Piñata

A fresh Piñata is created

A 'Piñata' is the term coined for a building which is barricaded up to Extremely Heavily Barricaded, but is also ruined. (These buildings can also be known as an EHB Ruin.) Because the building is ruined, survivors are unable to free-run inside. In addition, the EHB barricades prevent entry from street level. To gain entry to the building the barricades must be reduced to Very Strongly Barricaded. For survivors using a fireaxe or crowbar this takes around 35 AP. The tactic is particularly disruptive when used at free running 'choke points', forcing longer detours or spans of time spent out in the street.

Often, a lone zombie can be found standing inside like the prize of a piñata, hence the term.

Process

To be created, all that is required is a zombie (with the ransack skill) in a building barricaded to EHB. To get there, a player can parachute, be PKed, or just stay as zombie in a building that a survivor has barricaded after zombies have entered. It must be noted that for a building to be ruined, there cannot be any standing survivors present.

However, it is actually possible to end up with a piñata containing survivors by ruining the EHB building with a revivifying body inside. This tricky operation has been demonstrated by the Maltonian Inquisition.

Additional

The first recorded Piñata was created on 23rd September 2007.

The first recorded wide-scale Piñatas were Red Rum's activities in Pimbank during late September/ early October '07, culminating in all of Tynte Mall's entry points being closed down.

As a larger scale zombie tactic the utilisation of Piñatas is called Cade and ruin.

Counters

The only way to repair a Pinata is to bring down the barricades to Very Strongly Barricaded so that survivors can enter, dump any zombies inside, and repair it. Since survivors must use more AP against barricades than zombies, it is most efficient for life cultists and dead survivors awaiting revives to smash pinata barricades to VSB for others to repair later.

Large Buildings are very difficult to pinata as it is possible to enter from any corner outside and move within the structure to repair all corners without triggering free running. When ruin was first implemented this wasn't the case, it was later resolved as an oversight through Bug Reports.