Zombie Shooter Tips: Nonstop Fire Lasted 3 Minutes

The first zombie shooter tip is to keep firing: in Shambleshot, a script that fired about four times a second lasted the full three minutes in two of three runs without losing a life, while a script that also jumped on a timer never lasted more than 21 seconds. Doing nothing was over in 13 to 17 seconds.

How Shambleshot works

Shambleshot is a cartoon side-scrolling shooter set in a Wild West town. A young sharpshooter in a cowboy hat runs along the main street while walking and flying zombies come the other way. The space bar fires, and the up arrow or W jumps with a short burst from a yellow jetpack. Three power buttons call fire, ice or lightning, and each needs about 20 seconds to charge again. Boxes refill ammo, add points or give a short shield bubble, and you have three lives.

What we measured

We played in a test browser at 1280 by 720 pixels with software rendering, which is slow. A small script pressed the keys and read the game’s own clock, lives and score. We tried three habits, three runs each, with a three-minute limit per run: no input; firing about four times a second; and firing while also jumping about every 1.2 seconds. The script did not use the power buttons. It is not a person, so the numbers show what each habit does, not what a skilled player can reach.

9 runs in one test browser with slow software rendering, keys pressed by a script, not by people. Seconds come from the game’s own clock; the two runs marked limit were stopped at three minutes with all three lives left. The power buttons were not used.

Nonstop fire held the street

Two of the three nonstop-fire runs were still going at the three-minute limit with all three lives, scoring 6,540 and 6,940. The third lasted 81 seconds and scored 2,980. Ammo was never the problem: boxes kept refilling the counter, and both long runs ended with more bullets than they started with.

Jumping on a timer backfired

The jumping script fired just as often but also jumped about every 1.2 seconds. Its runs ended after 10, 21 and 18 seconds, and the first of them was shorter than any idle run. We did not film each hit, so we cannot say exactly why; flying zombies share the air the jump carries you into, which may be part of it. Jump when something is coming at your feet, not out of habit.

Standing still is over fast

With no input the sharpshooter keeps running but never fires, and the three idle runs ended after 13 to 17 seconds with 110 to 220 points.

4 tips that follow from the numbers

• Keep the trigger busy. Firing about four times a second lasted three minutes twice.
• Jump with a reason. Timed jumps ended every run within 21 seconds.
• Do not worry about ammo. Boxes refilled it faster than nonstop fire used it in two of our runs.
• Save the powers for crowds. We did not test them, but each one takes about 20 seconds to come back.

Where to try it

Try it yourself in Shambleshot. For a different take on zombies, Graveplow puts you behind the wheel of a truck, and Voltmarch is a platform shooter.