Crank

A slow and sturdy zombie.

Nickname "**Crank**" is an infected convict dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit. It appears to be a large mound of flesh from the infected convict's overly mutated head which has now overtaken most of its entire body. It's covered in large amounts of yellow pustules and is constantly pulsating. It has somehow grown an extra eye besides its unnervingly large mouth filled with sharp yellowing teeth. A very long arm with long bloody claws helps it move around.

Despite its description stating otherwise, Crank is deceptively quick. With only its single functioning limb to move around, it makes long, fast "steps" with a short delay between each and only occasionally stopping for several seconds. Its limb also grants Crank a slightly longer attack range.

Crank boasts significant health, speed, and very high damage, in addition to its full knockback resistance, making it one of the most dangerous zombies in the entire endgame. Its speed allows it to rather easily reach the bus and destroy it in a few hits. Its significant health and damage make it able to soak heavy punishments from friendly units whilist causing high damage in return, discouraging the use of melee units against it. The only effective way to kill it is to use ranged units with spread damage or a high rate of fire. Policeman Diaz is a great unit to use as his melee resistance can help him greatly when fighting against Crank up close. Sonya/Carlos are also good choices as their high rate of fire gives them high DPS. However, Carlos is a bit more vulnerable as unlike Sonya, he cannot knock away other enemies who get too close to him. If available, Turret is highly recommended as it can quickly shred through Crank's health once enough rage has been accumulated to place one down. Builder Abby is a decent alternative to Turret, however in most cases, she will be relatively less effective due to her shorter firing duration as well as being more vulnerable to other zombies.

Flamethrower is a powerful unit to use thanks to his high DPS potential. He will need to be supported as he must get uncomfortably close to deal damage and need to be protected against Insectoid should it appear during a mission. Fire, in general, is an effective means of causing a good amount of damage. Red Barrel is a great rage ability as it does decent explosion damage and leaves behind a fire pool. Willy is a good unit as he can stun Crank and greatly hinder its movement. However, his very high courage cost can be an issue. Additionally, he can also be targeted by Insectoid as well. Dr. Norman is also a great unit thanks to his ranged attack that can greatly slow down its movement. Thanks to his constant fire rate and much higher health than Flamethrower, he will survive for much longer. Despite this, much like Flamethrower, Dr. Norman should still be supported by other ranged units as his damage output is not high enough to kill Crank on his own, not to mention he is also very slow.

The only melee units that should be used against it are spam units for the sake of blocking it as Crank can easily kill those units in one or two hits and it can't be knocked back. Using higher-costing melee units is a waste as they will die just as quickly. The courage spent on them would be put to better use on ranged units.

### Abilities

* Immune to knockback.
* Knocks back targets.

## Stats In Missions

 136
 137
 140

## Trivia

* Unlike some of its fellow convicts, Crank, along with Twins, are the few newly encountered zombies in stage 8 without any physical signs of blue energy affecting it.
* Crank's appearance vaguely resembles an engine block with a hand crank inside it to start the vehicle, hence the name.

## Gallery

Journal entry.