New in 2.7.1: - Nightfall goes deeper: new marks at waves 44 and 45, plus a Daybreak achievement. - Two new abilities: PATCH UP repairs your wall, HEADSHOT hits the toughest infected on the road. - Three new outpost projects: Salvage Yard, Clinic Wing and Drafting Room. - Two new decoration sets: Bunker and Vigil. - New in the shop: the Full Squad (all four heroes), the Looks Upgrade, the Veteran Collector's Bundle, and 2028 gold tracks. - If a save ever fails to load, the game now keeps it and offers to recover it from Settings. - The Rival Cup week now starts on Monday. - Stability and bug fixes.

NEW IN 2.7 - New hero MASON (optional purchase): he walls off the main road with barricades that stop zombies. Meet him in the Shop. - FIELD PASS (optional, monthly): missions and Nightfall fill a track of crates, paid into your stores every month. - 2027 GOLD TRACKS for the Harvest, Winter and October events, each with a new outfit. - Pale outfits now look crisp, plus fixes to walls, crates and layouts. NEW IN 2.6 - The whole cast comes alive: every defender, hero and zombie is now fully animated. They aim, fire, throw and shamble instead of standing still. - A new painted title screen, and the menu buttons are centered on every phone. - The outpost now runs edge to edge at the top of the base, with its rank on the painting. - OUTPOST LOOKS: see how much of the outpost you have dressed up, and what the next rank will add to it. - OUTPOST SHOWCASE (optional purchase): gold trim on the station, fireworks over the yard, and all three decoration sets. Tap TRY SHOWCASE to see it on your own outpost first. - HERO WARDROBE (optional purchase): every hero outfit, plus a gold outfit with a moving shine for each hero. - Both are looks only. Nothing changes how anything plays. - Everything you have already earned stays yours. THE WILD BLOOM A new spring event, every year from April 17 to May 10. Earn blossoms in Nightfall for five crates and the BRAMBLE skin, with a gold track of blossom saplings, spring lights and the PETALFALL skin. NEW GROUND Eight sectors that only had fuel drums now have a gate to slam, a flooded stretch or a burning spill to use. A SMOOTHER CAMPAIGN Water Treatment to Ground Zero takes about half as many tries, and Bloaters now join regular waves mid-campaign. NIGHTFALL GOALS YOU CAN REACH Depth marks and achievements now top out at wave 43, all reachable without spending a cent. SUPPLY LINE An optional monthly subscription: 100 gems every day you check in and one more build skip a day. AND MORE Clearer names where two things shared one, an OUTFITS shortcut under the hero cards, and bug fixes.

NEW IN 2.5 - DAILY DRILL: a new challenge every day. One sector you hold, a fixed squad of three defenders, and a crate with gems when you hold it. - DAILY TASKS: three short goals every day, each with its own crate, and a bonus crate for all three. - BRANCHING UPGRADES: every defender now picks a route at tier 3. Route A keeps the armor-piercing line, route B trades it for crowd power, at the same price. - HERO ABILITIES: at level 3 every hero earns a tap power of their own. Kane's High Noon, Sparks' Overload, Flare's Signal Flare and Hawk's Carpet Bomb. - LOOKS FOR GEMS: hero outfits and three decoration sets for the outpost, in the Shop. Looks only, nothing changes how anything plays. - Skins show on the painted defenders again. - OPEN ALL in the Crates list, and unopened weekly crates are paid out instead of lost when the week ends. - The late contracts in the Stadium and the Hive are winnable again, so every sector can be mastered. - Purchases are more reliable: Restore Purchases is always there, and gems or tokens bought on one device no longer pay out on another. - Everything you have already earned stays yours.

NEW IN 2.4 - HEROES: one commander per mission, free to place, and it never takes a squad slot. Kane joins for free once you hold two sectors, and levels up the longer he holds a mission. Sparks (chain lightning), Flare (marks a kill zone) and Hawk (drone strikes) can be recruited from the Shop tab. - Every defender and every infected is now hand-painted on the board, not drawn as simple shapes. - WEEKLY OPERATIONS: whenever no seasonal event is running, a new twist on repeat raids and Nightfall kicks in for the week, with its own crate track and a medal to keep. - PROJECTS: five new structures built in stages over days by their own crew (Greenhouse, Motor Pool, Radio Mast, Watchtower, Water Tower), each adding a lasting bonus once finished. - Four new districts to reclaim past the wall: The Old Market, The Bus Depot, The Riverfront, City Park. - Every sector now has its own hazards: fuel drums you can blow up, a blast gate you can slam shut, flooded roads, burning ground, and a second road into The Stadium. - Replays never play the same twice: every repeat raid and Nightfall run brings a different wave style (runner rush, armored column, bloater tide or screamer pack), announced as the mission starts. First clears stay exactly as they were. - SUPPLY MARKET: on a replay, one defender type costs less and another costs more, so a different squad pays off. - Fuel drums, blast gates, floods and fires shift along the road from run to run. - Nightfall layouts now change between runs too. - New in the Shop: the Veteran Bundle for Starter Pack owners, Hero Squad (all three heroes together) and the Recruit Drop. - VIP now counts every purchase, not just gems, and comes back when you restore purchases. - A finished mission is saved the moment the results appear, even if the app closes before you tap. - Purchases and rewarded ads are more reliable, with fixes for slow connections and interrupted purchases. - Everything you have already earned stays yours.

NEW IN 2.3 - THE LAB: a research tree for the outpost, four branches, one bench at a time. Techs add small permanent bonuses to your defenders, your routes and your wall. Rush a research with an ad or finish it with gems. - Smarter notifications: word when a research is finished, when a limited offer is about to expire, and about the Airdrop, a crate that lands a few hours after you close the app and waits for you. - Repeat raids look different every time: the road can flip and rubble blocks some of the usual spots, so the wall has to be planned again. - ELITE RAIDS: once every sector is held, a repeat raid starts rolling a rule (more infected, tougher infected, faster infected, or a weaker wall to start) for extra loot. - Everything you have already earned stays yours.

NEW IN 2.0.5 - NAPALM, a fourth ability: tap the road and it burns for 8 seconds. - The MORTAR, an eighth defender: long range and a big blast. It unlocks with the Workshop at level 8. - COLD START, a bonus contract on every sector. - Four new weekly rules for Nightfall: Thin Line, Dead Silence, Fat Times and Bounty Hunter. - Ten new achievements, from Plague Doctor to Danger Close. - Two new outpost decorations: the Station Flag and the Long Table. - The Long Cold, a winter event with a free track and an optional gold track, runs December 18 to January 4. - A one-time Starter Pack: the RUSTBELT skin and 5 build tokens. Everything in the game is still earnable without it. - The store page is now in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Japanese.

BUILD TOKENS A building upgrade can run for hours. A build token finishes one on the spot, from the lightning button next to its timer. Tokens only skip the wait: scrap, food and meds are never for sale, and every upgrade still finishes free on its own timer. COMMANDER BUNDLE The Supporter Pack, the Skin Pass and the Third Crew together, for less than buying them one at a time. Only offered if you own none of them. HEAD START An optional ad before the first wave now drops extra scrap on the board, so you can open with a stronger line. Plus fixes: store buttons appear as soon as the store answers, a build timer no longer wraps, and restoring a backup code brings your land, decorations and event progress back exactly as they were.

THIRD CREW Hire a third build crew for good, so one more building goes up at a time. The free 30-minute crew you get from an ad is still there. DEAD OF OCTOBER GOLD TRACK The October event runs October 17 to November 2. Its new gold track adds jack-o'-lanterns and haunted lights for your outpost, plus the GRAVELIGHT defender skin. Cosmetic only: the free crates and the HOLLOW skin stay free for everyone. Plus ads that load faster, numbers that fit the top bar on every iPhone, and a round of fixes.

DEADZONE 2.0 BATTLES REBUILT Every sector now looks like the place it is, from the gas station to the stadium, alive with fire, water, sirens and smoke. New zombie art, new defender portraits, a cleaner battle screen, and three abilities to call in when a wave gets out of hand: RALLY, FLASHBANG and AIRSTRIKE. YOUR OUTPOST, DRAWN The base is a living scene now. Watch the old fire station grow from a boarded-up camp into a floodlit fortress: walls rise, windows light up, towers go up, and every survivor you bring home walks the yard. Seven outpost ranks, each with a crate. BUY THE BLOCK Grow the compound into four new districts: a vehicle yard, a crop field, a rail yard with a helipad, and a walled garrison. Every plot adds route income for good. MAKE IT YOURS Spend a full stockpile on flower boxes, lanterns, fresh paint, crew banners, a neon sign and a statue. TWO SEASONAL EVENTS Dead of October runs every October: every win and every Nightfall wave lights a candle, and a full track earns HOLLOW, a skin you can only get then. The Long Cold brings snow from December 18 to January 4, with an ember track and the WHITEOUT skin. EASIER TO PLAY - DEPLOY is the big button in the middle, with the sector to clear up top - Every crate in one list - A new main menu that shows your outpost - See the next wave before it arrives - One button for speed and auto waves IT NEVER ENDS Fortify a finished outpost for permanent bonuses, chase nine Nightfall depth marks up to wave 100, and spin the Scavenger's Wheel every day. FIELD MANUAL Every infected, every defender and all three abilities are written up in one place, and calling an ability in now earns two new achievements. Plus optional daytime notifications, a streak saver, and a lot of fixes.

MORE GAMES Settings now lists the other games I make, in case you want something else between runs. Tapping one opens its App Store page. Nothing interrupts a run, and there are no new ads. Nothing else about the game changed. Your outpost, your crews and your progress are exactly where you left them.

GAME CENTER LEADERBOARDS Every sector's Nightfall run now posts to its own global leaderboard. Sign in to Game Center and your best wave count for that sector uploads on its own — no extra steps, just play. SMOOTHER IN A CROWD Cleaned up how the engine tracks zombies and shots during a packed wave, so a screen full of them (screamers, fire pools, a dozen shots in flight) holds its frame rate better than before. FIXED - Settings could scroll sideways and cut text off along one edge - A couple of buttons were smaller than Apple's own tap-target guideline - A rare timing issue around daily rewards and ad cooldowns

TWO NEW SECTORS Blackwater Refinery and The Stadium — the hardest content in the game, unlocked after Ground Zero. Both tuned for a fully maxed outpost, because for once that's exactly who they're for. A SEVENTH DEFENDER The Lancer fires a rail-spike that skewers everything in its path — built for a long line of weak walkers, not one tough target. Unlocks at Armoury Lv6. NIGHTFALL HAS A WEEKLY RULE TOO A different modifier rotates in every Monday, same as the weekly challenge — sometimes harder with a bigger payout, sometimes just a bigger payout. ALSO - Every remaining emoji in the interface replaced with a drawn icon - Fixed: the weekly challenge's zone/reward could shift if you cleared a new sector before opening its crate - Fixed: switching skins could be lost if the app closed within seconds

THE CITY HAS STARS Every sector now holds three stars: clear it, clear it without a single leak, and hold it in Nightfall to wave 10. Each star opens a one-time supply crate, and stars unlock defender skins. SEVEN NEW LOOKS Ember, Frostbite, Hazmat, Afterglow, Ashfall and Gilded — earned with stars, never bought with power. Supporters get Warpaint on the house. WEEKLY CHALLENGE One sector, one rule, one crate. The same challenge for everyone from Monday to Sunday, drawn from the sectors you've already cleared. FIELD MANUAL Every infected you've met and every defender you can field, with the numbers behind them. EASIER TO PICK UP A NEXT UP strip on the outpost always points at your best next move, a new CREW tab holds your roster, stars, skins and the manual, the how-to is three illustrated cards instead of a page of text, and tapping any resource tells you what it does. A NEW LOOK A new app icon, and every emoji in the interface replaced with drawn icons. Defenders visibly build up their position as you upgrade them — sandbags, then ammo crates, then steel plate — and every infected type now has its own silhouette on the road. ALSO - Five new achievements - Two new optional rewarded offers, for star and weekly crates - Fixes: the "while you were gone" double offer could vanish if you declined the ad; the version number now reads correctly