The sun won't save you. These infected hunt day and night, move in herds and hear every shot you fire. And an unseen AI Director tracks how loud you are and how hard you're fighting, then decides when the horde comes.
The Director is Outbreak Protocol's unseen game master, an AI that runs the outbreak in the spirit of Left 4 Dead's AI Director. It isn't a mob and you'll never see it. It watches every group of survivors and decides when things get worse, and just as important, when you get to breathe. It has two jobs.
Everything loud adds up: sprinting, mining, gunfire, explosions. Keep making noise and the Director answers with a horde. The NOISE meter on your HUD shows how close you're getting.
The Director keeps a quiet read on how much trouble you're in. Pinned, bleeding and surrounded reads very differently from walking an empty street. You never see that read, but you'll feel it.
Have it easy for too long and it pushes back, starting small and building up:
Pressure builds. This is when the Director makes its moves.
The fight is on. It stops piling on while you deal with what's in front of you.
The pressure eases off.
A real breather. Nothing is sent. Only your own noise can still call a horde.
Infected in range come to check out a noise and bring their herd along. You're the cyan square.
Go quiet and the meter drains, so one gunshot is soon forgotten. Keep the noise up (or set off a few explosions) and the Director sends a horde.
HERD AIInfected drift together into herds. When one spots you, up to 8 idle infected within 24 blocks come too. They move 25% faster at night, they never fight each other, and the sun doesn't burn them. Only real light stops them spawning.
Three new infected spawn on their own. Seven Special Infected (★) are placed by the Director, never where you can see them arrive. Each 3D model below uses its real in-game texture. Drag to turn it.
Every hit rolls for infection, and a bite that misses can still open a wound that festers if you don't clean it. Under Realism the armor you wear lowers both rolls. Once you're infected you have one in-game day to find a cure before you rise as an Undead Survivor wearing your own gear. Milk won't help. Drag the clock or let it run, then try the cures.
A bite that doesn't infect you outright can still open a wound. You bleed a little for 4 in-game hours, and when the wound closes on its own it rolls 50% to fester into the full infection. Clean it first: Boiled Water rinses a fresh wound (the first 2 hours), an Antibiotic cleans one at any age. Neither is used up if there's nothing to clean, and milk does nothing. Switch Realism off and it's the instant roll alone.
Armor matters (1.4.0). Under Realism your armor points and toughness cut both rolls, so every armor type counts: leather, gold, chainmail, iron, diamond, netherite, a turtle helmet, mixed sets and modded armor. Full iron takes 37.5% off the infection chance and 45% off the wound chance; diamond 60% / 72%; netherite 65% / 78% (toughness is what puts it above diamond). An Outbreak Zombie's 60% bite is 21% in netherite. Enchantments don't count, and nothing takes more than 80% off. Standard mode ignores armor. /outbreak realism tells you what yours is worth.
BLEEDINGNO WOUNDPick an infected and take a bite.
Boiled Water: a water bottle cooked in a furnace, smoker or campfire
Antibiotic ×2: Penicillin + Boiled Water + Red Mushroom
Bloater bile won't infect you, but for 30 seconds every infected nearby heads straight for you and a bile horde is called. Two seconds in water washes it off. Rain halves it. Milk does nothing.
SAFEHOUSEA Perimeter Beacon raises a 32-block dome where nothing hostile spawns and the Director can't reach. The Sleeping Bag skips the night but never moves your spawn point. The City Waystone takes you to the ruined cities and back.
Perimeter Beacon
Sleeping Bag
City Waystone
Field Ration
Toasted Bread
This Augment Protocol augment blocks infection symptoms, but the clock keeps running and you still turn.
Gunfire from TaCZ weapons counts as noise. Silencers cut the Director budget cost — and charge 15% of your damage for it.
The Quiet Straps augment shrinks your noise radius, which makes sneaking through the city easier.
Pharmacies, military depots, gas stations and 14 other structure types stock survival gear and guns.