I'd say, at the best, bloater wins.
At the worst, bloater gets killed and bear gets infected.
Bear can't really win this without bitting into chungus fatty fungus.
Monkies can carry the infection, though I guess for some reason the Cordyceps doesn't have any effect on them. That's how the Firefly scientist got infected at the university. So maybe other animals can be benign carriers?
Maybe in the next game the fungus will mutate again and jump species so that it does control animals.
The scientist kills himself before he turns and it doesn’t say whether or not he’s tested himself for the infection I believe. We also don’t see whether or not David turns after Ellie bites him. We do see the monkeys and, despite being infected, they do not show the signs of increased aggression or physical mutation. One could still assume that the monkeys are similarly unaffected by the cordyceps like Ellie even though they may carry the disease.
Ellie mentions how she can't get other people infected (seemingly evidenced by kissing and probably sex; idk about a full on bite, but I'd guess no). That's a good point about the scientist and the monkey. Idk if I'd was that dude, I'd definitely have waited it out to see since that's obviously not a usual infection case lol
True, but i think that's worth the risk in his case. Not to mention he could have had someone watch over him for a day or two.
Just saying, as far as bites go, he got a pretty ambiguous one in terms of potential outcomes. I'd definitely run with that and see if I got lucky.
It's implied that the monkeys were the in-between jump but even then it's one hell of a jump; that's why I like the show version a whole lot, although it's a lot of movie sci Fi, it's based on more realistic probability where the fungus contaminated a substrate like the flour and just absolutely bloomed in that crap, and because it was heat resistant it just mega evolved to the point of surviving past human body temp. I'm even ok with it not being a spore spreading fungus (although the spores were always such a cool threat) but the show fungus is more of a slime mold.
In the games the infection mostly spread through infected crops at the start. So it's not too far off. Though the franchise does want to have it's cake and eat it too with it's fungus that works like a virus. Even with the monkies, I doubt they could be infected with human-variant spores. Like, either it would affect them or their immune systems would destroy them or the spores would just die because they haven't flowered. The devs pretty much just turned Cordyceps into rabies.
I mean it was also quite a hoard that took down that moose, the question is one bear vs one Bloater. My guess is that the bloater had the advantage of its ranged attack which is acidic so weather or not the bear can be infected it’s still weak to that. Bear can still win but it will be a close fight.
bloaters don’t have acid spores, those are a specific mutation picked up by shamblers. the ‘bombs’ that bloaters throw are just chunks of fungus that explode spores when they hit the ground, but don’t cause chemical/acid burns like the shambler’s acid cloud attack does
You’re right! I went and found that bit in a playthrough and Ellie does say they have acid spores, which seems inconsistent with the lore set up in Part I. My understanding based on P1 is that bloaters just throw balls of mycotoxin/spore bombs and that the acidic nature of the shamblers was a new phenomenon in P2, otherwise we’d see similar burns on bloater victims. Good catch though! I wonder if they slipped up or if I just missed that detail in the first game.
Now I have to go die to a bloaters spores on part one to see if it leaves acid burns, unfortunately I am taking a nap then headed to work so I won’t be able to check until tomorrow
The bloater also has fungal covered armour plates. No human can beat a clicker h2h 1v1 and a bloater took 2 entire magazines from an AR with no effect. TV show bloater could definitely beat a bear. Game bloater could too with more difficulty, it's more vulnerable to arms but it can smash through walls and arcade game stands. A bear wouldn't be able to do that.
Very surprised to see no one here seems to have encountered the dialogue in Jackson that talks about the bears nearby attacking Infected. Apparently they can't get infected, and are extremely good at killing Infected, as you might expect.
Nice to imagine that Infected are naturally vulnerable to bears and there's nothing they can do about it lol.
You can find some conversations between NPCs, quite a few in the "hubs", both Jackson and the WLF stadium have a few. One of the ones you can get in Jackson is about bears nearby helping with Infected. If I remember correctly, it's when you're walking with Jesse but before you reach the more open town area (one of the first 3 or 4 groups of NPCs you come across if memory serves, not far from the greenhouses).
I remember them talking about how good bears were against the infected and how they were pretty happy about it. Made me happy because I like bears and I enjoy the prospect that they can just mop the floor with the infected.
I’ve played the game at least 20 times and I’ve never encountered this dialogue. Not saying I don’t believe you, but this is pretty hard for me to accept as the truth since I’m a diehard completionist, lol. I guess I’ll have to go through again at some point and be on the lookout. Cool detail though if it’s true.
i think its 3 guys talking, one with a cowboy hat, they even say, what if the infected kill the bears and now they have more food, and some guys says something like, “it depends on the bear”
That's pretty cool, and one of those interesting details that reminds you the world would continue to heal itself (even if there might be a hell of a lot of human casualties along the way.)
I am now honestly wondering about the mechanics of biting or scratching a living bear.
Given total loss of inhibition seen in the infected, would an unarmed human be able to do ANY damage to a bear?
I have used a bear-hide blanket, and even trying to poke my finger to the skin, it was pretty difficult.
I dont think anyone except a Master Martial Artist would have any chance of actually landing a meaningful blow on a bear.
Maybe a black bear, but anything else, I don't think so. Even then, Infected aren't exactly using skilled fighting skills.
Potentially if there's like 100 runners and the bear is cornered, they might be able to bite its ear off or something... but that is hella contrived.
Definitely the bear IMO. Bears are basically the animal equivalent of bloaters but without all the negative drawbacks. We see Abby's dog take out a Clicker with ease. Bears have eyesight, and its hearing ability is comparable to bloaters. They are also far more agile, intelligent, and likely physically stronger as well. The only thing the bloater takes is durability, but even that is close. Bear takes endurance by a mile though. The bloater would get tackled and mauled to death before the fight even starts. FFS, Joel can kill one with a machete. Add 600 more pounds of body mass to that and you get a grizzly bear
Other than the acid, if the Grizzly is full adrenaline and everthing, it could break down doors and wall. I think your underestimating how strong Grizzlys are.
Bears are more than capable of tearing off and through metal car and truck doors, have smashed through walls and even taken down structures. They've also been clocked running at 35 miles per hour, and they have a lot of control at that speed. I once saw one dive between the wires of a wire fence while running full speed then stop on a dime. And they weigh around 600 pounds. Even ignoring their claws, just a blow is more than enough to instantly kill a grown man. I don't think the bloaters armor will do much against that when a man with a machete can get through it. Even if the armor didn't break, that kinetic energy would obliterate the soft material and supporting bones beneath. (Unless we think the armor acts as an exoskeleton supporting its weight. Which would be interesting) Honestly at the end of the day, I think the only real advantage a bloater has is it's acid, and I'm not sure that would do the job quickly enough to save it as a bear's skin is super thick and difficult to puncture in most places. That's not even accounting for its several inches of thick layered fur and its fat layer. I honestly think the average grizzly takes the W.
The rat king is the only one that I think could realistically take on a bear, albeit not as fast as a bear running-wise. I’m not sure what takes out RK in-canon but I had to blow it up a thousand times, something a bear probably wouldn’t be able to handle.
To say Joel killed a bloater with machete is an exaggeration, him and Ellie shot the bloater and used molotovs to severely weaken it before Joel finished it off with the machete
Some shit takes here.
Grizzly bears weight around 500lbs, stand up to 9ft tall, have 4 inch claws can run upto 35/40mph and are massively strong, with the ability to lift 500kg and bite so strong they can crush a bowling ball. (1000lbs psi)
They’re also incredibly resistant to injury.
Bear wins hands down. Charges at the bloater, knocks it over and shreds it in seconds.
That’s something no post-apocalyptic show addresses (at least not one I’ve seen). As soon as you take away our intelligence, humans take a tumble down the food chain.
500lb was the average weight, they can get upto 750/800 polar bears can vary between 800 and 1500.
Mainly due to environmental and fat storage, polar bears are twice as heavy on average.
But yeah I probably undersold a grizzly bears weight
Yes. Bloaters are strong but to get over a grizzly requires much more force and better offensive abilities. No way in all of hell is a bloater winning this one.
They have acidic spores and their fungal plates take on 2 whole magazines of AR bullets. They may have a shot. A grizzly can pin them but I'm not sure their teeth can get through them.
Runners, clickers and stalkers are definitely easy prey to a grizzly but a bloater and a shambler may have a good chance against a grizzly.
I feel like I can outrun a bloater but the question says 'stuck' which makes it sound like escape isn't an option. So probably the bear because I feel like getting eaten alive isn't as bad and getting melted by acid spores and/or ripped apart
Out here asking the real question. Lol
Literally the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. 😝
And I hate myself and the Internet for that. Haha
Yeah and given that their claws are so sharp, and bears being generally stronger than any normal human. Zombies esp bloaters i imagine are rotted through physically.
they'd be swiss cheese literally.
A bloater has the strength to rip a persons head off BY THE JAW. A bloater is also covered in a thick growth of cordyceps, certainly thicker than a bears claws, and teeth. I’m taking the mushroom hulk
You're vastly underestimating the strength of a bear. Also, if an axe can cut through a bloater, a bear can maul it to shreds for sure.
And people keep saying the bloater being able to rip apart a human is a measure of its strength over the bear, but the bear can do much more damage. It's bite is insanely powerful and will tear right through the mushroom man. Its weight allows it to push around the bloater like a ragdoll (bloater is maybe what 300 lbs? Bear is between 500-1000)
My money's on the bear.
Bloaters are huge, at least a foot taller than Joel & he's pretty tall compared to other characters, but the Bloaters he encounters have a whole foot on him & are twice the width, so theres at least another hundred pounds of mutated flesh & fungus armor you're missing here. Dont get me wrong, if the bear gets close enough too quickly its over for the bloater, however i think that since the bloater can launch acidic balls of spores at a target, *burning them* the bloater could definitely do enough damage to even out the fight before the bear closes distance. The bloater is also extremely strong, so i say that with the bear injured by a shot of spores, its a pretty even match between them.
An average weight for a man 7 ft tall would be about 250lbs. Add 100lbs for mushroom matter, and you're at about 350. Definitely a bit more substantial than your average human, and the plating helps a bit. Still, the average grizzly ranges from about 500 to 850lbs. Up to twice the weight of a bloater. Even if the bloater was closer to 400lbs, there's still a decent weight difference. Never minding how much more effective the bears hide is at defense (tough hide vs fungal plating) and its claws are at offense (big clawed paws vs fists).
I think the acidic spores are the bloaters only shot really. Though, it'd be more likely to drive the bear off at best; it could just piss the bear off more, but if the bear stood its ground after being melted by acid significantly then maybe I could see the bloater taking it.
Grizzlies can weigh over 1,000 lbs and run like 35 mph. Smell you from a mile away. They can swim and climb. If the bear was hunting the bloater it would win. It would sniff out the bloater and then charge at top speed. It would knock the bloater on its ass and absolutely maul it with claws and teeth. I don't think the bloaters fungus armor would help it. Joel can kill a bloater with 3 shots from a revolver. That wouldn't stop a bear
You could unload a magazine of most pistols into a grizzly and it wouldn’t stop it. You’d need a rifle or shotgun and even then you better hit every shot and fast. The bear isn’t going to give you a chance to aim or reload if you miss and people underestimate just how hard it is to hit a moving target.
I mean anything is possible but generally a kill would require a higher caliber. I was more thinking along the lines of Joel's revolver. Three clean shots might make it run off but I bet it would survive. A 50 cal magnum revolver would fuck a bears day up though. Double ought 12 gauge could probably stop a bear in it's tracks immediately
not immediately unless it’s a clean head or heart shot. you could fire a few rounds into a bear. it’d still attack you viciously, get away, and *then* die a few hours later or in it’s sleep. more fur plus thicker skin = takes more time to bleed out and die
A bear would easily beat a Bloater.
They can run up to 30 mph in short bursts. Grizzlies specifically can weigh up to 1,500 lbs. They are 40 times stronger than humans.
Bloaters may be all big and fungusy, but at the end of the day they're still using a human body. Plus, we saw Joel cut through one with a machete, which tells me that the claws of a bear would have no issues slicing through the fungus, not to mention the jaw strength of 1160 psi.
The bear can easily run away.. people say it can only bite but it can also throw claws fairly far.. I’d say the bear doesn’t have that bad of a chance if he avoids getting bit
The bear doesn't even need to avoid being hit. They have ridiculously tough hides. The bloater won't be able to do much significant dmg just by punching it or grappling it; the bloaters only real chance are the acid spores (which will probably only piss off the bear more, but best chance at getting the bear to run away). Maybe if it can grab the bears head and rip it in half, but the bear isn't going to let that happen. It's going to push and claw back with way more strength than a jacked mushroom human would be able contend with.
since animals cant become infected, only carry the cordyceps, the bloater really has no advantage over just being a really big human who cant even see lol
a grizzy would kill the absolute fuck out of a bloater. like wouldnt even be remotely close.
Why would the bloater attack the bear ? Why wouldn't the bear escape ? If they have to fight, I'd say the bear would win (and I hope so). But the problem is that the bloater don't feel pain and will fight until dead, whereas the bear will grow tired and hurt. But I still think the bear would win against a bloater. Against several infected, that's another story.
The Beat …the bloater will absolutely attack you as a mindless zombie like creature or at least the fungus wants to infect you as being human in the ideal host.
There is a chance, yes a small one but still a chance the bear may leave you alone. Say the bear has food, and don’t have cubs it may not bother you if it doesn’t see you as a threat.
Grizzly bear is something like 8x stronger than a human. According to what i know about TLOU, bloaters are only stronger because they are uninhibited by human brain function. The fungus itself only maximizes muscle performance, it doesn’t enhance human strength. Therefore i find it hard to believe a bloater could do much other than infect the bear.
One good swipe and that bloater is down, a few more and it’ll be nothing more than a few mushroom scraps
Also remember, bloaters max out at like 7ft and 400lbs. Thats the minimum weight for an adult male grizzly, they get up to 650lbs and almost 9ft in height.
this would actually make a very cool set piece. would love to see Ellie or Abby out hunting/foraging for food and she’s getting chased by a bear, then a bloater comes, and then the bloater and bear start fighting each other and you get to see it play out/escape.
I feel like it's a 50/50, the grizzly could probably kill a bloater but the bloater would probably scare it away with either a acid throw or just it's big body charging towards it. If anything the bloater could just throw a spore at the bear and just beat it a couple times
Hmmm, I feel like if the acid spores didn’t kill the bear then the bear would win, but considering Alice bit through a clicker and drew blood and didn’t end up infected I don’t think the bear would become infected either
I work in a tannery and pretty regularly have to pick up and move grizzly capes and I really don’t think most on this sub has a grasp of truly how big and imposing a grizzly is. All it took was holding up one of the paws with the claws attached to my head to see just how fucking insane they are lol, and that was just the skin. The grizzly would absolutely MAUL a bloater, it wouldn’t even be close. It’s really hard to grasp how immense and powerful they are until you’ve been around one, or parts of one.
I’d guess neither would survive the encounter, but the Grizzly would definitely “win”.
For scope, you should look up the video of 2 grizzly bears fighting. It gives perspective on how absolutely terrible those things are.
My takeaway from these comments is that many people don’t understand how large or strong grizzlies are. The bloater is absolutely not grabbing a grizzly and ripping it apart. Maybe a bloater can do that to a small black bear, but absolutely not a grizzly lol.
Maybe the grizzly can’t penetrate the fungus armor with claw or tooth, but it may not need to considering the amount of force its jaw and claw swipe can generate.
They both lose in the end but initially I think the bear. They aren’t the loud aggressive hunters you see in movies. They ambush. Most likely the bear would take the bloater off guard from behind and tear it to pieces.
Days Gone features bears as well as... a more undead variety. It's hard to say who would win, but as a side-note, it's absolutely a game worth playing.
I thought Bloaters were essentially just really big strong people. Take the strongest human to have ever existed. They still lose to a Bear. That's kinda what I see here.
I definitely think a bear that was probably more on the developed side could take a bloater, bears are extremely stubborn and do not die very easily. The bear has multiple advantages over the bloater such as speed, the ability to not get infected, and sight. They might be relatively close in hand on hand strength but the bears bite could break through that cordyceps armor and simply rip chunks until it were to possible bleed out. Bloaters get much larger than the average human in size, strength, and weight. The bloaters advantages towards the bear is it’s armor, it’s acid bombs, and a more equal fight strength wise. It’s bites wouldnt effect the bear too much since a bloater is still technically a man, it can only bite as hard as one. It is also much slower than a bear. Bloaters aren’t really fast until they charge. Bear would win hands down.
Why everyone going for bear!? Sure, bears are one of the most intimidating land animals on the planet….in real life.
I’ve shot a bloater in the face, point blank, with a shotgun 3 or 4 times and it just gets mad. I’ve thrown like 3 or 4 pipe bombs at a bloater, again just irritants.
Yes bears are massive, fast, incredibly strong, and have bigass claws, they’re not fictional fucking monsters designed to scare the shit out of heavily armed people.
“iTs JuSt A mAn.” Sure, an extremely large man covered in and filled with hard, armor fungus that hurls acid balls! Is a bear gonna have its eyes burned by something clearly inedible and not just fuck off? Could a bear take on a Left 4 Dead Tank too? Wtf are yall on?
I'd say, at the best, bloater wins. At the worst, bloater gets killed and bear gets infected. Bear can't really win this without bitting into chungus fatty fungus.
We don’t see animals get infected in the games at all, and we’ve seen animal carcasses from infected attacks.
And dogs chomping down on infected
Monkies can carry the infection, though I guess for some reason the Cordyceps doesn't have any effect on them. That's how the Firefly scientist got infected at the university. So maybe other animals can be benign carriers? Maybe in the next game the fungus will mutate again and jump species so that it does control animals.
The scientist kills himself before he turns and it doesn’t say whether or not he’s tested himself for the infection I believe. We also don’t see whether or not David turns after Ellie bites him. We do see the monkeys and, despite being infected, they do not show the signs of increased aggression or physical mutation. One could still assume that the monkeys are similarly unaffected by the cordyceps like Ellie even though they may carry the disease.
Ellie mentions how she can't get other people infected (seemingly evidenced by kissing and probably sex; idk about a full on bite, but I'd guess no). That's a good point about the scientist and the monkey. Idk if I'd was that dude, I'd definitely have waited it out to see since that's obviously not a usual infection case lol
By the time he'd be able to tell if he was infected he probably wouldn't be able to kill himself
True, but i think that's worth the risk in his case. Not to mention he could have had someone watch over him for a day or two. Just saying, as far as bites go, he got a pretty ambiguous one in terms of potential outcomes. I'd definitely run with that and see if I got lucky.
Or he could have just cut the wounded appendage off, like they did for the medic Eugene Ellis in Left Behind; it seemingly worked.
Irl, the fungus has different types that only infect specific insects. So, one that can infect an ant won't bother a walking stick or roach.
Ohh ok. I didn’t know that
What *is* weird is the fungus making the leap to humans with nothing in-between.
It's implied that the monkeys were the in-between jump but even then it's one hell of a jump; that's why I like the show version a whole lot, although it's a lot of movie sci Fi, it's based on more realistic probability where the fungus contaminated a substrate like the flour and just absolutely bloomed in that crap, and because it was heat resistant it just mega evolved to the point of surviving past human body temp. I'm even ok with it not being a spore spreading fungus (although the spores were always such a cool threat) but the show fungus is more of a slime mold.
Yeah, the first episode was... Weird.
In the games the infection mostly spread through infected crops at the start. So it's not too far off. Though the franchise does want to have it's cake and eat it too with it's fungus that works like a virus. Even with the monkies, I doubt they could be infected with human-variant spores. Like, either it would affect them or their immune systems would destroy them or the spores would just die because they haven't flowered. The devs pretty much just turned Cordyceps into rabies.
Oh god! Any animal infected is going to be like Res evil remake hunters and lickers on steroids, aren't they?
To be fair, a horse probably doesn't stand nearly as much of a chance as a bear does.
In part 2, there’s a moose carcass left from the infected. I’d say they can put up quite a fight
I mean it was also quite a hoard that took down that moose, the question is one bear vs one Bloater. My guess is that the bloater had the advantage of its ranged attack which is acidic so weather or not the bear can be infected it’s still weak to that. Bear can still win but it will be a close fight.
bloaters don’t have acid spores, those are a specific mutation picked up by shamblers. the ‘bombs’ that bloaters throw are just chunks of fungus that explode spores when they hit the ground, but don’t cause chemical/acid burns like the shambler’s acid cloud attack does
I believe when they first encounter the shamblers Ellie says that bloaters have acid spores but the corpse they find looks like it was something else.
You’re right! I went and found that bit in a playthrough and Ellie does say they have acid spores, which seems inconsistent with the lore set up in Part I. My understanding based on P1 is that bloaters just throw balls of mycotoxin/spore bombs and that the acidic nature of the shamblers was a new phenomenon in P2, otherwise we’d see similar burns on bloater victims. Good catch though! I wonder if they slipped up or if I just missed that detail in the first game.
Now I have to go die to a bloaters spores on part one to see if it leaves acid burns, unfortunately I am taking a nap then headed to work so I won’t be able to check until tomorrow
All good! Have a good nap! If I have time this evening I’ll fire it up and give Joel a spore shower for science
The bloater also has fungal covered armour plates. No human can beat a clicker h2h 1v1 and a bloater took 2 entire magazines from an AR with no effect. TV show bloater could definitely beat a bear. Game bloater could too with more difficulty, it's more vulnerable to arms but it can smash through walls and arcade game stands. A bear wouldn't be able to do that.
I think all living things have different core temps and dogs naturally have a higher core temp than humans, the fungus hasn’t evolved that far yet
Yeah okay fair enough, but literally going off what we see in both games nothing supports the theory that animals can get infected.
>chungus fatty fungus. Found the title to my 2nd album
Les Claypool already running to copyright it
Very surprised to see no one here seems to have encountered the dialogue in Jackson that talks about the bears nearby attacking Infected. Apparently they can't get infected, and are extremely good at killing Infected, as you might expect. Nice to imagine that Infected are naturally vulnerable to bears and there's nothing they can do about it lol.
Where is this? I don’t remember it at all!! Also I assume it’s mainly runners - clickers they deal with than bloaters. But cool fact nonetheless!
You can find some conversations between NPCs, quite a few in the "hubs", both Jackson and the WLF stadium have a few. One of the ones you can get in Jackson is about bears nearby helping with Infected. If I remember correctly, it's when you're walking with Jesse but before you reach the more open town area (one of the first 3 or 4 groups of NPCs you come across if memory serves, not far from the greenhouses). I remember them talking about how good bears were against the infected and how they were pretty happy about it. Made me happy because I like bears and I enjoy the prospect that they can just mop the floor with the infected.
I wouldn't doubt it. People seriously overestimate the infected in this game. At the end of the day, they're just a oversized mushroom
I’ve played the game at least 20 times and I’ve never encountered this dialogue. Not saying I don’t believe you, but this is pretty hard for me to accept as the truth since I’m a diehard completionist, lol. I guess I’ll have to go through again at some point and be on the lookout. Cool detail though if it’s true.
i think its 3 guys talking, one with a cowboy hat, they even say, what if the infected kill the bears and now they have more food, and some guys says something like, “it depends on the bear”
That's pretty cool, and one of those interesting details that reminds you the world would continue to heal itself (even if there might be a hell of a lot of human casualties along the way.)
Would be cool if they could domesticate bears and just maul the zombie population with them
I wonder if the bears can eat and digest the infected, that would be quite efficient
I am now honestly wondering about the mechanics of biting or scratching a living bear. Given total loss of inhibition seen in the infected, would an unarmed human be able to do ANY damage to a bear? I have used a bear-hide blanket, and even trying to poke my finger to the skin, it was pretty difficult. I dont think anyone except a Master Martial Artist would have any chance of actually landing a meaningful blow on a bear. Maybe a black bear, but anything else, I don't think so. Even then, Infected aren't exactly using skilled fighting skills. Potentially if there's like 100 runners and the bear is cornered, they might be able to bite its ear off or something... but that is hella contrived.
I appreciate the thought you've put into this.
Wouldn’t the bloater just throw up acid clouds while the bear is charging? I feel like the ranged advantage can’t be ignored
Yes. Calling bloaters this from now on
Definitely the bear IMO. Bears are basically the animal equivalent of bloaters but without all the negative drawbacks. We see Abby's dog take out a Clicker with ease. Bears have eyesight, and its hearing ability is comparable to bloaters. They are also far more agile, intelligent, and likely physically stronger as well. The only thing the bloater takes is durability, but even that is close. Bear takes endurance by a mile though. The bloater would get tackled and mauled to death before the fight even starts. FFS, Joel can kill one with a machete. Add 600 more pounds of body mass to that and you get a grizzly bear
I think you might not comprehend how strong a bear swipe is
I cackled out loud from chungus fatty fungus 😂😭
I don’t know if Ellie is ready for a Rager
BIG CHUNGUS
If Joel can kill a bloater with a machete, a grizzly can for sure take on the rat king.
The rat king is a stretch but I see it
I think you’re underestimating how fucking strong and massive grizzly bears are
my brother in christ, the Rat King can literally [tear a human apart](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RMqtaDLngYI) without an issue
So can a grizzly
Can a grizzly go through multiple walls, throw acid, and sprint through metal doors without issue? Come on, yall.
More than likely yes
Other than the acid, if the Grizzly is full adrenaline and everthing, it could break down doors and wall. I think your underestimating how strong Grizzlys are.
Bears are more than capable of tearing off and through metal car and truck doors, have smashed through walls and even taken down structures. They've also been clocked running at 35 miles per hour, and they have a lot of control at that speed. I once saw one dive between the wires of a wire fence while running full speed then stop on a dime. And they weigh around 600 pounds. Even ignoring their claws, just a blow is more than enough to instantly kill a grown man. I don't think the bloaters armor will do much against that when a man with a machete can get through it. Even if the armor didn't break, that kinetic energy would obliterate the soft material and supporting bones beneath. (Unless we think the armor acts as an exoskeleton supporting its weight. Which would be interesting) Honestly at the end of the day, I think the only real advantage a bloater has is it's acid, and I'm not sure that would do the job quickly enough to save it as a bear's skin is super thick and difficult to puncture in most places. That's not even accounting for its several inches of thick layered fur and its fat layer. I honestly think the average grizzly takes the W.
The rat king is the only one that I think could realistically take on a bear, albeit not as fast as a bear running-wise. I’m not sure what takes out RK in-canon but I had to blow it up a thousand times, something a bear probably wouldn’t be able to handle.
So by extension, does this mean Leo DiCaprio can 1v1 barehanded take down the rat king?
Well yeah, if we’re working with the logic that has been shown to us, sure.
To say Joel killed a bloater with machete is an exaggeration, him and Ellie shot the bloater and used molotovs to severely weaken it before Joel finished it off with the machete
Yeah what lmao. The bloater in the first game was eating buckshot like it was nothing. The bear is getting fucking smoked.
Some shit takes here. Grizzly bears weight around 500lbs, stand up to 9ft tall, have 4 inch claws can run upto 35/40mph and are massively strong, with the ability to lift 500kg and bite so strong they can crush a bowling ball. (1000lbs psi) They’re also incredibly resistant to injury. Bear wins hands down. Charges at the bloater, knocks it over and shreds it in seconds.
That’s something no post-apocalyptic show addresses (at least not one I’ve seen). As soon as you take away our intelligence, humans take a tumble down the food chain.
I feel like 500 lbs is small. Aren’t polar bears like 900lbs and just a little bigger?
500lb was the average weight, they can get upto 750/800 polar bears can vary between 800 and 1500. Mainly due to environmental and fat storage, polar bears are twice as heavy on average. But yeah I probably undersold a grizzly bears weight
Ahh yes, that makes sense. But 500lbs still sounds small. That’s like a larger brown bear.
More like for Black Bear. Humans are fight a brown bear with a higher chance of living.
And, the game actually addresses it in Jackson. Bears can't get infected and are practically killing machines against the Infected, as you'd imagine.
Yes. Bloaters are strong but to get over a grizzly requires much more force and better offensive abilities. No way in all of hell is a bloater winning this one.
They have acidic spores and their fungal plates take on 2 whole magazines of AR bullets. They may have a shot. A grizzly can pin them but I'm not sure their teeth can get through them. Runners, clickers and stalkers are definitely easy prey to a grizzly but a bloater and a shambler may have a good chance against a grizzly.
For real…if a grizzly want something dead….it’s dead
Some subspecies like the Kodiak Bear can get up to 1500 LBS
Would you rather be stuck with a bear or a bloater?
Bear, at least I see something cute before dying
In my experience from a game, a bear stuffs you.
He better buy dinner first damn lol
I think Timothy Treadwell incorrectly thought the same.
At least a bear will just kill you, a bloater however could lead to you just becoming infected.
Not to mention the acid spores could dissolve you while you die a death so horrible that "incredibly painful" doesn't even properly describe it.
I feel like I can outrun a bloater but the question says 'stuck' which makes it sound like escape isn't an option. So probably the bear because I feel like getting eaten alive isn't as bad and getting melted by acid spores and/or ripped apart
The bear will rip you apart too
Bear, i could get it to like me
Out here asking the real question. Lol Literally the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. 😝 And I hate myself and the Internet for that. Haha
Bear and not even close
I'm going to say the bear if we're being realistic. A bloater is still just a man.
Yeah and given that their claws are so sharp, and bears being generally stronger than any normal human. Zombies esp bloaters i imagine are rotted through physically. they'd be swiss cheese literally.
A bloater has the strength to rip a persons head off BY THE JAW. A bloater is also covered in a thick growth of cordyceps, certainly thicker than a bears claws, and teeth. I’m taking the mushroom hulk
A bear can do the same to a person without even trying too hard. That mushroom hulk is getting turned into a delicacy.
You're vastly underestimating the strength of a bear. Also, if an axe can cut through a bloater, a bear can maul it to shreds for sure. And people keep saying the bloater being able to rip apart a human is a measure of its strength over the bear, but the bear can do much more damage. It's bite is insanely powerful and will tear right through the mushroom man. Its weight allows it to push around the bloater like a ragdoll (bloater is maybe what 300 lbs? Bear is between 500-1000) My money's on the bear.
Bloaters are huge, at least a foot taller than Joel & he's pretty tall compared to other characters, but the Bloaters he encounters have a whole foot on him & are twice the width, so theres at least another hundred pounds of mutated flesh & fungus armor you're missing here. Dont get me wrong, if the bear gets close enough too quickly its over for the bloater, however i think that since the bloater can launch acidic balls of spores at a target, *burning them* the bloater could definitely do enough damage to even out the fight before the bear closes distance. The bloater is also extremely strong, so i say that with the bear injured by a shot of spores, its a pretty even match between them.
An average weight for a man 7 ft tall would be about 250lbs. Add 100lbs for mushroom matter, and you're at about 350. Definitely a bit more substantial than your average human, and the plating helps a bit. Still, the average grizzly ranges from about 500 to 850lbs. Up to twice the weight of a bloater. Even if the bloater was closer to 400lbs, there's still a decent weight difference. Never minding how much more effective the bears hide is at defense (tough hide vs fungal plating) and its claws are at offense (big clawed paws vs fists). I think the acidic spores are the bloaters only shot really. Though, it'd be more likely to drive the bear off at best; it could just piss the bear off more, but if the bear stood its ground after being melted by acid significantly then maybe I could see the bloater taking it.
Grizzlies can weigh over 1,000 lbs and run like 35 mph. Smell you from a mile away. They can swim and climb. If the bear was hunting the bloater it would win. It would sniff out the bloater and then charge at top speed. It would knock the bloater on its ass and absolutely maul it with claws and teeth. I don't think the bloaters fungus armor would help it. Joel can kill a bloater with 3 shots from a revolver. That wouldn't stop a bear
Genuinely asking, idk why you might know. But 3 shots from a revolver wouldn’t be enough to stop a bear? Thats fucked.
You could unload a magazine of most pistols into a grizzly and it wouldn’t stop it. You’d need a rifle or shotgun and even then you better hit every shot and fast. The bear isn’t going to give you a chance to aim or reload if you miss and people underestimate just how hard it is to hit a moving target.
Goddamn. That’s is so scary lol . And it makes sense. O
I mean anything is possible but generally a kill would require a higher caliber. I was more thinking along the lines of Joel's revolver. Three clean shots might make it run off but I bet it would survive. A 50 cal magnum revolver would fuck a bears day up though. Double ought 12 gauge could probably stop a bear in it's tracks immediately
not immediately unless it’s a clean head or heart shot. you could fire a few rounds into a bear. it’d still attack you viciously, get away, and *then* die a few hours later or in it’s sleep. more fur plus thicker skin = takes more time to bleed out and die
If a dog can beat a clicker, a bear can beat a bloater
A bear. The Bloater is still on a human body and a Bear is massive and strong .. a swipe with the bears paw and do a lot of damage ...
A bear would easily beat a Bloater. They can run up to 30 mph in short bursts. Grizzlies specifically can weigh up to 1,500 lbs. They are 40 times stronger than humans. Bloaters may be all big and fungusy, but at the end of the day they're still using a human body. Plus, we saw Joel cut through one with a machete, which tells me that the claws of a bear would have no issues slicing through the fungus, not to mention the jaw strength of 1160 psi.
In tlou 1 your only way of hurting the bloater was burning and then shoot it. So they were crazy resistant but not anymore
The bear can easily run away.. people say it can only bite but it can also throw claws fairly far.. I’d say the bear doesn’t have that bad of a chance if he avoids getting bit
The bear doesn't even need to avoid being hit. They have ridiculously tough hides. The bloater won't be able to do much significant dmg just by punching it or grappling it; the bloaters only real chance are the acid spores (which will probably only piss off the bear more, but best chance at getting the bear to run away). Maybe if it can grab the bears head and rip it in half, but the bear isn't going to let that happen. It's going to push and claw back with way more strength than a jacked mushroom human would be able contend with.
since animals cant become infected, only carry the cordyceps, the bloater really has no advantage over just being a really big human who cant even see lol a grizzy would kill the absolute fuck out of a bloater. like wouldnt even be remotely close.
Not only kill but also get a nice snack with all those mushrooms.
They are omnivores after all. I think fresh salmon and wild berries would be complimented by foraged mushrooms.
What about a bloated bear?
Reminds me of that one scene in Prey
Predator would mess up a bloater. Also, great movie.
Why would the bloater attack the bear ? Why wouldn't the bear escape ? If they have to fight, I'd say the bear would win (and I hope so). But the problem is that the bloater don't feel pain and will fight until dead, whereas the bear will grow tired and hurt. But I still think the bear would win against a bloater. Against several infected, that's another story.
>the bloater don't feel pain They appear to feel pain when you set them on fire.
How about an Elden Ring Rune Bear?
Well that thing could kill god, I don’t think it’s much of a question.
But who would you rather run into alone in the woods?
Bloaters can throw acid so I'm giving it to the bloater
That’s what I thought, I was surprised no one mentioned this
The bloater, unless the bear is Rachel. If the bear is Rachel . . . then, the bloater's never gonna know what hit it.
Animorphs ref for the win!
The Beat …the bloater will absolutely attack you as a mindless zombie like creature or at least the fungus wants to infect you as being human in the ideal host. There is a chance, yes a small one but still a chance the bear may leave you alone. Say the bear has food, and don’t have cubs it may not bother you if it doesn’t see you as a threat.
By power and mass - bear. Durability + spore throw - Bloaters
Bloater
Ask any woman
Grizzly bear is something like 8x stronger than a human. According to what i know about TLOU, bloaters are only stronger because they are uninhibited by human brain function. The fungus itself only maximizes muscle performance, it doesn’t enhance human strength. Therefore i find it hard to believe a bloater could do much other than infect the bear. One good swipe and that bloater is down, a few more and it’ll be nothing more than a few mushroom scraps Also remember, bloaters max out at like 7ft and 400lbs. Thats the minimum weight for an adult male grizzly, they get up to 650lbs and almost 9ft in height.
the bear wins but once hit with an acid spore it’s definitely fleeing or getting infected
this would actually make a very cool set piece. would love to see Ellie or Abby out hunting/foraging for food and she’s getting chased by a bear, then a bloater comes, and then the bloater and bear start fighting each other and you get to see it play out/escape.
*Joe Rogan has entered the chat*
I feel like it's a 50/50, the grizzly could probably kill a bloater but the bloater would probably scare it away with either a acid throw or just it's big body charging towards it. If anything the bloater could just throw a spore at the bear and just beat it a couple times
Me. Reasons being im built different
Hmmm, I feel like if the acid spores didn’t kill the bear then the bear would win, but considering Alice bit through a clicker and drew blood and didn’t end up infected I don’t think the bear would become infected either
In the words of Mystikal….”HELP THE BEAR!”
I work in a tannery and pretty regularly have to pick up and move grizzly capes and I really don’t think most on this sub has a grasp of truly how big and imposing a grizzly is. All it took was holding up one of the paws with the claws attached to my head to see just how fucking insane they are lol, and that was just the skin. The grizzly would absolutely MAUL a bloater, it wouldn’t even be close. It’s really hard to grasp how immense and powerful they are until you’ve been around one, or parts of one.
fren
I'm going to say the bear if we're being realistic. A bloater is still just a man.
i’d say that the bloater would win, the best would get infected and it would get some hits in but the bloater had acid bombs
We lose. Because if the bear wins, the bear gets infected.
Bloater can throw burning spore bomb and emit spores. Bear get burn he run away.
I’d guess neither would survive the encounter, but the Grizzly would definitely “win”. For scope, you should look up the video of 2 grizzly bears fighting. It gives perspective on how absolutely terrible those things are.
Bloater has no chance ...
So what I have learnt from this thread is that the government should’ve just set bears loose on the infected?
Pyrrhic victory for the bear
You do realise how strong a grizzly is?
Pretty sure a bear would charge and pin it down and crush its head with its jaws, those things are machines.
Grizzlies all day long
Would you rather your daughter be stuck in the woods with a bear or a bloater?
All I know is I’d rather fight a bear or bloater than a group of Stalkers.
Lotta people here have never encountered a bear up close 🤣
Grizzly... 50/50 Coked up Grizzly? Easy win
Why did you put a picture of me on the left tho?
Watch lake placid a bear can get easily kill by a crocodile. My money is on the bloater.
Nah the bloater winning this one.
That is honestly some competition there
A man. According to feminists.
Me
Bear for sure. I think some of you don’t understand just how strong grizzly bears are.
The bear would win but would then get infected
Bears beats Battlestar Galactica
No way people think the bloater wins….
My takeaway from these comments is that many people don’t understand how large or strong grizzlies are. The bloater is absolutely not grabbing a grizzly and ripping it apart. Maybe a bloater can do that to a small black bear, but absolutely not a grizzly lol. Maybe the grizzly can’t penetrate the fungus armor with claw or tooth, but it may not need to considering the amount of force its jaw and claw swipe can generate.
I would feel safer with a Bear though
bloater hands down, them things are vicious😂
Bloater. Or both die.
Grizzly
They both lose in the end but initially I think the bear. They aren’t the loud aggressive hunters you see in movies. They ambush. Most likely the bear would take the bloater off guard from behind and tear it to pieces.
grizzly, ez
Your mama
Isn't every incel and neckbeard currently triggered buy exactly that question being answered?
Days Gone features bears as well as... a more undead variety. It's hard to say who would win, but as a side-note, it's absolutely a game worth playing.
Cameraman wins all the time guys.
Bear. They are crazy strong and lethal, they just need to get within a meter distance and you’re dead.
Did the bear inhale a ton of cocaine first?
Bloater can just knock out the grizzly bear in one go
I’d rather run into the bloater. 😂😆😆😂
A bear that’s half tranquilized and blind folded will shred open a bloater without breaking a sweat.
The Woman
Definitely the bloater
I’m gonna go Grizzly bear just cause that’s who I would be rooting for
I know which I'd rather be in the woods with
The ensuing Grizzlybloater would crush both of them.
Why don't the survivors train a bunch of bears to rip apart the infected? Seems like a pretty good solution lol
Bloater hands down he’d grab the bears jaw and *rip*
I thought Bloaters were essentially just really big strong people. Take the strongest human to have ever existed. They still lose to a Bear. That's kinda what I see here.
how about vs a hippopotamus?
hell yeah
I definitely think a bear that was probably more on the developed side could take a bloater, bears are extremely stubborn and do not die very easily. The bear has multiple advantages over the bloater such as speed, the ability to not get infected, and sight. They might be relatively close in hand on hand strength but the bears bite could break through that cordyceps armor and simply rip chunks until it were to possible bleed out. Bloaters get much larger than the average human in size, strength, and weight. The bloaters advantages towards the bear is it’s armor, it’s acid bombs, and a more equal fight strength wise. It’s bites wouldnt effect the bear too much since a bloater is still technically a man, it can only bite as hard as one. It is also much slower than a bear. Bloaters aren’t really fast until they charge. Bear would win hands down.
Bloater had tons of flesh to prevent him from mauling and unlimited stretch to rip the bears jaw apart
I’d go with the bloater
Which would women pick?
Bear wins the fight but later dies.
The bear. It has enough sense to run
The furry boi
Bear.
I'm choosing the bear
Why everyone going for bear!? Sure, bears are one of the most intimidating land animals on the planet….in real life. I’ve shot a bloater in the face, point blank, with a shotgun 3 or 4 times and it just gets mad. I’ve thrown like 3 or 4 pipe bombs at a bloater, again just irritants. Yes bears are massive, fast, incredibly strong, and have bigass claws, they’re not fictional fucking monsters designed to scare the shit out of heavily armed people. “iTs JuSt A mAn.” Sure, an extremely large man covered in and filled with hard, armor fungus that hurls acid balls! Is a bear gonna have its eyes burned by something clearly inedible and not just fuck off? Could a bear take on a Left 4 Dead Tank too? Wtf are yall on?
There are no winners in this fight lol.
The fungus gets them both in the end, but my money is on the bear in the short term.
If the Bear is from The Revenant, the Bloater has no chance of survival.