Hellhound



"Fetch me their souls!"

The Hellhounds are an aggressive new enemy first encountered in Shi No Numa, and in Der Riese. They are deadly dog-like monsters covered in flames that presumably come from another realm. They randomly spawn throughout the map (a ball of lightning will usually erupt whenever they spawn) every few rounds and their sole objective is to kill the player by streaking towards them and either attacking with tooth and claw or by exploding. The ground shakes whenever they spawn or explode. They are extremely lethal and must be taken care of as soon as possible.

History
thumb|252px|right|Players struggle against these dogs.

It is possible they have something to do with Element 115, as they have only appeared on maps that contain it or have contained it. It is also possible they are controlled by a single entity as at the start of a Hellhound round an evil voice says ''"Fetch me their souls!" (which is supposedly the voice of a ghostly Maxis).''

On Der Riese, there are a series of radios that can be turned on, two of them have the sounds of dogs in them. One of them is a recording of an experiment on a dog, using some sort of electrical chamber. The people who are experimenting sound German (maybe Nazi Scientists that are experimenting on, and maybe even had started the zombie outbreak). After the experiment, one of the scientists (known only as Doctor Maxis) tells his assistant to open the door, the assistant hesitates, Maxis snaps back to him and the assistant opens the door. The sound of electrical swirls and a Hell Hound can be heard, afterward a little girl can be heard saying "Father, what are you doing with Fluffy?". Maxis replies with "Dammit, Samantha, I told you never to come in here!", shouts to his assistant to remove Samantha from view of the dog. Samantha screams at the sight of her dog(Formally known as Fluffy!). She says "What is wrong with her? Daddy, what did you do? Fluffy!", Before running off. Maxis replies "Come back here Samantha. Stop Her." Maxis runs after her, while saying "Easy, come here Samantha. Good girl. Gently Samantha, we must get out of here" (all through that sentence, the Hellhound seems to have got out of the chamber and is destroying equipment and windows.) Before Maxis and Samantha have a chance to get out of the room, the assistant seems to have locked the door behind him as he came out. Maxis shouts "Edward! What are you doing! Open the door! Edward! Open this door now!". Samantha cries "I'm scared". Maxis says to Edward "Damn you, stay by me Samantha". Then the assistant speaks "Goodbye, Doctor Maxis!" in a voice very similar to Doctor Richtofen. Gunfire seems to be heard before Edward laughs in a evil tone. After that, the message cuts out into static. It is possible that Doctor Rictofen helped create the hellhounds(if he is not in fact Edward), because one of the things he says when a hellround starts refers to fluffy("Fluffy,is that you?")

How exactly this one dog started the hellhound breed is unknown so far, but in one audio clip "you know she's pregnant?" is heard, presumably referring to the dog. It is also possible more tests on the hellhounds were continued by Edward, they multiply or that the first teleport test didn't just teleport them, but cloned them as well. Sometimes it will appear as if a teleporter is being powered up as the dog spawns, possibly stating that the dogs come from the teleporter. They could be able to spawn on shi no numa because when some test subjects (Possibly other dogs?) disappeared after teleporting they were stuck, and are starting to reappear.

Strategies

 * The best gun for Hellhounds is the trench gun, as it is always a one hit kill, so at least one person should hold on to one in a group. This has been tested up to and over round 300. The PPSh-41 and the MG42 are also extremely effective, and can also be used to hold off the Hellhounds indefinitely. The .357 also works just as well as the Trench Gun, especially in early rounds, although can be harder to aim at the fast moving Hellhounds.
 * If on a Hellround, camping is the best solution, either in pairs or a group of four. Shotguns and MGs are equally effective, while the Ray Gun is quite dangerous to yourself, as the dogs will often get very close and cause you to kill yourself with the Ray Gun's splash damage. Note that the Wunderwaffe DG-2 should be saved for Zombie rounds instead, as the area effect has little bearing on Hellhounds (although this is nullified by the fact that you get a max ammo power-up at the end of the round, so as long as you keep a full magazine when the max ammo is taken, you can kill the hellhounds effectively with the Wunderwaffe). If you do not have an MG or Trench Gun yet in the first Hellround, knifing them is rather easy (blindly tested, survived) you will get damaged, but if you continually knife in a corner, you should survive.
 * A fairly good camping spot on Shi No Numa is at the first mystery box spawn, just around the corner where the dogs can only come from one direction.
 * Another good spot is the little island to the left of the Comm Room (if facing the Comm Room) if the Comm Room isn't open, then there will be a good 3–4 seconds between dogs. If all the other rooms are open, there is around 10–30 seconds between each individual dog, giving time to reload, which is especially good if using the Browning M1919
 * It is sometimes good to move from one place to another.
 * The Hellhound picks a random target upon spawning, and will not deviate from that target unless it is downed. Because of this, if someone is standing with people blocking the Hellhound from attacking them, it will simply get stuck.
 * On solo, there is never more than 10 Hellhounds per round. Because of this, Bouncing Betties (if all are placed during rounds between dogs and none are destroyed) can be used to complete a whole Hellround.
 * Dogs will usually not go into the water if they don't have to. You can use this fact to funnel the Hellhounds.
 * Another strategy is to have a Sub-Machine Gun, (e.g. M1 Thompson, Type 100, PPSh-41,) and basically run and jump frequently around and shoot at the Hellhounds. This makes it very hard for the Hellhounds to get you because one, if you keep on jumping, it makes it hard for the Hellhounds to line up an attack, and two, if they do attack, they will likely miss since you have jumped out of the way. Also, when a Hellhound attacks and misses, it will usually stay still for a second before attacking again. You can use that precious second to your advantage and get an easy kill.

Glitches

 * Sometimes, when killed, a Hellhound will not fall down as normal, but instead will freeze in the standing position. This can look awkward and cause a problem during particularly intense Hellhound rounds because players might reflexively shoot at a seemingly live Hellhound that is actually dead, wasting ammo. It is also possible for a Hellhound to continue bounding or running after it is killed, thus tricking players even further. (confirmed on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC)
 * (Shi No Numa) In the 'Warning room' there is a pallet and barrel to the left of the gate, if you are standing in the correct place next to the pallet and in front of the barrel, the Hellhounds run up to you and don't attack you. This can help, especially if you need to reload a large capacity gun, such as the Browning M1919.
 * (Der Riese) After opening the teleporter room behind the electricity generator, go past the teleporter and into the underground alley. If you go in the corner at the end, the Hellhounds will attack the wrong area. Give them enough time next to you however, and they will figure out where you are exactly and attack you.

Trivia

 * It is often thought that the dogs are Fluffy's puppies, because in Der Riese Maxis tells Samantha that she is going to have puppies. Richtofen also says "Poor puppies, they know no better." at the beginning of a Hellround.
 * The Hellhounds are the first and currently only enemies encountered in a Zombie Mode Game that aren't confirmed zombies.
 * In the map pack Der Riese some of the random recordings here and there(and yes you have to find them) announce some interesting things about the hell hounds and the normal zombies in the zombies series,e.g. How the first hell hound was Samantha's dog fluffy.
 * The Hellhounds first appeared in Shi No Numa, and made a return in Der Riese.
 * The Hellhounds have several different appearances just like the zombies. Some are large and intimidating while others look frail and badly burned.
 * The Hellhounds appear approximately every five rounds, although they are guaranteed to appear somewhere from rounds 5 to 8 (Reference to this comes from a poster board in Der Riese that has pictures of Hellhounds, and says 'Levels 5-8 must remain) . After Round 8 this becomes a 50/50 chance. Note that if teams complete a Hellround, it cannot happen again for three rounds, at which point it returns to the 50/50 probability.
 * It takes three hits from a Hellhound to down you, even if you have Jugger-Nog.
 * Hellhounds have much lower health and are more vulnerable than the zombies of the equivalent round.
 * The last Hellhound will usually drop a Max Ammo when killed. One of the only times that it is not dropped is when the Wunderwaffe DG-2 is used. If no Max Ammo is received, the very first zombie that is killed in the next round will drop it
 * (Shi No Numa) When looking in the direction of the Comm Room from outside Storage, one will notice a meteor that makes an interesting noise. There is electricity around it, similar to the electricity visible just before a Hellhound spawns, and the surface of the meteor has a texture resembling that of the Hellhound's skin.
 * When the Hellround begins, an ominous tune, rumbling thunder and a demonic voice saying "Fetch me their souls!" can be heard. Also, the map turns foggy until the last Hellhound is killed.
 * Interestingly, the flaming Hellhounds can be killed by the M2 Flamethrower, although it is EXTREMELY ineffective.
 * Hellhounds that aren't on fire don't explode.
 * Hellhounds, at least on Der Riese, attack certain players and wont switch between targets until the one their after is downed. (Note:Once the downed person is saved, the hellhound will return to their old target)
 * As the Hellhounds are faster than zombies, the zombies can down/kill you in two hits, but the Hellhounds can do this in three, rendering the Hellhounds and zombies equally lethal.
 * Hellhounds are noticeably bigger than regular dogs.
 * The name "Hellhounds" might be a reference to the term "devildog", a nickname for Marines. This is ironic as Dempsey says"The Devil's Dogs, no match for the US Marines!"
 * In Der Riese, hellhounds spawn without fire. They limp around until they find their target. When they find their target, the hellhound will catch fire and start running.
 * Hellhounds seem to have designated targets, as tested on Der Riese where one player split from the other 3, the majority of hounds would run right past the lone player, and attack their designated target, leaving the loner to only face a small number of hounds.
 * The Bowie knife is excellent at fighting off hellhounds, especially on the earlier rounds as one slash can kill a hound up until the 3rd batch of hounds
 * It is quite possible that the dogs are Hyenas, considering that on the chalkboards you can find the word hyena, and that on the posterboard there is a map of Africa.
 * Occasionally when a Hellhound is killed a girl's scream can be heard, possibly Samantha's.
 * In Der Riese, the Hellhounds will limp around and lock on a target, however, if you shoot at them they will lock on to the target that shoot at them regardless of the distance.

Quotes

 * Those don't sound like freak bags - Tank Dempsey
 * Shit!...Here come the dogs! - Tank Dempsey
 * The air hangs high with the stench of dog shit! - Nikolai Belinski
 * Fluffy? Is that you? - Doctor Richtofen

Appearances

 * Shi No Numa
 * Der Riese