Overview[1]
Tumbleweed (only on the first, formerly); Gold Bar (only on the first); Newspapers (Daily News Booth); Train (only on the first); Maxim Gun; Turret Ammo; New Items for the Test Server; inhabitants: Soldier; number: 7 Fortified Towns, officially known as Safe Zones and sometimes referred to by players as Forts, Outposts, or Checkpoints, are key locations in Dead Rails.
Fortified Towns are walled settlements that appear every 10 km, serving as places to rest and recuperate before setting off again. In addition to being surrounded by walls, each Fortified Town is protected by Soldiers that patrol on foot and operate the 6 Maxim Guns on the walls. These Soldiers will fire on any enemy that gets too close, but they can still be killed (the Maxim Gunners can also run out of ammo), so staying alert while in a Fort is still important. If all Soldiers are killed, new ones respawn in their place after a short while. In addition to serving as temporary shelters, Fortified Towns also contain a number of shops within, allowing players to stock up on Weapons, Ammunition, or other supplies as well as sell any loot they may have. Exclusive to the starting Fortified Town, there is a Gold Bar already in the Trading Post waiting to be sold, a Daily News Booth containing 3 Newspapers, and the Train. But there will be no Maxim Guns protecting the inside, compared to other Forts. For Test Server, plenty of Items will be spawned for testers to figure out how they work. These can be new, changed or associated with the new updates. To sell an item or a corpse, go to the Trading Post and drag/drop the content onto the selling area. Once you have done that, the item will disappear and a Money Bag corresponding to its value will spawn. Simply collect the Money Bag to obtain Money, which you can use to buy items here or in the Evil Church. To purchase an item from any store, simply pick it up and place it on the register.
Stats
- Inhabitants
- Soldier
- Location
- Wild
- Number
- 7
- Rarity
- Fixed, Guaranteed
- Type
- Town
- Level required
- 0km, 9,5km, 19,5km, 29,5km, 39,5 km, 49,5 km, 59,5 km, 69,5 km (every ~10km)
Strategies
Don't stay for too long at the Fortified Town as the Maxim Guns will run out of ammo and the Soldiers will die from being overwhelmed by the enemies, since the further you progress through your run, the more enemies will spawn at night. Fortified Towns are good places to stop and fortify the Train with anything you may have picked up during a run. A common strategy is to lure Vampires, Werewolves, or Outlaws to a Fortified Town (or just camp there during the night) so they can be killed by the Soldiers, allowing you to sell them for some easy cash. When a Fortified Town's Soldiers kill an enemy, it doesn't count as the player having killed that enemy in particular. This is especially useful when trying to complete the Pacifist challenge. If an enemy gets up the stairs or directly spawns on the wall, it can kill every Maxim Gunner without taking damage, so make sure to shoot them if you see it happening.
Patch history
There are a total of 7 Fortified Towns (and one Outlaw's Town at the 78,5km mark) per run. They specifically appear at these points: 0 km, 9.5 km, 19.5 km, 29.5 km, 39.5 km, 49.5 km, 59.5 km, and 69.5 km, though they are commonly referred to by the 10km mark they are closest to. Before an unknown update, the 40km mark used to spawn a Town instead of a Fortified Town. This can be confirmed with the "Travel 40 Km" badge image. This is because of the fact that Towns spawn every 8km and the number 8 is a factor of the number 40. Additionally, this amount is halved for the Edison's Revenge and Bite-Sized Mode, due to them having halved distance. For the Yeat Event, despite having ~30km, there are only 2 spawning, instead of the predicted 3. For some reason, the Maxim guns in the Fortified Town are currently not firing, and a message appears stating they're out of ammo. Because of this, the entire Safe Zone's defense relies solely on soldiers with Bolt-action rifles, making it unsafe to spend the night in the Fortified Town. The same applies to the cannons in Fort Constitution. There used to be a Tumbleweed that spawns in the left of the first Fortified Town, but now it has seem to be removed forever from the game. Until the Stillwater Prison update (6/6/2025), Fortified Towns are the only places where Soldiers spawn. Now, they can additionally spawn if a player with the President class dies. As of the Spooky update (18/10/2025), Soldiers can now also spawns inside Outlaw's Town in Edison's Revenge gamemode.
