The main goal of the game is to survive for as long as possible, killing many zombies in the meantime. The game is played using keyboard only.
You can move in eight directions. Diagonal movement is possible and encouraged (one diagonal move is twice as fast as two moves in cardinal directions). The following keys can be used:
- regular arrows (cardinal directions only)
- numpad (all directions)
- vi-keys (hjkl/yubn)
A turn may be skipped ("wait") using a spacebar, numpad-5 or a dot key.
You can move almost anywhere (including places with items) with these exceptions:
- water
- blocking structures (houses, barricades)
- zombies (you attack them instead of moving)
You can kill zombies by bumping into them (trying to move to their place), but this is slow, inefficient and risky. Better results can be achieved by using items.
Items must be bought in a shop, using money. Money is earned by killing zombies. You can store any number of items in your inventory.
There is no risk or penalty when using items. They will only damage zombies, never the player or other items.