Mac's Comprehensive Guide of The Game

# Introduction

Oh No It's Zombies Updated is an asymmetrical SC2 arcade mod. Asymmetrical multiplayer games are where two teams or groups of players experience the same game but with different game play mechanics. In this case, it is 1 Zombie controlling a massive horde in an attempt to take over the map while being in contest with 6 Marines.

## Game Objective

The Zombie player must stop all marines from escaping by either capturing them all (at the same time) or destroying all 3 drop-ships/trains. Starting at the Hive mind, the zombie is in a "break out" or siege position against the rest of the map (Security and Marines).

The Marines must run the clock out until fueling finishes, and escape on one of the three drop-ships/trains in order to escape the infestation and win the game. This requires actively defending the facility from being overrun by use of tools in the Weapons Locker.

## Terminology

There are several phrases used in the game to communicate. Here is a short list of them to help.

* Abber- Short for the Alpha Abberation
* Abom- Short for the Alpha Abomination
* AR- Short for "assault rifle" or the standard gun you begin the game with.
* Arc- Short for the experimental Arc Welder
* Charge- Short for Mining Charge, or the nukes that marines can place.
* Contain- Go stop the zombie and kill the zombies. Also the name of the major room Containment.
* Droid- Refers usually to your Mining Droid or the mule (SC2 unit name) that you drop to pick up vespene for you. Could also refer to the Scout Droids you can buy.
* FDC- Short for the major room Fuel Distribution Center.
* Gates- Short for the major room Gate Control.
* Gene- Short for the Alphas Geneweaver or Genesplicer.
* PC- Short for the experimental Power Converter.
* Rotate- This means move to meet the zombie where he is or will be pushing.
* SSS- Acronym for Super Stim Shotgun a build in the game.
* Zoo- Another name for the room Containment.

## Commands

There are some text commands that would be good to know and have in mind while playing. These commands are only for marines.

* auto harvest: -afk
* help text command: -help
* kick player: -kick [#]
* player lifetime stats: -lifestats [#]
* player stats: -stats [#]
* ping fuel dropoff: -refinery, -refineries, -ping refineries, -ping refinery
* ping fuel pickup: -gas, -fuel, -ping gas, -vespene, -ping vespene, -ping fuel, -ping mine, -ping mines
* ping hangars: -hangar, -hangars, -ping hangars, -ping hangar
* ping medic: -medic, -medics, -ping medic, -ping medics, -pm
* ping players: -ping players, -ping player, -pp
* ping weapon lockers: -lockers, -equipment lockers, -weapons lockers, -weapon lockers, -ping lockers, -ping equipment lockers, -ping weapons lockers, -ping weapon lockers
* print player numbers: -players
* run tutorial: -tutorial, -run tutorial

# Marine Guide

The starting place for all players is being a Marine. 6 players spawn around the map with the sole objective of surviving the Zombie onslaught. You are not ranked until you finish your 5th game as marine where at the same time you are then allowed to opt in for zombie. For detailed information on the role rank plays in game, please see Advantage System and Player Ranking.

## Where to Start

Remember you are new. You will get flamed and yelled at sometimes, but just keep your head down and learn. Some of the major first time information is not necessarily explained in the short tutorial.

1. Place your mining droid, and it will automatically do your economy for you. The macro/micro balance in this game is different from most. You will place a mule (mining drone) first thing to begin mining your income for the game. Do not "-afk" mine (an older feature from the mod), do not play arc welder (Experimental that is basically a combat engineer), and do not play tank (Experimental that lets you play a siege tank) until you learn to play the game with a regular weapon. As a new player, let the droid do the mining for you. There are 4 mines in the map and they correspond to the directions on the mining routes on the command card. So the top right button will be the North East most mine, bottom left button will be for the South West most mine, and etc. The benefit of letting the droid do the work is that you can now concentrate on learning the finer aspects of the game.
2. Contain the zombie! The mission objective of your team as a marine is to hold out until the count down is finished. This means holding back the zombie at every point as long as possible. When players say they are going to "contain" or that you should, it means you should go towards the zombie and begin the process of holding back the infinite horde to buy time. The purpose of containment of the enemy is the most important, because the zombie receives all its greatest benefits from infesting more "rooms" and areas with its horde. So go contain that zombie by killing as many of them as fast and safely as you can.
3. Doors work.  There are a ton of doors on the map you can interact with from either side. These doors are great delays to utilize against the zombie. Closing a door can ensure another marine can get there in order to help you hold off the horde. Remember to close them in time so that you do not die and zombie does not overwhelm you.
4. Stay off creep. I am going to do everyone a favor for you new comer. Please stay off the creep. It is the danger zone where zombie has full vision and where the horde spawns its minions. As you get better at the micro portion of the game, you will learn when to do it, but most of the time new players end up dead because they miss this.
5. What to buy The most halting thing about playing OhNoIZ is that there is a huge Weapons Locker, and there is no instruction on what to get first. Let me be clear! There are a lot of different opinions on what to buy first. Your best options are a grenade (incendiary or frag), a gun (more on this later), or stim pack.

## How to Play

Admittedly this is being written by a player, so there may be portions that disagree with other strategy guides. Choose the game play and style that works best for you to keep your marine alive and kill zombies. I hope something in this guide is of service to you.

### Rotation

One of the most important game play elements to OhNoIZ is understanding the principle of rotation. Rotation is also different in practice between the two maps (subterranean and arctic), and it is important to understand the principle so that you can apply it no matter what situation you find yourself. Rotation is being in the right place at the right time. It is a lot like zone defense in sports. You have an area when you spawn to cover, and when zombie moves from that area you need to move to meet the zombie push elsewhere without leaving a gap in the defenses.

Artic map is a good starting point to teach rotation. There are 4 entrances to the Hive Mind. One East, two West, and One North. Usually zombie will push East on this map, so a good starting point for rotation would be 3 marines to hold the East push, 1 marine north to close the door and watch for the zombie to change directions, and 1 west for the same purpose. The final player can either be the arc player setting up economy, or float to the place they are needed most depending on how the zombie pushed or opened. When zombie decides to change push direction, the zombies will move before you know it without vision or a good spread by marines. If zombie pushes north after an eastern push, then the 1 marine that is north will close a door and stall the push until the other marines can "rotate" there to help. One marine will stay East to slow down the next zombie rotation to that area.

One note about rotation is there are two major mistakes in rotating for a marine team. There is **over** rotation and **under** rotation. Over rotation occurs when zombie pushes Fuel Distribution Center (FDC), and **5** marines show up to defend the push. This means that somewhere on the map is a huge gap in the marine defense. Zombie will take advantage of this upon realizing it and take at least one room for free somewhere else. One marine will usually not be able to hold a full push, so zombie at this point has a lot of options. Under rotation occurs when not enough marines move at the right time. In the same scenario, say marines see the zombie horde heading toward FDC. A couple marines ping the location, and maybe even text or use voice chat to say that it is under attack. **Nobody** moves. Or leaves the defense to one to two marines. A good player will ask the question, "What is everyone else doing?" FDC is a major room, and could turn the tide of a competitive game. You must rotate to where zombie is to stop the push without leaving the rest of the map defenseless.

There are several key elements to help you be where you should be when you should be there.

1. Experience Playing games and paying attention to what the average zombie player does will teach you the "flow" or the direction of the map. Arctic and Subterranean have very different flows and metas, so the only way to truly what to expect is to play. This will help your rotation, because you will know that when zombie pushes east on Arctic there are only two options for him to rotate to after that. From my experience, zombie will often push West next, because it is the hardest to rotate to for marines. Remember the most important fact about experience is that just playing will not make you a good player. Playing and learning will.
2. Mini Map DLC It is important for every marine that wants to play well to learn to **look at their mini map**. Looking at the mini map will allow you to see early (depending on your vision status) where zombie will be moving next. Remember, unless they F2 move their entire horde, you will be killing zombies at push 1 while he is already sending zombies to push 2.
3. Vision There are three important tools for map vision: Marines, exploration droids, and sensors towers. Utilizing these tools will allow you to better see what movements the zombie is making. The better you have vision over the zombie's movements the better you will be able to rotate properly to stop those movements.
4. Communication Every marine team needs good communication. Let each other know what you are buying, where you are going, and what you are doing will allow everyone to have better knowledge to make decisions in rotation. Using proper pings on the map, being in VC, or simply typing your intentions is how you accomplish this. In our example, the zombie pushes east and then west on Arctic map. Say there are three marines east, and one marine west. The team needs to communicate **who** will rotate to the west to stop the push. One marine can not do it alone. The team needs to tell clearly who is going where and who is staying where to prevent under or over rotation.

At the highest level, teams do best having a commander or captain. A marine who is responsible for telling people where to go can be much more effective than waiting to see who will go where. A team with a game plan will also have players assigned a role. Knowing these roles will help the commander better dictate rotation.

### Hold Ability

Being able to hold a room is the most valuable trait a marine can have. The more rooms the zombie player takes, then the more supply and spawn the zombie player will have to push for more rooms (sans the Rage element of course). So the goal is to hold as many rooms as long as you can so that your team can escape comfortably.

The greatest question any marine asks as they learn to better their game play is, "How do I hold rooms?" This can be one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish depending on the marine team level and the zombie level. If the zombie is just bad and does not rotate or know how to push rooms, holding a room can be easy. If you have plenty of marines present, holding a room is a lot easier as well. How do you hold rooms solo though? How do you stop a greater nydus from taking a key room? The answer to these questions is a skill to be picked up and learned as you watch good marines play and as you play games yourself.

#### **Factors for Holding Rooms:**

There are several factors that go into how to hold a room. These all together will decide what you need to stop the zombie push.

1. Zombie Tools What tools the zombie is using is the first thing to consider. Is the zombie pushing into a choke with the horde? Is there an alpha present? Are there buildings in play? This will help in deciding the next factors. For example, if there is just a horde push and no alphas, then a single flamer or 2 marines could hold a full horde push with enough marine tools. If there is a horde push with an Abberation, then you'll need a plasma, shotgun, or rocket to zone out or kill the alpha while another marine or two holds the horde push. Last example, if there is a creep tower, an alpha, and a full horde push, then you need at least 3 marines to stop the push usually.
2. Marines Available Understanding rotation will help with this factor. If marines are in the right places at the right times, then you will be able to call for the specific help you need. As seen in the examples of factor 1, different amount of marines are needed for different holds. You do not want to over rotate as a marine team, and stop a push with 6 marines that can be stopped with 2. Two zombie principles (which will be covered in the zombie section of this guide) are the direct counter to this. The zombie will attack and feint in order to draw out marines to rotate. You have to consider this in your rotations when holding rooms. Remember, the counter to marines holding rooms is zombie taking rooms. Good zombies try to use exactly what they need to guarantee taking a room in order to not have wasted effort on the map. You, as a marine, will need to use as much effort needed to hold a room in response.
3. Marine Tools Your build as marine determines what you can and can not hold. Some of this is understanding counters to zombie tools. A flamer can not ever hold a room being pushed by an alpha with horde support without extenuating circumstances. A plasma can not ever hold a room being pushed by a large horde without making extra effort as well. So in order to figure out what is needed to hold a room, you must consider what tools will be needed for the job.

#### **How to Hold Rooms:**

Here are some practical considerations and principles for stopping a zombie push.

1. Learn Counters Every zombie tool has a marine tool counter. In fact, it is one of the marine team's greatest strength to be able to counter everything the zombie has to throw at them. Under the f12 menu there are simple counters. Feel free to run a solo game to study this, or check out the various pages on the wiki to find them. As you play, you will learn what counters strains, alphas, and zombie strategies. There will always be varying opinions on what ultimately is the best for some arguments, but here are some examples. Flamer counters horde. There are a ton of anti-horde counter tools available. Turrets, drones, grenades, and flamer are seriously strong to stop the horde from pushing into a room. Plasma rifles counter alphas. Nukes, heavy turrets, and plasma are strong to stop alphas from pushing into rooms. There are a lot of specific builds and counters in the game. Learn these to know what you will need to do to compensate for your build to hold a room.
2. Learn to Use Everything A single marine usually does not hold a room with just a gun. It takes using your array of available purchases to hold. Use grandes, use turrest, use nukes, use psi disrupters, use your gun, learn to micro, use security to advantage, communicate properly, and you will hold more zombies as a result. It sounds like a lot of work, but that is the main objective of the game. To hold rooms is the goal of marines, and to take rooms is the goal of zombie. The zombie horde can be held by using grenades to slow/stop, using your gun to kill the zombies as they pour in, and using turrets and security to increase your dps to hold zombies as fast as they can push. Flamers need to use heavy turrets and nukes (or call for a friend) to stop the horde push with an alpha. Once the alpha is dead, a flamer can hold most pushes with the right positioning.
3. Learn Who to Call Organized games benefit from a higher level of play because of communication and skill level. Call for exactly what you need. Also respond to calls for help appropriately. This can be difficult to find a balance. Marines who play together more regularly find out how to do it well. If you need a plasma for a hunter in a push, then call as soon as you can for a plasma/rocket/shotgun user to deal with the alpha. If you need more dps, then call for a shotgun/flamer to help. As stated above, knowing how many marines you need is important. One good marine with the right tools can hold a greater nydus off creep. In my opinion, you need at least 3 marines with decent equipment to hold a room with a greater nydus on creep. Learn who and when to call for to hold rooms.
4. Learn the Map Some rooms are stronger than others because of layout or security distribution. Learn how to micro and position yourself for the best success in these rooms. Alpha area in the Arctic map has very strong corners, doorways, and chokes. Learn to use these. Security in Subterranean map has excellent positions and strong security units. Use this to advantage, and use this knowledge properly when calling for help.
5. Learn to Stay Alive It is important to note that if you die you will not hold a room. You will most likely lose a room you die holding. Stay alive, plan an escape route if needed, and gauge appropriately when to cut ties and run. Holding rooms requires you to look ahead as well as what is going on currently. If you die holding a room, you will most likely allow zombie to take another room quicker.

Holding rooms is what makes marines good. If you learn this skill, you will have no problem winning more regularly in public games, or being invited to competitive games. Learn how to hold rooms, learn what build you need to do it, and you will rank up or win more often.

## Builds & Build Orders

What usually takes new marines so long to move is figuring out what everything is. You want to know your options before making a purchase, and without prior knowledge of what is what many new marines sit for minutes at a Weapons Locker trying to piece together the puzzle. **Notice:** This guide is being written by a player. You will find items you disagree with, but hopefully you will find information that will also help you.

### General Item Information

There are a ton of items for marines to use. Let me break it down and give you as brief a description as possible of what it does. More information can be found on the wiki. I will give the official names as best as I can, and their hotkeys (for fun for me). Your hotkeys may differ.

1. Grenades (Q)
	1. Force Field (Q)
	2. Flash Bang (W)
	3. Frag (E)
	4. Incendiary (R)
2. Mining Blueprints (W)
	1. Exploration Droid (Q)
	2. Mining Droid Speed (W)
	3. Mining Charges (E)
	4. Motion Sensors (R)
3. Utilities (E)
	1. Defensive Matrix (Q)
	2. Stimpack (W)
	3. Weapon Overloader (E)
4. Security Modules
	1. Auto Turret (Q)
		1. Spec Ops Auto Turret (W)
		2. Flame Turret (E)
		3. Heavy Turret (R)
	2. Bio-Mechanical Repair Drone (A)
		1. Spec Ops Bio-Mechanical Drone (S)
		2. Recharge Drone (D)
		3. Acceleration Drone (F)
	3. Psi Disrupters (Z)
		1. Spec Ops Psi Disrupter (X)
		2. Psi Depressor
5. Weapons (T)
	1. Flamethrower (Q)
	2. Hellfire Shotgun (W)
	3. Special Ops Assault Rifle (E)
	4. Hellfire Rocket Launcher (R)
	5. Plasma Rifle (T)
6. Experimentals (A)
7. Equipment (S)
8. Suits (G)
	1. HEV Suit (Q)
	2. Energy Suit (W)
	3. Combat Accelerant Suit (E)
	4. Shield Suit (R)

### Builds and Roles

There are a number of builds available to the marine. Since the nature of the game is asymmetrical, marines have more variety available in their game play than does zombie. These 6 marines will use their several builds to play roles on the team, and attempt to find a decent composition together to win games.

#### **Builds**

As stated a couple times already, this guide is written by a player, and not every opinion will line up with this guide. That is ok. Find what builds work best for you, and play them until you're good at them. Below are some common builds and their purposes. As a note, I always start a build off by deciding what gun will be bought. This does not mean the gun is the first purchase. The next section will cover some principles on when to buy what you want to buy.

### Build Order Principles

The meta for what order to purchase items has several factors to consider.

1. Where you spawn.
2. What role you fill.
3. What zombie is doing.

#### **What to Buy First**

This is a hard portion of the guide to write, because everyone has their particular favorite first purchase of the game. What I will do is give you all of the options, and explain to the best of my ability why people like that purchase first.

* Droid Speed Upgrade The most risky and controversial starting purchase is to immediately upgrade your droid speed. Over the course of a game you will net 1000 to 2000 more income by doing this first **if** you do not lose mining in the game. People choose this option when they are certain they are not being pushed first by the zombie. This allows them time for their droid to get a couple mining trips in for a purchase that will help hold rooms.
* Stimpack This is a solid standard by many marines. It is chosen because it increases dps slightly, and move speed greatly (from 2.5 to 3.33). It is a good choice if you do not spawn at the push, but are going to rotate to where zombie is pushing with the option to quickly return to your spawn.
* Gun First This meta came about strong when the Hunter alpha was 1.6 speed off creep, and for awhile zombie players strictly opened with the alpha. This start is strong because it guarantees holding potential increase. You can kill more zombies with most first gun purchases. It is strong against alpha openers (plasma), or when you are the push side of the map (flamer, shotgun).
* Grenade First Grenades are cheap, and you can immediately use one by the time you get to the first door that needs closed. Incendiary and Frag are typical first purchases. Incendiary is usually chosen because of higher potential dps, and cheaper energy cost. This allows you to lay down strong dps on the zombie's initial push.
* Arc This is specifically only acceptable if you know how to play the role, and your team is aware. More than 1 generally spells loss. A good arc player with decent team communication can carry a team, or ensure a win.

#### **What Never to Buy First**

Here are several "meme" first purchases that can legitimately throw the early game for marines.

* Building First It seems very tempting to buy that turret/drone/psi/nuke first, but it leaves you so poor early on that you can not actually hold a room. Zombie has tools available that counter these easily. You will spend more money and time keeping your buildings alive than you will gain in kills with them early game.
* Experimental First There is no upside to getting your experimental first. The only one that gives solid early game benefit is Superstim and maybe Cloak (for rotation).
* Suit First No need to buy a suit first. This will lock you in financially early with little benefit given at the time. Just micro and do not die.
* Buying a Gun without Looking Please be aware what your team is doing before you buy a gun first. 3 arc or 3 plasma players will absolutely trash can your teams chances of success against a decent zombie.

### Tips & Tricks

Here are just some extras for marine game play that did not fit in organically to the rest of the guide.

1. Doors Like mentioned above, doors are a great beginner note. They're highly underrated in their impact on the game.

	1. Learn to Close Doors Closing a door can buy enough time for another marine to rotate to help. The only requirement a door has to be closed is enough time to close it. It sounds stupid simple, but the mistake many marines make is waiting too long to close a door, and they either die trying or do not get it closed at all.
	2. Learn to Juggle Doors Doors can be opened and closed quickly enough that it creates a space of time that it blocks the zombies while remaining invulnerable to damage. This will hopefully be patched out later, but while it is here use it to buy even more time.
	3. Learn when **Not** to Close Doors Make a note. You can only close 1 door at a time. So choose carefully what single doors your marine will close, and be careful not to grief your teammates by locking them out unintentionally.
	4. Learn to Be Careful When you lose Gate Control, all the doors have half HP and randomly close for random duration around the map. This means the RNG can easily kill a marine who is backing up to a door. Learn that when gate control is down to kill doors, and to avoid being in potential traps.
2. Nukes Mining charges can be the difference between a loss and a win. They can kill a massive amount of strains, kill or maim alphas, and hold a greater nydus.

	1. Understand How Nukes Work Nukes have a dissipating effect. The closer to the center you are the more damage is done. Nukes stun units inside the blast accordingly as well. If a marine gets caught in the blast, they could be swarmed over and killed, or miss the escape. Alphas and greater nydus will also be stunned for a duration. Keep this in mind.
	2. Understand the Timing There are two important timing factors to consider. First is how long it takes to place a nuke. This is not a front line item to be dropped during a hold. It must be dropped beforehand to be guaranteed to arm. Note that nukes will do some damage if destroyed during arming or salvaging. The second timing is how long it goes off. It is slow enough an alpha can walk from center to safety (or at least not take major damage). Time your nuke to appropriately get kills even if zombie has good micro.
	3. Understand How to Place Nukes There are places and ways to put nukes that boost their viability and survive ability. You want to avoid placing nukes right on top of each other, security clusters, or where zombie will naturally path. Now this sounds like the opposite of what you would want to do, but placing it where volatile zombies dies or an underseer will naturally path on top of it means your nuke will die prematurely. The days of the flying, immortal overseer are gone, but it does benefit marines to hide nukes still. Hiding the nuke means that when you detonate it, zombie may or may not see the outline of the ring in time to avoid it. Mining charge success is reliant on 3 things: location, location, location.
	4. Hive Queen Note A Hive Queen can survive about 3 nukes under the right circumstances.

# Zombie Guide

## Where to Start

Just like with playing the Marine side of the game there is a learning curve to learning zombie. Since you only rely on your own skill, instead of a team of players, the lows can be lower and the highs can be higher as Zombie. Some simple tips for brand new zombie players:

1. Play a Couple Solo Games The edge that zombie has over marine is that you can load up the game single player to see what everything says/does. Use this to your advantage. Read the tool tips, buy every option, kill security in rooms, and learn the basics here. Too many solo games can create bad habits, but it is still my first go-to to learn the game.
2. Learn to Rally Nothing is worse for either side of the game than a player who does not use his rally. As you get better, you can go without at points in your game play, but learn the most effective way to rally. Depending on which map you are on, where you rally can make the difference between a room being taken and wasted time.
3. Understand the Game Your goal as zombie is to destroy all 3 escape hangars, or capture all 6 marines. Doing the latter is rare, so know that this game is you fighting the clock. It will be covered below, but understand rage, advantage, and your tool box options. Wasted time is as good as a blow to your health. Your income scales far worse than the marine team, so the quicker you can take fuel rooms the better. Details like this you need to pick up and note so you can better play. Knowing counters is important, because there are **6** of them and only one of you.
4. Learn from Others There is no tutorial for zombie players. The tutorial is the mandatory marine games needed before you can opt in. Learn to watch every zombie you play and learn. You can learn something from every player. Most people will never get coaching in this area, so you should watch replays, watch your opponent as marine, and see what works in games.
5. Be a Good Marine Good marines understand the game in a great way. This knowledge goes a long way to being a good zombie player. You still have to learn the nuances of the game, but the knowledge and game play experience is a huge bonus.

## How to Play

The goal of the zombie player is to infest the facility using their income, tool box, and abilities to stop all human players from escaping. Let me use this time to remind you that this is an asymmetrical game. Game play experience for zombie players is a lot different than marine players. There is only 1 of you, your income works differently, and your tools are more limited.

### Getting to Know Your Tool Box

Many of the specific details of zombie purchases and units are available in different sections of this wiki, but I want to briefly cover general information for all that is available to the zombie. You have different tools of attack you can use, and knowing what each does and its purpose will help you become a better player.

#### **Strains**

All your zombies that spawn throughout the infested facility are your "strains". They are the bread and butter of the game. They become your death ball and your horde. You can upgrade every strain to 3 tiers. t1 is basic zombie with a little buff, t2 is a different unit that embodies that buff, and t3 has a huge buff on health (for all strains) with buffs. You can only have 5 "runs" of strains that change 20% of your horde per upgrade to the strain of your choice. There is no refund on strains, so choose wisely.

1. Naked Zombie This is the standard zombie you start out spawning. Good zombies will advise you to learn what you can do with this before investing in expensive upgrades to your horde. They are capable early game of accomplishing what you need. They are weak to flamer and most marine horde tools (grenades, turrets).
2. Speed Zombies This is one of the favorite of all zombies. Increases the move speed at the cost of spawning 2 19 HP units instead of 1 35HP unit. This means that you have more zombies spawning, but for base AR it only takes 2 shots to kill. Speed is good for rushing/overwhelming marines, but is weaker even still vs flame and horde tools.
3. Health Strain Definitely underrated zombie strain. You gain health (45 hp) at the cost (later) of less zombies, because armored zombies take more supply. Good for pushing hordes into flamer (still not a great idea), and for countering shotgun and lower damage weapons.
4. Damage Strain Increases damage and weapon speed. Same HP as the rest of your horde. The later tiers have a great long range attack that does acid damage. Good for helping horde push flamer (after tier 2), and mechanical units/structures.
5. Volatile Strain The other favorite of all zombie players. This unit has a major drawback and major benefit. It does acid splash damage that later tiers will leave puddles behind. This acid slows some, damages non-HEV marines hugely. What they lose is an effective attack. Every zombie is a suicide bomber until third tier. This helps push security, flamer, and is a hard counter to shield suit or bayonet.

#### **Augmentations**

Strains are the first "large" item in the zombie tool box, and creep is the second. Creep control is important, and spreading creep can be both an offensive and defensive part of strategy. Augmentations allow that creep to be more effective, and shape the meta of the game. Every creep upgrade has two tiers, but you can only have a single tier 2 creep upgrade. This, like strains, is non-refundable in any way, so choose wisely.

1. Speed Creep Generally increases the speed of your horde while on creep. Definitely a staple of most builds. Creep already base increases speed of Hunter/Predator, so this helps makes them even quicker. This helps with Alpha micro, and horde rotation.
2. Regenerative Creep Increases HP regeneration of all zombie units and structures on creep. This is currently broken at tier 2 especially. Could potentially be used to reinforce alpha and health strains.
3. Constructive Creep The most slept on creep upgrade. Increases the HP and stats of your buildings while lowering their cool down. Buffs nydus network to a degree, and decreases build time of all structures. Buffs viros as well.
4. Virulent Creep Just like how volatiles and speed strains are popular, speed and virulent creep augmentations are popular. This debuffs marines with no HEV suit on creep, and terribly hampers security units and security modules (turrets). Solid upgrade to slow down marine creep diving, and help push rooms with creep towers.
5. Creep Pods A highly used tool that is a little different from the rest of the augmentations available to zombie. The first purchase gives the zombie 1 charge with 7 total being available. These can be used to drop, anywhere within vision, zombies and a creep tumor. It is a good tool for finishing off a room, breaking a room that you're struggling to gain, or for backdooring a room.

#### **Alpha Zombies**

Alpha zombies are your strongest tool in the game. They are strong, have solid counters on both sides of the game, and are necessary once disadvantage and marine level hits a certain point. Each alpha has a job to do, and their cost is refunded over time after death.

1. Abberation/Abomination This is currently (as of patch 2.15.1) the strongest alpha. It has shield health equal to its health, and that shield health has 7.5 armor. It does the most direct damage as well. This is strong for pushing rooms (especially initially). The T2 Abomination can almost solo any room given enough time and micro in the game. It is weak against plasma and shotgun, but is good vs any of the other guns.
2. Geneweaver/Genesplicer This is the "strain" alpha. It has two abilities in T1 Geneweaver that allow it to spawn special strains of zombies (flying zombies and blood zombies), and can be rooted in spot to produce the four different strains of zombies matching their tier level (Geneweaver T1, Genesplicer T2). This is a cost effective way to use strains, especially early game, that doesn't lock you into your purchase. It is a squishy, weak alpha against about any gun that can reach it. The hard counter for it is flamer (to stop the strain), and any marine build that can get close enough to kill it (scope plasma, superstim shotgun, cloak marine, or a group of marines working together). It is good in a lobby that has over invested in anti-alpha guns like plasma and rockets.
3. Anubalisk/Anubalight This is the siege alpha. It uses energy to shoot spines that cause slow and damage over time. It has a defensive ability that produces a locust (T1 Anubalisk), or two (T2 Anubalight), that is one of the strongest single units in the game. It requires some micro to push security since it is energy dependent. It is a hard counter to most shotgun builds, all flamer builds, and is good at pushing entrenched positions (albeit slowly). It is weak against a good rocket player or a plasma marine.
4. Hunter/Predator This is the on creep defense alpha. It has toxic nests and isolation with it's T1 (Hunter). It is capable of pushing rooms, especially early, but it is a soft alpha. It is strong against flamer, arc, and any marine it has speed advantage over. It is especially weak to plasma, rocket, superstim shotgun, and bayo AR.
5. Underseer/Saboteur This is the detector and vision for the zombie. This will more than likely undergo changes after this guide is forgotten. The underseer is invisible and must be spotted by a marine or exploration droid, it is a burrowed unit and therefore has collision with walls, and it can use the ability "oversight" to get greater vision at the loss of movement. The Saboteur is the T2 form that has another ability to create changelings. Changelings maintain vision in an area, look like security, and can disable any mechanical unit in the game for 30 seconds. This has a lot of strong potential, but currently the changeling is hard to select for zombie and requires a lot of attention to use effectively.

#### **Structures**

Structures can be used on creep to create an advantage for the zombie player. They require time for "charges" of the building to be available, a short building time, and must be defended (they're not very strong alone). All buildings refund their cost after being destroyed with the exception of extractors (once they've paid off their investment they don't) and the virophage (once they breach the hanger they don't).

1. Extractor The extractor can be placed in any of the 4 marine drop off locations for vespene on the map once you have infested the room. They mine 250 gas over the course of 20 minutes. It is vital to use these. On Arctic map, the extractor makes up 1/3 of all the potential income available to the zombie player. The problem is these can be terribly hard to defend or stop marines from harassing them.
2. Virophage The viro is an important tool that is available to build once you infest a room outside of a hangar door. Each hangar door typically has 2 entrances, and the spawning of the viro is random if you have both rooms infested at the same hangar location. Eliminating the hangars is the goal of the zombie, and eliminating hangars early can be a game changer in close games.
3. Sunken The sunken is a building that detects within a range and has a slow but high damage attack.
4. Swarmling Nest A newer addition to the game. The swarmling nest spawns swarmlings that travel within a range to attack enemies. This building is great for stalling marines on creep and harassment in backdoors.
5. Creep Tower A tower that sends creep in a straight direction. This is good for harassment and extending pushes. It allows all your creep augments to be used inside of non-infested territory.
6. Nydus Worm A zombie transportation system that spawns 20% of your on creep supply after being built and is connected to all other nydus on the map. These are great for transporting the zombie horde across the map or behind enemy lines via backdoor. Once you make 1 20% of your supply will be spawned there, 2 40%, 3 60%, and so on. Once you hit 5, you will no longer spawn zombies on the map. It is important to keep an eye on these buildings, because the zombie can easily forget one is turned off and lose viable zombie supply.
7. Greater Nydus Worm This is a single purchase, long cooldown building that spawns 100% of your zombies our of 1 nydus worm that can be placed on or off creep. If placed on creep, it has twice the duration for spawning zombies. This is connected to all other nydus network worms, and can be used to split push hard or as a distraction.