Zombie Survival

See also: Zombie (Disambiguation)

The official logo of Zombie Survival used in most ZS maps made from 2017 onwards.

Zombie Survival is an unofficial game mode for Team Fortress 2 (not to be confused with Zombie Fortress, Super Zombie Fortress or ZombieMod) that is also sometimes called "Medic VS Engineer". The gamemode has no officially recognised SourceMod plugin, requiring server owners to create and balance the gamemode to their own liking. There are two opposing teams: the Survivors (RED Engineers) and the Zombies (BLU Medics). RED's objective is for at least one survivor to be alive after (usually) 7 minutes. If all Survivors die before the end of the round, the Zombies win. When a Survivor is killed, they are switched to the Zombie team. Zombie Survival was popularised by Muselk, a previous TF2 YouTuber, who made videos on the gamemode that have reached above 4.5k views, as well as hosting his own Zombie Survival server momentarily, which is now defunct.

In Zombie Survival, Survivors lack the ability to build sentries, and Zombies are restricted to melee only, however both teams have access to global perks to help balance the classes. Zombies gain the most perks, including increased speed towards the end of the round and a double jump (of which the second jump's height also increases near the end of the round). Survivors remain mostly vanilla, unless there are two or less of them alive, upon which these Engineers will gain a permanent Buff Banner effect.

During a 30 second setup time, the Survivors are given the opportunity to safely build dispensers and teleporters as barricades or tools for killing (in the case of teleporters) in an area they wish to fortify, without the presence of the Zombies. The Zombies are frozen within their spawn until setup time is over. Survivors can build outside of setup time, however the horde of Zombies can make building difficult.

Special additions

Bonus rounds

Bonus rounds commonly happen on the last round of a map and can have varying effects on Survivors, Zombies or both. Server statistics are usually disabled for the duration of a bonus round, preventing biased data from being saved. Bonuses fall into one of three categories: Silly, Gameplay (makes a significant change to the base game) or Hardcore (makes the game more difficult for one team or both).

Silly Bonuses

• Curious Feeling: All players are given tiny heads.
• An internet meme-related bonus round where the destruction of buildings and player death emit sound clips gathered from various popular sources.
• A bonus round where the waists of the Zombies models are stretched, in order to mimic the visual style of Muselk's Zombie Survival videos.

Gameplay Bonuses

• A low gravity bonus round.
• Rancho Reign: One Engineer is designated to be the King, and is given health and metal regeneration, as well as permanent mini-crits. If they die, the Survivors automatically lose.
• Sentries Allowed: Survivors are now able to build sentries, but they cannot fire, and usually cannot be upgraded.
• Melee Battle: Survivors are stripped down to their melee weapons as well, but are given guaranteed critical hits so long as they are not being healed by a dispenser.
• Tick Tock: Round time is reduced from 7 minutes to 4.
• A bonus round where Zombies can jump more than 2 times in a row.

Hardcore Bonuses

• A high gravity bonus round. The gravity is high enough so that Medics can only reach the top of a dispenser and be able to stand on it after performing a double jump.
• Early Outbreak: Zombies are unfrozen immediately.
• No Dispensers: Survivors can now only build teleporters, yet they get health and metal regeneration to compensate.
• Hot Potato: If a player on either team stands still during this bonus round, they will rapidly begin to lose health.
• Terrorist Town: An Engineer is selected to be the Terrorist (suicide bomber), and must blend in with the other Survivors before they explode shortly after the end of setup time.

Strategies

Medic weapon choice

The Bonesaw, Ubersaw and others

The Medic's Bonesaw is the most used Zombie weapon by both amateurs and experts due to its accessibility and consistent swing speed. It deals the most damage per second of all of the melee weapons, and therefore has the highest change of killing Survivors. This also applies to all the reskins of the Bonesaw. The Ubersaw, on the other hand, does not deal as much damage but is useful because of the taunt associated with it, which can stun and kill Survivors instantly if positioned correctly. The only weapon that is discouraged from use in Zombie Survival is the Vita-Saw, which has no positives since Zombies cannot use any weapon other than melee.

The Amputator

Unlike all the other melee weapons Zombies have at their disposal, the Amputator is a special case in that it is able to heal fellow Zombies within a radius. This saw is extremely useful when accompanied with a horde of Zombies, as the horde can shelter Zombies using the Amputator whilst attacking Survivors and thus continually regenerate their health, making for a partially damage-resistant attack.

External links

References

• Zombie Survival guide by awesomedog7 (contains some differing information)

Notable Zombie Survival server groups

• Rushy Servers
• Lazyneer's Server Group