The shop (Survival, between waves)
Between waves the shop opens on every player’s screen or phone. Cash is shared out from every kill, so plan buys as a team.
| Item | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Armour | $250 | +50 armour (max 100) |
| Medkit | $120 | Heal to full now |
| Grenades ×3 | $200 | 3 grenades (max 6) |
| Self-revive | $600 | When you go down, get back up on your own (once) |
| Batteries | $75 | Flashlight back to full |
| Flashbangs ×2 | $150 | Daze every zombie nearby for a few seconds (max 4) |
| Sky flare | $120 | Fire it up: lights a wide area for 40 s (max 3) |
Things you throw
Grenades
A grenade bounces, rolls and goes off about a second later, dealing 190 damage in a wide circle: a pack of walkers gone. You start a Survival game with 2 and can carry 6. Throw: nade button (phone), G or right click (keyboard), LB (gamepad). Throw it into the middle of a crowd, not at its front edge, and never at your own feet.
Flashbangs
A flashbang goes off almost at once and dazes every zombie nearby for 3.5 seconds (bosses for half that). Nothing dies, but nothing moves: it’s the button for “they’re on top of my downed friend”. Carry up to 4. Keyboard C.
Sky flares
Fire one up and it hangs over the ground ahead of you, lighting a wide area for 40 s. Zombies can’t put it out. It’s the answer to night waves and the dark parts of town. Carry up to 3. Keyboard V. More in the night survival guide.
Rocks (Explore and Missions)
Thrown with the grenade button when you have no grenades. A rock makes a noise where it lands and pulls nearby zombies towards it: throw one past a pack to walk round it, or away from the house you’re searching.
Staying alive
- Armour ($250): +50, up to 100. While you have armour it soaks 60% of every hit. The best value in the shop before the first boss.
- Medkit ($120): back to full health on the spot.
- Drops in Survival: zombies sometimes drop a bandage (+35 health), food (+20), an ammo box (half a reserve for every gun you carry) or cash (+$40 for everyone). Big zombies and bosses nearly always drop something. Drops fade after 20 s, and you can’t pick up heals at full health.
- In Explore and Missions you heal from your backpack: bandages (+30), first-aid kits (full) and food. Phone: tap the item. Keyboard: H heals, T eats.
Going down, and getting back up
- At zero health you go down, not dead. You can crawl. A teammate who stands next to you for 2.2 seconds brings you back with 40% health.
- Nobody comes and you bleed out after 20 seconds (13 on Hard, and in Missions). In Survival you’re back at the end of the wave.
- A self-revive ($600) gets you up on your own a couple of seconds after you fall. You can hold one at a time.
- Signed in with OMEN, you can also buy a revive when you’re down or bled out, up to 2 a game, paid in OMENX. The bleed-out clock stops while you pay.
Flashlight and batteries
Your flashlight drains in the dark: a full battery lasts about 3.5 minutes of darkness, and it flickers below 20%. Batteries from the shop fill it; the batteries zombies drop (more often at night) and the ones you find in cabinets, crates, bins and cars add 50%.
Your backpack (Explore and Missions)
In Explore and Missions there’s no shop between waves: you scavenge. Stand by a fridge, cabinet, crate, bin, car, locker or body and hold USE to search it. What you find goes into your backpack, up to a limit per item.
| Item | Carry | Use | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canned food | 6 | Eat: +45 food | fridges, cabinets, bins and bodies |
| Soup | 6 | Eat: +30 food, +10 HP | fridges |
| Bandage | 6 | Use: +30 HP | cabinets, cars and bodies |
| First-aid kit | 3 | Use: full HP | cabinets and police lockers |
| Planks | 20 | Crafting | crates |
| Scrap metal | 20 | Crafting | crates, bins and cars |
| Cloth | 20 | Crafting | fridges, cabinets and bins |
| Rock | 5 | Throw (grenade button): a noise that pulls zombies away | cabinets and bins |
Grenades turn up in crates and police lockers, flashbangs in police lockers, sky flares in crates, cars and police lockers. Ammo for pistols, rifles and shotguns sits in cabinets, crates, cars, lockers and on bodies.
Crafting
- Bandage: 2 cloth
- First-aid kit: 2 bandage + 1 cloth
Open the backpack (phone: the bag button; keyboard: B) to craft. Planks, scrap and cloth also pay for building.
Hunger
In Explore your food bar drains over about seven minutes. At zero you slowly lose health, so eat before it runs out: canned food +45, soup +30 and 10 health.
Building pieces
Build mode (🔨 on a phone, X on a keyboard) works in every mode. Survival pays cash, Explore and Missions pay materials.
| Piece | Survival | Explore | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden wall | $80 | 3 planks | Blocks zombies till they smash it |
| Reinforced wall | $220 | 2 planks + 3 scrap metal | Tough wall, lasts much longer |
| Gate | $140 | 4 planks | You walk through, they don’t |
| Spike trap | $150 | 2 scrap metal | Hurts and slows what walks over it |
| Torch | $40 | 1 planks + 1 cloth | Lights the dark; draws zombies at night |
The full building guide: barricades and building.
Mission items
Missions add objective items: car keys, fuel cans, medicine, explosives and ammo crates go in your backpack. A car battery or a ladder takes both hands: you move slower and only the pistol works until you put it down (going down drops it). See the missions guide.
Questions
What should I buy first in the shop?
A better gun (the SMG) after the first waves, then armour before wave 5’s boss. Keep a self-revive once the team can afford it.
How does armour work?
Armour soaks 60% of every hit until it runs out. Each purchase adds 50, up to 100.
What do flashbangs do?
They daze every zombie nearby for 3.5 seconds (bosses for half). Nothing dies, but nothing moves.
How do I heal in Explore mode?
Use bandages, first-aid kits and food from your backpack. Craft bandages from cloth, and first-aid kits from bandages and cloth.
