Killing Floor 2 Versus Survival - Playing as the ZEDs

Versus Survival is Killing Floor 2's player-versus-player mode. One team plays the usual survivors with perks, the Trader and dosh. The other team spawns as ZEDs controlled by real people. After a round the teams swap sides. It arrived in a spring 2016 update during Early Access, and the first videos of the mode all show the same thing: everyone wants to be a ZED, and survivors who have never seen the mode get torn apart.

This guide covers how a round works, what every playable ZED can do, the boss round, combos that win as ZEDs and habits that keep survivors alive.

Pathfinder's Versus Survival video: a first session on the ZED side.

How a match works

	Survivors	ZED team
Goal	Survive the waves and kill the boss	Wipe the survivors as early as possible
Spawning	Normal start at the beginning of the round	Random specimen each life
Economy	Earn dosh, buy at the Trader	None, you just respawn
Between waves	Shop and reposition	Watch the survivors shop and plan
Final round	Fight the boss	One player becomes the boss

Spawns and respawns

• ZED players spawn as a random specimen. One life you are a Husk, the next a plain Clot. You cannot pick.
• With only a few ZED players on the server, respawn is almost instant, so pressure never lets up.
• Each wave has a limited pool of ZEDs. When the pool runs low, respawns slow down or stop, and the last few survivors can sometimes ride out the wave.
• Common trick: if you roll a weak ZED (a Crawler or Clot), suicide into the survivors to get a new roll quickly.

Movement and vision

• ZEDs play in third person, which gives a wider view around corners than survivors have.
• ZEDs can open doors and jump over fences and low obstacles.
• You cannot see your own teammates through walls, so call out where you are.
• Zed Time triggers for both teams. On the ZED side the slow motion is annoying at first, but it is a window to plan the next move.

Third-person view on the ZED team: an Alpha Clot moves up beside a Bloat on Burning Paris.

Damage

ZED damage against survivors is tuned differently from survivor damage against ZEDs, so raw numbers feel uneven. Heavy hits do much more against a survivor without armor.

Spectating the Trader

Between waves, ZED players can watch the survivors shopping. It is fun to comment on, and it is useful: you see who bought armor, who switched to a shotgun and who skipped ammo.

What every ZED can do

ZED	Main ability	Use it for
Clot	Grab: holds a survivor in place	Pinning someone for a teammate
Alpha Clot	Rally (buffs nearby ZEDs); some rolls can grab	Starting a push
Slasher / Gorefast	Fast melee, evade, spin and swing attacks	Chasing stragglers
Crawler	Fast, climbs; suicide explosion	Diving into a group and re-rolling
Stalker	Cloak	Catching a lone survivor
Bloat	Vomit that blinds and damages; hold-to-charge attack	Front line, area denial
Siren	Scream; a vortex pull that drags a survivor in	Separating one target
Husk	Ranged fireball, flamethrower, suicide explosion	Damage from range, finishing grabbed targets
Scrake	Chainsaw and a spin attack that throws survivors	Breaking a defended group
Fleshpound	Heavy hits and a chest bump that sends survivors flying	Door breaker, tank

A Crawler on the move; its suicide explosion makes it a cheap way to re-roll.

Notes from real matches

• Bloat: if a survivor shoots its head off, it can no longer vomit. Keep the head out of sight while closing in.
• Crawler: the explode key sits close to the movement keys on PC, and new players blow themselves up by accident.
• Husk: the most wanted spawn. It is the only common ZED that hurts from range, and its suicide wipes clumped survivors.
• Scrake: the spin attack exists only for player-controlled Scrakes. Into a tight group it launches people like pinballs.
• Fleshpound: third-person charges are hard to aim at first; take a moment to learn the lunge distance.

A player-controlled Fleshpound wading into the street.

Full stats for each enemy are in the KF2 ZED types guide.

The boss round

In the final round one ZED player gets the boss. Playing as the Patriarch looks like this:

Control	Action
Primary fire	Minigun; it runs out after a while and has to recharge
Middle mouse	Rocket
G	Mortar strike; hard to aim, it does not fly straight
Q	Heal; a few charges per round, heal away from the survivors
Melee and grab	Close-range hits; the grab is unreliable

A player-controlled Patriarch round on Burning Paris.

Tips for the boss player:

• Pick off the Medic first. A Medic who keeps healing will out-sustain your damage.
• Heal out of sight. Use the self-heals behind cover, not in the middle of the fight.
• Use the minigun on weakened targets and stop before it runs dry at the wrong moment.
• Other ZED players respawn to help you. Push together with them.

Tips for survivors against a player boss: stay together, keep the Medic alive and burst the boss when it tries to break away and heal. How the AI Patriarch fights is in KF2 bosses.

Winning as the ZED team

• Grab combos. A Clot or Alpha Clot pins a survivor, and a Husk or Crawler runs in and detonates on them. Two grabbers on the same target are even better.
• Hunt the isolated player. Survivors who split up die fast. A lone survivor in the courtyard or a subway tunnel is the ideal target.
• Tank with the fat ones. A Bloat or Fleshpound in front soaks fire and blinds survivors while faster ZEDs flank.
• Rally before you push. Use the Alpha Clot's rally as a group is about to engage, not after.
• Spend explosions well. A Husk or Crawler suicide in a crowded hallway is worth more than a lone poke.
• Swarm from several sides. One doorway is easy to defend; three are not.
• Watch the shopping. Survivors without armor are the ones to dive.

Survivors fight back with fire on Biotics Lab.

Surviving as the human team

• Buy armor. Heavy ZED attacks hurt far more without it, and many public losses come from teams that skipped it.
• Bring a Medic. Players watching from the ZED side keep saying the same thing: the team that heals itself wins close rounds.
• Stick together. Versus punishes stragglers much harder than PvE does.
• Shoot grabbers first. Freeing a grabbed teammate stops the Husk combo.
• Weld doors to control where ZEDs come from (hold the welder key, see beginner basics).
• Fire and grenades work well against large, slow ZEDs used as shields.
• Carry something forgiving. An automatic shotgun like the AA-12 still hits when a Bloat has blinded you.
• Head the Bloat. Without a head it cannot vomit.

End of the round

Each round ends with a Victory or Defeat screen and team awards: Zed Slayer, Medicine Master, Enforcer, Destroyer, Money Bags, Head Popper and others. Then the map vote starts.

The post-round screen on Biotics Lab: result and team awards.

Is it balanced?

Players in both videos ask the same thing: the ZED side feels overpowered, especially against teams new to the mode. That is mostly a coordination gap. Experienced survivors with armor and a healer win rounds, often barely. Expect lopsided matches in public lobbies and closer games in organized groups.

Sources

• Pathfinder, Killing Floor 2 Versus Survival - Playing As The Zed!, April 2016 (YouTube).
• Starsnipe, Killing Floor 2 Gameplay Part 2 - "ZED MAYHEM!", April 2016 (YouTube).

Screenshots on this page are frames from these videos.

"Zed Mayhem": the end-of-match screen on Burning Paris after a full session on the ZED side.