Progression Guide

### (1) Starting the Game: Location 1 and Location 2, and Cash

The game will tell you to advance through the levels with your units every time you complete a level the "first time bonus" will help you progress through the game as it gives you a substantial amount of XP and Coins. Use Redneck, Farmer and Mechanic and Empty Barrel effectively to get through the levels. At this point of the game, the game will tell you about **Team Powers**, and it's already quite obvious that you can already trigger the Redneck and Farmer team power "Rednecks" that allows a chance for a courage to drop when any of the Redneck units are damaged, this isn't an extremely appealing team power but its the best team power you have at hand. **Cash** will also appear in the game, this is a currency that you can gain through completing the daily progression bar from the Daily Gifts section and completing personal goals in events, with such limited ways to gain Cash where and when will I use them?

If you want to be effective in the usage of cash, you must remember there are 2 unit packs you should be focusing on. Austin should be prioritized above all, as coins can be very hard to come by, and with him grinding Stage 1 Challenge 3 would soon ease your economic pressure. The second is the SWAT bundle containing 4 TMF units, Cap, Soldier, Swat and Flamethrower. When combined with Rogue, the 5th TMF unit, you'll have an easier time in the late game with events. You should, however, stick with whatever units you have, as both are expensive (500 and 925 respectively, Rogue costs 35000 coins himself) and do not directly assist your progression.

### Supply Runs

At this point you noticed you have blue keys and red keys, this will be used for Supply Runs, since your units are quite weak you may see a lot of repeated attempts on Supply Runs but the most important factor to remember is that ranged units can also attack the barricade for the Supply Run. Check for more information on what items you can get in Supply Run. The only difficulty you will see for now is the easy difficulty, which will give you rare and junk items on the respective Supply Run Location, but because they are "rare" tier sets you won't find anything much worth investing in the long run but you can level them up if you have a hard time with levels, the recommended set for "Melee Units" like Redneck or Mechanic is the Ranger set which increases their critical damage while "Ranged Units" can equip Chef (+7% main dmaage when unit is on the field, can only stack with each unique instance of a unit, and does not affect the unit itself) or Tactical (ranged damage ignores 50% bullet resist). More melee damage is always good, and the prevalence of bullet-resistant foes in mid-game are difficult to ignore, so having ranged units capable fo shredding them is exceedingly valuable.

### Item Upgrades

"What substats should we focus on?", are you confused on what substats are? In an item there are two parts, the main stat and the substat, the main stat always increases every level, while one random substat increases by every 3 levels. Ranged units would benefit from Ranged Damage as a main stat while Melee Units would benefit from Main Damage as a main stat. At the beginning of the game the items are completely mediocre because it is of the "rare" tier, if you want to be efficient just go with as little investment as you can if you think you can beat the level without it. As you can see there are 4 item slots, 4 with their own respective "gear" types, the 1st slot is a "Mug" which focuses on only HP, the 2nd slot is a "Dagger" which focuses on ranged or melee damage, the 3rd slot is a "Watch" which focuses on either Agility or Preparation Time%, and the 4th slot is a "Book", which has multiple percentage related boosts. For more information about the items check Upgrade Items.

### What Units To Get? What are Star Rewards

Units are unlocked at certain player levels, when you complete levels you gain the "blue coin" which is the XP you need for leveling up, you also gain awards at reaching certain levels. Star Rewards are rewards you get by getting a certain number of stars, you can get stars by completing missions, each mission giving a maximum value of 3, and at minimum 1 star. Even if you can unlock certain units you must remember you still need coins, so some units will be insanely more expensive which are not worth buying if you wanna be efficient with your time. But there are significantly important units you must get early game to have an easier time with game progression. Examples of those units include:

* Policeman Diaz **-** He is one of the most important purchases in the game. He is a slow shotgunner with a moderate preparation time, low speed but high health and 50% resistance to melee attacks. This makes him a useful support overall, and he becomes devastating with the proper items.
* Grenadier and Firefighter **-** they are also suited for the mid-game, as damagers can comfortably deal with threats around this time. Both have their own unique advantages:
	+ Grenadier's throw does 160 damage in a small area, decimating weaker foes with ease and his 90% bullet resist counters ranged marauders easily.
	+ Firefighter, an accessible unit with poison immunity, is extremely helpful when the annoying Slob shows up.
		- It should be noted that Damagers, in general, perform their peak up to mid-game. This is largely due to the fact that end-game enemies tend to boast significant stats to the point they can kill Damagers just as quick as fast and cheap melee units. Though by the time the player reaches this point, one would be seasoned enough to live without them.

While there are variety of choices for good units to invest on, some of them are plain useless and not worth the hassle:

Gunslinger **-** He is locked behind 170 stars and is a terrible ranged unit overall. Carlos only costs around 4000, and performs much better.

Builder **-** While Builder is indeed useful in the early game for ranged marauders, both Grenadier and Guard outclass him with their various attributes. Grenadier is overall a more consistent attacker, and Guard, despite being a bad unit overall, boasts even higher stats.

Pepper **-** Outside of providing early game fire support, Pepper is not a meaningful unit to use due to being frail with low damage, unless players wish to take advantage of the 2/2 IF Team Power with Grenadier. She can dodge, but reliance on a chance-based ability often offers no insurance when it fails. Policeman Diaz is a much better use of 25 courage.

Chopper **-** While his huge health and knockback perk along with the ability to heal himself may make him sound like powerful unit, Chopper is plagued by a number of problems such as lacking any resistances, extreme preparation time, high courage cost, healing ability that makes him vulnerable, and slow attack animations. The mentioned damagers generally fill his role much better as a strong melee attacker.

Glenn **-** Glenn's revival perk may seem interesting, as he's essentially two fighters in one for slightly less, and he's cheap to unlock, but there's the problem of his long revival delay and the fact he costs as much as a usual damager, without anything else to back it up. Unlike most fighters, Glenn is also not part of any teams by default and his skins are expensive, giving him no meaningful synergies.

Medic **-** Medic's only upsides are her poison immunity and bullet resistance. Unfortunately her main highlight of healing allies is inconsistent and rarely provides meaningful input. She also performs terribly as a ranged unit and turns into a nasty Witch when slain. Her high price tag, significant courage cost and long preparation time are all too much to ask for. If healing is necessary, buying Paramedic Nancy much later on would be a wise choice.

Guard **-** Guard is comparable to Grenadier, with higher cost and stats but a lower preparation time and knockback. However, Grenadier can usually get around that with upgrade items and provides enough damage, so there's not much reason to pay extra coins. Guard also turns into an annoying Undead when slain.

Welder **-** Welder is an atrocious unit. Bus, Generator and Turret (which can be generated by Mechanics 3/3) healing are indeed appealing, but he only does each once. He can weave through zombies, but once he stops at the barricade he's at the mercy of any threat that runs up to him when pushing with fighters and damagers gets the job done. His extreme rage cost and very long preparation time also makes him unsuitable for supplementing any deck, instead clogging them as dead weight. Generators/Turrets work as well when used alone and are not relevant until very late into the game, while Mechanics 2/2 heals the bus much better.

Carol **-** While she's good at doing burst damage with her teleportation, Mechanic's sprinting attack already provides more than enough output. She costs more overall for a surprisingly low amount of damage, acting like a more expensive fighter with the same performance, and her team synergies are some of the worst in the entire game.

Nitrogen **-** Nitrogen is a little expensive in all regards, be it preparation time, price tag and rage cost. Its only application is to slow enemies and cut off fires, but fire damage is rarely used by enemies and only really comes into play against units in a few scenarios that aren't worth mentioning. Its long preparation time often means the likes of Red Barrel will do better at stopping and killing zombies.

Molotov Cocktail**-** The mere existence of Red Barrel renders them moot. Red Barrel prepares faster than Molotov, hurts fire immune enemies and burns corpses during the rain with its explosion, and since it has a solid entity it is actually able to stop enemies for a few moments.

Empty Barrel**-** Ironically, Empty Barrel is actually the best unit here, with the simple ability to block zombies. It also does a decent amount of melee damage which can damage or even kill enemies outright. Sometimes using both Barrels together is a valid strategy. It falls off later in the game when enemies start doing extreme damage to the extent even Barrels are destroyed in one attack. While Empty Barrel just vanishes, Red Barrel does more than that.

If you want more info on what units to get you can check Units Tier List, there is a significant explanation for each unit's ability in the progression of the game, the significant factor to judge each unit's ability is their ability to be significant in all the stages of the game and accessibility (due to level restrictions), this also includes their innate ability to deal with certain enemies in the game.

### (2) Location 3: Marauders

If you are having a difficult time with some levels namely the "nightmare" levels then you can skip them temporarily, just focus on other levels and increasing your stars and level XP so you can get the rewards, the rewards will help you in the progression of the game and shorten the time needed for you to beat the nightmare levels. In Location 3, you will deal mostly with Marauders and this is the ONLY portion of the game where bullet resistance is actually useful. Given Grenadier is always a useful purchase, he is essential in countering them, and early game players who do not own him must use Builder.

## Difficulties In The Game:

List of missions and explanations on which portions of the game is difficult:

* Slob and Charged Zombie (location 3). Slob's death explosion covers a *massive* area and there's no way around the poison, so it can destroy ranged units with relative ease, and fire is invalidated due to its fire immunity. Charged Zombies are dangerous suicide attackers, and they often come when you expect it the least with extreme damage and speed, so careful barrel placement and the use of fighters should be considered.

* Sapper (enemy in location 4). Sapper has low health, but has extreme bullet and melee resistance. Your best bet is to shred them with ranged units and the tactical set. Demons are a threat as well, but damagers and Diaz should take care of that.
* Location 6 Mission 97, is the hardest mission for Location 6 that will put a roadblock on your progression, the reason is because of the presence of Slob and Aidman who are immune to fire, as well as the incoming giant wave of Monks at the 40 second mark. Unless you have lots of cooldown reduction items on your strongest ranged units, the alternative is just using Melee Units like Rodriguez, Mechanic, Glenn or Rogue (if you have him) to deal with the enemies. Barrels are also good to have. Mechanics 2/2 is valuable here for getting 3 stars, as it's likely for them to damage the bus.
* Monk and Small Insectoid (Location 6). They are your standard runners with a lot of speed and knockback on hit, with Small Insectoid even boasting fire immunity. They come early, so get the best preparation time watches if you have to and use your strong rangers supported with melee.
* Insectoid and Energy Sphere (Location 7), Insectoid is designed to demolish ranged units, specifically targeting them with its jumps, then dealing extreme damage at close quarters. Energy Sphere is a suicide attacker who destroys whatever unit it hits and spawns an Offal. Sonya and Policeman Diaz and Specops (if owned) are among the few ranged units who can fight it off effectively. As for Energy Sphere, it is weak against Turret (unable to target inanimate units), and hovers slowly, giving ranged units a better chance if a cheap fighter isn't used to waste its attack already.
* All the enemies in location 8, because it's significantly more restricted and quick placement of support items is mandatory and usage of buffs is almost undeniably prone to happen here. Crank is a powerhouse with no weaknesses in general, Prisoner is a very strong common enemy who spawns a small insectoid when slain, Locust has a lot of DPS and speed, while Twins have high health, extreme bullet resist and overwhelming damage. Location 8 has the hardest level in the game which is Mission 136, where Crank, Insectoid, Prisoner and Charged Zombies are all spammed.
	+ In Mission 138, Twins spam can be countered by using strong fighters and exploiting the Twins' slow speed to nuke the barricade, or play it out normally to work with their bullet resistance and Insectoid.

## Gameplay Clarifications and Questions

1. Is the game beatable without spending Power Points or cash?
	* Yes the game is beatable without spending spending them. One user did this in 8 days. Nancy's ability to revive units can cut down on courage costs and further augment courage spawns of the 2/2 Team Power, which in turn allows Redneck to be spammed to great effect. It isn't the most practical strategy, but it definitely is revolutionary.
2. Is the game beatable without getting items nor using buffs?
	* There is no concrete conclusion, but it is unlikely. Some units just have too much of a cooldown to simply use without items in order to properly deal with miscellaneous threats.
3. Is the game pay to win?
	* Not necessarily. Even disregarding the aforementioned strategy of abusing Nancy, it is important to note that buff items and upgrade items actually play a much larger role than levels, and as such even with level 5-8 units you could steamroll mission 142. It is grindy, of course, but that's the best you'll get.
4. What is the hardest stage in the game?
	* Stage 136. It spams Cranks, Charged Zombies, Insectoids and Prisoners.
5. What is Austin?
	* A unit who has a chance to get coins upon killing zombies. Since quantity matters over quality, Stage 1, Challenge 3 is the best stage to go on a run with him. Could get around 1000 coins on average.
6. What are Power Points?
	* A currency used to level up support items and other units. You get some for free every three hours in the daily tab, can be purchased through deals in the shop and they appear in certain supply runs.
7. Why is Cost Reduction held in high regard so much?
	* In Campaign, it matters on disposable units like Redneck and Berserker, so they can be spammed with little overall cost. In Skirmish, it allows you to augment your team composition better.
8. Are there any ways to filter the items, I'm getting so annoyed
	* There isn't a way currently, a recommended solution for you to mark certain items, such as the Cost Reduction ones is to level them up to level 2, such as the auto upgrade system won't include those items.
9. Are there any extra things about the stages I should know about?
	* There are levels which gives free items once. Usually they're in a background vehicle that oscillates at times. If you tap it a few times, it will drop the item crate and occasionally a zombie alongside. You need to win the level in order to keep the item, otherwise it will keep dropping until you successfully collect it.

* Is there a PC version of the game? ￼
	+ Yes, there is, after the game only being accessible on mobile devices and usage of an emulator, such as BlueStacks, There's now an independent website where you can play DA;ZW without downloading it!