Generation Zero: Complete Guide

This guide covers Generation Zero in its final form after the Showdown Update: surviving the early machines, weapons and crafting, skills, bases and Base Defense, Rivals and Tyrants, the Aspholmen finale, and co-op and achievement tips.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Showdown Update (12 December 2024) and its January 2025 hotfix; development has ended. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status: on 29 January 2025 Systemic Reaction/Avalanche published a Final Dev Letter: "Active development on Generation Zero is done." The game is still for sale, multiplayer keeps working as it does now, and procedural missions and daily assignments keep refreshing. No new content is planned. What you see now is the finished game.

Quick Start

• Don't fight everything. Early on, a pack of machines can wipe you. Go prone, stay still and let patrols pass. Pick fights you can win.
• Shoot components, not armour. Machines have weak points and detachable parts. Knocking off weapons and blowing fuel tanks is how you beat bigger machines.
• Loot everything. Houses, cars and machine wrecks give ammo, weapons, mods and crafting parts. "Scavenger" is for 80 items and it comes quickly.
• Use distractions. Flares pull machines ("Hot Property" is for luring 8 to one flare), and boomboxes lure enemies too. Use them to set up ambushes.
• Unlock safehouses. They're your respawn and fast-travel points ("Fika Club": 5).
• Mod your weapons. Attaching mods ("Modder") makes a big difference. Level 5 weapons with level 5 mods is the endgame ("Lock & Load").
• Watch for Seekers. These flying scouts call in reinforcements. Kill them quickly and quietly.
• Play co-op if you can. Up to 4 players. The game is much more forgiving with a team covering flanks.

The Setting

It's an alternate 1989 Sweden. You return from a trip to find the region of Östertörn empty and overrun by machines. Main missions uncover what happened, with the Resistance, the FNIX network and the Soviet machines, and the story concludes in the Showdown Update's missions on the island of Aspholmen.

Machines

Core machine types

Machine | What it is | How to handle it

Tick | Small, fast, explodes | Kill them before they reach you. Shotguns and SMGs work well

Runner | Agile small quadruped | Aim for weak points and use cover. There's an 80-kill achievement

Seeker | Flying scout that alerts others | Top priority. Hunting or sniper rifle from range

Hunter | Medium, heavily armed | Shoot off its weapons, then go for weak points

Harvester | Large machine | Explosives and focus on components

Tank | Heavy, dangerous | Anti-armour (m/49 Granatgevär), knock off its weapons, flank

Classes

Machines come in increasingly dangerous classes as you move inland and later in the story. Apocalypse class is a late tier, and there's an achievement for destroying one Apocalypse Tick, Runner, Hunter and Tank. Later updates also added the Soviet machine faction and the Vulture.

Rivals and Tyrants

• Rivals are named elite machines that level up and hunt you. Beating one ("Not Today, FNIX!") drops good loot. Since the January 2025 hotfix, Rivals can drop Refined Aluminum, Refined Tungsten and Refined Uranium.
• Tyrants are endgame bosses. Their locations are found through a secret hatch in level 3 Base Assaults, and since the hotfix they drop Phosphorous and Ethanol.
• Each Rival or Tyrant drop is worth roughly half an Easy Base Defense mission's resources, per the developers.

Combat Fundamentals

• Scout with binoculars and tag enemies before you engage.
• Pick the right ammo. Armour-piercing rounds help against armoured machines.
• Remove weapons first. A Hunter or Tank without its guns is much less dangerous.
• Hit exposed weak points such as fuel tanks and joints. Explosions chain into nearby machines.
• Keep moving. Machines flank and track sound, so standing in one spot gets you surrounded.
• Suppressed weapons keep you hidden ("Real Sneaky Like": 20 kills).
• Explosives against groups. The m/49 Granatgevär or a hand grenade can take out several at once ("Splash Damage").

Weapon categories (with achievements)

Category | Example use | Achievement

Handguns | Early backup | Gunslinger (20 kills)

Submachine guns | Close range, Ticks, Runners | Gangster (60)

Assault rifles | General purpose | Commando (80)

Shotguns | Close range burst | Operator (40)

Hunting and sniper rifles | Seekers and weak points at range | Hunter (20), From a Distance (15 Seekers), Marksman (300 m shot)

Explosives (m/49 Granatgevär, grenades) | Tanks and groups | Sapper (15), Overkill (shoot a Seeker with the Granatgevär)

Melee | Blowing up cars | Running Wild (20 cars)

Experimental weapons (Showdown Update)

Weapon | What it does

"Any Ammo" AI-76 | Accepts multiple ammunition types, including .50 cal explosive rounds (not buckshot, rockets or arrows)

"Dragon's Breath" Sjöqvist | Magnesium-payload buckshot that sets everything the pellets hit on fire

"Smart Gun" HP5 | Aim down sights to lock onto a specific component on a machine

These are endgame, so collect them after the main story.

Progression and Skills

You level up and spend points in skill trees covering combat, tech, survival and support. You can pick an active specialization ("Postgraduate" wants two characters with different specializations, and "Player Two" is for making a second character).

Solo priorities:

• Healing and survival skills. Solo, there's no teammate to revive you.
• Weapon handling and stability in your main category.
• Scavenging and crafting perks so you find more ammo and parts.
• Tech skills for spotting and interacting with machines.

In co-op, one player investing in revive and support skills makes the whole team tougher.

Crafting and Loot

• Scavenge vision modules and other parts from machines ("Spare Parts") and use them in crafting.
• Machine blueprints let you craft (collecting all of them is "Engineer").
• Weapon quality goes up to level 5. Mods (scopes, stocks, magazines, suppressors and so on) also come in tiers.
• Refined resources (Aluminum, Tungsten, Uranium, plus Phosphorous and Ethanol) feed the Showdown-era crafting. Get them from Base Defense and Rival or Tyrant kills.

Bases, Base Assaults and Base Defense

You can build and fortify your own bases around Östertörn.

• Base Assaults are a separate repeatable combat activity from Base Defense, so don't confuse the two. Level 3 Base Assaults hide the hatch that leads to Tyrant locations and, once your story conditions are met, to the Aspholmen missions.
• Base Defense (Showdown revamp): no longer just "defend the central truck". You defend production buildings: Drills (produce Phosphorus, used for fire-resistance clothing, Adrenaline, flares, grenades and some augmentations and base buildings), Chemical Labs (slowly output Ethanol, used for jump-boost and visibility-reduction clothing, the Stealth Companion Armor, some augmentations and healing items) and Furnaces (feed in low-level materials like Metal and pick an output: Refined Aluminium, Tungsten or Uranium). You can repair your base for free after each defense.
• The January 2025 hotfix substantially raised Base Defense resource rewards and increased Base Defense structure health, so the grind is much lighter than on launch week.

Base layout tips

• Protect the production buildings with walls and turrets on the approaches machines actually use.
• Put turrets where they can target weak points from the side instead of hitting head-on armour.
• Keep an ammo stash inside the base.

The Aspholmen Finale (Showdown Update)

Requirements:

• Character level 25.
• Main story completed (the last mission is "Behind the Curtain").
• Then start a level 3 Base Assault and enter the secret hatch used to find Tyrant locations. You'll meet a familiar face and the Aspholmen missions begin.

Aspholmen is west of Klinte and has its own environmental storytelling and easter eggs. Bring your best Experimental and level 5 weapons.

Main Missions and Achievements

Main story missions with achievements include "Empty Spaces", "The Enemy of my Enemy", "A Wrench in the Works", "Behind the Curtain", and the missions "Not Alone", "For the Sick and the Injured", "Nothing but the Snow", "The Hellmouth" and "The Resistance". "It's The Final Countdown" is for completing all main missions.

Collectibles: garden gnomes ("Gardener"), mixtapes ("DJ"), souvenirs ("Tourist"), audio logs on Himfjäll ("Vestiges"), and 20 Survivor's Notes and Love Letters. Fun extras: climb 3 lighthouses, finish the ski slope in under 40 seconds, loot while wearing an eyepatch, listen to 5 answering machines, and read 10 home sayings.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Engaging a group head-on early. Break line of sight and pick them off one by one.
• Ignoring Seekers. One alarm turns a fight into a swarm.
• Carrying weak ammo against armour. Swap to armour-piercing or explosives.
• Skipping safehouses. Long walks after dying cost a lot of time.
• Following pre-2025 Base Defense guides. The system was completely reworked in the Showdown Update.
• Hoarding explosives. Use them on Tanks and Harvesters. That's what they're for.

Advanced Tips

• Component strip: on Tanks, shoot off the weapons first, then work on the exposed weak points from behind.
• Rival farming: since the hotfix, Rivals drop refined metals, so hunting them is an alternative to repeated Base Defense.
• Co-op roles: a scout-sniper for Seekers and weak points, an explosives player for heavies, and a support player for revives.
• Flares and boomboxes: pull machines into kill zones next to cars or fuel you can detonate.
• Daily assignments still refresh after the end of development and are a steady source of rewards.

FAQ

Is Generation Zero still being updated? No. Active development ended with the Final Dev Letter on 29 January 2025. Servers and multiplayer keep running as they are.

How many players can play together? Up to four in online co-op.

How do I start the Showdown missions? Be level 25, finish "Behind the Curtain", start a level 3 Base Assault and go through the secret hatch.

Where do I get Phosphorous and Ethanol? From Base Defense production (Drills and Chemical Labs) and from Tyrant drops.

What are the Experimental weapons? The "Any Ammo" AI-76, the "Dragon's Breath" Sjöqvist and the "Smart Gun" HP5.

Is it good solo? Yes, but play carefully: scout, use stealth and stack survival skills.

Sources

• Steam store page
• Steam news: Showdown Update patch notes, hotfix, Final Dev Letter
• Steam achievements list
• Wikipedia: Generation Zero