Zombie Warrior

Also known as a Soldier Demon, the Zombie Warrior is an undead low class Genma that first appears in Onimusha: Warlords, and is the first of Guildenstern's engineered Genma. They act primarily as the foot soldiers for a Genma attack and are among the most common Genma that can be encountered. While they are large in numbers, the Zombie Warriors are also among the weakest Genma alive.

Many variants of this Genma have existed throughout the series including the Zombie Swordsman, the Zombie Spearman, and the Toyotomi Footsoldier.

Stats (Dawn of Dreams)

Item Drops (Dawn of Dreams)

Appearance

The Zombie Warrior is a humanoid skeleton wearing a disheveled dark green cloth outfit that covers most of its body with a white strap around its waist, only exposing its head and chest. It wears a large orange bamboo hat on its head, and the exposed pieces of its body show only a small amount of flesh left on its body, likely having rotted away. Upon absorbing a Green Soul in Genma Onimusha, the Zombie Warrior's body turns red and its weapon begins emitting a red glow.

Its appearance undergoes a slight change from Onimusha 3: Demon Siege and onwards, with its outfit being cut off at the sleeves and wearing a brown shirt underneath. The Zombie Warrior wields a poorly maintained nodachi that is likely taken from a fallen human, though archer variants are also known to exist, wielding a standard bow instead of a nodachi.

Behavior

Zombie Warriors are known to hunt in groups, acting on their base instincts to search for humans to collectively kill and feed on. While they prove resistant to attacks from standard humans in many situations, they are still considered to be among the weakest known Genma. They act primarily as footsoldiers for the Genma army, likely being the easiest Genma to mass-produce due to being little more than a re-animated corpse. While they can be dangerous to standard humans, their attacks are still rather weak and somewhat slow, making them fairly easy to fight even for those without access to any form of magic. Upon witnessing a foe attempt to absorb Genma Souls, they are known to let out a large shriek before charging towards their foe for a downward slash, though this is also rather easy to defend against. While their appearance changes in Onimusha 3: Demon Siege and beyond, their behavior remains the same, though the stronger variant fires a line of three fire arrows as opposed to a single standard arrow.

Zombie Warriors have also been seen wielding a bow instead of a nodachi, firing arrows from afar whenever they sight an enemy, though these arrows are fired fairly slowly and are capable of being blocked. However, this behavior ends in Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, with the new Zombie Archer being a primary ranger instead. The Zombie Warrior is capable of absorbing a Green Soul in Genma Onimusha, and doing so causes their attacks to deal more damage, as well as causing them to attack far more aggressively as it will string together its attacks one after the other far more often in order to more quickly chip away at its foe's health. While its behavior remains near-identical across the series, its charge attack is preceded by a hiss as opposed to a shriek in Onimusha 3: Demon Siege.

Onimusha: Blade Warriors

The Zombie Warrior is one of 24 playable characters in Onimusha: Blade Warriors and is one of 12 characters that are available from the beginning. However, it is automatically replaced in the game's Story Mode by the Jaid upon raising its character level to 2. While the Zombie Warrior becomes unavailable in Story Mode upon unlocking Jaid, it can still be accessed in VS. Mode.

Trivia

• The Zombie Warrior has the most variants in the entire series, with a total of 7 different variants (not counting the stronger recolored versions of previous variants).
• Zombie Warrior is one of three playable characters in Onimusha: Blade Warriors that are irreversibly replaced by new characters in Story Mode by raising their character level, the other two being Three-Eyes and Musaid, with the latter replacing the former at level 2, then getting replaced itself by Giramusaid at level 3.
• In Onimusha: Blade Warriors, the sounds made by the Zombie Warrior are replaced by those normally made by the Three-Eyes, with the Three-Eyes and Bazuu using sounds normally used by the Zombie Warrior. The reason for this change is unknown.
• The Zombie Warrior (Archer) is one of ten non-boss Genma that can be defeated in Critical Mode without an Issen, the other nine being Babian, Battobone, Battochaika, Bera, Bhaza, Dark Spider, Gajimaro, Gera and Grizmoh.
  • For the Battobone, Bhaza, Dark Spider and Grizmoh, this only applies if they are carrying an Oni Firefly. Those that are not require an Issen to defeat in Critical Mode.

Gallery

Zombie Warrior after absorbing a Green Soul

A horde of Zombie Warriors

Zombie Warrior

Zombie Warrior (GO 021)

Full illustration for Zombie Warrior (GO 021)

Full Illustration for Zombie Warrior (GO 021, Secret)

Onimusha: Warlords Official Strategy Guide entry

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege Official Strategy Guide entry