What's your favorite build and why?

[TheDreaded1]

I tend to focus on early game grinding while I have a solid food supply at the beginning of the game. Books are vital to this strategy, so I go for a looting focused, combat build. I almost always start unemployed for the extra 8 pts. 

 

Negative Traits

 

Clumsy- As your sneak skill rises you make less noise, which helps to counteract this trait.

 

Disorganised- Controversial, I know, but if you find a base with enough storage space, it will hold everything until you can build crates. Then you just build more crates than normal and the trait is counteracted

 

Hemophobic- If you try to doctor wounds in the middle of a bunch of zombies, you are doing it wrong, lol. Therefore, panicking while alone, in a "safe" place isn't a big deal.

 

High Thirst- Grab a few cooking pots, find a permanent water source to fill them, and purify in a campfire. Easy to counteract.

 

Slow Healer- Only really sucks when you break a leg. Solution: be extremely careful during construction of 2nd floor.

 

Slow Reader- Takes a bit longer to read a book, only noticed in mp and still not that big of a deal.

 

Weak Stomach- You'll almost never have to eat rotten food, and its an odd number, works well with hemophobic to give a 6 pt trait.

 

Positive Traits

Brave- Not neccessary with beta blockers, but I like having it. 

 

Dextrous- Absolutely LOVE this trait. Perfect for in and out loot missions near hordes.

 

Fast Learner- This build wouldn't work without this trait. You'd die before making any real progress regarding skills.

 

Fit- Being able to run longer than usual has saved me more times than I can count. I always take this.

 

Inconspicuous- Allows me to get closer to zombies, great for loot runs.

 

Lucky- Affects loot spawn and chance to penetrate skin from zombie attacks, among other things. Worth it just for the loot spawn.

 

Outdoorsman- 2pts to never have to worry about sickness from weather? Yes please.

 

Stout- This makes combat easy. Remember to charge your swings and you'll knock most zombies down with one swing of a decent weapon, then easy kill on ground.

 

I start off with no points in any survival skills, but the build lets me grind them up pretty quickly, which makes me an endgame demon. 

 

 

[winterpyre]

I usually go with firefighter as my profession for the 1+ to strength, fitness and sprinting but no extra points.

for good traits

     Strong - With the +1 from profession this maxes your strength out, 20 carry weight and you hit hard

     Athletic - Again with the +1 from profession this maxes your fitness allowing you to run/chop trees/forage/fight longer without tiring

     Fast Learner - Really needed since this build lacks innate bonuses to most skills

     Organized - Lets you carry 2 4 log bundles in the large hiking backpack, and helps general scavenging.

     Runner - Helps you level your sprinting skill and faster gathering early on

     Lucky - Always take it, better loot spawns might save you more time than anything else, I've searched all of west point killed hundreds of zeds and I just wanted a sledgehammer.......... but no

 

for negative traits

     High thirst - While the water is on this isn't an issue just carry 2-3 water bottles and refill as needed, though you may want to build near water until your able to make a rain collector if it goes out really early.

     Slow healer - Like you said just be careful building.

     Thin-skinned - With your speed and strength you should be able to avoid being hit in the open, just be careful exploring inside.

     Claustrophobic - Really annoying early on as you will constantly hear you heart racing while your searching houses, I like this since i like to make my own bases in-between towns and not considered inside.

     Conspicuous - I'd rather not loot until most zeds are dead and I typically setup my main base outside town

     Prone to illness - Cook your food, don't get soaked 4 points easy

     Homophobic - only a slight panic when doing on yourself, as for the inability to preform it on others is debatable, in SP its easy points.

     Weak stomach - Cook your food, don't eat rotten stuff, yadda yadda free points

     Clumsy - same reason as Conspicuous

     Slow reader - Time lapse in SP

 

no innate bonuses to anything except sprinting, but with max fitness you can level skills pretty fast, just make sure you get books to help out. Max strength lets you fight easy and loot a lot, I typically use a knife early so that I can use a extra bag in my secondary slot.

[TheDreaded1]

Frying pan, if you want to use 1h, has great knockdown power, even more so with your strength, and hammers have great one shot potential

[zomboid123]

While I don't have a favorite build these are some of the traits I always take:

Negative: weak stomach, hemophobic, restless sleeper, high thirst, very underweight, slow healer
Positive: fast learner, dextrous, fast reader, thick skinned, lucky

Though I usually drop lucky when I play in muldraugh because sledgehammers are a dime a dozen down there, for west point it's a must unless you want to have to run all the way down to muldraugh.

[hyperchondriac]

At the moment it's high thirst, out of shape, restless sleeper, slow healer, disorganised, hemophobic, weak stomach, short sighted

and dextrous, fast reader, brawler, fast learner, handy, hunter

works with either electrician or engineer professions, i prefer electrician for generator and moving fridge/oven abilities straight up, and reading carpentry books for levelling once i'm set up.

please don't nerf this devs

[Geras]

I'm currently playing (SP):

 

LUMBERJACK - I love the faster axe swing for chopping zombies and +1 strength is epic

 

high thirst - not a problem, water is abundant

sleepy head - not a problem, unnoticeable

slow healer - it's okay unless broken limb, but doable even so

slow reader - minor inconvenience

hemophobic - not a problem

weak stomach - not a problem

short sighted - not a problem

thin skinned - I'm quite handy with an axe and usually not let any zombies close

prone to illness - I don't usually take this but should be ok

conspicuous - easier to get attention of single zombies from a larger distance, which is what I want

 

athletic - a must-have, as I don't like to get exhausted from chopping down zeds

strong - I usually take weak with my lumberjack but this time I decided to change things

lucky - all my characters have this

brave - not necessary but I like it on my characters

dextrous - nice to have

handy - mostly for blade maintenance

outdoorsman - all my characters have this

 

 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Geras

[jamesorbe0]

Current playing 6 months later  for 16 days and im still alive

 

park ranger - best for surviving in long term

angler - also best for surviving in long term if your lucky you can caught big fish -260+ hunger but it weights 30.8

 

sleepyhead - i like this because in 6 months later whole day is 1 hour real time

hard of hearing - make the game harder

short sighted - make the game harder

slow reader - i just pick it so i have 2 points'

 

And geras i think you play first week mode or survival ?? i think your gonna die if you try that build on 6 months later

Edited April 11, 2016 by jamesorbe0

[Geras]

10 minutes ago, jamesorbe0 said:

And geras i think you play first week mode or survival ?? i think your gonna die if you try that build on 6 months later

 

I usually play sandbox with upped zombie count and whatnot but sure, challenge accepted!

[Kelefane]

Negs:

High Thirst

Restless Sleeper

Hearty Appetite 

Sleepyhead 

slow reader 

 

Pos:

Cat's Eyes

Dexterous

Outdoorsman

Lucky

Thick Skinned

Handy  

 

Either Carpenter or Police Officer with this build. Mostly Carpenter though. 

[TheDreaded1]

The difference in playstyles is pretty cool...gives new insight! 

[hunger john]

On 4/10/2016 at 1:03 PM, TheDreaded1 said:

Disorganised- Controversial, I know, but if you find a base with enough storage space, it will hold everything until you can build crates. Then you just build more crates than normal and the trait is counteracted

 

Disorganized is seriously underrated, especially now that we can move containers around.

[TheDreaded1]

4 hours ago, hunger john said:

Disorganized is seriously underrated, especially now that we can move containers around.

Absolutely! easy negative trait to defeat, especially now.

[Slice985]

I prefer the following

 

Axeman

Positive: Stout, Fit, Dexterous and Herbalist (sometimes Lucky)

Negative: Hypoch, Hemophobic, Conspicuous, Clumsy, High Thirst, Hearty Appetite, Weak Stomach (Sometimes Slow Reader, Slow Learner)

 

I like the faster axe and chopping, stout for battle, carrying and sledging, fit for energy management. Dex for being more mobile. Herbalist provides many useful items for fast healing that you can't get elsewhere. Outdoorsman is great, but all you need is a knife and a garbage bag to negate weather for the most part. brave is countered with Beta Blockers. No need to waste points on things you can easily get in game , same for the +1 skills. Each of these traits are all things you cannot get in game (or are difficult/time consuming to get in the case of fit and stout) and all provide useful bonuses. 

 

The drawbacks are easily managed with time management and good stealth/combat skills. I am not very stealthy so Clumsy and Conspicuous mesh well with my playstyle of fight or flight. High Thirst and Hearty Appetite are not a problem in the beginning with power, and are addressed with wise time management skills in building renewable resources.. The Hemo and hypo are mostly free points, if you get bit, just restart anyways, if scratched then wait it out preparing yourself to respawn in the same world with a new character if that is what you like. 

Edited April 13, 2016 by Slice985