Defence Tactics

Defensive Tactics are a must if you wish to survive the zombie outbreak. As such, players are free to edit this page to add on any tactic they find in-game. If you are going to add a tactic, please make sure something like it is not already posted!

Reinforced Building Tactic
This tactic is common among newer players. Find a building, and live there, fortifying and upgrading it as necessary. This tactic can be very difficult to sustain, as nearby houses, unless you are in Diersville, eventually run out of food and water. Spider Zombies can also climb up the side of the building. There are ways to overcome this. For example, starting a Farm can get you some food, and creating "overhangs" can stop the Spider Zombies. However, the survivor will still need to venture outside to forage for tools, books, and gun parts.

Build a tower of truss later in the game. You can shoot through it, so get a sniper rifle and go high up for max effectiveness. Once you build your overwatch tower make a bridge leading to a house, and fortify that house with iron blocks/truss metal doors, and you will be able to deter even the biggest zombie hordes.

Building your own base & Going nomadic
This tactic is for those who are quick and trust their luck. First, loot whatever is around you. Second, get to a forest region. Next, gather all the wood you can before 15:00 hours. Then build a 5x5 base of planks and surround it with all the Wood Spikes or Wood Log Spikes if possible. This base can be used to stage raiding operations upon the settlements scattered around the landscape. You should travel around, making these small bases around as small outposts to help you get started. When you can, build a fortified base, since this tactic will not protect a player for long.

Illumination and Sight
Once you have created yourself a stable home, one thing you need is a spot to see what is coming. Breaking the side of a roof or having a ladder to the roof will give you a great view. A good way to see well at night is to make rings of Torches to illuminate the space around your shelter.

Tunneling
Tunnelling is a slow strategy that requires a lot of preparation before it will work. Dig into the ground, at least three blocks deep, and then downwards on a slope, so that you can still get out and the ground above will not collapse on you. Underground bases are hard to find and breach.

There is also the option to build a small concrete structure with no doors on the bedrock with just enough height for safety and a good vantage point. Then fortify accordingly with spikes, a moat, etc. and use wooden frames to get over your wall and defences, The idea being that your spikes and moat will stop them from reaching your foundation, your structure will be tall enough to dispatch the zombies safely and you can dig and craft freely.

Another Tactic is to just dig yourself straight down about 15 blocks and then place ladders so you can go up and down, then create and dig an underground base.

Zombies can now climb ladders, so additional defenses are necessary for underground bases.

Land Mines
Land mines are great for defending at night against large hordes of zombies. They do area of effect damage, damaging both the zombie that steps on them, and the zombies around them. However, they can harm you too, and natural wildlife will constantly step on them and set them off, requiring a good minefield to need constant restocking. One land mine placement strategy involves making a 2-block-high fence around your base, and placing land mines spaced out 1 block away from the fence. Every once in a while, go out and check for breaches in your fence and repair them. The land mines will not instantly destroy your fence.

Water Entry
A water entry is a very safe method for having quick access in and out of your base. The main drawback is that you must build near water. In order to achieve the desired result, you must dig a channel into (or build) a 2 tall 1 wide hall with water 1 block deep. Once you have a sufficient length drop the channel down 1 block. This causes zombies to try to swim up while you can drop right into the hidden tunnel. However, you must be very careful with this, for crawlers can fit through it and try to sneak into your fort.

Building a Cobblestone Tower
As of 7.2, it is possible to gather the necessary resources to build a safe cobblestone tower on the first day, almost anywhere in Navezgane. Here are some pointers on how to safely do so:
 * Gather a some Wood, Small Stones and some Plant Fibers, and use them to make Stone Axes. With these in hand, you can now start gathering wood. You can also craft a Wooden Bow and Stone Arrows from these materials along with Feathers, which are extremely plentiful on the map. This is an effective and easily crafted/repaired weapon you can use to defend yourself whilst collecting building materials.
 * While scavenging, be sure to continue crafting Stone out of rocks (and then Cobblestone out of Stone). Craft ladders, which will be crucial in letting you in and out of your tower. You only need as many ladders as the block height of your tower, but be sure to carry extras as zombies can easily destroy those.
 * You should be ready to start building when you have at least six dozen (72) blocks of cobblestone. Extra wood and stone (not necessarily cobblestone) is good to have but not crucial. Extra food, water and tools are a bonus.
 * The last thing you need is to find your tower's location. You will need a space of 5x5 blocks; any open terrain will do, but you can also build right on a paved road: This will provide your tower with a stronger base that zombies will be less likely to destroy.
 * With cobblestone blocks, start by building the four pillars that will support your tower on each corner of the 5x5 space. Between 2 of those pillars, place a fifth one that will support the ladder/access to your shelter.
 * Build those pillars as high as possible while you are on the ground. The Nerd Pole Strategy can be used but will almost always result in fall damage at one point or the other. That is because ladders are easier to place while on the ground and provide you directly with a way up your structure. The whole structure needs to have enough space under it for zombies to be able to walk right through, so leave the space between pillars free.
 * When at an adequate height, start building what will be your floor. Cobblestone is sturdy enough to stand your weight without additional support. You should have enough cobblestone to start building walls by continuing your four original pillars; placing cobblestone further out of the structure will collapse under the weight of the wall and might destroy a part of your tower. Note that wood (trunks or planks) can be used at this point in construction since zombies will seldom attack blocks this high up.
 * In case of lack of materials, at least place a one block high "wall" around the top of your tower. This will cut the zombies' line of sight and they should not be sensing you otherwise at this height. Also, you can Crouch to avoid some detection.
 * Note that zombies will be attracted to any light coming from your tower: Stay in the dark to again avoid some detection. Light sources include Torches, Campfires and Forges.
 * Once your walls and ceiling are complete you will be mostly safe in that small 3x3 spare room. You can always pickaxe one block of the ceiling and install a ladder to expand your tower to a new floor. You can also expand from any side of the building: The tower's structure is safe and solid and provides a great foundation for a larger safehouse!
 * You can add a door to your safehouse (and Iron Bars make great windows!), build a storehouse, have a roof garden, and even decorate with furniture crafted or found around Navezgane!

Spike Pits
The Wood Log Spike, disappears slower than Wood Spikes, making it a valuable asset to those who want to have a fairly maintenance free established base. Keeping in mind that the bottom half of the 2x1 Wood log spike can be stood on, the trench should ideally be at least three deep, and two wide, surrounding a base. To avoid stacking zombies (Jumping onto the other's shoulders and crossing from there), simply elevate your base one higher than the area on the outside of the trench. A running jump should still clear this. If you have issues falling in, add steps or a ramp, as zombies cannot make the two space jump. Typically, lining the inside of the trench with cobblestone or better will keep zombies from breaking through to the inside, though every few days its still a good idea to walk around the outside to fill any holes they may have dug and repair the spikes.

The key to this defense is, while Wood Log Spikes do exceedingly less damage than wood spikes, they still cause zombies to flinch, which seems to rob them of their attack almost all of the time, keeping them from breaking what's on the other side. Not to mention if you walk from one corner of your base to the other, any zombies in the trench already, will try to run to the other side (or walk if you've lined it with torches), taking damage the whole way.

Side Note: This defense tends to work best in less populated areas, such as the burnt forest, the tundra, or the desert. In the burnt forest specifically, spider zombies seem almost entirely replaced with Burn Victims, making defending with a trench far more feasible. However you can add an overhang to the trench on the inside to prevent spider zombies from entering.

=Zombies used to turn into gore blocks when killed. The feature made this strategy much less effective, as you must destroy these blocks daily. Gore blocks are not currently part of the game, but they may be added back in in the future.
 * Note**

If digging a moat 4 blocks or more deep, and 5 blocks or more wide, dig out the corners of your moat. Dig a 1x2 tunnel to each corner, then dig out the bottom 2 layers of your moat, and the rest will cave in, reducing dig time.
 * Note**

Barbed Wire & Parapets
Barbed Wire seems to be the only impediment that zombies do not attempt to break down, even if they are enraged. Build a Barbed Fence Wire two to four blocks high surrounding your home base with a single doorway. It is recommended that you build a walkway surrounding the second floor of your house (if there isn't a second floor, build one) and build "parapets" or an upside-down L connecting to the block in front of you and the block above you to block incoming fire from Infected Police Officers and hostile players. The sniper rifle shoots through the barb wire and with some enclosing barb wire in front and above the walkway and in-between parapets, hornets are now harmless. The only spot zombies will attack is your doorway through the fence, which you must protect at all costs, as multiple hordes on high spawning levels can pile up quite a bit. Use pipe bombs (which don't break blocks but can eliminate entire swarms of zombies when used right) to break up amassing zombies at your gate. It is advisable to build a tower inside your enclosure that can see in front of your door if you want to keep your distance.

Keep them running around your house during night until daylight
If zombies have sensed you, they will try to chase you and break into your house; while doing so, they will destroy a lot of your base. To prevent them from destroying your house, build some 6 block high tower platforms with a base of 2*2 around your house and bridge them together with bridges. You can also integrate your house with them and use your house as another tower platform. If you use wood to build them, make sure that they are close enough so that the bridges can hold your weight. Wood frames have a mass of 6 and a max load of 36. Also make sure that every tower platform including your house is surrounded by a one block overlap to prevent spider zombies from coming up on your platforms. When the 5th and 6th nights come, hordes of zombies will start to attack you and your house. Run along on the platform in a circle until day. Because they will chase you, they will run after you instead of destroying your house. At dawn they will slow down and you can easily kill them from above or flee from them, but watch out for dogs. Keep in mind that jumping from a 6 block tall elevation might break your legs, so put a small 2 block tall base on the ground where you can jump onto. Also make sure, that the door to your house isn't reachable by normal zombies. Because as soon as zombies find a door, they will keep trying to destroy it and won't stop, even if you run away. Use ladders to reach your door. The whole platform structure should have a outer diameter of about 25 blocks in every direction, so that running makes sense.

One additional note. During night, the only zombie you must really kill as early as possible are the screamer zombies, because they will spawn new enemies and more enemies means more trouble. So when running around on your platform make sure that you kill the screamer zombies. All other enemies can be killed in the day. If you do the running right, they won't be able to damage as much of your base. Your base, if build right, will withstand the night so long as you make sure that you stay on the platform and run to keep them busy.

The HappyStick
Simply attach a 4 or 5 block long plank to the top of your wall, and dig a 3x3x3 or 4x4x4 pit directly underneath the end. Put wood log spikes at the bottom, and surround the pit with regular spikes. When day 7 comes, cover the door with something stupid, as long as it's a block, that way they ignore the door and go for YOU. Then just stand on the plank and snipe the cop zombies. The regular zombies will just pile up beneath you, unable to reach you, and die to the spikes. Make sure to have a repair tool with you, along with repair materials, and repair the plank throughout the fight. If a cop zombie manages to break even one of the blocks, you're gonna have a nice prickly date with your own spike trap. That is, if the mosh pit of zombies doesn't get you first.

This is basically a god tactic. If you can shoot the cop zombies with any degree of skill, you can survive every feral horde solo with minimal ammo expenditure, and no medical supplies whatsoever.

The Barn Fort / Ribcage
This tactic is based off of utilizing the existing Large Barn, thus the name, here are the steps you need to take to not only successfully build this style of fort, but also dodge the pitfalls that I encountered trying to produce the end result:


 * 1) Remove all hay bales, pick them all up and ensure you've got them all, even from the loft, you will need them later so don't just dispose of them.
 * 2) Replace all existing poles to the second story with blocks one pole at a time, what kind is largely irrelevant, though the stronger the block, the less you'll panic during the subsequent seventh days.
 * 3) Break the first two ladder blocks up, use a ramp block or the saved hay bales to get into your fort, this prevents them from bee-lining to your door / hatch. (Note: It might be a good idea to have a box of splints somewhere available on the ground floor, just in case.)
 * 4) Add temporary wood frames to support the barn roof as you tear it down to the second floor, if you want to leave the end walls so be it, just know your fort will look vaguely like a pirate ship when you're done. Be absolutely sure to break the roof where a spider zombie could climb up into it on the sides if you choose to leave it up.
 * 5) With the roof safely removed, and the base struts in place, you now should begin building your fort's rooms and other bits, this is entirely up to you; however, be sure to block ALL VISION to the ground from where you are, this is extremely important, if the cop zombies can see you they WILL shoot at you!
 * 6) In the middle, leaving at least two blocks from your support pillars, dig a hole that's at least 3X3 in between the support struts of your base, I'd advise going 6 blocks deep into the bedrock, but at least deeper than they can do damage to your structural integrity. Remember, the farther the fall, the more damage they take.
 * 7) Every wall in the barn must be solid, there should be no doors in the barn, this is where the hay bales come into play, along the side of the barn, punch a hole that's roughly door sized, and use hay bales to fill it in, this will prevent zombies from using door logic to try and break into your fort, making them go through whatever path pleases them; however, you could use doors if only to produce a path that's highly likely to draw zombies along as well.

Optional Steps:
 * You can fill your pit with water, making the zombies have a harder time damaging the surroundings, this is really only feasible in areas with a lot of water on hand.
 * You can build a central tower where you can watch with merry glee as the zombies pile into the unsuspecting trap, this doubles as a point where you can observe the possible damage (if any) and react accordingly.
 * As time goes on, your ground WILL get damaged (usually by cops popping than by anything else), it will pay dividends if you replace the floor with solid blocks early on so that your pit is both cleanly defined AND easier to spot damage and maintain integrity, it will also prevent crawlers from getting stuck in strange places and attacking poles unexpectedly.
 * You can trench around the barn and create feeder tunnels that lead into the pit, avoiding additional damage to the barn perimeter, while this tactic was successful in my attempts, it is not without a LOT of maintenance, you have to go and fill in the tunnels the zombies dig with a solid material after every seventh day and is largely not worth the effort unless you need a space greater than the barn already provides.
 * You can spike your pits; however, it must be noted that most later seventh days will destroy all your spikes in the first few waves, and you would be better served to simply make the hole deeper to produce the same damage.
 * You can put barbed wire at the top of the poles to give spider zombies a bad day, this prevents the normal zombies from getting entangled in them and also ensures that the spider can't hang out up there and break open the floor.
 * You can put a 'Splash Floor' to soak damage from cop zombies, if your pit is too shallow, or you're finding that the cop zombies are getting popped too close to your floor for comfort, you can install a 'Splash Floor' about four blocks above the ground floor, this will catch a large amount of the splash damage caused by the cops and only really has to be made out of wood / re-enforced wood.
 * You can break the barn walls to wood frames and build them up stronger than they could normally be, thus turning your barn into a concrete barn or even stronger if you so desire.
 * You can recess the poles rather than have them sit directly on the ground, while this may seem unnecessary initially, it becomes useful in keeping the crawlers and spiders out from getting trapped in the blocks from an unusual terrain slant.

Final Notes: This method is not without it's pitfalls (pun intended) but I have used this method successfully in maps where the zombie block damage was maxed out with very little mop up and repair as most of the zombies would fall in the pit and die (My pit by the end was at least forty blocks deep, of that, it was ten into the bedrock, didn't help that I was in a desert biome either.) In the end there would only be a few stragglers wandering around that you could simply hop off the roof of the barn and run away from if you were so inclined. The only time there was a catastrophic failure is when I didn't disassemble the roof on the barn correctly and the whole thing collapsed in on itself so consider that your final warning, disassemble the roof with the utmost care. Hello

Elevated Home Inside Caves
Building an elevated home inside the open area at the bottom of caves has proven to be an effective strategy so far for me with not a single intrusion into my base.

You start with a platform of whatever type of frames you want, and build a 2-block wide walkway across the middle or side of the cave, about 4/5 of the way across the cave. then leave an empty space 2 blocks wide that you do a running jump across to enter your base. Your base will essentially be mounted on the opposite wall of the cave as the entrance from the tunnel to the surface. Line the bottom of the cave(about 10 blocks or so below your platform base) with wood spikes/log spikes. Any enemies that find their way down into your cave home will invariably attempt to get to you in your base, yet fall into the spike pit and crawl about until they succumb and die. you will almost never be able to safely loot them, but that is a small price to pay for safety.

Some caves even have their bottoms covered in water, so you always have a water source, without having to trek above ground. While I have yet to build a home in a water cave, and don't know how well the spikes will work under water, I suspect you might need to build a second platform over the water with spikes on top of it( leaving a small area to gather water from).

I suggest leaving an open area in your base, across from your walkway, that you can jump to (think of it as a front porch of sorts), and only THEN once you are on your homes platform, will you open your door... juuuust in case anything manages you make its way across to your base. I also suggest having a ladder and hatch to the roof of you base as an escape route or as access to your roof for a bit of target practice ;)

You can also set up multiple walls with a door in them as checkpoints in the tunnel from the surface and even a small building on the surface, built around the cave opening as your first line of defense( I find that this is a waste of resources though). You can also set a 5 block thick wall of spikes on the surface covering 99 percent of the ground around your cave opening as a way to cripple ANYTHING that tries to attack you or follow you into your tunnel. So far, the only Zeds that have made it into the tunnel, did so while crawling due to the spikes on the surface destroying their legs.. They then fell off my walkway and died on the spikes below.

All in all, this is the safest base design that I've ever come up with, with NO damage to my home structure at ALL. And a safe place to mine, behind my checkpoint walls.

Barricading a Base Inside of a Cave
If given the right and good mining tools, making and fortifying a base inside of a cave is a very viable option for surviving hordes. Zombies are very good at tunneling, so it's a good idea to have the walls surrounding your cave base made of complete and strong material. Make this material around 5 blocks in width. I usually use cement blocks, but there could be better options. Living inside a cave base also provides plenty of iron and lead. I myself however, do not find living in one permanently to ever be a good idea. I usually only live inside of them around 3 days before the weekly horde.

Spiky Arena of Death
This tactic takes a little more preparation, but can be executed with little material other than wood, and is extremely effective for quickly eliminating large hordes in the later day 7 waves.

Find a decent sized flat area, and construct an ~8x8 ring of pillars, with a pillar every 3 spaces, 4 blocks high. Then run a 3-wide walkway around the top of this large square 'ring', with ladders and hatches permitting access at one or two of the corners. Add torches or lights to several of the pillars to keep the area well lit. Then fill the entire area within, below and surrounding the ring with a few hundred wooden spikes (NOT the log spikes). You may want to leave narrow lanes though the center of the arena to allow easier repair and replacement.

During major raids, hang out on the stretch of walkway furthest from the enemy spawn point, forcing them to run across the center of the spike arena to try to futilely reach you, while you amuse yourself shooting down any stragglers. If any survive to reach the point beneath you, simply walk around the walkway to force them to follow you through yet more spikes as required.

The only significant threats will be bugs (which are not much of a hazard), and the occasional cop, though they will rarely survive long enough in the spike field to get a shot off. You can add battlements to strategic portions of the ring if the latter are annoying you. Spider zombies will not be able to climb the pillars due to the overhang on either side of the walkway.

Don't stand in any one place for too long, or the occasional feral zombie might start to gnaw on the pillars beneath you. As a rule the only thing you'll need to do between raids is spruce up the damaged spike field. The fort itself should suffer no real damage if used properly.

Multiple Underground Compounds
Day one get essentials, tools, roughly 100 arrows, 3000 wood, 1000 stone and loot. By noon be crafting 1000 wood frames. By 1400 decide a place to stay for the night, build roughly 200 wood spikes. It's best to stick to the center or slightly north of center of navezgame map if possible for accessibility. I recommend bookstores, gas stations,  buildings away from cities. By 1500 you should have walls up; four wood frame walls with 3 layers of spikes, another set of walls around that only 2 blocks high, double upgraded, with another 2 or 3 layers of spikes around those,  with your inner four walls 3 blocks high, and built 3 blocks from the outer walls to allow for shooting down below. By 1700 start digging down, carefully three by 1, creating a ladder at least 30 blocks down with a scrap iron or wood hatch. Campfire, forge,  bedroom, storage, everything should go down here,  you should stay here at night as well until day 20 or so.

The next day or two is about hunting and looting, really need a forge asap and loot bookstores for recipes, kill lots of zombies, first you need steel then leather then concrete/cement skills. By day 4 you should have the forge and steel tools, time to loot hard, goal being crossbow by day 7, assuming you keep up with repairs you should make it through seventh night fine. The next goal is to check out navezgame map and choose another spot for a base, but make it out of concrete. The concrete format is five towers, each square with walls 3x3, spikes all inside the base which is surrounded by 4 concrete walls 25x3 the center tower will dig 30-50 blocks underground and house major aggro components such as forge, campfire, and beedrill. Upper base will be lined with fries with a four block overhang and a roof with occasional pillars on the edge to guard against bees and cops. Base entry should have a long bridge at least 10 blocks away from wall truss or rebar possibly armored like base roof.

The first two bases should be as described above by day 30 reasonably, and by day 35, the third should be ready. To safely survive you can't stay at one base too long, you will probably get minibike by day 40 and have 4 established, safe bases stocked well to manipulate aggro in your favor.

The Bunker
This strategy cannot be executed on the first day, however it is very powerful and can be scaled to whatever size necessary to deal with the hordes. First, gather a large amount of construction material, as much as you are able. To execute this well will require a differing base to be established. I (the author of this strategy), typically set up a small temporary base to store materials and my starting forges/tables while I mine out what I need. Mining is the primary method for gaining the resource this strategy requires: Concrete. Mining gains experience, and a large amount of raw materials needed to make the tools and the concrete.

The design of the bunker is this: There is a central location, 3 blocks square with a 2 high ceiling, with a small pillar in the middle to serve as a ladder access above and below the bunker. Extending in the 4 adjacent directions of this square are 3 wide hallways (separated by a barrier consisting of a half-wedge slanted down outwards and a half block affixed to the ceiling). The hallways can extend however far you want to accommodate your traps of choice (I prefer ceiling-mounted blade traps with the best robotic turrets I can furnish, just 1 per side since the change to how turrets work). Finally, instead of simply connecting the edges of the hallways together to create squares, circles, etc. as one might with a regular base, build outwards at an extreme slant using alternating wedge-tip and half-wedge blocks placed sideways to create a sort of diamond/star shape, with the final block at the tip being a 1/4 block.

When complete, your bunker will be a 4-tipped star shape, when zombies approach from any angle they will be forcibly funneled into one of the 4 trap-filled hallways: when they encounter a block on the corners, instead of just swiping at the blocks, they will be shifted towards the mouth of the nearest hallway due to the nature of the game's physics engine. This is why it is made of concrete, if it is made of wood only a swipe or two will knock it out and break. Concrete is just tough enough to resist the small amounts of damage that the zombies deal before being successfully funneled. Steel is an upgrade option for the later blood moon hordes (circa day 56, or whenever demolishers appear).

It can take awhile to gather all the materials, especially while also scavenging for food and water. It is far easier to execute in multiplayer when you (or another) can specialize in mining for concrete, not to mention having multiple people to man the small room in the center.

For later blood moon hordes, I will usually stockpile steel and craft a very large version of this bunker with an expanded 5x5 room and double thick walls (still using 3 wide hallways, and thicker corner-pieces). If the bunker was built correctly, it should look something like this from the top: https://i.imgur.com/LTBTnVa.png