ZEADWOOD

Welcome to Zeadwood

The world outside the walls is no longer safe.

Abandoned homes, empty streets, overgrown trails, forgotten farms, and stretches of wilderness surround the last places where survivors have managed to establish some measure of security.

Beyond those safe areas are the Zeds.

Zeadwood is a multiplayer text-based survival game built around exploration, combat, scavenging, cooperation, character advancement, and discovery.

You control your survivor by entering commands or by using the browser interface. You can explore the world, gather equipment and resources, develop abilities, fight Zeds, help other survivors, and contribute to the Safe Zone.

You are not expected to understand everything immediately.

Creating Your Survivor

The first time you connect to Zeadwood, create your survivor from the login screen with:

Example:

After your survivor is created, Zeadwood will guide you through a short appearance setup. Answer the questions when prompted, then review the generated description of your survivor.

When Zeadwood asks whether you want to accept the appearance:

accepts the description, while:

lets you create a different appearance.

Once the appearance is accepted, your survivor enters the world and is ready to play.

Quick Start

1. Understanding the Interface

Left Side — Inventory, Equipment & Available Actions

Inventory

The INVENTORY button displays your current inventory in the game transcript.

Equipped Hands

Directly beneath INVENTORY are two equipment cells:

• LEFT HAND
• RIGHT HAND

These show what your survivor currently has equipped. They update automatically when items are wielded or unwielded and are populated when you log in.

Available Actions

The Available Actions panel contains buttons related to your current location. These buttons change automatically as you move through the world.

Safe Zone examples include:

• Receive Treatment
• Resupply
• Train Bandage
• Dispose Corpse
• Approach Test Dummy
• Retreat From Test Dummy
• Donations
• Donate
• Deposit

These buttons are conveniences. Almost every action they represent can also be performed by typing its normal Zeadwood command.

Center — Game Transcript

The large center window is the heart of Zeadwood. Everything happening around your survivor appears here, including room descriptions, visible exits, combat, Zed activity, player movement, NPC activity, speech, loot, healing, searching, scavenging, environmental messages, and command results.

Command Bar

Previously entered commands can be recalled using the Up and Down Arrow keys.

Automatic Command Bar Focus

After you click most interface controls, Zeadwood automatically returns keyboard focus to the command bar. You can click an ability, target, room action, corpse action, minimap location, or other button and immediately begin typing another command.

Right Side — Survivor Information

Health

The green Health bar represents your current health compared with your maximum health. If your health reaches zero, you become incapacitated and are eventually returned to the Recovery Room.

Teeth

Teeth are collected from dead Zeds and are used to purchase training in various abilities.

Targets

Zeadwood can display up to two enemies currently engaged with you. Selecting a target tells the interface which enemy should receive your next combat ability.

The target buttons track the exact Zed that engaged you, even when several Zeds have identical names. Training Dummy targeting is handled separately.

Attributes and Advancement Progress

Combat Abilities

The large ATTACK button is always highlighted because the standard attack can always be used, even without a weapon.

Learned abilities such as Slash, Bash, and Thrust appear beneath it with their ranks. These buttons highlight only when the weapon in your right hand supports that attack type.

• Slash requires a slashing weapon.
• Bash requires a blunt weapon.
• Thrust requires a piercing weapon.

Some weapons support more than one attack type.

Bandage

Scavenge

The SCAVENGE button performs the Scavenge action and becomes unavailable during its cooldown.

Action Cooldown

A thin gold bar represents your general action or combat cooldown.

Minimap & Threat Display

The minimap shows your current location and directly connected rooms. Neighboring rooms can be clicked to move.

It also shows the threat category of the room you currently occupy:

• SAFE — green
• NORMAL — neutral
• MODERATE — orange
• HIGH — red

The current-room marker changes its border and glow to match the threat level. Threat information is presented in the minimap rather than as raw technical messages in the transcript.

2–4. Looking, Moving & Listening to the World

Looking Around

Zeadwood rewards players who pay attention to descriptions.

Moving Through the World

Movement Cooldown

Normal survivors have a short movement cooldown of approximately three seconds.

Listening to the World

This means something moved through a nearby area. It does not tell you what moved.

Ambient Messages

Some locations occasionally produce atmospheric messages after you have remained there for a short time.

5. The Safe Zone

The Safe Zone is the central survivor settlement and your main hub. It is classified as Threat Level 0. Ambient Zed encounters do not occur inside it.

Recovery Room

The Recovery Room is where incapacitated survivors are returned by the recovery team.

Common Room

The Common Room serves as a central social area and contains the Safe Zone donation system.

Medical Wing

Medic Rachel can provide bandage supplies and treatment.

Fighter Training Area

Trainer Harlan teaches weapon abilities. A Training Dummy allows safe combat practice.

Survivalist Area

June Mercer provides Repair Kits used with Mend.

Front Courtyard

A major outdoor junction inside the fortified perimeter.

Zed Disposal

Bringing corpses back from the field and disposing of them can contribute to Advancement Progress.

Builders Area

Hudson provides Scavenge training.

Storage Container Area

This area contains each survivor’s personal resource storage.

Guard Shack

The Guard Shack stands near the reinforced entrance to the Safe Zone.

6. Threat Levels

Zeadwood uses four player-facing threat categories to give survivors a general indication of local danger.

The current area's threat level is displayed on the minimap. A higher threat rating does not necessarily mean a Zed is currently present; it represents the overall danger associated with that location.

• Residential streets
• Abandoned homes
• Commercial areas
• Farm fields
• Farm buildings
• Woods
• Trails
• Pond and cottage areas
• Remote wilderness locations

Not every dangerous situation announces itself in advance. Explore accordingly.

7. Picking Up and Carrying Items

Examples:

Inventory

Zeadwood’s inventory display includes held and worn equipment as well as carried resource totals and capacity.

The browser interface also provides an INVENTORY button on the left side. Directly beneath it, LEFT HAND and RIGHT HAND show what you currently have equipped.

8. Searching for Gear

Many outdoor and abandoned locations can be searched for useful physical items.

How Searching Works

A search takes approximately 30 seconds to complete. Progress messages appear in the transcript while the search is underway.

Searching makes noise and increases the chance of attracting Zeds.

Interrupting a Search

A search is interrupted if a Zed engages or pursues you, or if you move away from the location.

Interrupted searches do not deplete the area. You can return and try again later.

Search Results

A completed search may find nothing, one item, or occasionally multiple items.

Found items are placed in the room and must still be picked up normally.

Search Recovery Time

Once a location has been successfully searched, it normally cannot be searched again for approximately 30 minutes.

Search is available in many outdoor and abandoned locations, but generally not in Safe Zone or support areas.

9–12. Fighting Zeds, Retreating & Training

Engaging a Zed

Basic Attack

The standard attack can be used even if you are not holding a weapon.

Weapon Abilities

Slash requires a slashing weapon, Bash a blunt weapon, and Thrust a piercing weapon. Weapon abilities check the weapon in your right hand.

Weapons With Multiple Attack Styles

Some weapons support more than one trained attack type. A weapon might support Slash and Thrust, or Bash and Thrust.

The interface highlights the trained attack buttons that your current right-hand weapon supports.

Multiple Combat Targets

When more than one Zed is engaged with you, the target buttons track the specific individual Zeds rather than relying only on their names. Select the target you want before using an interface combat ability.

Retreating

Retreat is not guaranteed to succeed. If successful, start moving away. Zeds may pursue you.

Combat Training

Training costs Teeth.

Training Dummy

The dummy is not actually injured and does not award normal combat Advancement Progress. Its targeting is handled separately from normal Zed targets.

13. Attributes and Character Advancement

This displays Strength, Agility, Endurance, Character Level, Advancement Points, Advancement Progress, and trained ability levels. The current maximum displayed value for each core attribute is 30.

Raising Attributes

How you spend Advancement Points becomes an important decision as your survivor develops.

14–15. Medical Care and Equipment Repair

Bandage

Bandaging is an ability check and may fail.

Learning Bandage

Bandage Supplies

Medical Treatment

Mend

A successful field repair can currently restore an item up to 75% durability. Mend requires Repair Kits.

16–18. Scavenging, Storage & Donations

Scavenging

Scavenging may produce Lumber, Scrap Metal, Components, Fabric, and Masonry. These are numerical resources rather than ordinary physical items.

Search vs. Scavenge

Scavenge has its own cooldown of approximately 150 seconds and cannot be used while Zeds are actively pursuing or attacking you.

Personal Resource Storage

Donating to the Safe Zone

Donating can award limited Advancement Progress during your current donation period.

19–20. Zed Corpses, Teeth & Duplicate Objects

Inspecting Corpses

Collecting Teeth

Looting Equipment

Carrying a Corpse

Disposing of Corpses

Automatic Corpse Cleanup

Zed corpses left in the world are automatically cleaned up after approximately 15 minutes. You still have time to inspect them, loot them, or carry them away before this happens.

Corpses returned to the Safe Zone can still be manually disposed of for the normal disposal reward.

Handling Multiple Corpses

When several corpses are present, numeric references can be used:

If corp is ambiguous, Zeadwood will ask you to specify which corpse.

Browser Corpse Panel

The browser interface can display up to five corpses in the current room. Each entry identifies the former Zed, and visible loot remains listed beneath the appropriate corpse.

Other Duplicate Objects

Traditional parser references can still be useful in other situations:

21. Social Interaction

Zeadwood is a multiplayer world. Players can communicate and interact through the game itself.

Produces:

Zeadwood’s social systems are intended to support the world rather than replace outside voice chat.

22. Exploration and Discovery

Zeadwood is not designed so that every room contains a button to press or a resource to collect. Some places exist because they make the world a world.

• Empty buildings
• Roads
• Trails
• Woods
• Fields
• Landmarks
• Environmental details
• Hidden locations
• Caches
• Loot areas
• Increasingly dangerous territory
• Searchable areas
• Scavenging locations

23. A Survivor’s First Trip Outside

• Understand what equipment you are carrying.
• Check the LEFT HAND and RIGHT HAND displays.
• If you intend to use Slash, Bash, or Thrust, make sure the weapon in your right hand supports that attack.
• Know your abilities and condition.
• Check your health bar.
• Look at the minimap's threat display.
• Learn how to retreat before you need to retreat.
• Remember where the gate is.

Once outside: use look whenever you enter somewhere unfamiliar. Pay attention to exits and watch the local threat level.

Use search here in promising abandoned areas if you are prepared to spend time making noise. Use Scavenge when you need building resources.

Do not assume every Zed is equally dangerous. Do not assume every strange sound means a Zed.

24. Quick Command Reference

Final Advice

You do not need to memorize this manual. Zeadwood is designed to be learned by playing.

When you are unsure what is around you:

When you want to know what you are carrying:

When an abandoned location looks worth investigating:

When you need raw materials:

When you are unsure whether you are prepared for a fight:

There will always be another building to explore, another trail to follow, another resource to collect, and another Zed waiting somewhere beyond the walls.

Learn the Safe Zone.
Learn your abilities.
Watch your health.
Watch the threat level.
Know when to retreat.
Loot corpses before they disappear.
Help the people around you when you can.

Welcome to Zeadwood.