Dear Merc, welcome to San Yager, the fallen zombie city. Your mission brief is quite short to explain: collect enough Blood Crystals, call the chopper and evacuate. Sounds easy, right? It's not that simple.

The following instructions are crucial for you to survive and complete the mission, and I, Victoria, might be the only one here who is willing to tell you this much——every other Merc is your potential opponent, although sometimes you may team up with one of them. Now let me explain the rules of survival and winning.

[Note: The mechanism explained here applies to Open Beta (up to the update on 2022.11.3) and is subject to adjustment in future versions.]

Preparation Phase

After the start of the mission, you will enter San Yager via chopper with other Mercs. This is preparation phase, for you could check the map and purchase your gear from a random range of weapons, armor, Tactical Gear, resupplies and components before entering the battlefield——don't worry, Shelter has funded the mission's cost and offers you a start-up budget. Sometimes there will be discounts and extra funding, but you should always think twice before entering San Yager, as the budget is limited.

After checking the map and choosing the equipment, you could fly the chopper above San Yager and choose a landing location to rappel. There are several blocks that have Blood Crystals or advanced resupply crates, while other blocks have only normal resupplies. This is the time to carry out your strategic planning——whether to collect Blood Crystals and call the evac chopper apace, or to arm yourself with equipments of higher level and hijack other Mercs' chopper, it's all up to you.

Road to Victory

Before taking a closer look at San Yager, it's time for some surviving and winning instructions. Basically, there are 6 things that you should always bear in mind:

One, arming yourself with everything you could find, this would increase your chance of survival;
Two, knowing your enemy, this includes special mutants among zombies and other Mercs;
Three, collecting Blood Crystals, because this is the key to get on board of the evac chopper; 
Four, calling for evacuation, the most intense moment of the whole mission;
Five, hijacking is also an option if someone has called for evacuation;
And six, there is another way of winning, the cost is becoming a zombie. 

Now, I would explain these rules in details and you should count them. 

1 Arming Yourself

-Weapons and Armors

In the battlefield, you could carry two long-range weapons and one melee weapon, equip with an armor, a vest and a helmet. All weapons and armors could be found when opening boxes, closets, trunks and among zombie drops, all the unlooted resource points are marked on the minimap. You could also purchase weapons from the shop in the Safehouse.

Weapons could be upgraded when you collect enough Mod Materials. You could choose one upgrade from two options. Advanced weapon——AK-47m could be found when opening advanced resupply boxes in particular blocks.

Armors have different levels, you could replace the equipped armors with higher ones that prove more HP, more ammo and bandage capacity and more headshot damage reduce.

You could try weapons and armors in the shooting range when you are in Merc Base. 

Learn more about weapons: http://www.gamezoz.com/news/strategy/weapons/20220915/37934_1029306.html

-Tactical Gear

You could carry no more than 2 pieces of Tactical Gear. All pieces of Tactical Gear could be found when opening boxes, closets, trunks and among zombie drops. You could also purchase Tactical Gear from the shop in the Safehouse.

You could try some pieces of Tactical Gear in the shooting range when you are in Merc Base. 

Learn more about Tactical Gear: http://www.gamezoz.com/news/strategy/weapons/20221011/37934_1046322.html

-Components

You could carry no more than 6 components. All components could be found when opening boxes, closets, trunks and among zombie drops. You could also choose one component from thre options when opening handbags.

Learn more about components: http://www.gamezoz.com/news/strategy/skills/20220915/37935_1037220.html

-Resupplies and Zees

The capacity of resupplies is up to the vest you are wearing, while there is no limit for collecting Zees. Use bandage to recover HP and Cardiotonic to revive when you get knocked down. Spend Zees to purchase weapons, Tactical Gear from the shop in the Safehouse or refresh the list of the shop.

-Safehouse

Each block has a Safehouse for you to get healed, purchase weapons and Tactical Gear in shop and observe other Mercs' location with Intelligence Machine. Safehouse is also a truce zone where nobody could use any weapons and Zombie Mercs will be immediately eliminated, unless the switch outside the Safehouse is pulled. 

When you are knocked down, other than using Cardiotonic, you could also find the nearest Safehouse and get healed on Medical Bed. When you are eliminated, you could choose a Safehouse to revive and return to the battlefield.

2 Knowing Your Enemy

San Yager is now totally a city of zombies, no human beings nor animals are still alive anywhere in the city, as far as we have detected. Therefore, fire at will when you see any living creatures.

Beware of some sepcial mutants——they are stronger than normal zombies or have skills that could cause deadly trouble to you, get away from them or eliminate them as soon as possible with fully open fire.

Learn more about special mutants: http://www.gamezoz.com/news/strategy/others/20221020/37936_1047646.html

Meanwhile, other Mercs are also not friendly to you, because the number of Blood Crystals and mission time are both limited——the evacuated, the winner. You could choose to be alone or team up with another Merc before starting the mission. When you go solo, you would enter the battlefield with the other 13 lone Mercs, while 7 duos would be your opponents when you are in a team of two.

3 Collecting Blood Crystals

-Extracting from the Incubator

The first method to get Blood Crystals is to extract from the Incubator——a special zombie that has fully crystallized and, of course, has died for good. The upside is that you could ensure that the Blood Crystal is in your own hand and your HP would increase, while the downside is that you could be the target of other opponents, since the advanced minimap shows the location of every Blood Crystal, carrying them with you means your own location is also exposed to others. 

Dropped Blood Crystals and unextracted Incubators will emit a conspicuous red beam, it's easy to notice with naked eye. You could take advantage of this feature and drop the BCs you have collected, using them as bait to lure other Mercs.

-Robbing other Mercs' Blood Crystals

Other Mercs in the same mission will also be collecting Blood Crystals, and the second method is to rob from them. Taking BCs from another Merc means a direct fight. You could check the minimap to locate the Mercs who are carrying Blood Crystals——BCs couldn't move by themselves, after all.

4 Calling for Evacuation

-Collect enough Blood Crystal

If you want to call for evacuation, you need to collect enough Blood Crystals. There are three chances to evacuate in the mission, each require 5 Blood Crystals to get on the chopper.

-Choose a safe spot to call for an evac chopper

When collected enough Blood Crystals, you could set the Signal Emitter to call in the evac chopper. However, the chopper takes 4 minutes to be in position. In these 4 minutes, you need to stay safe to be able to evacuate. Choose a proper place to call for evacuation is important——you could choose higher grounds that are easy to defend, such as rooftops and bell towers, or just set the Emitter in an open area and hide and snipe other Mercs. Besides, when you find other Merc's Emitters, you could get close to and destroy them and stop the evac-calling signal. 

-Secure evacuation supplies

When waiting for evacuation, some suppy crates will be dropped into the signal zone. Be aware that the drops would attract other Mercs, so remember to stay alert when securing the supplies.

-Check Blood Crystals at Boarding

When the chopper gets to the evacuation point, an evacuation ring would take a few seconds to be deployed and you should enter the ring. 

It would take an additional few seconds to check Blood Crystals count. If you doesn't have enough, boarding access will be denied. 

Meanwhile, other Mercs could still attack you, take Blood Crystals and hijack the chopper. So never be off guards until you have evacuated successfully! 

5 Hijacking: Sneak and Hit

The moments when the evac chopper is called and arrives are always the most intense time in the whole mission——that might be the longest few minutes if it is you who called the chopper, for you don't know how many Mercs are heading towards the evacuation spot trying to stop you. I have seen so many times that Mercs thought they could evacuate successfully, but got killed just before the second they could get on the chopper, leaving the evacuation chance to the hijacker. Meanwhile, you could also choose to be the one who ambushes others and snatch the victory from them. In short, it's a clutch moment for everyone. 

Why hijacking?

Evacuation requires enough Blood Crystals, robbing the Merc who has called for a chopper will make sure that enough Blood Crystal is present for an immediate evacuation. Furthermore, there are only 3 chances to evacuate in each match, interfering another player from evacuation increases your own winning chance.

How to Hijack

Idea 1: Choose a covert place that could observe the evacuation point and ambush the evacuating Merc before they leave.

Idea 2: Use Tactical Gear such as Targeted Assault, MG Tower or Molotov Cocktail to obstruct the opponents from getting to the evac point.

How to Counter Hijacking

Method 1: Drop off the Blood Crystals and use them as bait.

Method 2: Use Tactical Gear such as Smoke Granade, Mech-Shield or Holographic Projector and keep moving to avoid being interrupted from evacuation.

Of course, there are more ways to hijack and counter hijack, it's up to you to try them out. 

6 Be Somebody Else, Be Something Else

Do you remember that earlier I mentioned that you could revive at Safehouse after being eliminated? It doesn't mean that you could always come back as human. When your elimination count reaches 6, the mutation would be unstoppable and you would transform as Zombie Merc with the ability to detect the nearest Human Merc around you.

According to our field research, the turned Mercs couldn't use any items from the battlefield, but are strong enough with unlimit stamina to run faster, climb higher and deal a lot of damage with melee attack; besides, they could evolve and possess multiple lethal skills, dealing damage would accelerate the evolution speed. 

Meanwhile, they couldn't hurt each other and have only one shared goal, which is killing Human Mercs as much as possible——that's their own way of competition, only the top 3 in number of killing Human Mercs could be winners.

Learn more about Zombie Merc Skills: http://www.gamezoz.com/news/strategy/skills/20220916/37935_1035193.html

[Note: In Solo mode, when the player is knocked down, they could also choose to mutate as Zombie Merc by pushing the mutation button even if the death count hasn't reached 6. In Duo mode, when a player is killed for 6 times, they would enter the spectator perspective, observing their teammate; when the teammate is also killed for 6 times, both would turn to Zombie Mercs, one right on the death spot, the other at the nearest Zombie Merc revival point.]

One more thing, you could follow our Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ZOZFinalHour) and join our Discord server (http://discord.gg/EncGWSEWbs) to get the latest info, chat with other Mercs around the world and keep sending any kinds of feedback to us. Your support is our cherished treasure! 

That's all I could tell you before the mission starts. Now gear up, enjoy the fight and be the winner. 
Good luck in San Yager! 

Best Regards,

Victoria