Zoom goons are enemies in Rift Apart. A type of goon infantry for Goons-4-Less, they are equipped with jetpacks and remain airborne above the battlefield at all times, giving them huge mobility advantage.
Unnamed goon infantry with jetpacks first appeared in Before the Nexus and Into the Nexus. However, they were named and fully introduced in Rift Apart, where Ratchet and Clank fought them both in their dimension and Rivet's dimension, where they followed them to and also encountered Rivet and Kit.
Later in Rift Apart, undead goon variants of the zoom goon appear as enemies.
History[]
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.