Unturned: The 10 Best Maps, Ranked (2024)

Unturned is a zombie survival game developed and published by Smartly Dressed Games, which is made up of designer Nelson Sexton. It has stripped-down polygonal graphics comparable to Minecraft, but it's far less about crafting and building and more about fighting off hordes of zombies and upgrading the player character.

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One of the unique things about Unturned, other than the fact that it's a free-to-play game, is that it has several maps for the player to choose from. Each is based upon a real-world location and offers different challenges and elements to test the player's skill. But which among them are the best?

Updated September 2, 2021 by Josh Davison: Unturned remains a popular and accessible game due to its free-to-play nature and easy-to-understand presentation and goal. The player must fight, survive, and, if possible, even thrive. Scavenging resources, learning the terrain, and fighting the undead aren't easy tasks, but they are easily understood — and are a lot of fun when done well. With all of this in mind, learning tips to help survive the various Unturned maps is both a helpful task, and one that showcases how each map is unique in several subtle ways.

10 France Is A Lore-Filled, Fan-Made Delight

France is one of the Unturned maps that weren't created by Smartly Dressed Games. This a fan-made map was released in November 2018, and is currently only available through the Steam Workshop. As the name suggests, the map consists of much of western France and the townships within.

This is a great map with a lot of space and a fair amount of lore behind it involving the fall of Germany, France's response, and how several groups within France mobilized to face the threat. The geography of the map allows players to enjoy a lot of small towns, more urban areas, rural sections, and even coastal zones. It's a great map to get lost in – so long as players are armed.

Tips For Surviving France:

Head to the RULA Facility south of the Marseille Deadzone for some experimental weapons
The Deadzones are at Marseille and Flamanville Power
Biarittz, Orly Airport, Le Mans Hospital, Chataeu de Versailles, Marseille, Gare 17, Verdun Airbase, and Satory Defense HQ are ideal locations for getting good weapons and items

9 California Provides Plenty Of Dead Zones To Challenge The Player

This is another fan-made curated Unturned map. It consists of the Monterey County area of California and, was initially dubbed "Carmel Valley." It was added in late 2019 but is now available only through the Steam Workshop.

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Tips For Surviving California:

Much of the central areas are a wilderness, with most cities existing nearer the map perimeter.
Calabasas Hospital is the only Deadzone.
Gonzales Estate, Cache 42, and Calabasas Hospital are good loot locations.

8 Rio De Janeiro Is A City-Filled Change Of Pace

Another of the curated fan-made Unturned maps, Rio de Janeiro is a coastal map that sits around a vast bay. It was added to the Steam Workshop in early 2019, and is currently only available there.

The geography and setup of Rio make for another interesting survival experience. It largely consists of coastal urban areas surrounded by greenery and forests. There's a lot to do and find in those urban zones, and the abundance of urban areas helps Rio de Janeiro stand out in the zombie-filled wasteland.

Tips For Surviving Rio de Janeiro:

There is an abundance of cities to explore, which means a lot of loot and a lot of zombies to go after.
ZPD HQ is the only Deadzone, and there is a bunker and cave system that players can search here.
There is a secret weapon in the ZPD HQ called the Chainbreaker, which is ideal for dispatching zombies.
NPCs are scarce, as the map is still technically unfinished.

7 Easter Island Brings A Volcanic Biome To Unturned

Another curated island map (there's just something extra fun about the coastal and island-based Unturned maps), Easter Island was added to the game in early 2020. It's largely undeveloped, and has a lot of underwater secrets for the player to discover.

It also has plenty of volcanic terrains to navigate and master, which is an addition that most other maps in Unturned can't boast. Fighting zombies on the Easter Island map definitely has its own unique flavor.

Tips For Surviving Easter Island

There aren't any Deadzones in this map.
Submerged treasures can be found in the water around the map, so don't be afraid to search the depths.
The volcanic regions offer some interesting but dangerous exploration.
The small number of cities and towns mean the map is light on loot, but high on challenge.

6 Elver Takes Unturned To A Fictional Balkans Setting

Elver is another of the curated Unturned maps, this time attempting to provide a broad Eastern European theme for the player. It's a medium-sized map with a small town in the center and a lot of greenery surrounding it. It's more of a roughing-it map than most of the Unturned offerings.

Elver is also one of the newer maps, having been released in July of 2020. This map attempted to vastly change the way Unturned is played in terms of crafting and weapons, and it does truly provide a distinct feeling from other maps.

Tips For Surviving Elver

The underground metro system is a giant Deadzone.
The Military Checkpoint, the Floating House, the Mall, and the Gas Station all have solid loot.
The underground area has good loot too, but it's dangerous.

5 Hawaii Delivers A Magma Zombie Boss Battle

The tropical setting and brighter coloring of the Hawaii map give it several points right out the gate. The island terrain brings its own unique challenges and makes for a compelling survival experience. Like the prior two maps, Hawaii was a curated fan-made map. It was added in early 2017, but can now only be obtained through the Steam Workshop.

Hawaii has several caves to explore as well, and players can explore the ocean around the island as well. The Unyieldingfaction gives the player a survivor group to interact with. Like the France map, Hawaii has its own fair share of lore and even an easter egg puzzle that leads the player to the Magma Zombie Boss.

Tips For Surviving Hawaii:

This map has several smaller Deadzones scattered throughout. They are mostly in The Ailani, on Mauna Kea, scattered across the coastline, on a hill near Unyielding HQ, and a cave between Alika Base and Waikoloa.
The puzzle, that leads to the Magma Zombie Boss, called Extinguished, starts at the altar at La Luna Kahiko, continues at another underwater altar at Tadaaki Light, and then leads to a tunnel found by blowing up a wall at the Junkyard.
Mauna Kea, Alika, and the Ailani are the best looting sites.

4 Prince Edward Island's Unusual Shape Makes It A Distinct Challenge

Prince Edward Island, or PEI, is one of the official Unturned 3.0 maps and replaced an earlier map simply called "Canada." It's a highly enjoyable island map that provides its own secrets and lore that point at the story behind Unturned's zombie apocalypse.

It's a smaller map than most of the others listed here, and that gives it a sense of identity steeped in claustrophobia and a sense of limited resources. There are very few buildings and facilities spread throughout Prince Edward Island, which makes everything feel just a bit more intense. There are also four variants of PEI in Unturned: Halloween, Festive (holiday season-themed), Moon (low-gravity), and PEI Arena (a PVP arena map).

Tips For Surviving PEI:

There is only a small Deadzone at Tignish Farm.
Summerside Military Base, Belfast Airport, the bunker on Holman Isle, and O'Leary Prison are the best looting locations.
The smaller isles are well worth exploring.

3 Ireland Packs The Map With Warring Factions & Alliances

Ireland is a curated map that provides the entirety of Ireland in a microcosm. Consequently, it has several townships and a lot of territories to cover. It also provides a trio of NPC factions to interact with: the Coalition, the Irish Defense Force, and the Irish Freedom Republic. This map is particularly packed with lore and backstory to dig into as well.

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The caveat with the Ireland map is that it's technically been properly removed. While other curated maps were moved to the Steam Workshop after a time, Ireland has been left without Unity engine updates and may not be compatible with most updated versions of Unturned.

Tips For Surviving Ireland:

It's a large map, so be prepared for long travel from location to location.
There are three Deadzones: a drifting ice station on the southwest corner of the map, Moneypoint Power Plant, and a cave between Woodrow Farm and Tralee.
Athlone, Moneypoint Power Plant, and Aberham Anti-Air Line are the best looting locations.

2 Washington Dots Its Map With Military Bases

Washington is another official Unturned 3.0 map that takes place in a northern and colder environment. It's a darker map that offers plenty of military bases to raid for weapons during the player's quest for survival. It's intended more for player vs player combat, but a single-player experience is also an option.

This one is possibly the most lore-rich in terms of explaining how the zombie virus came to be in Unturned. It also provides plenty of wilderness areas to explore around those aforementioned military bases.

Tips For Surviving Washington:

There is a small Deadzone around a downed UFO.
Any of the ten military bases scattered across Washington make for good looting sites.
The Scorpion-7 base can provide experimental weapons.

1 Yukon Is A Frigid Fight For Survival

The Yukon is another official Unturned 3.0 map that takes the player to the tundras of Northern Canada, allowing players to experience the frigid experience of trying to survive in the Arctic Circle. It forces players to maintain their body temperature, and has the addition of wolves that the player must fight off.

This map is fairly lore-rich as well, having a Scorpion-7 hidden base. It is a truly challenging map, with few resources and confusing terrain. It also has a Mega Zombie boss to beat. That said, it's also possibly the best map in the game.

Tips For Surviving Yukon:

This map also has a few Scorpion-7 bases scattered throughout, the most notable being called "Off Limits."
There are Biodomes set up by Scorpion-7, one of which spawns a Mega Zombie
There is a Deadzone at the Crashed Skycrane.
Surviving the Yukon is hard, so be prepared for a challenge.

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