Zombie Defense – Manual and Guide

Zombie Defense manual contains fistful of hints, tips, and basics to help new players dive into the game.

Overview

The basic gameplay mechanic of "Zombie Defense" is similar to the classic Tower Defense: acting as a veteran Lieutenant in charge of a special squad of recruits whose job it is to bring order back to the world overrun by the walking dead, you control your recruits in battle, and manage the squad between the battles. The squad is deployed in a level that typically takes up several screens, and offers a number of spots to place the members of the squad. Waves of enemies, numerous variants of zombies, appear regularly and will keep moving towards your recruits, attempting to attack them. The recruits will defend themselves, but will not move on their own. While managing the squad, you can unlock recruits who come with new weaponry, upgrade existing units and weapons, purchase new technology and skills, improve available technology, or open up special options. You can also add veteran squad members, the Commanders, to train your men and increase their skills in the battlefield.

Basic Gameplay

You can freely move the recruits between all spots, remove them from the battlefield, and recruit new ones. Select any squad member, then tap an empty spot anywhere in the level to order the man to run there. (Note that the zombies will try to attack running recruits, but most will be too slow to threaten them. However, be careful not to send your soldiers running into huge clusters of the enemy, as they will be easily swarmed and killed, especially as the gameplay difficulty grows.) Each zombie killed by your squad will be bought by scientists after the mission. This earns you income which you can spend on upgrades and improvements between the missions, or to command and help your soldiers during the battle. You will also receive income for your activity: playing the game every day earns you special loyalty bonus, while watching in-game videos will earn money for every video watched. (Note: the maximum number of videos that can be watched each day is limited.) You can use the time-control buttons to slow down or speed up the action. Slowing down to plan your strategy or to control your squad more easily is recommended when facing huge waves of enemy or special enemy types. The size of your squad depends on the resources you can spend. You will begin with one soldier, enough to complete the first mission and earn money to recruit more men. Once more recruits become available, you can deploy them in battle by tapping an available spot and selecting a recruit type.

Weapons

Each type of weapon has its own advantage, from low price (handguns) to high power. Of the greatest importance are the damage, ratio of fire, and range of each weapon. Note that you can also use self-controlling weapons, such as sentry guns, but those are treated as squad units rather than weaponry. As they just metal, such weapons are not attacked by the zombies. Your squad can also use explosives, from stun and flash grenades to Molotov cocktails that block the zombies' paths, to regular grenades and dynamite that will destroy the zombies. The best efficiency of an explosive is against a tightly-grouped cluster of enemies. Airstrikes are special attacks that are not treated as weapons, nor as squad members: you can call them in from the battlefield by selecting the respective option, as long as you can afford the cost. Airstrike will decimate any zombies present in and around the targeted area.

Battlefield

Every mission offers special spots, marked in yellow, which increase the strength of the recruit placed there. You can also reinforce the spots occupied by your recruits during the mission, making them 50% more resistant to zombie attacks, and giving them a greater advantage by boosting their statistics.

The regular spots occupied by your recruits are placed in strategic locations in each level, and are normally immobile. However, if you prefer full control over the battlefield, you can recruit a Commander and train him to move troops quickly by picking the "Move Slots" upgrade at the Store. With the upgrade, you will be able to manage unoccupied spots across the level, enhancing the strategic opportunities.

Every once in a while, a passing helicopter will drop a supply crate with explosives in a randomly selected empty spot. Collect it if possible - you can always have the recruit return to the previous spot. (Note: the time it takes to deliver a new supply crate can be decreased with an upgrade bought at the Store. You can also order an emergency drop during the battle, but that costs extra money for the helicopter fuel.) You can increase the load of your supply crates by enhancing them with upgrades from the Store.

You can not only order your recruits in battle, but also manage them. Tap a recruit to access the available option, from healing the man to promoting him, increasing his abilities. You can also dismiss a recruit, replacing him with another one (for instance, when the maximum size of your squad is 8, and you need someone with a more powerful weapon than the 8 men you already have in the field, or simply if you run short on money.) Similarly, you can dismantle automatic weapons placed in any spot, and sell them for scrap.

Combat Tips

• Position your squad at greater heights whenever possible - the zombie skulls are weaker on top. A sniper shooting the enemies from a flatbed truck will score more kills than the same sniper standing near the truck.
• Do not leave your recruits alone for long: the zombies will try to swarm them. Pay attention to every recruit's status, and if their health starts dropping, check on them immediately and try to move them to safety.
• Make sure that the squad members support one another: it's much more efficient to have three men protecting one another's back in the same screen than to keep them two screens away. A good combination of recruits is the winning formula. For instance, a long-range sniper will keep the furthest zombie away, a medium-range Marine with an M16 assault rifle will quickly dispatch the enemies who get closer, and a short-range recruit with a powerful weapon can be moved between the other two, destroying all zombies who endanger them.

Completing Missions

Once a mission is completed, you will be asked whether you want to continue, or keep playing the mission. You can choose to keep fighting up to 5 additional zombie waves, to earn more money. You can always return to a mission that you have already completed, too, but keep in mind that as your squad grows tougher, so does the enemy. Return to Mission 1 after five completed missions, and the zombies will not be as easy as they were in the beginning - they will have adapted to your skills. The game saves your progress locally, as well as in the online cloud if you choose to log on to it: the saves will retain your progress, and you can always overwrite a cloud save with a local save, if the latter is outdated (e.g. due to lack of online connection at the time the save was made.)

Upgrade Store

The Store is available from the menu and opens up hundreds of new men, weapons, skills, upgrades and improvements. There are two types of upgrades, Regular and Gold ones. The Gold upgrades, available in the Nightmare mode (or after unlocking their availability from the Store in the Regular mode), offer special equipment and improvements, at the cost of greater challenge.

Difficulty Levels

You can switch the difficulty level from the menu, selecting between the Regular level, and Nightmare. The Nightmare mode is far more demanding, but offers higher rewards and bonuses. Note that the extra-valuable Gold upgrades are normally available only in the Nightmare mode, unless you use the Store to pick the option that unlocks them in the Regular mode as well.

The difficulty selection dialogue also allows you to choose additional special mission modes, including several Challenge modes, with specific objectives, such as defending a TV reporter broadcasting from the battlefield in the "TV Challenge" mode.

Special Encounters

Some levels come with abandoned heavy machinery that can be turned on; once you turn those yellow bulldozers on, they will keep moving in straight lines, crushing all zombies that move in their way. Before you can operate the machines, you need to purchase the respective skill for your squad. Tap a bulldozer to see the option to turn it on. (Note: turning on a bulldozer costs money for the fuel, but the cost can be decreased with upgrades.) In addition to the bulldozers, you will come across APCs, heavy transporters armed with cannons. The principle of their use is similar to that of the bulldozer: an APC's cannon can be activated once you have the necessary skill, and will cost you a certain amount of money. Once the cannon is on, it will automatically engage ail zombies that come within its reach. Boss characters appear in selected levels after a several waves. They are powerful, huge creatures with special attacks and increased number of hit points. The more powerful weaponry you have, the greater your chances at destroying the bosses; explosives work well against them. Maintain a safe distance between a boss and your recruits, as boss' attacks can reach further than normal zombies' (some bosses use long-distance attacks, such as spitting poison). If you find it difficult to fight a zombie boss with your recruits, you can use the heavy machinery available in some levels, turning it on and luring the boss into its path.