Retro-style horror games are known for their steep learning curves and quirks. We put together this guide to help you handle the mechanics and survive the most intense moments.

However, if you enjoy the difficulty of going in blind, avoid this guide at all costs.

Armed Combat

There’s a few abilities to help you out when using a gun, making you more likely to land your hits and down your targets.

You’ll automatically aim at your closest target when you ready your weapon and auto-track them for a short time. To keep your aim trained on the target, hold the Lock button while aiming.

You can also manually adjust your alignment while aiming, which allows you to go for headshots and deal extra damage.

Quickly switch targets with the Switch Target button. You will cycle through all available targets around you, including environmental hazards like exploding barrels.

Finally, holding the Focus button while aiming will bring up a slider that, with the correct timing, allows you to deal a critical shot to an enemy - most basic monsters will die in one hit from this. You can also use this to open special locks, so look out for those!

Melee Combat

On top of ranged combat, Ground Zero also has a lot of melee mechanics. These can help keep you safe without expending all your ammo.

Directional dodges can get you out of trouble at the expense of Stamina - these need to be done with the Dodge button while holding any direction. When you’re out of stamina, you will hear your character panting and the screen will darken slightly. Stamina recovers naturally over time, and red serums can give you a temp boost -  and using 3x red in a serum will permanently boost your stamina capacity. 

Move while attacking - you don’t need to stand in one spot to use your knife! You can perform melee attacks while strafing to keep a little distance between you and your attacker.

Block to reduce damage if you don’t think you can get out of the way. If you perfectly time your block, it also performs a Parry - you’ll hear a distinct noise and see your character deflect your attacker. After a successful parry, press the Dodge key to do a damage-dealing Counter-Attack. Some enemies are harder to block than others, so be cautious!

And, of course, if you see an enemy go down but not die, stand over them and Execute to kill them with your leg blade.

Safes and Save Points

Ground Zero’s safe rooms often have 2 separate stations to help you out: the Item Safes, and the Data Uplinks.

The Item Safes can be used to store items outside of your inventory. All safes are linked together - putting an item in Safe 1 will show up in Safe 2. You’ll need to solve a puzzle to open a Safe for the first time, after which it’ll be permanently available.

Data Uplinks, on the other hand, are where you can manually save the game. They require a Signal Modulator to unlock them, after which you can use that Uplink as much as you like to save your game.

Signal Modulators exist as items to pick up throughout the game, usually only a small distance from an Uplink. The game will also auto-save at points, so you shouldn’t be too far away from a save if you’ve made a lot of progress.

Safe Puzzles

Safes are locked behind a small math puzzle. If those aren’t your thing, there’s a couple of tools that can bypass some of that frustration.

As a hint, you can only use each given number and symbol in a solution once, making it possible to brute-force. The UI tells you what your current attempt adds up to, so you can use that to help you get closer to the solution.

Next, we have Safe Cracking Explosives, which you can find in the world. These allow you to bypass the puzzle entirely, but it’ll cost you the bonus item reward. If you have an Explosive in your Inventory when you interact with a safe, you’ll see a prompt in the UI at the bottom to use your explosive if you like.

Finally, if you want a helping hand with the puzzle but don’t want to sacrifice the bonus item, you can buy Ciphers from the Genome Point shop. These will reveal part of the solution without a penalty.

When You’re Outnumbered

Sometimes you’ll end up in situations where there’s a lot of enemies and it’s overwhelming to try to take them all on. You don’t have to face everything head-on, sometimes it’s best to just RUN AWAY! 

Leaving an area and re-entering will reset the positions of enemies, but they’ll still keep any damage you inflicted on them if you want to come back and finish the job. 

If you’re in a bad spot with a lot of enemies close behind you, resetting the area by leaving and entering can make it easier to get some more breathing room. 

Remember, you don’t have to kill everything - and sometimes, you can’t.

Practice/Training

If you’d like to practice your combat, the Training Room exists and can be accessed any time from the main menu. There’s 3 separate floors, each explaining different mechanics. We know that not everyone enjoys training, so it’s only optional, never mandatory - but we give you a small reward for completing it.

Getting Lost

We have some pretty big levels! If you get lost, you can use the Map to see where you are, as well as the locations of any items, locked doors, etc. that you may have passed by. If you can’t remember what your objective is, your character will have a Mental Note in the Inventory to help remind you what you were doing.

If you need any further guidance, join the Discord and speak to your fellow agents.