Buried
An underground Old West town. The Victis crew's finale — power a pylon for Maxis (Gallows) or Richtofen (Guillotine). Free the giant, Leroy, to help you dig.
Steps at a glance
- Shared — free Leroy, power on, build Turbine + Resonator/Paralyzer
- Build the Gallows (Maxis) or Guillotine (Richtofen)
- Break/charge the 4 orbs
- Fill the lantern with souls, place on the Gunsmith roof
- Crack the sign code, punch the signs → Spire/Wisp appears
- Time Bomb + guide the light to the structure
- Sharpshooter — wish at the fountain, hit all 4 targets → done
Full walkthrough
Setup — free Leroy
Drop from spawn into the town. Free Leroy/Arthur the giant (key by the jail; give him Booze from the Saloon) so he can smash debris. Turn on power (Candy Store upstairs). Build the Turbine + Subsurface Resonator (Maxis) or grab the Paralyzer (Richtofen).
Build the structure
Maxis: build the Gallows (Hangman's Noose) by the Courthouse. Richtofen: build the Guillotine between the Saloon and Gunsmith. Each needs 4 parts.
The 4 orbs
There are four crystal orbs. Maxis: break them with the Subsurface Resonator (Turbine-powered). Richtofen: charge them with the Paralyzer first.
The lantern
Cook a grenade and knock the floating lantern down, then fill it by side: Richtofen — hold the lantern and kill ~10 Ghosts in the Haunted Mansion; Maxis — kills by Arthur, traps or a Nuke power-up with the lantern-holder nearby. Reach the Gunsmith roof by firing the Paralyzer at your feet to lift up, then place the lantern there — a symbol code appears behind it.
If you go down while holding the lantern you must re-collect it where you fell. On the Maxis side, let Maxis finish his dialogue before picking the lantern up — grabbing it early triggers a known progression bug.
Crack the code & punch signs
Decode the symbols (tic-tac-toe cipher) to find which 3 mine signs to punch with Galvaknuckles, in order. The third punch spawns the light orb — the Spire (Maxis) or Wisp (Richtofen, needs Vulture-Aid to see).
All five possible sign names begin with a different first symbol, so decoding just the first character of each cipher is enough to identify the sign.
Helper: Pigpen Decoder
Pigpen Cipher Decoder
Ashes rocket launch / Yuri's Lab / Buried mine signsThese all use the classic pigpen (tic-tac-toe) alphabet. Click the symbols you see in-game, left to right — the word builds below, and for the Ashes rocket-launch console the six-number code (each letter's alphabet position, A=00) builds alongside it. For Buried's mine signs you just need the word.
Escort the light
Follow the wisp through town (touch each appearance within ~15s — Richtofen needs Vulture-Aid to see it), killing the glowing zombies at each stop to feed it, until it reaches your guillotine or gallows and the announcer confirms the charge.
Maxis double-escort: on the Maxis side, place a Time Bomb before meleeing the final mine sign, escort the wisp to the Gallows once, then detonate the Time Bomb to reset the wisp and escort it to the Gallows a second time to finish the charge. Optimisation: if Consumption Cross is one of your three signs, melee it LAST for the easiest route (only ~2 zombies in the upper Barn + 3 by the Saloon) — you can even force that by meleeing Consumption Cross first, then your three signs, then it again.
Maxis — the bells
One player works the switchboard in the Mansion secret room (behind the movable bookcase); the lit bulb names a building — Candy Store, Barn or Courthouse — and one of its three bells. Teammates at those buildings ring the called bell before it times out (a wrong or late bell resets it). Repeat the pattern until Maxis confirms the gallows is charged.
Richtofen — Round Infinity & maze
Plant a Time Bomb at the charged guillotine and all four detonate together to enter Round Infinity — you get 60 seconds (zombies can't be permanently killed). Search the Victis-lookalike corpses around town for the small switch (13 known spots). The switch cannot be attached during Round Infinity — hold it and let the timer rewind you first, then attach it to the guillotine. Do not go down after finding the switch: it can glitch into the ground and force a full game restart. A failed search just needs another Time Bomb to retry. Finally, one player at each of the four coloured maze levers flips them together. Sparks only show after all four are flipped: a sparking lever means its position in the order is correct — lock those in and change only the non-sparking ones (reset by leaving and re-entering the maze) until all four spark. The maze layout also varies per game.
Sharpshooter (finale)
Make a wish at the town fountain (break its barrier with Arthur first). 84 cowboy targets then flash into view across four zones — one shooter each, with reloaded automatics, must destroy every target in their zone before its sequence expires. All four cleared → Mined Games + all seven perks permanently.
- Haunted Mansion — 23 (watch from the left fence by the Church)
- Saloon — 19 (2nd floor by the broken balcony)
- Candy Store / Courthouse — 20 (between them by the big rock)
- Original Mystery Box / Sheriff area — 22 (General Store roof / high town)
Side Easter Eggs & extras
Everything beyond the main quest. Tap any entry to open the full how-and-where breakdown.
“Always Running”
Malukah. Hold interact on the 3 teddy bears: by the hay near Quick Revive on the mines / Processing route, inside a Candy Store barrel, and in the Mansion Double Tap room. Once per match.
- Hold Use on 3 teddy bears, in any order
- Next to a hay bale by Quick Revive
- In a barrel in the candy shop
- In the mansion, in the room with Double Tap
- 'Always Running' by Kevin Sherwood plays
Leroy's favours
Feed the giant Candy (from the sweet shop) and he'll do jobs — build chalk weapons, clear crowds, guard spots; give him Booze and he smashes through barricades you'd otherwise pay for.
- Free Leroy: key by the jail cell, then buy him Booze from the Saloon to smash the first debris
- Feed him Candy (sweet shop) and he performs a task where you lead him — crawl spaces, crowd control, chalk help
- Booze = smashes the barricade you point him at, saving door money
- Keep him happy — an angered Leroy attacks until calmed with Candy
Ghost mansion drops
The Ghost Ladies drain points on touch, but killing them pays out — and downing enough in a round drops a free perk bottle. The mansion run is also the route to the Time Bomb and Paralyzer synergies.
- Entering the haunted mansion swaps zombies for fast ghost-women who spawn endlessly while anyone is inside
- Each ghost touch steals ~2,000 points — avoid getting hit
- They're easy to kill but keep respawning until every player leaves (out the far side) or dies
- Feed the Giant NPC Candy to make him kill zombies, help build, fetch a buildable, or lock/re-spin the box
- Feed him Booze instead to smash certain barricades open
Bank & locker
The bank vault and weapon locker return — shared with TranZit and Die Rise, so you can bankroll a Buried run from earlier games.
- Buried shares TranZit's persistent bank and weapon locker
- Deposit/withdraw points that carry across games; hit the keys to drop Bonus Points for a teammate
- The Weapon Locker stores one non-wonder, non-starting weapon that carries into later games until retrieved
Four buildables
Every part is in the General Store — build the Turbine, Trample Steam, Subsurface Resonator (the Maxis orb weapon; needs a nearby Turbine) and Head Chopper on any of the four town workbenches. Drop the parts by a bench and give Arthur Candy to have him assemble one for you.
Paralyzer & chalk weapons
The Paralyzer (Mystery Box) is the wonder weapon — regenerating ammo, and firing it at the ground lifts you to rooftops (it also heats the Richtofen orbs). Place the Gunsmith chalk outlines on the ‘?’ walls to set the map's wall weapons (AN-94, PDW-57, SVU-AS, AK-74u, Galvaknuckles).
Pack-a-Punch (Mansion route)
Break the Mansion gate (Arthur + Booze), clear the point-stealing Ghosts, cross the randomised hedge maze and take the Gazebo stairs down to Pack-a-Punch; destroy both fountains for a permanent teleport shortcut back to town.
NAV table & Victis endgame
Build the surface NAV table (Processing / Barn parts) and insert the cross-map card. With Tower of Babble, High Maintenance and Mined Games all done on the same side and all three NAV tables linked, the Courthouse endgame panel completes the Victis Super Easter Egg.
Interactive solvers
Every solver for Buried, in the order you meet them. Each also appears inside its step in the walkthrough above — use whichever is handier. Browse every Zombies solver →
Pigpen Cipher Decoder
Ashes rocket launch / Yuri's Lab / Buried mine signsThese all use the classic pigpen (tic-tac-toe) alphabet. Click the symbols you see in-game, left to right — the word builds below, and for the Ashes rocket-launch console the six-number code (each letter's alphabet position, A=00) builds alongside it. For Buried's mine signs you just need the word.
Recommended loadouts
Three strong picks for this map — the map's Wonder Weapon plus reliable box/wall options. These are pre-augment-era games, so the setup is the gun plus Pack-a-Punch and perk synergy.
Paralyzer (buildable)
High-round kingBuild it — a freeze beam that also lets you float. Effectively infinite ammo (let it cool) and clears any round. The best gun on Buried.
Ray Gun
All-roundBox backup splash while the Paralyzer cools.
LSAT / Remington (PaP) + Time Bomb
Workhorse + utilityPaP an LMG for sustained fire; the Time Bomb (box) lets you save/restore a run state.
Visual guides & sources
Screenshots and exact part locations live in these — open one on a second screen.