To play Dead Rounds with friends, open dead-rounds.com/play, choose Create room, and send the four-letter code or the room link to up to three people. They can type the code into the join box on the home page or the menu, or just open the link. When everyone is in the lobby, the host starts the match. Nobody needs an account or a download.
Setting up a room
- The host opens the game, picks a map and clicks Create room.
- The lobby shows a four-letter code, for example
KQTD. The linkdead-rounds.com/play?room=KQTDopens the game with that code already filled in. - Friends join with the code or the link and show up in the lobby.
- The host starts the match. If the host leaves, another connected player becomes host.
A room holds up to four players. More guns on the same horde makes the early rounds easier, but the real advantage is having three people who can pick you back up.
Revives: nobody stays down
When a player's health hits zero they go down instead of dying:
- A downed player crawls slowly and can still shoot a pistol.
- Zombies ignore downed players and go after whoever is still standing.
- They have 30 seconds before they bleed out.
- A standing teammate who holds E next to them for 3 seconds revives them. The bleed-out timer pauses while someone is reviving. The Field Medic perk halves the revive time.
- A revived player gets their guns back but loses every perk they had bought.
A player who bleeds out watches the rest of the round and comes back at the start of the next one with the starting pistol. The match only ends when everyone is down or dead at the same time.
Tips for reviving
- Clear the area first. Starting a revive with a zombie next to you usually means two downed players.
- Throwing a grenade into the crowd before you kneel buys you the three seconds you need.
- If the whole team is moving in a loop, the person at the back is the one who should revive.
When a connection drops
Internet connections hiccup. If your connection drops in the middle of a match, the game keeps your place for 30 seconds: your character, your points and your guns all stay in the match. Your screen shows a reconnecting banner and the game retries on its own. When it gets through, you are back exactly where you were.
Leaving on purpose (Leave room, or closing the tab) frees the slot straight away.
Is it fair if my friend has a better connection?
Yes. The server decides every hit, every kill and every purchase, not the players' computers. Your own movement feels instant because your browser predicts it, and when you shoot, the server looks back in time to where zombies were on your screen when you pulled the trigger. That means a player in another country hits what they aimed at, and nobody can give themselves free points. We wrote about how that works in a post about our netcode.
FAQ
How many people can play co-op in Dead Rounds? Up to four in one room.
Do my friends need an account? No. They only need the room code or link.
Can we play across countries? Yes. The server is in Germany. Players across Europe usually have a smooth game; players further away have more delay but the game is built to stay fair for them.
Is there matchmaking with strangers? Not yet. Rooms are private, joined by code.
Create a room and send the code to your squad.