Combat

Each battle takes place on a dedicated battlefield that you enter from a guard post. You fight personally with a sword or bow while commanding squads of zombies or paid mercenaries, as enemy zombies come in waves down fixed lanes.

• Victory: every base flag is yours once the final wave ends. You needn’t kill every zombie; any left standing collapse when you win.
• Defeat: the enemy captures your base, or you run out of health.

Battles unlock one at a time through the story, and Battles lists them all, wave by wave.

Health and stamina exist only for battles. Health is 100 and refills fully after every battle, whether you won or lost. From the moment you step onto a battlefield until you leave, the game clock is frozen.

Getting into a battle

1. Gear up. Put armor and a sword on your hotbar. Missing either, your character says “I must equip sword and armor”. A bow doesn’t substitute for the sword.
2. Pick the right day. Most battles start only on Sloth day (Time and the Week). Exempt are the first battle, both Sewer Brawls, and the fights launched from the sewer guard post: the bathhouse breakthrough and the sewer arena.
3. Read the battle window. It lists how many squads you can take and the required defence power; the fight won’t start until you reach it.
4. Set up. You arrive with time stopped. Use the battlefield’s build table to deploy the barricades and towers you built in the Barracks, then begin when you’re ready.

Defence power adds the quality of every barricade and tower in the Barracks to the power of whichever squads you select. For the requirement, structures only have to exist in the Barracks; you don’t need to deploy them onto the field.

Damage and armor

A hit deals attacker’s damage minus target’s armor, floored at 0. Nothing is random: no crits, no rolls. Your armor value comes straight from the armor you’re wearing:

Armor value	Armor
0	Rusty
1	Bronze
2	Iron
3	Steel
4	Master

None of the six enemy zombie types has armor (Enemies lists them). Most deal 4 to 7 per hit; the Barrel Zombie deals 10 and has 100 health. Wearing Master Armor, you’re immune to the common Wild Zombie, though a Stinker’s death burst goes straight through armor.

Sword or bow

With both on the hotbar you can swap freely. Stamina runs from 100, and each sword swing costs 20 while each arrow costs 10. The sword lunges you forward; the bow fires from range.

Tier	Bow	Sword
Simple / Rusty	4	4
Reinforced / Bronze	8	5
Battle / Iron	15	7
Heavy / Steel	22	10
Master	—	13

The bow hits harder for half the stamina. The sword’s advantages are the lunge and the Sword Master perk (+2 damage, or +3 with the Master Sword). Boosts that apply on top:

Boost	Effect
Fighter potion	+3 damage per level
Berserk potion	Attacks cost no stamina
God’s fury, a sermon buff	+2 to swords, +3 to bows

Potions can only be drunk during a battle, and the setup phase already counts as one, so don’t waste a 30-second potion before the fighting begins.

Squads

Each battle permits between one and four squads, of two kinds.

Zombie squads

Put a zombie into a squad slot in the Barracks. To fight it must carry a pike or bow and wear armor; zombies can’t use swords. The zombie that enters battle is a copy, so losing it in battle costs you nothing. Squad power is the sum of each fighting zombie’s weapon and armor quality. Zombies grow stronger through their own red talents, Impaler for pikes and Blindseye for bows.

Slots are unlocked by giving Defender’s Emblems to Battle Ram in the Barracks. There are four slots and four battles that award an emblem.

Mercenaries

The Merc Leader commands four hired fighters, two with pikes and two with bows. One payment buys one victory: if you lose or walk away before fighting, it rolls over to your next attempt. Each win raises the price:

Win	Price
1st to 5th	5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20 silver
After that	1 gold
After the Inflation quests	Wine instead, ending at 3 bottles of 3-star Wine per battle

Once paid, the mercenaries always join and occupy a squad slot, which in a one-squad battle leaves no room for zombies. Their power starts at 8 and becomes 16, then 24, with the Merc Leader’s two equipment upgrades (3 Iron Ingots, then 3 Steel Ingots).

Barricades and towers

These are built at the Barracks build table, where they count toward both defence power and Barracks quality. Before a fight you deploy them on the battlefield; afterwards they go back to the Barracks automatically. Barricades and Towers technologies unlock three barricade types and one tower, each in three levels:

Structure	Health (I / II / III)	Quality	Special
Barricade	400 / 600 / 800	2 / 4 / 6
Spiked Barricade	250 / 450 / 600	2 / 4 / 6	Deals 3 / 5 / 7 back to attackers
Fortified Barricade	600 / 800 / 1000	2 / 4 / 6
Archer Tower	150 / 300 / 450	2 / 4 / 6	Fires for 8 / 16 / 24

War Supplier and War Engineer boost their health, spike damage and tower damage. Dismantling one in the Barracks refunds its full cost. The two Sewer Brawls forbid barricades and towers entirely.

Space in the Barracks is limited at first. Each Victory Banner, awarded by three battles, buys one expansion of the building area.

Win or lose

Win, and the reward lands at your feet on your return: usually Town Gratitude and Zombie goo, sometimes Keys for Looters, an emblem or a banner (Battles has the list). No battle pays tech points. Some battles are chained in pairs, where winning the first takes you straight into the second and losing the second returns you to the first.

Lose, and the only cost is whatever potions you drank. Items and money stay with you, and you can go again.