A top-down co-op zombie survival game for 1–4 players. Scavenge and build during the day, hold off the horde at night, and repair a broken radio to call in a rescue helicopter.
Dead Signal is a top-down survival game set in a large, procedurally-generated map. There's no scripted story — the game runs on a repeating day/night cycle, and your objective is fixed: find the radio station, repair it, and get a helicopter to extract you. Play solo, or with up to three other players online.
Time runs continuously through three phases. Days are for preparation; nights are the threat. Each night is numbered and spawns more zombies than the one before, and some nights include a boss.
The safe window. Explore the map, dig for materials, raid buildings, and build up your base.
The screen gradually darkens as a warning. Use it to fall back behind walls, reload, and climb a watchtower.
Zombies spawn and attack. They move faster than you at night. Hold out until dawn, when the cycle resets.
Two stats to manage. Your health pool is set by the difficulty. Hydration drains constantly — faster in the day than at night — and running out slows you down, then damages you over time.
Each weapon trades off range, damage and reload speed. Ammo is limited, so the axe — which needs none — is always a fallback. The sniper and axe don't deal fixed damage; see the notes.
| Weapon | Role | Damage | Rate (rpm) | Mag | Reload | Range | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pistol | Handgun | 25 | 100 | 12 | 2.5s | 600 | Balanced all-rounder |
| AK-47 | Assault | 22 | 300 | 30 | 3.0s | 650 | Fast fire rate, slight spread |
| Shotgun | Close | 120 | 67 | 8 | 3.5s | 350 | Cone, up to 5 targets, falls off with distance |
| Sniper | Precision | one-shot | 33 | 5 | 4.0s | 1800 | Kills any target it hits; accuracy drops with distance |
| Axe | Melee | random | 86 | ∞ | — | 55 | Per swing: 33% instant kill, 33% half HP, else miss |
Zombies chase you, can grab you on contact, and attack your walls to break through. They're slowed in daylight but move faster than you at night. On some nights a boss appears with much more health.
Difficulty sets the enemy numbers and your starting gear. Hard is the default. Higher tiers make zombies stronger and give you less to start with.
| Difficulty | Zombies / night | Z. damage | Z. health | Your HP | Starting gear | Boss HP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 3 | 10 | 50 | 200 | Shotgun + 12 shells | 500 |
| Hard ★ default | 6 | 20 | 80 | 100 | Pistol + 2 rounds | 1000 |
| Psycho | 10 | 25 | 100 | 100 | Axe only | 1500 |
| Impossible | 12 | 30 | 120 | 80 | No starting weapon | 2500 |
Open the build wheel to spend scavenged materials on walls and automated defenses. Anything you place can be destroyed by zombies, and you can demolish your own structures to recover the space.
Cheap, fast barricade. Used to shape choke points and block line of sight.
More durable than wood. A stronger fallback once wood walls start breaking.
Damages and slows zombies that cross it. Place it in front of your walls.
Elevated position — lets you fire over walls, adds range, and keeps you out of reach.
Automatically fires at the nearest zombie using AK ammo. A generator nearby boosts it, but it works on its own.
Optional. Boosts nearby barbed wire, turrets and radio repair within its radius — everything works without it. Runs on a car battery or gas.
Dig the ground, mine rock formations, loot cars and crates, and raid landmark buildings. Building materials come mostly from digging and mining; the radio parts come from loot and special buildings.
| Resource | Used for | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Plank | Wood walls, towers | Digging the ground |
| Iron | Barbed wire, turrets, generator | Digging & mining |
| Stone | Stone walls | Mining rock formations |
| Electric Wire | Turrets, generator, radio | Loot & buildings |
| Car Battery | Radio, generator fuel | Cars & loot |
| Screws & Bolts | Radio repair | Loot & buildings |
| Jerrycan (gas) | Quad fuel, generator fuel | Cars & stations |
| Water Ration | Restores 50 hydration | Loot & buildings |
| Medkit | Heals 50 HP | Hospitals & loot |
The map is generated fresh every game and is very large. Travel too far from the center and the ground becomes radioactive, forming a natural border. Landmark buildings hold the best loot, and the weather can work against you.
Stocked with medkits and supplies.
Weapons and ammo — the quickest way to upgrade past the pistol.
General stockpiles of materials and gear.
The exit point. Repair it to call the helicopter.
The map's outer edge. 2 damage/second and −20% move speed — a border you can't build past.
Sandstorms cut move speed by 25% and reduce visibility.
A four-wheeler that moves at 3× walking speed and runs over zombies in its path. Fuel it with a jerrycan. It has 300 HP and takes damage if you ram walls head-on.
The map has one broken radio station. Deliver the parts it needs and it comes back online. After the repair, a 5-minute countdown runs before a helicopter arrives to extract the survivors — a generator powering the radio makes the countdown faster. Reaching the helicopter is how you win the game.
Find the radio station on the map.
Bring every wire, battery and screw it requires.
A 5-minute countdown runs after the repair. Stay alive until it ends.
Board the helicopter when it arrives. That's the win.
Any player slots your squad doesn't fill are taken by AI survivors — the count is 4 minus the number of human players. They're active teammates, not decoration.
Companions leave the base, dig for materials, and deposit what they find into the town chests for the team.
They attack zombies within range with a pistol and axe, using line of sight so they don't shoot through walls.
At night they return to base, climb onto free watchtowers, and fire over the walls until dawn.
Wherever they travel, they clear fog of war — revealing the map for the whole team.
Companions take damage, can be killed, and leave a lootable body behind, just like players.
Their number and appearance adjust to who's actually in the game — no duplicate characters, no empty seats.
Up to four players share the same world, hosted on dedicated servers and listed in an in-game server browser. All players use the same map seed, so everyone plays the identical map.
Find and join active games from the in-game list. Dedicated servers keep the world running.
Choose your character and vote on the difficulty before the game starts.
If you disconnect mid-game, your character is held for a short time — rejoin and reclaim it with all its gear.
After you die, you can watch your teammates continue the game.