A text-based extraction simulator wrapped in a gritty, retro PDA interface. Inspired by the unforgiving atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the high-stakes looting of Escape from Tarkov, you play as an operator navigating the anomalies of the Zone.

Your goal is simple. Kit up, survive the raid, and extract with enough resources to upgrade your Hideout and complete tasks for the traders.

KEY FEATURES

  • The Zone Awaits: Explore multiple locales via a "Live View" with distinct backgrounds and event visuals, or stick to the "Standard" text-only view for a pure retro PDA experience.
  • Skill-Based Minigames: Success isn't just about stats. Engage in time and skill-based minigames to hack terminals, unlock crates, and survive anomalies.
  • Inventory Management: Manage your gear, health, and radiation levels. Your equipment dictates your survival—better gear improves your odds in minigames and event checks.
  • Risk vs. Reward: Every raid involves RNG and calculated risk. Do you push for one more loot roll, or extract with what you have?
  • The Mirage: Reach the endgame to unlock Prestige. Access "The Mirage" map and the Noosphere, unlocking a new Hideout module specifically designed for unique, high-tier artifacts.
  • Leaderboards: Compete against other operators to see who has the most efficient operation in the Zone.

FROM SURVIVAL TO AUTOMATION

When you begin, you are in full control. Raids pause at every event, requiring your direct input. You must manually decide when to heal, when to use rad-killers, which loot to drop to save space, and when to cut your losses and extract.

As you progress, you upgrade your CORTEX AI. This allows you to automate the survival process.

  • Auto-Med: Let the system handle your health.
  • Smart Looting: Automatically filter junk and prioritize valuables.
  • Decision Algorithms: Automated event outcomes and extraction logic.


PLAY ANYWHERE

Zone Idle is built on HTML5. It is fully playable in your desktop browser or on mobile browsers.

DEVELOPMENT STATUS: EARLY ACCESS

Zone Idle is currently transitioning from Prototype to Early Access. The game is fully playable with a robust loop, but new content, features, and polish are being added constantly.


COMMUNITY

Join the community to give feedback, report bugs, and chat with other operators.

Join the Official Discord: 

https://discord.gg/zQsv7wAdVb

Updated 19 days ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.2 out of 5 stars
(29 total ratings)
AuthorDickie1
GenreSimulation, Survival
TagsIdle, Incremental, Singleplayer
Average sessionA few minutes
AI DisclosureAI Assisted, Code, Graphics

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

amazing game but also full of bugs
firsly when i double click a backpack while inside a raid the bag i have equipped will be dropped
secondly when i get an item that doesn't fit inside my inventory while in a raid, i can't drop the stuff i have equipped like the backpack or weopon or whatever..
and thirdly there's a bug where when i try to move an item that i have equipped to my inventory it duplicates

Thank you for the report and the kind words.


What type of device/browser are you playing on by the way? 

(+1)

i play on a laptop on chrome browser, also one more thing, when i get an item that doesn't fit in my inventory and i try to put the weapon i have equipped in my inventory, it suddenly disappears instead.
anyway, thanks for the great game, really love the idea.

(+1)

Good game,but bugs in the game is Irritable. Like when u trying to move item of your inventory is not moving. And it's duping.

(1 edit)

Thank you. What device/browser are you playing on? 

(1 edit)

I playing on telephone on Yandex Browser

(1 edit) (+1)

Game is amazing, especially since ive been getting into single player extraction stuff. However, the experience on mobile is a bit miserable at times. Though I do fully understand that it was probably never intended for phones, so of course no hate or anything. Ive included two screenshots of what I mean if it helps for future development. Inventory is a pain and cant be zoomed out, and some menus scale very poorly. Regardless, very good game. And I have respect for the consistancy of your updates.



(+1)

Well gawdam. Wasnt expecting that. You really are a phenomenal dev.

Thank you so much :D 

OK BRO I JUST GOT MY FIRST RAID BACKPACK I TRIED TO EQUIP IT IT SAID i WOULD LOSE 2 ITEMS IF I EQUIPPED IT AND IT JUST DISAPPEARED

(+2)

i got this screenshot by putting toothpaste next to a kit and its so tuff

Can you set the Cortex scav to a different place than the Cordon? Also, can you choose the loot when going in for it or at least influence what the AI would pick?

(+1)

   Currently found a bug where if a contract scav returns with a Berkut backpack, and there is not enough space in the stash, It attempts to put the bag (a 3*5) into my pocket(2*4). Since there isn't enough space, the item just disappears, but leaves behind a phantom item that cannot be moved using the "stash all".  This makes it so it is impossible to start a new PMC deployment.

   Small issue as well, the daily task sometimes doesn't update, or updates incorrectly, between the fence vendor and the tasks when in a raid.


Overall great game!  I've really liked it so far.

Thanks for fixing the issues!

(2 edits)

I really enjoy the game so far!

That being said, playing on mobile can be a bit annoying, as it's difficult to move stuff from your stash to your character or vice versa.

And the current OPS update is entirely unusable without going into desktop view. You can't scroll at all and therefore can neither hire scavenger contractors nor equip anything onto the new operatives. Desktop view kinda worked as a workaround, but is annoying.


Edit : Risk tolerance is very welcome, but as currently implemented doesn't do anything. I can set the tolerance to 0% and the Cortex will still refuse to do a 95% success chance action.

Also, the AI refuses to triangulate bosses.

Hopefully the latest update addresses these concerns adequately, thanks for reporting and thank you for the kind words!

Yes, fixed those issues. And thank you for working so fast!

Cant even name my Character the same after reseting all progress?

This will be fixed in the next update, apologies for the inconvenience.

I was pretty hooked up before the inventory overhaul and I am not against it, but man, the inventory overhaul is looking pretty rough with all the bugs and early game difficulty spike, hope it gets better soon

I've pushed a lot of fixes for the bugs with the inventory system, any new issues or persisting issues I'd appreciate reports for.  


As for the early game difficulty, is this regarding inventory space mainly? I'll look into adjusting stash space

(1 edit)

Also, MULE syringe doesnt work at all and my pill box got voided like hundreds of other various things, fucking hell

I figure I should stop playing after the bug devoured my skin transmillualor.

(+1)

Currently a bug where if you try to swap items while you have no space available in your pockets the item just evaporates from existence
Really fun though

Will be hotfixing this soon!


Thank you :)

Also another bug where after prestige if you have autodrop on, it stays on even after you lose cortex causing you to be like pseudo softlocked 

Thank you, will be fixed in the next update.

(+1)

This is really cool, I may be bias because I'm a massive STALKER fan but I love this. 

(+1)

Thank you so much! 

All my prestige work got reset. T_T

Did the save string corrupt or were you relying on browser saving? Sorry for the issues, manual saves are definitely not optimal.

 Once the game hits steam the manual saves won't be necessary anymore.

I was relying on browser. I have my levels, but all my equipment and my prestige left haha

Sorry for the issues, I'll look into fixing this bug but there's not much I can do to recover your lost loot unfortunately.


 I recommend relying on string saves even once I release a potential fix as the browser can be unreliable for maintaining saves over long periods of time. 

dying of radiation, i equip a rad pill pack, it disappears, i have many in my inventory, so i equip another one. it disappears. the third i equip also disappears. i start losing health. its okay. i bought a bunch of health packs. i equipped one in my stash so its still equipped, but i used it 3 times. only one left. i use it. and regain health. i equip the bandages i have found on my adventure. it disappears. i click extract cause thats bull. 80 percent extract, get found by some bandits, i click the 86% chance to succeed option because bribing wanted my legendary item. i fail. my character dies at full health. 
the game idea is great. most things look fun. the game needs to be balanced and in a less buggy state for me to actually enjoy playing this. quite disappointing. 

Thank you for the feedback and the thorough report of this issue, It's being actively looked into and I'll be releasing fixes soon.

The inventory system was recently overhauled completely and admittedly there are still lingering issues.

Apologies for the poor experience, I plan to resolve these issues as soon as possible.

i hope to play it again once thats fixed! the vibe is great! good job on whats available now, looking forward to how it develops

Much appreciated, I pushed another update out aiming at fixing the potential cause for these issues. Hopefully this solves it, but if not, I'll be sure to keep working at it if I get more reports. Thank you for the kind words, they mean a lot and are great fuel to the fire :D 

(+1)(-2)

Its hard to people understand the genre IDLE, this is not. Like a lot of games here on itch.io

Hey,  thanks for the feedback. The game has idle elements but yes it's not a typical Idle game, apologies if you feel misled. The game pauses at every event decision and with progress you're able to automate more and more of the decisions made making it more "idle". The game also features the CORTEX Scav which is fully automated gameplay from the beginning, and with upgrades, will last longer and longer.


It's an attempt at merging the extraction genre with the Idle/Incremental, so any feedback or suggestions on how I can bridge that gap better is welcome.

(1 edit) (+1)

Hi, i'm having fun in the game BUT, there are quite a few bugs and missing QoL features.
1. Can't drop equipped items or from the backpack, only from pocket.

2. Is the followup from the first: I got and SVG from an encounter, but i could not keep it. I couldn't drop my equipped gun, couldn't switch it. My pocket and backback was smaller than the SVG. I think an item should not be bigger than your pocket. Unfortunately because of this i had to discard it :(

3. BUG: Losing stuff when equipping mid raid. This is very annoying and i lost several items because of it. (I see this is known)

4. I'm only at red forest don't know the rest. I think the extraction is way too brutal. Either i have a legendary on me and trade it or 50% chance i lose everything. Either reduce the damage that is a bit less that my maximum or increase the odds.

5. Sometimes i get a duplication glitch with trailer keys, couldn't not figure it out how it happens yet.

6. During CORTEX Scav run the AI glitches. For example when i cancel the extraction it tries to extract every tick and spams the sound and log. Same with equipping stuff.

7. Sometimes ugprading thing in the hideout i don't spend currency. At least i saved some money :)

Discord link is expired

Anyways, i like the game :) i'm curious about the next new features

(2 edits)

Thank you for the feedback, I've added a new discord link to the about section and will be updating the one in-game soon.


I'll be addressing many of these inventory issues for the next update, apologies for all the issues, this new inventory system requires a bit more work than I anticipated before it's stable but everyone's feedback has been very helpful in getting it cleaned up quicker. 

I'm having a hard time playing it with the update. It doesn't let me pull my stims out of the injector case during a run, so it's like what's the point, I'll randomly lose items when trying to put them in their cases, or randomly gain them aswell. At one point it was stuck in a weird loop and started making the computer work really hard because I ran out of fuel.

I'm looking into these issues for the next update, thank you for letting me know and apologies for the inconveniences. 

My progress actually wasn't reset. However i dislike the new inventory, its hiding some of my inventory and frankly looks worse. Plus I'm still waiting for some rebalancing and variety.

There was an issue with the progress reset unfortunately not taking place properly.


As for the formatting, what type of device are you playing on? Im curious on what's bein hidden and perhaps i can improve this. Sorry you don't like the new inventory. 


Balance and content is what my focus is shifting towards as i clean up the new inventory. 

(1 edit)

Playing on a laptop using chrome. WIndows

I am a bit confused on progression. I am level 34 and am stuck on Cordon. Factory gives you too many rads for little reward. I didn't get much unique the few times I ran it and it wasn't worth it. 

Also how do you get the key cards, I haven't seen an event or purchase for them?

Finally I struggle a lot with the signal tuner as I get it close and it seems to overlap but game deems it incorrect, not nearly enough time. Also maybe its cause I've never played minesweeper but the mine game is impossible for me, I just cannot clear it. 

Also I kinda wish we knew the relative rarity of each item more as some of the same tie rare much rarer than others.

I do like the game but feel horribly stuck and have stopped having fun.

I appreciate the feedback! I'm currently working on a big inventory overhaul but one of the things i really want to focus on after this is things like game balance and progression. Users in the discord have already been suggesting some good ideas for balance and progression and I'll definitely be using them moving forward. I hope with some more updates I'll be able to get the game somewhere more enjoyable for you. 

cool ill be sure to check back at some point. I was curios are the keys farther in or am i missing them in an early event.

Keys are more common further in, they tend to drop from bosses more than anything.

ok thanks

(1 edit) (+2)

I don't normally comment, but this game is great! The items look so much better now that they have actual details. When i first started playing they were just basic icons. I feel like the only minigame i really hate is the minesweeper one. It has killed me so many times because i suck at minesweeper lol.  Really enjoying this and looking forward to see what else the dev does. 

(+1)

Thank you! and I hope not to disappoint, major update is in the works now :D 

(+1)

Is it intentional that players can't take any old callsigns they've used after wiping previous progress?
Great game btw :)

(+1)

Somewhat intentional, sorry about that. May try to improve that in a coming wipe but can't promise as the leaderboard is a low priority for me at the moment. 


Thank you for the kind words :)

(+2)

Really cool game. A few bits are quite similar to pocket zone on iOS, which I played for ages, so it's nice to have a desktop browser equivalent of that gameplay loop (but with minigames!). However the anomaly minigame KILLS me. Every time. Haven't been able to beat it yet. 

(+1)

Appreciate the kind words! I definitely will be looking into adding some new ways to deal with Minigames somewhat soon. 

All my items are green!! I saw in the development log, that the items art has changed, but kept their colours. For some reason I'm seeing all item types/rarity as green :(

(+1)

I'm looking into this issue but having trouble reproducing it on my end, would you be able to send your save string in a DM perhaps on discord or provide details on reproducing this bug? 

(+3)

I want to give props to the dev! Really cool game, continuous improvements and super quick hotfixes. Thank you Dickie1, amazing work!

(+2)

Thank you for taking your time to play the game and to say such kind words. It's truly appreciated

After the last update I can't upgrade something in the Hideout if I partially gave items and then completed all the requirements. I click on "upgrade" and nothing happens.

Playing on desktop.

I've put out an emergency hotfix to resolve this issue, please let me know if there's any further issues. 

(2 edits)

When trying to partially hand over hideout upgrade materials, I get a blank page and the game freezes. Only a page refresh resolves it, but the material is then still in my stash.

Edit: Playing on desktop

(+1)

I've put out an emergency hotfix to resolve this issue, please let me know if there's any further issues. 

(+1)

Lock towers minigame doesn't work at all

Is this on mobile or desktop?

I'll look into having it fixed for the next update coming soon. Testing on desktop shows it's functioning but I'm not able to do a proper mobile test atm. 

Desktop, Chrome, non-fullscreen mode

tbh snipe minigame i just cant do lol. maybe connection issues maybe my age and reaction but even with ease injector i cant do it at all. 2 of 3 is max. like over dozens of attempts

Are you on desktop or mobile? Just curious, it's the first I'm hearing of issues so maybe the minigame is not functioning properly. The hold breath feature was meant to help but it could be still difficult. 


Something to note if on mobile, you can tap the hold breath button once and it stays toggled.

(+1)

desktop. hold breath helps. with ease its enough for 1 kill. maybe i just need more training lol. but tbh so far its always a loss. tried training in arcade but its not quite helping, anyway, can just always ignore it

I tried improving the sniping minigame but I'm not sure if it'll help or not for your case, fingers crossed it does!

(1 edit)

IDK what happened... but every time I open the game it just... reloads? Like, reloading the page, and takes me to the menu screen every like.. 3 seconds... even if I am on the menu or don't touch anything :C

Oh that's really odd. Maybe you could dm me your save string on discord for testing because this is the first i'm hearing of this. Not sure If having your save would help me but Its worth a look. 

The save will not help, it must have been a problem with my navigator or itch, it works fine now...

Also,  thought EFIM pocket would give me extra inventory space, not 3 extra safe spaces LOL. (Just used it for the first time, died like 3 times before it worked :fire: )

Glad it's sorted! And yeah i was between making the safe spots extra spots as well but I went with the current implementation haha

Huh... so you can have unstable matter outside of the mirage... interesting...

I figure this is a bug?


Yeah that's a bug. I did make unstable matter an Artifact technically but it only gives you increased radiation gain so it's undesirable as an artifact, did you get it from an artifact minigame or something or did you just equip it to get out with it? Curious how you got it to be unconverted, if you take it into Mirage you'll be able to convert it if you want lol. 

(1 edit) (+1)

Thought I could send the bug to you through a direct message or something, can't.

Anyways, I got the item with a full inventory, I don't know if you have any way to prevent this but my game kicked me out of the mirage without letting me switch an item for it, I figure it's a combination of getting an event while the extraction is at 100%-90% combined with the next one, when I entered the red forest I got the "full inventory, switch with something" screen, since I had space, I got the option to just receive it, so I did :D


Now I got that glitched, shiny savefile with a unstable matter on my stash >:D

I ain't selling/converting it!

Since this is pretty rare to happen, it could be left in as an easter egg?


Crap... I just lost it...

Ok, so... if one of those "Ambush" events, kills you, are they meant to not let the "auto-injector" feature work? Or is that a bug?


Tried to get it again, after leaving any map it stabilizes :C

Haha I may need to fix that bug but I wouldn't mind someone having the item, that's why I gave it a debuff. It's kind of an easter-egg but I haven't intentionally left anyways to get the item tbh! 

Also those events should still trigger your equipped medkit, maybe you took more damage than your medkit can heal? If not that, then perhaps there's a bug with it. Equipped medkits don't work in instances where Death is considered a potential option, like the EFIM injector. 

I had not clicked any option, and my cortex is level 2, so it didn't click anything, death reason said "Factory boss", I have also had it with shotgun scav, are those the events that so far damage you before the event starts?

Yeah Shotgun scavs and all boss events have damage on entry, it's a mechanic I'm trying to be a bit disciplined with as it adds to the randomness but it can be very punishing lol. 

(+2)

The new music is great, but I actually really enjoyed the other music from before the update. Could we possibly get it back at some point? Maybe as a "purchase" in the shop? I loved the creepy vibe of it.

(+1)

I can add it back next update! 

(+1)

Cool! Having a few music options would probably be a good idea. Different people have different musical tastes of course!

(+1)

Agreed! 


The Legacy music option is now available with the new major update, hope you like it!

(+2)

Very nice game!
I think the minigames are ok, although they might get boring at some point, so it's still good to know that I can skip them with some upgrade.

I first felt cheated that some minigames don't give you time to understand what's going on before the timer runs out (e.g. the cash registers and the bombs) but I eventually liked it: it gives a sense of urgency and makes the first encounters with them difficult until you get it, which is satisfying.

Otherwise, I face an annoying bug. I've had my hideout button and the medstation section inside blinking since the beginning. I can't upgrade it because I have no soap and have not seen a single soap so far (I'm level 25 and only raid in the first 2 areas). Since I died during the tutorial, I suspect that I've lost a soap that may have been given to me at the start and will never be seen again. I suggest changing the requirements for the medstation to not need a unique item if that's the case.

Keep up with the good work :)

(+1)

I appreciate the kind words very much! 


The feedback on the minigames is nice, i hear different opinions and yours was sort of the intended experience. For some minigames, I've been adding a click to start since users don't always understand how the games work, but maybe I'll limit the click-start feature to the first/easy map's minigames. 


The soap should be most findable in filing cabinets but maybe I'll look into making those early game junk items a bit more reasonable to find by buffing those junk loot events in the first areas. Thanks again :)

(+1)

Thank you for your answer.

And... I've just found soap from a Shotgun Scav in the first area :D

(1 edit) (+1)

Great game but I do have some issues with the loop of the gameplay.  I feel that you should add more quests or increase xp gains because once i got past level 20 it to ages to level up and no more quest with the current traders avalible.  I also felt stuck in the cordon, My gear wasnt good enough to go to the red woods or labs, but  I feel i couldnt do factory raids often due to rads, i would bring two sets of uncommon rad pills and would have to leave 3 to 4 minutes in and i also had 50 rad protction. One more  thing I disliked was the loot rooms where u needed a key, i find that i didnt find the random encounters that often and the loot was mediorce. also one last thing is I feel you should be able to put on gas masks on with a helmet. sorry for the crazy amount of yapping. also how in the hell does the triangulate mini game works

(+1)

Thank you! I'll look into adjusting XP rates. I definitely want to add more quests. I appreciate you giving feedback and suggestions, I'll be considering them moving forward.

The triangulate minigame requires that all the circles encompass the point of interest on the radar. I'll look into improving this minigame to be more clear as well.

I was excited about the text-based / standard view, but the tutorial requires right-clicking, drag-and-drop, and timed minigames. That makes the game inaccessible for keyboard-only and screen reader users.

Sorry about that, the game does require that extra level of input. There is some more "Idle" mechanics the more you progress but overall the game is meant to be played with clicking involved. 

I would remove the poorly interfaced minigame.  It should be about decisions, not how well we manually handle odd controls.

(+1)

Thanks for the feedback. It's the first I'm being requested to completely remove the minigames so I'm hesitant to do something like that. I will note if you have the CORTEX leveled up all the way (or do a CORTEX Scav run) the auto-decider completes them for you. 


I've considered putting in ways around them via The Arcade module as well but I haven't put too much thought into it yet. 

(1 edit)

Now way you actually added the drone thingy!
Dude seeing it fleshed out is so damn cool!

Do you think it would be okay for me to like throw together a Gdoc to put like my own ideas for dialogue coming from the combat feed thingamabob? 

(P.S. this is where I discovered 'thingamabob' is considered a real word)

Haha I'm glad you like it, it was nice getting in this new type of quest. Everything else was fetch and deliver. As for creating that doc, go right ahead! The current text is mostly from the prototype when i first started the project so it could definitely use some love! 


Also, I did not realize thingamabob was  a real word lmao

(1 edit)

Can confirm the 'can't drag' bug is very much so still in the game
Doesn't appear to be crashing the whole browser off rip, which is an improvement at least. For now

Thanks for letting me know, I'm going to be focusing on another hotfix for that tonight. This bug unfortunately is persistent

(+1)

ok as I play I have come to a opinon. the game as it is I do not want to play. mostly becuase of the mini games they just pop up with no guide. I had a lot of good gear and had to leave early one mission because a minigame failed when I had no idea what to do. if your going to base the game off of completing minigame you have to tell player how to play the minigames

Understandable, I'm working to resolve this pain point very soon, sorry for the poor experience. I appreciate you leaving feedback on it.

(+1)

I wish you luck and successes with your work 

Thank you for the kind words!

(+1)

if I could make one suggestion. don't make the how to's a once time thing but maybe something the player can check before the minigame. mostly for the cases where a player returns after a long break they may forget how the minigame goes

I appreciate the suggestion, I think what I'll do with the time-based minigames moving forward is sort of a "click to start" thing where once you click the minigame even option, you're given explicit instruction that goes away once you click/start playing the minigame. 

(+1)

how exactly am I supposed to handle the decryption minigame. As far as I have experienced there is no guide to show how it's done  

(1 edit)

You want to type the big word at the top below the 'TARGET SEQUENCE' text. It'll change, you just keep typing until you fill the progress bar before the timer ends. 


I'll try to make this more clear for the next update, sorry it's not very user friendly yet! 


EDIT: Update is out and it should make this specific minigame much more user-friendly. If this solution seems to work well, I'll happily apply this style solution to other minigames that are time-based. 

After a while, some bug happens, and it stops allowing me to drag things.
What's worse, is that it doesn't just break the game, it breaks the whole browser, because you become unable to drag things outside of the game too, and it (the browser)  eventually crashes.

2nd time this has happened to me, both looking in my stash, don't believe I was pressing any other button (such as shift) when it started either time. (Win 11, Chrome)

In general, the game is a little slow, takes too long to get to automation, and it feels like minecraft in regards to how tiny the inventory is. Will keep playing, because it does seem like a good game - but getting sick of the crash for sure

Thank you for the feedback and apologies for the technical difficulties. I'm actively looking into improving and resolving the browser issues. 


As for the inventory, do you mean visual size or total capacity is tiny?


I'm currently working on an update that will help hopefully resolve these issues. 

Capacity wise foremost. Text isnt the easiest to read (even with enlarged text) but there's other ways to view it like clicking on it so that's lower priority
You're encouraged to have a backup loadout or two, so that if you do die you aren't reset back to almost the basics, but it clogs up inventory - so either some dedicated slots for at least one spare loadout, or possibly some more space dedicated to Rads/Meds would likely go a long way in alleviating the issue and providing whatever scrap or variety we need

Just to add to the crash issue, it doesn't seem to affect other instances of the browser (other windows), but it can be left for hours and the dragging is still broken. If I try to drag something in another tab of the same browser instance, it will crash all browser instances

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