Game Mechanics

There are a lot of different game mechanics and in this wiki page they will all be vaguely described with links back to their original page with more detailed information on the subject. This page is suppose to give a small summary of information on each subject, it should not be a guide on each mechanic but merely information alone. If one needs a guide or more detailed information please use the links provided below.

Weather System

Day and Night

• Day and night settings can be defined by the player in the menu before starting a game.
• You can change how many in-game hours there are in each day (12 ,14, 16, or 18 hours in each in-game day). The sun will always set at 22:00 and rise at either 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, or 10:00.
• You can change how long a 24 hour cycle lasts (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, or 120 minutes in real time). The duration of a 24 hour cycle not only affects how long a day lasts but how long a night lasts too.
• Both Day and Night time have an affect on zombies. During the day almost every single zombie cannot run (some exceptions Feral Wight, Zombie Dog). But at nighttime every zombie can run.
• Time of day or night does not affect how the player obtains experience, or loot, or any other variable besides how bright or dark the world is, and if the zombies are allowed to run or not.

Temperature

• Every player has their own temperature and it can be affected by clothing, their surroundings, or the weather and more.
• Temperature cannot give the player any positive affects, it can only give neutral and negative affects.
• If the player does not stay between 31°F and 99°F (-0.5°C to 37°C) and goes below or beyond these temperatures they will start to be affected with Status Effects that will negatively affect the player's Fullness (Hunger), Hydration (Thirst), Health, Stamina, and Speed. If the temperature is not keep to a suitable level the player will die.
• Every biome has a different outside Temperature, Burnt Forest, or the Snowy Forest are either constantly hot or constantly cold, while the Forest is suitable temperature.
• Standing near other players will not increase your temperature.

Wet

• Swimming in water, being outside in the rain (or snow), or against a open window inside a building can cause the player to get wet.
• Your temperature will always decrease while you are wet.
• A campfire will not dry you but will keep your temperature up.
• To lose wetness the player must stay out of water for a period of time.
• Wearing clothing reduces this affect.

Combat/Damage System

Block Damage

• Block Damage determines how much damage a Weapon or Tool will do to a block.
• Every Weapon and Tool lists how much damage it can do to blocks.
• The damage inflicted to blocks is also determined by the Quality/Durability of the tool/weapon, the players Skill levels, the player's Stamina, and whether or not it is the Appropriate Tool for the block.

Entity Damage

• Entity damage determines how much damage a Weapon or Tool will do to a player, zombie, or animal.
• Every Weapon and Tool lists how much damage it can do to entities.
• The damage inflicted to entities is also determined by the players Skill levels. (As of right now I am not sure if Quality/Durability, or Stamina affects a tool's and weapon's entity damage the same way it affects block damage).

Enemy Damage

• Enemy Damage determines how much damage a Zombie will deal to a player or block.
• The damage to a player will almost always be much higher than damage dealt to a block.

Stealth System

• Stealth allows the player to be quieter, making it harder for zombies to hear the player's movements and actions.
• When in stealth almost all action, like mining or looting are quieter, and some actions like looting is done slower as well.
• The first attack done to a zombie while in stealth does extra damage, although any attack afterwards even if the zombie did not detect the player attacking, will not take more than the first instance of increased damage.
• Some instances where stealth cannot be used are 7 Day Hordes, the reason is the player is hunted during the entire night. Other instances are when a zombie hunts a player, the play is able to run away from the zombie and lose him, but the player cannot hide from the zombie to lose him.

Heatmap

• The Heat Map is an invisible mechanic that controls zombie spawns around areas the players are most active.
• There are a lot of things that can increase the heat map. Things such as firing firearms or using explosives. Certain buildings like a Forge or Torch when in use also increase the heat map as well.
• When the heat map becomes very high random screamers will start spawning and attempt to find the character, most likely causing a small horde once the screamer detects the player and screams.
• Chopping trees, mining rocks, or digging up the ground also increases the heat map.
• Small things like opening doors, jumping, falling more than one block, or standing in an area for a period of time can also increase the heat map

Leveling Systems

Character Level

• Every player has their own personal level.
• To gain exp for a player's character level they must level one of the many Skills.
• A lot Skills require a certain character level.
• Tools, Weapons, and Clothing do not require any character level.
• Leveling perks does not increase the character's level.

Skills

• Skills are different from perks, as skills can be leveled through use, perks have to be leveled by the use of skill points.
• Players can level certain skills to increase damage with Weapons, or increase effectiveness with Tools.
• Although skills can be leveled through use unlike perks, players can still choose to invest skill points into skills, earning one level in the chosen skill for each skill point.
• Not everything is learned through Skills, every gun (accept the Blunderbuss) can only be obtained by Recipe Books. But the ammo required to fire these weapons does require a skill.

Perks

• Perks are different from skills, as skills can be leveled through use, perks have to be leveled by the use of skill points.
• Each perk sometimes has 1 to 10 levels, each requiring either a certain character level, or a certain level in a skill.
• Players can level certain perks to increase damage with Weapons, or increase effectiveness with Tools.
• Perks are required to craft certain things like Steel, or Generator Bank.
• Not everything is learned through Perks, every gun (accept the Blunderbuss) can only be obtained by Recipe Books. But the ammo required to fire these weapons does require a skill.

Crafting Systems

Crafting

• To craft something the player must have the required items needed to craft it.
• Some items cannot be crafted in a player's inventory and must instead be crafted inside of a Forge or a Workbench
• Every craft-able item takes time to craft, but every crafting station including the player's inventory is unique. This means you can craft something in your Forge, and something completely different in your own inventory at the same time.
• Misc Crafting (Skill) and Quicker Crafting (Skill) speeds up the process of a lot of crafting, even if you are not using the table while the item crafts, as long as you started it.
• The player cannot craft everything straight away. Some crafting recipes must be learnt through skills or through Recipe Books.

Crafting Menu

• The crafting menu allows the player to craft items.
• Opening the crafting menu does not pause time.
• The crafting menu shows the player the current items they can make, what they need to make an item, or if they have the required skill or recipe book.
• Players can only craft four items at a time.

Chemistry

• The only place a player can use chemistry is at a Chemistry Station.
• Requires fuel to craft items.
• Chemistry is a cheaper way of producing items the player can otherwise craft in their inventories but at a much higher resource price. (Not everything crafted at a crafting station can be done by hand).
• A chemistry table is essential for creating items such as Gunpowder, Antibiotics, or Oil, two of which is a lot cheaper than producing by hand or camp fire.

Cooking

• The only place a player can cook at is a Camp Fire.
• Requires fuel to cook items.
• Cooking is a requirement to be able to make unhealthy foods such as Raw Meat, into healthy foods such as Meat Stew.
• Cooking is also required to make drinks such as turning Bottled Murky Water into Bottled Water.
• Cooking is also used to turn Bottled Waters into other drinks like Golden Rod Tea, and Red Tea.

Forging

• The forge is extremely important for players to create almost any item.
• Requires fuel to craft items.
• To craft an item in the forge, the material needed to craft the selected item must be melted, putting the material in the forge itself. The forge will not use materials from the player's inventory.
• There is no way to craft any item made from the forge inside the player's inventory like the chemistry station can.
• Instead of scrapping items players can put the items intended for scrapping into the forge, getting more resources than if the item was scrapped.

Repairing Systems

Repairing Items

• All Tools, Weapons, and Clothing have a durability which degrades over time with use.
• Repairing Tools, Weapons, and Clothing is important because they each become weaker the lower the durability.
• Some items like the Bone Shiv, cannot be repaired, and a new one must be made when it breaks.
• If you do not have the recipe book learnt or the skill learn to repair something like a Sniper Rifle, or a Machete you cannot repair it.
• Every item takes time and resources to repair, some items needing more than one of a particular resource.

Repairing Blocks

• Any construction tool can repair blocks.
• To repair a block the player must have the resource that created the block. (This is not always the case, for example Brick Blocks need Cobblestone Rocks).
• It is very easy to see if a block requires a repair because you will either see damage done to the block, or when using a tool the health bar of the block will show (The health bar only shows when the block is damaged).

Item Systems

Quality

• The Quality of an item can be found by looking at the current number and color of the durability bar at the bottom of certain item's icons.
• Not all items have quality levels, but all clothing, weapons, and tools do have a quality level.
• The level of quality (along with other factors) determines how strong the certain item is, whether it be how much damage it can deal, or how much armor it provides.
• Repairing lowers the quality level. The quality level cannot be raised in any instance.

Durability

• The Durability of an item can be found by looking at the colored bar at the bottom of certain item's icons. The more depleted the bar, the less durability it has.
• Not all items have durability, but all clothing, weapons, and tools do have durability.
• The current durability of items (along with other factors) determines how strong the certain item is, whether it be how much damage it can deal, or how much armor it provides.
• When the durability bar reaches 50% the weapons stats start degrading in higher numbers compared to 51%-100%.
• When an item reaches durability 0 it must be repaired and is unusable otherwise. Items can still be repaired with any amount of durability lost.

Max Stack

• Every item has a max stack of how many of that item can be carried in a single slot.
• There is no way to raise the max stack of an item.
• The inventory used (player's or a chest) use the same max stack.
• Not every item has the same max stack, for instance a 44. Magnum has a max stack of 1. While Stone, has a max stack of 6000.

Menu Interface

Player Statistics

• Player's statistics can mean a lot of things, but for the most part player stats means the player's Character Level, Wellness, Health, Stamina, Fullness (Food), Hydration (Water), and Temperature (Feels Like).
• You can see all of your stats in your Character Menu.
• There are also other stats in the character menu. Zombie Kills, Player Kills, Deaths, KM Traveled, Items crafted, and Longest Life.
• There is also a hidden stat known as Speed. Speed determines how fast a player can move, and it cannot be brought above 100%, but can be brought lower by injury like a broken leg, or by a temperature status effect.

Clothing

• Clothing affects a lot of aspects of the player, how much damage it reduces, or the change in temperature they cause, among other things.
• Some armor will take the place of ordinary clothing, but Chest and Leg armor both have their own lots allowing players to wear Shirts and Pants.
• Some armors come in sets and some don't, but there is no bonus for having a full set of armor, besides it looking very nice and similar to one another.

Creative Menu

• Cheat mode must be activated in the game's menu options to allow the use of the creative menu.
• The creative menu has every single item and block in the game.
• To get different quality levels the player must click refresh.

Map Menu

• The map is used often by players to know where they are, or set way points for their home, or places of interest.
• Way points put on the map will show up on the player's compass.
• If the player has a friend in their game and tracks them they will see them, and the direction they are looking on the map. If the player moves they will also move in real time on the map as well.

Resource Systems

Looting

• Looting is done by searching furniture, chests, or zombie corpses for loot.
• Looting takes time and the time it takes is dependent on the item being looted, and the current level of certain skills and perks the player has.
• Every item has a drop table with drop chances for certain items.
• Looting is not the same as harvesting because looting can be done by simply opening an item, while harvesting must be done with a certain tool, with no loot interface.

Mining

• Mining can be done by hand, construction tools, or most effectively, by mining tools such as the Pickaxe or Augur.
• The most common practice of mining is to find a stone node on the surface and use the appropriate tool., too get stone, iron ore, coal, nitrate powder, and coal.
• Every biome has certain mineral spawns on the surfaces and underground. Both not always being the same.
• Surfaces ores jot out from the ground and can be mined for a single type of mineral. For example the Burnt Forest has nitrate deposits on the surface, and coal deposits underground.
• Mining is also done with Shovels, but shovels are only used for certain block types like Dirt, Sand, or Gravel, and cannot be used on any type of stone or mineral.

Farming

• Farming can be done with plants or trees, and unlike mining is indefinite as if done correctly you will always get more seeds back than you used in the first place.
• Plants can be turned into seeds in the player's inventory to allow farming, trees on the other hand will always give some seeds once a tree is fully cut down.
• Plants require day light to grow, it cant be unnatural light like a torch. (Mushrooms are the only exception and do not require sunlight)

Appropriate Tool

• There are many different types of blocks and each have their own appropriate tool which is best used to destroy them.
• Not using the appropriate tool reduces the damage the block takes by 20%.

Harvesting

• Harvesting is done by the player when a Tool is used on either an Animal's corpse or certain Furniture or Decor.
• An animal's body cannot be looted and must be harvested using an appropriate tool.
• A Bone Shiv, Hunting Knife, or Machete will always be the best tools to harvest with but any tool is usable.
• To avoid harvesting a Zombie's Corpse use a weapon instead.
• Wrenches can be used on certain furniture or decor, like an Air Conditioner, Fridge, or Sedan, all producing their own items. These items can only be harvested with a Wrench, other tools like a Claw Hammer will not work.
• The Appropriate Tool should always be used while harvesting. Otherwise the player will lose resources they otherwise could of gained. Even though you can still harvest animals without the proper tool. Furniture or decor won't even give the player resources without the proper tool.