The next step up from Clickers is Bloaters and Shamblers, the heavy-type enemies in The Last of Us 2. Clickers are the most widely known infected type in The Last of Us, but Naughty Dog managed to make them even deadlier in the sequel with the addition of a ‘bark’ move that allows the creatures to see players even when they aren't moving. But the next stage, known as Stalkers, is where the cordyceps lore kicks in, as they have more prominent fungal growth, but still appear mostly human. The early infected stages, such as Runners, are more akin to typical zombies. The virus is spread via bites or spores, and seeing spores or overgrown fungus during The Last of Us is a telltale sign that there are infected nearby. Naughty Dog has taken this concept and applied it to a virus for people, which resulted in a series of different infected stages in the game. These enemy types are all grounded in science around the in-game cordyceps brain infection. However, the cordyceps virus is actually based on a real-life fungus that is known to attack and subsume other species, mostly in plants and insects. For some background, there are several known infected types established so far in The Last of Us games.

The last of us infected