Quarantine Zone Contraband Guide: Confiscation, Internal Smuggling, and Fines

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check puts you in charge of a fragile outpost on the edge of a zombie-infested world. Your main job is simple on paper but brutal in practice: inspect survivors, stop the virus from entering your base, and keep dangerous contraband out. That means making fast decisions about backpacks, pockets, and eventually the more disturbing problem of items hidden inside the human body.

This guide breaks down the full contraband system, from basic safe vs illegal items to advanced internal-search techniques. You will learn how to interpret the x-ray device, what counts as a fine-worthy mistake, and how to use contraband to keep your camp running without accidentally dooming everyone.

1. Understanding Contraband and Your Role

Contraband in Quarantine Zone covers anything that threatens your base or violates the checkpoint rules. Some objects are obviously dangerous, but others sit in a gray area where your judgment and attention to detail determine whether you earn cash and research points or incur penalties and infections.

As the inspector, you balance three goals:

• Security: Keep weapons, explosives, and zombie-related items out of the camp.
• Compliance: Follow the bulletin board rules and avoid fines for wrongful confiscation or missed contraband.
• Progress: Use legal contraband seizures to fund upgrades and boost research on the infection.

Early days revolve around checking luggage and bodies for obvious items. Around the mid-game, the difficulty spikes when survivors start smuggling objects internally, forcing you to rely heavily on the x-ray tool.

2. Safe vs Forbidden: Core Contraband Categories

Most items you encounter fall into consistent categories. Learning them by heart speeds up inspections and reduces the chance of expensive mistakes.

2.1 Items You Can Allow Through

Safe items are things that do not directly empower violence, spread infection, or undermine camp stability. They are often everyday personal belongings or basic survival supplies.

Common examples of safe to keep items include:

• Food and water rations
• Household and camping tools that cannot be used as weapons (e.g., simple wrenches, basic hammers)
• Books, toys, and sentimental items
• Toiletries, hygiene products, and stationery
• Cash and small valuables that are not explicitly flagged as contraband

These payloads help survivors stay sane and functional inside your camp. Confiscating them when you are not supposed to is a reliable way to anger the authorities and lose money.

2.2 Items You Must Confiscate

Illegal contraband is anything that can be used as a weapon, cause mass casualties, or violate strict quarantine protocol. In practice, if it can blow up, stab, shoot, intoxicate, or directly spread the zombie infection, it should not cross your checkpoint.

Typical must-confiscate items include:

• Firearms and ammunition (pistols, rifles, bullets)
• Bladed weapons (combat knives, swords, axes)
• Impact weapons (batons, reinforced clubs, modified tools)
• Explosives (grenades, bombs, demolition charges)
• Drugs (pill bottles, bricks of narcotics, syringes with unknown substances)

These items usually trigger your scanners or visually stand out during bag searches. Confiscating them protects the outpost and often rewards you with money or supplies, especially when tied to bulletin-board tasks.

2.3 Collectibles and Special Items

Some standout objects are neither typical survival gear nor standard weapons. They tend to glitter, glow, or otherwise draw attention in a way normal items do not. These pieces are usually collectible or unique, and the game expects you to confiscate them even if they are not overtly dangerous.

Whenever you spot an item with an unusual visual effect, treat it as a special confiscation target. Collectibles typically contribute to side objectives, extra income, or achievements, so leaving them behind is a missed opportunity.

3. Zombie Parts and Infection Risk

The most alarming category of items you will find are zombie body parts. These parts can appear in bags or, later, hidden internally. They are heavily contaminated and treated as walking biohazards.

Crucial rules for dealing with zombie remains:

• Never confiscate zombie parts unless a specific quest requires it.
• If you discover a zombie limb, organ, or similar tissue, return it to the bag and mark the survivor for Liquidation, even if they show no other infection symptoms.
• Confiscating zombie parts when you are not supposed to quickly leads to fines and harsher penalties.

From the game’s perspective, any survivor transporting zombie tissue has already crossed a line and is considered too dangerous to admit, regardless of apparent health.

4. Reading the Bulletin Board: Dynamic Rules

The contraband rules you apply are not always static. Each day, the bulletin board behind your station can introduce new restrictions, override normal categories, or assign optional tasks that offer extra rewards.

Pay attention to announcements like:

• Temporary bans: Items that are normally safe (for example, alcohol) may be forbidden for a limited time.
• Priority searches: Orders emphasizing specific contraband (e.g., “confiscate all drug-related items today”).
• Special bounties: Extra pay for seizing a certain type of weapon or high-value collectible.

When a bulletin contradicts your usual classification, the bulletin wins. Failing to follow these daily instructions can cost you income or lead to a poor performance rating.

5. Internal Contraband: When Smuggling Gets Biological

After roughly the first couple of weeks in campaign mode, survivors get more creative and desperate. That is when the game introduces internal contraband—items hidden inside the body cavity that cannot be detected by normal bag or metal scans alone. This twist dramatically changes how you use the x-ray device and how long each inspection takes.

5.1 When Internal Contraband Appears

Internal smuggling begins after you have been using the x-ray tool for a short period. The game warns you that survivors are trying to get items through “internally,” and from this point on, cutting corners with x-ray inspections becomes very risky.

Once this mechanic is active, your chance of being penalized for missing hidden contraband increases significantly, because the game expects you to routinely check inside survivors, not just their luggage.

5.2 Safe vs Illegal Inside the Body

Strangely, not every internal object is illegal by itself. Some survivors will have harmless items concealed in unsettling places. The rule of thumb is to apply the same safe/illegal classification you use for external contraband:

• If it would be legal in a backpack, it is generally safe to leave it inside.
• If it would be illegal in a backpack—weapons, explosives, drugs—then internal placement does not change its contraband status.

The game even hints that you should ignore internal items that are weird but safe, because you have more important security issues to handle.

6. Mastering the X-Ray Tool for Internal Searches

The x-ray tool is your main defense against both infection and sophisticated smuggling. Using it effectively is crucial once internal contraband comes into play.

6.1 Switching X-Ray Layers

The body is rendered in layers representing skin, organs, and skeletal structures. You can cycle through these layers or choose an “all” setting that suppresses organs so any foreign objects are easier to see.

Typical internal contraband locations:

• Upper torso: Behind the ribcage and lungs—common for weapons and bullets.
• Pelvic area and tailbone: Prime area for smuggled explosives, drugs, or small melee weapons.
• Mouth and throat: Occasionally used for small items, especially if the survivor is trying to pass quickly.

Always rotate the camera around the survivor, checking both front and back. Items can hide behind bones or organs depending on the layer you are viewing.

6.2 Tagging and Extracting Internal Items

Once you see a suspicious object inside the body:

1. Highlight the item in x-ray view until it is clearly outlined.
2. Use the interaction key to tag it as internal contraband.
3. After tagging all objects you want removed, step away and talk to Charlie, the technician in a white hazmat suit.
4. Charlie performs the extraction off-screen; the items then appear on the tray in front of him.
5. Inspect the items on the tray, classify them, and confiscate anything illegal.

If you forget to tag an illegal internal item before speaking to Charlie, it will remain inside the survivor, and you risk failing the inspection or even allowing a critical threat into camp.

6.3 Internal Contraband as a “Symptom”

Within the game’s logic, internal contraband often counts similarly to a medical symptom or inspection flag. Spotting it can contribute to your research progress, much like identifying unusual infection markers. This means thorough x-ray use not only protects the camp but can also boost your long-term scientific advancement.

7. Common Internal Contraband Types

While almost anything could theoretically be hidden inside a body, the game focuses on a few recurring types of internal contraband so inspections remain manageable.

Expect to find the following categories most often:

• Melee weapons: Small knives, improvised blades, and brass knuckles.
• Explosives and ammo: Grenades, loose rounds of ammunition, small explosive charges.
• Drug containers: Pill bottles, capsules, or wrapped bricks.

Smugglers may attempt to hide multiple items at once, sometimes on different x-ray layers. If you only scan one part of the body or forget to rotate the view, it is easy to miss a second or third object.

8. Avoiding Fines and Failed Inspections

Every inspection is scored, and repeated mistakes can hurt your finances or even your campaign progress. Fines usually arise from three main sources:

• Failing to confiscate illegal contraband: Letting a gun, grenade, or drug cache through when it should have been seized.
• Wrongful confiscation: Taking safe items from survivors when no bulletin or rule justifies it.
• Mishandling zombie parts: Confiscating contaminated tissue rather than sending the survivor to Liquidation, unless a quest says otherwise.

Internal contraband raises the stakes because the game expects you to catch smuggled items once the mechanic is introduced. Skipping or rushing x-ray checks leads to a higher chance of poor evaluations.

9. Practical Inspection Workflow

To keep your checkpoint efficient and safe, follow a consistent inspection routine that accounts for both external and internal contraband:

1. Check the bulletin board: Note any special rules or temporary bans for the day.
2. Initial conversation and symptom scan: Observe the survivor’s behavior and check for visible signs of infection.
3. Inspect luggage: Search bags for weapons, explosives, drugs, collectibles, and zombie parts.
4. Apply standard contraband rules: Confiscate illegal items, leave safe items unless instructed otherwise.
5. Use the x-ray: Scan the chest, abdomen, pelvis, and mouth area using different layers or the all-organs-hidden setting.
6. Tag internal items: Mark any illegal objects, then call Charlie for extraction.
7. Finalize judgment: If you find zombie parts, send the survivor to Liquidation; otherwise, decide between admission, quarantine, or other outcomes based on symptoms and contraband.

Once this workflow becomes second nature, you will spend less mental energy on the basics and more on managing tough edge cases, like borderline items or conflicting bulletin instructions.

10. FAQ: Quarantine Zone Contraband System

Is every weapon always illegal to bring into the camp?

Yes. Any item clearly designed as a weapon—guns, knives, swords, grenades, and similar gear—should be confiscated regardless of who carries it. Even if the survivor claims it is for self-defense, the rules prioritize camp safety over personal protection.

Should I ever leave internal contraband inside the survivor?

If the internal item is clearly harmless under normal rules (for example, a small trinket or non-dangerous object), the game generally expects you to leave it alone. Your focus should be on internal weapons, explosives, drugs, or zombie-related items. Extracting everything wastes time and resources with no reward.

How do I know when the internal contraband mechanic has started?

You will receive an in-game warning after having access to the x-ray for a couple of days. From that point on, assume that survivors may be smuggling items internally, and begin treating x-ray scans as a required part of thorough inspections.

Do zombie parts always mean the survivor is infected?

Within the game’s logic, yes. Carrying zombie tissue—whether in a bag or internally—is treated as a clear contamination risk. Survivors found with such material are typically sent to Liquidation instead of being admitted or quarantined, unless a specific quest asks for a different procedure.

What happens if I miss internal contraband even after using the x-ray?

Missing internal weapons, explosives, or drugs often results in a poor inspection rating and potential fines. Repeated failures can slow your progress, reduce income, and make it harder to keep the camp secure as threat levels escalate.