Fester

A Fester battling Clem and Torque.

The Festers are malefactors encountered on Carnate Island. Torque sights them for the first time in Chapter 10: You've Mistaken Me For Someone Else and has the first fights against them in Chapter 13: Dancing at the Dawn of the Apocalypse.

Representation

A vision of a Fester that appears to Torque.

The Festers are a reincarnation of slave traders, who crashed a slave ship on Carnate's shores over a hundred years earlier. Although it is very abstract, the Fester represents being eaten alive. Allegedly, the slaves were left in the hull of the ship by their traders, unable to escape, and were assumed to be eaten alive by rats. In this new form, they are forced to constantly suffer a similar fate as their previous charges, and share that suffering with anyone they encounter.

Appearance

The Fester is an immense, bloated Malefactor. They have mottled grey skin, which appears to be made of some sort of metal, and they possess several large sewn-up gashes on their torso, with the most notable being on its massive stomach. It has a bloated, Caucasian head, which is contained in a tight metal cage with spikes along the neck. They have metal braces on their wrists and ankles, with a large hook piercing their left hip. In their right hand they wield a large metal ball-and-chain, which they use as their main weapon. A colony of Festering Rats lives inside each Fester's stomach.

Telltale Sign

The Festers rarely are able to surprise Torque. They mostly only spawn by emerging from bodies of water, such as the ocean on Carnate's beach. Because of their massive size and weight, the ground quakes with each step they take. The clanking of their ball-and-chain is also very audible.

Attacks

The Fester's main method of attack is to use their ball-and-chain to hit the ground in front of them, which causes a damaging shockwave. Beware, for their attack can (rarely) kill you in one blow. The Fester may also allow a swarm of Festering Rats to burst out of the scar on their stomach. If you get too close to a Fester, it will smack Torque with the back of its hand. Festers can also (but only for a very short time) sprint forward after Torque and slam him.

Tactics

Festers are unique among enemies in that bullets have no effect on them whatsoever, simply reflecting off their bodies. The only way to kill them is to either throw whatever bomb you have on you at them, or to hack them open with the shiv or fire axe. So, basically keep your distance until you see an opening, and run up and slash them before they hit you with that heavy mace. Also, a well-thrown Molotov Cocktail will not only ensure the Festers' doom, but also kill the Festering Rats that they will release following their death. On harder difficulty settings, Festers take more explosives to defeat, averaging around 2-3 on Normal difficulty alone. Festers can also be easily dispatched by attacks in Insanity mode, which is useful in confined spaces.

Special Notes

When they die, Festers will release Festering Rats once again, as a final attack. If the corpse is burning when they do this, all the rats will explode before getting a chance to escape.

On later chapters, Slayers will often attempt to attack Festers with their blades, so an ideal tactic is to wait for the Slayers to dispatch the Fester and then deal with the weaker malefactors.

Archive Entries

Clem's Entry

"Continually emerging from the slave ship, these are the festering creatures who foil my attempts to escape this confounded rock. Rats live within their flesh, writhing within it and then springing forth randomly. They appear to be a reincarnation, not of the slaves- for then, they would be of darker skin tone- but instead of the slave traders. In this form, they are forced to live out again and again the fate they forced upon those hapless slaves."

Dr. Killjoy's Entry

Festers don't appear in The Suffering: Ties That Bind.