ZED ZONE companions: hiring, commands and care

Companions went from a liability to a real help over 2026. Most of the stories about hired NPCs wrecking bases predate the October and November patches. Here is how hiring, commands and care work now.

How to get companions in ZED ZONE

• Comms Station: build it to browse and hire characters other players uploaded; they join your squad as friendly NPCs. If your own uploaded character is hired, you get resource rewards next time you log in. Official The recruitment list has gender, profession and Steam-friend filters, plus search, sorting and pages. Official
• Survivors you meet: neutral survivors in the wild became more common in Beta 0.9.98. Official Players report hiring costs money and that what a hire carries varies. Unverified Since late October you can re-equip them yourself (below).

Faction markers show over NPC heads: green companion, white neutral, red hostile. Official

ZED ZONE companion commands

Since Beta 0.9.99.9.7 teammates no longer loot corpses and containers ahead of you, and only take essentials from containers you already searched. Official

Gear and Affinity

• Open a companion’s inventory to equip the weapons and clothes you choose; they keep using them, or switch back to automatic. Anything you hand over can be taken back. Official
• Affinity grows with time in your team, being revived and receiving items. Spend it to take a companion’s own items; the cost was lowered in 0.9.99.9.7. Official

Downed and revive

Human characters go down at 0 HP and have 30 seconds to be rescued. Hold F for 3 seconds on a downed companion or neutral NPC to revive them. If you have companions, you go down first too, and they rush to revive you. Downed NPCs crawl toward allies. Official “Heal” on an NPC offers Bandage to stop bleeding. Official

Food, water and warmth

Companions now warm up by fires and heaters when cold, take off warm clothing and drink water when feverish, and use medicine from the shared backpack. Official Players who hired NPCs in early 2026 report them getting thirsty and then attacking bases. Players report Several fixes since then address this directly: NPCs no longer search containers near your base, and hired companions arrive at full health. Official If it still happens on 1.0, report it in the Feedback Center.

For hostile survivors and raiders, see raiders and hostile NPCs. Dogs do not use a companion slot: pets.

Companion tips from players

• Check before you pay. You can see what a recruit has equipped before hiring; a hire carrying only a dagger and an axe can then be geared up by you. Players report
• Roles behave differently. One player’s Sniper stays close while a Ranger keeps running ahead; leave the roamers to guard the base. Unverified
• Ammo for their guns. Allies keep trying to shoot with empty guns, so hand them ammo for the weapon they carry. Unverified
• Cold companions. A healing smoke grenade warms people up, one player found; since October companions also warm themselves by fires and heaters. Unverified Official

Checked against version 1.0.4Last verified 2026-11-07