Bus

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Example of bus with attachments in bus menu.

The Bus is a medium transport vehicle driven by Bill.

During missions, selected units will come out of it (with a 1 second interval between each unit, unless it's a double unit like Agents or it spawned via a Team Power) to attack zombies and protect it from being destroyed. There is a top hatch near the front, where Bill comes out of with a rifle to shoot enemies that get too close to the vehicle. If the bus takes damage, its engine begins to burn and upon losing all of its health it simply withdraws from the area. It can only be healed via Welder (5% on spawn) or the Mechanic Team's 2/2 ability (5% each time a new Mechanic unit is spawned).

Once the barricade is destroyed, the level concludes and the game documents the bus' health. The vehicle will automatically wait for any remaining human units to return. Once there are none, it starts driving forwards, running over enemies and support items (such as Red Barrel and Turret) while dealing lethal melee damage (~9999) to them. This attack bypasses shield points granted by other enemies, such as Medic, and bypasses enemies with multiple phases, such as Double-headed Zombie and Escapee. While rare, a handful of zombies, such as Twins and Policeman, might be able to survive it at high levels, or if a Paramedic were to be charged.

It has different attachment slots for stylistic modifications. These consist of paints, wheels, a bus step, horizontal and vertical exhaust pipes, and window attachments. Bus paints and wheels are purely cosmetic items while the rest grants additional durability to the bus.

The bus has Red Barrels, item boxes fastened with rope, and coin safes stored on top. The number of objects on top of the bus reflects the amount of fuel, upgrade items and coins respectively, that the player currently has. These are only cosmetic and do not improve the bus in any way.

Level Upgrades

The bus can be upgraded with coins. Doing so is essential for progressing in the game.

Each level upgrade increases the bus' health and Bill's ranged damage. Every few upgrades will also grant an extra slot for additional attachments. Unit's maximum level is equal to the bus' level until level 30, where the bus will still be able to be upgraded until level 45, but units will be unable to be upgraded further.

Durability

Health-Healing.png The bus' health is referred to as durability, which functions identically to health.

The maximum durability the bus can have is 27624, achieved by upgrading it up to level 45, and equipping bus parts in every available slot. Without attachments, the bus' maximum durability is 27442.

Damage

Bullet-Electricity.png Damage on the bus' page indicates the strength of Bill's rifle. Damage increases with each level the bus level up.

Slots

Slots.png Slots are used to display how much extra attachments the bus can have, and to indicate whenever the bus will get an extra slot with an upgrade.

The starting number of available slots is 5, and the maximum amount is 13. All extra slots are for window attachments.

See level data for more detailed information on bus upgrades.

Bus Parts

Bus parts are attachments that can increase the bus' durability while some others are purely cosmetic.

Paint

Cosmetic attachment. All non-exclusive paints are occasionally available for purchase at Trader. They won't affect bus' stats. Once all paints are obtained, they will no longer be available for purchase.

Exclusive

Wheels

Cosmetic attachment.

Bus Step

Gives 20 extra points of durability to the bus. There is only one available.

Vertical Exhaust Pipe

Gives 20 extra points of durability to the bus.

Horizontal Exhaust Pipe

Gives 20 extra points of durability to the bus.

Windows

Gives 20 extra points of durability to the bus per attachment slot. As mentioned, extra slots for window attachments can be made available by upgrading the bus level a few levels.

Trivia

  • The Bus appears to be based on an International Harvester S-Series bus, possibly a converted school bus, as seen with its default paint job.
  • The Tactical Bus skin is inspired by a winner from a competition on the game's Discord server, the winner, u/TrashBoard with their entry IF Mobile Command Vehicle.
    • Tactical also modifies Bill's unit by moving it, about the length of one unit to right, meaning he pops-out earlier than he otherwise would.
      • This allows Bill to hit ranged enemy units that otherwise would not get targetted by him. This can be rather useful in levels with Marauders as they won't be able to sit out of his range as it happens with every other bus skin.
    • The bus door is also moved to the left, also by one unit length, meaning they spawn further away from enemies, which also means they will take a little longer to travel to the barricade.
  • The Shuttle skin has 3 less window slots.
    • Which effectively means it has less health than the other bus skins.
  • Mission 8 on 8 location is the only instance where the bus does not advance upon completion due to Cephalopods getting in the way. Rather, Bill just exits the vehicle and comments.
  • Considering that durability is technically the same thing as health, the bus can have the highest amount of health among all entities related to the player.
  • The bus is interactive – while in the upgrade menu, players can tap the bus to shake it, much like the interactive vehicles in missions. Tapping it enough times quickly will cause the bus to rock side to side a little bit. If a vertical, horizontal, or both exhaust pipes have been attached to the bus, exhaust fumes will be released. The side doors will also open when tapped.
  • The Christmas (Legacy)/Xmas bus skin is unobtainable after the release of Christmas 2019 bus skin, until 2023 Xmas event it became obtainable again.
  • Although the bus' body type remains consistent within most skins, it is inevitably altered in the rest.
  • In the past, unequipped attachments except paints can be sold to Trader.
  • With the new update in play, bus skins are purchasable with coins instead of the crates as they were scrapped in a previous update. This does not apply with the exclusive paints.
  • Unlike other non-exclusive paints, Flames and Traveller series bus skins can be only purchased by Money/Green Cash instead of coins.
  • During 3.4.0, there was a possibility to get a skin simply titled "Paint" from crates. It would appear as a white square and would crash the game, in doing so, the crate being opened wouldn't be saved. Because of the way crates were coded, the player wouldn't be able to open anymore crates until it was patched.
  • The bus' body is comprised of 3 separate sprites that change their y-axis when the bus moves or gets hit.

Gallery