Survival Guide: How to Stay Alive on The Loot Lounge

The Loot Lounge is harder and busier than the base game. This guide covers the threats you'll run into, roughly in the order you'll meet them, and how to handle each one. For Project Z's survival needs (hygiene, stress, fatigue and radiation), see the Project Z guide.

The golden rules

1. Bank your chips. Chips in your backpack drop when you die. Stop at a Cashier's Cage before you do anything risky.
2. Keep an escape route. /tp takes you to any trader you've found, at any hour, even on a blood moon.
3. Set your home. /tp home gets you back, but it doesn't work in the middle of a fight or on a blood moon.
4. Watch the chat. Turf windows, Pit events, earthquakes and trader hours are announced there.
5. Died? Go get your stuff. /bag teleports you to your last death backpack.

The world gets harder as you travel

The first time you cross into a harder biome, you get a warning on screen.

The server stops high-tier zombies spawning in the pine forest even when a high-level player is nearby, so new players have somewhere safe to learn. Blood moons are the exception: on a blood moon, every biome gets the full horde.

Bosses

• Each biome except the pine forest can spawn a night boss, roughly 1 night spawn in 100.
• In the wasteland, bosses are common: about 1 in 10, with a rarer, harder tier at about 1 in 200.
• Project Z elites (tier 4 zombies) start showing up around gamestage 250 and reach full strength from gamestage 500.
• Project Z mini-bosses can guard buildings from gamestage 364.

If you see a name above a zombie's head, it's a boss. Back off to a spot where you can fight it one on one, or leave.

Blood moons

On a blood moon the horde comes to you, wherever you are.

• Get ready during the day. Traders close at 9pm on a blood moon, so do your shopping early.
• Fight from somewhere you built. One way in, a spot for you to stand, and a way to repair.
• You can't /tp home or /fav during a blood moon. Be where you want to fight before dark.

The God's Hunger (level 50 and up)

From 10:30pm to 3:30am on every blood moon, the blood god watches every player level 50 and up, not just players doing The Seven.

• Each zombie you kill gives you The God's Grace, a 5-minute clock.
• If the clock runs out, The God's Hunger starts and drains 4 health a second until you kill another zombie.
• Don't hide in a sealed box on a blood moon at level 50+. Keep killing, and carry healing in case the clock slips.

Earthquakes (TLL Aftershock)

Earthquakes hit on their own schedule.

• Warning: sirens sound in towns only. In the wild, carry a Seismic Monitor. Its schematic is sold by traders and found in loot, and you craft the Monitor at a workbench.
• During the quake: buildings crack and collapse, the power grid goes down, and zombies get knocked off their feet.
• After the quake: you're Shaken, with vertigo and slower movement. Seismadol cures it straight away. Craft it at a Chemistry Station from 2 Painkillers and 1 Herbal Antibiotics. A few minutes later, the noise brings a feral horde to the epicentre.
• The opportunity: treasure caches get buried toward the epicentre, and sinkholes can open into hidden chambers.
• The Big One follows a fixed pattern: pressure builds at dawn and the quake lands that day.
• Blood moons can set off quakes, and a quake during a blood moon hits harder.

The Undercity

The tunnels under the map are their own kind of dangerous. Level 5 is the minimum. See The Undercity guide for the full picture.

• Bad air builds the longer you stay deep: Stale, then Foul, then Black Damp, which takes about 2 health a second. Climbing is the only cure.
• Carry Charcoal Filters (2 cloth + 4 coal makes two), or craft the Pit Boss miner's set, which breathes for you.
• Watch your step: some entrances are straight drops, and the tunnels hide spike pits and covered pits.

House Contract fights

• Before the first wave, pick a corner or doorway at the rally point so everything comes at you from one direction.
• Don't leave the floor. Leaving the site cancels the contract.
• Bring healing. You can't pop out to restock once the waves start.
• Night floors run at night, when zombies are faster.
• Floors 16 to 18 need the same raid gear as the Raids below.

Raid champions

The Croupier Prime, The Whale and The Proprietor can't be beaten without the right gear, both from High Rollers in the Vault:

• House-Marked Rounds (slotted into your gun) are the only way to hurt them.
• A House Warding Plate (slotted into your armour) stops their killing aura. Without it, standing near one kills you.

Each champion has two phases and calls in elite adds. Clear the adds fast, then go back to the boss. Take a group.

The Pit (PvP)

The Pit is around 1203 E, 2395 S.

• Everything in there sprints and hunts you, up to 10 bosses at once plus a crowd of zombies, and other players can kill you.
• You get 10 seconds of protection when you enter. Turn back if you change your mind.
• Your haul only counts if you get out alive. Die and you lose it, and your killer takes a cut.
• Three wanted items a day: type /pit runs to see them. Carry one out alive for bonus chips.
• Combat tag: logging out within 30 seconds of a player fight kills you and drops your backpack.
• After dying in the Pit, you're slowed for 30 seconds and respawned away from the zone.
• Pit Breaker ammo from High Rollers is the only ammo that really hurts Pit bosses.
• Pit Open: a battle royale every Saturday at 7pm Eastern (23:00 UTC). Type /pit join during the sign-up. It needs at least 5 players, and the last one standing wins the chip pot.

The four gang turfs and the Black Market are PvP zones too. See the Turf and Black Market guides.

When things go wrong

• Stuck vehicle or drone? /fetch brings them to you.
• Stuck quest item jamming your inventory? /wipeme clears your backpack and toolbelt but keeps your armour.
• Broken drone? /resetdrone deletes it so you can place a new one.
• Anything else: open a ticket on the website.