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[darkrider2]

Yeah, I got a wicked dust cloud that turns things into zombies, and spreads by touch. Currently the hammerdwarf I embarked with is shambling around out there, along with a dwarven child sitting right outside the only door into my fort, about 10 zombie emu's and a zombie kitten. I can't open the door to let the migrant wave in either cause zombies seem to know when its unlocked, damnit.

How on earth do you defeat these things?

EDIT: I've never encountered any of the special rains. Even though I've embarked in evil areas and seen the clouds many times. How do you get rains?

[ZeroSumHappiness]

Murder everything, destroying all the corpses and drop the final dwarf in magma.  Then reclaim with marksdwarves?

[Xenos]

Yeah, I got a wicked dust cloud that turns things into zombies, and spreads by touch. Currently the hammerdwarf I embarked with is shambling around out there, along with a dwarven child sitting right outside the only door into my fort, about 10 zombie emu's and a zombie kitten. I can't open the door to let the migrant wave in either cause zombies seem to know when its unlocked, damnit.

How on earth do you defeat these things?

EDIT: I've never encountered any of the special rains. Even though I've embarked in evil areas and seen the clouds many times. How do you get rains?

Magma.  Or obsidian.

[Kaos]

Yeah, I got a wicked dust cloud that turns things into zombies, and spreads by touch. Currently the hammerdwarf I embarked with is shambling around out there, along with a dwarven child sitting right outside the only door into my fort, about 10 zombie emu's and a zombie kitten. I can't open the door to let the migrant wave in either cause zombies seem to know when its unlocked, damnit.

How on earth do you defeat these things?

EDIT: I've never encountered any of the special rains. Even though I've embarked in evil areas and seen the clouds many times. How do you get rains?

According to the wiki and some post around the forums, it spreads by touch because there is some sort of dust on the evil cloud that cover the creatures, it turns them into zombies and when they attack others, they simply pass the dust by touch, spreading the disease...

I didn't have the chance to check the zombies inventory to see if they had a dust covering or something, I did check one of the battle reports a zombie bunny kicked my carpenter bruising the skin he slammed against an obstacle and from then on the report mentioned him as zombie carpenter, he didn't die, he just got kicked and bruised and got slammed against something (probably a wall or felt 1 z level down a ramp) and when he slammed he was already a zombie...

I also read something about creatures going back to normal after a while... maybe they hang around, get rained on and the dust washes off and they go back to normal...

The best strategy I can think of, is:
* build up a ceiling and walls around your wagon as soon as you embark,
* you should embark with plenty of stones and logs,
* have everybody as a mason or carpenter to build the enclosure quickly,
* maybe leave space for a door or something so you can still have access outside and chop down trees and grab herbs... if you leave an open wall the cloud can creep in
* when you get the announcement that the cloud is close by to your settlement you should hide in and wait...
* after the cloud dissipates keep expanding the ceiling so you can have a safe outside above ground area for aboveground crops and trees
* add a bathtub to the entrance to wash off any dust and maybe dethralize any affected creature?

In a way the rains are more difficult, since they just start randomly without warning and cover all the evil area at once, and after it stops you still have the hole area contaminated with goo/blood... the clouds show up, dissipate, and the area seem to be clean afterwards, if you build a ceiling and wall it off it should be safe, the cloud also gives you a few warning before it gets close to your settlement...

[darkrider2]

So if one were to build a chamber that flooded with water after a zombie walked into it, the zombie would turn into a normal person and drown? I feel like this should be tested.

[Loud Whispers]

So if one were to build a chamber that flooded with water after a zombie walked into it, the zombie would turn into a normal person and drown? I feel like this should be tested.

No. It is not a zombie either. It's a thrall/husk. Washing off the syndrome cloud dust would just make it fightable. So it wouldn't spread the syndrome to other creatures.

Killing it is something entirely else.

Murder everything, destroying all the corpses and drop the final dwarf in magma.  Then reclaim with marksdwarves?

Isn't murdering everything a bit of a large precaution to ensuring no Dwarf dies to a husk?

[Kaos]

So if one were to build a chamber that flooded with water after a zombie walked into it, the zombie would turn into a normal person and drown? I feel like this should be tested.

Assuming that whatever random syndrome there is on the cloud that turns creatures into zombies is only active while the creature is coated on the dust/goo/whatever and when removed they go back to normal, it could also be irreversible so even if you wash them and remove the dust they will continue to be zombies...


I also read something about some cases returning to normal after they wander off the evil area (assuming the embark site has more than one biome) but maybe it was just that they got rained on...


To wash them is not necessary to build a drown chamber, across the entry hallway simply dig a channel and designate it as a pond zone and add water using buckets up to 3 in the water level, that way creatures still path through the shallow water normally and when they go through it they get washed off all contaminants and get a water coating, look for dwarven bathtub on the wiki...

[Loud Whispers]

Husks will never change back to their old form. Once infected, it's evil for life.

[ZeroSumHappiness]

Isn't murdering everything a bit of a large precaution to ensuring no Dwarf dies to a husk?

The murdering everything is so that when you reclaim the site isn't full of the zombies of your last crew.  Yes, it's intentionally overkill.

[Friendstrange]

In my current fort there is a fetid sludge that makes people unconsious and tints half the map a putrid green. The rain in itself is only an annoyance.
The problem comes when a zombie hand crawls itself to the unconsious dwarf and shatters its skull with a single scratch(unconcious = free headshots etc.). In other news, lungfish and other vermin seem unnafected by evil rain.

On adventure mode I have encountered an eery fog cloud that (after throwing a weasel at it to test what it did) causes mild numbness.

Yeah, I dont get any cool rains or clouds.

[Loud Whispers]

Isn't murdering everything a bit of a large precaution to ensuring no Dwarf dies to a husk?

The murdering everything is so that when you reclaim the site isn't full of the zombies of your last crew.  Yes, it's intentionally overkill.

...
If you abandon your Dwarves do not die. Hence, no zombies. Unless of course you're under siege then...