ZED ZONE official gameplay screenshot
Official game imagery: Leven Liu / INDIECN

Built from the 1.0 launch announcement, the Horde Challenge announcement and patches through 1.0.15. Horde Mode changed several times in the first week after launch, so each rule names the patch it comes from.

How a run works

A trader hires you to defend his RV camp. The horde attacks at dusk, and each wave is stronger than the last, with raiders, giant creatures and cataclysm-class monsters mixed in. By default, holding out for 20 waves wins the defense; turn on Endless mode to keep going past that. You can play solo or in a team of up to four, with separate solo and team leaderboards.

NoteHorde Mode is not the same as Cataclysm Mode. Cataclysm Mode is a separate survival mode that unlocks after you finish Standard Mode.

Between waves: airdrops and long rests

After every wave you clear, supplies are airdropped into the camp. Every 5 waves you get a long rest. Since patch 1.0.13, if you walk away after firing a flare, the airdrop waits for you to come back before it lands. Patches 1.0.13 and 1.0.14 also fixed airdrop crates that were invisible and never landed.

NoteThe long rest every 5 waves is the natural time for bigger jobs, such as rebuilding a wall or reorganizing the camp.

Walls decide where the horde breaks in

Since patch 1.0.14, when the camp is walled off on all sides, elite and special infected look for the weakest wall and break through it, and Boomers blow themselves up at the breach. The same patch stopped special infected from taking a long time to appear when the camp is fully enclosed.

NoteSealing the camp does not stop the attack; it tells you where it will come. Know which section is your weakest wall and keep Boomers away from it.

The camp is cleaned up before each wave

Since patch 1.0.13, monster corpses and loose items near the camp rot away in the last 60 seconds of each preparation phase. Player corpses, weapons, valuables and unopened supply packs are kept, and weapons and valuables carried by a corpse drop where it lay. The host can also clear the ground by hand from the ESC menu with Clear Ground Items and Corpses.

NotePick up any loose items you want to keep before the last minute of the preparation phase.

What you keep after a run

Horde Mode does not save the world: patch 1.0.4 made the save panel say so, and patch 1.0.14 marks Save Game as unavailable in Horde Mode. What lasts is your character’s progress. Experience, attribute points and skills earned in a run carry over to the next one. Patch 1.0.10 fixed skills and experience from Endless mode being lost when you returned to your original world, and patch 1.0.14 stopped levels and skills earned in Horde Mode from rolling back when you load an older save.

NoteTreat the camp and its loot as temporary. Your experience and skills are what you take away from a run.

The launch leaderboard challenge

For the 1.0 launch, the top 10 on the four-player Horde Mode leaderboard win Steam Wallet gift cards. The leaderboard closes at midnight at the end of 15 November, Beijing time (08:00 on 15 November, Pacific time), and entries are due by 12:00 on 16 November, Beijing time. Only the four-player leaderboard counts. Entries are sent by email with leaderboard screenshots and Steam account details, as set out in the announcement.

NoteTrainers, console commands, save-file swapping, account boosting and doctored screenshots lead to disqualification. Read the official announcement for the full rules before entering.

Sources & references

Reviewed against published documentation on 12 Nov 2026. Advice is editorial unless identified as a documented game behavior; no in-game testing is claimed.