Overview
This guide explores the idea of assigning certain weapons and ammo types (“roles”) exclusively to each player, to make the most of all available resources.This is called the HIRMN system (NMRIH backwards): “Having Individual Roles Minimizes Need”For this to work, it’s necessary to play with a group of people who are aware of the rules of this system and are willing to play their role.The ultimate goal of the HIRMN system is to ensure that *ALL* players extract successfully at the end of the map.
The problem
The game features a wide variety of firearms and ammo types, and plenty of both are easily encountered throughout each level. The problem is to find ammo for your empty gun or a gun for your stack of ammo. During multiplayer games, players often end up picking whatever gun or ammo they may find, and without a proper trading of resources with fellow teammates, the team usually runs out of ammo quickly and often. This leads many players to believe that they must mostly rely on melee weapons to go through the map, but as a veteran player with over 400 hours spent in game, I strongly discourage the use of melee combat in this game.
Having Individual Roles Minimizes Need (The HIRMN system)
Following the HIRMN system, at the beginning of each round, each player “calls” for one or two ammo types they will be using, out of the 8 main types of ammo available in the game:
This has to be done in the text chat, as soon as possible but after all players have spawned and can read the chat.
After this, each player will only make use of that specific ammo type and the weapons that make use of that ammo. Players must not keep firearms and ammo that do not match their chose role.
All other items, tools, and weapons that do not make use of the 8 main types of ammo can be used freely by any player. Players with more inventory space should be the first to carry these non-role-specific items. Flashlights should be carried by players with handguns.
A Role Assignment for a group of 4 players
An example of an efficient Role Assignment in a team of 4 players would be assinging the exclusive use of certain weapons by their respective ammo types, as follows:
Role 1:
Role 2:
Role 3:
Role 4:
(Note that this particular load out has been prepared taking into account each weapon’s weight and the likelihood of encountering each weapon and their respective ammo type, it is therefore recommended to groups of 4 players who want to attempt playing with a given role.)
A Role Assignment for a group of 5-8 players
Following the Role Assignment for a group of 4 players, simply split Roles 1-4 into two separate roles for each additional players, giving each additional player the second ammo type of Roles 1-4.
Therefore:
Role 5: split Role 1 into 2, and give
Role 6: split Role 2 into 2, and give
Role 7: split Role 3 into 2, and give
Role 8: split Role 4 into 2, and give
(Again, note that this particular load out has been prepared taking into account each weapon’s weight and the likelihood of encountering each weapon and their respective ammo type, it is therefore recommended to split the 4 main roles in this way for groups of 5-8 players.)
Know which firearm is better for each ammo type
The 8 main ammo types all work with more than one firearm, however it is recommended to only fire a specific ammo type with a certain gun, if the choice is available.
This is how I would prioritize each gun for each ammo type, further elaboration of why is written below:
1) (no icon) FN FAL 2) (no icon) JAE-700 3) 
1) 
1) 
1) 
1) 
3) 
1) 
1) 
1) 
Additional notes:
For the .308, I recommend using the FN FAL over either of the two sniper rifles (with the JAE-700 being the better of the two), because it holds more ammo and can fire faster, and not having the scope is actually usually more useful in close combat. However, with both sniper rifles, you have piercing ability, so with each bullet you can kill more than one zombie at a time, however this might be hard to pull off. So, overall, the FN FAL is preferred, but in certain circumstances a sniper rifle might be more useful with .308 ammo.
For the .357 and the .22 LR, if one of these ammo types is your ONLY ammo type, then you can consider using a Winchester 1892 or Ruger 10/22 w/ extended clip instead than a Smith & Wesson 686-6 or Ruger Mark III, respectively, however remember that if you use rifles instead than handguns, you won’t be able to use your flashlight. If you have enough space, you can carry both the rifle and the handgun for these 2 ammo types, if these are your only ammo types.
For the 5.56mm, you have two different versions of the M16A4, with a scope and with a carry handle instead than a scope. This kind of scope is different from the scope of the sniper rifles. Some people find it hard to use, but it can be useful. In this case, it’s down to personal preference. You can use the scoped version or not.
For the 7.62×39, the Simonov SKS has a bayonet attached to the underneath of the muzzle of the rifle, and it could be useful as a melee weapon (if you press the push/shove button up-close to a zombie’s face), but the CZ858 is still overall more useful, being capable to hold three times the ammo of the Simonov SKS. Furthermore, the HIRMN system discourages melee combat, so the bayonet should only be considered useful as a last-resort weapon.
Encountering unwanted weapons and UNLOADING
As you should already know, a weapon that you already have or that you prefer not to use because you have a better firearm to fire a certain ammo type should not be overlooked, as most weapons found in the environment are not completely empty.
If you don’t already have it, you can pick up the unwanted weapon, then UNLOAD it and discard it.
If you encounter the same exact weapon that you already have, UNLOAD the one in your possession, discard it, then pick up the one you just found and fully load it if necessary.
Stick together, work together
1) STICK TOGETHER: In Objective maps, travel as a unit, however don’t get it too cramped. Not all players need to enter the same tiny closet room at the same time. Do not lone-wolf, do not rush ahead or wander alone, do not lag behind.
2) THEIR SURVIVAL IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY: Protect each other. You are not only responsible for your own life, but for everyone’s life.
3) EXPLORE: Make sure all corners of the map are explored, do not leave behind anything useful. If possible, carry as much ammo and items as your team can find, even for weapons that you don’t have yet (like arrows, fuel, flares). Make sure each player picks up what their assigned role determines, and that all remaining non-role-specific items are shared appropriately.
4) COMMUNICATE: In an ideal team, all players are making full use of the voice chat (possibly with walkie talkies for added realism), or otherwise the text chat or even the in-game voice-command system.
5) NON-WASTEFUL COMBAT: Make sure enemies are not OVER-ENGAGED. Something that I see happening too often is multiple players attempting to kill the same enemy in front of them, which usually results in one player killing the target and the others shooting more or less at the same time, but essentially just wasting their ammo on an already killed zombie. Therefore, tell your team you got the target in front of you already engaged, so that they can simply pick another one, clearing the area more quickly and effectively without the waste of ammo.
AVOID MELEE COMBAT
For the love of god, stop. Stop. Just stop, stop swinging your melee weapon.
It doesn’t matter how good you think you’ve become. It doesn’t matter if you can clear the whole map by yourself on Nightmare difficulty with just a knife. You might be a pro but sooner or later even you will make a mistake, your swing will miss or it won’t kill as expected and you’ll be bitten, becoming infected and becoming a liability for your team.
With the HIRMN system, there’s no need to rely on melee combat, because you, as a unit with your team, will always have something to fire bullets from, if you play properly (unless it’s one of those custom nmo maps like Canal where you don’t find firearms).
So, melee fighting is to be AVOIDED, unless indispensable.
If you have no ammo to fire, it does not mean you should use melee combat yet. You should let the rest of your team kill the zombies instead. No matter how experienced you are in it, melee combat should be used only as a very last resort.
Also, do not leave behind other items because you’re secretly storing your favorite melee weapon in your inventory and now you have no more room to carry ammo and other items. Only keep machetes as melee weapons, and only if you have extra room for them.
Discussion on the official forums
Here you can find the HIRMN discussed on the official NMRIH forums: [link]
There’s not much there right now but you can read some interesting arguments pro and against melee combat. Feel free to express your opinions of the HIRMN system on this guide and/or in that thread in the forums 🙂
VIDEOS: the HIRMN system at work
In this youtube playlist you can see some maps I completed with a then-new group of NMRIH players:
My other guide about CONTROLS
I also wrote another guide, which goes really in-depth with what each control does in the game, and suggests an alternate configuration, check it out: [link]