Zombie Gunship's goal is to use the AC-130's weapon system to manually target and kill the growing number of zombies that are attacking the humans running to safety in the bunkers on the ground. The zombies are also moving towards the bunker to outrun it. To kill zombies and protect humans, the Zombie Gunship offers three upgradable weapons: a 25mm Gatling machine gun, a 40mm Bofors autocannon, and a 105mm howitzer. Depending on the weapon, upgrades increase firing speed, speed to target, cooldown speed and damage radius.

Players can complete objectives, earn ranks, and collect coins to kill zombies and save humans. Coins can be used for weapon upgrades, additional upgrades, or to bypass targets. Individual games end when the bunker door is sealed to prevent zombies from breaking into the bunker, or when the player has killed the maximum number of humans. 100 coins are awarded for each human saved, 20 coins for each zombie killed, plus 2 coins for each zombie bounty upgrade. There is no coin penalty for casualties.

During gameplay, players can switch between white hot mode and black hot mode for night vision. In BHOT mode, zombies are white and humans are black. In WHOT, the colors are reversed.

Every 75 humans rescued automatically activates HSAS (Human Segregation Advisory System), a bonus game mode without humans where players can accumulate more coins because there are no humans they must avoid when shooting zombies.

"The iOS version of Zombie Helicarrier includes Apple's AirPlay support, which allows the game to be played on a TV connected to Apple TV.