Joel Miller & Ellie Williams

Joel is often described as an antihero. He is a hardened survivor whose obsession with survival is fueled by his desensitization due to his daughter's death. Joel's years of survival have led him to become resourceful, practical, and emotionally impenetrable, though he is still traumatized and vulnerable. Joel's appearance indicates that he was in his late 40s. He had a heavy, muscular build, with dark, graying hair and a beard. According to sewage's water level ruler, he appears to be between 5 feet 10 inches (177.8cm) and 5 feet 11 inches (180.3cm) tall. Joel has many cuts and scars, which can be seen on his face and arms if the player equips Joel with a t-shirt

Character. Ellie is described as "mature beyond her years" as a result of the circumstances of her environment. She is characterized as strong, witty, and "a little rough around the edges". Her emotional trauma is accentuated after her encounter with David. Though she can still be very playful, and curious just like a normal 14 year old girl. Ellie is described as having auburn hair and being 5'3" and having a scar going down her left eyebrow. She is lean and has reddish auburn hair, along with pale green eyes, fair skin with freckles, a scar on her right eyebrow, and a thin stature.

The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic story that takes place after the breakout of a mutant Cordyceps fungal infection devastates the United States, turning most of the population into mindless zombies, referred to as "the Infected." The Cordyceps work by engulfing a human and slowly transforming them into an unrecognizable monster.

The seven stages of infected go in order as follows: Runners, stalkers, clickers, bloaters, the alternative to bloaters being shamblers, the rat king, and finally death.

Runners are infected who have been turned for 24-48 hours and are still mostly human which is why they shreak when they attach, recognizing that they can't control their actions

Stalkers have the vision and speed of runners, with the ferocity of clickers. The most notable physical traits that define the stalkers are the distinct croaking noises they make, the beginning of fungal growths on the head and face, usually leaving the host with only one eye left, the development of pseudo-echolocation, and their discretion upon spotting a victim at a distance. They will strafe and take cover, displaying an agile and stealth-reliant nature.[2] They eventually close in on their target, hence the name "stalker". Up close, stalkers are very aggressive and will charge directly at the victim. Clickers appear less human than runners and stalkers, with faces that are completely skewed and scarred by fungus developed from their infected brains, often only leaving behind a maw of jagged teeth. By this point, whatever clothes the host may have been wearing are mostly tattered and destroyed. The skin is covered in mold and scaly fungal growths, which can be seen glowing in the dark. Most notably, the eyes of clickers have been pushed out of the sockets due to advanced fungal growth, leaving the host completely blind. In response to their blindness, clickers develop a form of crude echolocation by producing rapid clicking and croaking sounds, which has earned the infected their namesake.[4] The formation of fungal plates on the heads of clickers are adapted to keep the host alive and offer protection to the brain. In fact, a direct shot to the head with a powerful weapon such as a revolver will only break off a chunk of the fungus, leaving the clicker's brain unharmed. This makes them deadlier, but at the price of being completely blind due to fungal infection taking over their face. Like runners, clickers can sometimes be found in a passive state and standing in a slouched position. If agitated, the clicker will begin to roam and search the surrounding area for the stressor. Clickers also erratically twitch and sometimes claw at the fungal growth covering their face, and often stumble clumsily when walking around passively. Clickers are dangerous and much more aggressive than runners and stalkers. They seem to have enhanced strength, as they can overwhelm Joel if grappled, needing Bill to help him,[4] and always succeed in killing their prey if attacking other humans, like the group at the mountain plaza. Clickers also possess high intelligence, never leaving an area when they have heard prey run by them, and will constantly check every available nook and cranny to locate the source of the sound with little regard to giving up on the task at hand.[5][3] However, their echolocation is crude compared to creatures like bats, as they will not notice that something is alive or moving unless it is directly in front of them. This supports the assumption of the front being where the clicks are sounded, as their face plates are shaped like a megaphone, directing it straight ahead of them, but not all around. When provoked, a clicker will immediately enter into a "berserk mode," aggressively flailing its arms and 'roaring'. At this point, if a survivor has been "spotted" by a clicker, the clicker will attack head-on and will not flinch when shot, unless the player is using high-powered rounds.

Bloaters are incredibly strong and physically imposing infected that are covered in thick fungus that effectively acts as armor plates.[2] As such, their skin forms large patches of scale-like tissue that glow in the dark, which form their mykotoxin pouches and engulfs their entire body.[3] Because of this protective covering, they can withstand multiple hits from weapons such as the shotgun and hunting rifle, and even hatchets and machetes, making them extremely tough to eliminate. Bloaters are extremely aggressive, but are rather slow-moving and uncoordinated, making them more predictable than other infected. Like clickers, bloaters 'see' using echolocation to locate and trap a survivor. Because the fungus has completely deformed their face and blinded them, their echolocation is much less refined than the clickers. Their clicking is much deeper in tone than a clicker's. If a bloater grabs a survivor, it will violently rip their jaw apart through brute strength, grab the player's head and smash it, pin them to the ground and pummel their body mercilessly, or grab the survivor's neck and bend it to break the spine, killing them instantly. There is no way for the player to defend themselves if grabbed - the result is an instant kill. Bloaters throw sacks of mycotoxin, which explode on impact, spraying the target with the toxin.[8] The mycotoxin will hurt the player over time, so it is recommended to avoid these deadly clouds.

Shamblers are horrifying, walking pustule-clusters that spray gaseous acid when they get near the player and take massive damage before dying. They move slowly, but are capable of shifting into a sprint if noise alerts them. When feeling threatened, they instinctively fire bursts of their acidic spores from their body.[4] The fungal growth is so immense that spores cover their entire body, leading to oversized heads and torsos with dozens of pus spores around them. In addition to this, their mouths have been stuck gaping wide by the fungus, preventing them from being able to bite. However, the growth has not consumed their arms and their eyes are still partially visible while clickers and bloaters are completely blind . Once defeated, these festering threats explode with violent force, emitting a cloud of spores that deal heavy damage to a survivor. It is suggested that shamblers were in the process of mutating into bloaters, but heavy exposure to water from the constant rain in Seattle caused them to change into shamblers instead.[3] However, they are encountered in areas away from water such as in the suburbs of the city and the forest areas.

The rat king possesses incredible strength and resilience, surpassing that of a bloater, shown in how it could easily smash through and destroy much of the lower levels of the hospital, including an ambulance, and was capable of taking extensive damage before dying. After taking enough damage, some of the intertwined infected can break off from the larger mass. Once an infected has detached, it can have traits shared with other types of infected. For instance, one infected which detached resembled a stalker in behavior and appearance but was able to throw sacks of mycotoxin similar to bloaters. It appears every single infected connected to the mass is their own entity as opposed to the mass being a single one. it appears the rat king is made up of some of the first people ever to be infected by Cordyceps brain infection in the city of Seattle, meaning it developed into this state after 25 years of infection. It appears to have formed by being sealed in a room so full of spores that as the fungal growths bloomed and spread, the infected were merged into each other. The rat king found in the basement of the Seattle hospital is the only known case of conjoined infected.

Unlike any other zombie apocalypse, the infected are not dead beings but instead have been taken over by what's known as the cordyceps infection, a real-life fungus that mutated from infecting animals to infecting humans.