Overview
In this guide i will talk about skills that affect melee weapons, melee weapons themselves and melee combat. Also using your environment to your advantage when fighting.
Types of weapons
First we will discuss the weapon types and give examples, these are:
Long blunt – Baseball bat, crowbar, shovel etc.
Short blunt – Hammer, Frying pan, Rolling pin, Metal pipe, Metal bar etc.
Long blade – Only 2 which is katana and machete
Short blade – Kitchen knife, hunting knife, spoon, fork etc.
Axe – Wood axe, axe, hand axe
Spear – Spear, crafted spear, any spear with short blade weapon duct taped to it, garden fork
Later on we will discuss what specialities each of these types have.
Skills and character creation
Each one of these weapon types have their skill which you can (and should) level up.
You should only choose 1 weapon type that you will use, this will ensure you only get experience with 1 weapon type and master it, having no points in any weapon skill makes you bad with every weapon type. But you can still level up one weapon type that you choose.
Weapon skill affects your weapon damage and swing speed, on high level weapon skill you will be able to take on multiple opponents because you can swing quickly and deal additional damage with that weapon.
When creating a character, you do not have spear skill or long blade skill to choose from, you can pick long blunt, short blunt, axe, and short blade, having skills at the beginning won’t just give you experience in that weapon type, it will make leveling much faster, level 1 has 75% bonus, level 2 has 100% bonus, and level 3 has 125% bonus, going more than 3 stays 125%
-When trying to do short blunt build construction worker is your best option
-When doing a long blunt build, baseball player or even brawler (i don’t recommend using it because it costs 6 points and gives you +1 axe skill which you wont need if going long blunt
-When going axe, just pick lumberjack, you can’t make a mistake there
-If you are trying to go short blade there is not many economical options, because doctor and chef all have additional skills that are not that much needed.
-To go spear, you just have to start with no skill points and eventually start foraging or cutting down trees to get branches and making spears
-To go long blade, there is not much you can do, and this skill is, in theory, impossible to build up, because long blade weapons (katana and machete) are “legendary” rarity, you should not rush that skill and go for one of these above first, then if you find a long blade weapon just start using it and maybe you will get a skill point in this weapon type.
Finding weapons
So you start off, you spawn in a house, first hit the kitchen, you will find short blunt and short blade weapons there. When going out to search for weapons it is advised to sneak, especially if you have not found any weapons in your house. It depends on what weapon type you are going for, weapons are really important to find and are top priority. Bellow i will discuss each weapon type most spawning locations.
Short blunt – kitchens (frying pan and rolling pin) hardware stores, sheds and warehouses (these have a lot of weapons that are short blunt, metal pipes, metal bars, hammers, pipe wrenches etc.) sometimes bedrooms (instruments, but those are pretty weak), sometimes zombie corpses
Short blade – kitchens and sometimes zombies have them in their bodies
Long blunt – bedrooms (baseball bats, golf clubs, guitars etc.), warehouses (crowbars and sledgehammers), hardware stores, sport stores.
Axes – Hardware stores, warehouses, just look for wooden and cardboard boxes, zombies too
Spear – Crafted, but do have chance of spawning inside infested safehouses
Long blade – Can be found on zombies, infested safehouses are your best bet tho
Weapon Pro’s and Con’s
I will discuss every weapon type, pro’s and con’s and my opinion on them
-Short blunt-
Pro’s = Easy to find, pretty decent damage
= Quick swing speed
Con’s = It sometimes has bad range
Opinion = Really good for starters and overall a good weapon choice
-Long blunt-
Pro’s = Decent range
Decent damage
Con’s = Hard to find in the start game
Opinion = Use it if you are good at the game and can survive earlier game without decent weapons because you will only find this weapon type a bit later
-Short blade-
Pro’s = Can one stab a zombie that is unaware of the player
= Pretty easy to find
Con’s = Really hard to fight multiple opponents
= Break easily (except hunting knife)
= Low damage
= Low range
= Risky
Opinion = I do not like short blade because you must sneak in order to use them effectively and are dangerous to use, they can be used as a second weapon in case your primary breaks or if you want to sneak kill a zombie
-Axe-
Pro’s = High damage
= Decent durability
Con’s = It takes longer time to find
= Slow swing speed on low level
Opinion = It is a good weapon to use with if you have skill points in that weapon type
-Long blade-
Pro’s = Huge damage
= Long range
= Decent durability
Con’s = Very hard to find
= Hard to level up
Opinion = The long blade weapons are exceptionally hard to find, but when you do, you should try them out and use them
-Spear-
Pro’s = Easy to make
= You can sprint stab a zombie effective but extremely risky thing to do
= Huge range
= Decent damage
Con’s = Low durability (which requires you to take multiple spears but each spear is 1.5 weight and takes a lot of space)
= A bit slower swing speed on low level which makes it harder to use against multiple opponents
= Hard to level up
Opinion = I do not like spears, but with good enough training, they are not that bad
Hit the head
REALLY IMPORTANT
After the 41 build, to kill a zombie on the ground it is required to hit it’s head.
Hitting the body will result in either keeping the zombie down or just nothing, walk up to it and aim for the head, you can use your melee aiming system to find your striking point (small circle at on the ground)
Bare hands
Using your bare hands, you can kill 1-2 zombies at a time, the process can be long and tiring.
Bare hands (kicks count too) can be used to kick downed zombies to spare your weapon durability, this tactic is rather useful, especially if your character is tired because tiredness (both endurance and sleep deprivation) lowers your dealt damage.
Combat with multiple zombies
When having to kill 3-6 zombies you need to have good weapon skill. Keep going backwards hitting zombies and not getting yourself pulled, if a zombie falls on the ground try to kill it if the others are further away, if not go backwards more so the downed zombie takes more time to get back chasing you. If more come you should start running and flee.
When combating larger hordes there is one strategy you can use, approach the horde and bait 1-2 zombies out of it, to do this, keep crouched and go into a zombies field of vision, you can skip time to 2x, when one or two of them come out, bait them away from the horde and kill them, do this until the horde stays at 2-4 zombies then kill them all normally.
Using your environment (or not using it)
Windows and fences are good to use against zombies, especially if you have multiple on you.
For the zombies to attack you behind a fence or in a house, they need to lunge through, as doing it, they fall on the ground and require to stand up, if the player is in range, the zombie may try to hit the player while on the ground, this would cause the player to stumble back and will let the zombie stand up. To use this to your advantage, step away from the fence/window, and wait for the zombie to crawl through, then run to it and strike it, you can kill multiple zombies like this.
Trees and doors have weird mechanics which would sometimes cause you to miss your shots, but zombies since they are bots can still attack you, so try to not fight zombies near doors/trees.
Maintenance
You can repair weapons, to do so you need either adhesive tape, duct tape, glue or wood glue
Nailed weapons can also be repaired with nails
Glue and adhesive tape are not good to repair weapons with
Duct tape and repair a small portion of the weapon
Wood glue can repair decent amount of the weapon but requires carpentry level 2
Maintenance skill also affects the rate that weapons lose condition and your repairing capability
Some weapons cannot be repaired like a crowbar for example, when it breaks, you cannot get it back. Wooden weapons are best to be repaired with wood glue, with carpentry level 2 and maintenance skill you can recover most of the weapon durability
Improvised (crafted) weapons
Spears can be crafted using a sharp edge and a tree branch or a plank
You can attach a sharp edge on a spear using duct tape
Plank can be used as a long blunt weapon
You can put nails in a plank or a baseball bat which will make it spiked and deal additional damage, but the weapon will lose condition quicker.
Planks are good to use as a weapon when not having an alternative because they are free, and you can get up to 6 from one normal tree, but can be really risky for 3 and more zombies
Last notes
I probably left out a few of things in the guide
If you have any questions, you can add me on steam or ask in the comments bellow
PvP is not out yet, so i may test melee weapons how they handle in player versus player, and make a guide on that too when it comes out