Strangling is an unarmed attack in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II that allows Joel and Abby to stealthily grab other survivors, runners, and stalkers and choke them out. While being strangled, they can also be used as human shields. It takes roughly six seconds to strangle an enemy, so there's a strong chance one can be spotted. Other survivors can also strangle Abby, Joel and Ellie, notably Henry and David and large brute enemies.
Despite the considerable amount of noise made during strangling, for gameplay purposes strangling is considered completely silent by the AI, who do not react even if someone is being strangled right next to them, unless they see Joel and Abby doing it.
When strangling, Joel and Abby are rendered immobile, allowing people to see and attack them if they are in an open area. However, it depends on the route the player takes; the more conservative route around the enemies or the faster and more efficient one through the middle, spacious area.
Ellie is unable to strangle opponents due to her small size and physical inability, so she uses her switchblade instead, frantically stabbing an enemy in the neck and chest which is slightly quicker and more effective than strangling, albeit moving the enemy forwards instead of backwards. In Part II, Ellie still uses the switchblade, albeit in a more controlled manner.
If Joel or Abby has crafted a shiv, they can opt to stab someone in the neck instead of strangling them. Although this is considerably faster, it also uses up a shiv.
The strangling feature is not possible in Factions MP.
Behind the scenes[]
- Clickers and bloaters cannot be strangled because of their strength.
- The strangling pop-ups do not appear on Hard, Survivor and Grounded Difficulty, meaning that players have to know what the buttons are.
- For those who need reminding, one has to use Triangle to grab the enemy, then use Square to strangle, Triangle to shiv or the L1 button to shoot them point-blank (if the player's sidearm is loaded).
- In the E3 demo, strangling seemed to take a bit longer, and the enemy's animation of trying to break free was different, the enemy attempting to punch Joel on the head. In the final version they attempt to grab Joel's head to break free.
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