News & updates

A short and focused patch day.

Changes

• The human flashlight got retuned - better throw and a more useful beam in the dark maps.
• Survivor rounds now handle late joiners properly: arriving mid-round no longer confuses who the Survivor is, and the Survivor's own light effects stay glued to the right player.
• The zombie leap input got another hardening pass - it now fires consistently even under heavy server load.
• Leaving mid-round is handled cleanly: a player disconnecting no longer risks disrupting the round for everyone else.

Small patch, but the dark maps feel noticeably better with the new flashlight. Go test it somewhere with 1003 corpses.

The flashlight cannot protect you. But at least you will see it coming.

New map

• zm_house_of_1003_corpses joins the roster. The name is a promise.

New: Zombie Enrage

Zombies get a new Enrage tool, part of a wider set of configurable audio cues that telegraph big gameplay moments - you will hear when something dangerous is happening.

Balance

• Zombie respawn delay is now a unified six seconds across the board - predictable for both sides.
• Infection items got a refinement pass, and the Bazooka's impact has proper audio now.

Under the hood, but you will notice

• The server's light effects were rebuilt on safe native lighting, ending a family of visual glitches and client crashes tied to custom lights.
• Every particle effect is now validated against the current CS2 build before it ships, so effects stop silently breaking after Valve updates.

We counted the corpses. There are at least 1003.

Zombies get shop abilities

Zombies can now spend ammo packs on their own shop abilities, complete with positional audio so victims hear trouble coming from the right direction.

Infection Bomb polish

• The Infection Bomb now shows its signature green trail in flight.
• Its kills and infections credit the right player, and it properly checks that its victim is alive.

Performance

• Less stutter when players change roles - the moment of mass infection is much smoother.
• The gameplay thread now gets priority on the server, keeping tick rate steady under load.

Maps and fixes

• zm_bivouac removed from the roster - the map is no longer available upstream.
• The Bazooka's rocket flight got another repair pass after a CS2 game update shook things loose.
• Fixed a client crash related to light effects, and re-validated everything against the latest CS2 build.

Yes, the zombies have an economy now. No, they will not be unionizing. We asked.

New: the zombie leap

Special zombies can now leap - a proper pounce that closes the gap between you and that human camping the crates. Leap input got several reliability passes today, so it triggers when you mean it to.

Visual and menu polish

• Grenade radius rings are now correctly aligned with the actual effect area, and they animate.
• The Warcraft menu highlights your current selection, and the shop now shows purchase receipts so you know what you just bought.
• Weapon animations fixed for several custom items.
• A fresh batch of accepted Workshop assets is deployed and live.

Fairness fixes

• Infection death and respawn now happen exactly once - no more double-death moments or ghost respawns.
• Your kept items survive role changes properly when models swap.
• More stability work around round transitions, including a crash fix at round end.

Leap responsibly. Gravity remains undefeated.

The whole buying experience got rebuilt today.

Loadouts replace the buy menu

• Humans now receive their gear through a proper loadout system instead of CS2's native buying - your weapons arrive reliably at round start, with skins preserved.
• The Bazooka now sits in a proper secondary slot in that loadout.

Firepower and economy

• All firearms now carry double magazines - twice the bullets between reloads' worth of reserve. The horde is plentiful; now so is your ammo.
• Ammo packs are back and their earn rate has been retuned.
• New quick-buy chat commands let you grab shop items without opening a single menu.

Polish

• Menus got a cleanup pass - snappier and easier to read.
• The Bazooka's rocket now plays its effects at the right position in the world.

Quick-buy commands are listed in the shop menu. Spend responsibly. Or don't - it's the apocalypse.