How to play Zombie Lane: tutorial, controls, energy, crops, weapons and missions

How do you create your character and finish the tutorial?

The first time you sign in, the game asks you to choose a male or female character, type a name of up to 20 characters, and pick a skin tone and clothes. Press the play button and the tutorial begins with Rob.

The tutorial has seven steps. You create the character and talk to Rob, pick up the shovel, knock down three zombies, collect the rewards (14 pieces of loot), chain a combo, walk up to Rob and receive his shotgun. A flawless run takes well under a minute; a person reading each message takes longer. Camera zoom and dragging switch on when it ends.

What are the controls: mouse, touch and keyboard?

The mouse and a finger do the same things. Click or tap a zombie to attack it. Click or tap rubble, broken fences or loot to clear, repair or pick them up, and click or tap the ground to walk there. To gather loot quickly, drag across the bubbles. Dragging also moves the camera, and the mouse wheel (or a two-finger pinch on a touchscreen) zooms.

The keyboard hardly matters: the only key is Esc, which closes the top window when it has a close button, and your browser's right-click menu is turned off over the game.

Once you rescue your partner and your dog in the story, tapping either of them switches the character you control.

How do energy, coins, cash, food and levels work?

You start at level 1 with 1,000 coins, 10 cash, 40 food, a maximum energy of 14 and 0 bricks. Coins pay for most things at the market. Cash is the scarcer currency, since a level-up usually gives just 1. Food refills energy, bricks are used for building, and experience points (XP) take you up the levels. Every weapon also has its own ammo.

Energy returns at 1 point every 30 seconds up to your maximum, so an empty bar of 14 points fills in 7 minutes. Attacking, clearing, planting or harvesting, and building cost 1 point each. If you run out, wait or use food from the market.

There are 101 levels. Each level-up pays between 25 and 500 coins depending on the level, usually 1 cash, and sometimes +1 to your maximum energy. Across all the levels, maximum energy climbs to 33. Chaining pickups one after another fills a combo meter and gives you an extra.

Which crops can you plant, and how long do they take?

The site's guide lists 12 crops. From fastest to slowest: strawberries (10 coins, ripe in 1 minute), radishes (25 coins, 15 minutes), watermelons (50 coins, 30 minutes), the apple tree (700 coins, 30 minutes), corn (100 coins, 1 hour), the super crop (500 coins, 2 hours), onions (110 coins, 3 hours), bell peppers (350 coins, 4 hours), carrots (220 coins, 6 hours), pumpkins (370 coins, 8 hours), beans (470 coins, 12 hours) and cabbage (600 coins, 18 hours).

Match the crop to how often you can come back: strawberries suit a short session, cabbage or beans a night away. The apple tree is the exception because it never wilts.

A ripe crop wilts if you leave it: a radish after 45 minutes, a cabbage after 9 days. Reviving a wilted crop costs coins or cash, so harvest on time. Zombies also attack crops.

Which weapons and zombies are there?

The market sells nine weapons: the shovel (free), the shotgun (200 coins, level 1, 10 ammo), the SMG (15 cash, level 4, ammo that never runs out), the katana (25 cash, level 6, melee), the hunting rifle (800 coins, level 7), the machine gun (20 cash, level 12), the assault rifle (30 cash, level 8, 100 ammo), the grenade-launcher shotgun (17 cash, damage 10) and the flare gun (20,000 coins).

Crafting adds 12 more: Crowd Controller, Electric Rake, Fire Mitts, Flamethrower, Ice Ice Baby, Molotov, Mega Maul, Fire Bomb, Zombie Trimmer, Pepper Spray, Slingshot and Shrapnel Bomb. It opens as you move through the story.

The site's guide shows ten zombie types with their health: janitor and salesman 1, waitress and plumber 2, gardener, firefighter and construction 4, and military 2. The riot zombie has 8 and is worth 25 XP and 50 coins. The hillbilly is a boss with 30.

Zombies wander, get alerted when you come within 3 tiles, then chase you and attack crops and fences. Fences cost 99 coins (wooden), 299 (picket) and 499 (plank).

Which missions and zones come first?

There are 357 missions, split into tutorial missions, regular ones, tips and hidden ones. The first regular missions are Getting Even, Restore Communication, Find Rob's Diary Pages I, Rebuild Your House, Rescue Frank the Farmer, Help Rent-a-Cop Rob!, Food Challenge and Stay Off My Crops. A realistic first ten minutes: finish the tutorial, knock down three zombies, find the walkie-talkie, rebuild your house by clearing five pieces of rubble and making five repairs, rescue Frank, and plant three strawberries.

The places you visit are your home, Rob's place (the tutorial and a daily visit), a neighbor's house and four adventure zones, each needing a level and a mission: Circus at level 10, Downtown at 15, Crash Site at 20 and The Cure at 25.

The number of zombies that can roam your land grows with your level: 10 at level 2, 20 at level 5, 30 at level 10, 35 at level 15, 40 at level 20 and 50 from level 50.

How do neighbors, gifts and the daily bonus work?

Your friend code has 9 digits, and there is an invitation link you can share. With a neighbor's code you can visit their house, help them (up to 5 help actions per neighbor per day), send gifts (up to 100 a day, with a mailbox that holds 200) and hire them. Rob counts as your first neighbor. There is no import of Facebook friends.

The daily bonus runs over five days and pays 20, 50, 100 and 250 coins, then a bigger prize. The day resets on UTC time, which may not match your local midnight.

What do the common game messages mean?

“Out of energy” opens the energy window without spending anything; each point returns in 30 seconds. “Danger!” means an alerted zombie is a few tiles away, so you cannot clear, repair or harvest until you knock it down. “You can't do that yet” or “Still locked” means a mission or level is missing, and the game names the mission.

If you see “Your actions are blocked for a moment”, the safety limit for very fast gains has kicked in; it lifts by itself after a few minutes.