Infection Free Zone Starter Guide: Beginners Tips & Tricks

The apocalypse is here. Can you face down the hordes of infected? You’d best prepare because in Infection Free Zone, the enraged infected wait for no one. No one but the sun, that is. There’s plenty of managing needed in this survival experience. With a realistic setting in just about anywhere in the world, you can see if you have what it takes to keep a group of survivors alive. Feel a little unsure about your chances? For beginners, this guide and tips should give you the encouragement you need to keep your Infection Free Zone survivors happy, safe, and thriving.

Beginners Guide To Infection Free Zone

One of the most interesting aspects of Infection Free Zone is the ability to play almost anywhere in the world. In one of my many playthroughs, it thrilled me to jump into my neighborhood, discovering my home’s only use was for a couple of canned goods.

Infection Free Zone guides beginners before you ever start. Your difficulty settings set the stage. From there, you must understand squad usage, workers, buildings, and more. Remember: this isn’t a completed game. Expect some kinks as you fend off the hordes.

Understand the Difficulty Scale

Although any difficulty can guide you if you have the tutorials checked on, I suggest beginners play on the easier end in Infection Free Zone. It still grants a challenge as you might stumble into back-to-back hordes no matter what. But at least there’s a better chance of the hordes not being as intense if you scale them down, giving you breathing room to get your feet wet. But if you fear nothing, laugh in the face of those infected people and crank the settings up to hard mode.

Squad Management in Infection Free Zone

Squads are the backbone of your society. Without them, you won’t make it. Infection Free Zone beginners should plan to guide their squads to scavenge immediately after starting. There’s no easing into things here. When you do, consider the following:

• Amount of squads
• Squad loadout
• Search optimization
• Time

Beginners should leave the tutorials on when you start, as Infection Free Zone will continuously guide you. One of the first things you do is create squads. Aim for about three or four. Guns aren’t plentiful, but your squad is always armed with machetes. But once you start searching, you’ll find guns. Every member doesn’t necessarily need a gun in the beginning. As long as two or three people have them, they should be okay. 

For searching, pair units to handle a single building, more so large ones. This makes the process quicker. And beginners should always watch the time in Infection Free Zone as you can’t guide your squad on scavenging missions 24/7. Send them back to HQ at least an hour before sunset so they’re not trapped between hordes and home. If they’re further out, call them even earlier. Use the transmission to order all squads to return at one time rather than individually sending them all back.

Importance of Vehicles in Infection Free Zone

Vehicles are another must-have for beginners in Infection Free Zone as they help guide your units around the map faster and safer. The initial objectives will help you get one soon, but more vehicles of various sizes are scattered around. Zoom out and send your squads beyond your home base to discover them. They help stash more loot and, most importantly, allow your squads to continue scavenging at nightfall.

Infected are dangerous mainly at night, but vehicles can curb that as it lets your squad race around hordes or safely combat them from the car. Remember that vehicles will take damage from hordes, but you can repair them with the right materials back at HQ. You also need gas, so don’t go far out if your gas is low. Gas automatically refills at HQ if you have fuel.

Build Defenses ASAP

This should be a given, but it’s a necessary tip for Infection Free Zone beginners to guide their workers to shore up defenses. They’re tough at the start due to the resources needed. So, scavenge and send workers out for materials daily. A wooden tower is a great start.

With towers, check that they’re using the right weapons. They’ll go for the guns even if you don’t have any. So, check the bow and arrow slot instead so the workers in the tower will fire at the hordes.

Building Management in Infection Free Zone

Building management can make or break your experience. By management, I mean focusing on the following aspects:

• HQ placement
• Scavenge areas
• Repurposing
• Destroying

HQ Selection in Infection Free Zone

Infection Free Zone immediately guides beginners to place an HQ when starting. Focus on a mid-size building. Too large is tough to defend at first, and too small cuts down on how many resources you can have. 

Knowing What Areas To Scavenge

Remember to hit “V” to highlight the icons on each building. Question marks are up in the air. So, focus on buildings with solid icons to find food, books, and weapons. You can hover over any icon to learn more about it.

Repurposing Buildings in Infection Free Zone

For repurposing or adapting, large buildings can be used for features like the warehouse. This gives you the perfect capacity to support all that lovely loot. And you want to repurpose promptly. This gives you important buildings beyond the warehouse, such as the research center.

Destroying Buildings

Yes, you heard that right. You have to destroy some of those buildings you scavenged. Infection Free Zone beginners should destroy some areas to get a hefty amount of materials. It takes time though, so be sure you have workers available.

Extra Tips For Infection Free Zone Beginners

After playing (and dying) in Infection Free Zone, I realized a few more handy tips made things easier for a beginner like myself. For starters, wandering survivors aren’t to be ignored. You’ll see survivors walking around, highlighted in yellow. I approached each one as long as some of my squad units were nearby. The encounter goes one of two ways: they join you or fight you. Either way, you gain something. If they join, then great! You have new workers or members for a squad. If they fight, kill them and take their gear. A win-win. But ensure you have shelters and food to support survivors.

Another tip you don’t want to ignore is the weather, as it’s easy to overlook. If the icon is cloudy or rainy, anticipate a storm. Storms mean that the infected will remain out during the day. On the other hand, if it’s only the moon, then it’s as clear as day. Every squad unit should scavenge at this point, as you’ll only encounter infected if you stumble inside an infested building.

Remember how I mentioned the ease of calling all squad units back to HQ by the press of a button? Well, be sure that your squad is inside any vehicle they brought with them before you call them in. They don’t always return to them automatically. So, put them back in and then call them to HQ. If not, they’ll abandon your stock-piled vehicle. 

As a final tip to guide beginners in Infection Free Zone, proper placement is key when the hordes attack. They won’t always charge your squad if they’re in HQ. Often, they’ll go for the surrounding buildings, and your squad won’t fire if they’re too far away. Manually send them out to draw attention. I’ve noticed that it’s easier to lure infected into a single building and take them out inside rather than out in the open.

I hope these tips give you an edge in this post-apocalyptic world. At least you can relish in the fact that you can either save your hometown or see it overcome by bloodthirsty infected. Meanwhile, you can play Infection Free Zone now on PC.