Zombies

How to Play Zombies

Unlike surviving a zombie apocalypse, playing Zombies is very simple. Load up the game and follow these steps to get started:

1. Set a playing budget before you begin, then choose your stake between $0.20 and $200 per spin.
2. Hit the spin button or use the autoplay feature to activate a set number of spins.
3. Watch the reels spin as you match the symbols to land wins.
4. Play responsibly and ensure you don’t go over your budget.

Slot Controls

Beneath the 5x3 playing grid, you’ll find the main control bar, with all the buttons you need to change your bet, play the game and see the paytable. The large button is used to spin the reels, but directly to the left of this is the autoplay button. Activate this to choose a set number of spins that will complete automatically.

On the other side of the spin control is the max bet button, which you can tap to instantly set your stake as high as it will go. To the right of this, you’ll find a setting which lets you change the coin value. As with other NetEnt slots, you change your stake by adjusting the value and level.

At the far bottom left of the reels is the paytable button, which you can open to show you all available symbols, as well as the bonus features that await. At the bottom of the control bar is a menu to open the settings, allowing you to control the sound and see more information on the game.

Zombies Paytable

As you’d expect from a slot about zombies, the paytable is full of gory, gruesome weapons and body parts. At the bottom of the paytable are the playing card symbols, with A through to 10. These low pays can still hit a big payout if you land five of a kind, with Aces giving you up to 120 coins. However, the real wins come from the premium symbols.

As you climb higher up the paytable, you’ll come across axes and nail-spiked baseball bats, detached eyeballs, bloody brains and gas masks. At the top of the paytable, there’s a buzz saw, which would prove to be a highly effective weapon against the zombie horde. It pays out up to 1,000 coins for five of a kind, proving to be useful in the world of online slots too.

Aside from regular symbols, you should also be looking out for the bonus symbols as you make your way through the crowded mall. Vials of a mysterious biohazard, potentially the source of the zombie outbreak, are key to unlocking the free spins round. Then there are also the wilds, which help you form winning lines.

Winning Strategy

The key to surviving a zombie attack would be to hunker down in a defensive position and hope you have enough tinned food to last until the zombies clear off. Thankfully, landing wins in Zombies is much easier. You simply need to match at least two symbols across one of the twenty paylines from left to right.

Zombies Game Features

Special features always add something exciting to the core gameplay, helping online slots stand out. NetEnt is renowned for its creative features, and Zombies certainly has a lot to offer.

1. Wilds

Regular wild symbols appear throughout the base game on all reels except for the third, which is reserved for a special symbol.

2. Stacked Wilds

Rather than attacking you, it seems some zombies are actually here to help. The stacked zombie wild appears on reel number 3 and will substitute for other paying symbols to create winning lines. At any point during normal play and after a winning combination (exccluding Free spins or Stacked Wilds), you will trigger the Zombies Random Wild feature, where up to 6 symbols could turn into wilds at once.

3. Free Spins

Landing three of the mysterious canisters on a single spin will trigger the bonus round. You get just five free spins, but there is a progressive win multiplier. With each spin, your multiplier increases until the fifth and final spin gives you an impressive win multiplier of 10x.

4. Zombie Score

Between every free spin, you’ll get to shoot at zombies and potentially unlock big win multipliers. The more zombies that appear, the higher your chance of scoring high multipliers, and the gun automatically shoots between two and five zombies each time. The score you receive here will add an instant payout, but it’s separate from the free spins multiplier.

What’s the Max Win?

The maximum amount you can win when playing this slot is 1,000x your bet. That’s not bad at all, and with the max bet in play, it means you could potentially win $200,000 from a single spin. It’s not as big as some jackpot slots, but it’s still an impressive sum of money.

Return to Player Percentage and Volatility

This game has an RTP rate of 97.20%, putting it well above the average for online slots. Meanwhile, the volatility is rated as medium, which means you can expect a good spread of payout variation, both in terms of frequency and size.

When looking at the RTP of a game, it’s important to remember that luck plays a big role in your payouts. Just because a game has a good RTP rate, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up in profit from your session. When I played the game to test out the features, I lost money and failed to hit any of the major bonus rounds. Always play responsibly, and remember that the RTP rate is a guide.

Graphics and Audio Effects

Zombies released all the way back in 2012, so online slot graphics have come a long way since then. Despite this, it’s still a very good-looking game, especially if you’re a fan of zombies and horror slots. The gore might put some players off, but NetEnt has clearly put in a lot of time and effort for all of the designs. It’s not a cuddly or cute slot by any means, and the weapons look particularly gruesome, which is why it was such a big hit when it first came out.

These days, there are many slots designed with horror fans in mind, but Zombies helped to set the standards. The music and sound effects certainly add to the atmosphere too, with a soundtrack that wouldn’t seem out of place in an episode of The Walking Dead.

Playing the Free Zombies Demo

If you’re scared of getting bitten by zombies while playing the real thing, don’t worry. You can test the game out and all of its features by playing the demo. The free-play version of the game works exactly the same as the real money version, meaning you can get to grips with features such as the stacked zombie wild, free spins and zombie score bonus.

By playing the demo, you’ll get a better understanding of how the slot works. This helps you decide whether it’s right for you and gives you a taste of what it’s like before you play with real cash.

Comparing to Other Zombie Slots

Zombies isn’t the only online slot featuring the undead. Many other casino software providers have created their own take on the popular genre, releasing frightening and gory games of their own. Here are a few of the most popular:

Pros and Cons

Final Thoughts

Zombies is a lot of fun to play if you’re a big fan of the genre and similar gory films and games. If you’re a bit squeamish, it might not be for you, but the bonus features and gameplay are a lot of fun. The free spins round can be very lucrative if you manage to trigger it, with the low number of spins countered by the 10x win multiplier possible on the final spin. There’s also the stacked zombie wild and zombie score bonus, both of which have great winning potential.