Barricading

Overview

Barricading is one of the essential aspects of the survival of a human team. A well-constructed barricade allows humans to completely (or partially) avoid hits from various types of zombie attacks. As zombies become stronger with each wave, the chances of survival without a barricade are close to zero. Before proceeding to the basic principles and description of the mechanics of barricading, it is necessary to understand the scale of the diversity and variability of this process.

Here are some facts:

• There are about/over 700 different maps in the Zombie Survival gamemode.
• In the maps themselves, there are at least several spots for barricading.
• There are a number of props on the maps that you can use for barricading - from a few dozen to a few hundred.
• The total number of props is about 3,000 (not including the custom ones).

This means that there is no universal “scheme” of the barricade that can be built on any map at any spot with the same props. On some maps with a large amount of props, you can build a thousand different barricades, changing combinations and quantity of props, as if shuffling a deck of cards.

But this is not a disadvantage of this gamemode. On the contrary - this is one of its main advantages because it gives you a huge choice and space for imagination. You have no limitations in terms of complexity and design. But there are basic principles and rules that distinguish a bad, useless barricade from a good, useful one. The description of these “basic rules” is the goal of this topic because without them you cannot build a good barricade (even the simplest one).

But it is also worth noting that for a beginner, it is extremely hard to cope with all the variety. In most cases, people make critical mistakes due to the lack of experience in barricading and because of the lack of knowledge of many aspects of the zs gameplay which leads to catastrophic consequences. The best solution is to observe the barricades that are built from veteran players, try to repeat them in single-player, and only then try to build them on the server.

Terminology

Barricade	Any number of props (even 1) nailed by hammer ( Carpenter's Hammer ), which blocks passage for most types of zombies. In the future, for simplicity, the barricade will be called "cade".
Shitcade	A kind of cade that has no practical use for a human team and which, accordingly, facilitates the task for the zombie team. In other words, a "wrong constructed cade".
Prop	Any physical object/subject that can (or cannot, f.e. – glass) be nailed with a hammer.
Hammer	The main tool needed to nail the prop and for their further repair.
Nail	Is the only consumable material (ammo) that the hammer uses to nail the prop and/or to increase the health of the prop. Number of nails = maximum number of props you can nail.
Phasing	Status when you go through the barricade with the press Z (Zoom) key.
HP	Short for Hitpoints. The remaining "life" of any entity, be it a human, zombie, nest, brush, deployable, prop, etc.
Deployable	Deployables are items that can be placed in the world. Deployables can be rotated with Secondary Fire/Reload before they are placed. Deployables have HP, and they will be destroyed if they take enough damage from zombies. They can also be repaired using a mechanic's wrench. Humans will not collide with deployables, but zombies will. Props may also be nailed to deployables.
Prop Health (prop HP)	There are two types of prop HP - Main HP and Repair HP. Main HP is displayed at the bottom of the green bar and with numbers on top. [[File:[[1]]|thumb|none|Prop with a small amount of main hp.]] The digit on the left displays the current (remaining) prop hp, the digit on the right is the maximum prop hp. When a prop takes damage from a zombie, the digit on the left and the green bar begin to decrease and, depending on the damage received, the bar changes color to yellow or red: [[File:[[2]]|thumb|none|Prop with a small amount of main hp.]] Repair HP displays the number of additional hp that you can use when repairing a prop. When repairing, the blue bar will start to decrease: [[File:[[3]]|thumb|none|GIF how the mechanics of repairing prop work.]] When you run out the repair hp: [[File:[[4]]|thumb|none|Prop that can no longer be repaired.]] This means that the prop cannot be repaired anymore and the only remaining HP is the Main HP. When it is at zero – the prop will break. The number (4) means the number of nails in the prop.
Big props	Mostly large-sized props that are heavy and have a lot more main hp and repair hp than small props: [[File:[[5]]|thumb|none|Example of big props.]] You cannot carry heavy props at high speed. In rare exceptions, small-looking props come across that can be mistakenly attributed to small and light props. For example, Harpoon: [[File:[[6]]|thumb|none]]
Small props	Basically, props of small size and weight, having a lesser main and repair hp. You can carry lightweight props with high speed: [[File:[[7]]|thumb|none|Example of small props.]]

What is needed for barricading

Barricading Skills

All barricade-related skills are located in the defense tree of the skill menu. Skills underlined in blue are required, underlined in yellow — situational:

[[File:[[8]]|frame|center]]

“Handy I-V”

Give you an additional 20% to the repair rate.

“Hammer Discipline”

Increase the swing speed with a hammer by 6%.

“Builder”

Gives you a 6 extra nails at start

“Scheduling”

Gives you an ability to repair faster if a prop was nailed on the previous wave, but props nailed on the current wave will repair more slowly.

“Mending”

The props you repaired can be automatically repaired with 3x repair rate over time with fast ticks, but your overall repair rate is reduced.

“Pressure”

Increases the repair speed with a hammer if the prop has low HP, but reduces the repair speed in general.

“Precision Repairs”

Is a special skill that creates special points on the prop, hit on which will increase the repair rate, but will reduce the repair rate and speed if miss this point.

[[File:[[9]]|thumb|none|GIF showing how the “Precision Repairs” skill works.]]

“Barricade Expert” is a skill which cannot be found in the skill menu. This skill is automatically granted as soon as you remort.

[[File:[[10]]|thumb|right|Location of “Barricade Expert” skill.]]

After activating this skill, the prop you have nailed will have a special padlock icon and the lock itself will have a color that matches the color of your remort tier. Remort tiers are divided into groups according to colors, i.e. you can unnail props which are in your remort level group (the same color of the remort), but with a penalty:

[[File:[[11]]|thumb|right|What does the padlock icon look like.]]

But the big difference in the remorts can be bypassed if the person with a higher remort level presses a “heart” in the scoreboard near your name. That’s called “nailhearting” and you’ll be able to unnail this person's prop without losing points. Also, you receive your nails back when the nailhearted person removes your nails. When someone gives you a heart, it will become green. You need to earn the trust of the players as a cader and then they may nailheart you after you ask them.

[[File:[[12]]|thumb|right|Location of this hearts.]]

Necessary tools

Marked in blue are necessarily required to purchase, yellow are situational

[[File:[[13]]|thumb|center]] [[File:[[14]]|thumb|center]] [[File:[[15]]|thumb|center]]

In addition to being able to repair, nail/unnail props with hammer, you can also rapidly break doors. Pressing R deals 200 damage to any door, which gives you the opportunity to break them much faster.

[[File:[[16]]|thumb|right|GIF shows how to break a door with a hammers.]]

Since everything is clear with a hammer, let’s go briefly through the rest of the tools:

Junk pack	A useful set of 4 wooden props, which includes all 5 types of boards and 6 more types of other wooden props in the form of chairs, backs of chairs, small shelves, etc. I.e., this pack will give you 4 random props of 11.
Further items for quick and effective repair of the barricades
“Blueprints”	A trinket that gives +repair rate Upgrade it (by selecting this trinket in the remantler menu or selecting it in the inventory (Alt key)) and get even more +repair rate, as well as chance to get pulse ammo for repair with hammer.
“Smithing Hammer”	A hammer that has great repair rate and that does a lot of damage to zombies, that is, it can be used as a melee weapon if no one defends your cade. Also, this hammer has a remantle variant — “Reinforcer”. It allows you to reinforce the prop so it will take less damage. Reinforcer has a very low repair rate, but it can be increased with a Precision Repairs skill. Reinforce your cade only when it has enough repairs. If you’re reinforcing a prop for its entire repair and hp bar, you almost doubling its effective health. Reinforced props have a shield icon.
“Prop Transponder”

Barricading Guide

Description

Imgur Album

This album contains pictures of good cades you should try to imitate, from many different servers. https://imgur.com/a/h57NZGV