ZED ZONE zombies, infected types and hordes

ZED ZONE has no single published bestiary, so this page pulls every infected type the developer has named in patch notes, adds what players report, and explains how hordes find you.

ZED ZONE infected types named in official notes

Not infected but just as deadly: mechs and spider robots at the Weapons Testing Ground, and the Giant Mutant Lizard. Official A 2023 player list of spawn IDs also names spitters, crawlers, boomers and screamers; IDs from that era may no longer match. Unverified

Hordes and Dormant Hordes

• Dormant Hordes are groups of zombies lying on the ground near hospitals and in the wild. Noise or an attack wakes them. A woken horde is marked on the PDA map and the marker turns grey once cleared. Old saves get them too. Official
• Pathfinding: hordes know whether doors are open or closed and look for entrances first; with every entrance sealed they break the weakest wall. Official
• Alarms summon more enemies the longer your run has lasted. Official Spore nests summon zombies (without the alarm sound since 0.9.99.9.1). Official
• Night: the “Zombies Run at Night” setting makes zombies and hordes 30% faster from 20:00 to 06:00. It is off by default. Official There is also an infected movement speed setting. Official

Tougher than before

Beta 0.9.99.8.15 raised the base health of the infected (humans, robots, giant lizards and animals unchanged). Official Heavy Strike’s full charge breaks zombies’ bones; staggered low-health monsters can be executed. Official See skills.

Zombies that took no damage were reported for years. Beta 0.9.99.9.1 fixed unkillable zombies appearing in basements, and Beta 0.9.98 fixed endless respawns near basement entrances. Official

Corpses: burn, butcher, loot

• Molotovs, torches and flamethrowers set corpses on fire; burned corpses leave charcoal and bones. Rain puts them out. Explosions blow nearby corpses apart. Official
• Butchering ordinary zombies gives slightly more Mutant Tissue since Beta 0.9.99.9.7. Official
• Corpse piles can be dismantled with a long press for materials. Official

Fighting the infected

• Helmets soak shots. Helmeted zombies take noticeably more hits; aim for the body or use melee to knock helmets off. Players report
• Special infected come early in 1.0. A launch-day player met special infected within the first in-game hour, sometimes lying in grass. 1.0 video
• Noise is the main threat. Gunfire and alarms pull everything nearby; video makers on 1.0 open with bows, crossbows or melee for that reason. Players report
• Kill everything near where you loot. Clearing a block before searching it means fewer surprises from behind. Players report
• An unkillable zombie? Players fixed it by saving and reloading; report it with your save through the Feedback Center. Players report

Mechs and spider robots

• Where: spider robots spawn at the Weapons Testing Ground, and War Machine mechs guard military sites. Killed ones no longer multiply when you leave and come back (fixed in Beta 0.9.99.8). Official
• They explode. Since Beta 0.9.97 a destroyed mech or spider robot falls first, flashes red faster and then blows up harder than before. Back off after the kill. Official Players who stood close died to the blast. Players report
• Drops: players farm CNC components from the spider mech boss, and 2023 videos show mechs dropping energy weapons such as the Tesla gun and laser. Players report 2023 build Arrows stuck in them can be recovered when they are destroyed (Beta 0.9.99.9.7). Official
• Ammo check: one player needed about 90 rounds of 7.62 for the spider boss; keep your distance at the edge of the screen. Unverified

Checked against version 1.0.4Last verified 2026-11-07