In-Depth Zombies Guide

The following guide was originally posted on Reddit, by Mnyush.

## Attitudes

Being a zombie, a zombie's aim is to kill players. Your focus.

Being a zombie, your greatest strength are your numbers, it's a team based game, this is crucial to remember. If you're a normal zombie try to follow people, or get people to follow you, as being in groups are when you are the most dangerous. Being a normal zombie, you can just respawn over and over again, and you might even turn into a super/daddy zombie! You should try and stay alive if you have a helmet or a hood though. So death isn't a bad thing as a normal zombie. At its worst, only time is wasted. At its best, you become more powerful!

However, as a super zombie, or a zombie that's equipped (with a helm or a hood) you're naturally going to get people to follow you (even then, try following and gathering zombies if you can) and you're going to not want to die. Being a super/equipped zombie, you have a very important role, you can't be wasted.

## How to Spend your Time

What you should be doing at any given moment can vary a heap. But there are some things that you generally should be doing. The thing you should be doing the most during the day is preparing for that night, and future nights. Whereas night can be used for attacking, and preparing for future attacks. Like I've said before, time is well spent gathering and following other zombies. So speak to them (it helps if you're on a server that only really speaks languages you're familiar with), if you have a plan of attack. If not, follow someone. During the day, you can gather berries, find locations of players, find zombies, player's bases, investigate bases, help other zombies, etc. During the night, you can do all these, and you can also attack.

If you're running around, grab berries (save some for others if you're in a group if you can, especially daddy/equipped zombies), you won't get interrupted while attacking players and bases by the need for food. Make sure you have more than a third of your food bar (it's better if you're generous, to make sure), especially if you're a super/equipped zombie, as you're probably going to want to regen after taking plenty of damage from spikes and weapons. In fact, it's best to keep your hunger near full, so that when you are doing something important, and needing of concentration, you needn't worry about hunger distracting you.

### Finding Bases and Players

There are also particular spots players and bases like to be around. Such as lakes, so they simply have a dip, and their thirst filled, is very important for their survival. A common spot for players in the open, are around diamond nodes, and sometimes amethyst nodes. They aren't super common on the map, so if they want it they have to go to particular spots. Though, this means they have a good pickaxe, which can mean other good gear too. Sometimes, you can also find bases hiding in the thick trees. The only other major spots are on the borders of the map. This is because they require less resources, and management. Corners are more efficient bases, so it's good to have a check if you're near one. Border bases are tricky. If you know someone on the leaderboard makes border bases, then you should check. Otherwise, you'll be spending a lot of time checking. After you've found a base, you can mark it on your map, and either attack that night, if you think there are enough zombies, or come back later to attack, if you think they're too strong. It's a good idea to check for weaknesses, which I'll cover later.

## PvP Strategies

If a survivor is hunting you, or you're hunting them in the open, it's important to know what to do in situations, so your team can come out on top.

### *Night time (on the attack)*

Again, I can't emphasise this enough, having numbers is a very big advantage. Don't even try to kill players, unless you outnumber them (or it's equal and you're super zombies/have helmets yourself). Even then, it can be a difficult victory.

In terms of physically doing damage, it's best to try and predict their movements, (try and see how much they try to trick you, what type of movement they like, when they like to do it, etc.) And, since your range is tiny, you have to go right up to them to hit them, basically on top of them. (this makes spear users more difficult to deal with.)

If it's early game, you do little damage, and it's difficult to kill, but many survivors are still out in the open gathering resources at night. If you're outnumbered or their gear is too good (gold helmet+ sword you'll need more numbers for), either wait around for more zombies, or go somewhere else to attack, or get more zombies.

If they use a helmet, don't attack them, attack the fire. If they are wearing a chapka, attack them. They usually don't expect zombies to break their fires, and if you have brought at least one other person, this isn't too difficult. You can lead them away from their fire to try to attack you, you can both attack from different directions, you can even attack them directly, to get some early damage, and distract them (though, you'll probably take some damage yourself.) But why attack their fire? If you attack their fire, they'll get cold, and need another fire. They'll usually place more fires, you can destroy those too, they can craft more, (which leaves them open to attack for a few moments), or, they to have to gather more wood to make a fire, this time makes them incredibly vulnerable, as they have to not attack for an extended period of time, as well as having to go around trees while using their pickaxe, and this makes you more difficult to dodge. If they do try and defend, keep them occupied, they'll die of cold.

During late game, at night, if they're in the open, they're most likely dead already, unless it's about to strike day-time. There isn't much strategy apart from kill, as you can tackle it with brute force (predicting movements will be the only thing that really applies.)

### Daytime (being hunted)

During the day, if you're being hunted, or know you could be hunted, as you're near a base, there are a few things you can do. If you're being chased, it is best to run usually, unless you want to bait them, distract them from collecting resources, and doing what they set out to do. Be careful though, you might get killed, which would waste your time. There are some other exceptions to running away though. If they're distracted, or just off-screen, you can try to hide (don't try if you're a super zombie, unless you're near a large group of trees or on a border of the map), where you can relax for a bit. Unless animals are near. That isn't a good idea. If they're chasing a super zombie, (and you aren't a super zombie) attack the survivor, try to help the daddy zombie get away (or helmeted ones if they need it), it's better you die, than they do. Another thing you can try while running away is using animals(nothing except wolves and spiders). Get, say, one spider, and try to get them to attack the player. The only other exception to running away, is if it's nearly nighttime. If this is the case, you might be able to distract the player until night falls, so they'll be vulnerable. Be careful if they have a good weapon though. Also, don't go into their base (or any tight space) if you can. There is an exception, but I'll get into it soon.

## Base Attacking

Once you've found a base, and you're confident you have the numbers to attack a base and kill the survivors inside, it's time for a plan of attack. There are numerous strategies to attacking bases, as the layout and location of bases vary a lot, so it's up to you to decide what's best.

#### Firepower

This 100% depends on how much firepower you have. If your group simply has enough power to overwhelm a base easily, then, go ahead! Do it! Very simple, but sometimes, you don't have the numbers to just be able to get into a base, which is what lets this down. It also doesn't help if there are spikes, which makes everything less co-ordinated, and the overall power of the group decreases. Unless you have super zombies or helmeted zombies who can take the damage.

#### Focusing your Power

Sometimes, you need to determine in which spots the zombies need to be focusing on. This in itself varies a lot because of layout. Sometimes you need to focus on one spot, sometimes you need to focus on more than one spot. The weakest spots are spikes and doors (because they can't hit you with a spear through the door) If they are unable to reach a wall with a wrench, or you with a spear, then analyse that area, to see if getting through that spot will be advantageous. Sometimes, they wall off an area with something that isn't a wall. This is actually very good, as they are weaker than walls, and their health doesn't show up, so you can destroy it without them taking action. Another good spot to hit, if their base is quite big, is the furthest spot away from their fire. They have to heat up every now and then, so this buys you some time to break it down.

#### Using Trees

These things can actually be very helpful in attacking a base, and killing a player. The first thing, is that sometimes, players leave gaps in their bases, usually, this happens via trees, (once I squeezed in between two poorly placed walls), but, don't just do it whenever you feel like it, these are people, who have intelligence, if they discover the flaw, they'll cover it up. Either do it when you're sure you can kill them that night, or hide in there during the day, and wait for enough zombies to appear, so you can kill them at night. And if you get hungry, and there's a player around, don't get out. It's better that you die and come back, than have them discover their base's flaw, unless you make it look like you tried, but failed to get in. If you manage to get into a base, via the door, or some other gap, you can also hide in a tree. One more thing, if you see a survivor trying to hit a tree in their base, you should try to hit it yourself, they might need it for fires. (Maybe do it during the day just before nightfall.)

#### Elaborate Strategies

These wouldn't be easy, and would require excellent communication, but they'd be possible to pull off. You bring a group of zombies with you to get into the base when they open the door, and have one or two (maybe more if your group is big enough) people hide, and everyone else distract, and perhaps even die to the survivors. Then, at night, when enough have gathered, they can distract the people in the base, while everyone else breaks in. Or, if you have a large enough group, you can also get one person (maybe 2) to stand on the door at all times, once it's open. You can either get people to get into the base, or, you can just get people replacing the zombies until nighttime, where the survivor's left vulnerable. This would be very difficult to pull off, but if you're very organised, and they have a decent sized base, and low damage output, this could be consistently effective, as long as they have a door.

**TLDR** - If you're a normal zombie, don't fear death, but super zombies and zombies with helmets or a hood are valuable, and should be kept alive. Being in a group is best. Use some of your time gathering berries, finding other zombies, as well as survivors and bases. Keep your hunger close to full, but always should be above a third, so you can regen. You can find players by lakes, bases, diamond/amethyst nodes, the thick forest, and the borders of the map. In PvP, you need to predict their movements, and almost be on top of them to hit them. If they're wearing a helm/nothing, attack their fire, if they're wearing a chapka, attack them. There are many ways to attack a base, but you need to decide what'll work best, depending on circumstances. (If you want to see some strategies, take a look at what I've written for those.) Trees are the best.