower Robots are actually much easier to deal with, as long as you respect the fact that those flames do not care about walls.

Instead of using cover to take these guys down, you'll use range. They do not have any weapon outside of their flame thrower, which doesn't have that much range. On top of this, they're quite slow.

Simply keep your distance and shoot the fuel cans, on their back. If you want to conserve ammo, focus on one of the cans until it explodes, and wait for a bit to see if they go into overheat due to the flames that come out of the barrel.

If they don't overheat after some time, simply shoot the other fuel can until they do.

What If There's More Than One?

It's rare to find two robots at once in Atomfall, but it will happen to you at least once. We recommend separating them enough to make sure that the flame thrower robot does not have range to attack you if you run up to the machine gun one.

Focus the machine gun robot until it overheats, and quickly remove its atomic battery before the flame thrower robot gets in range to cook you. Taking down the flame thrower one first is pointless, unless you can break line of sight with the machine gun robot.

Keep in mind that the robots don't eternally overheat, so if you take too long to get the atomic battery out, they'll become functional again.

Zombie-Likes

Zombie-likes are infected humans in various stages of mutation. They are divided into two and a half types of enemies, and need to be tackled very differently.

Ferals

Stealthily Taking Down A Feral With A Bow. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

Ferals are vicious radioactive zombies that screech and rush you down, dealing massive melee damage while infecting you. They're quicker than any other enemy in the game, and they will outrun you unless you're on an all-out sprint.

These essentially makes melee weapons useless against them. Ferals are faster and have higher reach, so you will almost never be able to hit them without getting hit back, and they'll hit harder.

The best way to handle Ferals is stealth. With very few exceptions, Ferals will be in a nest of sorts, inactive. If you find an area with any sign of blue spores, do not sprint and pay attention to the sounds around you.

Even while inactive, Ferals can be heard growling. As soon as you hear that noise, crouch and pull out your bow. A single bow headshot takes them out, even in veteran difficulty.

Make sure you keep crouching until you clear the area of any other Ferals, and you'll easily take them all out. If you get into the unfortunate position of having to engage them in a fight, pull out your shotgun and shoot them point blank once they rush you.

The Ranged Feral Charging Up An Attack. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

In the later stages of Atomfall you'll encounter a different kind of Feral, hence the "two and a half types". These will not rush you down, and will instead spit radioactive goo at you. They still hit like a truck in melee, though, so don't blindly rush them down.

The stealthy bow will work just as well against them, but they're much squishier than their melee counterpart. If you get into combat with one of these, one shot to the head will take them down with most guns.

Thralls

Thralls are one of the most misleading enemies in Atomfall. They are creepy as hell and are walking tanks, seemingly unstoppable. Even when staggered, they push back with an almost immediate shove, and they soak bullets like a sponge.

Most people panic and waste a ton of ammo, especially in Veteran difficulty, but we'll let you in on a secret: you can take them down without wasting a single bullet. Here's how.

Despite being tanks, Thralls are never wielding any ranged weapon, and they are extremely slow. They walk forward slower than you walk backwards. They're also often alone, or in pairs.

Killing A Feral With A Heavy Melee Attack. Screenshot: Rebellion, captured by Blast.

To take them down reliably, you just have to make sure you do not get sandwiched between two Thralls. Ideally, you should be only be pulling one at once, which is easily doable by throwing weapons and using stealth.

Once the Thrall is menacingly walking towards you, pull out a big melee, slow melee weapon, ideally a mace or an axe. Use a heavy attack while walking backwards, attempting to hit them with your max range.

It is better to whiff entirely, than to hit them when they get to close, so make sure you are keeping your distance. Even if your heavy attack staggers them, they will shove you, but if you hit them with your max range, their shove will miss.

Repeat this process a few times, and they'll perish. Do not get greedy with normal hits, just be patient and you will take these guys down without ever wasting a single bullet in your entire Atomfall playthrough.

Next: Atomfall- Optimized Settings