How to Beat Headquarters in Zombastic: Time to Survive

To beat the Headquarters stage in Zombastic: Time to Survive, kite incoming swarms in continuous loops around open central rooms, build multi-target area-of-effect (AoE) weapons early, and avoid dead-end hallways. Survival requires keeping zombies clustered behind you, clearing elite escorts before focusing major targets, and continuously circling the arena perimeter during the final boss fight.

Layout Hazards and Movement Routing

Headquarters features tighter interior spaces than open wilderness maps, combining open central rooms with narrow corridors and scattered furniture barricades. Corner entrapment is the main hazard: fast-moving infected and armored mutants spawn from multiple doorways and converge quickly.

Navigate the layout using these positioning rules:

• Anchor in open areas: Maintain wide circular or oval movement paths around central obstacles. Ensure you always have at least two clear escape routes rather than lingering near room edges.
• Funnel swarms through chokepoints: Pull trailing groups through doorways and narrow passages. Compressing the horde into straight lines maximizes hits from piercing shots and explosives.
• Never stop in hallways: If you must cross through an interior corridor, push forward steadily to the next open room. Lingering in a hallway allows rear spawns to trap you in a pincer.
• Watch doorway thresholds: Fast rushers, charging mutants, and ranged spitters can ambush you when crossing between sectors. Check openings before stepping through.

Weapon and Skill Priorities

Headquarters swarms spawn in dense packs that overwhelm single-target ballistic weapons. Invest early level-up choices into wide-clearing abilities and defensive pushback before taking utility passives.

Unlock a primary AoE ability first. Early investment in attack range and bullet penetration lets you defeat enemies safely from distance and collect experience gems without stepping directly into active hordes.

Managing Horde Spikes and Elite Enemies

Mid-stage difficulty spikes deploy sudden swarms of sprinters alongside toxic-spitting and shielding mutants. When a swarm warning appears, execute wide oval kiting loops around the perimeter of your room. Drag the front edge of the horde behind you, pulling enemies through lingering damage zones like fire pools or laser fields rather than cutting back through the pack.

Resilient elite mutants feature overhead health bars, gap-closing lunges, and damage auras. Handle them with the following sequence:

1. Maintain mid-range spacing: Stay within automated weapon range, but keep enough distance to react to sudden leap or charge telegraphs.
2. Clear minor minions first: Use AoE skills to eliminate regular infected nearby so your automated targeting concentrates its burst damage on the elite.
3. Bait linear charges into obstacles: When an elite winds up a forward charge, sidestep behind an interior wall or barrier. The obstacle halts the charge, creating an opening for free attacks.
4. Delay loot pickup: Never dive into a horde to grab reward chests or experience orbs dropped by defeated elites. Continue your movement loop and collect the items once enemy density drops.

Defeating the Headquarters Boss

The final boss encounter takes place in a restricted arena and features high-damage lunges and sweeping ground attacks that can deplete your health bar in two hits.

Begin the battle by clearing any remaining elite minions so auto-targeting locks onto the boss. When the boss begins an attack telegraph, stop aggressive positioning and focus entirely on avoidance:

• Evade ground telegraphs: Watch the floor for highlighted danger markers indicating falling debris or shockwaves. Dodge around the boss's flank rather than backing away in a straight line.
• Circle the outer perimeter: Maintain a wide clockwise or counterclockwise loop along the outer edge of the room while keeping the boss centered. This path gives you room to evade projectiles while forcing the boss through persistent ground hazards.
• Attack during cooldown pauses: Chip away at the boss's health while its heavy attack sequences are on cooldown. Prioritize dodging over continuous damage uptime until the stage is cleared.