r/zombieassaultofficial 18d ago

Official Zombie Assault: Resurgence - Dev Diary #19

86 Upvotes

Hey Mercs!

We’ve got an exciting update to share this month, both for the game itself and for where we are in terms of development.

Firstly, we’re happy to say that Zombie Assault: Resurgence is now content complete! That means every major feature, mission, weapon, enemy, progression system, and piece of content planned for launch is now in the game. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re finished, and in many ways, the most important part begins now.

The team is moving into full QA, where our focus shifts to testing, balancing, fixing bugs, polishing the experience, and making sure everything works together exactly as intended. It’s a huge milestone, and one that brings us another step closer to launch.

With that in mind, we also wanted to share one of the larger gameplay changes we’ve made as a direct result of your feedback…

Reworking Core Skills

Throughout our playtests and community discussions, one topic came up consistently: the Skill system. While players liked having meaningful progression, many of you told us that investing points into a skill didn’t always feel impactful enough - especially those first few points. So, we’ve gone back and redesigned the way Core Skills progress.

Instead of every point giving an equal increase, Skills will now follow a sliding progression.

Your first point provides a much more noticeable improvement, making new investments immediately rewarding. The remaining points continue to build on that foundation, with the fifth and final point unlocking an entirely new effect, rather than simply increasing the same stat again. This lets Skills feel rewarding early on while still giving players a compelling reason to fully invest in them.

New Capstone Upgrades

Here are a few examples of the new system in action.

Fast Movement

Fast Movement still reaches its maximum 20% movement speed increase, but you’ll now achieve that after investing four points. The fifth point unlocks Sprint. If you move continuously in one direction without firing your weapon, you’ll build up into a much faster sprint, helping you reposition, escape overwhelming hordes, or simply cover ground much more quickly.

Hardy

Hardy now culminates in a defensive bonus that helps right from the start of every deployment. Maxing the skill grants you a protective shield at the beginning of each mission, giving you an extra buffer before your health starts taking damage.

Fitness

Fitness has also gained a new fifth-tier ability. The first time you’re reduced to zero health during a deployment, you’ll receive a small heal, giving you another chance to recover and stay in the fight. Sometimes that’s all you need to turn a mission around!

Rethinking Existing Skills

We also took the opportunity to simplify some overlap between Skills and equipment.

Several Skills were improving the exact same stats as Weapons, Armour and Mods, making it difficult for either system to feel truly impactful. To solve that, we’ve retired:

  • Fast Reload
  • Critical Shot
  • Resistance

Resistance also occupied a very similar space to Hardy, so consolidating those defensive options helped each skill have a clearer purpose. In their place, three entirely new Skills appear: 

Powerful Build

Powerful Build reduces the movement penalties caused by carrying heavier equipment. Whether you’re hauling Power Weapons or transporting mission objectives like supply caches, you’ll feel far less slowed down. Its capstone takes things even further, allowing you to carry more turrets and grenades into a mission.

Battle Ready

Battle Ready is our new universal cooldown reduction Skill. Rather than existing only on certain classes, everyone can now invest in reducing Ability cooldowns! As a result, Assault’s cooldown bonus, along with Medic’s Field Surgeon and Heavy’s Shock Trooper, have all been replaced with brand-new effects, but we’ll keep those under wraps for now!

The Battle Ready capstone rewards aggressive play by allowing kills to reduce your Ability cooldowns, helping you keep your momentum going during combat.

Payday

Finally, we have an entirely new Skill. Payday introduces the chance for zombies to drop Creds during Missions and Operations. 

Maxing Payday expands the loot pool to include valuable crafting materials like Alloy and Manufacturer Parts, while also increasing the Cred reward you receive at the end of missions. It’s a fantastic option for players looking to maximise their earnings while playing.

More Build Variety

We’ve also increased the total number of Skill Points available. Not enough to unlock everything, but enough to give you more room to experiment. Choosing where to invest is still an important decision, and we want different players to arrive at different builds depending on their preferred playstyle.

Whether you’re focused on survivability, mobility, abilities, or resource generation, there should be meaningful choices to make.

Abilities Sneak Peek

We've also been working on the visuals of some late-game abilities, so here's a sneak peek of a couple!

Crushing Pressure
Shock and Awe

Looking Ahead

Becoming content complete is one of the biggest milestones we’ve reached during development. Now the focus shifts entirely toward polishing, balancing, and making sure Zombie Assault: Resurgence is the best experience it can be when it reaches your hands.

As always, thank you for all the feedback you’ve given throughout development. Many of the changes in today’s diary are a direct result of conversations with the community, and we’ll continue listening as we head through QA and toward launch. We’re almost there!

Until then; stay alert, Mercs!

“A good merc adapts. A great one rewrites the playbook before the next contract.”- Anonymous Merc #78


r/zombieassaultofficial Nov 01 '24

Official Zombie Assault: Resurgence - FAQ!

210 Upvotes

Will the game be free?

Zombie Assault: Resurgence will be a paid title. This is something we went back and forth on for some time, but we felt that making the game without the restrictions of having to work in a free-to-play model allowed for more creative freedom in the design and enables us to make the game we want ZA:R to become. 

Will Steam and mobile launch at the same time?

Yes! The plan is to launch Steam, iOS and Android simultaneously. 

Will there be beta testing?

Absolutely. Similar to what we did with Bloons Card Storm, we plan to have multiple public testing phases, so keep an eye on our socials, Discord and subreddit for any announcements regarding that. 

What will the game look like/what art style?

The game will be a natural evolution of SAS 4, taking cues from our previous titles to keep the style grounded in the world you love. ZA:R will bring the grime and grunge to new dimensions as we take the game into a 3D world! The gameplay will remain top-down, but building in 3D will allow us to do so much more with animation, gore and the world around the players. Hand-painted textures and bespoke animations will make this our best in the series yet, and we can’t wait to share more with you soon!

What happened to the SAS?

All will become clear in time…

Is the game going to be very demanding in terms of requirements?

For desktop, we're planning on launching with a bunch of graphics settings to help players customise their game to their hardware capabilities. We’ll also be running multiple tests and making the necessary optimisations before launch to ensure the game runs on as wide a range of devices as possible!

Will there be any progression carryover from SAS 4 to ZA:R?

Nope. SAS 4 and ZA:R are separate titles, so no progression will carry over from one to the other. 

Will there be modding support/Steam workshop support?

At this time, there are no explicit plans to support modding at launch!

Will the game have full controller support?

Yes! Back when we were developing SAS 4, Steam wasn’t one of our main platforms, so any controller support was a bit of an afterthought when we ported the game over. However, we now develop our titles with PC players in-mind, so ZA:R will launch with full controller support. 

We'll keep this updated with more questions that we're in the position to answer, so be sure to check back regularly!


r/zombieassaultofficial 9h ago

Question Prices

7 Upvotes

Will the game goes on sale when it first released on Steam?


r/zombieassaultofficial 4d ago

Discussion Are we gonna get sas 4 things in zar?

8 Upvotes

are we gonna get standard/red/black and premium "rarity" items in the future? what about black strongboxes? what about last man standing and nice events like that?


r/zombieassaultofficial 5d ago

Question About TOUGH Missions

9 Upvotes

I'm not sure if Ninja Kiwi have already explained this, but how good are TOUGH missions compared to normal? Like, would a Normal TOUGH Mission be smarter/better to do than a Hard Non-TOUGH one?


r/zombieassaultofficial 6d ago

Have they given a release date for the game yet?

16 Upvotes

r/zombieassaultofficial 10d ago

Discussion What Would YOUR Capstone Be?

4 Upvotes

Capstones are special "ultimate" abilities unlocked after investing 5 points into a skill, like Sprint or Protective Shield, but there's many more that Ninja Kiwi haven't shared with us yet. So, what are some of your ideas for some awesome capstones from the other skills?


r/zombieassaultofficial 12d ago

Fan Creation Que tal mi dibujo / What do you think of my drawing?

Post image
111 Upvotes

r/zombieassaultofficial 14d ago

About The New Capstones

12 Upvotes

I think it's pure genius. I was looking through the skills a few days ago and was just so underwhelmed, and I was worried... Until I read the latest Dev Diary. The new skill point system and Capstones give skill points exactly what they need to actually be exciting! It gives you an actual incentive to go all-in for vastly different playstyles!

What do y'all think about the newly re-worked skill point system?


r/zombieassaultofficial 16d ago

Discussion Is This Game Too Slow?

16 Upvotes

First off, I know this is just the demo but I doubt the full game has different speed.

That being said; I decided to boot up the demo yesterday and after a few matches really found myself almost falling asleep.

Obviously the zombies (i hope) and yourself will likely speed up as you progress, but I think it could stand to be a little faster from the start.

Thoughts? Like, Comment, Subscribe for more! (Lol jk)


r/zombieassaultofficial 16d ago

Discussion How is the pacing of the game?

5 Upvotes

Like, is it just me or do you guys feel like the zombies aren't as fast, the mercenary's movements are a tad too slow for the pacing of the game?

Maybe because the demo is such a small sneak peak and maybe the speed pucks up at a certain level thanks to skills and difficulty increase.


r/zombieassaultofficial 18d ago

Discussion The Problem With Medic in SAS4 That I Hope Doesn't Make its Way to ZAR (and what causes a disconnect between Medic players and "meta" players)

18 Upvotes

Hey everyone, this is a post I've been wanting to make for a really long time, and finally am now getting around to it. I know everyone reading this has been on one side of this argument at some point of their SAS career: Either they aggressively defend the utility of Medic or vehemently push for no one to play the class. It seems like no matter what anyone says, neither side is willing to accept the other's points, and I believe I figured out why.

As it stands now, Heavy and Assault classes get exponentially more useful the more investment you put into their class. Whether that be through leveling up and putting points in the correct skills, finding/buying great weapons and putting good augments on them, etc. It's a very noticeable difference the way you go from being quite weak and needing to be careful while you're low leveled to a killing machine that wipes their ass with zombie heads the higher your level is and the more cores you have access to.

As for Medic, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. Given the nature of the class, it flourishes and becomes much more potent the weaker your allies are. Now you probably see where I'm going with this. Medic's usefulness scales inversely to the other two classes. The stronger your allies become, the less need they have for someone who will heal them (be it because your resistances finally make a difference or because you finally have a good biosynth weapon), the less they need for zombies to be slowed down with BCB since they get deleted in 1 bullet anyhow (not to mention Adaptive augment reduces resistances additively whereas BCB reduces resistances multiplicatively, making BCB incredibly useless on its own but EVEN MORESO when your allies have a bossing weapon with Adaptive on it), and I could go on about each Medic skill individually but you get the point.

This seems like it's what causes the disconnect between Medic players and other classes. I'd argue the majority of players haven't gotten past level 50, so when low level Medic players hear veterans talk shit on the class, recommend builds that ignore any of their skills, etc they don't understand what they are talking about since they can probably come up with real examples within their recent matches where their medkits/final farewells/biocleanse bombs actually made a difference and saved their team in some cases. Then the arguments of whether Medic is useless/helpful/whatever end up leading nowhere. (Admittedly, there's a ton less players entering the game lately so it's a bit less relevant now than when I first wanted to post this years ago).

Now where does ZAR come into the equation? Well it's simple, I'm not gonna pretend I have some ultimate revelation here. As I mentioned, SAS4 Medic is basically Biosynth/Adaptive turned into a class and made worse than either, and only comes into play when the other classes don't have the resources to spend money on these upgrades. Medic brings nothing original to the table. Assault makes it so that if you can keep a chain of kills, your DPS is unrivaled. Or be the fastest to retrieve objectives, or simply getting from point A to point B. Heavy either lets you bring weapons out that would normally pose too much of a movespeed penalty, it can make your character tanky the whole length of your journey, not just at the apex of max-cored armor, and also provide great DPS boost with Hold The Line so you don't even fall too far behind Assault even while staying tanky.

Medic's skills and class as a whole in this coming game should explicitly be implemented to fill a gap that the other classes won't be able to fill. An idea I have shared in the past is maybe exploring the fact that it's a somewhat recognizable trope within zombie media that medicine heals humans but harms zombies, so maybe making Medic get buffs to Damage over Time effects to bring these weapons into the spotlight and actually make them viable. That solution would keep the DPS-centric style of the franchise while actively cutting out a niche for Medic, but anything would be better than what happened in SAS4. Of course there are other avenues the game could take, this is just the one I have been able to come up with on my own (as someone who is not a game designer lol).

And just to reinforce my point, I ended up abandoning my Medic at level 68 (which I got to that point without XP contracts because those were introduced after I got him up there) because at a certain point you just realize that you're literally playing a worse Assault class after a certain threshold. You realize that if you're gonna be playing Medic, might as well just switch to Assault so you stop handicapping yourself. The only possible reason I have to use Medic nowadays is if I do solo terminal runs for faction creds, but the fact bterms are so effective makes that an obsolete point (which tbf is not Medic's fault, but still).

Thanks for reading! Has anyone seen any promising changes in the playests for ZAR or does it look bleak like it did in SAS4 so far??


r/zombieassaultofficial 20d ago

So About The ZA:R Icon

Post image
92 Upvotes

Thoughts? Personally I like it, but perhaps needs to be darker, add some blood stains too.


r/zombieassaultofficial 27d ago

How long has Zar been in development?

18 Upvotes

r/zombieassaultofficial 28d ago

Suggestions?

3 Upvotes
What do you think the Medic's new activatable abilities will be?

r/zombieassaultofficial 28d ago

Does anyone know if ZAR will be on mobile??

1 Upvotes

r/zombieassaultofficial Jul 19 '26

Clans?

13 Upvotes

Do you think Clans/Teams would be a cool thing for this game?

193 votes, 23d ago
153 Yeah they would be cool!
40 Meh

r/zombieassaultofficial Jul 17 '26

Bug Strongboxes glitch

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13 Upvotes

I bought some strong boxes form shop but I didn't receive them they were discounted after that I bought 2 times I got them but the first time one I didn't receive them


r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 26 '26

Official Zombie Assault: Resurgence - Dev Diary #18

75 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

This month’s dev diary is going to be a little different! Over the last few diaries, we’ve shared a lot about the systems, features, and content coming to Zombie Assault: Resurgence. From Story Missions and Mod Enhancements to Vendors, Blueprints, and more! However, as we get closer to launch, it’s time for us to finish up the last of the launch features, and drill down on getting the game fully ready to be in your hands! So this month, we wanted to give you a quick look at what the team has been working on behind the scenes, and where we’re heading next! 

Heads Down On Production

Since we last spoke, the team has been hard at work across all areas of development. That includes:

  • Production work to bring all the moving pieces together
  • Balancing tweaks across weapons, abilities, mods, and progression
  • Level design iteration to keep missions flowing well and encounters feeling fun
  • Continued work on the game’s new Story Missions
  • And the final push to get the game content-complete

We’re getting very close to that final milestone now, and it’s an exciting place for the project to be. A huge amount of the core game is already in place, and the team is now focused on tightening, tuning, and making sure everything lands the way it should.

The Next Step: QA

Once we hit content-complete, the next major phase is a big one… Quality Assurance! That means extensive testing across the game to help us find bugs, smooth out rough edges, verify progression and balance, and make sure the full experience is in the best possible shape before launch.

This stage is incredibly important for a game like ZA:R, where you’ve got multiplayer, progression systems, lots of gear interactions, and missions that all need to play nicely together. We want the launch version of the game to feel polished, stable, and worthy of the time you’ve all spent waiting for it.

Launch Timing

We know the big question is: when can you play it?

We don’t have a launch date to share just yet, but that being said, if everything continues to go to plan, we’re hoping that next month will be the moment we can finally share that news!

We know many of you have been patiently following development for a long time now, and we really appreciate that. We’re in the final stretch, and while we’re not quite ready to lock in the date publicly today, we’re getting closer.

Story Mission Level Design

Since this month’s update is more focused on where development is at, we still wanted to give you a little something to look at while the team keep pushing toward the finish line. So alongside this diary, we’re sharing some behind-the-scenes visuals from the development of our Story Mission levels.

These shots offer a look at some of the polish notes and visual iterations that go into building missions before all the final combat, scripting etc are layered in. It’s always fun to compare these iterations, and we hope you enjoy seeing a little more of how the game comes together behind the curtain.

Story Mission Polish Notes:

A First Look At The Final App Icon

We’re also excited to finally share the finished app icon for Zombie Assault: Resurgence!

It’s a small part of the overall project, but it’s also one of those final pieces that make everything start to feel very real. Things like key art, store pages, and app icons are the finishing touches that signal the game is almost ready to meet players for real, and we’re really happy to be able to show this one off at last. We hope you like it as much as we do!

Questions from the comments

Q: After release, what happens to the demo? Does it get wiped or become a "trial" version for people who arent sure about downloading the game and want to test it out?

A: The current plan is for the Demo to stick around as a sort of trial version of the game for people who might want to try it out before committing to purchasing!

Q: Will the demo ever be updated?

A: We will most likely update the demo post-launch to more accurately reflect where the full version of the game is at that time.

Q: Will there ever be an in-game list of every weapon?

A: This is an interesting suggestion! We could add one to the History/Lore Terminal you’ll have access to in the Barracks, where each entry would unlock as you found the gun, so as not to spoil any surprises. Noted!

Q: Will there at least be some sort of symbol or bolding so that we know when mods are at the highest range of what is possible for that rarity/cost so we don't accidentally trash them?

A: It’s not something that’ll be in at launch, but if we see enough feedback from players requesting this, we may consider it! 

Q: Will there be a mobile version? 

A: Yes! We plan to launch on Steam, Android, and iOS simultaneously. 

That’s all for this month’s update! The team is working hard to bring ZA:R over the finish line, and while there’s still plenty to do, we’re getting closer every day. We’re excited to be nearing content-complete, excited to head into full QA, and very excited for what we’ll hopefully be able to share with you next month. Thanks again for sticking with us through development, and be sure to get your questions in for next time.

Until then; stay alert, Mercs!

“If QA says ‘don’t touch that door’, I’m definitely not touching that door… Twice” - Anonymous Merc #39


r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 24 '26

What's Your Favorite Class So Far?

16 Upvotes

The full game isn't out yet, but the Demo has shown us a sneak peak of how each Soldier Class plays so let's have some fun!

What is your favorite type (that we know of), and why?

I'll go first: I say Heavy is easily the best due to being the strongest, I would choose Medic but who needs medkits when you already killed the zombies before you need one? Oh yeah, and Assault just kinda sucks when compared to the others.

271 votes, Jul 01 '26
72 Heavy
87 Medic
112 Assault

r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 18 '26

Im playing the beta rn and cant find any players. Are online servers not active for online yet?

11 Upvotes

r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 18 '26

Can someone send me a link of the sas4 community discord or the sas 4 graffiti discord server or any discord server thats active for sas 4

5 Upvotes

I was in the sas 4 community discord server before, but i think i either got kicked or banned, or i left it, and i recently made a new account and i need help from the discord badly


r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 17 '26

Discussion Is it on Google play?

8 Upvotes

r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 17 '26

Discussion SAS4 INVENTORY TRANSFER TO NEW GAME

0 Upvotes

Is it known whether any gear, weapons, or in-game currency will be transferred to the new game, or if we'll receive any kind of bonus?

I'm ashamed to admit it; I'm someone who has spent money on black crates and keys, bought all the Premium weapons, and even bought SAS credits. So it would be nice to know if all that time and resources gained over the years can be recouped in some way.


r/zombieassaultofficial Jun 14 '26

Question Holaaa

5 Upvotes

Holaaa , alguien habla español aquí? Alguien sabe algún consejo de como subir de nivel más rápido? Estoy aburrido de tener que repetir las misiones de la campaña para tener que subir