---
description: Skial's Zombie Escape Mod Overview
---

# Mod Mechanics

## <mark style="color:blue;">Humans</mark>

* Have access to weapons modified from base-game TF2
* Different classes with unique playstyles, strengths, and weaknesses
  * HP and Speed are modified from base-game TF2
  * Many mechanics have been modified or disabled (e.g. ÜberCharge and explosive-jumping)

Round is won when the Human team has "escaped" the map, survived long enough, or completed all objectives. Round is lost when all humans become infected, die or they fail one of the map's conditions.

## <mark style="color:red;">Zombies</mark>

* Have tremendously increased HP
* Have a near-instant respawn
* Have access to weapons modified from base-game TF2
* Can _usually_ infect humans in one-shot
* Different classes with unique playstyles, strengths, and weaknesses
  * HP and Speed are modified from base-game TF2
  * Some mechanics have been modified
  * Have unique abilities called ~~**Mutations**~~**&#x20;Enzymes**
* Round is _not_ lost when all zombies are dead

Round is won when all the humans have died. Round is _not_ lost when all zombies die unless during map-specific sections.

### Class Change

As a <mark style="color:blue;">**Human**</mark>, you can only change classes for a few seconds **before** the round starts. If the duration is too short or non-existent, **you may need to preemptively change classes before the end of the current round.**

As a <mark style="color:red;">**Zombie**</mark>, you will have to have either just joined, left **Spectator**, or died. To maneuver around this, you can set an [<mark style="color:purple;">**Advanced Setting**</mark>](#user-content-fn-1)[^1] in TF2 to force death on class change, allowing you to swap classes throughout the round. _This won't affect you as a <mark style="color:blue;">**human**</mark> thus preventing you from changing classes during the round._

### Round Start (Autobalance)

* Everyone will start on the <mark style="color:blue;">**Human**</mark> team until the warmup timer ends.
* The auto-infect system will pick humans to become zombies until <mark style="color:yellow;">**15%**</mark> of the amount of players on the server are <mark style="color:red;">**Zombies.**</mark>
  * _A <mark style="color:yellow;">**32**</mark> player server will have <mark style="color:yellow;">**\[27]**</mark>_ _<mark style="color:blue;">**Humans**</mark> and <mark style="color:yellow;">**\[5]**</mark>_ _<mark style="color:red;">**Zombies.**</mark>_
  * _A <mark style="color:yellow;">**64**</mark> player server will have <mark style="color:yellow;">**\[51]**</mark>_ _<mark style="color:blue;">**Humans**</mark> and <mark style="color:yellow;">**\[10]**</mark>**&#x20;**<mark style="color:red;">**Zombies**</mark>._
* **`Spectators`** will be placed at the front of the queue, meaning that the more recently you joined as <mark style="color:blue;">**BLU;**</mark> _or if you AFKed long enough to be moved into spectator your priority for zombie will increase._

{% hint style="info" %}
<mark style="color:yellow;">**Why am I Zombie Twice sometimes?**</mark> After being picked as a _**mother-zombie**_**,** you will be placed at the back of the queue and will not have to worry about auto-infection for some time, until your queue rolls along to a high enough priority.

<mark style="color:yellow;">**Per every 24 hours you will have ONE auto-infect 'immunity' upon joining, preventing you from becoming a zombie for the current/or next starting round.**</mark>
{% endhint %}

### Round Timer

At the top of the screen during rounds, you'll notice a timer. When it reaches <mark style="color:yellow;">**zero**</mark>, the Human team will automatically lose. In most cases, it will be unreasonable to reach this since you would have to stall out at certain areas for an exceedingly long time. Some maps, however, have timers that may just _barely_ be enough to complete the stage.

## Map Votes

* A vote will be triggered for the next map at <mark style="color:yellow;">**6:00**</mark> on the **Map Timer** viewable on the Scoreboard _**(Not to be mistaken with the Round-Timer)**_&#x20;
* Players will be able to either extend the current map or vote for the next map among a selection that has been randomly selected or player-nominated.
* Humans losing <mark style="color:yellow;">**3**</mark> times in a row disables the map extension. It can be regained by Humans winning the round _after_ the 3rd loss in a row before the automatic vote has been triggered. Each map is typically limited to <mark style="color:yellow;">**2**</mark> extensions.
* If the team restarts a round before reaching <mark style="color:yellow;">**5:00**</mark> on the Map Timer, they will be able to play a round of the map before leaving.
* After a map has been played, it will be on cooldown. Players will not be able to nominate and play that map until enough other maps have been cycled through. _<mark style="color:yellow;">**(Currently 5 map CD)**</mark>_
* Players may also force a map vote if enough people use the **RTV** command after <mark style="color:yellow;">**500 seconds**</mark> of a map change; or through the usage of Skial Credits _(That method will always show a 'Don't Change' option to extend.)_

## Modes

### <mark style="color:orange;">**Normal Difficulty**</mark>&#x20;

_The standard way to play. Currently no modifiers._

* As the standard difficulty, it's the **only** way _(new)_ community map records/progress will count towards being completed. View [**Map Records**](../highlights/map-list-+map-records) notes for any additional requirements.

### <mark style="color:green;">**Casual Difficulty**</mark>&#x20;

_A more relaxed take on the game mode, useful for learning or practicing a map:_

* **Humans take less damage,** _(**-30% Map Damage Reduction**; Stackable with Battalions.)_
* Friction is disabled; **tl;dr generally allowing zombies to take more knockback.**
* Zombies are slowed for much longer, _(**+1 second** to slow duration.)_
* Even individual _**pellets**_ will slow zombies from afar, granting _**solo-stalling capability almost exponentially.**_

_The server will automatically engage a vote for <mark style="color:green;">**Casual Difficulty**</mark> after <mark style="color:yellow;">**(2)**</mark> consecutive losses at the start of the following round; until a win is achieved._

### <mark style="color:yellow;">**Pandemic Mode**</mark>

**A modifier-based sub-difficulty; you can vote for it after the end of a map vote to apply some 'kickers' to the next map.**&#x20;

**Vote will not prompted for when selecting a&#x20;**<mark style="color:purple;">**Leader**</mark>**&#x20;map - this mode is meant to spice up some of the less interesting maps like Boat, Atix, etc**

* Co-exists on top of either Casual or Normal mode
* Requires **60%** of yes votes to enable
* Will remain enabled until next map is RTVed and cannot be turned off for the duration of map
  * Players can RTV out of maps with Pandemic mode enabled within a minute
* <mark style="color:yellow;">**At the start of the round 2 kickers are chosen randomly out of this list - these will change randomly between every round reset:**</mark>
  * **Low Gravity**
  * **Random Taunting (forces taunting on players at random)**
  * **All mobility enabled&#x20;**_**(Rocket jumping, demo jumping, etc.)**_
  * **Faster Enzymes**
  * **1 Touch Infect (all classes can 1 tap humans regardless of overheal/base hp)**
  * **Tiny Zombies (smaller hitboxes)**
  * **Low Friction**
  * **Faster Zombies (base zm speed increase)**
  * **Exploding Zombies (they will explode being NEAR you)**
  * **Faster Bunny Hopping (bhop cap increased)**
* <mark style="color:red;">**There is a small chance that ALL of the above can be applied to a round simultaneously.**</mark>

## Sidenote

There _are_ other zombie-esque game modes available on TF2!

Years ago, it was primarily <mark style="color:orange;">**Zombie Fortress (ZF)**</mark>**&#x20;- n**_ow,_ the zombie genre has branched out quite a bit each having their own unique spin on things.&#x20;

* [<mark style="color:orange;">**Super Zombie Fortress (SZF)**</mark>](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Zombie_Fortress)
* <mark style="color:orange;">**Zombie Escape (ZE)**</mark>**&#x20;**_**(You're here!)**_
* [<mark style="color:orange;">**Zombie Survival (ZS)**</mark>](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Zombie_Survival)
* [<mark style="color:orange;">**Zombie Riot (ZR)**</mark>](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Zombie_Riot)
* [<mark style="color:orange;">**Zombie Infection (ZI)**</mark>](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Zombie_Infection) **(**_**Recently, TF2 has seen****&#x20;**<mark style="color:orange;">**Zombie Infection**</mark>**&#x20;****join the party into official Valve matchmaking Casual servers as a Halloween-exclusive game-mode.)**_

Other servers do host ZE, such as Otaku.tf. Do note that while some of the things discussed here may be applicable to both in terms of game-sense, versions of ZE for Skial and Otaku vary **significantly** in gameplay, map rotation, and the tools available for use on the server.

### Comparisons to other games

Those familiar with Zombie Escape on CS:S, CS:GO, and GMod may find many similarities between the three. While TF2 _does_ share a few elements, the mechanics of TF2 ZE make for a very different yet interesting experience when compared to them. There are different classes, movement is always fast-paced, and combat is a lot more close-range. You'll even notice that strategies for a map could differ drastically in contrast to what's usually done elsewhere. This all contributes to a different feel to the game mode that one may or may not find pretty exciting.

### Healing?

* Mostly to nudge away at the ignorant misconception of TF2 Healing mechanics nullifying the balance of a boss or map; <mark style="color:yellow;">**healing mechanics are commonly disabled by maps that are typically newer ports**</mark> _**(eg,****&#x20;**<mark style="color:yellow;">**Santassination, Mako V6, Djinn**</mark>**, etc...)**_
* _Some of the_ **older ports or TF2-made maps** _might be balanced around keeping healing on specifically and instead, bosses will do higher damage or still have their insta-kills to compensate enough. **(Uchiha, Offliner, Sandstone, Breezy, etc...)**_

[^1]: **Options > Multiplayer > Advanced >Ensure** `Suicide after choosing a player class` **is** **checked.**



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