Field guide
How to play
You need wood, stone and scrap to survive. Getting them makes noise. Make too much and the horde finds you.
Play nowThe goal
Survive as many hordes as you can. Your score is the number of hordes you live through, then your kill count.
Controls
| Action | Computer | Phone or tablet |
|---|---|---|
| Move | W A S D or arrow keys | Drag your left thumb anywhere |
| Attack, chop, shoot, build | Aim with the mouse, click or hold | Hold the Use button |
| Switch tool | 1–6 or mouse wheel | Tap the hotbar |
| Crafting | C | Craft button |
| Eat | F | Eat button |
| Use a bandage | H | Heal button |
| Pause | Esc or P | II button |
On a phone, attacks aim at the nearest zombie automatically.
The noise meter
The bar at the top of the screen fills with every loud thing you do. It runs from 0 to 100. When it reaches 100, you get a 20-second warning, then the horde arrives.
- Quiet time drains it. The meter drops by half a point every second while you are not making noise.
- Night makes everything louder. After dark, every action adds 50% more noise.
- Each horde is bigger than the last. After you survive one, the meter resets to zero and the next horde brings more zombies, with runners and brutes mixed in.
| Action | Noise added | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Smash a crate | 3.0 | Loud |
| Build a stone wall | 2.0 | Loud |
| Build a wood wall | 1.5 | Medium |
| Mine a rock (per hit) | 1.2 | Medium |
| Build spikes or a campfire | 1.0 | Medium |
| Chop a tree (per hit) | 0.9 | Medium |
| Hit a zombie | 0.6 | Quiet |
| Shoot an arrow | 0.2 | Quiet |
Crafting
| Item | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden Club | 8 wood | 20 damage. Chops 2 wood per hit. |
| Scrap Machete | 4 wood, 6 scrap | 32 damage, fast swings. Chops 3 wood per hit. |
| Hunting Bow | 10 wood, 2 cloth | Ranged and nearly silent. Comes with 5 arrows. |
| Arrows ×5 | 3 wood, 2 stone | Ammunition for the bow. |
| Bandage | 2 cloth | Restores 35 health. |
Building
| Structure | Cost | Strength | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood Wall | 4 wood | 120 | Cheap, quick cover. |
| Stone Wall | 5 stone | 320 | Holds against brutes. |
| Spikes | 3 wood, 1 stone | 14 hits | Zombies can walk over them, but take damage. |
| Campfire | 5 wood, 3 stone | 90 | Lights the dark and heals you while you stand near it. |
The zombies
- Walkers are slow by day and faster at night.
- Runners are fragile but fast. They start showing up at night and in hordes.
- Brutes are huge, take a lot of hits and smash walls quickly. They join from the second horde on.
Survival tips
- Craft a club early. Fists are slow for both fighting and chopping.
- Do your noisy work, like smashing crates and building stone walls, in daylight.
- Get cloth from crates and craft the bow. It lets you fight without filling the meter.
- Build a ring of walls with a campfire inside, and shoot over the walls during a horde.
- Watch your hunger. Berries regrow every morning, and crates often hold food.