Early in the game, the most effective melee weapon to use against goons are their own heavy rebar clubs, which deal a little over 200 damage and will kill a goon in about 5 hits.

By the end of the game, rank 3 goons will have roughly 2,000 to 2,300 health and will require higher-level melee weapons to kill. Later rank 1 goons have a little over 900 health. He can also easily be killed by using the many explosive tanks scattered around the area where he is fought. The first goon encountered, as part of the story quest First Assignment, has about 500 health on normal difficulty and requires about 20+ hits from the starting melee weapons to kill.An easy strategy to take him out is to use ranged weapons to avoid the large swing of the rebar. Thor is the leader of goons and a larger than the standard goon located in the north east of the Countryside map at the end of a highway.There is one freak of nature goon in the Countryside Smack: Name explains itself, the goon simply smacks the player across the face as mentioned in paragraphs above.This is similar to the player's a ility to spin with heavy weapons as a critical attack. Rotation swing: The goon can at times spin while holding it's rebar, dealing massive damage.Heavy swing: When a goon is hit by a player and it has noticed said player, the goon will proceed to swing it's heavy rebar much more slowly but dealing more damage.Swing: The goon swing it's weapon making a giant shockwave.Each successive rank of goon has more health, and the shockwave from when they slam their rebar into the ground has a larger radius, with the rank 3 goon's shockwave having a radius of nearly 20 feet.

These goons appear once the player reaches Old Town. It is appears similar to the regular third type, but has a green hue and wears hot pink pants as opposed to black, with a rank 1 range. Additionally, a rare variant of the third type also exists in the Slums, after completing The Pit. The third type is shirtless with black pants and is missing much of its skin, exposing its muscles. The second type wears a black firefighter's outfit and is first encountered in the volatile nest skyscraper in the quest Siblings. The first type wears an orange rubber industrial worker's uniform and is first encountered in the story quest First Assignment.

Goons come in 3 different ranks, which begin to appear as the player progresses through the game. However, it should be remembered that every strike that the player lands on the goon makes it more aggressive and attack more quickly. Like the demolisher, its attacks damage other infected and can be used to the player's advantage. The goon's rebar swing swing is slow with an equally low reload rate, giving the player time to either attack or retreat between swings. Goons are much stronger than regular infected, but are very slow-moving and entirely unable to climb objects and buildings. It can also use its left arm to bat the survivors away, which works as a secondary attack. A physically large and strong infected that towers at roughly 8 feet tall, goons carry a heavy rebar (typically a section of concrete with rebar acting as a handle) which it uses to smash into the ground and swing at the player.

Volatile dying light demolisher