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11 Infected zones are regions where the contamination is thick enough that a survivor needs protective equipment to enter at all. The studio has said the zones are tiered, and has described only the first tier in any detail. They are the most dangerous permanent terrain in the game and they gate access to parts of the map, which made them one of the most discussed problems of the second test.
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33 The Tier 1 Zone
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56 The Tier 1 infected zone is the red fog, also called the red mist. The studio described it on 2026-06-28 as an area of very low visibility even during daytime, with heavy particle density. Protection is required to enter. It is dense enough that it changes how you navigate: landmarks disappear, and the zombies inside it are on you before you see them. The studio's own account of the second test shutdown, published 2026-07-02, opens on players opening their eyes in the red mist, and lists fog you could not see through among the things that went wrong during the test.
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78 Protective Equipment
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910 Three items have been named in connection with the zones. All of them are documented as they existed in the Second Pre-Alpha Tech Test build, which was pre-alpha and was wiped at the end of the test, so no duration or effect below should be read as a shipping value.
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1112 ItemWhat it didRecorded inRespiratorAllowed roughly 20 minutes inside an infected zone before the survivor had to leaveDeveloper answer, 2026-06-28Gas maskNamed as protective gear needed to cross infected terrainDeveloper answer, 2026-06-30AntidoteNamed alongside the gas mask as a way to cross infected terrainDeveloper answer, 2026-06-30
1213 Beyond those three, nothing about the zones has been quantified. No tier above the first has been described, no contamination rate has been published, and no drop table for the gear exists. Related consumables are covered on Medical System.
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1415 The Second Test Problem
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1617 The zones caused a specific and well documented failure during the second test. The first quest of the main story sat beyond an infected zone, so new survivors ran into it before they had the gear or the map knowledge to cross it, and died repeatedly trying. The studio acknowledged this on 2026-06-30. Combined with the 20 minute respirator limit, it made the opening hours far harsher than intended. The opening sequence is covered on Getting Started.
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1819 The fog was also expensive to render. The shutdown post lists single digit framerates in the big city among the test's failures, and the studio committed to performance work in the next build, alongside fixes for protection in PvE and PvP and for vehicle customisation.
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2021 Announced Changes
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2223 Two changes have been announced and neither has been shown in a build. Both are in development rather than in the game.
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2425 Reduced particle density in the red fog, announced during the second test period in late June 2026, aimed at both visibility and the cost of rendering the effect on the graphics card.A faction based lifeline that would let survivors stay inside an infected zone for longer than the respirator allows, announced 2026-06-28. No faction has ever been named, so how this would work is unknown.
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2627 Infection and the Zones
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2829 At gamescom 2026 the studio described infection as one of three survival stats alongside health and water and food, with transformation triggering when infection reaches 100 percent. That description has not appeared in any first-party post, so treat it as provisional. What happens at that point is covered on Playing as a Zombie, and the wider infection rules are on Zombies and Infection. The catastrophe that produced the contamination is covered on Red Rain, and where the zones sit on the map is covered on World and Map.