Video Game / Die2Nite

You should be.

Die2Nite is a free multiplayer Zombie Apocalypse Web Game made by the French developer Motion Twin. Players are assigned to a random town of forty people and must work together to survive against the nightly zombie attacks.

The first version of the game was published on 15 July 2008 in French, under the title of Hordes. Die2Nite, the English version, was launched on 1 December 2010, while Spanish and German versions followed soon as well. They are all still around; moreover, creators have been working very hard to stop the separate fanbases from mixing together.

With the demise of Flash in early 2021 the future of Die 2 Nite began to look pretty uncertain, with the game now requiring an external plug-in just to get the map to work right. Luckily, a ray of hope soon appeared in the form of a vast fan project determined to not only keep the game running after the end of Flash but grow and expand it with new content as well! The project is still in beta but well worth giving a try here. Veteran players can even import their old souls from Die 2 Nite to preserve their progress and distinctions!

This game provides examples of these tropes:

• Abandoned Hospital: One of the few ruins that can actually be entered and explored from the inside through an interactive interface. The player will have to avoid many zombies while inside, but these buildings are one of the best locations to find useful drugs, making them well worth the risk of checking out.
• Abandoned Mine: One of the many unique ruins residents can find is the Collapsed Mineshaft. It has a small but highly specialized loot pool compared to the other ruins in the game and can provide the town with a large supply of valuable explosive components like Semtex or a Compact Detonator.
• Abandoned Warehouse: The Warehouse and Disused Warehouse ruins are both great examples of this trope. Unlike many other ruins in the game they contain few rare items in their loot tables but are still valuable as a good source of construction materials and other useful items.
• Abnormal Ammo: The game has a few flavours of a special gun that can fire the batteries commonly found out in the world beyond into the zombies at lethal force. Since the batteries themselves have little use aside from powering radios and other somewhat useless trinkets this is actually a very good use for them.
• After the End: All that seems to be left of the world are a handful of survivors populating a few sparse holdouts in an endless desert filled with legions of hungry zombies. The situation is just as hopeless as it sounds...
• All or Nothing: The Emergency Buildings are pretty effective, but only last for one night, leaving the town with less workforce and resources for the following day.The aptly-named "All or Nothing" building gives a massive defense boost, but destroys every item in the town's possession. The Garbage Dump is similar but allows players to control which items to sacrifice at a higher resource price.
• Angry Guard Dog: Can (somewhat rarely) be found in the world beyond. If placed in your house it'll give you a defensive bonus, if placed in the butcher it becomes tasty food, and if taken back out into the world beyond can be used to kill a zombie. (Though it'll have a good chance of dying each time it does this.)
• Anti Poop-Socking: Each player only gets a handful of AP each day to explore or build things with. Lost AP can be restored with items, but only by a limited amount each day. Also, out in the world beyond the player will have to wait 2 hours before being able to search a location again. Fortunately, the game does an auto search even if the player isn't logged in, allowing them to collect supplies while their Real Life self goes about their daily business. Just don't forget to return to town before the gate closes...
• Apocalyptic Log:
  • Among the items that can be found there also are diaries, documents and notes left by the now-undead inhabitants of the zone.
  • The forums can also be considered one, as messages aren't deleted after a player's death, and it's thus common to read the last messages left before their demise.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Several of the things the town can build or upgrade are this, such as:
  • Gallows. It doesn't cost much and provides a unique death, but there are more effective ways to deal with troublemakers that don't waste valuable AP.
  • Scanner. Gives the town a better idea of how many zombies are going to attack each night. It does not, however, actually change the number of zombies that will attack, which means the AP and resources are better spent on actual defensive constructions. The amount of zombies appearing each night also increases in a fairly steady and predictable pace, making it redundant for veteran residents who can often accurately predict within a small margin of error what the town will have to face.
• The Bait: The dreaded Meat Locker involves tying some poor schmuck shunned by the town to a chair then leaving them in front of the Gates for the Horde, distracting zombies long enough to kill them.
• Berserk Board Barricade: Averted. It takes many people contributing their action points to construct the town barricade (although you can upgrade your home by yourself).
  • Actually, there is an item, the Makeshift Barricade, that you can use instantly giving 1 and 0.5 Defense to your house and your town respectively. Won't completely subvert a night's outcome, but every little bit helps.
• Big Damn Heroes: All hero classes get an ability called "heroic return" which can teleport a stranded citizen back to town. Normal residents can pull off rescues themselves, but it is much more difficult unless the resident brings friends or is an Armageddon Witness with access to the powerful (but risky) "breakthrough" skill.
• Black Comedy: The game runs on this. The whole situation would be absolutely nightmarish and horrifying otherwise. Specific types include:
  • Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: Animals primarily serve as weapons to pitch at the zombies in an emergency or food to give the residents extra AP.
    • Black Comedy Pet Death: Ditto. As much as the residents may love their fat cats and guard dogs... the town comes first. Goodbye brave friend, you will be missed.
  • Black Comedy Cannibalism: When the regular food runs out residents can make do with... certain types of fresh meat. After all... a man's gotta eat...
  • Death as Comedy: The game is called Die 2 Nite, Die 2 Nite... this is pretty much a given.
    • Gallows Humor: The game has a field day with this. "Citizen! Are you ready to Die 2 Nite?"
  • Poverty for Comedy: The players eat food that is borderline garbage and are lucky to have hovels to take shelter in when the zombies come knocking. Naturally, the game loves to remind the players of this.
• Booze-Based Buff: Alcoholic items will restore your AP, but a hangover the next day and the fact that booze is somewhat rare will prevent most players from using it too much. Still, its a great thing to have if you've already drunk your water ration and eaten food that day and need some AP to get back to town.
• Bragging Rights Reward: The Crow Statue. It costs 300 AP, 35 patchwork beams, 3 pieces of human flesh, and does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help the town in any way. Why is it a very rare blueprint then? It gives anyone still alive at its completion a few rare distinctions... and that is it.
• Breakable Weapons: Most weapons will break after a couple uses and may not even kill a zombie before doing so. (Most have a much less than 100% chance to actually score a kill per use.) This makes sense as most of the weapons are just small tools or even toys which were never meant to be used in a real fight in the first place. The good news is that repair kits can be found out in the desert and used to fix any of the better weapons if they break.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Players can pay to enter Hero Mode. That pretty much triples the game content they have access to: special house improvements, more classes, special powers, passive bonuses...
• Chain Pain: The Rusty Chain can be used as a weapon to attack zombies, but as its name would suggest it isn't very powerful. Luckily, season 6 allowed it to be used more effectively as a watchman item.
• Chainsaw Good: Played with. The chainsaw can cut a bloody swath through the hordes like nothing else and only needs a few (common) batteries to power. The catch? The chainsaw itself is a very rare item and you find it with some pieces missing. So you just gotta get a few spare parts right? Nope, you'll need about a dozen different pieces because one of the parts (a motor) needs to be fixed up too. So you have to repair the motor THEN install it along with the rest of the things you need. Oh, and the game gives you absolutely no clue what parts you need or how they go together! Getting the town a working chainsaw is such a difficult task that the game hands out a rare distinction just for building one!
• Commonplace Rare: It's pretty odd that things like huge snakes, exploding cellphones, and human souls are more common than things like apples, eggs, guard dogs, and shopping carts.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Some of the things towns can do to residents they don't like are cool and unusual. The individual players also have plenty of options for pulling one of these on a disliked citizen.
• Crapsack World: The World Beyond is a desert full of zombies, whose numbers will continually increase every night regardless of what the players do, while the Town is at best a small Ragtag Bunch of Misfits trying to survive against impossible odds and at worst a viper's pit of backstabbing survivors. One way or another, you're screwed.
• Curbstomp Battle: How the developers chose to end the Beta. They advanced every single town to day 666, which meant every town was now facing an onslaught of up to 400,000 zombies that night. Despite what you might expect, this didn't go entirely as planned: it just gave everyone insane amounts of soul points and bumped them up to the veteran towns.
• Cyanide Pill: One of the available drugs. Quite unsurprisingly, it immediately kills you if used.
• Dangerous Windows: The (most common) death players get for dying in their home at night mentions the zombies breaking in through a badly boarded up window and pinning them to the bed. This text appears even if the player has a Makeshift Barricade item installed or was living in a tent when the attack happened.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Zig-zagged. When you die you just start over again in a new town with thirty-nine new friends (although depending on your actions you may have earned "soul points" or a hero mode). However, while it may not be that bad for you, it could potentially screw the rest of the town's chances of survival.
• Developer's Foresight: One of the Hero's special skills is sending a message to all other living citizens. In the (pretty unlikely) case that there is only one survivor in the town, and he/she decides to send a mass message, they will be receive a reply reading: "You are alone. Nobody is going to answer you, give it up. Anyways, what does it matter? You are almost certainly going to die tonight..."
• Devoured by the Horde: By far the most common cause of death in the game - the Horde either breaches your house and eats you, or you botch camping in the World Beyond, upon which they find you, drag you along to the town gates, and then eat you.
• Dies Wide Open: Several deaths depict the character's corpse with their eyes open wide and an expression of horror on their face.
• Doomed Protagonist: Every player. Sooner or later, the well will run dry, the hordes will grow too big to handle, and there will be nowhere left to hide in the World Beyond. And then you'll die, whether by dehydration or the teeth of the undead.
• Downer Ending: Your town will die. The only question is how long you can survive, and how you finally bite it.
• Driven to Suicide: Players desiring to get out of a Town for whatever reason can swallow a Cyanide Pill, instantly killing them and reincarnating them into a new town. Others walk into the World Beyond and refuse to camp, ensuring their death at the hands of the Horde.
• Duct Tape for Everything: You'll need to gather up some duct tape if you wanna build some of the constructions in town. Luckily, its a pretty common item.
• Endless Game: The bad news: You will die every time. The good news: You can earn cool distinctions and soul points to impress your friends.
• Empty Shell: One of The Many Deaths of You. Picking up a Tormented Soul in the World Beyond without protection ( drinking a Mystic Potion or being the Shaman) results in the Soul burning your soul out and leaving your mindless body to be devoured by the horde.
• Eye Scream: The picture on the main page for season 7 featured the Crow with a severed human eyeball hanging from its beak.
• Fake Town: The False Town is a rare and extremely powerful blueprint that can singlehandedly provide the town with hundreds of defense points upon completion. The only catch is that it is very resource intensive to build and requires everyone in town contributing a huge portion of their AP to get it constructed.
• Fantastic Drug: The game has a few of these in addition to some real world drugs like steroids. The fictional drugs are often more potent, but also much more hard to find.
• Fire-Forged Friends: There is only one real motivation for you to all work together; you all want to survive. Fail to gel as a town, and you probably won't last much longer than three days. If you last a while, though, you may feel quite an attachment towards your townmates.
• Fun with Acronyms: The decoration score is given by the Committee for the Upkeep of Neat and Tastefully-decorated Shacks (formerly known as Working Association for Nicely Kept Shacks
• Gargle Blaster: Any alcohol item the player finds will give them 6 AP as well as a hangover that lasts for 2 days. During that time they cannot stomach another drop of alcohol and their speech will be slurred when talking on the forums. Oh, and the drink may contain human remains in it as well... (Though you'll never get an infection from them.)
• Griefer: As this is a game based around co-operation and survival it is very open to griefing. People can steal from the town supplies to upgrade their own home (usually considered a banishable offense) or intentionally get caught in hordes of zombies to waste time and medical supplies.
  • Though, sometimes griefing is (partially) justified if the town is doomed to be destroyed shortly, as the griefer is eliminating potential competitors for the "Last Man Standing" title. However, this is still frowned upon by most.
  • A usual action by griefers is to open the town's gates seconds from midnight in the early days. Especially in the third day, when the Horde is large enough to wipe the town out in one attack. Another is to take multiple valuable items from the town and then deliberately die in a remote area, making the items difficult to retrieve.
  • The game itself contains various content both to aid griefers (poison to sneak in other's rations) and counter them (A lock to prevent the gate to be opened, gallows to hang undesirable people)
• Guide Dang It!: The game gives you a colorful description of each item you find, but little else. While many players could easily guess what twisted planks, radios, blueprints, and things like that are for some items are extremely vague. How many people have had to look up or ask a friend what exactly things like pocket vibrators, Semtex, and ness-quick weed killer were supposed to do?
• Guns Are Worthless: Literally, in the English version of the game. Due to a bug or an oversight the item "Handful Of Bullets" doesn't ever appear in the world beyond, even rarely. This makes any type of firearm a player finds useless since they can't load it with anything else or make their own bullets at the workshop.
• Harder Than Hard: Pandemonium towns (Hardcore towns in the English version) are intended to be this, with rules that heavily increase the lethality of the game. Defensive buildings and items can be damaged or even destroyed during the nightly attacks, the chances of dying from infection or failing a camp and being Devoured by the Horde are much greater, and people can become injured much more easily, among other things. In exchange, the LMS gets double the normal Hero days.
• Hell Hotel: One such building is even named Motel 666 Dusk.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • As much as there are griefers in this game, there are also people who lay their lives down on the line for others. This can end badly.
  • Season 6 added the Watchmen, who act as a last line of defence between the citizens and the zombies if the constructions are not enough. This puts them at a higher risk of dying, but also allows them the chance to protect everyone else. Best of all, anyone (even residents) can become a Watchman at any time and leave if they have a change of heart.
• Hit Points: Averted. There are only three health-related statuses: Normal, wounded and infected. A wound becomes an infection after one day, and if you are infected you have about a 50% chance of dying each night.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Some of the Shaman's more powerful abilities involve this, with the game itself even referring to the Shaman as "the resident voodooman".
• Horrible Camping Trip: Many residents insist on not returning to town with their loot and spend the night under the stars with the zombies. Many don't survive the encounter, but those that do make it through their ordeal are rewarded with a few minor bonuses the next day. There are even a few people who camp just for the fun of it. (Each successful night spent outside the town gives a distinction which makes the camper seem pretty badass, after all.)
• Horrible Housing: Most players make a tent and leave their residence at that level until the endgame when the zombie horde reaches the thousands. Making anything more advanced than that in the first week is a good way to get shunned. The terrible housing situation is even mentioned in one of the blurbs that can appear.
  If you live in a hovel for friends you must grovel.
• Horror Hunger: Ghouls are the only players who have a hunger meter and have to feed on other residents so that they don't starve. Items like human flesh can decrease the meter as well, though not nearly as quickly or effectively. Sooner or later a ghoul will either have to feast on another resident or die of starvation.
• Human Resources: "OK, do we all know what a crematorium is? Do we also know what a barbecue is? Well then, it's easy to guess what purpose a Cremato-Cue serves. In any case, it means we don't die of starvation...well, some of us!"
  • Also, the Meaty Bone and Human Flesh can be eaten (although they may infect the eater if not cooked) and human bones can be used as weapons.
  • Not to mention that the Cemetery upgrade allows the use of cadavers to improve the town's defences. You're surviving the Horde by piling your dead companion's corpses on top of the walls.
  • That's nothing... the new Shaman class can use their SOULS to protect the town.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Players can easily become this. Many are forced to eventually for one reason or another.
  • Season 6 added a new item called traveler's corpse which, if eaten, has a high chance of turning a player into a ghoul. Once a ghoul they HAVE to feed on human flesh or die and gain hero days from killing and devouring other citizens!
• Indian Burial Ground: These can be found (rarely) out in the World Beyond. Luckily, the game also recently introduced a Shaman hero class so now you don't even have to worry about getting cursed for exploring them! They're also the single worst camping site in the game, with a -25% penalty to your survival chances before any others.
• Joke Weapon: Pretty much 80% of the weapons zombies can be fought with. Box cutters, can openers, water guns, live snakes...
  • Lethal Joke Weapon: You'd be surprised how effective some of these weapons actually are when used against the zombies. Hell, a mattress can somehow kill 25 zombies if used as a Watchman!
• Kill It with Water: Even a lowly water balloon can wipe several zombies off the map... but you'll have to use up a plastic bag and your water ration to make one.
• Last Stand: One of the survivors who survives until the last night will be selected to be a hero in his next game.
• Last Words: Players who die can choose to leave a short message to the survivors in the form of this trope. Depending on how the person died these can be reasonably serious or outright hilarious.
• Level Grind: Averted. The only bonuses are given by being in hero mode, which is a temporary boost.
  • Armageddon Witnesses also got a few perks after said event wiped out almost every town in the game.
• Live Item: Cats, dogs, giant rats, giant snakes, pigs, and chickens can all be found out in the desert. Tamers get their own special "3 Legged Labradoodle" pet item and christmas 2012 even allowed citizens to briefly find Santa's Reindeer for use as watchmen items!
• Luck-Based Mission: What the game is at its most basic level. It doesn't matter how skilled a player you are as how much luck you have. You could easily get stuck with a town that only has a few heroes, a town that doesn't work well together, only find useless items when searching, become a random victim if someone forgot to close the gate, have your internet go out for a few days and cause you to die from dehydration despite collecting your daily water ration... the list goes on and on...
• Machete Mayhem: The machete is one of the better weapons and one of the few that can slay zombies with 100% accuracy. Its rate of breaking is also fairly low compared to most other weapons.
• Made of Explodium: Mobile phones. People use them in game as GRENADES.
• Medal of Dishonor: While most distinctions in the game serve as a way to show off how impressive or skilled a player is there are some distinctions (such as hangings and banishments) that only serve to mark the player who receives them as a griefer. There are even a few rare distinctions that are awarded for major screw ups (such as deaths by infection).
• The Many Deaths of You: There are many, many ways for you to Die2Nite, ranging from being Devoured by the Horde after a bad night or failed camp, to being lynched by the rest of the town, eaten by Ghouls, poisoned by a traitor in the town's ranks, or just carking it from plain old dehydration. The official wiki actually maintains an (incomplete) list of the deaths available to you.
• Mr. Exposition: the Crow, offering advice (and snarky comments) to all citizens every day.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Towns can build a Nuclear Reactor if they find the blueprint and materials. However, it degrades every day (even in Distant regions) and if ever hits zero HP, it will instantly destroy the whole town and all survivors on the map.
• No Zombie Cannibals: Averted. "Stopped by the town's defenses, your ex-cohabitants left empty-handed and gnawing on each other's putrefied carcasses."
• Old School Building: The Burnt School ruin is an old abandoned school building that is easily one of the creepiest locations to be found in the game. On the plus side, a ton of really valuable items can be found by exploring it such as bandages and squirt guns.
• Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Ghouls in Die 2 Nite are residents who have feasted on a human corpse to become half zombies. They suffer from decaying flesh and must feed on human meat to survive, but are immune to infections and retain all higher brain functions.
• Our Souls Are Different: They appear as blue flaming orbs in the world beyond near the spot the citizen died. Also, they can apparently be picked up, stored in a player's rucksack, taken back to town, and transformed into powerful souls to help defend the town by a shaman. The image for the "Soul Collector" distinction also implies they can be placed in bottles/jars somehow.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Well, for one thing they die from a water balloon to the face or being shot with a squirt gun...
• Play Every Day: Missing a day while inside the safety of the town's walls usually just means that the player is out 6 AP that could have been better spent helping out. Missing more than that is much more dangerous because the player can die of thirst or fail to upgrade their house enough to withstand the nightly attack.
• Post-Apocalyptic Traffic Jam: One of the ruins that can be found in the world beyond is a multiple vehicle pile up known as the Wrecked Cars.
  Looks like an altercation between a small van and a station wagon... This minor accident seems to have caused a substantial pile-up judging by the number of burnt corpses lying around.
• Powered By A Forsaken Resident: The new Shaman class uses the souls of dead residents to defend the town. Hey, at least if you die you can still be of use to your friends, right?
• Press X to Die: Taking a Cyanide Pill will kill you instantly on the spot. Since the goal of this game is to survive as long as possible this was likely just included to give players one more different way to die.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits:
  • Most Small/Distant towns are comprised of completely random players with no prior relationship and vastly differing levels of experience. The result is that many towns are staffed by one of these.
  • Generally averted by Private or Hardcore/Pandemonium towns, as the former allows the owner to select precisely who joins the town while the latter is limited to experienced players only.
• Rain Dance: The Shaman class can perform one of these if he has enough red souls. Naturally, it's a great way to kill a bunch of zombies due to their weakness to water.
• Scavenger World: To get items for the town (or yourself) you must venture out into the desert to scavenge.
• Scenery Gorn: Even the pictures of the town itself look desolate, broken down, and forlorn. Many Ruin descriptions also go into detail on their appearance and what might have happened there.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the zombie horse seems to be overwhelming, there usually are two things left to do: try to get as much built as possible and hope the horde doesn't wreak havoc on the town...or run away and camp until dehydration or an infection get the better of you.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Becoming a Watchman carries a 5% chance of dying (more or less, depending on other factors) even if NO zombies make it into the town. On the first day of season 6 several towns lost a good handful of citizens since everyone wanted to try out the new class. The fact that most of the towns would have survived the first day's attack regardless means they all died for nothing.
• Shooting Gallery: An uncommon blueprint allows the town to build the classic fairground squirt gun version. As expected, it boosts the effectiveness of water pistol guard weapons by 20%.
• Shout-Out: The game contains some references:
  • The basic citizen outfit non-hero players wore is a blue suit with yellow stripes.
  • The survivalist hero class' survival guide book is "Junior Woodchuck's Scouting Manual".
• Shows Damage: In an interesting way. By "looking" at a citizen you can see him/her begging for water (Thirsty), cough up blood (Infected) or act violently (Addicted).
• Socialization Bonus: If a town doesn't work together it will not last past the initial few days.
• Soul Power: Season 5 has come with a brand new hero class: The Shaman. He has the power to detect souls in the world beyond, capture them to protect the town with, and even upgrade them into red souls.
• Spikes of Doom: Several traps players can set for the zombies make use of these in one way or another.
• Survivalist Stash: Many can be found all across the world beyond. The game even includes a container item called Shrewd Citizen's Stash.
• Sweet Tooth: One of the higher tier foods is a simple handful of sweets that give the player 7 AP when eaten. This makes it just as potent (or more so) as things like steak, canned food, and even vegetables. Granted its also one of the few foods available that isn't stale, rotten, or made from human meat... so it's kinda justified.
• Take Your Time: If you're surrounded by a horde of zombies you can just can just sit down and away rescue. You will not actually be hurt unless you try to flee or stay with your zombie pals till midnight.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Not only is talking a free action, but each town gets its own forum for members to discuss matters as much as they like.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: The players THEMSELVES can do this if they get their hands on a vial of poison. Thankfully, most of the items needed to contaminate food and water are hard to come by.
• The Many Deaths of You: In a game where you're doomed to die anyway, at least you can die in various different flavours: eaten alive, infected, dehydrated, poisoned, hanged...each of them comes with a colourful artwork and a detailed description of your last moments of life.
• The Maze: A rare blueprint lets you build one of these to use against the zombies, but you'll need 1AP to bypass it and get back into town.
• The Stoner: Drinking alcohol (or receiving a blow to the head) will cause people to say random things in their posts.
• Title Drop: Used whenever possible. For instance, at the nightly attack:

Hordes of zombies are attacking your town! They are everywhere, you hear citizens screaming in the night, the attackers clashing noisily against sheet metal... Hungry groaning from the starving masses... What's going to become of it?!

Are you going to die2nite?!

• Turns Red: The Cemetery upgrade fortify the town's defences based on the number of dead citizens. Meaning that a town that is whittled down to 10 people will receive a whopping +300 Defense bonus.
• Unspecified Apocalypse: The game gives a few hints here and there about how the world ended up in such a sorry state, but it ultimately doesn't matter. The only goal is to survive as long as you can against the zombie horde with 39 other doomed residents. The how and why of the situation isn't nearly as important as just trying to make it through another day without getting eaten by a bunch of walking corpses.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Water is lethal to zombies, causing them to melt into a sludgy mess.
• You Have Researched Breathing: So you need a blueprint to build a cinema? Okay, that makes sense. Another blueprint to build a butcher? I guess it must be a bit hard to make one of these correctly with only the crappy resources found out in the desert. Wait, You need a blueprint just for a wall upgrade, how complicated could that be? A bonfire?! You need a blueprint to know how to stack up some wood and light it with matches? People don't know how to fill a freaking hole in the ground with water to make a great moat without instructions? What the hell?!
• Zombie Apocalypse: Obviously.

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