Stages 1-5

Stage: Highway From Hell

Difficulty Mode: Regular

Waves to clear: 5

zombie amount: 80

zombie Endurance: 800-1700

zombie Types: walker

Mission Briefing:

Good morning, Lieutenant – and welcome to the front line. You need not be told of the chaos of the Outbreak and the first months of the turmoil that followed. What matters as of now is that everything is about to change – and much of that will depend on you personally. The preparation phase is over. Operation “Purge & Redeem” has begun. As we commence our unified offensive to obliterate the Zombies and reclaim our country, your squad is to be deployed to Route 1 and eliminate any walking dead you may encounter in the sector, pushing them out south to hold your position until the reinforcements arrive.

Strategy:

During the first few levels of the game, you really are just limited to the option of just clearing the minimum number of waves to progress in the game. This is due to the fact that your Team Size is relatively limited to 3 recruits with no available within-mission-upgrades. More so, the only recruit you can purchase from the start is the sheriff. That said, it is almost impossible to even finish the first stage of the game with a star rating. That said, use this stage to familiarize yourself with the basics of the game - while repeatedly playing the challenge to save you some cash for passive upgrades.

Quick Tip:

Use yellow colored slots if available from the start of the mission, this could temporarily give you a good head start in the earlier parts of the game by giving your recruits a bit of boost (HP, damage, and fire rate).

(image below: pick the yellow slot at the center when starting the game)

Stage: Breaking News

Difficulty Mode: Regular

Waves to clear: 7

zombie amount: 227

zombie Endurance: 800-2200

zombie Types: walker

Mission Briefing:

Lieutenant, your previous deployment impressed the HQ so much that the PsyOps Department has requested you to escort a TV crew and let them see our forces in action, up close. Nothing matters more than the ultimate victory, but we are also fighting for the spirit of America. We need you to show the nation that the walking dead can be fought. We need you to help the people understand that we can take back our land. We need you to restore the people’s hope – and we know that you can do just that. America’s eyes are on you, Lieutenant!

There are two possible scenarios to start this stage. Our first pick takes into account the fact that the middle ground has a yellow rank increase slot which will most probably give you a good head start in the first few waves of the given stage. Put in mind though that a rank yellow rank increase slot would cost you just $500.

That said, there is somewhat another considerable area in the stage to ideally put your team. Located on the right most part of stage, this spot gives you a funnel-like effect over the attacking zombie horde – which will ease-in the flow of the enemies, and provide you with a good solid defense.

(image below: the barricade at the right most part of the map offers a strategic location)

Beating this level should be pretty easy if you fill the said section with 6 fully upgraded (recruit rank, slot rank, and protection) sheriffs or survivalists. Take note that both the sheriff and the survivalist earns you double cash rewards for every killed zombie. This is a good time to farm cash re-doing the stages as the enemy type you only encounter is the walker zombie – which means you just have to toughen up your crew (mostly by upgrading “damage increase”, and unlocking “Regenerate”) and disregard any advanced strategies or recruit combination to clear the stage.

During these first few stages of the game, it is most likely that you would feel a bit comfortable easily jumping through the given stages as the game does not really put you through stressful encounters just yet. It is good to take advantage of this and try repeating the stages over and over again until you produce enough resources to unlock key upgrades to strengthen up your team and unlock special recruits (basically your towers in the game).

One of the most important things to consider unlocking during these early levels of the game is increasing the Team Size (preferably up until 6-8), the slot protection, the slot rank upgrade, Max Rank upgrade, and a few special characters like the “trapper” and “survivalist”, as there are stages early in the game -- dedicated to let you use only these specific characters at a time.

If you’re up for the challenge re-doing the first two stages several times (say, until you unlock all “damage increase”, enforcer, chainsaw, and sniper), it is highly advised to do so – as you get to progress through the concluding stages of the game a whole lot easier doing this. For a more detailed look into the upgrades, check the table of contents for the “Regular Upgrades” section.

(image below: alternatively, you may start the stage at the yellow slot at the center of the map)

Stage: Sheriff’s Challenge

Difficulty Mode: Regular

Waves to clear: 20

zombie amount: 875

zombie Endurance: 800-7400

zombie Types: walker, zombie dog, zombie bird

Mission Briefing:

“Can you repeat that HQ? We’re facing 20 waves? And all we’ve got are our sidearms? That’s a 10-4”. WE have an unexpected trial for the toughest of the tough, Lieutenant. An emergency squad consisting of law enforcement officers has requested tactical support to get out of an old construction zone by Highway 26. We can’t deploy anyone in time, but what we can give them is your guidance over the radio. Their fate is in your hands, with 20 waves of zombie hell to fight with nothing but their standard-issue pistols. Show them that their trust in your leadership is fully justified.

Strategy:

Take note of stages branching out to the mission map like this one and find that they all share something similar -- a unique challenge to mess up your strategy. After you beat the second stage, you basically get to unlock two stages at once. And though this mission leads to a dead-end, it offers quite a unique challenge to put up with.

This stage is an easy one but is a tricky one as well. First off, it is the first stage with 20 waves. Meaning, if you take this challenge right off the bat (without unlocking most of what we suggested on the previous stage), it is almost impossible to beat the level, even more to acquire all 3 stars with the given stage restrictions.

To remedy this, you must at least unlock Team Size 32, and unlock all slot upgrades and Max Rank. Upgrading damage increase would also help you a lot in this one. If you check the stage too, there is also a bulldozer somewhere in the left part of the stage not far from the center. This would easily give you a passive support throughout the game if you get to unlock the bulldozer, prior to playing this stage.

The key is setting up initially a line of sheriffs on the L-shaped barricade of police cars on the middle of the stage (refer to the image below) and making sure the receiving end of the zombie horde is first to be given protection, maxed out in “slot rank”, in “recruit rank” than everybody else. The other remainder of the team then mainly trims down the horde as they find their way through the given barricade. Slowly preparing the slots and your resources, add a few more recruits on the remaining slots, in order to conquer the stage’s 3-star requirement which is beating at least 30 waves. Take note that this will get you facing at least 3 boss Zombies which is pretty tough considering you only have sheriffs to fight with. Make sure to slow down time as needed to get you through the boss levels.

(image below: the L-shaped parked police car barrier)

Stage: Hit the Road

Difficulty Mode: Regular

Waves to clear: 9

zombie amount: 339

zombie Endurance: 800-2900

zombie Types: walker

Mission Briefing:

Lieutenant, your tactical abilities have exceeded the HQ’s expectations. Commanding a squad via the radio and succeeding is an achievement sure to go down in history. Your new task, you may be interested to find out, will be far less unorthodox: we need to transport the troops through a section of Highway 30, where heavy zombie infestation has been reported. It goes without saying that the highway should remain in good shape, while the Zombies should not remain in any shape at all. Good luck!

Strategy:

You are pretty much given a good head start in this particular level as the stage offers only 2 entry points for the Zombies, and two upgraded slots are already available from the start of the game. It also has no restrictions so it is pretty much a whole lot easier than the former challenge (if by any chance you tried the Sheriff’s Challenge first).

(image below: start on the yellow slots to give you boost early in the game)

If you are trying to farm resources from this given stage, it is recommended that you stick with the survivalist in order to max out the cash flow (from the survivalist’s 2x reward bonus). Also, given that the survivalist replenish their grenades in every wave, upgrading the “grenade damage” and their initial quantity (from the survivalist upgrade tree), wouldn’t hurt especially if you are planning to re-do the stage several times.

We could not stress enough the need to re-play the early levels of the game and unlock key upgrades before trying to progress in the campaign. The reason for this is that the concluding stages will introduce the other types of Zombies that would easily penetrate your defense if you try to play the given stages in a succession. The best route to earn upgrades and practice your strategy is to play a stage, re-play until you earn its 3-star rating, and keep re-playing until you are confident to reach wave 35-40 without breaking a sweat on that given stage.

Stage: Black Blood

Difficulty Mode: Regular

Waves to clear: 10

zombie amount: 462

zombie Endurance: 800-3200

zombie Types: walker, crawler, zombie bird

Mission Briefing:

Lieutenant, to continue our efforts we need to secure oil resources for our vehicles. Your task is to secure this refinery. You will have 2 APCs for help.

Strategy:

This stage’s direction leads you to a dead end but nonetheless a great stage to practice your strategy and defense capacity. It also introduces a couple new Zombies, lets you experience a barrage from all directions, and experience a new strategy from placing your recruits on a “higher ground”.

(image below: on the right part are the elevated grounds that give your recruits boosts in attack and scope)

If you tried to unlock as much recruits and upgrades, you might have stumbled and figured out the use and effectiveness of Turrets (probably the sentry gun) by this point in the game. They are very expensive to unlock, but are unbelievably useful in trimming down the horde, plus they don’t get attacked by the Zombies. One thing to be cautious though, these sentry guns don’t attack crawlers and zombie birds. So this stage is pretty much a good lesson to teach you not to rely too much on them.

You also get to secure additional support from APCs (which acts like Turrets). The only difference is that they don’t count in the Team Size, they don’t have any within-mission upgrades, no required slots, and pretty much offers additional support much like that of the bulldozer on a fixed area in the given stage.

There are two points where you could start in this given game. First is located in the center where the team is surrounded by the two APCs. This is a great spot if by any chance you have already unlocked the APCs in your regular upgrade tree – to help you set up an additional line of defense by purchasing operators for the APCs. The good thing about this is that depending on what you have unlocked in the passive upgrade tree, APCs can really throw a punch to help you trim down the horde. They also have a great range, attacks all kinds of Zombies, and like Turrets, they are not attacked by the zombies.

(image below: these APCs can help you trim down enemy hordes coming from the west area)

The second location will introduce you with the strategic locations in the game. It is located just by the right of the first suggested location, not off-ly far from the center. Setting up certain recruits on higher grounds grants them a great deal of additional damage, as well as a boost in their range. Most to benefit from this though are the “snipers” which give them a great boost in attack and range. Other than that, your may also benefit from these strategic location when using the “Tesla” recruits, or the “enforcers”.

Quick tip:

Check the given spot (on higher grounds) if it offers a secure location for your designated recruit (meaning if it has additional “tank” support near it, or before the Zombies reach the given location). Given that the higher ground extends a bit of bonus to recruits, it turns out they also become priority targets for the zombies to eliminate.

That said, it is important to know which recruit is best suited to the given spot. If there is not much to secure the recruit within the Zombies’ given route, the “Tesla” recruit fits the spot best for they have a generous amount of HP to deal with a huge number of zombies at a time. They also have a powerful attack that extends up to 6 targets at a time which makes them effective on heavy clusters of zombies.

Same goes with the “enforcer”, which is a cheaper alternative, grants you a wider reach, but is heavily toned down in terms of attack volume and damage.

On the other hand, if the spot is quite secure, and is deep within your defense line-up, a “sniper” is a very good choice to fill the spot. Coupled with max upgrades and several passive upgrades (both in regular and gold upgrades), the sniper can bring in a powerful blow to just about any boss and any thrower, wherever it may be in the given stage. This strategy remains a solid choice for strategic stages that allow it until you get to unlock the laser tower in the gold upgrades later in the game which makes this strategy kind of obsolete and less attractive (since you have to spend some units to protect the sniper).