Zombicide: Dark Side
The dark is staring back at you

Zombicide: Dark Side

A standalone prequel to Zombicide: Invader

It is an age of space travel and discoveries. Humanity is ready to reach new frontiers thanks to Xenium, a breakthrough fuel allowing spaceships to go farther and faster. Something, however, went wrong. PK-L7, the sole extraction point for Xenium, has been invaded. The Xenos, an alien species, were infected and became zombies, attacking everyone on sight.

We are the Green Squad, a unit of elite soldiers trapped in the Xenium mines of PK-L7. The Xeno horde is coming from the deep, eager to reach the surface and destroy everything in its path. We are few but determined to stop them at any cost. It is time for… Zombicide: Dark Side!

Zombicide: Dark Side is a standalone game and a prequel to Zombicide: Invader. It is fully compatible with Zombicide: Invader and all expansions from the sci-fi Zombicide range.

Zombicide: Dark Side is a cooperative game for 1 to 6 players. Play together against the game as Survivors of a subterranean alien invasion! The terrifying Xenos are played by the game itself, using simple rules and a deck of cards. Find weapons, eliminate Xenos, and upgrade your Survivor’s skills with experience. The more Xenos you kill, the more of them are coming! Play 10 missions on 10 different maps made with the included modular map tiles, or create your own missions.

LIMITED PRINT RUN

Zombicide: Dark Side is a limited print run. You don’t need it to play with Zombicide’s sci-fi range, but you may enjoy the standalone experience and extra contents for your custom missions. Grab yours while you still can!

1-6 14+ 1h

Zombicide: Dark Side details the hours preceding the Xenos invasion on the distant planet PK-L7, right before the events of Zombicide: Invader. In this standalone game, players are members of the Green Squad, the sole military unit to survive in the underground tunnels of PK-L7. The Xenos, an alien species, suddenly went mad and attacked from below, killing everyone on sight. The Green Squad fights to survive and warn the surface dwellers of the invasion. The forerunners of the oncoming horde are the Driller Xenos, a subspecies digging galleries for Xenium, a mysterious fuel and PK-L7’s main treasure. Watch your step in the dark, as the lights are fading out!

Zombicide: Dark Side retains the core Zombicide mechanics and introduces new ones, with special rules for holes and dark Zones, futuristic weapons, and new combat rules. The Green Squad also comes with war machines, in the form of a Vindicator Bot and a Maul Sentry Gun (with different designs and rules than those found in Zombicide: Invader).

Zombicide: Dark Side features all 6 members of the Green Squad, the last military unit standing between the human base and the underground threat posed by the Driller Xenos. Each of them is a Soldier, using advanced armor and specific Starting Equipment: a “Cattle Prod” (electric mace) and an SMG. Two of them may also get a Search Drone to upgrade the team’s equipment as fast as possible against the Xeno army.

Despite being a military unit, each Green Squad members comes with their own set of Skills, reflecting their personalities and ways to fight the Xeno threat. Choose the one fitting your play style, and fight as a team!

Zombicide: Dark Side uses its own Equipment deck, introducing many new weapons in your sci-fi arsenal. These cards are placed in dedicated slots on the plastic Dashboard if equipped (Hand or Armor) or placed in the Backpack for later use. There are many ways to eliminate Xenos and upgrade your Survivor’s armor in each Mission!

Thanks to their Skills, Survivors may prove more efficient with a specific weapon category (melee, ranged, or even using robots), but anyone can use any weapon.

In Zombicide: Dark Side, Survivors can use Concentrated Attacks to kill the most powerful foes. As they focus all their might toward a single target, they increase their chances to overcome its defenses and eliminate it. Concentrated Attacks are particularly useful against armored Xenos, like Driller Tanks or even the Driller Abomination!

A fully alien species, the Xenos coexisted peacefully, and without contact, with humans on PK-L7. They were only looking for Xenium, but they suddenly turned into killing machines for an unknown reason. The Green Squad found themselves on the frontline against the incoming invasion. Each Xeno type has their own specialties, implied by their nicknames.

Workers are the rank-and-file Xenos but come in large numbers.

Tanks deal powerful blows and endure a lot before going down.

Hunters are fast and a little smarter than their brethren. They seek and destroy.

The Driller attribute gives these Xenos an affinity with Pits drilled by Abominations: while standing in a Pit, Drillers prove more resistant to Ranged Attacks performed at Range 1 or more. They stand in a trench and get harder to kill!

Pits may be filled using special Seismic Grenades. While the objectives in these Zones are lost for good, they are now secure…until another Pit is drilled.

Driller Abominations are war machines, drilling pits at an amazing pace for all the Xeno horde to follow. These hulking, relentless monsters are immune to mundane weapons and can only be stopped by hits that would damage an armored vehicle.

Pits drilled by these beasts act a trenches, and sometime spawn points, for the Driller Xenos. As if stumbling across a Xenos-filled gallery in the dark was not enough, these pits destroy any strategic objective in their Zone. Missions can be lost to these destructive beasts if survivors get careless. Keep an eye open, and your best weapon handy, for the Driller Abominations!

Driller Xenos and classic Xenos from Zombicide: Invader are fully compatible. They can invade the base together, drilling Pits and spreading Mold at an alarming rate. Be careful, though: such crossovers are reserved to seasoned survivors used to working together as a killing team!

The highly detailed Invader survivor miniatures

And the frighteningly detailed Invader Xenos!

Zombicide: Dark Side comes with 72 incredibly detailed miniatures.

Survivors have detachable colored plastic bases to help identify them, matching the color of the pegs on your Survivor dashboard.

A survivor’s plastic dashboard, with a full inventory of cards

Zombicide: Dark Side comes with 2 new Machines: the Vindicator Bot and the Maul Sentry Gun. Both offer the perfect balance for Ranged Combat, in the form of a good rate of fire and Damage, at the price of any ability in close-quarters combat.

Both can be swapped with other Machines in any Zombicide Mission. Complete your Machine collection, and choose the best for your next challenge!

As with other Zombicide games, Dark Side’s tiles may be arranged in a nearly infinite number of ways to create your own Mission, replace, or expand any existing setup you like. Replayability at its best!

Dark Side’s tiles pit Survivors against Xenos in an underground setting, going through either drilling installations or dark galleries. The latter prevent any Ranged attacks, except from prototype weapons and Machines, and pose a tremendous threat as Xenos packs may roam in the dark. Of course, the Xenos can see perfectly in the dark and still hunt the Survivors.

Game contents

72 miniatures
6 survivor plastic dashboards, color bases, and ID cards
9 double-sided game tiles
128 mini-cards
48 plastic trackers
71 tokens
6 dice
1 rulebook

Dark Side
rulebook
free download