Zombie Dead City (Christmas, 2021)

Zombie Dead City (Christmas) was a variation of the original ZDC. Despite also taking place in Dead End City, the game objective of this event was instead to "*Help deliver presents to the poor residents of Dead City by Escorting Santa's Tank throughout the town.* "Unlike the classic Vehicle Escort mode, however, reaching the end of the path is not compulsory although success will be rewarded with a special new crate.

## Game Mechanics

### Overview

The ultimate goal of this mode is to escort Santa's tank down a winding path through the Dead City so that residents of the City can receive their Christmas presents (flavor text only, there is no actual citizen in the game). Members on a sucessful team will be rewarded with a special crate containing one random item out of all War Brokers cosmetics, including those that had never been released. For less hardcore teams, they may wish to stop pushing the tank as enemy becomes increasingly strong down the path, hide and wait for the 2-minutes timer to end. The players will still receive the same victory message of having delivered all the presents to the citizens of Dead City although that was probably a bug.

A game begins with a one-minute-fifty-seonds preparation phase, after which players will be told to get to '*the Green tank on the mini map*'. This is mandatory because the Zone in this mode is centered around the tank and the Safe Zone is small. As players move the tank, the Zone follows, and enemies will be descending from midair beyond the boundary of the Safe Zone. Apparently in the second half of a game, enemies can also materialize out of anywhere within the Safe Zone.

### The Map

There are currently five locations where Santa's tank may start. Each appers to have one to three different paths. Some paths are longer than other, distance ranging between roughly 2200-3200. Players will have to make the best use out of the barriers and supplies the buildings alongside have to offer. The enemy spawn rate and spawn species depend on the position of the tank; there are two special stages towards the end of a game (spoilers alert):

* The Battlion: From around 1200-1400 distance travelled, for some distance enemy spawn will be a constant stream of Nutcrackers and Snowmen. They will try to disable players by their bouncing shots (see Enemies).
* The Gingerbread Mob: At the end, all spawns will be Gingerbread Men.

These stages challenge players to adopt strategies adaptively.

### Santa's Tank

Santa's tank is similar to Vehicle Escort's tank — it is indestructible, it cannot be entered, it moves slowly when a player is nearby — but of course it has gorgeous Christmas cosmetics and presents on it. To prevent players from dragging on indefinitely, a timer is set, the one at the upper left corner of the game screen, such that the tank must not be abandoned for more than two minutes consecutively at any time; otherwise the game concludes, and the players forgo their chance to reach the end.

It has been reported that games concluded seconds after the tank moves, the cause being unknown. Not letting the timer reach one minute or below appears to somewhat prevent this phenomenon.

Santa's tank does not block vision for the purpose of marking enemies on the mini map.

### Other

* Four times in a game, a plane will pass over Dead City to drop a package. The package contains a few pieces of the usual Heavy Armour, 100 Round Mag, Large Health etc. But above all, it also contains a Present, which gives a random Christmas cosmetic item. Players do not take each other's Present. There are in-game announcements to alert players of the plane's arrival, but the package is often difficult to reach, if not behind the Safe Zone, by the time it lands.
* All players are on the same team. They can see each other on the mini map, so as they can see each other's HP.
* Duos drop Walkie Talkie in this mode, but there is no Radio Station to use them on.

## Enemies

Enemy species is similar to that of Holiday Royale, but their abilities are different:

* Elf - melee enemy with high movement speed. It also jumps frequently charging at players.
* Yeti - melee enemy that can jump high.
* Gingerbread Man - melee enemy that splits when killed. It spawns as a larger-than-average character, which when killed splits into two normal size Gingerbread Men, each of which in turn splits into three little Gingerbread Men. They all have 375 HP.
* Nutcracker - ranged enemy with an RPG. They have slow reload rate and low damage per shot but an impressive range and, above all, shots that 'bounce' players around. Bounced players can be bounced again, the entire course until they regain foothold they suffer movement speed penalty .
* Snowman - ranged enemy with a Grenade Launcher that launches snowballs. These shots also bounce players and have much higher reload rate than Nutcracker's RPG.

As in previous ZBRs, melee enemy charges and ranged enemies fire <thisIsNotAWord> when they spot a player. However, instead of wandering aimlessly when no player is in sight, they gather around/atop the tank.

There is a cap on the amount of existing Zombies. The exact value is unknown but seems to depend on the tank's location.

Perished enemies drop loots, including the different sizes of Nutcracker. Possible loots are Small Health, Medium Health, and ammo. The type of ammo dropped is the same that delivered the killing shot, except Heavy ammo and enemies killed by a side-arm.

Zombies have the ability to jump as high as the player it is trying to reach. Hiding on the roof is not as effective as before.

### The Hide-Before-The-Tank Strategy

The working principle of this strategy is that if Zombies approaches from behind the tank (especially if the tank is in constant movement), hiding before the tank then minimizes the chance of being spotted and thus confrontation with enemies. Melee enemies apparently stroll unless alerted and ranged enemies do not fire. This strategy is particularly popular with small teams (~ 1-5 players).

The premise of this strategy is realized by (almost) constantly moving the tank and clearing only Zombies that are strictly ahead of the tank. As a result, Zombies will gather behind chasing the tank until their number reaches the spawn cap. In practice, 1-3 players will be standing/crouching before the tank, moving the tank as the tank shoves them forward. They will also be responsible for dealing with enemies ahead. These 'drivers' may have to resupply once in a while, for which they hop off at a doorway. Other players who have till then been foraging will fill their role, posting themselves in front of the tank. These 'skirmishers' usually run parallel to the path from behind the line of buildings, passing in and out back-doors to scour loots.

(Spoilers alert) This strategy is extremely effective against The Battalion. The enemies behind may gain a glimpse at the drivers from time to time, but their having to shoot in place will keep from them ever catching up. The drivers will sustain occasional volleys, non-lethal nonetheless. Against the Gingerbread Mob, the best measure is to keep all of The Battalion alive, blocking Gingerbread Men from spawn, exploiting the favorable match-up.

### The All-Men-To-Arms Strategy

Basically the players kill everything they see with sheer firepower to attain control over the battlefield. 1-2 players will steer the tank and the remaining destroy the enemies. This strategy is more popular with larger teams (6+ players).

### Early Farming

At early stages of the path, where enemies are relatively few, it is possible to farm Zombies for loots effectively. Solo players applying the Hide-Before-The-Tank strategy may in particular wish to farm for some Medium Heal early and keep driving at all time thereafter.