How to play Zombie Assault: Resurgence in six steps: it is a top-down twin-stick shooter with RPG progression — you shoot in four directions, the camera sits above your merc, and you fight waves of zombies in Operations and Story Missions. A first session runs in a fixed order — create a merc, sort your loadout in Merc HQ, queue for a mission, vote, clear the objective, reach extraction, then spend what you earned. Work through these six steps in order and you will finish your first mission with a clear idea of what to do next.
How to play step one: create your merc and pick a class
- Create the account and the merc. You pick from three classes, and the class you start with decides your three activated abilities and your two speciality paths.
- Understand that characters level separately. Each class has its own level, so the choice you make now is not the only one you will ever play. Buying an extra character bunk on your account lets you run all three.
There is no wrong starter class, and no tier list to follow. The three split by role: Assault is the mobile generalist, Heavy is the tank that anchors a squad, and Medic keeps the squad alive. Compare their stat standing and starting weapons before you commit — the classes page has all three side by side.
Build your first loadout in Merc HQ
Merc HQ is the hub that handles matchmaking, loadouts, upgrades and preparation between missions. Your loadout has three weapon slots, five armor slots and two deployable slots for a turret and a grenade. Nothing stops you from changing a loadout later — there is no lock on it — so your first setup only has to be good enough to finish one mission. Every slot is explained on the loadout page.
Queue for a mission and vote on it
- Pick what you are running. Operations are generated repeatable missions; Story Missions are the campaign chapters. Both work as a first mission, and the game modes page explains how the two differ.
- Read the vote before you commit. The vote covers the mission and its difficulty, and it includes options for harder Operations with better rewards.
- Know what Tough does. The Tough modifier raises the level of the zombies and removes Supply Drops, and pays out more if you survive it. For a first run, take the normal vote.
Fight, complete the objective and reach extraction
Every Operation ends with an Extraction phase, and some mission types have you carry loot to the extraction point. If the whole squad goes down, the mission is lost — a downed merc can be revived, but a full wipe ends the run. There is no friendly fire and no PvP, so the only way to fail is to be overwhelmed.
Read the HUD while you play
- Minimap with your coordinates, so you can find your way to an objective instead of wandering.
- Squad panel listing each player's name, class icon and level.
- Objective tracker in the corner, which tells you what the mission actually wants.
- Weapon and deployable bar along the bottom, showing what you have equipped and what is ready.
Spend the rewards in the hub
Creds buy stock from the Vendors, materials let you craft, and your reputation level unlocks abilities, more bounty slots and deeper vendor access. The demo is still available as a free trial version of the full game, so you can test classes and builds before you commit to anything. What each vendor stocks is on the vendors page.
One rough edge to know about: if a tutorial ends with you stuck on the mission vote screen, check the main menu rather than the vote screen, because a restart and Esc do not get you back to the hub from there.