A PERSISTENT, LIVING WORLD
NPC squads travel between towns, encounter rival factions and fight beyond your view. Groups you meet can persist across saves, and off-screen battles leave evidence behind.
WHAT’S IN THE WORLD.
Current features through version 1.4.6, including the Safehouse update and vehicle arrivals. Updated October 29, 2026.
FACTIONS & RELATIONSHIPS
Meet friendly, neutral, cautious and hostile factions: police, military, civilians, survivors and later-game raiders. Encounters change as the outbreak progresses. Factions remember aggression, while individual NPC opinions exist alongside your wider reputation.
TOWNS & WILDERNESS ENCOUNTERS
Pre-population places staff and civilians in buildings at the start of a new world. Groups also appear in countryside, forests and farmland. Patrols, roadblocks, ambushes, camps and raids bring encounters across the map.
SQUAD TACTICS & SURVIVAL
NPCs flank, spread across entrances, respond to squad alarms and navigate doors, windows and fences. Behavior modules cover fear, stealth, melee footwork, combat avoidance and retreat when wounded, overwhelmed or outmatched. Reactions vary by faction.
EQUIPMENT & COMBAT CONDITIONS
Weapon range, line of sight, weather, player visibility traits and NPC endurance affect combat. Armor protects NPCs and wears down under gunfire. NPCs reload, manage limited ammunition and react to distant sniper fire. Vehicles and obstacles affect attacks.
WOUNDS, RESCUE & INFECTION
NPCs can become wounded, receive treatment and be helped or rescued by allies. Infected NPCs can turn into zombies.
SAFEHOUSE VISITORS
Automatic safehouse detection supports visitors at doors and windows, letters and gifts. Reputation influences encounters, and well-treated visitors may return with gifts. Some visitors have hostile intentions.
DIALOGUE & PERSONAL INTERACTIONS
Talk to NPCs, ask about their group and answer questions through the conversation interface. Dialogue includes ambient chatter, warnings, panic and combat reactions. NPC speech bubbles are enabled by default in 1.4.6.
OUTPOSTS & ORGANISED THREATS
Outposts maintain garrisons and dispatch squads. Assassination teams can track your last known position, while larger forces combine multiple squads under a leader. Taking an outpost down involves more than disabling its radio, with fire and explosives among the available methods.
RADIO & WORLD EVENTS
An interactive A-Life radio system accompanies distant gunfire, sirens, vehicle sounds, helicopters and other ambient events. New characters experience an opening outbreak sound sequence. Helicopter searchlight and raid events have configurable controls.
NPC DRIVING & VEHICLE ARRIVALS
Introduced in 1.4.6: squads can arrive in working vehicles with seated crews. Attached crews can regroup around nearby parked cars, and car-spawned squads default to persistent. Driving debug controls remain developer-only.
NPC & FACTION CREATOR
Customize appearance, clothing, makeup, equipment and behavior. Organize NPC and faction folders, share faction codes, and reset default factions while keeping custom creations. Seasonal outfits are included in the 1.4 release series. On dedicated servers, Creator access is restricted to administrators.
SANDBOX & THE WAR CHALLENGE
Adjust population, encounters, combat difficulty, NPC health and damage, raids, support and persistence limits. Change weapon-drop chances and condition during play. The War Challenge raises population and combat limits; it does not increase spawn chances or guarantee constant fighting.
SINGLE-PLAYER, CO-OP & MULTIPLAYER
Supports Build 42.21 in single-player, co-op and multiplayer, with ongoing improvements to synchronization, spawning, corpses and performance.
WORLD INFORMATION & BUG REPORTS
The A-Life map and World Status interface show squad information, including whether groups are physically present or simulated off-screen. A pause-menu bug-report button saves diagnostic information, with individual and server-wide report options.
Compiled from developer release posts and Steam change notes through October 23, 2026. Read the Steam changelog