Your First Round

Your first ZE round will be confusing. This page explains what’s happening so you can start contributing to the team immediately, even as a complete beginner.

The round starts

When a round begins, one or more players are randomly selected as the mother zombie(s). Everyone else is a human. Your job is to not get attacked by a zombie before the map ends.

Move with the group

The most important thing: stay with the humans. ZE maps are linear: humans move from one area to the next, holding positions and then pushing forward. If you get left behind, you’ll be isolated and infected quickly.

Follow the crowd. Listen for callouts in voice chat or text chat. If someone says “push” or “back”, move.

What leaders do

Most servers have experienced players who act as leaders: they call when to defend, when to push, and which items to use. You don’t need to lead on your first round. Listen to whoever is giving clear callouts.

DOCS UPDATE: Leader callout conventions

Describe the common callout patterns (e.g. “hold X seconds”, “push”, “back”, item activation calls). Needs input from experienced players.

Holding a position

At certain points in a map, humans stop and form a defense a easy to hold position where they buy time or trigger a map event. During a defense:

• Stay behind the hold line (watch where experienced players stand)
• Shoot the zombies to slow them down
• Don’t break the hold early

Getting infected

When a zombie touches you, you turn into a zombie. This is normal, it happens to everyone. As a zombie:

• Your goal is to infect the remaining humans
• Some maps have zombie-specific objectives or items
• Zombies can communicate just like humans, but the human leader takes priority in voice-chat. Use team chat as a zombie if you want to communicate (‘u’ key by default on CS2).

Round end

The round ends when either:

• All humans are infected (zombies win)
• Humans reach the escape trigger (humans win, a map-specific event like a door opening or a platform reaching an exit)

ZE maps can be 10-15 minutes long for shorter maps or even an hour for long, multi-staged maps. Maps that have multiple stages require the humans to complete all stages in order for it to technically be a ‘win’.

What to focus on your first few sessions

1. Move with the group, never wander.
2. Shoot at zombies during defenses, every bit of knockback helps.
3. Don’t touch the items (EntWatch items) until you understand what they do.
4. Mute anyone being disruptive so you can hear real callouts.

Read Playing as a Human or Playing as a Zombie to get move details about each team. Or, read Movement to learn some mechanics that make you a more capable player.