Guide · 07
Perks and Armory: build for the next sector
Choose one perk after each boss. Spend saved coins between runs. Build the tool that fixes the next failure, not the number that looks best on a card.
Perks are run-only choices. After every boss, you see three distinct cards chosen from perks you have not maxed. Common cards are weighted to appear more often than rare cards; rare cards appear more often than epic cards. Armory upgrades are different: they are permanent local progression bought with coins earned in runs. Neither system sells power for money.
Build with the road in mind. Damage clears crowds and boss adds. Soldiers create both damage and room for mistakes. Utility perks recover losses, protect against a hit, or turn coins into a stronger next run. The best card is the one that fixes the way the current squad is about to fail.
Every perk, rarity, and stack cap
| Perk | Rarity | Effect per rank | Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ricochet Rounds | Rare | +1 bounce; bounce hits a nearby zombie for 50% damage. | 2 |
| Piercing Rounds | Common | +1 enemy pierced by each bullet. | 3 |
| Incendiary | Epic | Hits burn for 3 seconds; rank adds 60% burn damage; burning kills spread fire. | 2 |
| Field Medic | Rare | Revives one fallen every 6 seconds; ranks shorten the interval. | 2 |
| Grenadier | Rare | Auto-throws at the densest cluster every 4 seconds; ranks shorten the interval. | 2 |
| Overclock | Common | +15% whole-squad fire rate. | 5 |
| Hollow Points | Common | +20% bullet damage. | 5 |
| Sharpshooter | Rare | +10% critical chance; criticals deal 2.5× damage. | 3 |
| Blast Shield | Epic | Absorbs the first trap hit in each sector. | 1 |
| Chain Lightning | Epic | 10% hit chance to arc to three nearby zombies. | 2 |
| Magnet | Common | Doubles coin pickups. | 1 |
| Rally Cry | Rare | +1 soldier every 100 metres; ranks shorten the distance. | 3 |
How stacks actually change play
Ricochet Rounds can bounce once at rank 1 and twice at rank 2. Each bounce seeks a nearby unhit target and deals half damage. It is strongest when targets are packed close, not when a boss is alone. Piercing Rounds add one pass-through per rank. Each pierce reduces the remaining bullet damage to 80%, but a line of enemies still receives far more total damage than one target.
Incendiary burns a hit zombie for three seconds. The burn damage scales with perk rank, and a burning kill spreads a reduced burn to nearby enemies. Take it for sustained dense packs; it has less immediate value when you must solve a single close threat this second. Chain Lightning begins at a 10% proc chance and reaches 20% at rank 2. When it triggers, it can strike up to three nearby enemies for 80% of the triggering hit’s damage.
Overclock stacks to +75% fire rate at rank 5. Hollow Points stacks to +100% bullet damage at rank 5. Both improve every soldier, which makes them better as the squad grows. A simple choice rule: take Hollow Points when you need each hit to matter against Brutes, Riots, or bosses; take Overclock when volume, on-hit effects, and crowd clearing matter more.
Recovery, tools, and economy perks
Field Medic revives one fallen soldier every six seconds at rank 1 and every three seconds at rank 2. It cannot revive soldiers who have not fallen, but it turns a damaged run into a recovering one. Take it after a bad sector if you have survivors and distance ahead. It does not rescue an already wiped squad.
Grenadier throws a grenade automatically when there are more than four enemies alive or a boss is active. At rank 1 it triggers every four seconds; at rank 2 every two seconds. The grenade uses the same dangerous-cluster or boss targeting logic as a manual grenade and does not spend your limited manual grenade count. It is a great answer to add-heavy bosses and packed ambushes.
Blast Shield has one rank. It refreshes once at the start of every sector and absorbs the first eligible trap hit. Take it when a thin squad needs certainty through an unfamiliar road. Magnet has one rank and doubles coin pickups for the rest of the current run. Take it early if the run is stable and you want to fund Armory upgrades; taking it just before dying has little time to work.
Rally Cry adds one soldier per 100 metres at rank 1, per 50 metres at rank 2, and per roughly 33.3 metres at rank 3. It is steady growth, not a burst. Take it early in a long run, especially if you have damage tools already. A late Rally Cry cannot replace a multiplier gate you needed before the next arena.
Critical hits and the damage package
All bullets have a base 5% critical chance. Sharpshooter raises that by 10 percentage points per rank: 15%, 25%, then 35%. With no Sharpshooter rank, criticals deal 2× damage; once you own it, criticals deal 2.5×. Sharpshooter pairs well with high-rate weapons and Overclock because more shots mean more critical rolls. Hollow Points applies to every bullet before the critical multiplier, so it stays useful in every weapon tier.
Armory upgrades: permanent effects
| Upgrade | Effect / level | Max | Cost curve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recruits | +1 starting soldier | 10 | 60 × 1.42level, rounded to 5 |
| Ammunition | +8% bullet damage | 10 | 80 × 1.48level, rounded to 5 |
| Trigger Work | +5% fire rate | 10 | 80 × 1.48level, rounded to 5 |
| Body Armor | 6% chance per level to shrug a lethal hit | 5 | 150 × 1.70level, rounded to 5 |
| Munitions | +1 grenade and +1 medkit per run | 3 | 200 × 2.00level, rounded to 5 |
| Scavenger | +10% coins earned | 5 | 120 × 1.60level, rounded to 5 |
Every run begins with four soldiers plus Recruits levels, one grenade plus Munitions levels, and one medkit plus Munitions levels. Ammunition adds 8% bullet damage per level. Trigger Work adds 5% fire rate per level. Body Armor rolls its listed chance whenever a lethal hit would take a soldier; at level 5 that is 30%. Scavenger multiplies all coins earned by 10% per level and stacks multiplicatively with the run-only Magnet.
Exact Armory purchase prices
| Upgrade | Next costs by level purchased |
|---|---|
| Recruits (10) | 60, 85, 120, 170, 245, 345, 490, 700, 990, 1,410 |
| Ammunition (10) | 80, 120, 175, 260, 385, 570, 840, 1,245, 1,840, 2,725 |
| Trigger Work (10) | 80, 120, 175, 260, 385, 570, 840, 1,245, 1,840, 2,725 |
| Body Armor (5) | 150, 255, 435, 735, 1,255 |
| Munitions (3) | 200, 400, 800 |
| Scavenger (5) | 120, 190, 305, 490, 785 |
Recommended build order: new players
Start with Recruits 1–3. Extra starting bodies make early gate choices less fragile and turn small additions into a better multiplier base. Then buy Ammunition 1–2 and Trigger Work 1–2 in roughly even order. Damage helps boss and Brute checks; rate helps horde control. Take Munitions 1 once you reliably reach traps and bosses with fallen soldiers: an extra grenade and medkit is a real recovery tool.
After that, choose the failure you see most. Buy Body Armor if isolated lethal hits and traps are cutting the formation. Buy Scavenger if you are stable enough to complete sectors and want to accelerate future purchases. Do not sink the first several hundred coins into late Recruits levels while weapon damage is too low to clear the road.
Recommended build order: veteran runs
For deep, consistent runs, build a balanced engine: Recruits for the gate base, Ammunition and Trigger Work for scaling, then Munitions for boss resources. Body Armor adds reliability but is chance-based; it is best when a long run dies to occasional spikes rather than a predictable DPS failure. Scavenger is an investment. Combine it with early Magnet when the run is already strong, then keep killing elites and clearing bosses to convert the multiplier into future upgrades.
Coin farming without throwing runs
Coins come from kills, elites, destroyed barricades (12), destroyed turrets (10), coin crates, and bosses. Base enemy coin values range from 1 for Walkers and Runners to 8 for Brutes; lurkers pay 5–16. Elite kills award four times the normal archetype coin amount. Boss awards start at 40 coins in sector 1 and rise by 35 per sector. Coin crates pay 25 plus 15 per current sector index. Magnet doubles coin pickups; Scavenger adds 10% per rank.
Farm safely. Take coin crates when the lane is clear. Destroy barricades and turrets because they are already road problems. Kill elites because their payout is real, but do not steer through a trap to chase an elite drop. Boss clears are the most dependable milestone payout because they also grant a perk. A dead run cannot spend its potential coins.