Overview

Zombicide is a cooperative game in which players move around a map, complete mission objectives, and escape without dying or being overwhelmed by zombies. Each mission has its own win condition, shown in the top right.

Game Mechanics

Unless the mission states otherwise, players take control of six Survivors (some may control more than one, depending on the number of players). Some are adults (3 HP) and some are kids (2 HP), identified by a yellow icon on their character card. Kids have one less HP than adults, but start with the Slippery skill (ignore zombies when moving, do not spend extra actions). (Click the yellow triangle on the right side of a character card to see definitions for their skills.)

Zones

The board/map consists of square zones that are either outside or inside. Inside a building, a Zone is a room. On a street, a Zone is the area between crosswalk markings and/or building walls (or the board's edge).

Survivors have line-of-sight in any non-diagonal direction to any other street zones up to the board's edge as long as they aren't blocked. However, a Survivor can only see as far as one zone into a building with an open door (and must be directly adjacent to the zone). From an inside zone, a Survivor can only see as far as one zone to any adjacent room through an open door, but can see into the street with no limit.

Equipment

Cards can be either a weapon or equipment. Any card can be stored in either a Survivor's hand (they have two) or their backpack (three inventory spaces). Extra items must be discarded.

Weapons

Weapons are indicated by a knife or pistol symbol. Starting weapons are gray. Basic weapons found during the game are blue. "Pimpweapons" (special strong found in yellow crates) are red.

Each weapon has four numbers at the bottom.

Other Symbols

Name	Icon	Definition
Melee		Indicates a melee weapon, which means the user must be in the same zone as a zombie to use it in combat. (i.e. range = 0)
Ranged		A pistol indicates a ranged weapon, which can be used from a distance.
Dual		If you have 2 identical weapons with this symbol in each hand, you can use both weapons with one action. Both weapons must target the same zone.
Bullets		This weapon uses bullets for ammo. (Certain equipment cards can affect weapons that use bullets, but you don't run out of ammo.)
Shells		This weapon uses shotgun shells for ammo. (Certain equipment cards can affect weapons that use shells, but you don't run out of ammo.)
Noise		Using this weapon generates a Noise token in your zone, which attracts zombies.
Silent		Using this weapon does not generate noise.
Door Opener		This weapon can be used to open doors. It is always accompanied by a Noise or Silent icon to indicate whether opening the door with this weapon produces a Noise token.

Ranged weapons cannot select a target. Zombies will be hit in the following order: Brutes/Abominations (player choice), Walkers, then Runners. For example, if you attack a zone with 4 Walkers and 1 Runner, the Walkers will be hit first until all are defeated, then the Runner.

Watch out for friendly fire: If a zone contains a mix of zombies and Survivors, any unsuccessful hits on a ranged attack will hit a Survivor of the player's choice. Multiple failed hits can be distributed among multiple Survivors.

Adrenaline Points (AP) and Danger Level

Each time a character kills a zombie, that character gains Adrenaline Points (AP). Gaining enough AP allows that character to advance in Danger Level (from blue to yellow to orange to red) Each increase in level grants 1 ability to the Survivor. Some offer multiple options, but you can only choose one.

But this has a trade-off. When zombies spawn, the highest Danger Level of any Survivor determines which and how many zombies spawn. For example, if one Survivor is in blue, four Survivors are in yellows, and one is in orange, the zombie spawn will be of orange level. Therefore, it's a smart strategy to stay around the same level as your fellow Survivors.

Zombies

Zombies do not "retain" their HP counts (as in an RPG). To kill a zombie, you have to do all your damage at once to kill it. Therefore, weapons that only do one damage are useless against Runners and Abominations, and BGA will not allow the combat action if they are the only available targets. Brutes have Damage 1, Health 2, Actions 1, AP 1, Special Rule: Only a Damage 2+ weapon or Molotov can have an impact on them. There are 16 in the supply. Runners have Damage 1, Health 1, Actions 2, AP 1. There are 16 in the supply. Abominations have Damage 1, Health 3, Actions 1, AP 5, Special Rule: Only a Damage 3+ weapon or a Molotov can have an impact on them. No weapon has a natural 3, a Skill or similar is needed.

Caption text

Type	Icon	HP	# of actions	AP Reward	Total
Walker		1	1	1	40
Runner		1	2	1	16
Brute (a.k.a. Fatty)		2	1	1	16
Abomination		3	1	5	4

Zombies can spawn from the following events:

1. Beginning of the game (as part of the setup)
2. When a door is opened
3. During the zombie phase
4. When searching a room

Types of zombie spawns are:

• Normal: Zombies spawn but do not move/attack
• Rush: Zombies spawn and move/attack
• Extra Activation: Zombies of the indicated type take a second move/attack

Abominations

There can only be one Abomination on the board at a time. If a second Abomination would spawn, the existing Abomination takes an extra action instead.

Abominations require 3 damage to kill, but no weapon can do more than 2 damage. However, 3 damage can be reached using skill cards or special rules for a mission.

There are four possible types of Abomination:

Name	Icon	Special Rules
HOBOMINATION		A Survivor cannot take the Combat action if in the same zone as this Abomination (i.e., must be killed with a ranged weapon)
ABOMINACOP		Takes precedence in priority order when resolving successful attacks (i.e., protects other zombies in its zone)
ABOMINAWILD		Molotovs thrown into its zone only affect the Abomination (i.e., no other zombies besides the Abominawild are killed)
PATIENT 0		None

Gameplay

Player Turn

If you are controlling multiple characters, fully complete one character's turn before taking a different character's turn, but you can choose the order in which your characters act

A character starts with 3 Actions per turn, but this can be increased as they level. The actions are as follows:

• Move - 1 Action to move to an adjacent Zone +1 Action per zombie in current zone. This means with the base 3 actions, if a character has 3 zombies in their zone, they cannot move. If movement takes a character into a zone with zombies they cannot continue moving even if they have enough actions to progress.
• Search - Whilst in an Inside Zone with no Zombies, 1 action to draw an equipment card and either put it in Hand, put it in Backpack, or Discard it. If they put it in Hand/Backpack, they get a free action to redistribute the cards they currently hold however they like. If they have no space for the new item, during the redistribution they can choose a different item to discard. A Character can only perform 1 Search per turn, if they have a skill which gives them a Free Search this also counts as their 1 Search per turn.
• Open Door - If the character holds an item in hand which contains the door symbol on the top left, they can spend 1 action to open a door adjacent to the zone they are in. Abnormal doors may require a mission based objective to be met before they can be opened. If the door was the first door to be opened for that building, spawn zombies in each Dark Zone of that building. If a rush card was drawn, the zombie will both spawn and take an action, which may mean they move into a Light Zone.
• Trade - For 1 action, you can either trade with one other character in the same zone or redistribute your items between your Backpack and Hand. A trade does not have to be equal, it can be 1-for-1 or it could be a full take or a full give or some other arrangement agreed upon between the controlling players. The other character in the trade gets a free redistribution.
• Noise - For 1 action you can place a noise token in your zone
• Interact with Objective - For 1 Action you can interact with or take an objective, this effect can vary based on the Mission, but typically gives 5AP unless the Mission states otherwise.
• Combat - For 1 action, you can use a weapon against a zone with Zombies, if you satisfy the condition for Dual Wield you can use a single action to use both weapons.
• Wait - You can pass on any actions you don't wish to take

After all players have had a turn, the first player becomes the subsequent payer. The previous first player will become the last player in the next round.

Zombie Turn

After all characters and thus all players have taken their turns, the zombies activate

First, attacks happen. Each zombie attacks a character in its zone, if there are multiple characters then the players choose which character takes the hit.

Second, movement happens. Each zombie which did not attack, as such has no characters in its zone, moves 1 zone. Where they move will depend on a few things. First, they'd like to go towards a zone (note they may not actually reach it) that has the most combined characters and noise tokens in it which is within its line of sight and contains at least 1 character. If there are no characters in its Line of Sight, then it moves towards the noisiest zone regardless of distance. Remember, character tokens count towards the noise level. If the path to the destination is blocked at any point between the zombie and the target zone, the zombie does not move at all. If the target zone has multiple routes of equal distance, the zombies split up as evenly as possible and take all the equidistant routes.

For Runners, they do this check twice, their first priority is always attack, with second priority being move. This means they could, in priority order, attack-attack, attack-move, move-attack or move-move

After activation, Spawn happens. In ascending order, from each numbered spawn point, draw a card to see what arrives corresponding with the current danger level, remember this is equal to the highest character level in all the group. Some spawn locations may be special, these do not spawn until the Mission tells you to, after a special spawn location starts spawning it continues spawning on each subsequent Spawn Phase, unless the mission says otherwise. If there are not enough zombies of a type to spawn what is needed, the zombies of that type get an activation instead.

Game End

Win Conditions

The game is won when the Mission Objectives are all complete

Loss Conditions

The game is lost if any Survivor dies

The game is lost if a game state causes a Mission Objective to be impossible to complete

The game is lost if a Mission specific Loss criteria is met