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NPC Companions
September 15, 2026 at 08:09 AM
Initial version (2026-09-15)
Zeverland's NPCs are written as survivors rather than quest dispensers. The studio's description from 2025-11-16 is that you meet them out in the world, help them, and they may decide to follow you home. There is no marker over a head handing you a follower, and no dialogue tree that ends in recruitment.
Three examples the studio gave of helping a survivor in the field: fighting zombies on their behalf, sharing food with them, and repairing a broken radio for them. Recruitment was under development when that was written and was playable by the second test, where the studio's own closing post described players recruiting their first companion. The build it ran in is covered on Second Pre-Alpha Tech Test.
The number of survivors you can keep is capped, and the cap is raised by levelling Charisma, a named stat confirmed on 2026-06-29. Helping a survivor while your party is already full currently gives you nothing; granting Charisma experience in that case was agreed to on 2026-06-30 and is announced work rather than a feature. See Skills and Progression.
Once a survivor joins, they work and stand guard, and you have to keep them fed and safe. Four roles are named in first-party copy: chefs, tailors, construction workers and security. A nurse also existed in the second test build. Keeping a household fed ties companions to Survival Needs and to what your shelter can grow or catch.
Behaviour | Status |
|---|---|
Auto-depositing materials | Confirmed for the second test. Companions deposit gathered materials automatically, and the storage settings control where. |
Scavenging trips | Confirmed. Sending a companion out to scavenge needs an explicit order, unlike depositing, which happens on its own. |
Relieving themselves on the spot | Working as intended. Survivors use the ground unless a toilet is placed in the territory. See Territory and Claims. |
Fighting across faction lines | Working as intended. Survivors belonging to different factions fight each other. See Factions. |
Ordering a squad to attack first | Announced on 2026-06-30. Companions retaliate rather than engaging on command. |
The studio acknowledged two specific misbehaviours in its 2026-08-03 letter. Companions told to raid the fridge took every copy of an item instead of one, and companions sent out to pick apples ate the apples. The studio said the behaviour logic would be adjusted. Food handling of this kind sits next to Cooking, where the studio has also warned that what goes into a dish is not tightly controlled.
A third issue involved the nurse, who talked too much. A dialogue cooldown existed, but it was not firing when her state switched rapidly, so lines stacked on top of each other. The studio logged it during the test week.
Feature | What the studio announced |
|---|---|
Naming your companions | Announced 2026-08-03. Survivors will be nameable rather than carrying generic labels. |
Lending companions to friends | Announced 2026-08-03. Friends in the same shelter will be able to lend companions to each other, so your survivor can do chores at a friend's base while theirs comes to be your muscle. |
Charisma experience when your party is full | Announced 2026-06-30, so that helping survivors is never wasted effort. |
NPC and building polish | A named refinement target on the July 2026 Roadmap. |
None of those four has appeared in a public build. As of 2026-08-03 the studio had no date for the next playtest and said it was heading into a long stretch of heads-down development.
