Infection Free Zone can be quite intimidating when you're just starting out, as is the case with many base-building games. Luckily for you, our beginner tips and tricks will make your first experience easier and more enjoyable.

When you start a run in a new area, you can enter the full address of the location you want to play in instead of just a city. This allows you to determine a very precise location for your starting area. For example, you can enter your home address and judge how well equipped your area is for a zombie apocalypse. In the example I gave earlier, I entered the address of Google's headquarters and my starting tile was placed exactly where their complex is.

Once you’ve entered your address and are ready to select the specific tile you want to start on, click the Highlight Playable Tiles box in the top left to color in the map tiles. Tiles highlighted in green represent areas with a low population density, meaning there are fewer infected to attack you during your run. We recommend starting in these areas to familiarize yourself with the game and understand its mechanics before taking on larger swarms of infected in the orange tiles.

It is better to choose a small HQ to start with, as it is easier to defend. Doing this also saves you from having larger buildings for scavenging, which tend to contain more resources than smaller ones. It is advisable to keep it simple at first, so choose a building that does not trigger a warning that your HQ is too big.