"All trace of organic life has disappeared except for what we call the 'Zurk'. They seem to eat almost everything that moves and breed at an inconceivable rate. As if being locked in this City wasn't hard enough."
Zbaltazar's notes about Zurks found in his notebook,
Chapter 4: The Slums
The Zurks are recurring enemies evolved from bacteria, which appear throughout Chapter 1 to Chapter 8 and are said to be the only living beings after human time other than the cat or some animals. They can kill the cat, along with Sentinels.
Physical Appearance
Zurks are small, bug-like creatures with plump bodies that look like potatoes. They have glossy, wrinkled beige skin, a single large glowing orange-yellow eyeball, and four spike-like legs, which allow them to jump and cling to small objects or nets. Underneath they reveal a small oral cavity surrounded by sharp, inward-curved teeth, making their mouths resemble the mouthparts of insects. They make sounds similar to squeaking.
Behavior
Out in the Dead City and Slums, solitary Zurks behave as scavengers, running away at the least chance of danger. This is how the Cat initially encounters them.
In larger numbers, or on their home territory of the sewers, Zurks are more aggressive, exhibiting swarming behavior similar to that of a piranha. Upon seeing the cat, the swarm will immediately run and jump to attack. The player must run away and dodge all its attacks. They can consume all kind of materials, including flesh, metal, and plastics.
Even though they are supposed to eat objects, like trash, they have evolved to begin eating metal, and flesh.
Grammar
The singular term "Zurk" is used for the adjective, or to describe a single Zurk.
The group noun for the Zurks is "the Zurks", rather than "the Zurk".
Biology
Observations:
- cute sounds but never friendly.
- old bacteria of human time.
- eat all kinds of materials.
- total vision in the dark.
- react to the intense light!!!
-- Doc, Note in Doc's flat
According to Doc, the Zurk originally came from "old bacteria of human time."
B-12 also has a memory about this:
They were responsible for waste management.
As trash from the upper levels overloaded the Slums, they tried to develop a bacteria to dissolve it all.
After the humans disappeared, that bacteria mutated. Growing, eating way more than trash.
And now we have Zurks.
...
B-12's memory supports Doc's theory, explaining that trash-eating bacteria was released into the Lower Level by Neco corp to try to tackle the problem of the trash they had been dumping down there. However, after the humans vanished, the bacteria began to grow and mutate, which resulted in Zurks. UV light can kill them, just like most bacteria.
The Zurks hatch from what Seamus calls eggs, which are found around the City and its Sewers.
Sounds
They look and sound cute, but don't be fooled! Those things chew through metal. They're terrifying!
- Teddy
| Name | Sound |
|---|---|
| Claws | |
| Aggressive | |
| Idling | |
| Wake up | |
| Alert | |
| Attached door hit | |
| Attached door rattle | |
| Coach | |
| Shaked | |
| Iemed | |
| Flee | |
| Fleeing | |
| Angry | |
| Stunned | |
| Shows teeth |
Trivia
- Zurk sounds similar to "Жук", a Russian word that means "bug". However, in the Russian localization, "Zurk" is rendered as "Зурк".
- Due to the visual similarity, some believe Zurk may be a reference to Headcrabs from the Half-Life universe.
- There are plans afoot today to unleash engineered, highly-resistant plastic-eating bacteria into landfill, the ocean, and other places negatively affected by plastic pollution. Some argue that this might be unwise. The Zurk may be a reference to such proposals.
- During development, and still in some internal game files, they were called "Zurg", possibly a reference to Disney's Emperor Zerg, or more likely to Starcraft's swarming race, the wp:Zerg.
Gallery
See also
| Enemies | |
|---|---|
| Enemies | Zurks • Sentinels |
| Runs | Sentinel Runs • Zurk Runs • Dead City Zurk Run • Dead End Zurk Run |
| Zurk biology | Flesh Eyeballs • Fleshy Walls • Birthing Pods |