Dark

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An artist's impression of the inside of a dark building.

On May 28^th, 2008, the following update was released:

As the moss and lichens spread across the final few skylights, several types of buildings are now dark without a generator hooked up, reducing search and attack rates until power can be restored.

Buildings Affected

A screenshot showing the darkened interior of a building on the urban dead map.

• Banks, Cinemas, Clubs, and Fort Armouries are all dark in Malton.
• In Monroeville, all of the above are dark (except fort armories, which are not found in Monroeville.) Additionally, Barns and Pubs are dark in Monroeville.
• Borehamwood follows the same basic rules as Monroeville, except that Pubs are not dark. Also, the runs (a section of the Big Brother House) are dark.

In-Game Effects

When a building is powered with a with fueled generator, there are no effects, as the building is not dark.

When a building is unpowered, the following is added to the building description: With the lights out, you can hardly see anything. In addition to this, when the building is dark (unpowered):

• Any graffiti inside the building cannot be seen, but it can be sprayed over.
• Decorative items cannot be seen, excluding holiday decor.
• Dead bodies inside the building cannot be seen or dumped.
• Search rates are halved.

This is a factor in Fort Armories; no other dark buildings contain tactical resources.

• Attack percentages are halved. This affects all players, survivors and zombies alike.

In all situations (not just dark buildings) attack rates shown to players do not include the bonus for Tangling Grasp. Tangling Grasp confers its full 10% bonus in the dark, for a maximum 35% to hit with a claw when in the dark, or 25% with a bite. Zombies are able to maintain a tangling grasp vastly longer while inside a dark building.

Attacks made with a newspaper, which are normally at 100% to hit, are reduced to 50%. This is not reflected in the attack menu.

• Revivification syringes has a 50% chance to fail when inside a dark building.

A failed revive attempt gives the message: While priming the needle, you happen to lose track of the zombie in the dark. Such a failed attempt costs only 1 Action Point (AP) and does not consume a needle.

• A ruined dark building cannot be repaired.

In order to repair a dark building that has been ruined, the dark effect must be negated first.

Generators and radio transmitters cannot be repaired. _{6th August 2008}

If an attempt is made to repair a dark building that is not ransacked or ruined, the following message appears: The building is in good shape, it's just very dark.

• Barricading is affected by darkness, and may fail for the normal reasons (no place to put an item found, with the normal failure message given) or because the darkness makes it more difficult to find items.

Examples of flavor text change when barricading:

• Failed barricade attempt due to darkness: You spend a while searching through the darkness for something to barricade the doors with, but can find nothing.
• Successful barricade attempt in darkness: You manage to find some seats in the darkness, and reinforce the barricade

• Diagnosis is ineffective in the dark, meaning survivors cannot see others' Hit Points (HP).^[1]
• Curiously, Newspapers can be read in the dark.^[2]

Minimap Effect

A player inside a darkened building will see a very dark grey background inside the building.

The building appears as normal from the outside or if inside a neighboring building, i.e. the standard building color.

Distribution of Dark Buildings

5	5	7	10	10	5	5	8	8	6
10	1	8	8	9	7	9	11	7	3
5	6	5	9	3	6	9	8	7	1
5	7	3	11	6	7	7	6	5	7
3	7	6	11	3	6	7	11	5	8
7	4	7	6	9	8	8	8	5	5
6	9	5	7	4	9	4	9	8	5
8	8	12	5	6	9	10	7	9	6
7	10	4	7	6	9	7	6	10	7
9	9	8	9	9	4	8	5	11	10

References

• Note 1: Game news – July 3, 2009
• Note 2: source A, source B.