Survivor In-Mission Mechanics

On this page, all the mechanics, and movements in missions by survivors are presented. Check this page for more info on combat mechanics.

Initial Concepts

Actual Survivor Level (ASL)

Actual Survivor Level is a measure used by players to determine the level of walkers at which a modification occurs in the chances of a critical hit and a body shot. It is given as follows: ASL = Survivor's level + Number of pink stars (+ 1 if the survivor is a hero).

Ex: Rosita has level 20 and 6 stars (1 pink star). Since she is a hero, her ASL would be 20 + 1 +1 = 22.

In the picture below you can see the chances of body shots or critical hits depending on the ASL difference.

Recommended Survivor Level (RSL)

This is a concept which refers to the difficulty of the mission (shown on the mission briefing screen).

Damage

Every character has a damage figure shown on the survivor portrait figure. This is the regular damage that the survivor will do on its attacks (with a small damage variation) if nothing modifies the damage. Often a number of things will affect the damage so the actual damage dealt will often vary considerably from the profile picture damage figure.

Damage decreases the target's health.

Health

Every character has a health figure, which shows how much damage it can take before being incapacitated.

• Survivors, as well as freemen/raiders, have two health bars. You start with a green health bar, which first turns yellow at "bruised" status at 30% damage taken and "injured" at 70% damage taken. When the health bar is completely depleted, it will replenish to its full amount, but this time as a red ("Heavy injury") bar. Only when this red bar is completely depleted will the survivor be incapacitated (and the mission potentially lost).
  • Note that damage does not carry over between health bars. So a survivor will 100/1000 health remaining on the first health bar and being damaged for 500 damage will be damaged to the red health bar at 1000/1000.
  • It is possible to instantaneously kill survivors or freemen by using the fire bug
• Health can be restored by using a Medkit or with the help of Tara's LT. Note that it's not possible to revert back to the green health bar, and any health healed over the max will be forfeited.
  • Note that in the Distance it's possible to go back to the green bar using the heal for gold option on the Distance main screen.
• Survivors that are bruised or more seriously damaged when the mission ends will have to heal themselves in the hospital for a set amount of time, depending on the severity of the damage and the difficulty of the mission. If there is no room in the hospital, they will have to wait until a spot is vacated (it is not possible to change the queue order in the hospital).
• A survivor can not be permanently killed. Deadly missions existed for a short time when the game was new, but have long since been removed from the game.
• All types of Walkers have only one health bar and will die when the bar is completely depleted.
• Health can be boosted by a number of factors, the main being survivor level, class, number of stars and health bonus badges and armors.
• Damage received can be decreased by Damage Reduction, which can be found in armor traits such as Iron Skin, and Damage Reduction badges, as well as the tactical trait. Note that damage reduction is capped at 80% (however, with Negan's LT this can be upped to 90%).

Cover

When fighting human enemies that use ranged weapons, your survivors can seek cover to take only half the ranged damage. Just move your survivor next to a suitable wall, and they will take cover automatically.

Survivors in cover are marked by a green shield icon. When your enemy can attack from behind the cover, it becomes exposed and is marked by a red shield icon. Survivors in exposed covers take full damage from all attacks.

There is a toggle in the game settings "Auto-Cover". This will automatically cause the survivor to move to a cover (if one is available). Most players have this toggle turned off, as it easily causes unintended moves.

Note that cover is part of Damage Reduction, which is capped at 80%. So, a survivor with 80% Damage Reduction will not benefit from the cover at all.

Struggle

If a survivor is damaged by a walker so much that its green health bar is completely depleted, they will get into a struggle, with the survivor wrestling with the walker and being unable to anything else.

• You won’t be able to use them until you save them by killing, pushing or stunning the walker with another survivor.
• The wrestler armor trait will cause damage to the walker, potentially killing it.
• It is not possible to struggle against a human enemy.

If all your team members get stuck in struggle, you lose the mission automatically.

There is a time limit on the struggles. If you can’t free your struggling survivor in three turns*, the walker will overpower them and you lose the mission. Note that the time limit is one turn if the walker is on fire, and 0 turns if it's a spiked walker. It is possible to get into a struggle with a Spiked walker by running past it and getting attacked. You then have your own turn to free the survivor.

Action Points

All survivors have 2 action points (unlike walkers, who have 1 action point). It is always possible to do one attack/interaction after spending your action points. So, you can:

• Do 2 quick moves (which will look as one "long move" but from a mechanics perspective, is two quick moves succeeding).
• Do 1 quick move and remain in overwatch.
• If a survivor has action points remaining when End Turn is clicked, it will spend all of them to heal himself of bleeding/burning.
• Interacting with an object uses a small amount of movement, so you might not always be able to open a crate if it's at your maximum distance.
• Note that the tactical trait, as well as several other traits can give you a new action point after making an attack or interacting with an object. These additional action points will give you one extra range in your movement. So if you normally would be able to move 3 tiles, the extra action would allow a 4 tile move.
  • Tactical gives an additional move after attacking, if you use the first action point for attacking
  • Swift Strike and Michonne's LT can give an additional move after killing a target. The Crescent Edge has a guaranteed Swift Strike.
  • Some weapons' charge attacks give a bonus action, which can be used to make another attack or move (for example Mercer's Axe, Tenderizer, Harpoon & Commonwealth Assault Rifle and almost all shooter weapons)
  • Pizza Guy Glenn gets an extra action after interacting with a (one round) object, like a crate or 1-turn gate.
  • Hilltop Maggie, Rosita, Alpha, Hershel and Fighter Rosita can get additional moves after attacking enemies.
• Scouts and Shooters have a range of 8, while all other classes have a range of 6.
  • Movement range when moving diagonally is calculated step by step using Pythagoras's Theorem, meaning a diagonal move uses around 1.41 of range (unlike walker targeting priority, which is calculated based on the total distance between walker and target).
• Unlike walkers & freemen, who always complete their actions one-by-one, you are free to do actions in any order during your turn.
  • Note, however, that when using Yumiko's Leader Trait, the extra shot will be fired in portrait order. So if Yumiko is in position 3, when she shoots, the extra shots will be fired first by the team leader, and then by the survivor in the second (middle) spot.
  • In the same way as for walkers, a survivor that gets crippled or rooted by an opponent's overwatch shot will not be able to do any further actions that turn, regardless of how many action points it had remaining. The action point circle on the ground will glow white as if to show that there are moves remaining but you will not be able to actually do anything.

The circle on the ground will show if a survivor with half an action point remaining can perform an attack or not:

Corners and obstacles

• Corners can be of two kinds, soft and hard. The more common soft corner can be passed diagonally, while a hard corner must be passed by moving at 90 degree angles. The corner types will be marked on the map (if grid lines are turned on in the game settings) with rounded or hard edges.
• It is not possible to attack diagonally around a hard corner
• Some maps have fences. It is not possible to cross a fence, but humans can freely shoot and attack through them. Walkers are not able to attack through a fence.
• There are also Sandbags or other low obstacles on some maps. These work just like fences for all purposes.

On the Challenge Map set Threat & Corner maps, the corners will be shown with green (soft) or red (hard) borders. In some cases, a corner might be hard on one end and soft on the other end. This will be marked like in the example below (note the 2 hard corners at the top edge being part hard, part soft):

Interaction with objects

You can use your action to interact with an object (such as doors, boxes, trunks, etc.). These interactive objects are indicated with a white or red glow (if the object is glowing red, when interacting with it, it will trigger an event, like fresh walkers spawning). Objects have unique interaction categories:

• Crates and trunks are usually used in missions, to complete the mission;
• Doors and gates are generally used to clear paths into a room or area;
• Rubble buckets and some cars are generally used to clear or block paths.

When you click on the object (or track a path to it), you will see how many rounds are needed to open/activate the object. One round means that you can do it immediately (with the survivor's actions being spent after opening it, unless affected by PGG's LT), but many objects require several rounds. In these cases, the survivor will be occupied and can't do anything during the entire time needed.

• It is not possible to abort the interaction
• If the interaction is interrupted (for example by the survivor being stunned), any time spent on the interaction will be considered. So if you spent two rounds opening a three-round gate, one round will be remaining.
• Survivors working on an object can be affected by the support Walker Mike
• Survivors working on an object will attack when affected by Leader Traits such as Yumiko's Firing Squad
• Bruisers will Punish
• Survivors working on an object will not Revenge or Retaliate
• Survivors working on an object will not heal or extinguish themselves, if bleeding or on fire