Update 19:

Riding Shotgun
Has it really been a whole month since we debuted the Green Zone difficulty level
and delivered the piratical Plunder Pack? It has indeed, and we’ve been busy with
another round of gameplay improvements.

Here’s a list of highlights from this update. You can read more details about each
item below, along with a full recounting of other improvements and bug fixes.

Vehicle Tune-Up: Our mechanics have improved performance for all vehicles in the
game.
Shotgun Upgrade: We’ve drastically upgraded the zombie-stopping power of the humble
boomstick.
Drucker County, Enhanced: We made this plateau map more visually appealing and much
friendlier for drivers.
Free Bloodmobile: Use your radio to call in this unique vehicle for your community.
Available for a limited time!
World War 2 Pack Returns: Older weapons are now in loot, and new weapons and
outfits are available from the Bounty Broker.

Vehicle Tune-Up
You depend on your vehicle’s performance, whether you’re speeding down the highway
or dodging zombies on windy dirt roads. As a result of your feedback, we went under
the hood to review and improve vehicle performance across our entire fleet of cars,
trucks, SUVs, and vans.

Next time you’re driving, look for these highlights:

Increased acceleration to escape juggernauts intent on wrecking your ride
Better off-road performance, allowing you to drive over rough terrain without
getting stuck
More power in reverse to help back out of those annoying ditches that keep jumping
in front of you
Revised terrain and tire interaction to better capture the different “grip” on
roads, dirt, mud, and water
Audio remixed to follow new torque and acceleration curves

Shotguns Get a Shot in the Arm

Blowing away the evil dead with your boomstick delivers visceral excitement that no
other firearm can match. To better deliver on that integral part of the zed-killing
fantasy, we’ve drastically improved shotguns in the game.

Here’s what to expect:

Shotguns reliably deliver kills inside five meters.
Shotguns offer crowd control to about 20 meters, scoring knockdowns and
dismemberments.
Shotgun noise dropped significantly and is now comparable to a 5.56 round, so their
use draws less unwanted company.
Your shotgun remains less effective at longer ranges (that’s rifle territory), and
it’s not ideal for stealthy kills. Instead, it’s the best weapon for mowing through
zombie hordes, or for delaying oncoming zeds when you need to retreat.

Try one out today!

Drucker County Map Improvements

Our experience building the Providence Ridge map inspired us to review our existing
maps to see where we could improve their quality. We identified Drucker County as
deserving of some artistic love, so we unleashed a team of landscapers and
architects on the entire area. Their goals: to enhance the map’s visual interest
and improve player navigation.

To enhance visual interest, our team added infrastructure around select buildings
to better “ground” them in their locations, added signage and set dressing to some
base locations, and added details to non-playable spaces that felt a little barren.
Taken together, these result in a more attractive and immersive space to explore.

Since Drucker County has never been the friendliest place for vehicles, we also
prioritized a better driving experience. Our team smoothed out terrain, removing
several tons of rocks that interfered with off-road travel or created frustrating
dead ends. We added new dirt roads that show up on the Map screen to highlight
easier routes. Finally, we placed signage, fences, and other visual guides to help
drivers stay safe.

If it’s been a while since you visited Drucker County, we encourage you to get
behind the wheel and check it out!

Free Bloodmobile for all Players

Speaking of getting behind the wheel, all players now have a new radio command
allowing them to have a unique Bloodmobile vehicle delivered to their community.

Each community can use this radio command once for free; after that, calling for a
new Bloodmobile will cost Influence.

This radio command replaces the Wizard Van option and is available only for a
limited time. To view your radio commands, open your Inventory and tab over to
Radio Commands.

World War 2 Pack Returns, With an Upgrade

The brand-new World War 2 pack adds 8 new weapons to the game, plus 2 items of
clothing and a unique firearm attachment. These items are drawn from or inspired by
the European theaters of combat, and most are available by completing bounties for
the Bounty Broker.

Ceremonial M1A1 Thompson: This beautiful submachine gun remains pristine and fully
functional, thanks to years of loving maintenance.
OSS Silent Night: Military historians claim this permanently suppressed revolver
never existed as anything but a prototype. But they’re all dead, so no one can stop
you from appreciating its power, accuracy, and surprising range.
MP40 Submachine Gun: This 20th-century German weapon of war, brought to America as
a battlefield prize, provides an exceptionally controllable assault platform thanks
to its smaller caliber, modest fire rate, and longer frame.
FBI Fighting Rifle: This vintage weapon is based on the military BAR and delivers
large-caliber firepower with surprising control. Each rifle is equipped with a
special Vintage Rifle Compensator attachment (see below).
Soviet PPSh-41: A famous WW2 close assault weapon, known for its high rate of fire,
sturdy construction, and simplicity of use. This one also features a permanently
attached brake, and it’s been added to loot tables so you can find it by
scavenging.
Danger Dog PPSh-41: A skilled post-apocalypse gunsmith heavily modified this Soviet
submachine gun to face today's nightmare world. It includes a welded-on AK-style
suppressor, modified action to support three-round bursts, and other optimizations.
Antique German Trench Tool: This “folding spade” is loud, weighty, and quite
capable of hacking zombies to pieces.
Tank Hammer: You might be surprised how many problems a tank can have that are most
easily fixed by hitting it very hard with a large hammer. Works on zeds, too.
Aviator Helmet: Your friends will all be jealous of this vintage leather flight
helmet, complete with aviator goggles.
Combat Helmet: This classic Army green helmet is an enduring symbol of service
under fire.
Vintage Rifle Compensator: This antique muzzle attachment provides stability,
power, and durability. It is ONLY found on the FBI Fighting Rifle, but it can be
removed and attached to any weapon that accepts a muzzle brake.

In addition, all weapons previously found in the World War 2 Pack (last seen in
January of this year) have been added to the loot tables and can be found by
scavenging in the world.

What’s Coming and Going

The return of the World War 2 Pack means that we must say farewell--for now--to the
Bundle Up Pack. Remember that you keep anything you already own, but you can’t
acquire more items from retired packs.

In August, we welcome the Go Bag Pack (last seen in March) back to the game! In
addition to the 9 weapons originally featured in that pack, we’re adding 3 new
bounties that let you earn some brand-new items.

All Go Bag bounties will be completely reset when the pack returns in August, so
whether you’ve seen this pack before or it’s all new to you, the Bounty Broker will
have 12 tasks for you to complete. We’re also implementing some tweaks to reward
those of you who have already finished some or all of these bounties--more news on
that as we get closer to the Go Bag Pack’s release date.

To make way for this returning pack, the Anniversary Pack will be retired in
August, so be sure to complete those bounties soon!

Other Fixes and Improvements

Loot Container Distribution

We’ve made a tweak to the way loot containers – the objects you open up in search
of guns, resources, and other useful stuff – are distributed among buildings in
each newly populated map. This adjustment aims to reduce frustration and create
moments of excitement on long-haul scavenging runs.

Originally, a typical building included 5 or 6 lootable containers for the host

player, which often held slightly more items than you could carry home.

This resulted in many scavenging runs ending halfway through a building, leading to
some frustration.
We’ve altered the container distribution so that most buildings now offer the host
player either 4 or fewer containers, or 8 or more containers.

Each map still offers the same overall amount of loot. It’s just spread a little
less evenly among buildings. Container distribution for client players is
unchanged.

In most cases, when you explore a new building you should either think, “Yes, I
have plenty of room to collect all this stuff and bring it home,” or “Wow, this
building has more stuff than I could ever carry! What a bonanza!” Extra points if
you use the word “bonanza.”This only applies to newly populated maps. Your existing
settled communities will have the same distribution of containers both before and
after the update.

Systems
If you start a new Green Zone game, and you’ve unlocked legacy boons at higher
difficulty levels, the Green Zone versions of those boons should now be available
to you, no matter when you unlocked them.
Previously, Green Zone boons were showing up unreliably if you unlocked their
higher-difficulty versions prior to Update 18.

You can now craft Toolkits and Advanced Toolkits at the Auto Shop, because what
else would it be for? This includes brand new bulk-crafting options that actually
make the Auto Shop the ideal place to craft them.
We revised the UX for the experience of securing a site and revealing its container
icons to make that experience friendlier.
Icons that are through a wall from you show up “hollow” to make it clear that they
are in another room.
Icons for containers on porches and other close outdoor locations are now visible
from indoors.
We restructured our music playlists and increased the amount of variation in
playback across all game modes.
We corrected some icons in the closet that weren’t showing accurate colors for the
associated outfit items.

Gameplay
We made some fixes to the way noise stats are calculated for revolvers.
It used to be that .357 revolvers were louder than .44 Magnum revolvers, which
didn’t make sense. So now all revolvers are quieter than they were before, but .44
Magnum revolvers are the loudest by a small margin.
Weapon sway is now realigned to correlate better with barrel length. Expect to see
more stability from .50-caliber rifles and long-barreled revolvers than you did
before.
If you have an ally firing “through” you harmlessly (due to the lack of friendly
fire), you will no longer see gouts of blood splashing out of your body, sending
you mixed messages about the sort of danger you’re in.

Balance Tweaks
We fixed a bug that was causing the Big Boss (the upgraded Military Truck) to take
engine damage twice as fast as any other vehicle.
The Spec Ops AW sniper rifle is now six pounds lighter, making it only one pound
heavier than the standard Arctic Warfare.
The CM1-A Breacher now features the benefits of a Professional Choke, as that was
the original intent for that weapon.
We increased the magazine size of the Echo-S3 Shotgun to 6+1 to keep it competitive
among all the updated shotguns.
The mighty sword known as Excadaver has lost some luster over the years. To ensure
that it still feels like a potent reward, we boosted its lethality, dismemberment,
and ease of use.
The Sweet Skull Sword also gains some improvements, though to a lesser degree.
The Pyro Launcher’s effectiveness against plague hearts has been reduced. It’s
still quite effective against groups of zombies, but no longer shall it reign
supreme as the gimmicky destroyer of hearts.

Miscellaneous
We made further adjustments to the maps (beyond the refresh of Drucker County) in
response to minor bugs with collision, textures, etc.
We also fixed a few grayscale interior lighting bugs that crept into Update 18.
We fixed a crash that could occur when engaging with plague wall fights in
Heartland.