Tuurngait Infected

Tuurngait Infected
Aliases:	The Infected
Sex:	Determinant
Occupation:	Former Shelter Personnel
Status:	Presumably alive
Appears:	Penumbra: Black Plague

The Tuurngait Infected are the most common enemies in Penumbra: Black Plague. They are human bodies transformed by the Tuurngait into a drone that serves the Hivemind, meaning that they're not just zombies, but are something far more intelligent and are mentally connected by the Hivemind.

Interestingly, all of the Tuurngait Infected have a masculine appearance and voice, despite the fact that there are several female Archaic personnel. This is likely because the Tuurngait Infected are asexual, and as such there's only one mutated form of the human body needed by the Tuurngait.

Behaviour

While they commonly vocalize through guttural growls and whines, they are actually capable of speaking. Whenever in the same vicinity as Philip, they can be heard saying things such as, "Is someone there?", "Who there?", "Something isn't right." and "Nothing. Must've been a rat.", along with other words that are harder to make out.

The Infected do not run purely on instinct and are fairly intelligent. They are all connected to each other through a central mind. To them there is no such thing as an "individual", with the exception of Clarence, who was killed after becoming an individual.

Infected are controlled and maintained by one Mind known as The Hive Mind. The Hive Mind is a spirit just like in an Inuit Mythology. The Hive Mind connects every infected in The Shelter, and they worship the spirit, as seen in the Tuurngait Tomb door picture.

Infected can carry up to two items at maximum in their hands. These are items they can carry: Flashlights, Crowbars, and Axes. Every item has its own bonus.

• Flashlight
  • + bonus to vision
  • They can find and see Philip more easily.
• Crowbar
  • +bonus to damage
  • +bonus to destroying doors.
• Axe
  • + bonus to damage
  • Axe has more damage than the crowbar.

Methods of killing

There is still a complicated method to "kill" the infected. The player must lure it to a random place like a corner, and then throw a box or other item at it repeatedly. Thumping the infected quickly with the object will kill it; it will start coughing and choking until it finally collapses to the floor, dead.

The way it works is that infected take damage only when stunned, while stun hit itself does not count. So typically it is next to impossible to stun them and follow up with damaging hit fast enough. But it is easy if you "throw" box on the floor and infected is constantly pushing it towards you.

All that is needed to be done is the rapidly click both mouse button at once when LOOKING at the box. Lifting or throwing it mid-air will not kill hurt the Infected fast enough to kill it outright. When done right, the creature will die in mere seconds and will show a choking animation before falling to the ground dead. Due to the nature of this technique, this is often a very cheap exploit, and it is often recommended not to use it in order to fully experience the game as it was intended to be played.

History

The Infected prowl the map's hallways and will chase Philip on sight. It isn't hard to be aware of their presence, an example being in darker areas, where they're carrying flashlights. If you do end up being noticed by an Infected, the most important thing to do is to run away. Running is the best and only way to handle an Infected, with the exception of two moments in Black Plague. The first moment being where you need to lure an Infected into a room and then trap it.

Trivia

• In an early beta gameplay of a game called Unknown (later known as Amnesia: The Dark Decent), The Tuurngait Infected feature as the only enemy previewed. They have the same dialog lines like in Penumbra but do not carry items and have traits exclusive to Amnesia such as draining "sanity". However, when Amnesia was officially released it featured its own enemies without connection to the Tuurngait Infected.

Amnesia BETA gameplay by FrictionalGames

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