Playthrough screenshot, university student, Loop 1, 30–31 Aug 2026. HUD: Day 3, 14:50, Satiety / Morale / Stamina, story “Make it past Day 10.”
The campaign is not a boss rush. It is a calendar. Most failed runs in community threads die on a named day (first night, first wave, day 49–50, cold snap) because the house was still a starter kit.
This walkthrough assumes you followed the prep shopping order. Difficulty and origin change the margins — characters first if you have not locked a save.
Wave timing is community-reported, August 2026. If your build shifted a horde by a day, trust the siren over the table.
Calendar
| When | Job | Fail state |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1, before sleep | Research farming and cooking. Assemble hydroponics. Plant fast crops (mushrooms / spinach / tomatoes). | No calories on day 4 |
| Night 1 | Optional all-nighter with an energy drink to finish installs | Fine to sleep if the door is already on the wall |
| Before wave 1 | Craft three spike barriers, park them on the door | Repair-panic with a plywood door |
| Wave 1 | You can ignore the horde if the door is a real door (~2000 durability comes up a lot) | Opening the door to “help” |
| Before wave 2 | Three more spikes on the window; repair glass | Window breach while you are in the basement |
| Days 2–7 | Neighbor tasks same day. Drone trade as soon as it unlocks. Juice fruit for barter | Quest pile + empty fridge |
| ~Day 35 | Cold snap. AC on. Fuel is tighter than you think | Hypothermia while you watch the door HP |
| Days 30–49 | High-tier door repair boards (+500 per use in one popular guide). Stock 10+ repair patches. Coffee if you can | “I’ll fortify tomorrow” |
| Day 49–50 | Third major horde. Doors pop fast. Spikes full; not sandbags. People wipe here | Undefended door at 3 a.m. |
| After day 50 | Waves can deny sleep. Coffee + repair loop, or chainsaw / electric-saw coverage | Trying to AFK without saws |
| Days 50–100 | Hospital for meds, supermarket for food (nerfed after 13 Aug — juice trade compensates), alcohol → molotovs if your origin can craft them | Exploring without a door plan |
| Day 100 | Holdout achievement / evacuate branch — Steam lists One Hundred Days, Evacuate, Day of Reckoning, The Final Horde | Walking out broke and hungry |
Playthrough screenshot, 30–31 Aug 2026. Day 8, 23:40. This window paid Morale +20, food, Survival Points +5, and +1 Planning Point.
After day 50 (this Loop 2 run, days 67–82)
A second save on 31 Aug 2026 reached the seventies with outdoor circular saws, a Titanium Door still above 7,000 HP, and Enhanced Zombie Horde stages. That is the “saws then throw” half of the calendar — not a Student day-3 house.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, Day 67, 31 Aug 2026. HUD: 07:40, story “Go to the Ruined School,” Plants / Trap trackers on the left.
When the city opens, looting is not free time. This run’s ruined-school classroom showed an Exposure bar (36% in the shot) and a Retreat button. Search desks; do not linger.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, 31 Aug 2026. Flashlight loot, boarded windows, Exposure + Retreat in the top HUD.
The late map is no longer Old Town shops. This run’s Area Explored list included Survivor Camp (food / medicine), Recycling Station, Safe House, Compost Site, City Center Base, Rooftop Nursery, and Unknown Signal.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, Day 69, 02:30. Event line: “Shore up the line, swarm incoming (69/70 days).”
Day 79 on this save: Enhanced Zombie Horde Stage 3, Titanium Door 7026 / 7050, bulletproof-window line, leftover wave timer, and a Meat Grinder achievement while throwing a molotov (left-click prompt). That is the post-50 job the table above is pointing at.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, Day 79, 14:50. Horde remaining shown as 7156 / 50750 on this wave.
Daily loop that does not waste the day
- Bathroom / wash / short leisure if you still need stat caps (toilet paper, sink, a game, a book — the neighbor loop covers morale cheaper than a shopping spree).
- Harvest, juice, cook one powered meal, freeze extras.
- Neighbor delivery if the quest is up. Warehouse origin is a loner; other origins should keep the next-door survivor alive (15 Aug notes: she is worth saving, gifts got better).
- Drone: City Trading Point — load Drone Cargo, match the offered list, hit Deliver. This Loop 2 shot (day 75) had freezer food on the left, cargo in the middle, and wire / repair kits / scrap on the offer rail. Do not spend glass on electric fences.
- Craft spikes / saws in leftover minutes. Always leave a repair kit on the hotbar before night.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, Day 75, 08:00, 31 Aug 2026. Header: “Deal: The price is right. Send out the drone.”
Combat: kill, don’t hug the door forever
A widely shared 20 Aug note: zombies are for killing once you want to live past 50. Pure turtle play loses when repair time exceeds the night. Molotovs (worker / warehouse — not the student) plus spikes buy the window. When Lv4 chainsaw / meat-grinder defenses are up, several players switch to sleep-and-fast-forward, repairing every few days with the big repair kit (~1000 durability in that same writeup).
Until saws exist:
- Three spikes at the door, three at the window.
- Combustion bottles for wave three.
- Skip electric-grid traps early (weak, hungry).
- Rat cages + fuel generator + solar is the power mix when weather turns ugly. Do not trust solar alone.
Food and trade after the 13 Aug loot nerf
Street snacks got thinner. The replacement loop:
- Grow strawberries / tomatoes / mushrooms.
- Juice is trade fodder and neighbor gifts.
- Rice still converts into many plates.
- 90-pack biscuits are panic calories, not a diet.
- Student: more planter tiles (community: 24+). Lean on farming and skip buying food in prep.
- This Loop 2 freezer tooltip: extends food shelf life (×5). Cook, then park leftovers there — not in the backpack.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, Day 72, 18:50. Enhanced Zombie Horde 2 days out. Room temperature on this HUD read −126 — treat as a UI quirk until we reproduce it, not as a build target.
Power and weather
Community consensus after a week of patches: later weather is overcast, so a fuel generator you bought in prep is not a luxury. This Loop 2 Medium Fuel Generator panel (day 78, Off) listed Output +80 / 10 min and Cost −600 / 10 min, plus diesel slots. Save diesel for siege nights. AC is for the cold snap, not for vibes. If you skipped AC in prep, that is the first craft/buy once the holdout shops reopen.
Playthrough screenshot, Loop 2, Day 78, 11:00. Horde stage 2 wave 3 retreating on the left rail.
Endings and endless
Steam’s highlighted achievements imply at least a hold 100, an evacuate, and a final horde. Do not trust articles that invent percentage “loop 3 mutation” modifiers until you see them on a skill card.
Endless / post-100 talk in Steam comments: rat power, short-cycle crops, alcohol, coffee-repair, and the hard cap of how many outdoor saws you can plant. If your door’s max durability is the limiter (one student-run note), you are in endless, not the campaign calendar.
If you wipe
Note the day. Day-1 wipes are prep. Day-35 is weather. Day-49 is fortification. Re-roll with the same origin only if the death was execution; switch origin if you needed molotovs and picked student. A finished Student story (or ending) also opens Warehouse Manager for the supply-hose campaign. Survival points you banked still matter — how to spend them.