Dark Zone

The Dark Zone is one area of the map that turns into a free-for-all PvP zone for a few hours, then moves somewhere else. Loot is better in there, but anything you take is contaminated until you get it out alive. Servers can switch it off, and it is off by default, so you will only see it if your server owner turned it on.

How it works

• One zone is active at a time. By default it stays for 4 hours and everyone gets a warning 10 minutes before it moves. The candidates are the Port of Los Santos, LSIA Airfield, Fort Zancudo, Humane Labs, Grapeseed Farms, Davis Quarry, Paleto Lumber Mill and Palmer-Taylor Power. The server owner can change the list.
• When you cross the edge you get a message and a HUD with the zone name, the time until it moves, your bag, your rank and an “INSIDE - FREE PVP” marker. Anyone can shoot you in there.
• A red wall shows up when you get close to the edge, so you know where it ends.
• The infected inside are tougher: more health, more damage, more of them, plus brutes and elites. Extra groups spawn around every player in the zone.

Contaminated loot

Crates (“Search crate”) are spread over the zone and refill after a while. Whatever you take goes into your contaminated bag, not your normal inventory. You cannot use or take anything out of it until you extract. Type /dzbag to look inside.

If you die in the zone your contaminated bag drops on the ground as a “Contaminated bag” that anyone can search. Your own gear is safe, only the bag is lost. A dropped bag stays for 30 minutes by default.

Extraction

There are two ways out with your loot.

Way	How	Limits
Walk-out	Stand on a walk-out point (“Extract on foot”) for 120 s and do not leave it	Small bags only: 8 kg and 4 stacks by default
Helicopter	At the helicopter point pick “Fire flare (call extraction)”. Hold the flare area while waves of infected come. After 90 s the helicopter lands and everyone within 15 m of the flare extracts	Everything fits. Everyone in the zone knows where the flare is. The same zone has a 5 minute wait before another helicopter

Both points are shown on the map as “Walk-out extraction” and “Helicopter extraction”. If the server turned on “Heli needs a flare” you need a signal flare (dz_flare) to call it, and flares drop from the crates. Items that do not fit in your inventory when you extract stay in the contaminated bag.

Ranks and XP

Every extraction gives Dark Zone XP, and kills inside give a little more. By default: 100 per extraction with loot, 15 per extracted stack, 50 extra for a helicopter, 120 for killing a player, 4 for an infected and 40 for an elite. Your normal character also gets XP.

Rank	XP needed	Reward
Rookie	0
Scavenger	600	2 flares, an Overdrive booster
Stalker	1800	2 Ironhide boosters
Hunter	4000	Warden PDW
Warden	8000	Sentry booster
Revenant	14000	Revenant rifle
Phantom	22000	Breacher shotgun

Rewards go to your normal inventory. All the numbers can be changed by the server owner, see Dark Zone for server owners.