To play The Last Stand: Dead Zone you build a compound, wait for survivors to turn up, give each one a role and send teams of one to five out on timed scavenging missions across Union City. You begin with a guided tutorial of 34 steps. This guide follows the same order: account and controls, the tutorial, building, survivors, the city map, how a mission works, injuries, and chat with a few tips you can check in the game.
Here is the game: open it in your browser, create a free account of your own and follow the tutorial while this guide is open in another tab.
Build your compound, recruit survivors and head out to scavenge a city overrun by the infected. It plays in the browser and your progress is saved to your account.
In beta: parts of the game may still be missing and errors may appear.
Create your account at deadzone.fbgamesweb.com. It is free and needs only a username and a password. The game is in English, so the labels in this guide are the ones on your screen.
Move the camera by dragging with the mouse or with W, A, S and D or the arrow keys; Shift doubles the speed. The wheel zooms and a button at the bottom right rotates the view. When you place a building, Space turns it and Esc cancels. On a touch screen a tap counts as a click, a drag moves the camera and a pinch zooms, but the game is built for a mouse and keyboard.
The 34 steps always come in the same order, and each has a title on screen. Starting Out, Look Around, Resources and Construction teach the menus. Build Workbench, Place the Workbench, Food and Water Storage and Speed Up make you put up your first buildings. Survivor Spotted, New Survivor, Assigning a Role and We Need More Food bring in your second survivor, who you give a role before sending out for supplies.
Welcome to the Dead Zone through Exit Zones make up a guided mission in a corner store in Riverside North, where you learn to select a team, move, fight, search and leave. Back at the compound you upgrade the Workbench, start production and clear Removable Junk. Compound Security, Rally Flags, Infected Sighted! and We need help are a guided defence against the infected, and Comfort, Morale and Go Forth! close with a bed. Nothing in the tutorial asks for a minimum player level, and when it ends new survivors start to arrive on their own.
A new account has 100 Fuel, 300 each of Wood, Metal and Cloth, 100 Water, 100 Food and 100 Ammo. Your leader carries a Lawson .22 Pistol and a Pocket Knife, and the compound starts with a Rally Flag, a Bed, your car (the Deathmobile) and 35 piles of junk.
Pick a building from the construction menu and place it. The Workbench comes first: 20 Wood and 20 Metal, built in 4 seconds, although reaching level 5 takes 7 days. Almost every other building needs the Workbench, the Engineering Bench or the Construction Yard at a given level, and each upgrade costs more resources and time than the last.
To skip the wait use Speed Up with fuel: -1 hr, -2 hrs, HALF or COMPLETE. It is free when fewer than 5 minutes remain. You can also move, repair, recycle (half the resources come back) or cancel (you get back what you spent) a building.
You cannot recruit on demand. Survivors arrive when the compound meets the conditions for the next arrival, and the Compound Progress Report shows how close you are. The first needs one Food Storage and one Water Storage; the second needs 3 Beds and two days of food and water in reserve; the third wants 4 Beds plus two storages of each kind. Comfort, security and morale must also reach a threshold. There are 9 arrivals, so you can have up to 10 survivors with your leader.
A newcomer is Unassigned and you choose a role once with Assign Role. Fighter is slow but the best combatant. Recon is fast, spots traps and is good with long rifles, but fragile. Engineer disarms traps and handles improvised weapons. Scavenger is good in melee and very quick at searching. Medic heals teammates but has little health. Changing a role later needs the Training Center and costs 2 levels.
Survivors also staff defence posts: 3 on a Rally Flag, 1 on a Small Barricade, 4 on a Large Barricade and 1 on a Watchtower.
Union City has 41 neighbourhoods, each with a minimum level for your leader: Riverside North 1, Riverside East 3, South Trenton 5, Riverside 7, Stadium 9, Northwood 10, and so on up to South Harbor at 57. A zone is named after its neighbourhood and its type, for example “Riverside North - convenience store”. There are 47 types, from houses and stores to hospitals and highways.
The type moves the zone's level by between -2 and +3. Residences are the gentlest at -2, while suburban blocks, police stations, prisons, military bases and highways are +3. Loot follows the place, so a kitchen is where to look for food. A looted zone stays locked for 23 hours, and a survivor earns XP only if their level is not 10 or more above the zone's.
Choose 1 to 5 survivors who are free, uninjured and armed. Each firearm has an Ammo Cost, paid at launch (up to 300 per survivor); inside the mission survivors reload without spending more. The mission is a 3D scene with a 7-minute clock, a deployment zone and green exit zones. From zone level 6 waves of infected can rush you, noise attracts them and traps are hidden.
Click the ground to move a survivor. They attack on their own when a target is in range; click an enemy to force a target. Reload with R or by clicking the weapon, switch survivor with Tab or the keys 1 to 9 and 0, hold Shift to keep a survivor locked while aiming, and right click to use active gear. Interact with shelves, wardrobes and cars to search them.
To leave, bring every survivor into the exit zones and confirm; anyone left outside is injured. The Mission report lists XP, items, fuel and anyone who fell. Survivors then take from 5 minutes to 4 hours to return, which fuel can shorten, and if everyone falls you see All Survivors Down!.
Injuries come in five grades: Minor, Moderate, Serious, Severe and Critical. They heal by themselves in 12 hours, 16 hours, 2 days, 4 days and 6 days, and each lowers morale by 1 to 25 points. In Treat Injuries you can use medical items such as Bandage, Gauze or Splint, or simply wait, or pay fuel to heal at once. Critical injuries also need a Medic of level 8. An injured survivor cannot join a mission, so heal before you go.
Chat works from the start and needs no radio buildings: press CONNECT in the Communications panel and accept its terms. Public and Trade are open channels for talking, and Recruiting opens at level 10. Use /w name for a private message, /r to reply and /mute or /block to silence someone. The team moderates the chat. There are no alliances or fights between players yet, but you can visit a neighbour's compound and help speed up one of their constructions.
Tips. Build storage early, because without it food and water capacity is zero. Each survivor eats and drinks 8 units a day, so add a Vegetable Garden and a Water Collector, both of which need Workbench level 2. Check the Ammo Cost before launching and take melee weapons, which cost no ammo, when stocks are low. Morale runs from -25 to 25 and falls with hunger, thirst, injuries and discomfort.
Three steps and you're in.
From this home page. Each game opens at its own address, with its own start screen.
A quick sign-up inside the game. Your progress is saved on the server, not in your browser.
You play in your browser, with no Flash and no downloads, on a computer and, depending on the game, on your phone too.
You build a compound, get survivors to arrive, give each a role and send teams of one to five on timed scavenging missions. In a mission you click to move, survivors shoot on their own, you search containers and everyone must reach the exit zones within 7 minutes.
The Workbench, then Food Storage and Water Storage. The tutorial takes you through exactly that, then upgrades the Workbench to level 2 and adds a production building, a Small Barricade and a Bed.
They arrive on their own when the compound meets the conditions of the next arrival: Beds and storages, days of food and water, and enough comfort, security and morale. The limit is 10 including your leader.
The clock is 7 minutes. Afterwards the survivors need between 5 minutes and 4 hours to come back, and a looted zone is locked for 23 hours.
They cannot go on missions until healed. Treat the injury with medical items, wait (12 hours to 6 days depending on the grade) or pay fuel to heal at once.
Choose Speed Up and pay with fuel: -1 hr, -2 hrs, HALF or COMPLETE. It is free when fewer than 5 minutes remain, and a visiting neighbour can also help shorten it.
Press CONNECT in the Communications panel and accept the terms. It works from the start with no radio buildings. Public and Trade are open, Recruiting needs level 10, and /w name sends a private message.
W, A, S, D or the arrows move the camera, Shift doubles its speed, Space turns a building and Esc cancels. In missions, R reloads, Tab switches survivor, 1 to 9 and 0 pick a survivor, and right click uses active gear.
Going from level n to n+1 costs 350 times n squared in XP, so level 1 to 2 needs 350 and level 10 to 11 needs 35,000. The maximum level is 60. Your leader's level unlocks neighbourhoods, buildings and upgrades.
Brand notice: The Last Stand: Dead Zone is an original game by Con Artist Games and is in beta here. This is a browser edition: FB Games is an independent project and is not the official Con Artist Games site.
Creating an account takes a minute, and you play straight from your browser.