Zombies come in rounds — clear every zombie in the round to end it, then a short breather before the next one starts. Rounds get bigger and tougher the further you go. Use the breather to loot, rebuild, and restock. Wooden shacks around the edge of town are full of Wood — shoot them down, then press B to build barricades that physically block zombies. Look for the glowing Dealer marker on the minimap — walk up and press E to buy random weapons and food/drink with cash. Survive round after round, loot cash on the way, then spend the Certs you bank on permanent upgrades in the Shop between runs.

Hostages appear each round, each guarded by a tougher AlphaZombie — clear the guard, then walk up to carry the hostage (carrying more slows you down). Deliver them to the Medical Van, then press C near it to cure them — Kwuarm cures regular infections, Myre Ash cures AlphaZombie infections. Leave a hostage uncured for 5 minutes and it turns, and can infect others you've already secured. By Round 5, every hostage must be rescued — fail, and your save is wiped.

Shields are permanent equipment. Buy them with Certs from the Shields menu, equip one before a run, or find a Casket dropped by a zombie and open it for a rarity-weighted shield roll. Dying never removes your equipped or owned shields.

The Banker can be found around the map and lets you deposit or withdraw stored items and weapons. The Bank in the main menu is deposit-only. The Dealer also carries one-use tools: Rope instantly delivers every hostage you're carrying straight to the van, Tinderbox ignites a ring of fire around you, Bones distract nearby wandering zombies, and an Iron bar fully repairs your nearest barricade. Utilities include Frag grenades, Spike traps, and Smoke grenades — smoke makes zombies route around the cloud instead of charging straight through it. You can hold at most 3 different kinds of item at once.