Wastelands

“The infected down there are beyond anything that we have ever imagined“

— A soldier guarding the entrance of Wastelands

The Wastelands, as shown on the in-game map.

The Wastelands is a new map area that was added to the Inner City on January 19th, 2016, located underneath the Southwestern Zone of the city, several blocks away from Precinct 13. This is currently the most challenging area in the game, bringing a large amount of new content including new types of zombies, environments, and much more.

Overview

Wasteland entrance

Unlike all other areas in the game that only soft level limits imposed by the infected population, the Wastelands has a much more strict requirement: Only those at level 75 or higher are allowed to enter (previously 100).

Both Wasteland entrances are heavily guarded by soldiers and Secronom scientists. The terrain in the Wastelands itself mainly consists of large open fields scarcely populated with debris including tire stacks, broken cars and alien-looking large stalagmites. Buildings are almost completely absent aside from the occasional trailer house. The Wasteland's wide-open terrain gives survivors plenty of room to maneuver against the horde during grinding sessions, provided that they are actually fast enough to outrun them in the first place.

Aggro in the Wasteland work differently compared to other zones: If a Canary is triggered or a random horde event occurs, the aggro becomes permanent with the Horde Counter refreshing to 150 every time it is depleted. This effectively prevents aggro from ever being killed off, save for escaping the Wasteland or entering a boss block to remove the counter altogether. The upper 2 rows of the Wasteland are not subjected to this mechanic and thus easier to survive in, at the cost of providing lowered loot quality.

• Due to a bug, aggro can still be killed by logging out, in again, and killing the remaining zombies silently.

Bestiary

As stated above, the addition of the wasteland has also brought new infected to the game. Here you will find a list of what spawns in this zone, but if you would like all the details, locate these enemies on the Bestiary and Bosses articles:

• Canary
• Black Tendril
• Black Bone
• Harvester
• Spiked Hound
• Titan
• Devil Hound
• Volatile Leaper

Zombie population overall in the Wastelands are far more powerful than in anywhere else, capable of overwhelming anyone without Speed Boost drugs and destroying a Tatakau Reactive in 2 hits. Further complicating the problem is the absurd amount of spawned Canaries in the area that can attract infected almost instantly and force permanent aggro on the entire block. However, Wastelands zombies on average also has rough 50-60% more XP density than Black Zone ones.

Devil Hound

“That thing is slicing up squads of guys in half“

— A soldier guarding the entrance of Wastelands

Replacing other bosses as the true top dog threat (literally) is the Devil Hound, a brand new type of mutant dog that has grown to enormous sizes and acquired an impressive set of jaws. Like with other zombie types in the Wasteland, the Devil Hound is considerably stronger than any other boss, requiring incredible amount of armor investment (read: Vengeance Guard, damage reduction) to be able to survive even 1 bite.

One should pray for luck and steel their nerves if they want to down this creature, for there will be no one else to aid them when the beast comes...

Volatile Leaper

A new zombie boss variant found in the Wasteland and also known as the "Black Leaper." This monstrosity is a cousin of a leaper that crawls on all fours at fast speeds and explodes on impact. Due to the harsher climate of the Wasteland, this boss is cumbersome to handle. The Volatile Leaper features an incredible explosion radius that is powerful, immunity to knock-back when attacking, and damage rivaling that of the Black Titan. Any survivor who manages to come across this thing should be well equipped and even then, may not even be strong enough to survive.

Looting

Looting within this area is extremely hard, due to high amounts of aggro. Along with that, each area contains a very little amount of loot spots. With that said, loot spots in this area can still be rewarding if you can surmount those challenges.

What are the differences?

• Loot spots overall are much less common than in the Inner City (2-4 per block).
• The loot table of the Wastelands is better than the black/white zone loot table. You will be able to loot 90-120 level weapons here (compared to black/white's 70-120). The armor set is the same but 45+ level repair armors are far more common.
• Loot spots in the wasteland contain less 'junk' loot and only 75+ medicines and food are lootable here. Clothing , misc items etc. are also very less likely to be found.
• 4x greater chance of looting high-end Weapons, Armour or Implants.

Grinding

Grinding is the primary purpose of the Wastelands, this is the area you will get the highest EXP gains. This does not come without it's risks as the zombies that inhabit the Wastelands are fast and plentiful, you need to remain attentive at all times to stand a chance at survival.

Recommendations:

• Have at least a 35% speed boost, although the higher speed boost you have the easier it will be to survive.
• Miniguns are the weapon of choice for most but high rate of fire shotguns can also serve you well
• Stay in the first 2 zones while learning and spend some time adjusting to how the aggro flows and how well your weapon holds off a large group.

Tips and Tactics

The wasteland is a very difficult area to survive in, however, there are several ways players can tackle this nightmare fuel. First thoughts when entering this area is to pull out your loudest and strongest weaponry, but this only causes unnecessary aggro and isn't suggested unless you are playing with a group of 3 or more players with a lot of firepower. With that said group play is heavily encouraged if you plan on playing in this area, as it provides the most security especially if all the players are in the same Clan HQ.

Otherwise, the first thing that a player should do is travel 4-5 blocks away from the entrance in order to get away from other players that can injure you or cause large aggro spikes and put a quick end to your run.

Note: If you are new to the wasteland it is wise to stick to the first two rows of the area in order to get used to the new infected as aggro spikes and horde size is much smaller in this section.

Once a player is in a safer and calm area, they can begin looting. The biggest threat in this area is not the Titans that spawn as regular zombies, but the large amount of Sirens that spawn in this area. If you let one scream and attract aggro to you it could mean a swift death, as the sheer amount of hounds that will spawn to maul at you can, and will kill you with ease, so always be on the lookout and prioritize sirens 100% of the time. If you can avoid the Sirens, looting becomes much more manageable.

If you happen to get an aggro spike, run to the nearest boss zone to reset your horde then quickly leave. Killing off an aggro spike in the wasteland is nearly impossible. Once you have left, rejoin the previous block you were just on or continue to another block as it is a good way to manage aggro spikes. Usually travelling a few blocks or leaving and rejoining on blocks several times will dissipate the aggro.

Hybrid builds are best suited for this area, as a strong silent weapon is necessary for Looting along with at least one high-powered crowd control weapon such as a shotgun or machine gun in case of an aggro spike as surviving without one is very unlikely.