Do zombies wander around or despawn?

[NightmareGats]

I started a game, saw a couple of zombies on the road in front of a house. I go inside, after around 2-3 hours the zombies that were outside aren't anymore, I go inside again as I got hungry lol. After eating I go outside again to try loot some other houses, but now there are some other group on the crosswalk. Do they despawn or wander around ?
I thought they would only wander when they saw a player.

[uncleflagzz]

The wander around even off screen. They never despawn. Sometimes a meta event draws them or the AI decides that it wants to move them somewhere else randomly.

[MagikarpMagi]

They migrate. There are random noises that will occur that attract them to travel as well, but they'll just kinda wander on their own.

[Shenji]

I think when you moving far enough then they will be despawned/unloaded, not sure for zombies but the NPCs (mod) did unload. When you come back some of them will be respawned. Just my guess.

[dubsmith]

I suspect leaving a map chunk will make the zombies convert back to meta. Not sure if there is a timer associated with this.

Meta events do shuffle zombies around in your current map chunk in addition to the migration setting where they move to empty areas of the same current chunk.

Map chunks that you haven't been to don't actually have zombies physically moving around; they are just a population statistic. Entering the area is what actually spawns them in.

[WarMage]

Despawning or not is pointless if the game save their state. Meaning once you "load up" that cell again everything will be as you left it.

Yes, they roam. Yes, it's scary.

As mentionned, there's also a lot of random events that you might not even realize are events. Heard a horse neigh ? That's an events. It'll draw some zombies in a direction.

[Blessed Mother]

Originally posted by WarMage:

As mentionned, there's also a lot of random events that you might not even realize are events. Heard a horse neigh ? That's an events. It'll draw some zombies in a direction.

That's interesting. I'm pretty sure I have heard a couple random gunshots during my playthroughs.

[WarMage]

Oh also, I didn't mention but don't bother checking those events. There's sound only. You won't find the source. You'll get yourself in a bunch of Zs though.

Happy I could help.

[Playzr 🐵]

Another thing to consider is zombies respawning after you've cleared an area. In builder mode they will respawn after about 3 days by default. If you edit your scenario options, which you can do mid-game with mods, you can disable this so that cleared areas will remain cleared, although some existing zombies may still wander between areas. And as others have said, zombies don't despawn, like if they died or wandered off into the sunset.

[WarMage]

Somehow, perma kill for Zs just seems ... boring ? It makes the game empty and dull. If the default spawn rate is too hardcore for you simply delay them a bit more.

[Playzr 🐵]

I'd prefer to clear an area and to give myself a reason to go to new areas.

[Animalman]

off screen the zombies jerk towards their target location. If you are on top of a high building, you will see the jerky movment. the jerky movement isnt jerky and bad, its actually pretty cool. It use to play on the outskirts of player vision on the original pre IWBUMS build. Made hordes look like cartoons when falling in or out of vision. THEY STILL DO THIS.

again you just need to see them at max distance from ontop of a building. They do it, but they do it when they assume themselves off screen

Building of this size at this range zombies jerk around instead of normal movement
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2832764519
the building is 6 story and eats a fair few vertical tiles up extending vision It is the equivalent of me standing at the coffee shop below