Zombie Survival
Zombie Survival is an unofficial game mode for Team Fortress 2 (not to be confused with Zombie Fortress, Zombie Escape,). It is also referred to as "Medic VS Engineer". The game mode has no officially recognized SourceMod plugin, requiring server owners to create and balance the game mode to their own liking. There are two opposing teams: the Survivors (RED Engineers) and the Zombies (BLU Medics). BLU's goal is to kill all the Survivors. RED's objective is for at least one Survivor to be alive after (usually) 7 minutes of gameplay. If all Survivors die before the end of the round, the Zombies win; otherwise, the Survivors win. When a Survivor is killed, they are immediately switched to the Zombie team, while killed Zombies simply respawn. It is unknown who created Zombie Survival, but it was popularized by Muselk, a TF2 Youtuber. The gamemode was mainly unchanged until 2017.
In Zombie Survival, Survivors lack the ability to build Sentry Guns, and Zombies are restricted to melee only; however, both teams have access to global perks to help balance the classes. Zombies may gain perks such as double jump in order to counter Dispenser boosting, or a speed boost once the timer reaches near the end. Survivors remain mostly vanilla, unless there are very few alive, upon which these Engineers may gain small buffs such as mini-crits or health/speed boost. Random critical hits are always disabled in Zombie Survival.
During setup time, the Survivors are given the opportunity to safely build Dispensers and Teleporters as barricades, methods of escape 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 (within which they are ÜberCharged) until setup time is over. Survivors can continue to build outside of setup time, though the horde of Zombies can make building difficult and dangerous.
Contents
Gameplay
Bonus rounds
Bonus rounds may happen to make sure the server stays interesting without the same gamemode over and over. Since there is no official Zombie Survival plugin, the bonus rounds may vary from server-to-server, but some of the most popular ones are:
- The gravity is lowered to a significantly lower amount, allowing for very high "moon" jumps
- Building restrictions are changed, either allowing Sentry Guns or banning Dispensers/Teleporters
- All players are moved to red to fight a single "boss" zombie on blue
- All Engineers must protect a single Engineer in order to win (if that Engineer dies, RED loses).
ZS maps
Sometimes certain maps are built for Zombie Survival which may be either based on already existing maps (official or not) or completely new maps. These maps are usually built with the intention and balancing of playing on a ZS server in mind, however they still require a SourceMod plugin to run and cannot be used standalone.
Strategies
Telefragging and stair-trapping
Telefragging is a method of quickly eliminating Zombies, and is most effective in narrow areas where Medics must step on a Teleporter exit in order to reach a Dispenser barricade. In order for a proper telefrag to be set up, a Teleporter exit is placed directly in front of a Dispenser, and the associated Teleporter entrance is placed within a non-intrusive and close-by area (but not directly behind the Dispenser, this prevents Engineers from using it as cover). In less narrow areas, Medics can easily destroy telefrags by crouching some distance away from the Teleporter exit and attacking it directly. Engineers using the telefrag also open themselves to being killed by the Spinal Tap taunt or suffering a regular death (most prominently for the Engineer that built the Dispenser, since they cannot walk through it).
"Stair-trapping" is a usage of Teleporters prominently used in Zombie Survival and can be performed on most sloped surfaces. By placing a teleporter at the bottom or top of a slope, as close to the middle of the slope as allowed, the increment from the floor up to the teleporter may be so great that a jump is required. Stair-trapping is useful for temporarily denying Zombies access to a defense at the top of a slope. A stair-trap can also be part of a telefrag.
Rushing
"Rushing" is a term used to describe the grouping up and simultaneous attacking of Zombies, in order to completely overthrow an otherwise impenetrable Survivor defense. The leader of a rush is usually the person that requests one, unless Engineers get too close to the group and participating Medics are forced to intervene on their own. It is important to have a microphone for voice chat or know how to effectively use team chat in order to command a rush, since players of Zombie Survival often do not listen to calls for Medic.
Amputator
Performing the Medicating Melody taunt with the Amputator during a Zombie rush will increase the health regeneration rate of surrounding Zombies and decrease the Engineers' chance of survival. Medics using the taunt are referred to as "Amputator Medics" by Survivors, and are considered a high priority to kill due to their immense power. In order to avoid being singled out, these Medics often shield themselves behind walls, other obstacles and sometimes their own teammates. Additionally, the Amputator's healing power stacks with other Amputators, so multiple Amputator Medics help to both keep each other alive (since the healing does not apply for yourself) and to heal the team twice as fast.
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References
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