Check out the latest guides
We produce a guide for World War Z Challenge Mode every week. Check out the latest week, World War Z So Many Zombies, and past challenges, below.
- Here’s our guide for World War Z‘s Challenge Mode for the week of April 29, 2020 – Live Once And Then Explode.
- Here’s our guide for World War Z’s Challenge Mode for the week of April 22, 2020 – Tech Support With no Defences.
- Here’s our guide for World War Z‘s Challenge Mode for the week of April 14, 2020 – Undying vs Undead.
- Here’s our guide for World War Z‘s Challenge Mode for the week of April 8, 2020 – Nemesis in World War Z.
In this week’s World War Z Challenge Mode you take on the third Chapter of New York, Hell And High Water. I’m not entirely sure why the image above doesn’t reflect this, but I’ve played the mission and can confirm that it is set in New York, not Jerusalem. While the modifiers don’t seem that difficult at first glance, they’re really quite punishing if you go in blind. To help you out a bit, we’ve put together this handy guide for working through the mission with those modifiers enabled.
Modifiers
- Class Weakness: Medic – 50% less damage dealt and health for Medics.
- Class Weakness: Fixer – 50% less damage dealt and health for Fixers.
- Class Weakness: Slasher – 50% less damage dealt and health for Slashers.
Step By Step Guide
Hell And High Water Encounter 1 – The Train Depot
The train depot is easily the hardest part of the mission
This encounter is really simple, you just fight through the train depot as you usually would. The encounter culminates in defending against a swarm as you try to open the door to the next encounter. It’s all business as usual, but what will take you by surprise is the weakness of your class if you’ve chose the Medic, Fixer or Slasher. While normal zombies are pretty easy to take down still, special zombies will be far tougher, and bulls are basically invincible. Play it safe, move slowly where possible, and ensure that you watch your back.
Hell And High Water Encounter 2 – The Museum Tunnels
The tunnels are tight and stressful, but mercifully short
This is a short encounter, but it will kill you if you don’t watch out for zombies. Move through the tunnels quietly, using only stealth weapons like the silenced pistol. If the zombies become aware of you, run for the exit, get as high as possible, and hold out until the rest of your team joins you and the zombies are stopped.
Hell And High Water Encounter 3 – The Final Stand
Preparation is key for this encounter
This encounter brings you to a point where the army had a last stand against the zombies. They’re gone, but you need to defend it until you pull in the boat that’s sat just offshore. There are loads of defences to pick up and set down, so make sure you scout the area and drop all of these first. This swarm attack is big, and punishing. With that done, you need to batter the zombies with gunfire as they pile up outside the gates. Don’t let too many in at once, and you’ll be okay.
Best Class For The Job
Choose your best if not the rest
It’s not hard to work out the best class for this week. Just pick one that’s not low level or Medic, Slasher, or Fixer. If you don’t have any that are high level outside of those three, go with your favourite and play as well as you do the rest of the time.
Tips
This mission can be very simple this week, if you don’t usually main the Medic, Fixer, or Slasher classes. Any other classes will have all of their health, and deal maximum damage, so it’ll be a piece of cake. My main is a Medic, so I had an issue this week. I tried to use another class, the Gunslinger, but I was only level 1, and didn’t have the perks to be of any use to the team. In the end I actually stuck with Medic and powered through the mission, which is what you may need to do if that, Fixer, or Slasher are your main.
I had to be very careful while working through each area. The hardest encounter was definitely the first, since there are lots of close corridors and places to get snuck up on. There are also two Bulls and a Bomber zombie that will get you if you’re not quick. Luckily, I had teammates who revived me every time I dropped, and that’s really important. Make sure you revive anyone who gets downed, because you’ll need that favour repaid.
For perks, I focused on healing myself and others. My build made it possible for Stims to heal 10% of my health, which was really handy. As a result, I kept my health quite low. This is a very easy mission for those who know what they’re doing, which makes it even easier for you to be revived. If you use your Medkits on others instead of yourself, you’ll be more likely to get a friendly revive when you need it. You could also equip perks that provide a boost when your health is low, meaning that you’ll perform better for most of the mission anyway.
Getting out at the end is super satisfying
Verdict
This week’s Challenge Mode isn’t the best I’ve seen in World War Z. It’s a slight variation on what we’re used to, but it does push you to try out other classes. It’s weeks like this that act as a reminder to spread your play time over each class. If you’ve got 120 levels in Medic, that’s awesome! It just won’t help you in times like these, when every other class is still level 1.
