Overview
This is a small strategy guide showing how to make money fast and intelligently and equip yourself with the knowledge to be a better team player overall. 🙂 It is for those who already know the basics but want to expand the strategic gameplay. I would call it an Intermediate guide with a special attention on survival game mode.I’ll try and update it as i can to make it a more complete guide.
Money and starting rounds
The first thing that you shoud know is that a knife kill awards more points than an average kill. Even more than a headshot kill.
I won’t go over the basics because there are other guides for that.
But what I disagree with the other guides in one point: They all advise you to kill the round 1 and 2 zombies knifing them. Let’s analize the numbers:
A bodyshot kill is worth 60$ and a bodyshot hit(no kill) is worth 10$.
A headshot kill is worth 100$ and a headshot hit is worth 10$.
A knife kill is worth 130$ and a knife hit is worth 10$.
Explosive damage counts as bodyshot.
We start with 500$. If we just knife him we get 130$. BUT, we can hit him with 6 bodyshots before knifing him. 10$ each. So in round 1 we can get 190$/kill instead of 130$/kill.
In round 2 you can take 8 bodyshots and then knife wich makes it 210$/kill.
In these rounds even if you get 3 or 4 kills you will get a much larger amount of money than with just knife kills..
This allows you to have money earlier to go to the box, open doors or buy an mp5 (for example), even if you are out of bullets for the M1911.
In round 3 you can allways take 3 or 4 headshots and knife him or even, if you have some space to move or have no bullets, knife him twice.
After that, my better advice is aim for the head and keep your distance although you probably already have at least a brand new weapon :p
All these references to the shots are with the M1911. But when you have some lined up zombies, if you have more powerful weapons, keep in mind that bullets go right through the zombies. If the weapon is powerful enough it will hit 1 or 2 zombies behind the first one multiplying the money per bullet.
Another thing you can do is (if you have the patience) is to let the zombies tear down the barriers and rebuild them at the same time to get some extra $.
Anyway, it’s a good idea to let the zombies get past the barriers and kill them after that. When you kill the zombies before they cross the barriers they don’t drop magic items like Max Ammo.
And afterwards get some extra $ by rebuilding the barriers.
Weapons
Everyone has a certain type of play and I respect that and I’m always open for new suggestions or new points of view about this, because there is really no “right way” to choose weapons..
If you saw the section on Money and Starting Rounds, on round 4 you should have a considerable amount of money. if you’re playing on Town you should have the Pack-a-Punch in consideration and this goes right to that detail.
I think I can say with some certainty that the M1911 is frustratingly weak, so we should get our hands on another weapon… Fast.
My advice is: KEEP the M1911
You can get another weapon but keep this one. The weakest weapon in the game when Pack-a-Punch’d is a mighty weapon of destruction: The name is “Mustang & Sally” (see screenshot).
It’s an akimbo M1911 but that fires exploding on impact grenades. It’s a devastating weapon to clear out groups of zombies. You have to be carefull though. The explosions can harm you so try not to shoot on something too close to you.
Even before you punch it you can use it’s bullets to get more money.. Each shot hit is 10$ worth. You can spend some bullets of the M1911 to get more money before you have to swich to your other weapon to actually kill the zombie.
You can only Punch a weapon multiple times if it is a modern weapon like MTAR, S12, DSR, etc. It changes your attachments but DOES NOT refill your ammo. It costs 2000$. Other weapons like FAL, Galil or even the M1911 can only be punched once. Then only exception to this is the Raygun. Although it is a (pseudo)modern weapon it can only be Punched once.
The raygun is a very good weapon with another good side: it’s a pistol. When you’re downed you use that weapon.It doesn’t shoot bullets so u can forget about headshots, but it shoots a kind of a “wave”.. A very destructive wave.. I think one of the best ways of using it is shooting the ground near the zombies or their legs directly.. It’s great to make crawlers.
But you also have some other very good choices and for me I prefer the LMG’s (HAMR and RPD). And if you punch them.. Damn, those are killing machines 🙂
you also have the Galil and the FAL, for example.. but you can have your own preferences and I respect that.
For me, the best solution is Mustang & Sally and a LMG also punched.
I know it’s hard to let go of the Punched weapons you worked so hard to get but you probably will have to. But you probably have a sh*t load of money and you should put it to good use. Wherever the box is it’s allways hard to have time to go there and wait for a weapon with a pack of zombies converging on your location. The MP5 becomes a life saver in those situations in the middle of a wave, and then you can leave 1 or 2 zombies in the end of the round to have time to go to the box, probably multiple times and Punch the weapons you chose.
In the other maps withouth the Pack-a-Punch machine you should try to get a weapon that is efficient in headshots. I personally like the MP5. If u got no ammo and see yourself in danger, you can buy an mp5 of the wall instead of taking the risk to go to the box and get a weak weapon. The MP5 is great even aiming from the hip to burst the heads of those nasty groups of zombies. The other advantage is ammo. You run out of ammo and you can easily go to the wall and buy 180 rounds for 500$. Keep in mind that when you Punch the MP5 (or any other wall weapon) YOU CAN buy ammo from the wall but it wont cost you 500$.. It will be significantly more expensive, so plan carefully.
Again, this is a personal choice, but for me the best weapons in the box besides the LMG’s are the Galil with it’s powerfull damage, low recoil and considerably fast reload and the FAL, single-shot (3 round burst with Pack-a-Punch) and huge damage and precision.
When combined with the Speed Cola perk the Executioner and the Python are also great choices.
Equipment
Galvaknuckles
Galvaknuckles are extremely powerfull and kill any zombie in one hit until round 13. Even if you get to higher rounds the melee attack is much faster and you can hit them twice very quickly or shoot them with some bullets and the use the galvaknuckes.
Some people prioritize this more than others. I save money for it once I have a juggernog. The big advantage is that, although it’s very expensive, once you have it, you will get much more mellee kills thus making your money grow exponentialy.
Monkey Grenades
If you happen to get these in the Box, use them. Don’t save them until you’re dead. If you need to revive a teammate in a thight spot with lots of zombies on your tail, don’t hesitate and throw one to a safe distance. It’s not very powerfull but it will get the zombies to stop chasing you for a while and probably create some crawlers you can leave to the end of the round while you close the barriers or resupply.
Grenades and Semtex
Both of them are very usefull. Semtex sticks to a zombie damaging him and the others around him. Or it can be sticked to the ground in the middle of them.
Grenades on the other hand have the advantage of bouncing off walls. While being chased by a group of zombies climbing up the stairs you can throw them to the far wall and it will bounce and go behind you doing a great deal of damage to groups of zombies. Also you can time the throw. Cook the grenade just the right time before you throw it and it will blow right in the middle of them making a lot of damage.
EMP Grenades
These are indeed usefull. They freeze the zombies for 2 or 3 seconds. It might not sound much but its definitely enough time to make a safe run for it or throw a grenade in the middle of them.
(Thanks to Acid Burn for the input)
If you do not shoot or sprint near EMP’d zombies, they will stay frozen for a minute or two or more as I seen it up to 5 minutes..
NOTE: When you throw any equipment into the lava you will render it useless. Grenades won’t explode.
Surviving and Teamplay
To play as a team it allways helps to have voice coms. You can easily press Z to talk during the game or if you have TeamSpeak or Skype it’s also good to play with friends (with better audio quality too).
If you don’t have it, no problem.
To play as a team you can follow some simple rules that allow for some guidance to evolve as a team.
1. Dont steal kills.
In the first rounds you have to try to make the more money possible. If you follow the rules I mentioned in the Money and Starting Rounds section with 3 kills each you can all go for a try in the box.. If I am counting my shots to make the 6 bodyshot – knife combo and some other guy comes and shoots the zombie once, it dies… I make less money and him too. He gets 60$(for a bodyshot kill) and I get 60$ instead of 190$. I hope you see my point. For obvious reasons this rule doesn’t apply in later rounds.
2 Reviving
When someone is downed it’s allways good that one teammate revives the downed one and the others cover the reviver. There are some points where you just can’t revive your teammate because there are just too many damn zombies. The best way is to run to the opposite side of the map and attract the zombies away and then double back to the spot with the zombies in a safer distance. The monkey bombs are also very good attracting unwanted zombies somewhere else while you revive.
If the teammate as a Tombstone perk he probably doesn’t want to be revived. He wants you to survive the round..
3 Camping
If you camp, try not to do it alone, because you have to reload sometime. Voice coms actually help to time this with your teammates if you have to. And pick a spot where you have an emergency getaway like the top of the bar or the open corner of the juggernog house in Town. And take care in those places not to block the emergency getaway for your teammates.
In later rounds it becomes impossible to camp. Even if you have a Punched RPD and keep aiming at the lined up heads you just can’t kill them fast enough and they keep getting closer forcing you to run away.
4 Moving
Even if you camp you still will have to move sometime. You can use this to your advantage by lining the zombies up after corners or objects and turn around and aim for the lined up heads.. But most important of all: keep your distance and always watch where you are going. It’s easy to turn around to kill zombies and get stuck in a corner or an object and being quickly surrounded by them. If all the team moves as a whole it will be more efficient “driving” or “herding” the zombies to where you want them. At some point you will have to move around the map to escape the zombies. In Town you can make a run for the top of the bar and then jump and go to the juggernog building, and jump, back to the bar.. and so on.. Kind of an “8” shape course..
Perks
I won’t go through the basics of explaining what the perks do because you can find that in the basic guides from other users.
As a strategic guide I’ll explain the best ways to use them (in my opinion).
Never underestimate the Juggernog. It’s an essential tool for surviving. For me, it’s always my first buy.
After that you have multiple choices prioritizing them as the game is going. You have to think of the weapons you have, how your teammates are doing and evaluate the general progression of the game session.
For example, I got a Python in the box and already have a Juggernog, my teammates are doing fine without great need for revives and I got some money to spend. My first choice would be a Speed Cola. It allows you to reload much faster and kill a lot more zombies in a short ammount of time.
On the other hand I could have a game where there are some teammates going down frequently and I have a Galil. I guess my priority would be a Quick Revive.
Another thing to consider is if your teammates have Tombstones or not. If they all have Tombstones they probably don’t want you to revive them unless they have a lot of money to spend and quickly buy all the perks again. That being said, if they don’t need you to revive them, you dont need to buy a Quick Revive.
Keep in mind that you only can have 4 perks at a time, including the Tombstone.
There is a way to have all the perks at the same time.
For that you have to have 4 perks including the Tombstone and die. When you comeback in the next round you have to buy the remaining perks you were missing in the first place AND another Tombstone BEFORE you catch your tombstone from the place where you died.
This way you can get all the perks at once.
Note for Tranzit:
(Thanks to Mr,Saturn and some research on my own)
There are some persistent perks you can earn in this mode. The comunity calls it “persistent-perks” (as opposed to permanent-perks) because you can actually lose them.
Here is a quick list:
Juggernog
You need to go to a solo game, buy the quick revive perk and get yourself downed by the bench in the starting room for tranzit. After that, you get revived and you should see green smoke, if you don’t, get downed again and you should get it. Obviously you have to rebuy the queick revive once you get downed.
Deadshot Daiquiri
“Deadshot Daiquiri”-like permanent perk unlocks after getting a double headshot, as opposed to a certain accumulation of headshots in a single game or overall.This gives you to shoot a zombie in any body part and thier head will explode.
You lose the perk once you get enough bodyshots not to compensate for headshots. In an average of about 20. So be shure to keep killing with headshots. Note that in higher rounds this average lowers to a point that you can lose it with a single bodyshot.
Note that this perk can only be won from round 3 onwards.
Upgraded Barricades (Steel barricades)
You need to build 50+ barricades in one game. This slows down zombies taking barricades down. This is lost by not repairing a barrier in a round.
Stamin-Up
You Need to sprint 15-25 miles in one game to unlock Stamin-up.
Don’t really know how you lose this one :p
Quick Revive
You need to revive 20 people in one game! This enables you to revive faster.
You lose this one once you don’t complete a full revive. If you start reviving and interrupt it before the teammate is revived you lose it.
Carpenter Pro
Kill a zombie in a baricade during the effects of carpenter.
Don’t know how to lose it.
If anyone has some strategic information or ideas about perks they are welcome. 🙂