A fan-made Zombies gamemode has been incorporated into Halo Infinite's matchmaking for a limited time. Based on Call of Duty’s classic Zombies gamemode, Survive the Undead is currently accessible through Halo Infinite’s multiplayer combat workshop. While the two gamemodes may seem identical at first glance, there are several differences between the two that Call of Duty and Halo players should know.

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Halo Survive the Undead Explained

Created by Forge development team The Forge Falcons, Survive the Undead is based more in-part by the Call of Duty: Black Ops version of Zombies than Call of Duty: World at War or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. There aren’t any secret Easter eggs or complex abilities players will have to worry about in the Undead. It’s purely a zombies-inspired wave-based survival gametype in Halo Infinite form. That’s not to say it’s basically Halo’s Firefight gametype, however, as there are no vehicles and no limited number of lives.

Once spawned, up to four players are equipped with the standard assault rifle and sidekick pistol (instead of just a pistol like in Call of Duty (CoD) Zombies). From here, players must fight back “zombies” spawning behind unbreakable red barriers. In CoD Zombies, most zombie spawning barriers can be repaired with wooden planks to earn players 10 points per plank and hold off the zombie horde for a bit. The “zombies” players encounter are simply different species of the alien Banished faction, but they typically wield melee weapons to give off that Zombies feel.

While Halo Infinite 's Survive the Undead gametype features "zombies", it does not feature Halo 's signature zombie-like Flood parasite at all, besides players spawning in with Flood armor decals.

The Halo Zombies Maps

When players first load into the Undead gametype, they’ll be randomly dropped into two maps. They'll either spawn Night of the Undead, a map inspired by World at War’s Nacht der Untoten called or another original snowy map called Installation of the Undead created by the Falcons. Players have no choice over which map they spawn into, unlike most iterations of CoD Zombies. The Falcons do have two other maps called Station Of The Lost and Countdown Of The Dead, the latter of which being based on the Halo: Reach multiplayer map Countdown, ready to be added as soon as 343 Industries gives the go ahead. Another experimental map called Duality Of The Dead is in active development.

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The Perks, Power-Ups, and Waves of Halo Zombies

Players can still earn points to purchase wall mounted weapons, grenades, special abilities, and perks just as they can in CoD Zombies. However, each kill only grants players 50 points, no matter if it was done with a weapon or melee attack, unlike CoD Zombies. Doors cannot be purchased and, instead, new areas of the map will become available as players reach specific waves. There are only three perks available: Attack, Rush, and the classic Juggernaut. The yellow Attack perk boosts the player’s damage output. The blue Rush boosts the player’s speed, reload, and melee recovery. The green Juggernaut perk boosts the player’s health. All three can be purchased for 600 points each and can be bought up to four times per life.

There are other non-perk machines available for purchase. Players will see a red wall mounted spartan near spawn; this is a Player Buy Back machine which, when purchased for 650 points, can revive a fallen player and grant them increased health for 30 seconds. Players may see a yellow ammo crate costing 350 points; this will refill the player's ammo for all weapons when purchased. Unlike Call of Duty Zombies, players don’t have to purchase ammo from wall drawings or wait for a Max Ammo power-up. Players may see a multi-arrowed 2,000 point sign; this Point Sharing Wall will split the spent points evenly among the other players in the game.

Halo’s Mystery Box and Pack-a-Punch

Finally, there’s the Mystery Box and Pack-a-Punch machine. The Mystery Box, called the Random Weapon Generator in Undead, costs 600 points instead of CoD’s 950 and will automatically replace a weapon with a randomized regular weapon. The Pack-a-Punch Machine, called the Weapon Mixer in Undead, costs 1,000 points instead of CoD’s 5,000 and will give players a random hybrid weapon such as a bulldog shotgun that shoots shock rifle shots.

The Power-Ups of Halo Zombies

Just like in CoD Zombies, zombies will randomly drop special power-ups when killed in Halo’s Undead gametype. These include the purple Death to the Enemy, the grunt doll-like Power Kill, the green backpack-like Power Points, and the ammo container Round Generator power-ups. These are equivalent to CoD’s Nuke, Insta-Kill, Double Points, and Max Ammo power-ups. There are no Carpenter, Death Machine, or Fire Sale equivalent power-ups in Undead.

Waves of Banished “Zombies” in Halo

Unlike in CoD Zombies, players won’t just fight one kind of enemy in Undead. At first, players will only have to deal with simple elites with energy swords, but as the rounds get higher, the enemies become more varied and tough. This ranges from needler wielding grunts to gravity hammer charging chieftains and even some of Halo Infinite’s campaign bosses, such as War Chief Escharum. Here, players will need to use Player Buy Packs often, as once a player is down, they can’t be revived on the spot as seen in CoD Zombies.

Fight Halo’s Undead for a Limited Time

These are the major differences between Halo’s Survive the Undead and Call of Duty Zombies. Players should make sure to play this mode while they can because by Monday, June 3rd, the gametype will be taken down from the public. After this, 343 will review player feedback on the Undead to determine if it will become a permanent mode in Halo Infinite's matchmaking.

Gamers can still earn challenges and rank experience by playing Survive the Undead. Despite this limited time in Halo Infinite’s official matchmaking, Halo players can still download these maps and gametypes via Infinite’s content browser and community file share.