Hordes

Description

A horde is a large group of zombies. Hordes can consist of any zombie type, and some hordes can include wild animals as well. The behavior of the horde depends on the type of horde.

Horde Types

Roaming Hordes

Roaming Hordes are hordes that spawn once every morning and once every night. They consist of any combination of zombies and sometimes will include wolves, dogs, bears, or vultures. The Roaming Horde will spawn at some distance to a player and begin traveling towards that player's location at the time the horde spawned. If the horde does not detect any players, it will continue walking in a straight line for a short distance before finally stopping. Unlike Blood Moon Hordes, the Roaming Hordes do not automatically detect any players. The Roaming Hordes start on day 1 with a single zombie and then three zombies at night. This slowly ramps up through day 5. When the roaming hordes come back on day 9, they have grown a great deal. On some days, the roaming horde will be a small pack of zombie dogs. This continues through day 19 before resetting on day 22, which will have roaming hordes identical to day 1.

Blood Moon Hordes

On every 7th night, from 22:00 to 4:00, a large horde of zombies will spawn. This horde is known as a Blood Moon Horde, because this occurs during a Blood Moon night which is distinguished by the full moon being a blood red color, and the area outside will also have light mist with a reddish tint. This horde of zombies will be able to detect the player through walls and when underground, even when no noise is being made, the heat map is low, and no odorous foods are being carried. On the seventh night, this horde will contain only normal zombies with a small number of Zombie Dogs. The horde on night 14 will be larger. On the 21st night, Zombie Bears, Burn Victims, Infected Police Officers, and Feral Zombies will join the horde, which will continue to grow in size every week through night 49.

Screamer Hordes

If a Screamer Zombie sees a player, they can call up a Screamer Horde. These hordes can be similar in composition to a Blood Moon horde, with Zombie Dogs, Infected Police Officers and all the other types, based on the player characters' levels. Screamers are attracted by the Heat Map of the area, so high levels of activity will cause them to appear. Even a summoned Screamer can scream to attract another horde of zombies of various types.

Post Blood Moon Horde Hordes

After a blood moon night, there is a chance for a Post Blood Moon Horde Horde to appear, at least in single player. It may consist of such animals: Zombie Dog, Zombie Vulture, Wolf, possibly other animals.

They follow hordes early in the morning usually, before 12 AM. So far, there have been observed 4-6 Dog hordes. Seven wolves hordes (including 2 Grey wolves). 12 Vulture horde. Last one is least dangerous. They are not necessary programmed to cross players path, as Vultures were very passive, but this could be due to programming limitations of Vultures.

Combat and Defenses

Roaming Horde

With the roaming horde, it is quite tricky but not impossible to dodge them completely. Zombie Dogs are extremely fast, even in daytime, and they can catch you off guard if you happen to be preoccupied with something else. It is not recommended to hide in a house without heavy defenses and very durable walls if the player has been spotted because of the Infected Police Officer's corroding vomit and large amounts of zombies hitting the walls. This could possibly bring the house, and the player, to the ground.

A Shotgun with plenty of Shotgun Shells and good dodging skills will allow the player to take down most of the zombies. A .44 Magnum with plenty of ammunition will make quick work of the horde. Pipe Bombs are also a big help because the zombies tend to group up pretty closely. It is recommended that all Zombie Dogs be killed first because of their speed. After that, Infected Police Officers will most likely be in range and can be killed and possibly looted. Feral Zombies should normally be avoided and saved to be killed last because they drop the best loot and are quite the ammo dump.

Blood Moon Horde

The night horde can be a bit tricky because the zombies are much more agile and harder to shoot. If a one-block-deep and two- or three-block-wide trench is dug around the player's house and filled with Wood Spikes and Wood Log Spikes, zombies will run into them and essentially kill themselves while trying to attack the player's walls. The zombie horde tends to "trickle" in more then all come at once, so spikes will eventually break. Being on the roof with some type of weapon will dispatch plenty of zombies and take a load off any surviving defences. A one-block lip on the roof will also be required to prevent the player from being ambushed by Spider Zombies. If the overhang is made from wood frames, they can be stood upon while also being shot through. A Sniper Rifle is a valuable weapon in this situation because the player can start to pick off Bloated Walkers before they even reach defences. They do more damage and have more health and will injure the spikes more than the average zombie. Zombies usually priortise doors and windows over walls, though a few may still try attacking the walls, so spikes in any nook and cranny of the walls will reduce the chances of Zombies damaging the walls. Any entrances that aren't used by the player should be blocked off with more traps; zombies may still prioritise that door, only to end up killed by the traps as the player defends any other door.

Screamer Hordes

The Screamer horde can be combated in the same way a Blood Moon horde, except that they can come at any time and depending on the time of day and type of Zombie may or may not run. It is essential to kill the Screamer or Screamers quickly to stop them calling more hordes.

Notes

• A .44 Magnum with plenty of .44 Magnum Bullets is one of the best choices for the roaming or night hordes because of its three-shot kill potential anywhere on the body to normal zombies or head to Infected Police Officers.
• A Shotgun or Pump Shotgun is not recommended for use on Infected Police Officers because of their ability to explode if they are approached, almost always killing the player instantly.
• Feral Zombies take a lot to kill and hit very hard. They run, regardless of server settings.
• Wood Log Spikes do drastically less damage than Wood Spikes but last much longer.
• Concrete structures fare better for overall defense but are slightly more time consuming to repair.
• In current versions, the make up of the zombie hordes is based on the levels of the top 5 characters in the area.
• There is a Slight chance that you can not be detected on any of the 7th day nights.
• Shotguns are best used on ferals and dogs because they have a large spread and hit the two fast moving zombies in the game

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