Overview
A basic guide, along with some tips and tricks I use to make it to Canada.
Introduction
Can’t make it to Canada, no matter how hard you try? Follow these tips, and maybe you can finally freeze to death instead of being eaten by those pesky zombies!
Up to date as of the FEMUR update.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.
Starting out
First, make at least two custom characters, and put them both in your party. You can use other guides to figure out good perk and trait combinations, or just choose the perks and traits you like. Make sure you’ve selected the normal difficulty, and then start the game.
The first place you loot is very important. They may all seem to have similar loot, but there are clearly locations that are better. Your best option is the Rest Stop. It has vending machines you can loot for food, 2 bathrooms, and an empty room. One of these rooms is always filled with weapons and supplies. You often get more than 10 food, and you have a small chance to get a really good weapon (I’ve found an AK47 and a Sturdy Machete). If you can’t loot the Rest Stop, try the Yall-Mart. It has decent loot and often a low-tier gun. If you want, you could also go for the Quiet Factory. It doesn’t have much food, but you can find decent weapons on the ground and has a room that has golf clubs and sometimes grenades in it. NEVER loot the House on the Road. Every other location has better loot than it.
Strategy
After you’ve looted the first location, you should immediately start thinking about how you will prepare for the 4 hour final siege. You are going to need a LOT of ammo, so if you don’t need to, don’t use a gun at all. For more dangerous looting missions, bring a pistol. Pistol bulets are the most plentiful ammo type and not too essential for the final siege. This changes if you find the Uzi. The Uzi shoots really fast and uses a lot of ammo, so save it for life-or death situations, like bad sieges or the Untouched Grocery Store. If your only automatic gun is the Uzi, try using a melee weapon or shotgun when looting to save pistol bullets. Rifles hive high penetration, but shoot much slower. I generally don’t use them too much, but in the hands of someone with high shooting, they can decimate a whole row of zombies. The AK47 is the exception. You are going to want to stockpile rifle ammo for the AK47, which can singlehandedly carry you through the final siege. However, if you are thrown into a very bad siege (like the Suburb Siege or the low morale sieges) don’t hesitate to use the AK47 to survive. After all, you can’t make it to Canada if you die! For less dangerous seiges, simply bring a pistol and a shotgun. Don’t use the shotgun too much, but don’t be afraid to bring it along if there are a lot of zombies you’re going to have to kill. The Slug Shotgun is basically a rifle that uses shotgun ammo.
You may be asking how we’re going to get these awesome weapons. The easiest way is to simply stockpile food and buy them from traders. Make sure you don’t trade away all your food so that you still have some to eat. Despair events are tricky to survive.
FOOD 101
-When possible, take sellabe weapons and put them in your trunk. If you find a place with no food but a ton of good weapons (i.e. the Sporting Goods Store ABL location) you can still get a lot of food out of it.
-Only have 2 people in your party. Each person eats 2 food each day by default, so if you have 4 people, you need to get 8 food a day. This means that if you loot 10 food from a location (a sizeable amount) you’re left with only 2 food. If you had 2 people, you would get 6 food. Less people means more food you can stockpile. On higher difficulties (such as Marathon) it may be beneficial to have 2 animals as well. Each animal only eats 1 food a day and are effective fighters. Sometimes, you even get special responses for events if you have a dog! However, if you try to make an animal do something it can’t do (e.g. siphon gas at the camp) you will automatically fail.
Dogs are always a safe bet, but there are other animals. The cat will kill you. The goat will also kill you. Don’t recruit them (unless it’s the witch’s black cat). The pig is OP. If possible, recruit him.
-Always loot the houses during a city raid. Most of the supplies are scattered throughout the houses, and you regularly get 10 food or more from all of them combined. It may take longer, but you are rewarded with a ton off food.
-Watch out for the Untouched Grocery Store. There is at least 60-75 food in there, but guarding is is a massive horde of the undead. Make sure you have a chainsaw and a lot of good guns if you’re planning to go. If you don’t have the gear, don’t go.
-Make sure you have enpugh food for everyone to eat a second meal on the last day of the trip. If you do, everyone will get a point in dexterity, making the final siege much easier.
Weapons
There are a lot of weapons in DR2C. If you’re a beginner, you may have no idea which weapons are are good and which ones are terrible. I can’t make a comprehensive ranking of all the weapons, so I’ll just offer some simple tips. A basic rule of thumb is that if you don’t know which of two melee weapons is better, take all weapons away from one of your buddies and give them the two weapons. The AI will automatically select the weapon that has better stats.
Weapons have a lot of stats, including base swing speed, cleave chance, knockdown rate, how fast they tire you out, and damage, so you usually can’t just say one weapon is the best. It depends on how strong and fit your characters are, and what your playstyle is. I’ll just list some weapons I believe are the best overall weapons.
MELEE
Low Strength/Fitness
Hatchet- Fast swing speed, relatively common, decent damage, doesn’t break. A good overall weapon.
Aluminum Bat- Basically an unbreakable Baseball Bat. Awesome.
The Whammer- Basically a better Aluminum Bat. Even more awesome.
Spine w/ Skull Accessory- Suprisingly good. For some reason, it does more damage than the Aluminum Bat, but has less knockback and can break. Take it if you find it.
Xtreme Hockey Stick- An unbreakable hockey stick. It’s so good that even the Mounties have adopted it as their standard weapon. The only real drawback is that it is VERY rare. I’ve found it once after 100 hours of playing.
Nightstick- This baton doesn’t do too much damage, but swings fast and doesn’t tire you out. It almost always knocks zombies down so you can do extra damge.
Meat Cleaver- One of the best weapons in the game. The swing speed is very fast, and it always can hit 2 zombies, doing moderate damage. The only real drawback is that it has a very small chance of breaking, which can leave you vulnerable.
Oar- The most OP weapon in the game. Can hit at least 3 zombies, doing large amounts of damage, and has a swing speed so fast you can swing it almost constantly. The only drawback is that is breaks relatively commonly, so use it while you can.
Tactical Spear- The best polearm in the game. Buy it for 9 food from the guy holding it at a trading camp. It can hit multiple zombies with one poke, and doesn’t use much stamina. The only problem with it is that it can be somewhat awkward to use sometimes. I like to give it to my buddy.
Hot Poker- This weapon is found in the Burning Building location. It does almost no damage, but sets zombies on fire, which kills them eventually. Great for hit-and-run tactics.
Dagger- The dagger is basically the Kitchen Knife on steroids. It does more damage and swings faster than the Aluminum Bat, and even has a chance to cleave! Get it from the knight trader camp.
Strong Katana- Unless you’re an Anime Fan, you’re probably not going to get this sword. It can hit 2 zombies with one swing, doing massive damage. It swings very fast and uses almost no stamina. Amazing.
Average Strength/Fitness
Fire Axe- Essentially an upgraded Hatchet. It can hit 2 zombies in one swing. The only problem with using it is that it tires you out fast.
Machete- The Machetes can be used somewhat efectively by someone with low Strength/Fitness, but it becomes really viable when you start raising those stats. The Machetes can swing relatively fast, do large damage, and can hit 2 zombies. Probably the best medium strength weapon. The Sturdy Machete is almost identical to the Rusty Machete, except that it does slightly more damage and doesn’t break.
Sledgehammer- A worse version of the Oar. It can hit at least 2 zombies in one swing, doing good damage. Tires you out really fast.
Cavalry Sabre: This giant sword can sometimes be found in the Dark Mansion. It can cleave 3 zombies, has long range, and does a lot of damage. Essentially a lighter Knight Sword.
High Strength/Fitness
At this level, you’re pretty much unstoppable. Find one of these weapons and kill every zombie in sight. You do so much damage that it’s hard to determine which weapons are the best. To remedy this, I’ll organize the weapons into tiers.
Low Tier
Knight Sword
Medieval Axe
Mega Maul
High Tier
Claymore
Scythe
Zweihander
GUNS
Since there aren’t as many guns, I can give information on almost all of them.
PISTOLS
Pistol- The most common pistol. Can hold 90 bullets and shoots fast. I would reccommend carrying this or the Dolt with your main character at all times.
Snubnose- Found in police stations. A compromise between the Dolt and the Pistol makes it OK, but you’re better off with the normal Dolt anyway.
Dolt- Holds 60 bullets. Shoots slower, but does more damage and has higher penetration, sometimes killing 2 zombies at once. Great if you want to conserve pistol ammo.
Uzi- It’s pretty good. The only automatic pistol, the Uzi is useful for getting yourself out of a jam. The only problem is that it doesn’t do much damage and has a lot of recoil.
RIFLES
Cowboy Rifle- The most common rifle. It often penetrates 2 or 3 zombies with one shot. I’m not the biggest fan of rifles, so I don’t use it that much, but it can be helpful.
Hunting Rifle- A better Cowboy Rifle, with much higher penetration. Since it shoots slower, it may be good to use if you want to conserve ammo, but gererally you’re better off with a pistol.
AK47- Pretty much the only rifle that matters. It does a ton of damage, shoots fast, and holds a lot of ammo. Arguably the best gun in the entire game. Save it for really hard sieges.
Minigun- You’re not going to get it.
SHOTGUNS
Shotgun- Most likely the only shotgun you’re going to find. Only use it if there are a lot of zombies that need to be cleared out.
Slug Shotgun- It’s a rifle that uses shotgun shells. It has a TON of penetration. sometimes, you can kill 10 zombies with 1 shot. It’s pretty rare, so I don’t have much experience with it, but in most situations, you’re better off with the normal shotgun.
Autoshotgun- Now we’re talking! This gun is essentially a shotgun on steroids, shooting very fast. Awesome for the final siege.
SPECIAL WEAPONS
Ouchie Spray- One of the best items in the game. If you are injured and walk into the pink cloud, you heal 1 hit point. Extremely useful if your healers are terrible or you need to heal during a mission.
Air Horn- Makes an annoying noise, knocking down zombies and doing a small amount of damage. I wouldn’t use it.
Blowtorch- It turns out you can damage friendly characters with the blowtorch. It can be useful if you want a safer way to kill off party members or traders for whatever reason.
Chainsaw- Awesome! After you start the chainsaw, you run into a horde of zombies, almost instantly killing them with your gas-powered machine of death. Make sure you use it sparingly so that you don’t run out of gas.
Flamethrower- You’ve just won the game. AOE attack, long range, fuel efficient… I could go on. Don’t hold down the fire button. You’ll waste all of your gas in a heartbeat. Instead, use very quick bursts. Each burst uses about 1 gas, and can easily light 20-30 zombies on fire. You have to be careful while using it, because the fire can hurt you.
Pipe Bomb- A throwable bomb. It can be helpful in sieges, but since it’s somewhat hard to aim, I mostly use it to kill friendly characters. Notably, charactes who can’t normally use weapons (such as T*L*B) can use bombs.
Grenade- A beefier Pipe Bomb. Much rarer.
Molotov- A Pipe Bomb that sets an area on fire. Since fire doesn’t spread to other zombies in the same way, it’s notas good as the Pipe Bomb at clearing out groups of zombies . This does mean that the zombies won’t set you on fire, though. 1 molotov is usually enough to kill a friendly character.
Looting
Throughout the game, you’ll be presented with a couple options for places to loot. Like with weapons, since there are so many different locations, I can’t possibly give information on them all.
First, we need to make a distinction between city raids and ABL events. In a city raid, you are presented with two options. Even if you have the Explorer perk, there will always be two options. The location you chose will be there, along with some other houses. You may also find special city locations, such as Toilet Heaven and the Anime Store, but there are quite rare. In an ABL event, the only place you have to loot is the place you select. If you select a location that can also be found in a city raid (e.g. Hardware Store), you get a Yall-Mart filled with the loot found at the location. You normally have two choices, but this can increase to three if you have a character with the Explorer perk. You can spend gas to reroll your location choices, or just not go at all. Additionally, there are red and FLASHING locations. A red location indicates higher danger, but more loot. A FLASHING location is a special location. These often have either a ton of loot or a special benefit, but are often very hard.
LOCATION LIST (WIP)
CITY RAIDS ONLY
COFFEE SHOP
In the coffee shop, you can interact with the coffee machine, drastically raising your combat abilities for the duration of mission. If you have a high Mechanical, you can make the perfect cup of coffee, permanently raising your move speed. Make sure everone else in the party drinks the coffee first, because that will destroy the machine.
FURNITURE STORE
Don’t go here. If you’re lucky, you’ll find 1 food in the store.
RESTAURANT
There is some food in the restaurant. Not as good as the grocery store.
UMBRELLA STORE
Literally just umbrellas.
PET SHOP
There is some food laying around, along with some dogs. You can probably recruit them if you have someone with Friend of Dog.
CONVIENIENCE STORE
The store has a decent amount of food. Make sure you don’t hit the propane tanks!
APARTMENT WITH “HELP” BANNER
APARTMENT WITH “BARK” BANNER
BAR
POLICE STATION
ARCADE
STRENGTH AND FITNESS GYM
There will be a dumbbell or a bicycle. Use it and level one character.
ATHETIC STORE
Athletic gear. Not as good as the sporting goods store.
SPORTING GOODS STORE
A great place to go to get esome weapons. You can actually find some really good weapons in the sporting goods store, such as the sturdy machete or the aluminum bat.
HARDWARE STORE
THe hardware store has a good amount of gas, along with the chance to find a chainsaw. It may also have a
ABL ONLY
ALL RARE LOCATIONS
FANCY OFFICE
FANCY FACTORY
SECURE JUNKYARD
FANCY HOUSE
The fancy locations have the normal loot alongside a safe. If you find the key or combination, you can open the safe and get some good loot.
JUNKYARD
CITY ROW
POLICE HEADQUARTERS
A lot of zombies, but you’ll find a lot of nightsticks.
RILED UP APARTMENT
There is a magazine in one of the bathrooms.
GYM APARTMENT
There is some exercise equipment, and sometimes a magazine as well.
DARK MANSION
It’s really dark. Make sure you bring a flashlight! There is a lot of food and other supplies, and a room which can hold a great weapon like the Golden Knife or the Cavalry Sabre.
BURNING BUILDING
It’s on fire. Avoid the fire at all costs, as it will kill you very quickly. It’s quite safe if you can avoid the fire because the zombies will wander right into it, killing them. The Hot Poker can be found here.
CROWDED YALL-MART
REST STOP
REST STOP WITH CAR
JUNKYARD WITH CAR
SHOPPING MALL
Very dangerous. There are a lot of zombies, but good loot. If your party is weak, you’re best off avoiding this place.
GAS STATION SIEGE
A challenging siege. Good loot if you survive. Make sure you siphon the gas out of the pumps!
GAS STATION RESCUE
The same thing as the gas station siege, but you get an additional reward if you save the person trapped inside.
ROADSIDE RESCUE
A siege, similar to the Gas Station Siege. Not very good loot, but some gas in the burned out cars. There is a person to rescue, so maybe they have good rewards.
APARTMENT RESCUE
DEAD ARCADE
There is a good amount of food in the vending machines, and 1 arcade game you can play or dismantle for gas.
SWARMED GYM
There are 2 pieces of exercise equipment, along with a small amaunt of food.
BIG HOUSE
BULLET-RIDDEN HOUSE
There is a magazine somewhere in the house.
SPORTING GOODS STORE
A Yall-Mart filled with sporting supplies. Make sure you grab all the weapons that can be sold for food!
HARDWARE STORE
A Yall-Mart filled with tools. It’s likely you’ll find a chainsaw here, alongside a lot of gas.
RARE LOCATIONS
MUSEUM
-MINIGUN ON EXHIBIT
-FOOD ON EXHIBIT
-MEDIEVAL AXE ON EXHIBIT
Dangerous. Go if you have a good team.
JUNKYARD PALS
Pretty easy. Save them and get some training.
FISHING CABINS
Get a fishing pole from one of the cabins and fish by the ‘no fishing’ sign. After a while, you will catch a fish that will grant you a wish.
HERMIT’S CABIN
Survive a siege and get a reward from the hermit.
HAZARDUS MATERIALS
Dangerous. You have to fight through a sewer to save people who were dumb enough to try and live there. You get no reward if you don’t save everyone.
UNTOUCHED GROCERY STORE
Really dangerous. Only do this if you have a max strength/fitness chatacter with a good weapon, alongside a chainsaw. If you survive, you’ll get a ton of food.
MALICIOUS HOUSE
SPOOKY GRAVEYARD
H*TD*G HEAVEN
Get the H*td*g Car!
DANGER RANGERS
KUNG FU MASTER
CONCRETE BUNKER
Not actually that dangerous. Has a lot of supplies and some great weapons.
RAGING INFERNO
Similar to the Burning House. Has a flamethrower inside.
GOTHIC FARM
Rescue Ma and Pa for a reward. In the barn, there is both a pig and a chicken.
FROZEN FRIEND
There is a caveman frozen in ice. If you so enough damage to the ice, it will break and free the caveman. You can recruit her or ask for either strength or survival tips.
Weapon Selling (Melee)
A good way to get extra food is to sell weapons. If you find a good weapon, pick it up and put it in your trunk. When you find a weapons-buying trader, sell all the weapons that you’ve collected. If you have the perk which gives you ZP for selling weapons, this is one of the best ways to get ZP.
SELLABLE WEAPONS (WIP)
Aluminum Bat- 1 food
Nightstick- 1 food
TactiCop Lite- 1 food
Sledgehammer- 1 food
Fire Axe- 1 food
Brass Knuckles- 1 food
Branch Trimmer- 1 food
Wooden Club- 1 food
Parking Meter- 1 food
Tactical Spear- 2 food
Electric Guitar- 2 food
Dagger- 2 food
Sickle- 2 food
Sturdy Machete- 3 food
The Whammer- 3 food
Mega Maul- 3 food
Gladius- 3 food
Hot Poker- 6 food
Bardiche- 6 food
Knight Sword- ? food
Claymore- 8 food
Cavalry Sabre- 8 food
Skull Mace- 10 food
Zweihander- 11 food
Golden Knife- 15 food
Weapon Selling (Guns and Misc)
Silenced Pistol- 1 food
Snubnose- 1 food
Dolt 45- 1 food
Uzi- 4 food
Cowboy Rifle- 1 food
Hunting Rifle- 3 food
AK47- 6 food
Shotgun- 1 food
Double-Barrel Shotgun- 3 food
Slug Shotgun- 6 food
Autoshotgun- ? food
Weed Whacker- 2 food
Chainsaw- 4 food
Flamethrower- 12 food
Green Turret- 2 food
Red Turret- 4 food
Blue Robot- 2 food
Red Robot- 4 food
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my guide! Remember, this is a WIP. If you have any suggestions, feel free to put them in the comments.