Tombstone glitch guide
Get a full copy of your rucksack, essence included, and keep everything you walked in with. It all comes down to timing, so this guide is built around the numbers.
Mission clock 30 seconds
Jump clock starts at 10 when you vote
Where it works
Two spots, each tied to a Dark Ether story mission.
- Orange zone
- Tier Two. Use the Bad Signal mission.
- Red zone
- Zone Three, the high threat zone. Use the Ascension mission.
Before you start
Sort these first. Most failed runs come down to one of them.
- Equip Tombstone SodaWithout it, none of this works.
- Run the Superi 46 SMG with the community buildGrab it from the gun builds section in our Discord. It makes you faster on foot than bare-handed, which matters with timing this tight.
- Turn on automatic tactical sprintBy default you have to click the stick in. Switch it on in your settings so it kicks in the moment you push forward. Fumbling that extra click costs seconds you don't have.
The run, start to finish
Open the doors, then shoot the three runes
Open the doors leading to the teleportal area, then shoot the three runes on the wall to activate the teleportal. Not sure which symbols? Find your location below.
Beach 
Stables 
Tower Activate the Dark Ether story mission 30s
Head down and activate Bad Signal (orange zone) or Ascension (red zone). The moment you do, you have 30 seconds on the clock.
Get back to the teleportal with time to spare
Arrive with at least 10s left, or 12s if you're on foot.
Go through and keep pushing forward
Don't let go of the stick. Holding forward keeps your momentum going through the teleport.
Watch the timer near the out of bounds edge
You'll come out close to the out of bounds area. Keep your eyes on the countdown.
Vote at exactly 2s
The game won't let you vote once the timer drops below 2, so that's your hard cutoff.
Once you vote there's no reset and no second try. Only vote if you're in position.
Jump out of bounds between 7s and 6s
Voting starts a second countdown from 10. This is the most important number in the whole run. Just before 6 is the sweet spot.
Wait for Squad Eliminated
When it pops up, the game has registered your death and created your tombstone: a copy of everything in your rucksack, essence included.
Force close the game
Wait a couple of seconds after Squad Eliminated appears, then force close, before the game loads you back to the lobby. The game reads it as a disconnect, not a death, so you aren't penalised. You keep everything you had, and the full copy waits in your tombstone.
What happens next
Your tombstone sits there indefinitely. Leave it for six months and it's still waiting. It's a one-time pickup though: the moment you load in and grab it, it's gone.
The loop
Load in with everything you have, use your bag, play the game out, then grab the tombstone at the end and run the glitch again. Endless good loot.
The stash builder
Strip your bag completely before loading in, grab everything from the tombstone, and repeat. This is how you build up your acquisition stash over time.
Risks to watch
Containment level
As far as the game's concerned, you died, so this tanks your containment level. Offset it by running contracts. Most players keep it somewhere between 50 and 75.
| Contract | Containment points |
|---|---|
| Tier One | 1 |
| Tier Two | 2 |
| Tier Three | 3 |
Bleeding out wipes your tombstone
If you go down and bleed out to the point where you have to plea for help, the tombstone is gone. Items, essence, all of it.
Getting revived while you're still bleeding out is fine and doesn't affect anything. While you have an active tombstone out there, carry a self-revive, a dog bone for a friendly revive, or run the Sergeant's Beret. Don't skip this.
Schematics
Works exactly the same way. Hold a schematic when you run the glitch and you end up with one copy in your bag and one in the tombstone.
That's handy when a teammate got disconnected mid-game or didn't have time to grab theirs. Run the glitch holding their schematic, then hand off the tombstone copy afterward.
Tombstoning as a squad
Everyone can run their own tombstone at the same time. Only one player, the runner, needs to activate the teleportal and the story mission. The others can already be sitting at the out of bounds edge, ready to jump when their window opens.
- The runner activates everything, heads to the teleportal, and comes through to the out of bounds area as normal.
- A set number of votes is needed to proceed. For a squad of three that's usually two.
- The runner always votes last. If their timing's off or a zombie gets in the way, they can still call it off and reset instead of being locked in by someone else's vote.
- Agree on who's voting and who isn't before you start.
- Once the votes are in, the countdown starts from 10, same as solo.
Want an independent tombstone each, rather than one shared outcome? You can leave the squad once all the votes are cast. Then jump at the 6 to 7 second mark and you'll each get your own separate tombstone.
Tombstoning into the Dark Ether
Already have a tombstone from a previous game and want to head into the Dark Ether? Same idea as the story mission. There's a sigil to activate, a portal, and the same style of countdown.
Players who are tombstoning wait at the out of bounds area while one person enters the sigil into the Dark Ether gate. Same rules apply: talk about who's voting, and if the runner is tombstoning too, they vote last so they can bail.
The big difference: do not force close the game. Enter the Dark Ether normally, whether or not you ran the glitch.
You load in with all your gear and guns. What you're missing is your essence, which went into the tombstone for next time, and your Perka-Colas, since technically you died.
To fix the perks, have a teammate drop you essence once you're in, then rebuy your Perka-Colas from the Wonder Fizz inside the Dark Ether. That works for a regular sigil or an elder sigil.
The Wonder Fizz doesn't exist in a regular Act 4 story mission. You can still help someone tombstone into one, but they won't be able to rebuy their perks.