Whether you’re looking to perfect the finer points of close-quarters combat, or you enjoy the rush of anxiety that a mob of meleeing monsters manifests, you’ll be happy to hear that Infected just made its Call of Duty: Black Ops III debut.

The game begins with an 8-second countdown, and then a player is randomly chosen as the Infected. Patient Zero is given nothing but a pistol as a primary and everyone else keeps their starting load-outs. Once Patient Zero gets a kill, their primary switches to the Nightcrawler melee weapon – the victim then respawns as another Infected player, and on and on it goes. Slowly, the number of Infected will outnumber the non-Infected players, and that’s when things really start to get interesting: the goal of the non-Infected is to stay alive. The goal of the Infected is to infect everybody. Simple premise, difficult execution. Read on for some guidance on both sides of the equation…

For the Un-infected

Move Early… Then Again, Maybe Don’t

Good news: you brought a gun to a knife fight: the  benefit to having a gun while fighting a player with a knife is that you have range and they don’t. Keep moving and try to get long range kills to keep the number of Infected low. If the Infected begin to increase in number and swarm, consider changing up your tactics and learning to pick your battles. Don’t forget, at the start of the game, try to run far from other players during that 8 seconds, because the person on your left could be chosen to start as the Infected.

Once you’re substantially outnumbered, your movements should be more tactical. Remember, core movement shows up on enemy radar, not to mention your shots – so pick your engagements carefully. Concealing your location is one way to keep from getting swarmed by a melee mob. Moral of the story: think before you boost or shoot.

Wisdom Doesn’t Require Age

With the ability to choose your class and Specialists, you can give yourself an advantage. Consider equipping a shotgun for clean one-shot kills. When you do have to reload, make sure to do so in a safe place, not out of habit or you may fall victim to the horde. Also, think about a Specialist Ability that will help you evade, conceal or prevent close-range kills like Overdrive, Active Camo or Heat Wave.

Watch Your Back

Unless your back is, literally, up against a wall, you always need to watch behind you. It doesn’t take much to peek over your shoulder every so often. The more Infected there are, the more essential that periodic peek becomes. Try and equip lethals and tacticals that will help you watch your back as well. Concussions and Shock Charges work well to slow down the high-speed Infected and Trip Mines and C4s works as good traps to slow down anyone on your tail..

For the Infected

Practice Patience

As the game goes on, there will be more of you than there are of them. However, it’s important to remember: they have guns, you have a melee. There’s a reason why you shouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight, so be smart in your attacks. As more and more players join the Infected, opponents will make mistakes and panic. Consider using tight corners, vantage points and the element of surprise to your advantage. Then, get up close and melee. And if you can’t, give that Combat Axe a toss. It’s your only ranged option but it’s lethal regardless of where on your enemy it lands.

Group Up

The odds are against you if you try besting the un-infected in one-on-one situations. So, group up and attack. As a mob of meleeing monsters, you’ll be better prepared to corner opponents. It can also force them to waste an entire clip mowing you and your comrades down. As long as a few of you remain while they reload, you’ve just created a prime opportunity to attack. So, make some Infected friends and throw down.

Know Your Abilities

As an infected you have unlimited speed which you can utilize to overtake the enemy. You are given four perks: Blast Suppressor, Overclock, Dead Silence and Afterburner to help with stealth attacks. You are also given a Specialist Ability which can either be Active Camo, Psychosis or Kinetic Armor. Use your speed and ability wisely to get the drop on the opponent and increase the Infected horde.

Experience the melee horror across all maps and level up twice as fast with Double XP in Infected. Fight to see how long you can survive or join the Infected and take out the opposition.