Fighters

Fighters allow the player to defend the settlement from Zombies.

Training Fighters

To train Fighters, click on the "Train Fighter" button found in the settlement overview. Below is a table listing stamina costs:

Fighter count	Stamina cost	Required population level	Training time (turns)
1st	3	1	20
2nd	4	3	30
3rd	6	7	40
4th	8	10	50

The Fighters +N trait allow you to train an amount of N Fighters for free at the start of the game.

Fighter training time can be affected by certain decisions and upgrades.

Abilities

Fighters have several abilities, from fighting Zombies to suppressing dissent in the settlement.

General abilities

Fighting Zombies

The main ability of Fighters is to fight the Zombies and defend the Settlement. Fighters can fight Zombies by either entering a area that has Zombies, or Zombies entering a area with Fighters in it.

When the Fighters start attacking Zombies, the player can see the fight progress bar below alongside the Fighter health.

Player can see the fight battle bar and health of fighter.

Fighter taking damage when fighting zombies, increase more if losing fight (when battle bar is low). If the current Fighter health is 0, the Fighter will die, which causes settler death and increases the number of zombies.

If the Fighter is winning (the battle bar is equal to 100%), the Fighter will slowly kill the zombies in the area until all of them are gone.

While fighting, Fighters have a chance to kill one zombie. They also have a small chance to make a Lucky Hit, which kills one zombie immediately, or get Bitten which decreases their current health.

Supporting other Fighters

Fighters can support nearby Fighters if they are fighting. When the current active Fighter takes damage, the lost health gets distributed to nearby supporting Fighters.

Moving

The player can move Fighters from one area to another by drag-and-drop, provided that the target area has no Fighters. The Fighter will then move to an area by a specified number of turns. When a Fighter is initially placed on the map, they immediately travel to that specified location.

Moving to a different area has a 30% chance to awaken all dormant zombies in nearby areas (except for zombies in swamps).

When a Fighter retreats while fighting zombie(s), the Fighter will take damage.

Active abilities

Taunting

When Fighters are near an area that has Zombies, the player can spend 1 stamina (2 during winter) to make the zombies attack.

Zombies can split to try to attack multiple nearby areas that have Fighters.

If nearby Fighters support a Fighter that is fighting a zombie, and that said fighter retreats out of the fight, the player can taunt the zombie if the nearby Fighters stay for 5 days (turns). Afterwards, zombies will stop attacking the original area and will split to attack those supporting Fighters.

Cleansing Infested areas

If Fighters are inside an infested area and aren't fighting zombies, they can cleanse the area. Cost for cleansing is between 1-3, depending on what type of area and the current season of the settlement.

During Winter, stamina costs for cleansing areas decrease by 1, but will never go below 1.

Cleansing an area will spawn Zombies in this area and nearby infested areas, and will also awaken all dormant zombies in nearby areas. If the Fighters successfully defeated the zombies, the area will be cleansed and stop producing Zombies.

Reinforce (Technology 4)

If a Fighter is fighting zombies and there are nearby supporting Fighters, the player can spend stamina to reinforce the active Fighter. Reinforcing will increase the health of the active Fighter, while decreasing the health of supporting Fighters.

The player can not reinforce when all nearby supporting Fighters have low health.

Stamina costs for reinforcing start at 1 stamina and can increase depending on many factors.

Disbanding Fighters

When a Fighter is moving to (or on) the settlement area and is not fighting zombies, the player can disband them to gain stamina. The refunded stamina will decrease depending on the current health of the Fighter.

The player will gain 0 stamina if the player chooses Conscription in the Keeping Settlement Safe situation.

Other abilities

Pathfinders

Can only has this ability through Pathfinders rewards or unlock by Pioneers option from Keeping Settlement Safe situation.

When fighter is idle (not in combat, support combat or suppression) and in unclaimed area (when cost to claim >0) that has at least one claimed areas nearby. They has a 1% chance per turn to reduced cost to claim that area by -1 stamina. Fighter will priority this action if possible

When fighter is idle and has unexplored areas nearby (when cost to explore >0). They has a 1% chance per turn to reduced cost to explore that area by -1 stamina.

Suppression (Tyrant only)

When playing as the Tyrant leader, the player can send a Fighter to the Settlement to perform a special action. If morale is low, the Fighter will start to suppress dissent and take damage, which prevents authority loss and stops the abandonment process from low morale.

When the Fighter dies by this action, it will not spawn zombies, unless this fighter is attacked by a zombie within 50 turns.

Leader effects

Soldier

Fighters can kill zombies when the start fighting (flanking), while requiring the Barracks service.

Tyrant

See fighter suppresion.

Upgrades

Develop the settlement

• Upgrading to Technology 3 will increase all Fighter strength by +40%, while doubling their training time (x2) and decreasing healing speed by half (x0.5)
• When increase population, increase all Fighter strength by +2% for each of population is increased (only count after population 3)

Explore areas

Explore or claim area will helping increase strength for fighter

• When fighter in claimed area, increase strength by 1.3 times.
• Increase fighter strength in area, for each areas nearby is fully explored, up to 1.3 times when surrounding area is explored.
• Increase fighter strength in area, for each areas nearby is claimed, up to 1.5 times when surrounding area is claimed.
• Settlement can support to nearby fighter or self, which increase fighter strength by 1.5 times.

Ancient Treasures (Map)

After looting the Z Com Fortress in the Ancient Treasures map, all Fighters will be armed by firearms and quad bikes, which significantly increases their strength and movement speed but will significantly increase training time.

Upgrade decisions

When the player successfully kills a Zombie or cleanses an infested area, Fighters will gain small experience. If Fighters have enough experience, the upgrade decision will appear, allowing the player to choose one out of three traits.

The three options offered are randomly selected from the below table as of version 1.3.0 (available options can be impacted by various factors):

Name	In-game description	Effects
Field Medics		Doubles healing speed, allows Fighters to heal outside of claimed areas
Intense Training		Increases fighter strength by 10%
Defenders		Increases fighter strength when in a claimed area by 20%
Reserves		Halves fighter training time
Porters		Halves fighter travel time
Armoured	Fighter have a chance not taking damage in combat.	Currently increases fighter strength by 10%
Foragers		Fighter will occasionally scavenge resources every 180-220 turns, which produces wood or fuel resource bubbles in the settlement area.
Berserkers		Slowly increases fighter strength when losing health, up to +24.5% at 1% health
Forest Stalkers		Increases fighter strength when in a forest area by 25%
Mountain Guards		Increases fighter strength when in a mountain area by 25%
Grassland Rangers		Increases fighter strength when in a grassland area by 25%
Swamp Stalkers		Increases fighter strength when in a swamp area by 25%
Urban Wardens		Increases fighter strength when in a urban area by 25%

Trivia

• After being armed with firearms, Fighters will make a gunshot sound when start fighting, similar to the sound when starting a combat in Rebel Inc.