Putrid Corpse
Putrid Corpses are slow, decaying zombies kept moving by all sorts of strange powers. The plain ones do not cause any status effects, but there are many variants: poisonous ones, Magic Corpses with blue light in their eyes, Burning Corpses wrapped in flame, Rotten Corpses carrying scarlet rot, Bloody Corpses covered in red ulcers, Fungal Corpses overgrown by mushrooms, and Messmerfire Corpses in the Realm of Shadow. Most come in a small and a tall version.
You meet them on the Weeping Peninsula, in Caelid, on Mt. Gelmir and the Altus Plateau, in Impaler’s Catacombs, Wyndham Catacombs, Sainted Hero’s Grave, Leyndell Catacombs, Leyndell, Royal Capital and the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds. Poison variants haunt The Shaded Castle, Magic Corpses fill the big graveyard of the Academy of Raya Lucaria, Burning Corpses show up around Fort Gael and Gaol Cave, Bloody Corpses lurk in the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum, Fungal Corpses in Miquella’s Haligtree, and Messmerfire Corpses in the Church District of Shadow Keep.
Drops
Mushroom
Toxic Mushroom (poison variant)
Melted Mushroom (burning, rotten and fungal variants)
Bloodrose (bloody variant)
Weaknesses
Fire (most variants)
Blood Loss (most variants)
Very low poise, easy to stagger
Resistances & immunities
Magic Corpses have high magic damage negation
Not Those Who Live in Death: no extra damage from holy attacks
How to beat it
Their poise is very low, so steady hits keep them staggered and harmless. Fire and bleed work well on most of them. Learn the variant before you rush in: Burning Corpses charge and blow up in a fireball, Bloody Corpses burst into a cloud of flies that builds blood loss, Rotten and Fungal Corpses build scarlet rot, and Magic Corpses can grab you and drain your FP.
Some Fungal Corpses in the Haligtree hide around corners to shove you off ledges, so walk carefully there. Tall corpses hit harder and have more health, but the same rules apply.
Lore
These dead do not rest easily. Giants’ flame, Messmerfire, poison, scarlet rot and other forces keep them moving. The Magic Corpses may have become puppets after drinking in starlight, and the Fungal Corpses are servants of rot who believe their holy robes tie them to the earth. Four of the ordinary kind can fight for you through the Putrid Corpse Ashes.