With the new update to Zelter, both the appropriately named Challenge Mode and the endless Pioneer Mode are included in the game.
Pioneer mode comes with several important new additions:
Play at your own pace
Pioneer mode doesn’t have you racing against the clock (only against zombies, and starvation, and thirst, and potentially infection). You can take your time and gradually develop your shelter to stand up to zombie hordes. Even the evacuation helicopter is yours to call in when you feel ready.
Restore supplies
Essentials such as water won’t be easy to find - you must work to restore the infrastructure. Sources of water will start out broken when you enter a Pioneer Mode game, and it’s up to you to get the water running again. You aren’t the only one desperately in need of supplies. Those you rescue will need food, water and shelter just like you.
Rescue & recruit
In Pioneer mode managing the NPC survivors you rescue is one of your primary tasks. With their newly fleshed out backgrounds you’ll find they come from all walks of life. Under your guidance, some will be fit to take up arms against the zombie horde together with you, becoming allies. Ally NPCs have their own inventories and equipment slots, but they also have their own needs and demands.
Protect lives
Even with a gun in their hands, most NPC survivors aren’t suited to the hardships of a zombie apocalypse. Every rescued survivor will reward you, while every survivor lost to the infected horde will come back to kill you as a smarter, more dangerous zombie. Tend to their needs, then evacuate them from the horror they found themselves in by chopper. Otherwise they just might lose themselves to the infection and become part of the very threat you’re fighting against. But not everything in the field is trying to kill you.
Strategic areas
The map has both reliable shelters (once you clear the zombies inside) and strategic objects. But the latter are protected by walls. You will need resources in order to bypass these walls and get to the building beyond them. But be careful. Sometimes walls aren’t just there to keep someone out, but also to keep something in.
A mysterious vendor
While playing Pioneer Mode you may come across a mysterious merchant. Sometimes it’s worth not looking a gift horse in the mouth. With their help you’ll be able to sell off excess supplies and purchase some very valuable items! And let’s not forget another more legitimate businessman - the crop merchant.
Further new features that you will find in Pioneer mode include:
- The ability to repair broken doors, damaged barricades and workbenches. Ranged weapons also have durability now and require the repair workbench to fix them
- New defensive structures added to the game. Open the gate! Wait. Zombies. Close the gate!
- Furnace, campfire and oven can now produce items automatically so long as the appropriate materials are slotted into them
- And of course a brand new loading screen =3
Player feedback is the driving force behind improving Zelter and adding new features. So whether you’ve been with us for a long time or are a fresh survivor only just dropping into hostile zombie-infested territory - let us know your thoughts!
There are people counting on you, survivors! It might be too late to build paradise, but maybe you can at least delay a descent into hell.
P.S: If you would like to play the old version of Zelter, you can right-click Zelter in your Library, select Properties, then Betas and use the code: FeelingNostalgic