Zombies

Zombies are the infected faction. They are hostile to every living thing, people and animals alike. They fight with their hands only, but they come in numbers and never stop.

Day and night

By day a zombie walks at 1.3 tiles/s and runs at 3.1 tiles/s, and each strike does 8 damage. At night everything gets worse: at full dark it moves 1.6 times as fast, hits 1.5 times as hard and hears 1.5 times as well. The change is gradual through dusk and dawn.

	By day	At full night
Walking	1.3 tiles/s	2 tiles/s
Running	3.1 tiles/s	5 tiles/s
Damage per strike	8	12
Hearing	× 1	× 1.5

For comparison you walk at 4.4 tiles/s and sprint at 7.2 tiles/s, so you can always outrun a zombie, but at night only by sprinting. A zombie strikes about once a second. Its blows rarely land on the head (5%); mostly they hit the body and make you bleed.

How they hunt

A zombie sees in a cone in front of it, and less far in the dark. It hears gunshots, footsteps, doors and breaking things. When it notices something it walks over to look and searches the spot for a while, and runs when the noise was loud. When it starts hunting it groans, and the groan carries about 9.4 tiles, so others come too. One gunshot can bring a crowd.

Zombies also smell fresh carcasses from up to 20 tiles away. They walk to the body and feed on it for 25 seconds, eating some of its meat each time. A kill you leave lying draws a horde. Their strikes on animals do 3 times the damage.

Bodies

Zombies bleed like people, only slower: their wounds close faster, but they never make new blood. A zombie goes down after losing 2000 ml of its 5000 ml. See wounds.

In the open world

The open world is sparse by day. 4 to 8 zombies roam around you, in groups of 1 to 3. At full night up to 2 times as many roam (up to 16). New groups turn up 24 to 40 tiles away, out of sight. None turn up within 16 tiles of an outpost, and at night they must break in through the wall or the gate. Settlements draw them too: near a village there are 1.5 times as many, and in a town 2.5 times as many, some of them waiting inside the buildings until they notice you.

Pollution draws more of them. On polluted ground the numbers grow with the pollution where you stand: on the worst ground there are up to 2 times as many, up to 32 at night. See pollution.

In raid sites

Raid sites are where the real crowds are. Zombies stand at the spawn points of a site, more at night than by day. Underground levels such as the bunker are always as full as at night.

Site	Per spawn point by day	Per spawn point at night	Most in the site	Armoured
Town	0–1	1–3	16	No
Bunker	2–3	3–5	32	100%: Helmet and Body Armour
Industrial park	0–1	1–3	22	No
Police station	0–1	1–3	10	No
Hospital	0–1	1–3	12	No
Lab	0–1	1–2	14	No
Space station / launch site	0–1	1–2	12	No
Airport	2–3	3–5	20	No
Nuclear power plant	0–1	1–2	12	No
Abandoned colony	0–1	0–1	6	No
Lost expedition	0–1	0–1	6	No
The source	0–1	0–1	4	No

Bunker zombies wear a helmet and body armour, so bring armour-piercing rounds.

Toxic mutants

Where the air at your home is badly polluted, toxic mutants join the night hordes that attack your base. They start to appear when the home air reaches 30% pollution, and their share grows up to 50% of the horde at 80%. A mutant moves at 80% of a zombie’s speed but strikes 1.75 times as hard, and every hit adds 6% to your toxicity. It is tougher too: it goes down after losing 3000 ml of blood instead of 2000 ml. See base building for the hordes and pollution for toxicity.

Animals change in pollution too: see wildlife.

Rift creatures

Rift creatures come from another dimension. Their bodies tear, flicker and shift colour as if this world cannot quite hold them, and they make sounds nothing else makes. The ones that escaped wait at the lab, and in the rift itself they roam its land (see Beyond the rift, below). They count as infected: zombies leave them alone, and soldiers fight them.

Rift stalker: fast and frail. While it hunts you it blinks: it flickers, vanishes and reappears a few tiles closer.
Rift brute: slow, big and tough. It reaches further than a zombie and hits much harder.
Echo: frail and patient. It copies sounds it has heard, such as footsteps, a door, a gunshot or a voice, and plays them back from where it hides. Whoever comes to look gets struck. A faint static and a flicker give it away.
Shade: it lives in the dark and is seen only in light, by a flashlight’s beam, a lamp or a muzzle flash. Light drives it back and burns it a little; it waits just outside the light and strikes when the light goes out or turns away. In the dark you only hear it whisper and catch a glimpse of it. Night-vision goggles do not show it, and thermal goggles find no heat in it.
Mirror: an upside-down, glitching double of you, holding a copy of your weapon. Once it sees you it walks as your reflection: step toward it and it steps toward you, step aside and it follows. A faint glass ring sounds as it starts. Stand still and it strikes.
Warden: an Institute guard fused with a containment suit, slow and hard to bring down. It still walks its patrol along the corridor. When it sees you it calls a lockdown: an alarm that brings the other creatures, and the doorway you came in by slams shut behind you while you stand in its room. Press E at a shut doorway to open it again; it also opens when the alarm stops.
Growth: a rooted mass that never moves. It spreads over the floor and up the walls of the underground level a few tiles at a time, creeping toward the stairs. On it you wade slowly, and its tendrils grab you, holding you still and cutting your legs; step off or cut the patch under you to get free. Swing at it or shoot across it to cut it back, a grenade clears a patch, and killing its root kills all of it.
Cache mimic: found only in the rift. It looks like one of the Institute’s white supply crates, left lying on the land. Come within a few steps and it twitches and crackles for a moment, then splits open along its length and hunts you, low and quick on six short legs. A hit opens it at once, and the hit counts. Once open, it never closes again.
Shard swarm: found only in the rift. A cloud of glass shards that moves and fights as one creature, with one body: you shoot the cloud, not single shards. It cuts fast and lightly, again and again. Every hit knocks shards loose, so it thins as it weakens, and when it dies it falls apart into broken glass.
Tether: found in the rift, most often on the void cracks, and at the lab only loose from a breached containment cell. A tall, thin figure of void with a cord of the same void coiled out of its chest. From up to eight tiles away it casts the cord at you, with a rising whine as its tell, and latches on. Then it drags you slowly toward the nearest edge of the void, and once it has dragged you to the edge you fall in and die; where no void is near, it reels you in to itself. You can still walk while it holds you, but slowly, and a low drone tells you the cord still holds. A swing, a shot or a grenade’s blast on the cord cuts it, and so does killing the tether.
Statue: found in the rift and, loose, at the lab when its containment cell is breached. A figure of pale stone that moves only while you do not look at it: in your view cone or your flashlight’s beam it stands still and cannot strike, but turn away and it comes on fast, faster than you walk, and stands nearer when you look back. A hit while you watch it barely marks it. You can hear it move: a short stone grind somewhere behind you, and a dull crack when a hit chips it in your sight.
Trader: found in the rift and, loose, at the lab when its containment cell is breached, and one may wait in the deeper level of a lost expedition camp. A stooped figure in a long patched coat with a tall pack of goods on its back and a pale face with no eyes. It harms no one and nothing hunts it. Walk up and it barters good gear, guns, ammunition, medicine and food, at a friend’s prices whatever your standing, on the same trade panel as any trader. What it gives turns bad a day or two later: food rots through, a gun jams and wears out past repair, armour and clothing wear out past repair, and everything else crumbles to dust. A hit sends it running, and once you have hit it, it never trades with you again. See the trader in the rift.
Hollow: found in the rift, in the deeper level of a lost expedition’s camp, and, loose, at the lab when its containment cell is breached. From a distance it looks like any other survivor, in a survivor’s clothes and gear, and once it sees you it calls out a greeting and walks over at a survivor’s pace, like someone coming to talk. Nothing gives it away: no flicker, no sound of its own, and your companion does not fire at it. Within a few steps its skin splits open down the front, and after a moment it hunts you, faster than you walk; a shot shows it at once, and the hit counts. It is only an empty skin, and when it falls the gear it wore spills on the ground for anyone to take (see hollow kits).
Choir: found in the rift and, loose, at the lab when its containment cell is breached. A hunched, pale figure crowded with small mouths that sits in one spot and calls your name in several voices at once. Only one of them is its own; the others come from the walls round you, and zombies and people come to the sound as they would to a shout. To tell the real one, stand quite still for a moment: the false voices sound hollow and the real one stays clear. A companion with you points out the real one too. Come close enough for it to see you, or shoot it, and it rises and fights, slower than you walk, but it falls fast. Leave it alone long enough and it sits down and calls again.
Clockwork: found in the rift and, loose, at the lab when its containment cell is breached. A squat, hunched thing of rusted iron plates on thin legs, with a cracked clock face in its back; you hear its slow, uneven ticking from a fair way off. It ages what is near it: while you stand close to it, the food you carry spoils far faster than it should, and your guns and armour wear as if from long use. It creeps after you, slower than you walk, and stays close, but it never strikes. Hit it, or fire a gun where it can hear, and it runs, faster than you walk but slower than you sprint; after the run it stops to wind itself down for a few seconds, and that is when you can catch it.

Creature	Where	By day	At night
Rift stalker	Underground	1–2	2–3
Rift brute	Underground	1	1–2
Rift stalker	The yard (surface)	0	1–2
Echo	Underground	1	1
Shade	Underground	1	1
Mirror	The yard (surface)	1	1
Warden	The yard (surface)	1	1
Growth	Underground	1	1

The lab holds at most 8 of them at once. By day they keep to the dark underground level, all but the mirror and the warden, which keep to the ground level; at night some stalkers come up into the yard. A rift stalker goes down after losing 1400 ml of blood, a rift brute after 4000 ml, an echo after 1000 ml, a shade after 1200 ml, a mirror after 1100 ml, a warden after 2500 ml and a growth after 1800 ml, against a zombie’s 2000 ml. A dead one counts as a zombie kill and is searched like a zombie.

Beyond the rift

Beyond the rift gate, every creature the Institute found living in the rift turns up on its land, the cache mimic and the shard swarm among them. By day 6–10 of them are about around you, at full night 10–16, and never more than 32 at once. Most come alone; rift stalkers in groups of 2–4 and rift brutes in groups of 1–2. Rift stalkers turn up most often.

Each land is home to some of them more than others, though any of them can turn up on any land, and none on the void:

Land	Seen there more often
Glass fields	Shard swarm
Inverted forests	Shade and Mirror
Frozen towns	Rift brute, Cache mimic and Warden
Void cracks	Shard swarm and Tether
Pulsing growth	Growth

A cache mimic goes down after losing 1600 ml of blood and a shard swarm after 1100 ml. A tether goes down after losing 1500 ml. A statue goes down after losing 2500 ml. A trader goes down after losing 1200 ml. A hollow goes down after losing 1500 ml. A choir goes down after losing 1200 ml. A clockwork goes down after losing 1000 ml.

Out on the rift’s land a growth spreads over the ground round its root and up the rock beside it, grabs and cuts you as it does in the lab, and withers when its root dies. A warden walks a short patrol and calls its lockdown alarm when it sees you, which brings the creatures that hear it, but out there no doorway slams shut. When the land shifts under them, the growths and the patrols start again on the new ground.

The lost expedition

The camps of the Institute’s lost expedition, the rift’s raid sites, are guarded by the rift’s own creatures:

Creature	Where	By day	At night	Together
Rift stalker	Underground	1–2	2–3	Alone
Rift brute	Underground	1	1–2	Alone
Rift stalker	The yard (surface)	0	1–2	Alone
Warden	The yard (surface)	0–1	0–1	Alone
Mirror	The yard (surface)	0–1	0–1	Alone
Cache mimic	The yard (surface)	0–2	0–2	2
Shard swarm	The yard (surface)	0–2	0–2	2
Echo	Underground	1	1	Alone
Shade	Underground	1	1	Alone
Growth	Underground	1	1	Alone
Tether	The yard (surface)	0–1	0–1	Alone
Statue	Underground	0–1	0–1	Alone
Trader	Underground	0–1	0–1	Alone
Hollow	Underground	0–1	0–1	Alone

A camp holds at most 9 of them at once. Underground means its deeper level. The few of the team who turned take the spawn spots the creatures leave, and most camps have some left for them.

Aliens

Aliens come from another world, the planet. They wait at the space station / launch site and at the planet’s abandoned colonies, and on the planet they roam the open world and come out of their nests (see the planet’s creatures below). They count as infected: zombies leave them alone, and soldiers fight them.

Alien skitter: small and quick. Skitters hunt in packs that stand together, and when one screeches the rest come running.
Alien spitter: bigger and slower. It keeps its distance and spits acid at you from a few tiles away. Armour does not stop the acid, and a glob can hit a zombie or another creature in its way. Up close it fights like a zombie.

Creature	Where	By day	At night	Pack size
Alien spitter	Indoors	1	1	Alone
Alien skitter	Indoors	2–3	2–3	2–3
Alien skitter	Outdoors	2–3	4–6	2–3
Alien spitter	Outdoors	0	1–2	Alone

The launch site holds at most 12 of them at once. Indoors means the hangar; outdoors means the yard. An alien skitter goes down after losing 1000 ml of blood and an alien spitter after 2800 ml, against a zombie’s 2000 ml. A dead one counts as a zombie kill and is searched like a zombie.

The planet’s creatures

The planet’s open world holds only its own creatures, the aliens and two natives, and no zombies. 4–8 of them roam around you by day and 8–14 at night, turning up out of sight as zombies do on earth. They count as infected too.

Burrower: a segmented, many-jawed thing that waits buried in the ground. Buried, it creeps slowly toward what it hears, and only a dust ripple and a faint scrape close by give it away; bullets pass over it then. When you come within a few steps it bursts up and bites hard, and a few seconds after it loses you it digs in again.
Drifter: a winged flier, light in the low gravity. It flies over fences, low cover and other creatures, though walls stop it. It circles you a few tiles out and spits acid, and bites when you come close. Its shadow on the ground shows where it is.

Who lives where depends on the ground and the time of day. The first kind named is the most common there.

Ground	By day	At night
Dust plains	Alien skitter, Drifter	Alien skitter, Drifter, Alien spitter
Crater fields	Burrower, Alien skitter	Burrower, Alien skitter, Alien spitter
Crystal flats	Drifter	Drifter, Alien skitter
Frozen dunes	Burrower	Burrower, Drifter
Scorched basins	Alien spitter, Burrower	Alien spitter, Alien skitter
Fungus hollows	Alien skitter, Alien spitter	Alien skitter, Alien spitter, Burrower

The aliens have nests of their own: 10 hive mounds of fused chitin in the fungus hollows and crater fields, none near the landed rocket, and not on the map. When you come within 24 tiles of one its residents come out, by day 3–4 alien skitters and 1 alien spitter, at night 1–2 alien skitters, and stay near it until they notice you. A nest whose residents were all killed lies quiet for 24 game hours, then fills again; a nest cannot be destroyed. At the abandoned colonies the natives join the aliens in the yard: 1–2 burrowers by day and at night and 1 drifter at night, and the colony holds at most 16 creatures at once.

A burrower goes down after losing 1800 ml of blood and a drifter after 850 ml, against a zombie’s 2000 ml. A dead one counts as a zombie kill. At the colonies its body is searched like a zombie’s; out in the open world, bodies are not searched.

Plant mutants

The plant mutants were twisted by the nuclear power plant’s pollution. For now they turn up only at the nuclear power plant. They count as infected: zombies leave them alone, and soldiers fight them. They are not the toxic mutants of the home hordes above.

Mutant brute: huge, slow and very tough. It reaches further than a zombie and hits hard enough that armour only stops part of it.
Mutant crawler: low and fast, but frail. It hears well and makes little sound, so it creeps up on you alone.
Mutant sludger: bloated and slow. It leaves puddles of toxic sludge behind it as it walks. Standing in one makes you toxic, the same toxicity polluted air gives; a Gas Mask helps, and Antitox Pills clear it. See pollution.

Creature	Where	By day	At night
Mutant brute	Indoors	1	1–2
Mutant sludger	Indoors	1	1–2
Mutant crawler	Outdoors	1–2	2–4
Mutant sludger	Outdoors	0–1	1–2
Mutant crawler	Indoors	0	1–2

The nuclear power plant holds at most 12 of them at once. Indoors means the reactor building and the turbine hall; outdoors means the yard. A mutant brute goes down after losing 4800 ml of blood, a mutant crawler after 1300 ml and a mutant sludger after 3200 ml, against a zombie’s 2000 ml. A dead one counts as a zombie kill and is searched like a zombie.