Zombie Air Force beginner guide
Fly the objective, not the horde: chain gun for crowds, Hydra rockets for clusters, drop defenses before the wave arrives, and spend your first credits on primary weapon damage.
The fastest way to stop dying in Zombie Air Force is to stop fighting the horde and start fighting the objective. This page is the first hour, in order: what to fly, what to shoot, where your credits go, and which mistakes cost new squads the mission.
The first five steps
- Take the default aircraft and fly the tutorial section. Section 1 is the training ground. You are learning the chain gun's spread, how rockets arc, and how fast the zombie horde closes on your allies.
- Bind the fire and zoom controls in your head before you need them. Your primary is the M230 chain gun; your secondary is Hydra rockets. Chain gun for lines of walkers, rockets for clusters and anything armored.
- Watch the objective banner, not your kill feed. The banner tells you what actually ends the mission — for most early missions it is a variant of
PROTECT THE ALLIES UNTIL 10 REACH THE HEART. Ten allies reaching the extraction point wins the mission; your score does not. - Press the defense key when the banner tells you to. The prompt
PRESS 3 FOR DEFENSESexists because the game wants you to drop ground defenses before the wave reaches the allies, not after. A defense dropped early is worth three dropped late. - Bank your first 3–5 missions of credits and spend them in one visit. The upgrade tree rewards depth in one branch over scattering points across five.
What the HUD is telling you
| HUD element | What it means |
|---|---|
| Credits (top-left) | Your spendable currency, earned every battle |
| Medals / Honors | Prestige-style currencies, awarded for accomplishments rather than farming |
| Score | Mission performance — it does not buy anything by itself |
| Health bar | Your aircraft's durability; return to base to repair rather than dying |
RETURN TO BASE [R] | Retreat and repair instead of feeding the horde a free kill |
| Objective banner (top) | The only thing that wins the mission |
Your first upgrade purchases
The upgrade tree is large — the developer's own description puts it at over 180 upgrades — and the tree includes a store tab for spending your currency on permanent improvements.
- Primary damage first. Every early mission failure is a damage-per-second problem, not a defense problem.
- Reload and cooling second. Longer sustained fire means fewer panicked gaps where zombies reach the allies.
- Defenses third, once your damage carries the early waves. Defense upgrades multiply the value of every defense you drop.
- Aircraft unlocks last. A better airframe with weak weapons performs worse than the starter plane with a strong gun.
Three mistakes that end runs
- Chasing kills away from the objective. The horde is infinite; your allies' health is not. Fly the route the objective needs, not the route with the most zombies.
- Hoarding rockets for a boss that never comes. Use Hydra rockets on the biggest cluster you can see right now. They refill.
- Ignoring the co-op layer. Two players covering opposite flanks with defenses between them will out-survive a solo hero every time. If you can, fly with a group — the co-op guide covers squad roles.
FAQ
Can you play Zombie Air Force solo?
You can queue into a server alone, but objectives scale around a squad and defense placements assume multiple players. Solo play works best in early sections; later sections effectively require teammates.
What is the best early aircraft?
Start with whatever you have and put your credits into weapons before airframes. The upgrade tree path matters far more than the airframe in the first ten missions.
How long is a mission?
Early missions run a few minutes each — long enough for two or three defense waves, short enough to retry quickly after a wipe.
