Survival The newer guide for beginners based on experience

[Dragonbahn]

(This will mostly contain special tips for west point (Haven't been in Muldraugh )

The Player:

A good starting player build is either Construction worker or Fire Fighter as the employment.

Good player trait builds are:

Brooding

Clumsy

Light Drinker

Light Eater

Lucky

Prone to Illness or Hypocondriac

Short Tempered

Strong

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The spawn house:

Look for bags, big hiking bags are the best and they spawn in bedrooms.

Find a weapon. Best alternative first to last: Axe,spiked bat, hammer, frying pan, crowbar, baseball bat (Low

damage and you get encumbered very quickly) and hands(Yes, they're better than any stabbing

weapon agains a few zeds)

Grab a minimum of 4 sheets and maximum of 6 sheets and all meds.

Also grab all the water containers and food, perishable and nonperishable and grab all skillbooks.     Magazines, newspaper and books are not needed.

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Safe house:

Unless you are a skilled player already (What are you doing here?) Make one of the houses west of the elementry school your safe house and have a look in all the garages there. When you feel that you are ready or are a skilled player* I strongly recommend making the brown building just west of the motel your safe house.

 

Make your safe house safer:

When you first enter a new house that you are planning to take over put sheets on key windows (high visibility and broken windows). You can get extra sheets from the top floor curtains. If you have a hammer start banging down non-useful doors to get some planks and barricade¤ broken windows or any windows you feel are important. Have at least three or four exits (Two on top, two on the bottom). If you have a saw start chopping down trees and barricade ALL bottom floor windows. Always read the proper skill book to gain max xp for the work. Never ignore the sound of a zed banging on windows. They could be trying to get into your house.

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Looting: (Don't forget to loot corpses)

Always grab:

Meds, food(not rotten food), axes, hammers, nails, skill books(that you dont have already), hardware materials such as duct tape and glue, tools that don't have unlimited uses(not saws) and ammo.

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Food:

Cook everything in a soup or stew or something like that. Never eat a non perishable if you don't have to, you'll need that when the power goes out.

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Fighting:

Close quarter combat in houses:

Use a hammer. Open doors with the weapon ready for smashing of heads. NEVER use a two handed weapon such as the axe or baseball bat. You can't be to careful.

 

Outside:

Always check your surroundings. Do 360 spin here and there to make sure you're not being shadowed by a zed .

 

Dealing with 3+ zeds

Use a one handed swinging weapon and take some beta blockers if you have them. You can try to get a hit or two on KO'd zeds when you have the opurtunity

7+ zeds

Axe or spiked baseball bat in BOTH hands. Beta blockers is a must! Use a hit and run tactic. Don't try to hit zeds on the ground. You'll get eaten by standing zeds.

15+

EXTREAM CAUTION ADVISED. Axe in both hands, beta blockers. High risk of death. Don't let them get close to you. If you get caught theres no getting out of there.

25+

Don't try to get them all at once. Good time to try out that shotgun huh?

:excl:The Mall

Shotgun, axe in both hands, beta blockers. You will probably die anyways.

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POIs

The map

When getting books:

The Post office, Enigma Books and the school in the north west.

 

Hardware:

Hardware store(duh)

Auto shop

 

Guns:

Police station

Giga-mart (loads of shotgun shells behind the counters)

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Misc:

When traveling big distances, try to make a secondary safe house on the way there to have a point of retreat.

 

Don't look for bugs on a serious save(I did )

 

If you're dieing with no point of return but like the progress you've made, drop everything on the ground and drink bleach. Start a new character on the same save and come back to the death point.

 

The pzwiki is good if you find something new and yo don't know what the heck.

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* You may choose this house as your first safe house.

¤ I recommend reading the level one carpentry book first to get extra xp.

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HOPE I HELPED WITH MY MISTAKES

[Impetiso]

Its a nice guide, but I have to say I'm doing none of the points you have mentioned
 
I tend to have at least 2 tools of each, even if they have unlimited uses. Thats because I make "sets" of tools for traveling and making new safehouses. I don't want to run from my house and find myself without a saw or something, so I have a set of tools always in all my safehouses (plus the "new home" set), so i tend to grab all the tools I find (and rotten food, rotten food that you can cook to be more specific).

 

I kind of disagree about the shotgun. For my play style, firearms tend to be more an annoyance than a useful weapon. Even going to the mall, I would rather use a knife instead a shotgun (which is a bad idea, but not as worse as firing a shotgun in the middle of hundreds of zombies). In the mall is better sneaking than shooting.

 

And don't forget to grab as many garbage bags as you can, as you make rain collectors with them.

[plekpot]

I disagree with a some things. Clumsy is a very bad trait to pick so I've heard (at least for the -1), it makes sneaking hard. The no two handed weapon indoors seems not really necessary, just open the door and immediatly walk backwards while charging your weapon or simply open the door, shout and run out. I'm fairly sure beta blockers are only needed when using firearms, it has no effect on melee effectiveness.

A good loadout if you're a bit more advanced:

Short tempered, brooding, light drinker, hard of hearing <---> strong, lucky.

[Dragonbahn]

As I stated: This is based on personal experience only.

I disagree with a some things. Clumsy is a very bad trait to pick so I've heard (at least for the -1), it makes sneaking hard. The no two handed weapon indoors seems not really necessary, just open the door and immediatly walk backwards while charging your weapon or simply open the door, shout and run out. I'm fairly sure beta blockers are only needed when using firearms, it has no effect on melee effectiveness.

A good loadout if you're a bit more advanced:

Short tempered, brooding, light drinker, hard of hearing <---> strong, lucky.

Beta blockers do affect the accuracy of ALL weapons, along with smaller knockback(maybe just being encumbered)

[Vonholtz]

I disagree with a some things. Clumsy is a very bad trait to pick so I've heard (at least for the -1), it makes sneaking hard. The no two handed weapon indoors seems not really necessary, just open the door and immediatly walk backwards while charging your weapon or simply open the door, shout and run out. I'm fairly sure beta blockers are only needed when using firearms, it has no effect on melee effectiveness.

A good loadout if you're a bit more advanced:

Short tempered, brooding, light drinker, hard of hearing <---> strong, lucky.

I agree with clumsy I would not take this. But Beta blockers do help with melee as well as firearms loading I know for sure aiming I think it dose help. But it dose help with vision. when your panicked your vision cone get less. You lose sight of zombies out to the right and left of your character. Beta blockers return your peripheral vision.  And in melee combat you don't want to miss one zed in close that the one that bits you. After all I die 99% of the time to the zombie I did not see. Now I am not sure but it seem when my panic is realy high I some time swing and miss I am not sure if this is do to panic or my toon just swing to much and need to catch there breath. I care beta blockers on me all the time if I have any. I will not go in to a house if I am panicked at all. I like to have my peripheral vision at it best in small places.

[plekpot]

Cool, nice to know that. With lucky I find loads of meds on zombies, no need to hit the pharmacy. I use panic to 'see' zombies in a house before I can visually see them.

[nasKo]

Coolski guide for beginners.

For people who like to dive right into multiplayer, the lucky trait might not be as useful if the server has been going for a bit already.

Lucky would only affect the loot rate of areas/containers that haven't been visited/streamed afaik.

[Connall]

Coolski guide for beginners.

For people who like to dive right into multiplayer, the lucky trait might not be as useful if the server has been going for a bit already.

Lucky would only affect the loot rate of areas/containers that haven't been visited/streamed afaik.

 

This is correct (as far as I'm aware as well.)

[VoltageHero]

This could just be me, but I find that the Light Eater is pretty useful.

 

Probably due to the fact you don't have to eat very often, storing food up it pretty easy, and I've managed to come across instances where I would be better off eating refrigerated foods at the place I found em, instead of bringing em back to the safehouse, due to the lack of space, early in (around two-three days).

 

Dunno. Might have just gotten lucky, but it's always something to look into using if you're having issues with getting food as a newer player or such.