Strongboxes are the primary source of new hardware in Zombie Assault: Resurgence. You earn them and open them to uncover new weapons and armor, weapon mods, and — in the higher grades — the BioMech CPUs that pay for your ability upgrades. In the second public playtest they dropped common guns and gear that could be equipped straight to your characters; the playtest build alone carried 10 guns, including the starter weapons and a full HVM armor set.
What a Strongbox can contain
What is inside depends on the grade of the box:
- Weapons and armor at the common end of the rarity ladder.
- Weapon mods, which are also stocked by Vendors if you would rather buy them than open for them.
- BioMech CPUs in the higher-grade boxes. This is the part that is easy to miss: the higher grades of Strongbox feed directly into the ability build, not the gun build.
That last point matters more than it sounds. BioMech CPUs are the currency that buys ability Upgrades and Enhancements, and without them your three activated abilities stay at their base level no matter how good your guns get — the abilities page covers what those upgrades do.
Strongboxes, Supply Drops and destructible loot
Three sources of new gear get confused with each other, and they are not interchangeable:
| Source | What it gives | When it happens |
|---|---|---|
| Strongbox | Weapons, armor, mods, and BioMech CPUs in higher grades | Earned and opened outside the mission |
| Supply Drop | Carries a Power Weapon, and can also be looted | Mid-mission, and removed entirely on Tough Operations |
| Loot in destructibles | Small pickups scattered through the world | During a mission, where the environment can be broken open |
Supply Drops and destructible loot are the in-mission half of the loop, and the Supply Drop is the only source of a Power Weapon — the Power Weapons page covers those five.
Opening more without the wait
One weapon is not in any Strongbox at all: the Morlok Frostbite Pistol was a Next Fest challenge reward, delivered through the NinjaKiwi account instead of a box — the weapons page has the claim steps.
One piece of feedback worth knowing before you open a stack of them: players complained that the Strongbox opening animation takes too long, and the developers said they would look at shortening it or making it skippable. If a long opening is what is putting you off boxes, that is the reason.
If you would rather skip the RNG, weapon mods are also sold by Vendors, so the vendors page covers that route to the same items.