Your flashlight runs on batteries
Everyone carries a flashlight that lights a cone where you aim and a small circle around you. After dark it burns battery: a full battery lasts about three and a half minutes of darkness. The battery gauge sits under the heart on your panel.
- Below 20% the beam shortens and flickers.
- At 0% the beam is gone: you’re left with a faint glow around you.
- It only drains in the dark, so daylight is free.
Where to get batteries
- Zombie drops: the fallen sometimes drop batteries, more often at night. Each pack adds half a charge.
- The shop (Survival): a full recharge for $75 between waves.
- Scavenging (Explore): cabinets, cars, bins and crates.
Sky flares
A sky flare is fired up over the spot ahead of you, where it hangs, slowly sinking, and lights a wide area for 40 seconds. Nothing can put it out: no zombie, no explosion. Use it to:
- light the approach to your door before a night wave hits,
- see a boss coming,
- save your flashlight battery during a long siege.
Fire one with V, LT on a gamepad or the Flare button on a phone. They cost $120 in the shop (carry up to three) and turn up in Explore in lockers, crates and cars.
Flashbangs
A flashbang is thrown like a grenade and goes off in a blinding white flash. Every zombie nearby that can see it is dazed for three and a half seconds (bosses shake it off in half the time): they stand still with stars over their heads and lose whatever attack they were winding up. Flashbangs do no damage.
Best uses: freeze the pack around a downed teammate while you revive them, stop a breach while you rebuild boards, or buy time to reload a machine gun. C, B on a gamepad or the Flash button on a phone. $150 for two in the shop, carry up to four; lockers in Explore.
Torches draw zombies at night
A torch lights the area around it, but at night zombies that can see one go for it first unless you’re clearly closer. That makes a $40 torch a decoy: put one out in the street to pull a pack away from your door, then shoot them while they smash it. Don’t put torches right next to your walls unless you want the horde there.
Only night mode
Turn on Only night in the rules and the sun never comes up. In Survival every wave is a night wave: more zombies, tougher and faster, with the $150 night bonus every round. In Explore you scavenge in the dark (zombies see further and the small ones sprint), then hold the camp as usual. Batteries and flares become the most valuable things you own.
Questions
How long does the flashlight battery last?
About three and a half minutes of darkness on a full charge. It only drains at night.
Can zombies destroy a sky flare?
No. A sky flare burns for its full 40 seconds and nothing can put it out.
Do flashbangs hurt zombies?
No, they daze every zombie in range for about three and a half seconds (bosses for half that) without damaging them.
