Overview
AKA: things I wish I’d known earlier but learned the hard way.
1. Diseased zombies – how to spot them from far away via flies
Tl;dr for this one: look out for swarms of flies around zombie’s heads. Only diseased have them. You can spot them from far away.
Long version: you’ll encounter “diseased” zombies pretty soon (after the first few days). They decrease your max health when they hit you or when you kill them in close proximity to you.
The obvious parts: using ranged weapons to take them out so you don’t get diseased, and you can spot them by the green spots on their skin (‘doh!)
The problem: if you are close enough to see the spots on their kin, you are already in danger of getting diseased, even if you use a ranged weapon to kill them and stay out of melee. They do surprisingly big AOE splash damage when they die.
The non-obvious part: you can tell if they are diseased or not from VERY far away if you look out for swarms of flies buzzing around their heads.
2. Not all upgrades are equal
I’ve searched a lot for some tips as to what to upgrade first. Didn’t find any good ones.
So, here it goes, to save you some trial and error:
Tl;dr: my suggested overall priority: backpack > bow > medicine > guns & ammo. Grab all the sugar you can like a fat kid in a candy store, even if it seems you don’t need it.
Explanations:
- the backpack upgrade is super valuable, and relatively cheap to get. Go for it ASAP. It allows you to bring back so much more stuff each day. It adds up really quick. Essentially it’s like having a free extra scavenging after day after each 3 normal days. So, after 15 days of having the upgrade you have 20 days worth of loot.
- stockpile sugar, like it’s cocaine and you’re Escobar, and go for medicine upgrade: you’ll need sugar for the upgrades to get to the medicine recipe (lvl 8 survival bench) AND for crafting the medicine itself. Sugar is not needed at all early-game, and this gives a false impression as to its importance. Then the game asks for dozens of sugar once you hit that upgrade wall.
- the bow is super useful, especially with the upgrade for arrow durability. Silent, so it doesn’t attract zombies. Cheap as dirt to craft bow & arrows. 1SHS FTW. Bring at least 10 arrows with you for a full durability bow (no durability buff from food).
- guns are not important at all early on. By all means scavenge the hell out of any broken weapons you find, you’ll be glad later. But don’t do gun upgrades, and stay away from using guns early on – you need to learn how to handle zombies in melee at first, or else you’re going to regret it later.
3. Infinite durability melee weapon: skull
Skulls can be used as weapons that never lose durability.
This might be a bug, it might be imbalanced, IDK, use your own judgment/preference, but:
you can use a human skull as a weapon. Grab a zombie with 1 arm, hold the skull with the other and bash its head in. 3 good strikes = dead zombie.
If you want go this route, ONLY use weapons to kill zombies when in a pinch (ambushed, surrounded, etc). Stick to the skull. The skull is truth, the skull is love, the skull is life.
That’s what I did ’cause I’m a cheap bastard and a pack-rat. I had 100+ shotgun ammo from scavenging alone in day 12 (no crafting).
You can find plenty of skulls in the crypts in the resting area. Keep a few in stock at base, I’ve lost a couple in missions – it’s easy to since you can’t holster them since they’re not technically a weapon.
EDIT: Apparently you can do this with other “heavy” items in the game, including a frying pan, a clock, etc. It was not the case when I first tried it – right when the game came out. Credit to the people in the comments: TriLock <BR>, Zer0Cool, jack epic !
4. Push mechanics
Update 1 (credit – shane): Holding a propane tank with two hands allows you to push large crowds of zombies away without using any stamina.
Update 2 (credit Zerfyx): Another hint that might not be obvious to everyone is that you can shove enemies, mainly useful with weapons. It can give you a few extra seconds to get a grasp on the situation.
If facing a zombie pack sprinting towards you, the first thing you should do (after changing your underwear) is grab the nearest one and push it into the others.
They’ll all stagger a lot more then you think they would and buy you time to aim, pull a good weapon, run to get distance from a diseased one so you can snipe it, climb to get away, etc.
Plus sprinting zombies will revert to a walk when pushed either by you or other zombies.
5. Beggar$ are RICH AF
All beggars carry a box of stuff with them, the best loot in the game. They give it to you in exchange for whatever it is they are asking for, or they drop it on death.
So, If you like to LARP a good guy/gal, bring food, bandages and meds with you every mission to give away to beggars. Then watch them as 50% of the time they begin to sprint straight into a herd of Z’s and die instantly, dropping the very item you gave them. Go pick it up, no sense letting it go to waste.
If you don’t give a **** about LARPing just execute the poor bastards and take the box.
6. Bonus
Check. Your. Damn. Weapon. Holsters.
OFTEN.
I’ve lost quite a few good weapons because the holsters are prone to spitting them out more than a bulimic THOT after a thanksgiving meal.
Uh.. thanks?
Think I missed something? Feel free to contribute below.
Peace!