The zoom goon is the flying infantry unit for the Thugs-4-Less, they first appear, unnamed, in Before the Nexus and Into the Nexus, before making a return in Rift Apart.
They are equipped with jetpacks, allowing them to remain airborne above the battlefield at all times, giving them a huge mobility advantage. In Before the Nexus and Into the Nexus, they wield a blaster similar to their infantry counterparts; while in Rift Apart, they are demolition experts, armed with incendiary grenade launchers.
Later in Rift Apart, undead goon variants of the zoom goon appear as enemies.
History[]
Into the Nexus[]
This enemy had a superior variant who appeared in space, the space variant possessed the same red armor as the Thug grenadiers, allowing them to breathe in space and also making them less susceptible to damage.
Rift Apart[]
A zoom goon interrogating a mort for their bounty's location.
When mass dimensional chaos ensues after the Dimensionator is destroyed, the goons continue to pursue their bounty through the tears in the dimensions into Rivet's universe. On the Sargasso of Rivet's dimension, the goons cross dimensions with their forces and attack Rivet as they are unable to differentiate their lombax target from her and Ratchet. The zoom goons are first seen here interrogating the morts at gunpoint to find their bounty targets. Later, they are found throughout the planet when Rivet is collecting zurpstones for the optional mission "Help Trudi". The zoom goons around the planet try to take the zurpstones for themselves to eat, fighting both Rivet and the grunthors for them.
They are fought at Zurkie's Battleplex in the Bronze Cup challenge "Boomstick Blast" by Rivet, using only an Enforcer. They also appear during the Gold Cup challenge "Vroom Around", where they are fought in low gravity.
They follow Rivet again across dimensions to the intact dimension version of Blizar Prime. Here the zoom goons try to break the VAC-U-SUK during the optional mission "Find the Missing Chef", where Rivet helps Chef Tulio harvest sirangian honey from the fendersax wasp hive.
Combat[]
Their jetpacks allow them to perform evasive aerial movements to dodge side to side and avoid your weapons attacks. Their method of attack is to lob grenades at you, marked by a red reticle on the ground. Stay out of these to avoid getting hit, although the explosion from their grenades has a wide reach and even jumping over them when they detonate can still damage you. On higher difficulties, their grenades can be devastating, as they will fire them and explode very quickly, leaving phantom dashing away from their explosion as the best method for evading them. Unlike the Nefarious blitztroopers, zoom goons do not have much more health than a typical infantry goon, meaning you can use most of the same weapons on them like the Burst Pistol. The Ricochet is also a handy weapon to use on them, as you only need to land a single hit to keep damaging them repeatedly. Because of their aerial mobility, it is advised against using weapons like the Drillhound and Shatterbomb, which have a high tendency to miss. The Bombardier is also not a good choice because it can only fire down, and Zoom Goons will often fly above it.
Behind the scenes[]
The jetpack-utilizing thugs appear as enemies in Before the Nexus.