History VideoGame / DeathRoadToCanada

* OptionalStealth: Running past the zombies during a mission is viable and even encouraged by the game, especially if the melee weapons you currently have can break. There is a silenced weapons salesperson who sells suppressed weapons that encourage this kind of play. They cannot be found in the wild.
* OurGnomesAreWeirder: Mostly resembling the classic garden gnome, [=DR2C's=] gnomes are weird little buggers who shout nonsense, ride dog-sized rats and can seemingly ascend into the sky at will. Then there's [[{{ComicBook/Wolverine}} Bogan]], who has retractable hand-claws and [[HealingFactor 'Gnomish Regeneration']] - and is a weird, shouty little man like all the others.

* AnAxeToGrind: A common weapon type available, ranging from the humble Hatchet and Fire Axe to the expensive and powerful Medieval Axe. There's also the [[{{Pun}} Electric Guitar]], which is sold by the Axe merchant in addition to the aforementioned traditional axes.

* CatsAreMean: Once the zombie apocalypse broke out, it seems like every cat became feral and turned into this; dogs come in friendly and feral varieties, but cats are only ever bad news. Even after the Halloween update allowed you to recruit them, the moment they want to leave your team, they will just decide to fatally maul someone for good measure.

* BadassBoast: Most characters that you meet will do this in order to join your group. Unless one of your members has the Paranoid trait, or is high in the stat that the new person claims to be good at, there's no way to tell if the boasts are true or not.

* ThreeQuartersView: The main camera perspective of the game.

** The game has quite a jab-streak when it comes to Anime. The Anime Salesman sells a bunch of useless crap, the Anime Magical Girl explodes in a number of days (unless cured through an incredibly rare event), the Otaku Katana breaks easily, the ''Strong'' Katana that doesn't break is rare, and reading Anime magazines at the Anime store only benefits characters with low Wit (it harms anyone else).
** Characters with low Wits tend to blame UsefulNotes/BarackObama for everything (this game was developed and released when Obama was still the President).

** The "River of Sludge," as well as certain escape events, take place in the sewers and it's always dark when you go in.
** The Dark Mansion and Haunted Mansion locations are similarly pitch-black, with the timer paused, so it's never daylight inside.
** Any mission that takes too long will result in the sun going down, forcing the group to wander in the dark while the zombie spawn rate jumps.

** The whole shtick of "Civilized" trait. They are decent folk in a world of bandits, jerkasses, the soulless undead, and other morally questionable beings, but their Morale can never go above "neutral" (max of 3 instead of 6).

* BerserkButton: The "Cool it" and "Say it, don't spray it!" options from Irritating characters will ''always'' piss off people and have severe consequences for the offending party. [[spoiler:Unless you've used it 3 times before; in this case, it will be the complete opposite. People will love it or be utterly cowed by it, and will give some ''big'' rewards to your party.]]

** The unassuming Meat Cleaver is one of the few light weapons that are guaranteed to hit more than one zombie per strike. It's also fairly common and has a very small chance to break[[note]]0.25%[[/note]]. The fact it's so light means even characters with piss-poor Strength and Fitness are able to use it effectively as well.

* CanadaEh: Exaggerated to stereotype levels by your destination, which milks the trope for all its worth if/when you get there.

* CatsAreMean: Once the zombie apocalypse broke out, it seems like every cat became feral and turned into this; dogs come in friendly and feral varieties, but cats are only ever bad news. Even after the Halloween update allowed you to recruit them, the moment they want to leave your team they will just decide to fatally maul someone for good measure.

** A small fire you used to torch a zombie can cause another one to set on fire which can be useful to thin out some of the horde, but if the zombies are close to your party they can set a member on fire as well and then another party member… You get the idea.

* DrunkOnMilk: In bars you can find people who passed out from drinking too much soda.

* EasyLevelTrick: Running into side rooms during sieges may sometimes (key word being ''sometimes'') make the ordeal of surviving them a little more manageable since the main bulk of the horde won't immediately make a beeline for your party and you can bottleneck them with a little more ease and control. This may work wonders in some sieges and even the dreaded final siege, City of Crushed Hopes, as long as you don't have to walk ''too'' close to the horde and draw their attention.

* ElaborateEqualsEffective: Simpler weapons like Kitchen Knives and Wooden Bats are as plain and bland as you can imagine, but weapons like the Cold Steel Greatsword or the [=MegaKnight Blade=] looks very cool. Similarly basic firearms like Pistols and Shotguns look bland compared to their "upgrades", the Magnum or the Autoshotgun.
* EldritchLocation: [[spoiler:TheLostWoods variety. When [[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} G***]] says he hates Mondays, he MEANS it. Don't make him upset -- or he'll toss you into an incredibly tough siege.]]

** Comes in two flavors: "get this person out of the map alive" and "protect this person until the siege is over". Rare locations can have you saving more than one character in order to get the (usually much better) reward. Thankfully the [=AI=] works as usual and will actually act as an additional party member helping you fight the zeds, provided they get a hold of a weapon.

** Mainly when there are too many options for the game to care to display. You may find a case where you can't leave a talk with a trader without doing anything [[note]]The game will show something along the lines of "6 for training, 15 for group training, A charms the trader, B tells the trader to COOL IT![[/note]], or when you find a character that you want to recruit but already have a full party, and the one character you wanted to kick out is the one the game won't let you because it doesn't want to display five options at once. It's also not fair that if a character is under attack you can't take control of them to manually break them out of whatever situation they've gotten stuck in.

* BalefulPolymorph: The "telegraphic vortex" random event will alter your party's characters in a small variety of ways, provided you choose to interact with it. Any character that attempts to fight it, specifically, will be turned into a dog. This can also be done from experimental machines located in labs.

** A mission usually begins with the group's car driving through a street before stopping abruptly. This goes UpToEleven if you reach the Canadian border with a functioning car. [[spoiler:You drive it at top speed and launch it against a thick horde, making the car explode in the process.]]

** Upon dying, characters have a chance to ask to be buried with something, such as their food cans or the car keys, or to have a sweet epitaph on their tombstone. Regardless of the nature of the request, you cannot bury them, and instead must leave their bodies to be inevitably chewed to the bone. Of course, sometimes they're already surrounded by zombies and couldn't possibly be buried, but other times you just casually leave an ally's body alone in an empty room after getting hurt by a single zombie. Or, if you've already [[UpToEleven tossed the poor sod's body into the middle of an inbound cluster as a distraction]].

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The protagonist of ''VideoGame/DontShitYourPants'' is in the game, and he is simply renamed to DSYP. His character description says "DYSP is the star of a very popular game that I can't say the title of."

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The protagonist of ''VideoGame/DontShitYourPants'' is in the game, and he is simply renamed to DSYP. His character description says that he "is the star of a very popular game that I can't say the title of.".

* EldritchLocation: [[spoiler:The LostWoods variety. When [[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} G***]] says he hates Mondays, he MEANS it. Don't make him upset — or he'll toss you into an incredibly tough siege.]]

** Even if you try to refuse to let the Clown join your party, it suddenly shows up in the car anyways.

** AbandonedWarehouse: The factory. Full of industrial tools that can be used as weapons.

** During "Cloud Watching", there are options to say what a cloud looks like, randomly selected from a pool. Do ''not'' pick that the cloud looks like a swarm of bees.

* UselessUsefulSpell: The Fireproof trait. On paper it sounds awesome being unable to be harmed by fire in combat and text events and even more on [=ABL=] events like Burning Houses. But chances are even if one of your characters are immune to fire the rest of your party won't be and text events where Fireproof is useful are few and far between. In the October 2020 KIDNEY update, Fireproof was combined with Phoenix, giving it more usefulness.

* UselessUsefulSpell: The Fireproof trait. On paper it sounds awesome being unable to be harmed by fire in combat and text events and even more on [=ABL=] events like Burning Houses. But chances are even if one of your characters are immune to fire the rest of your party won't be and text events where Fireproof is useful are few and far between.

** The Dark Mansion and Haunted Mansion locations are similarly pitch black, with the timer paused, so it's never daylight inside.

** There are certain weapons that never break upon use. A few of these, such as the Tire Iron, Wrench, Hatchet, small Hammers (claw and ballpoint), and Rebar don't deal as much damage as other weapons, but they're a godsend for a long-term means of defense.
** The unassuming Meat Cleaver is one of the few light weapons that are guaranteed to hit more than one zombie per strike. It's also fairly common and has a very small chance to break[[note]]0.25%[[/note]]. The fact it's so light means even characters with piss poor Strength and Fitness are able to use it effectively as well.

** The Tactical Spear that can be bought from a semi-common vendor in Trader Camps. It's far from the flashiest weapon out there, but it's usually affordable costing 9 Food, consumes less stamina per attack and has a small chance to hit more than one zombie, making it a solid choice even for characters with poor Strength and Fitness.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Familiar characters will occasionally say things upon being recruited or killed that suggests they know this isn't their first run, or necessarily their last. This includes [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall leans]] such as saying they're glad to be back on the road, and outright breaks like hoping for better luck next time in their dying throws.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Almost literally. Museums are rare locations that have neat things like Katanas (including an unbreakable one), Axes (Hatchets and Medieval ones), food displays (lots and lots)... and a [[GatlingGood Minigun]]. Everything is in pristine condition and ready to be used for some serious zombie killing.

* ButtMonkey: Due to the quirk Anime Fan has[[note]]They become the Anime Girl if their Morale reaches maximum — the Anime Girl is essentially a 4-day time bomb that will explode and seriously wound the party inside the car[[/note]], players will often throw them at events that cause morale drops, so this usually involves ''a lot'' of bad stuff happening to them during the trip to Canada.

** Due to the nature of this game your priorities in status boosting will change wildly depending what perk and traits you start with, or your gameplay style in general. Having enough food will let you get riskier locations with better weapons, which in turn (usually) has very few edible things.
** As the player proceeds further onto the Death Road, food, melee combat and gas economy become less important than having strong weapons and ammunition.

* CombatantCooldownSystem: Melee weapons' cooldown time are defined by your Strength and Fitness, and having only one isn't enough for long term combat, as you'll either swing the weapon slowly or not recover the used up stamina quickly enough to fight large numbers of zombies.

** The Last Bodybuilder has an absolutely ''insane'' strength score, (106, when the normal max is 6, or 13 with very particular traits and perks) letting him pick up nearly anything in the game, including cars and heavy machinery. Unfortunately, this is his ''only'' method of attack, as he only has one inventory slot, and won't swing or shoot, instead [=*Flex*=]ing or [=*Grunt*=]ing when the buttons are pressed. He can use throwing items, but such items are few, far between, and generally pretty weak.

** A BERSERK! Big Bruiser. The gist of it is that the BERSERK! supplies a mountain of boosts [[note]]+4 to Strength, Fitness, and Shooting, the ability to flip out in some situations, and the ability to tell people to Cool It.[[/note]] at the cost of being garbage at personality checks and having 1 HP, meaning they're unreasonably flimsy. Big Bruiser gives a boost to Strength on top of that supplied by BERSERK!, Boxing (better unarmed attack than normal, but worse than Kung Fu) and, the important part, 1 extra HP at the cost of a barely noticeable amount of movement speed. The HP supplied by Big Bruiser allows them to make it through fighting bandits and minor screw ups in Normal difficulties, but the problem arises with the fact that bandits are capable of dealing two points of damage in Hard modes, meaning that a BBB is drastically more at risk of death, and thereby unreliable in those modes. [[labelnote:However...]]This problem can be negated every so often if you [[spoiler:count the amount of toilets you've checked with the Robot in Unlocks. Every 100 Toilets (50 Toilets with an upgrade) between all runs, a Toilet Genie will be summoned, who will give you a wish. Having the BBB wish for immortality will increase their Vitality by 1, giving them the 3 HP that is standard for most everyone else.]][[/labelnote]]

* TheCynic: Characters that have the Paranoid trait enforce this trope. They wear on everyone else's nerves, but sometimes they may turn out to be right and save the group some headache.

* {{Determinator}}: If you survive the sieges caused by extreme low morale (aptly named Despair Event) "Fatal Argument" or "Haze of Despair" your party will also receive a massive Morale boost. Never giving up pays off!

** Fire damage and explosive weapons. In the hands of a rookie they're as dangerous to your own party as they are to the zombies, in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing these are some of the most effective ways to ''annihilate'' ranks and ranks of the zombie hordes.
** The BERSERK! trait is this. New players will struggle to keep them alive as any mistake can get them killed since they have a miserable 1 HP. However, the massive combat stat boost they get makes them one of the best characters to solve nearly any text event regarding Strength, Shooting and Fitness, especially if you combine it with perks like Athlete or Fighter. Besides this, they can go one point over the usual cap on these stats as well, making them excellent candidates for high end melee weapons like the Claymore or the [=MegaKnight=] Blade.
** Martial Artists have to rely solely on melee attacks and thrown weapons as they refuse to use guns or any gas-fueled weapons. However their unarmed attack is pretty strong, ''always'' hit more than one zombie and they start with some Strength and Fitness bonus which can help with them use the strongest weapons that usually requires both of them at high levels. They also are great for using Pipe Bombs, Grenades and Molotovs due to their gunless quirk.

** A small bad event can cause one character's morale dip into zero (shown as a glowing orange bitter face). Characters with low morale can cause huge problems ranging from losing stats to dropping the morale of the party even further, which can cause ''even more'' trouble like forcing you to choose between kicking out a party member, having a party member leave and take '''''everything''''' with them (car, food, meds, and weapons), to facing an extremely difficult siege.

* AntiHoarding: Downplayed. Bandit events and [=NPCs=] will discourage the player from hoarding food (and sometimes even ammo) as you can lose anything ranging from 1/4, 1/3 to ''everything'' depending on your party's size and the difficulty you're playing at. However you can prevent losses if you're prepared to face the consequences of said text events; either with a character that can handle it or enduring the health and/or morale damage.

** Explosives. Clear a nice-sized chunk of a horde... And probably blow yourself up in the process. They can be lifesavers, but often that valuable slot is better taken with a gun or strong melee weapon.
** Automatic weapons like the Assault Rifle, Uzi and the Minigun. MoreDakka that can clean through a horde like nothing else, but burn through the entire stockpile of ammo in moments.
** The Double Barrel Shotgun is pretty damn powerful since it fires two shells instead of one. But in a game where ammo is best used sparsely, and can be difficult to acquire depending on how finicky the [=RNG=] is feeling, this becomes a problem on the long run.
** The Flamethrower and Chainsaw. Amazing horde-clearers... but they use super-valuable gas to work. The flamethrower has a good chance of self-damage, and the chainsaw has a high chance of stalling unless the user has high Strength. In most cases, they simply aren't worth the trouble. [[spoiler: Averted once you hit the final levels. With no car, you don't need to worry about gas, and the chainsaw can make the final siege and Canadian border run a LOT easier.]]

** Bow and Arrows. It's silent and can kill several lined up zombies. However it also has several problems: you must aim it manually, the bow is taxing on your Fitness (it doesn't use Shooting like most ranged weapons) and without the proper perk for it there's no way to replenish ammo for it.

** Characters with the Martial Artist perk becomes this. They have real good unarmed attacks (Kung Fu) and can kick plenty of undead ass. If you find the rare character Bryce Lu he will teach anyone Kung Fu, regardless of perk, if said character already knows Kung Fu it will then become ''Kill Fu''. The problem is that Martial Artists will absolutely not use firearms and gas powered weapons (chainsaw, weed whacker, leaf blower or flamethrower).

* BerserkButton: The "Cool it" and "Say it, don't spray it!" options from Irritating characters will ''always'' piss off people and have severe consequences for the offending party. [[spoiler:Unless you've used it 3 times before, in this case it will be the complete opposite. People will love it or be utterly cowed by it, and will give some ''big'' rewards to your party.]]

* DigitalAvatar: You can make one as custom character. Due to the random nature of personalities that aren't predefined by traits your avatar can be either a loyal companion or a complete jerk.

** A small bad event can cause one character's morale dip into zero (shown as a glowing orange bitter face). Characters with low morale can cause huge problems ranging from dropping even further the morale of the party, which can cause ''even more'' trouble like forcing you to choose between kicking out a party member, having a party member leave and take '''''everything''''' with them (car, food, meds, and weapons), to facing an extremely difficult siege.

* DoNotDropYourWeapon: Thankfully bleeding inducing bites will not make your character drop weapons, only death will. [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield And sometimes not even that]].

** Personality combos are ''not'' fixed to the selection traits when making a custom character and can be generated at random and option to use them will show up even if you don't have the personality status of the character that has it revealed.

* HeroicCaninesVillainousFelines: It seems like every dog you find in the game is either tame enough to adopt or too feral to become a pet. Dogs don't attack humans unless they've past the DespairEventHorizon or are too feral. [[SubvertedTrope They can still screw over the party if their loyalty isn't too high.]] Cats, on the other hand, only appear during random events to attack a group member. An update allows you to recruit cats, but their despair events can have pretty nasty consequences, and always have low loyalty…

* HeroicSecondWind: Shield of Hope grants the ability to endure bites from zombies that would kill the bearer as long as they have high enough morale. It doesn't work on some instant-death events, however.

** It's possible to take manual control of disliked survivors and deliberately sending them into a zombie horde. It turns into this example if they have low loyalty.

* MaximumHPReduction: The BERSERK! and Frantic Whiner will reduce a character's maximum health from the natural 3 points to 1 and 2, respectively. Shaking hands with the Grim Reaper will also decrease their maximum health to 1 as well (while giving massive combat boosts).

* MultiplePersuasionModes: Some text events can have special options for characters with special personality combos (Charming, Paranoid, Oblivious...).

* MyCarHatesMe: Your car's engine stat isn't just for show. The worse it is, the harder will be to actually start it, and this can be a real problem if you need to bug out quickly because of angry zombies gunning for your party…

* NoBulkDiscounts: Nope! However characters with the Charming trait will get extra items, especially if you buy large quantities.

** Normally, you talk to the Prime Minister of Canada to win the game. If you can figure out how to kill him, though, the game chews you out for your idiocy, and you get a game over. (But also an achievement.)

** Whenever you're playing on big grocery stores or gas stations the [=AI=] controlled characters may sometimes loot the food on the shelves as it's very easy to mistake them for mere decorations instead of lootable items.
* PointBuildSystem: A core mechanic of the game. You raise your characters by increasing their Strength, Fitness, Shooting, Mechanical and Medical abilities, and starting traits and perks can change how powerful they are.

** Civilized has your character starting with maxed personality statuses and 3 points in Medical and Mechanical. The catch? They will never be able to raise their morale higher than 3 (with the usual maximum being 6); if you get a real bad morale event this is all it takes to make them liable to cause the dreaded "Despair Events" that can end your run.
** [=T*S*T*C=] perk has the character starting with maxed Strength at 6 (and can train up to another ''six'' times); however, your Fitness is locked at a pitiful 2 points and can't be trained further, so your character will be strong, but will tire out very fast as result when swinging heavier weapons.

** The Grim Reaper found in the rare map Cemetery, will grant the character who shakes hands with him maxed Strength, Shooting, and Fitness… At the cost of setting your maximum health to 1, like BERSERK! characters.

* ProperlyParanoid: Whenever it comes down to bandits, the Paranoid character is a godsend as they (almost) always come up with a plan to deal with them, avoiding painful injuries and/or catastrophic resource loss.

* RampJump: One random event has this as an option. Its success varies on the speed of your vehicle; fast cars can make the jump ([[RuleOfCool and look really cool doing it]]), average cars barely make the jump but sustain some damage in the process, while slow cars [[EpicFail fall into the pit and explode]].

* RevolversAreJustBetter: The Dolt 45 and Snubnose are more powerful than the average pistol, at the expense of firing slower and holding less ammo. [[RevolversAreForAmateurs They're better as early-game weapons where saving ammo is more crucial and where the Shooting stat is a bit underdeveloped]]. In the endgame, it's better to switch to pistols with higher reserves, assuming one's shooting stat has improved.

** Anime is also mentioned fairly frequently, although in a much less flattering light.

* SaveScumming: Despite the AntiRageQuitting measures for quitting in the middle of a mission, there's no stopping a player from force-quitting the game (via a Home Menu quit or stopping the application forcefully on a computer) and restarting from where they left off. The save is only deleted if the player selects to quit back to the main menu ingame. There are a few situations where SaveScumming flat-out won't work though, such as determining the ultimate prize in the Dark Mansion, determining the result of the experimental machines, or making decisions based off of stats rather than pure luck. There's flat out ''no'' way to save scum for trader posts, as returning to the game immediately sends the player back to the road, with a glitched out party display to boot (it gets fixed after the next level).

** Should you run into the Last Bodybuilder, you can decide to have a randomly chosen survivor to start a flexing contest. Said survivor is guaranteed to be killed.

** During "Cloud Watching", there are options to say what a cloud looks like, randomly selected from a pool. Do NOT pick that the cloud looks like a swarm of bees.

* FailedASpotCheck: If the party has very low morale, they might be too busy arguing to notice a zombie horde until they're right in the thick of it. This siege gives the player the option of giving up instead of attempting the siege.

** One event, "TRUE DESPAIR" has you decide who, if anyone, will open a government ration box with ''dog poop'' on the handle. If not done by someone with a high attitude stat, the "Friend to Dog" perk, an animal that isn't a cat, or by using a tree branch, it can cause a '''permanent''' drop in morale!

** Characters with high stats in something (Strength, Fitness, Shooting, Medical, or Mechanical) can actually measure if the recruit's skill is true or if they are trying to pull a fast one on your party.

* HeroicCaninesVillainousFelines: It seems like every dog you find in the game is either tame enough to adopt or too feral to become a pet. Dogs don't attack humans unless they've past the DespairEventHorizon or are too feral. [[SubvertedTrope They can still screw over the party if their loyalty isn't too high]]. Cats, on the other hand, only appear during random events to attack a group member. An update allows you to recruit cats, but their despair events can have pretty nasty consequences, and always have low loyalty…

* HeroicSecondWind: Shield of Hope grants the ability to endure bites from zombies that would kill them as long as they have high enough morale. It doesn't work on some instant-death events, however.

** Characters with Hidden Potential don't start out with high combat stats, but their Strength can exceed the usual maximum if trained thoroughly enough. This also applies to [[Videogame/FinalFantasyVII Nimbus Ordeal]], who uses a {{BFS}} but starts out with the lowest Strength and Fitness.

* MonsterClown: A possible party member, [[WhatTheHellPlayer although the game questions just why you would do that if you do.]] [[ButThouMust You don't get a choice to leave him behind if you have room, unless you've been doing a solo-character run.]] Make him mad, and he'll leave… [[spoiler:[[OhCrap and bring FRIENDS.]]]]

* AbilityRequiredToProceed: You can't reach the Canadian border without a car. If it breaks down or you run out of gas, your characters walk around in search of a new ride with a worse batch of random events than usual. Fortunately you no longer need a car after the driving days to Canada hit zero.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: The "Oblivious" trait is surprisingly useful, as the character often bypasses events due to simply not understanding the issues involved, (Such as walking into creepy locations that freak out the rest of the party) or distracting hostile adversaries with inane questions. (Such as asking the buff bandits why they're wearing sweatbands, which causes them to go into a flexing routine and forget about mugging the group.)

** The Putt-putt has low speed, poor durability, and only average gas mileage. It's big selling point is that it's the easiest vehicle to fix in the game, assuming it doesn't fall apart after hitting too many zombies.

Long story short, the zombie apocalypse has broken out in the United States. Don't bother asking any who, what, where, or why questions, because it suddenly happened. Since nobody wants to be a walking corpse with a taste for human flesh, it's up to you and/or someone else to leave the lovely, yet infected state of Florida and fight your way up to the home of maple syrup, mounted police, socialized health care, and poutine. The idea of a road trip sounds better than anything else right now...

** Rescued characters will always leave all of their equipment with you if you don't recruit them. Handy if they get a hold of something you might've wanted. However, the same cannot be said for any food, gas or med kits their [=AI=] may loot by accident...

* BodyHorror: The [[MagicalGirl Anime Girl]] gets bigger eyes the longer she is in your party [[spoiler:until she explodes violently]]. The last version of her character model before [[spoiler:the explosion]] looks hideously deformed and half-melted. [[spoiler: The transformation can be stopped, but not reversed, if she meets someone with a pure love for anime in a very rare location.]]

* ButtMonkey: Due to the quirk Anime Fan has[[note]]They become the Anime Girl if their Morale reaches maximum - the Anime Girl is essentially a 4-day time bomb that will explode and seriously wound the party inside the car[[/note]], players will often throw them at events that cause morale drops, so this usually involves ''a lot'' of bad stuff happening to them during the trip to Canada.

** A small bad event can cause one character's morale dip into zero (shown as a glowing orange bitter face). Characters with low morale can cause huge problems ranging from dropping even further the morale of the party, which can cause ''even more'' trouble like forcing you to choose between kicking out a party member, having a party member leave and take '''''everything''''' with them (car, food, meds and weapons), to facing an extremely difficult siege.
** A small fire you used to torch a zombie can cause another one to set on fire which can be useful to thin out some of the horde, but if the zombies are close to your party they can set a member on fire as well and then another party member... You get the idea.

** A mission usually begins with the group's car driving through a street before stopping abruptly. This goes UpToEleven if you reach the Canadian border with a functioning car. [[spoiler:You drive it at top speed and launch it against a thick horde making the car explode in the process]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After all this game isn't called "Vacation Trip to Canada", reaching it won't be easy. You '''''WILL''''' fight through thick and thin to get to your destination.

* EldritchLocation: [[spoiler:The LostWoods variety. When [[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} G***]] says he hates Mondays, he MEANS it. Don't make him upset-- or he'll toss you into an incredibly tough siege.]]

* EveryCarIsAPinto: Zigzagged. Text events that destroy the car (usually not exploding either) sometimes won't hurt your party, but getting a car roughed up by zombies too much, or having one in ''real'' bad shape and driving to escape the horde, will make them explode and deal huge damage to everyone in it. [[spoiler:Additionally, if you reach the Canada Border with a functioning car your party will throw the car at full speed on the first horde and make it explode]].

** Comes in two flavors: the "get this person out of the map alive" and "protect this person until the siege is over". Rare locations can have you saving more than one character in order to get the (usually much better) reward. Thankfully the [=AI=] works as usual and will actually act as an additional party member helping you fight the zeds, provided they get a hold of a weapon.
** The K*E*P*A game mode makes a whole run into one long Escort Mission, in which you must keep Kepa (the leader of the dev team) alive to earn an achievement. [[SelfDeprecation His personality stats are all bottomed out]], he starts with the [[JokeItem worthless Cardboard Tube]] as a weapon, and has a max vitality of 1 meaning that any fatal hit will kill him.

* EvilFeelsGood: Characters with ''really'' low Loyalty will not feel bad about stealing traders, helpless or innocent people among other things that would normally cause a Morale drop with characters with higher Loyalty.

** Thankfully played straight-- largely. You can't hit other party members with your guns or melee weapons, but you ''can'' hurt them with explosives or fire if you (or they) are careless.

** Most of the preset human faces available for custom characters aren't exactly... cute. This even extends to some of the options for women.

* GoryDeadlyOverkillTitleOfFatalDeath: Most of the possible names for arcade games fall under this trope: DEATH SPLATTERS, TOUCH OF DEATH, DEATHSPLOSIONAL, and U*L*T*R*A*D*E*A*T*H. Overlaps with UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 in that playing the games also increases the Shooting skill-- "the critics were right!"

** [[TheCameo Lynn C. Thompson, the CEO of Cold Steel Knives]], can be recruited at a Trading Camp by asking for a demonstration of their Cold Steel Greatsword. They will join you on your next mission, after which they will leave-- but not before offering their greatsword at a reduced price of 30 food (from 40 at the Trading Camp).

** It is possible determine which personality your character has by observing their dialogue in-between driving events. Good luck figuring which is which on your own, though. And there ''still'' is no way to figure out loyalty this way.

*** The "Horrible Weather" walking event is morale taxing, but if you have Umbrellas (another REALLY flimsy weapon) equal to the number of characters you won't take any morale penalty at all. No one in their right mind would hoard Umbrellas unless in extreme desperation for weapons.

** Characters with high stats in something (Strength, Fitness, Shooting, Medical or Mechanical) can actually measure if the recruit's skill is true or if they are trying to pull a fast one on your party.

* HeroesLoveDogs: The "Friend of Dogs" perk makes it easier to tame and recruit wild dogs. This doesn't guarantee that wild dogs will return the favor in the long run though...
* HeroicCaninesVillainousFelines: It seems like every dog you find in the game is either tame enough to adopt or too feral to become a pet. Dogs don't attack humans unless they've past the DespairEventHorizon or are too feral. [[SubvertedTrope They can still screw over the party if their loyalty isn't too high]]. Cats, on the other hand, only appear during random events to attack a group member. An update allows you to recruit cats, but their despair events can have pretty nasty consequences, and always have low loyalty..

** This is inevitable since the player can adopt a randomly encountered dog. Dogs can be used to find supplies, fight zombies, keep watch over camping events, and can even be trained to ''drive the car.'' This can be subverted as a dog's loyalty is not always guaranteed to be high...

** Santa can be recruited as a party member in an event if it's Christmas! [[spoiler: [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Just don't be a jerk to him...]]]]

* InfernalRetaliation: Reckless usage of fire damage (Blowtorches, Molotovs, Flamethrowers...) ''will'' result in a zombie giving a more than warm hug on your characters besides the possible bite.

** The chainsaw is an awful early-game weapon due to needing gas, which is supposed to be used for your car... But after you begin crossing the border for the final stretch of the game, you no longer need the car, turning the chainsaw into a godsend.

* JokeCharacter: There are a number of rare characters that don't have any redeeming qualities whatsoever. Such examples include The Clown (who if you have room in your party ''can't reject its request to join''), [[{{ComicStrip/Garfield}} G***]], and the Governor Emperor. The last one in particular simply steals your food when it's time to rest.

** The Shuriken from the same merchant. 10 food for a shuriken that does decent damage when thrown... but you only get one and if it fails to come back to you it has to be retrieved. A basic pistol does more damage and requires less micromanagement.

* {{Kaiju}}: One rare event has your characters dealing with a giant prehistoric monster stomping through a city... If you choose to "save the city", you find that she's just a recruitable human in a costume, with high strength, fitness and one more point of health than the average character. She doesn't have any pockets though, meaning that she can't hold more than one weapon at a time.

* LateCharacterSyndrome: Characters can show up from day 1 to the last day before reaching Canada, including ones you made. The problem is that characters usually take time to become really good and unless you're desperate for a party member for the final sieges you'll probably ignore them.

** Horse, at least when controlled by the AI. He's the fastest character in the game... but has one item slot, cannot use melee weapons, and if given a firearm, will fire wildly at the nearest zombie with no restraint at all. In the player's hands he's one of the best characters to solo with due to his high speed: in the AI's hands, he's more of a distraction than anything else.

* MadeOfPlasticine: If you don't keep your characters healthy, they can die in some astonishingly stupid ways in some of the random events, such as simply pulling out a tooth or getting bit by ants. Zombies will often explode into LudicrousGibs from one or two hits, and characters with the BERSERK!! trait will ALWAYS die instantly from any source of damage unless you found a way to raise their health (in exchange for huge fighting stat boosts.)

* ManlyTears: The Last Bodybuilder has a single tear in his eye [[spoiler:after the inevitable result of challenging him to a flexing contest, in which the challenging character is completely obliterated upon witnessing [=TLB's=] first flex. Note that the game doesn't even check the challenger's strength or vitality; flexing-off with [=TLB=] is a guaranteed death sentence.]]

* MonsterClown: A possible party member, [[WhatTheHellPlayer although the game questions just why you would do that if you do.]] [[ButThouMust You don't get a choice to leave him behind if you have room, unless you've been doing a solo-character run.]] Make him mad, and he'll leave... [[spoiler:[[OhCrap and bring FRIENDS.]]]]
** [[spoiler: If you get the Clown to the final siege, all clowns in that stage and the next stage will be zombie clowns. This gets you a hidden achievement on Steam.]]

* MooksButNoBosses: There are no special types of zombies, let alone boss ones. [[ZergRush Not that zombies need them anyway]].

* MyCarHatesMe: Your car's engine stat isn't just for show. The worse it is, the harder will be to actually start it, and this can be a real problem if you need to bug out quickly because of angry zombies gunning for your party...

** One of the rare characters you can encounter is [[Music/ElvisPresley Alvis]], who is capable of using UsefulNotes/{{Karate}} while unarmed, and croons tunefully every time he attacks a zombie. If you can bring his morale down to its lowest, there's a chance that he'll leave the party and come back with a different appearance, reflecting Elvis' own reinvention of his image. Do it again, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dei8jeoXTFU and...]]

* PaddedSumoGameplay: A strange variation: higher difficulties throw more zombies at you, so you will either take more time to handle the horde to progress or just ignore them instead which will make this trope work in reverse.

* PolarBearsAndPenguins: [[spoiler: Once you get to Canada, there are penguins and polar bears in the background. This is lampshaded in the dialog.]]

* PostApocalypticTrafficJam: The "Traffic Jam" text event involves the road being blocked by a sea of rusted-out cars. Your options to get the group through are: abandon the car, take a detour [[spoiler:(might work)]], drive the car offroad [[spoiler:(probably won't work)]], or bench-press a car [[spoiler:(makes the bench-presser stronger... but doesn't work)]].

* PowerAtAPrice: There are plenty of very attractive perks, traits and events that will give you massive boosts... At an (usually) equally hefty price.
** The BERSERK! trait is a shining example. You start with massive combat boosts but your character can take only ONE hit before dying (not all text events are lethal, thankfully) and their personality stats are all low.
** Civilized has your character starting with maxed personality statuses and 3 points in Medical and Mechanical. The catch? They will never be able to raise their morale over than 3 (with the usual maximum being 6), if you get a real bad morale event this is all it takes to make them liable to cause the dreaded "Despair Events" that can end your run.
** [=T*S*T*C=] perk has the character starting with maxed Strength at 6 (and can train up to another ''six'' times), however your Fitness is locked at pitiful 2 points and can't be trained further, so your character will be strong, but will tire out very fast as result when swinging heavier weapons.
** The Cursed Treasure text event allows you to pick from supplies to stashes of certain status boosts and good weapons, with the flashing option always being the Mighty Claymore. However... The stashes of status boosts or weapons will hurt your party and the Mighty Claymore will permanently lock the weapon to the selected character ''and'' reduce their inventory to a single slot. The red options (The Dingusnomicon and Long Lost Weapons) are lesser versions of this; your team will take 1 HP worth of damage and take a hit to their morale in exchange for stat boosts or an assortment of lighter, but still worthwhile melee weapons.
** The Grim Reaper found in the rare map Cemetery, will grant the character who shakes hands with him maxed Strength, Shooting and Fitness... At the cost of setting your maximum health to 1, like BERSERK! characters.

* ThePowerOfLove: The Anime Girl is a pretty powerful recruit [[spoiler:despite endangering your party by mutating then exploding after three days. But, given that she's a MagicalGirl, her mutation can be halted indefinitely if she talks with someone with a "true love for anime", aka the nerds at the rare Anime Store.]]