Welcome to our 2024 Team Fortress 2: TF2 Zombie Escape Guide! In this article, we will dive into the mechanics of Otaku’s zombie escape and share some helpful map tips. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, this guide has all the information you need to survive the zombie apocalypse in TF2. So grab your weapons and let’s get started!
What the hell is this gamemode anyways?
This is a seemingly endless battle of humans with guns and zombies with supernatural powers with the human mission of reaching a safe haven and the zombie mission of causing the spread of their virus and DEATH TOO ALL HUMANS
History of Zombie Escape (not really accurate)
It was a time before my existence, halo 3, the first iphone, and even TF2 itself in the game of COUNTER STRIKE
There was a person who made Zombie Mode, this PVP gamemode was alllllllll about camping and defending your place against zombies. Now this is cool and all with the use of the base cs maps and even custom made maps
now idk if its the same person or a different person but somebody innovated on this idea but added running instead of all the camping and made ZOMBIE ESCAPE!!!!!!!
keep all the shooting and the zombies but scratch the camping for we will both RUN and GUN. Now that an amazing gamemode has been made, hundreds upon hundreds of maps were made for this gamemode, each being a lot more new and innovated than the other
Soon enough, games like CSS, GMOD, and TF2 were made and both Zombie Escape and Zombie Mode found its way to those games (sadly ZM is all you can find in day of defeat)
Now we are here, with TF2 ZE which is actually the most unique among the three due to the classes of TF2 and their variety of weapons and utilities
What am i supposed to do?
I asked those questions during the first time I played and honestly there is quite a lot of things that I had to find out either by myself or by other players. Here is how the ze system works
Whenever the map starts, there will be a short preparation phase where you can prepare your loadout or simply wait for other players to join
you will go through a linear path that leads to a checkpoint, the best way to know you’re supposed to defend it is by a defend timer showing up in chat or above you’re screen, the game will also tell you when to retreat. Do remember that some maps like to have alternate paths, though it is best to stay with the team
Image above is an example of a checkpoint, in order to progress, you must go near the door/gate/obstacle to start the defend timer
The images above are defend timers, they can be found in the chatbox and the top of your screen
You may stumble upon these in the maps you play on, the three colors of green, yellow, and white. Let us start with the first
Green means Activation Button, This button is important for progressing through the map by opening up doors and gates, its also found to open secret doors that lead to rather interesting rooms.
Yellow means Breakable, its just an obstacle that you can break by shooting or hitting, get the damn thing out of your way!
White means Map Item, These are very useful and important, map items all have unique uses that can change the tides of victory to your side
With the basics of basics out of the way, below are the nine classes and the role they play in this gamemode
THE CLASSES AND THEIR ROLES
Scout
- HUMAN
1.) Help Humans Fallback
2.) Do necessary parkour to reach activation buttons
3.) EARLY ACTIVATE EVERY BUTTON TO LESSEN DEFEND TIME
- ZOMBIE
1.) Great Recovery from knockback
2.) Double Jump makes parkour easier
3.) Mad Milk can spot spies
Pyro
- HUMAN
1.) 2nd power of defence
2.) The nemesis of spies
3.) Necessary for helping humans fall back
- ZOMBIE
1.) Fire resistance
2.) Great against engineer buildings
Soldier
- HUMAN
1.) 3rd power of defence
2.) can speed up the humans
3.) Explosive damage can send zombies off the edges
- ZOMBIE
1.) can speed up zombies with the right melee
2.) 2nd best bullet resistance
do take caution, this man is unfortunately slow
Demoman
- HUMAN
1.) 3rd power of defence tied with soldier
2.) Useful in taking damage as he does not get infected easily
3.) Explosive damage can send zombies off the edges
- ZOMBIE
any kind of gun doesn’t exist for zombies which makes this class nonexistent
- HUMAN
1.) Can help humans fallback
2.) their charge can boost them and reach areas where others cannot
(You can mix these two and have a demoman with a grenade launcher and shield)
- ZOMBIE
1.) THE DARN TRIMPER
2.) CABER CAN KILL MORE THAN ONE HUMAN
3.) HUMANS HIT BY THE CHARGE WILL GET INFECTED
Heavy
- HUMAN
1.) 1st power of defense
2.) Biggest damage dealer against bosses
3.) AMAZING KNOCKBACK!!!!!!!
- ZOMBIE
1.) Great Resistance against the bullets and bombs
2.) Great Sandviches and such that can heal zombies on the go
3.) Great damage against Engineer Buildings
Engineer
- HUMAN
1.) greatest assistance in defense with the sentry
2.) reliable blocking against zombies and healing during boss battles with the dispenser
3.) Annoying yet useful staircase blocking with the teleporter
- ZOMBIE
1.) Can use a Sentry to kill humans (In the Advanced and IAL difficulties)
Its recommended to not use him in Basic
Sniper
- HUMAN
1.) Can accurately shoot from afar
2.) Jarate can spot spies
3.) Smg is a reliable run n gun weapon
- ZOMBIE
1.) Can use the Jarate to find spies
2.) Can use his melee to climb
- HUMAN
1.) Can accurately shoot from afar
2.) Backpacks have a variety of uses
3.) Explosive damage can send zombies off the edges
- ZOMBIE
same thing with demoman
Medic
- HUMAN
1.) The number one Healer
2.) The medigun can uber for body blocking or when you’re in a pinch
3.) That darn syringe gun is annoying but damn is it so useful when falling back
- ZOMBIE
1.) The number one Healer
Though he doesn’t have a lot to do, he is still necessary to keeping the zombies alive
Spy
- HUMAN
1.) The Tripminer
2.) Useful in taking hits as he does not get infected easily
3.) In the event of dire need, can solo the level for map progression
- ZOMBIE
1.) Can use the cloak to ambush the humans
2.) Can use sapper to disable engineer buildings
COMMON MISTAKES (IMPORTANT)
THE MISTAKE OF MISTAKES This is the act of staying too close to the edge of an obstacle, any zombie will do their best to infect you knowing you’re closer than other humans
this is an infamous mistake that can cause the ENTIRE TEAM to die. Boosting happens when the use of explosives cause the zombies to get Boosted towards the humans, causing them to get infected.
this is the temptation of killing or delaying zombies in any spawn point. Some maps give zombies invincibility as soon as they spawn to prevent camping.
This is no harm in some maps but there are mapmakers who like to punish players who stick to the door too much, be careful in door hugging when you play on a new map
Pointfarming is the act of taking as much points as possible. Though it does no harm to your teamates, you are vulnerable when you become too distracted shooting that one zombie stuck to a corner
Delaying is great for preventing zombies from advancing, but too much of something is always bad, defend for too long, and you may get killed eventually
Please follow where the majority go, and stay where the majority stay, many alternate paths seem convincing but only lead to a dead end.
Ensure you have the right loadout because this gamemode does not wait for anyone, these zombies are fast and can catch up to you in a matter of seconds.
A follow up to being too slow is taking a longer route, due to the speed buffs of the zombies, it makes some longer routes unethical to go through as the zombies will reach the Defense area before you do
Spies LIKE to sneak past humans, you are never safe until you know they aren’t around
There are SO MANY traps in ze, you will know the existence of a trap if everyone refuses to interact with it (EX: the diamond in Minecraft Adventure)
Most of the maps have timers whenever you reach a defense checkpoint, but please check the amount of time needed to defend otherwise you may wind up being left out
This is a variant of Boosting, this can only happen using Pyro’s flare gun + Dragons Fury where it lets zombies go upwards, unlike the rest, this is actually uncommon for it to be bad for the team
Other Guides???
And that wraps up our share on Team Fortress 2: TF2 Zombie Escape Guide 2024. If you have any additional insights or tips to contribute, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below. For a more in-depth read, you can refer to the original article here by Astro Cigarettes, who deserves all the credit. Happy gaming!