Zombie Dead City (Halloween, 2021)

Zombie Dead City (ZDC) is the Halloween event of 2021, in place of Zombie Royale experienced years prior.

ZDC took place in Dead City, and players were tasked with the mission of collecting seven antidotes from across the map to save humanity. While the undead may attempt to thwart your effort, killing them is not required to win the game.

## Game Mechanics

### Waves

After the first player has joined, the game will begin a two-minute countdown which is a preparation stage for players to gather equipment. Players joining thereafter will be at a slight disadvantage as they have less time to prepare.

As the countdown reaches 0:00, seven waves ensue. Each wave has four phases, and each of which lasts for 30 seconds:

1. Clear phase: The previous zone is cleared. Players are told to go to the new circle. (The first wave does not have a clear phase unless you consider the preparation stage an unusually long clear phase)
2. Travel phase: Players are given time to make their way to the new circle.
3. Zone phase: The zone advances until it covers all but the wave's circle. An airdrop, including one antidote, descends within the circle.
4. Survival phase: The zone persists and the undead will be hunting for players.

### Airdrops

An airdrop appears above the current zone towards the end of the travel-phase (sometimes slightly later). Due to the dense green fog signature of ZDC, visibility is so low that players typically will have to search within the circle for the red smoke signal. Please read the Retrieving Antidotes section for more details.

In addition to an antidote, an airdrop contains high-grade items such as a .50 Cal, Heavy Armour, Large Health, and the 100 Round Magazine as for Battle Royale airdrops.

An airdrop's red smoke signal disappears at the end of its own wave. If a player has yet to pick up an antidote, they can still do so thereafter, without the help of the signal though.

### Enemies

In general, many of the undead die from the storm each wave, but more will come from several fixed spawn points.

ZDC inherits the five enemies from ZBR: Skeleton, Frankenstein, Vampire, Goblin, and Witch. While the first three keep their abilities from ZBR, the Goblin and Witch lost their ranged attacks in ZDC.

### Player Interaction

Players **do not** share antidotes. They are considered enemies for map purposes (red icons, not marked unless visually spotted), but they will not injure one another.

### Victory

At the end of the seventh survival phase, if a player survives and has all seven antidotes with them, they win the game. Players who survive with less than seven antidotes will be shown a losing screen but will be rewarded a win to their stats.

## Strategy

### Stick to Your Objective

Unlike ZBR, ZDC relies upon being quick on your feet. The objective is item retrieval and not killing enemies. Rather than aiming to loot boxes and buildings to find more ammo and better weapons, it is suggested that players keep an eye on their map and timer. The zone does very high damage and advances very fast — being caught in the zone is the main cause of death.

### The Map & The Timer

Using the map is crucial to survive ZDC. One should always be aware of where they are in relation to the circle. Keep an eye on the timer. As players approach the end of the wave, it is suggested they are looking north to help them identify their bearings, and keep the map open as the timer ticks over. Alternatively, one may mark their destination by right-clicking the enlarged map; the mark will appear on their compass as well as their mini-map.

Technically players can spend their clear and travel phase gathering supply. In practice, however, the urgency and benefits of making sure to keep out of the zone greatly outstrips that of gathering supply. So long as players begin to move immediately as it starts, every circle is possible to reach in time from the last one. Late joiners of a ZDC game (under ~20 seconds of preparation stage) are strongly advised to head for the centre of the map before trying to loot: It is entirely possible to win starting the first wave with no equipment.

### Traveling Quickly

The biggest killer is the large body of water in the middle. If the next circle has appeared on the opposite side, players should avoid going through the water, as the loss in speed will make you worse off than if you go around on land. To help compensate for this, players may consider positioning themselves on the edge of a circle closest to the bridge or road either side of the water. The boats can be considered if going south, but isn't recommended if attempting to go north. Alternatively, north-bearing players may take the boat from halfway across the bridge. It is suggested you only take the boats if you are comfortable in your parkour abilities, as dropping into the water will have a drastic impact on your travel time (the midmost boat is impossible to jump aboard from the water).

### Dealing with Enemies

ZDC enemies run roughly as fast as the player and they tend to have difficulties with obstacles. Very often one may lose them by jumping over fences, running through a doorway, or cutting corners around a building - without slowing down to kill them. Otherwise, make every segment of your travel straight (the most direct route), the enemies usually will not be able to catch up. Deploy smoke grenades when necessary.

During survival phases, players may attempt to loot, outrun zombies, fight zombies, or make their way to high ground where they are safe from zombie attacks. In general, players should look for ladders heading to tall buildings, smokestacks, or cranes. Some circles may not provide high ground, such as the caravan park. In a location such as the caravan park, the best strategy is to keep running and jumping — constant parkour between and on/off caravans will throw zombies off players' trails.

The peril of high ground is that a lot of undead will spot the player and gather around. Not all high ground in Dead City offer a long take-off jump like the chimneys. Therefore, hiding can be at times a better option.

### Retrieving Antidotes

It is often safer to race for the circle and retrieve the antidotes early because the previous zones will have cleared most of the zombies except those which were in the circle and, as mentioned above, those can be easily outrun. Time is precious when the airdrop has fallen in one of the nastier locations, as discussed below.

Players may not immediately see the smoke signaling the location of an airdrop due to the dense green fog. Players should make their way around the circle to identify the smoke while not forgetting to look up for roof landings. Upon identifying an airdrop, players should note its surroundings, as antidotes may not be directly with the package as the content roll all over the place.

Antidotes have a few features that help to identify their location should they stray from the immediate area of the airdrop's package. They let off a faint beeping sound and have a red light that faintly glows on their lids (a similar glow to that of the red glowing eye). Players should not be surprised to find their antidote high on a roof/ledge above the package, or down below on the ground below a building's roof when searching around the area of the airdrop.

The most-difficult airdrop location a player can face is an airdrop into water as not only must they venture into open area, but also that the antidote will be entirely concealed by the water. Players should open their inventory with **Tab** and walk through the water where the airdrop is present. Looking out for the antidote in the nearby items section on the right, players need to be prepared to quickly move it into their inventory and move to safety. If the antidote doesn't appear to be on the package, use the beeping to help echolocate it.

## Rewards

There are 10\* cosmetics that could be earned, each of which can only be earned one at a time; this means a player needed to play at least 10 rounds to obtain all cosmetics.

Winning or dying with the required number of antidotes or more would reward a player a cosmetic, working from the lowest requiring ones, to the highest (this meant that even winning with all 7 antidotes would reward you with the cosmetic for 1 antidote if you had no rewards yet).

* One or more earned a player the Head Bolts [Frankenstein] accessory.
* Two or more earned the Witch Nose [Witch] accessory.
* Three or more earned the Black Cape [Vampire] accessory.
* Four or more earned the Witch Hat [Witch] accessory.
* Five or more earned the Frankenstein skin [Frankenstein].
* Five or more after Frankenstein earned the Vampire skin [Vampire].
* Six or more the earned the Frankenstein head [Frankenstein].
* Six or more after Frankenstein earned the Vampire head [Vampire].
* Six or more after Vampire earned the Witch head [Witch].
* Winning with all seven earned the Candy Corn Weapon Skin for various weapons.

\*The final cosmetic reward is a skin texture that is rewarded for multiple weapons, leading to 10 rewards, but more than 10 individual cosmetics.

You survived, but the human race did not (you did not collect all the antidotes).Ladders are effective in attracting and safely killing zombies. Just beware of being knocked off and vampires jumping on top of you (cutting off your escape).