--- title: ZED ZONE Companions: Hiring, Commands, Revive, Affinity description: How ZED ZONE companions work: hiring survivors and other players’ characters, the command options, giving gear, Affinity, downed and revive, keeping them fed and warm, and why they used to wreck bases. url: https://zed-zone.wiki/survivors/companions/ --- # ZED ZONE companions: hiring, commands and care Companions went from a liability to a real help over 2026. Most of the stories about hired NPCs wrecking bases predate the October and November patches. Here is how hiring, commands and care work now. - Hire at the Comms Station or recruit survivors you meet. - Downed humans have 30 seconds; hold F for 3 s to revive. - Since 0.9.99.9.7 teammates no longer loot ahead of you. _[Image: ZED ZONE: four players with laser sights in a dark room]_ _Official screenshot · Leven Liu / INDIECN_ ## How to get companions in ZED ZONE - **Comms Station:** build it to browse and hire characters other players uploaded; they join your squad as friendly NPCs. If your own uploaded character is hired, you get resource rewards next time you log in. Official The recruitment list has gender, profession and Steam-friend filters, plus search, sorting and pages. Official - **Survivors you meet:** neutral survivors in the wild became more common in Beta 0.9.98. Official Players report hiring costs money and that what a hire carries varies. Unverified Since late October you can re-equip them yourself (below). Faction markers show over NPC heads: **green** companion, **white** neutral, **red** hostile. Official ## ZED ZONE companion commands | Command | What it does now | | --- | --- | | Follow / Standby / Free Fire / Retreat | The real-time command wheel added in Beta 0.80. Official | | Stay Here | Holds the position and only attacks enemies that come close (fixed to really hold in 0.9.98 and 0.9.99.9.1). Official | | Collect Specified Items | Sends them to search for item categories you choose. Official | | Collect Resources Independently | Leaves freshly dead corpses alone and puts everything except gear they urgently need into the Shared Inventory. Official | | I have something for you / Give Items | Hand over weapons, ammo, medicine and clothes; they switch to better gear. Official | Since Beta 0.9.99.9.7 teammates no longer loot corpses and containers ahead of you, and only take essentials from containers you already searched. Official ## Gear and Affinity - Open a companion’s inventory to equip the weapons and clothes you choose; they keep using them, or switch back to automatic. Anything you hand over can be taken back. Official - **Affinity** grows with time in your team, being revived and receiving items. Spend it to take a companion’s own items; the cost was lowered in 0.9.99.9.7. Official ## Downed and revive Human characters go down at 0 HP and have **30 seconds** to be rescued. Hold F for 3 seconds on a downed companion or neutral NPC to revive them. If you have companions, you go down first too, and they rush to revive you. Downed NPCs crawl toward allies. Official “Heal” on an NPC offers Bandage to stop bleeding. Official ## Food, water and warmth Companions now warm up by fires and heaters when cold, take off warm clothing and drink water when feverish, and use medicine from the shared backpack. Official Players who hired NPCs in early 2026 report them getting thirsty and then attacking bases. Players report Several fixes since then address this directly: NPCs no longer search containers near your base, and hired companions arrive at full health. Official If it still happens on 1.0, report it in the Feedback Center. For hostile survivors and raiders, see [raiders and hostile NPCs](https://zed-zone.wiki/survivors/bandits-and-raiders/). Dogs do not use a companion slot: [pets](https://zed-zone.wiki/survivors/pets/). ## Companion tips from players - **Check before you pay.** You can see what a recruit has equipped before hiring; a hire carrying only a dagger and an axe can then be geared up by you. Players report - **Roles behave differently.** One player’s Sniper stays close while a Ranger keeps running ahead; leave the roamers to guard the base. Unverified - **Ammo for their guns.** Allies keep trying to shoot with empty guns, so hand them ammo for the weapon they carry. Unverified - **Cold companions.** A healing smoke grenade warms people up, one player found; since October companions also warm themselves by fires and heaters. Unverified Official Checked against version 1.0.4 Last verified 2026-11-07 ## Sources - [Patch notes: Beta 0.80 (Steam Cloud, companions, recruitment)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/492713648032056659) · 2026-01-10 · official - [Patch notes: Beta 0.81 (custom key bindings, aim assist, controller)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/529870247508837459) · 2026-01-31 · official - [Announcement: full release roadmap (turrets, skills, companions)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/703280393464318298) · 2026-09-30 · official - [Patch notes: Beta 0.9.99.8 (downed and revive, lizard bait, handbrake)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/694274460775088147) · 2026-10-07 · official - [Patch notes: Beta 0.9.99.8.15 (new skill tree, power, loot balance)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/694274460775091085) · 2026-10-10 · official - [Patch notes: Beta 0.9.99.9.1 (voxel building, bicycles, companion gear, controller)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/710038327520138623) · 2026-10-23 · official - [Patch notes: Beta 0.9.99.9.7 (tutorial, character saves, forklift, waypoints)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/710038961706240976) · 2026-11-03 · official - [Patch notes: Beta 0.9.98 (camp doctor, snow, performance, crafting from containers)](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1211600/view/674005725646684956) · 2026-09-13 · official - [Steam thread: npc and your base/start of base](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1211600/discussions/0/687495779967989351/) · 2026-01-23 · players, 2+ reports - [Steam thread: NPCs destroying my building to get to my gear stash](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1211600/discussions/0/589558792744699888/) · 2026-07-24 · players, 2+ reports - [Steam thread: Hiring Scam (what hires carry)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1211600/discussions/0/570428117602021504/) · 2026-11-06 · players, 2+ reports - [Steam thread: NPC Commands](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1211600/discussions/0/573804084819258964/) · 2026-10-20 · single player report - [Steam thread: NPC companions and hypothermia](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1211600/discussions/0/592943711836480741/) · 2026-10-15 · single player report - [Steam thread: mercenary destroyed my campfire](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1211600/discussions/0/657107714318739657/) · 2026-06-01 · players, 2+ reports ## More in Survivors & Pets - [entity Pets (dogs) Get a dog in ZED ZONE: rescue it from a cage at a Scavenger Camp, the four breeds, commands and combat modes, the eight pet skills, collars, vests and the saddlebag, and why pets never die.](https://zed-zone.wiki/survivors/pets/) - [problem Raiders & hostile NPCs Why ZED ZONE survivors turn hostile and NPCs break into bases: raiders, Online Wanderers, what the 2026 patches changed, the settings that turn wanderers off, and how players keep raiders out.](https://zed-zone.wiki/survivors/bandits-and-raiders/)