01 The season, in one breath
// WHAT YOU'RE ACTUALLY PLAYING
Season 1 is a survival war wrapped around a virus. The map starts under the Crimson Legion, a contaminated zone you fight inside, and the entire season is a race between two things: building your power up fast enough to matter, and timing your moves so they land when they count.
Three forces run the whole season, and almost everything on this site is one of them in detail. The virus — resistance, infection, curing, and the rewards for spreading it. The war — capturing cities and strongholds, crossing into other servers, and the weekly rhythm that scores it. And the clock — a fixed schedule of events and unlocks you can plan around instead of being surprised by. Win the clock and you're already ahead of most of the server.
// The one habit that wins seasons
Most players react. They log in, see what's happening, and scramble. The players who finish at the top read the calendar a week ahead and arrive ready. That's the entire edge — and it's free.
02 Season calendar
// WHAT UNLOCKS, AND WHEN — BY SEASON DAY
Times below are server-day based. Treat this as the schedule to plan around; confirm the live date of anything time-critical in-game before you commit speedups or diamonds to it.
| When | What opens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Day 3 | Weather goes live | Acid Rain, Sunny, Windy and the rest start affecting virus, march speed, and EXP |
| Day 4 | Kimberly exclusive weapon | First exclusive weapon of the season |
| Week 1 | Zombie Purge (Purge Action) | 7-day event — clear infected Tank / Air / Missile zombies for crystals |
| Week 2 | Crimson Legion begins | Defend alliance cities from wave attacks, Tuesdays & Fridays |
| Day 18 | DVA exclusive weapon | Second exclusive weapon unlocks |
| Week 3 | Outposts + Warzone Expedition | Cross-server play opens — place outposts, capture in other war zones |
| Day 39 | Tesla exclusive weapon | Third exclusive weapon unlocks |
| Wk 4–7 | Builder Alliances window & City Wars | Alliances can convert to builders; city war declarations open |
| Day 57 | Black Market opens | The post-season path to earn weapons you couldn't unlock in-season |
| Week 7 | The Final Battle | The season's climax and Store unlock — the run for the Capitol |
| Week 8 | Settlement | Contribution rewards are assigned and the season resets |
// Verify before launch
Exclusive-weapon days (Kimberly D4 / DVA D18 / Tesla D39) and Black Market (D57) are locked from your confirmation. A few week-level event start days should be checked against your live server before this is treated as exact.
03 Week 1–7 timeline
// WHERE YOUR FOCUS SHOULD BE, WEEK BY WEEK
The calendar tells you what opens. This tells you what to actually do with each week.
Weeks 1–2 · Build the engine
Power first. Push your headquarters and core buildings, prioritize the Virus Research Institute to lift resistance, and bank progress. This is the cheapest your growth will ever be — every level now compounds for the rest of the season.
Week 3 · Cross-server opens
Outposts and the Warzone Expedition arrive. The map stops being only your server. Coordinate placements with your alliance rather than freelancing — a lone outpost in a strong enemy zone falls for nothing.
Weeks 4–7 · The war proper
City and stronghold wars heat up, the Builder-Alliance decision lands, and the Crimson Legion keeps testing your defenses. This is where influence is won or lost.
Week 7 → 8 · Finale & settlement
The Final Battle decides the Capitol, then settlement distributes rewards by contribution. Everything you banked early pays out here.
04 Your first 72 hours
// THE OPENING CHECKLIST
Do these and you start the season correctly. Skip them and you spend weeks catching up.
- Start as Engineer. Unless you're already a high-HQ, T10-troop account, the Engineer profession is the right opening — it accelerates the building and economy that everything else depends on. Switching later is cheap; starting wrong is expensive.
- Get into an active alliance immediately. Solo play in Season 1 is a slow death. Rallies, reinforcements, cures, and city captures all need a coordinated group.
- Prioritize the Virus Research Institute. Virus resistance is survival — low resistance means your troops accumulate infection fast and the debuffs worsen as stacks climb toward 100.
- Bank your speedups. Don't burn them on impulse. They are your single most valuable resource and they win specific scoring days later.
- Read the calendar above. Know what's coming this week so you arrive ready instead of reacting.
Your daily order, once the season is running
After the opening days, the same short routine each day is what keeps you compounding. Run it in this order — it's built so the highest-value, time-sensitive things happen before you spend down your stamina:
- Genetic Recombination. Do this first — it depends on fragments from both zombie kills and ally cures, so set it in motion before anything else.
- VRI upgrade queue. Keep the Virus Research Institute climbing toward 30. Resistance is the season's combat multiplier; never let the queue sit empty.
- Zombie kills. Purge runs and crystal farming — your stamina spend, and the source of fragments I–III.
- Alliance events. Whatever the alliance is coordinating that day — rallies, captures, cures.
- Protein Farm fuelling. Keep the farms topped so the other two seasonal buildings never stall for want of Immune Proteins.
05 Influence & reward tiers
// THE 'WHY' BEHIND EVERY CAPTURE
Cities and strongholds aren't just territory — they carry influence, and influence is what your alliance's end-of-season rewards are tiered against. Holding more of it, for longer, is the scoreboard the whole war is really playing for.
| City level | Influence |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | 100,000 |
| Level 2 – 5 | scales upward by level |
| Level 6 | 1,000,000 |
The takeaway for a new player: when your alliance asks you to help take or hold a high-level city, that's not busywork — it's the points that decide everyone's rewards. Show up for it.
06 The 7 permanent traps
// MISTAKES THAT QUIETLY COST YOU THE SEASON
None of these feel like mistakes in the moment. That's exactly why they're dangerous.
- Starting as Warlord too early. The attack profession is nearly useless before you have the HQ and troops to back it. Engineer first.
- Hoarding speedups forever — or burning them on nothing. Both extremes lose. Bank them, then spend them on the days that score.
- Chasing cosmetic packs. Skins don't win wars. If a purchase doesn't add permanent power or progression, it's a trap.
- The diamond money-pit. Pouring diamonds into bottomless sinks feels productive and isn't. Spend them where the value is real.
- Ignoring virus resistance. Low resistance quietly bleeds you all season as the infection debuffs ramp up toward 100 stacks.
- Playing solo or in a dead alliance. The season is built for coordinated groups. A quiet alliance is a losing one.
- Reacting instead of planning. Not reading the calendar is the most common and most expensive mistake of all.
// Next step
Once you've got the map in your head, go learn the season properly in the Field Guide, or jump to Mechanics to understand how the virus actually works.