Forums → Game Walkthroughs → Zombie Riot

Content:

1. Basics
2. Survivors
3. special Skills
4. zombies
5. Survival Tips
6. Achievements
7. The Boss

1. BASICS

Surviving the road to freedom is not easy. You need money for it.
There are two currencies in the game: cop-badges and hard earned coins.

From badges you place units. Your survivors are not really survivors, but blueprints for the cloning-machine, so you can have many copies of them around at the same time.
You gain badges from the golden poles which give them faster if you place a unit next to them. Nice, and you should try to do this, but survival is higher priority, don1t forget that!

Coins are spent between maps to improve either your characters or the special skills they provide you with.

The special skills are always available, independently from who you choose for their fighting skills. You can choose no more than 3 special skill for a fight, and no more than 5 unit.

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2. SURVIVORS

Marrion: cheap ranged unit. As almost all units have the same attack power she is a solid choice during the whole game
special: her shots can push back the targets. Not very noticeable during the endgame where many things will come the same time.

Jim: you soon find this nice clone of Leon form Resident Evil 2. Has 0 attack power, but has very-very high health, what can be rose even further. This living meat-shield is almost immortal on a health-booster, and even can stand some hits from the biggest guys around.
special: the very high health. Really nothing else. Indispensable for it.

Gordon: remembers me to Sonny, this guy hits hard. Unfortunately he dies easily. He has his best uses before the basketball-zombie arrives, as until then you can put him behind a police, and you have a VERY strong wall. After that he looses usefulness very fast for the low health, and because the basketball hits two targets behind each other.
On the sidenote: he is indispensable when it comes to burrowing zombies. Place him in the 3rd row from behind, and will stop a large number of those zombies!
special: "area hit" means zombies can be hit in other rows too IF they are around the time he whacks. This is unfortunately not very noticeable.

Antonio: not hard to place him at all, and can cause a lot of damages. Not very speedy though.
special: there is none. His boomerang-shots gets improved by it (hits more).

Nevera: another ranged unit, and is costy, though she slows down the enemy. Not worth it until you upgrade her. But then she becomes a force to count with.
special: the bullets gain a percentage to not just slow, but freeze the enemy. The giant zombies fear this, and this only.

Zack: The guy's weapon has short range and very low damage, but hurts nearby lines too. As as soon as he appears there will be lines you can't place units into, he is indispensable. He is also very-very costy, so protect him at all costs.
special: there is none. Just his weapon gains more damage. WARNING: as soon as he is available (level 23) you'll have to max this!

Knight: ranged unit of slow speed, but damage like no other.
special: his damage even has an area effect (not sure if the blast is fixed, or happens where the nearest zombie in line is). It is told his shots gain "shrapnells" but beats me if I noticed any change. Probably more damage.

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3. SPECIAL SKILLS

Sniper Blast:
damages the two units nearest to the left side of the map. This means it kills the two nearest thing, unless they are armored ones/giants. Not worth upgrading if you ask me, but until endgame it is very-very handy, especially to kill jumping zombies and railroad zombies. As far as it gets with its mere two shots.
Lategame I changed this to Iron Wood for the stopping-capability.

Iron Wood:
practically a clone of Jim. Only exists temporarily, and you should invest into it at the beginning, even max it soon. Really adds to your survivability. Bad news is, it does not stop jumping zombies, and there will be other specials to replace this, so don't get engaged with it.

Blitzkrieg: sounds fun, but it is not that good. Until you have something better though, use it.

Mega Boomerang: it push all the way back any three (more if you upp it) zombies. Very-very useful, but I never found reason to upp it.

Forzen Air: I changed Iron Wood to this, as this stops all things for a (very short) time. As the upp only slightly improves this you should not bother until you really have to. But even under that little time your units can deal massive damage to the enemy, especially if that's Gordon.

Thunder Pole: similar to Zack's weapon it can deal damage in 8 directions. The differences are: it deals continuous damage, and only to one target. As maxed it has the same duration as cooldown, but there are always some rest between to waves, so even in its basic form it is spammable. Change Mage Bumerang to this one!

Bomber Aircraft: damages all zombies on the field at the moment. I have a feeling its use is situational in change with Thunder Pole (or this might prove simply better).

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4. ZOMBIES

#1: your regular zombie.

#2: zombie in armor. Practically has 2 lives.

#3: the zombie girl arrives by pushing a shopping cart to you from off-screen. No idea how to evade the carts, which when blocked deal massive damage to your units. Can be blocked by Jim, Iron Wood special, or blown to bits by Gordon (he gets minor damage from it).

#4: beats me what the injection does, probably heals other zombies. not very noticeable, but has almost as high health as #2.

#5: throws tomato at you, and it hurts. Just block the shots with Jim, while shooting at it by someone else. It is more important to shoot it than block it, can kill Jim before you'd gain enough badges for a shooter!

#6: the infamous bunny-zombie. Has high health and moves forward rapidly. When you see it put a Marrion at the back (or more) and put in its way Gordons (2, 3 at max). Gordons show it where it belongs!
the very bad news is, it likes to come right at the beginning, when you are unprepared. If you go for gold stars, but can't do it the first time, feel free to come back later with a new crew of fresh recruits!

#7: the digger-zombie is a surprise, but far from the danger of #5. Comes invulnerable to the 3rd row from the left, so if they are on the map put there Gordons.

#8: the local Gargantua. Zounds of life it has, likely destroys any of your troop just by touching. Mega Boomerang can help you out, or whatever you have in mind.

#9: update of the tomato-zombie. His projectiles hit not just its target, but if the field behind it is occupied it keeps bouncing! There goes your full-lane plan, and your Jim + Gordon combo.

#10: the unbelievable railroad-zombie. Also a female, looks a lady in her 50s. Your only chance against these is Zack, although the level before Zack joins she appears, so you'll have to spare Sniper Blast for that purpose. THE problem for stages it appears.

#11: train: goes on rails, has high health, and when it destroys, a bunch of armored zombies jump out of it. Very nasty. First appears on stage 24. Zack is a must, but don't put him next to the rail or will be eaten!

#12: robot zombie with twin-cannon: aside that it can hurt you a lot, doesn't seem any specil

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5. SURVIVAL TIPS
Get the free coins. Not joking. Improve Jim and Iron Wood from it once.

If you played Plants vs Zombies (the genre-founding game here) you'll have a pretty good idea what to do, but here are some basic tactics who didn't:
- put a unit along a golden flag as soon as you can afford
- block lanes with Jim
- put Gordon right behind Jim on levels no basketball-players come, and one hex more behind Antonio at all instance.
- use Marrion at the beginning stage of a map. Don't overdo it though, as YOU CAN'T REMOVE UNITS CURRENTLY from the battlefield.
- put Nevera in each line. More than one if you can afford.
- put Zack next to railroads. Never put him too ahead.
- all units worth one upgrade.
- always have something what cause damage, don't let Jim die! police demand payment for their dangerous job!
- never spend badges if you don't feel you absolutely have to.
- use your specials wisely, and rapidly!
- never put Jim on damage/speed booster!
- health boosters are not only for Jim!
- although any kind of booster is nice, be reasonable! You don have to use them.

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6. ACHIEVEMENTS

- Killing zombies and completing stages are pretty self-evident, just as gathering survivors and filling the bestiary (and even unavoidable as you progress).
- Placing survivors come somewhat naturally, but you better keep them in mind, and when the stage comes to the end and you have unspent badges, buy the newest ones quickly to avoid unnecessary replayment.
- Barells will be destroyed regularly on maps. You shouldn't concern yourself with this one.
- "Costly Cart" also comes naturally. The problem is "evading" the carts, really.
- Gold Medals ("gold stars" if you want) come by perfectly (maximum 1, maybe 2 health loss) finishing a level. Even those you already finished. As you need 60 of these for achievement-purpose it is best done when you do the "Stop that cart" achievement (that's for which you have to "evade" carts).
- "Stop that cart" is VERY tricky, and not comes naturally. To be able to get it you'll have to let carts pass undestroyed. They don't take your life, but this means you may not place anything in that lane the entire battle. So you'll need Zack. Do this achievement on the fifth level (tall yellowish house). You'll need Iron Wood, Frozen Air (and just for speed Bomber Aircraft), Marionn, Zack, Jim. Right at the start place 2 Zack ahead of the pole in the bottom row. This way you gain both pole, and will able to kill what passes, but not destroying the carts. Place a Marionn behind them, and with progress start to fill this row until you have 4 Marionns in it. The carts come in random lane, so if they hit a Marionn, replace her. If too many armored guy appear in the bottom row, place a Jim at the beginning of the row.
The first cart will come when the first armored zombie dies. If the first armored zombie comes in the upper lane, you have to know the two Zack is NOT able to kill it. So when it reach in proximity of the two Zack place an Iron Wall to stop it. The wall will disappear when the cart will come.
The second cart will come when the second armored zombi will pass 1/3 or 1/2 of the map. Do not do anything to block this armored guy until the second cart passes. After the second cart went start to put Marionns in the upper row (3-4, depending on need). Only the final wave remains now, on which you should drop your Bomber Aircraft if you have it to fasten the victory.
- Don't forget to visit the webpage of the developers!

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7. BOSS FIGHT

The last stage is a boss-fight. Zombies will flow in continuously, but your main concern is the randomly appearing boss, who has its own health-bar, and your goal is to clean THAT.
You can only harm the boss with units in the line it appears, so this level depends on real life luck a LOT!

Boss special attacks:
- a blue energy-wave: it renders an entire line of your units petrified. Usually this is negligable as it does no damage, and zombie-waves usually not present when the boss appear
- gattling-shot: a lot of damaging projectiles happen in one of your lines. It is very dangerous to all your units except for a Jim. Jim barely notices this
- timed zombie-release: large red containers can appear randomly placed on the screen. An armored zombie is in each. The containers do NOT kill your units, neither prevent you placing units. When the container gets destroyed, its content gets destroyed too, luckily
- nuclear waste barrels: the same as the shopping-carts, just with bigger graphic. Damage seems the very same.

Strategy to win:
units to bring: Jim (maxed), Gordon (basic enough), Zack (maxed), Knight (at least 2 upp), Nevera (maxed)
suggested specials: Bomber Aircraft (at least 2 upp), Frozen Air (maxed), Iron Wood (maxed)
unit placement: immediately place a Knight to one of two-groupped the poles to produce badges. Hopefully this will kill the zombies released at the start, if not, choose a sufficient unit (you likely won't be able to afford another Knight, but any other you will. Avoid Zack or Jim).
Start placing Knights in all rows, but be outmost sure the lines with Knights are protected by a Jim. Place those Jims 2-3-4 hexes from the right edge of the screen.
You likely want to place like 2 Zacks in the middle row against miner zombies.
Gordons are to protect the back lines when you really have to against miners and bunnies, but hopefully you can avoid placing any Gordon relying on Zacks instead.
Nemara is also a safety-unit. In lanes giant zombies appear you might want to place ONE of her to slow down the harm, but otherwise not much.
Your key unit is Knight. That's which can deal DAMAGE written all over it, and you want to finish this fight as soon as possible, as it soon becomes hopeless (when the robot-zombie hordes show up).
Best of luck!

BUGS concerning this last fight:
- the ending screen currently activates even if you don't win