_rlg__cataclysm_guide_0.15

/vg/ Cataclysm Guide

-or-

How I Learned to Stop Being a Mutant-Lover and Dig the ASCII

 

Last updated Cataclysm DDA - 0.3 (Git) 3-11-2013

 

-----------------

TABLE OF CONTENTS

-----------------

 

1. Important Websites

2. General Information

 a. Dealing with Crashes

 b. To Static Spawn. Or not to Static Spawn

3. I'm new to Cata Wat Do???

 a. Beginning of the End.

 b. Pomf =3 What are we going to do on this bed Onee-chan?

 c. Ah! Noooo! That Hole is extra Heretical! D:

 d. It felt a little weird at first... But then I kind of liked it.

 e. I'll do whatever it takes to keep Onee-Chan happy and safe!

4. Guide to the Game

 a. Character Generation

  a.1. Archery/Survival Build

 b. The Important Menus

 c. Essential Gear

 d. Getting a Vehicle

 e. Establishing a Base

 f. Food, Water and Meds

 g. Surviving in the Wild

 h. Firepower and Combat

 i. Armor, Clothing, and Tailoring

 j. Tools and Accessories

 k. Traps

 

[spoilery sections begin here]

 

5. Bionics

6. Radiation and Mutations

7. Locations

 a. Laboratories

8. NPCs

9. Specific Enemies

10. Extra Warnings & Meta Tips

 

---------------------

1. Important Websites

---------------------

 

The darkling wolf bugfix/mod branch (USE THIS VERSION FOR NOW):

http://www.cataclysm.glyphgryph.com/smf/index.php?board=5.0

 

The vanilla download (very unstable at the moment and terrible. No longer in development):

http://whalesdev.com/download.php

 

Autobackup scripts:

http://pastebin.com/yPFEEj8k

http://pastebin.com/3gBSbpmV

 

The official wiki:

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

The Forums:

http://www.cataclysmdda.com/smf/index.php

 

Beginner's guide (read this!):

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beginner%27s_Guide

 

Unofficial Nagant Mod

http://www.mediafire.com/?hrg6m7fb4v7jl5x

 

----------------------

2. General Information

----------------------

 

This isn't an ultra-comprehensive, by-the-numbers guide for sperglords. This is just a collection of useful tips and advice for new players. If you want an enemy's or item's specific stats, go check the wiki. It has interactive charts that list all that stuff.

 

First thing to do after starting the game is to go to Help and then '2' options. Look shit over. Make sure autosave is on (It works now) and change the other settings if you wish. Here is where you resize the view screen, toggle dynamic/static spawning, etc.

 

Be sure to backup your save folder periodically! It doesn't happen often, but sometimes saves can corrupt and ruin all your hard work.

 

There's quite a bit of stuff to learn and do in Cataclysm. If you are curious about anything, make sure:

-your question isn't addressed in the pastebin

-it's not answered in the wiki

-there's isn't already thread about it on the Cataclysm forums (use the search function)

 

This pastebin itself is a little spoilery, and most of the fun in Cataclysm is getting into hilarious, zombie-related fiascoes. Part of the fun of a sandbox roguelike is exploring and investigating dangers for yourself without prior knowledge. As such, this guide will try to avoid spoiling you too much and will focus on general guides and tips rather than telling you where to get the X55 Fusion Cannon of Sodomy.

 

Suggestion: go play the game a little without reading the guides, make a few entertaining mistakes, and read the guide once you've gotten your feet wet and want specific questions answered.

 

-----------------------

a. Dealing with Crashes

-----------------------

 

Sometimes your game will crash. Shit happens. Delete your save folder and paste back in your backup save folder.

 

If you really can't bear to revert to a backup save, there are ways around a crash - if you load up your game after a crash, your character will have all the items, bionics, and traits, etc. that he had when the game crashed, but the game map itself will revert back to what it was when you last saved (e.g. your vehicle will be where it was when you last saved your game).

 

If something terrible happens to your save folder (like an extremely rare, world-corrupting bug that refuses to generate new map tiles), you can transfer your character to a new world by deleting all the files in your save folder except for your character's .sav file and master.gsav and then load the game.

 

Everything your character is wearing and holding will spawn along with him to a random location on a completely new world map, so load up on whatever you want to bring along with you. Just make sure you save your game above ground before you perform the transfer or you will likely spawn in solid rock. Not fun.

 

GO INTO OPTIONS AND TURN ON THE AUTOSAVE. IF YOU POST ABOUT HOW YOU LOST YOUR CHAR AND IT WAS OFF SO HELP ME GOD....

 

[Commentary]

The bugs are fucking HORRENDOUS. When we say you goddamn save, quit, and backup your save file before doing up/down stairs we mean it. When we warned you to save, quit and backup before going to sleep we meant it. When we say you need to save, quit, and backup every couple hours when exploring new areas especially by vehicle we mean it. Use the darkwolf mod(DDA) to have a more stable and non-shit cata. It's a pretty fun game once you get used to having to make backups all the time to recover from save corrupting when driving to new areas.

 

------------------------------------------

b. To static spawn. Or not to Static Spawn

------------------------------------------

As of Cata 0.2 an option was added which spawns the population of zombies in the town once instead of spawning waves every 20 or so minutes. And that's about all you're going to get barring 4 or 5 zombies worth of respawns a day. In 0.2 it's still in alpha and broken as fuck so wait for 0.3, get a repacked compile, or use cygwin/compile it yourself. So what's the takeaway? You have to skirt the edges of town and leapfrog in while disposing of everything from mundane zombies to Fresh,shrieker,brutes and sometimes even a hulk probably long before you've found a gun to kill it with or drugs to outrun it. Thankfully, once you DO clear the area it's mostly empty meaning you can throw on maximum storage and lug houses of 2x4's around w/o having to stop to clear a mob all the time.

 

Some changes to keep in mind is that the Archery/Survival build from the CharGen section is incredibly powerful. '(' Deconstruct some rope for 3 ft strings or craft thread into strings if you are having trouble getting some for your initial longbow. Noise is also far less of a factor as you no do not have to worry about spawning more from the racket you're making. Only attracting existing packs. This means you can get by with a lot more window smashing, larger engines, etc. Also, with static spawns heavily infesting the interiors of towns you may not want to run straight in only to get stomped by a brute/hulk. The slow and steady is to clear a block on the edge for a secure water source and then grind survival/throwing in the wilderness, craft a shovel, and spike pit warfare your way across the town. The GottaGoFast method is to use longbows/Taekwondo/or melee in general, keep track of your rough attack speed, and do lots of house to house kiting through windows, across shrubs, killing all the way and always breaking off before you might get hit.

 

IMO it's best to learn with static spawns off so you can learn tactics vs varying wave composition then apply what you learned to a static game. VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING IN THIS GUIDE PRESUMES YOU ARE STILL PLAYING WITH DYNAMIC SPAWNS. (Use the damn shrubs & windows guys! Pain lowers your speed, and low speed means death!)

 

 

--------------------------------

3. I'm new to Cata Wat Do???

--------------------------------

You read this pasta. All of it. And try to actually soak it in. Then come back and read this. Then read the pasta. Again. Yes, we know it's a manual. No, we don't care that you don't want to read it. Then read the tips at 10. Extra Warnings & Meta Tips. You need a rough familiarity with all the odds and ends cata has before a (not really a) quickstart will do you any good at making it to summer/winter/dying of old age. Knowing how to scrape by with suboptimal/without stuff is essential to survival.Good alternatives are the Beginners guide and arch//survival build in the important links section.

 

-------------------------

a. Beginning of the End.

-------------------------

 

Welcome back! Now that you have a rough familiarity with all the items and whatnot we'll be talking about and the menus you'll use let's get started

 

This is your character. If you have trouble with not getting guns use the arch/survival build or an optimized version of it for longbow (ab)use.:

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Str 10

Dex 8

Int 13

Per 10

 

Good Muts:

Fleet Footed, Quick, Fast Healer, Night vision

 

Bad Muts:

Heavy sleeper, poor hearing, Glass Jaw, Lightweight, Addictive Personality, Truth Teller

 

Skills: None

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

---------------------------------------------------------

b. Pomf =3 What are we going to do on this bed Onee-chan?

---------------------------------------------------------

Your main goals are as follows:

1. Get the survival trinity - You NEED these to live if you want to avoid a drawn out death to starvation/thirst

        Butchering implement like a butchering knife>valid edged weapon>steak knife>pocket knife

        Pot/Pan to boil water to avoid food poisoning

        cheap Lighter to light fires

 

2. Extending your ability to scavenge for goods. -  Particularly your storage size and ability to kill fresh/brute/hulk zombies.

 

        Storage - Military rucksacks > backpacks > Messenger bag/purse - loot trunks on a quiet vehicle

                2 Fitted trenchcoats+1 Messenger Bag+1 Purse gives you ~ 88 storage with 1 Enc btw.

 

        Firepower - Raid gunstores for a hulkbuster. keep an eye out for a longbow/nailgun to handle trash mobs and fresh zombies. Cut your 2x4 into a wood spear/grab 2-4 combat knives/make a nailbat

 

        Mobility - Strong stimulants like cocaine/adderall to outrun deadly threats. Strong painkillers to avoid speed loss. A vehicle of -any- kind to take you from town outskirts to town outskirts in search of loot. Keep in mind that an unmuffled 2L engine & 5L muffled produce 60 noise per thrust essentially being a rapid zombie spawner.(Presuming a linear growth of size to power) You'll still grab anything and everything nearby with the racket though

 

3. Luxury Time. - Being on the ragged edge of survival is not a place to stay

 

        Sustenance - Grab jerrycans from garages and carboys from houses to lug days worth of water per refill trip. If you have all but one of that container type filled you can cycle through and not have to play container tetris. Train survival to about 2-4 for decent success rates on recovering meat from wolves/deer/bears. Surv 5 gives decent returns on wild vegetable/squirrels/rabbits/cougars. Hunt every other day at a minimum and a 4-day stock of CLEAN water in case the RNG sends a 3+ day thunderstorm your way Keep more water if resistance in town is fierce.

 

        Extra firepower - strip-loot gun shops so you have a variety to use as your ammo stocks dwindle. Keep an eye out for spare combat knives if you use edges and better weapons if you use the others.

       

        Continued good health - Find and reinforce two rain coats to avoid freezing to death in the rain/get sick. Slam bottles of vitamins down to boost your immune system. Craft

 

        Ease of looting - Find/craft a crowbar for easy in/out of homes and stripping fences for oodles of nails/2x4. Use a picklock for home entry otherwise.(If you lack either just smash in through a window/door but ONLY if there's something you see worth making a racket for) Hammer and screwdriver let you remove windows and enter if the area is clear as well as silently removing the window from a 1-window bathroom to prepare it as a killzone. You can board up windows in garages to (kind of) safely repair a vehicle as well as turning suboptimal bars/liquor stores/homes into killzones. If you lack them and see something good you'll just have to smash and grab. Remember to clean/duct tape the window to avoid getting cut if the area is clear

 

        Sustained Travel - read up on mechanics and repair & improve your ride with more storage/armor plating. Add metal tanks for longer travel, mufflers & smaller engines for less noise. 30-40 mph easily outruns everything. Keep a repair kit and a 1k buffer of batteries to do 20 repairs in an emergency. Have a tent handy whenever you range long distance on foot w/o easy shelter or melt in the acid rain.

 

        Staying Warm - Warmth is a significant foe to be respected. Keep accumulating the generic clothing kit listed in the full game guide and keep it reinforced. Get a cold-weather kit for the bad days/winter

 

        Higher Education - Accumulate a full book set from libraries/homes.  Pitching a Tent/Guns n Ammo>Under the Hood, Sew What!? Sew Clothing!>Big Book of First Aid>Everything else. Important breakpoints are:

Survival ~3ish for decent meat rates from corpses. 5 for foraging vegetables

Firearms 1 lets you attach gun mods like silencers

Mechanics 1 to craft crowbars and silencers

Tailoring 2 to not wreck your clothing too badly to reinforce it. 3+ for repairing damaged clothing.4+ for badly damaged and not having a fair chance of destroying it. Tailoring 1/mech 1 for filter masks. Train on junk you wont wear and dump it once it takes a hit of damage/cut into rags.

First Aid 1 to craft bandages from Rags/superglue/booze

Computers 2 to only set the alarm off a couple times at police station/sewer computers and rarely break the console.

Cooking 2 for superglue 3 for most of the advanced food recipes as well as zombie pheramones (adjacent-aoe zombie charm)

Traps 2 for bear trap/nailboard traps to reinforce unpittable areas. 4 for best success you'll easily get for trap removal.

 

 

----------------------------------------------

c. Ah! Noooo! That hole is extra heretical Onee-Chan!! D:      

----------------------------------------------

The first week of your survivors life is the art of making do with the best you can with what little you find. The RNG loves to plop you down in a small town with no gun shop or vehicle let alone enough of a survival kit to live comfortably. Until you get quite far in the game you will not have optimal gear. You will in fact have gaping holes where useful gear should be and shit where there isn't. Thankfully, you are a survivor and you have a strange... arousal... for broken & cleaned windows and fighting from the other side of them so that wood spear/nail board can keep you safe. Here's how you live:

 

Awakening:

Walk over to the evac shelter windows and 'c'lose the curtains. You want your NPC to stay where he is. 'C'hat with him and ask him if he needs anything to get a quest. Afterwards ask if he can give you anything to get a (usually junk) item. Keep at it and you'll get something eventually. Just don't intimidate, two failures and he'll turn hostile. When he gives you junk just store it underground

 

Head to the basement and look it over for a storage item/med/drug. There usually isn't but it's worth a go. Then head back upstairs and 's'mash one of the benches for a 2x4. Use the 2x4 for the slightly defensive choice (weak block) or drop it, walk outside (And close the door you savage!) and grab a rock before coming back and crafting a nail board for a more damaging weapon.

 

Now that you are equipped to kill it's time to go "shopping". Press m to check your map in case the NPC quest updated it. Your goal is to head directly to a mil surplus/clothing store/sporting goods and get a backpack/rucksack so you can actually carry more than a weapon. Vacuum up drugs as they have for vol/weight as well as lighters. As you're running over to the mil surplus/clothing store/sporting goods keep an eye open for backpacks/pots/pans/lighters/knives in houses. smash in if you must. It's valuable enough that reducing the game start spawn immunity is worth it. If you see a bathroom/room with only 1 window open up your m map and put a 'N'ote with K:Killzone - Direction for when you need to clear a mob. Keep at it until you find your survival trinity and strip pharmacies of the useful drugs as you pass them. 'N'ote F:Fences when you see them for future quick sources of 2x4's and nails. By now you've no doubt been chased by zombies. (Good thing you move far faster than them!) If you need to dump your mob head to the nearest killzone hop through the window, double bump some aspirin to preempt the pain. If you have more than 3 torso enc you need to either not go in the window if you don't have a good lead and keep running or run through the bathroom door, 'D'ump nonessentials to an adjacent tile, take off some encumbering torso clothing so your attack speed and low skill isn't getting you too torn up. Using this method you can kill about ~150ish including about ~10 grabbers before you're pretty badly banged up. Once you've found the holy survival trinity you spend your time working on your other goals.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

d. It felt a little weird at first... But then I kind of liked it.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Looting is more of an art than a practice with a sliding scale of effectiveness/risk/and reward. Your first day and to some extent day two are essentially freebies presuming you aren't making too much racket.

 

General Practices:

        If you can't outrun it you need to dispose of it. On your terms. If a fresh zombie is bothering you use the nearest shrub and adjust your positioning so it gets slowed. Ditto with brutes. Shrubs are nature's windows. If you see a hulk and don't have a hulkbuster/stims I'm sorry for your loss...

        Always close the curtains. if something has seen you, open the window, hop out, and if you don't want to leave take it to the nearest killzone and dispose of it, butcher the corpse, and then head back until the curtains in the house/library are closed. You can board up broken/store/garage windows to block LoS. This gives you more time to strip-loot, break down/deconstruct furniture if you need 2x4's & nails, and can be a potent LoS breaker.

        Weaving through alleys to lose parts of mobs. Just not too tight of alleys. Sometimes they come from both ends...

        Once you have a nailgun/longbow you can just kill your way through everything below a brute easily. Keep ~200 nails/50 arrows respectively.

        Butcher corpses so they aren't reanimated later on.

       

 

Looting at Day -

        Advantages: You can easily explore and id the buildings in town, see threats like brutes before they're right in your face, can see the contents easier w/o having to use flashlights/more time seaching, and you can drive around with a quiet loot wagon, strip loot+close curtains 2-3 houses in 20 minutes, race off a couple blocks until you lose the mob and repeat.

 

        Disadvantages: Things see you from pretty far off which means lots of clearing the mob

 

Looting at Night - ALWAYS have safe mode on and a hulkbuster wielded!

        Advantages: Zombies have to rely on noise/smell to find you which means a lot less mob clearing. and arguably safer looting.

 

        Disadvantages: You're pretty much limited to places you've seen and have revealed on your map if you want to do -any- kind of targeted looting, vehicle strip-looting is riskier, moving and having a brute/hulk come into view adjacent to you, wastes batteries/rags & booze and time if you don't

 

 

So which do I do? Well if you don't have desperately low hulkbuster ammo you can loot at day and just periodically clear mobs and beat up fresh zombies.  If you're low on ammo, need to haul lots and/or heavy stuff, want to dig lots of pits in a visible area, essentially anything that you don't want to stop every 20-30 min to clear a mob, then loot at night.

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

e. I'll do whatever it takes to keep Onee-Chan happy and safe!

-----------------------------------------------------------

So now you have an idea of how to loot. But how about what to loot?

 

Targets: Generally aim for your most pressing needs first. A bunch of junk clothing from stores/houses isn't going help if you can't handle a brute! What use are books if you have nothing to cook in! If it has nothing of value left mark it with a L:Looted note on your map. Get that storage, survival trinity, guns to keep you safe, and drugs to outrun and outlast any threat. Everything else is gravy

 

Layer your comestible consumption to last as long as you can. In practice you have about 3 days to get survival reliable at giving meat and find/craft a pot/pan/stone pot or you're in deep shit. Permafood like MRE's/canned/honeycombs/snacks will buy you a little more time but it will be painful. If you didn't take poison resistant and run out of a clean stuff to drink....

 

Food Spoilage (in hours):

 

Food -   meat sammich 36 > Pizza 48 > berries 60 > Frozen Dinners 60 > Fruit pie 72 > Vegetables/Fruit 90 > soup 120 broth 160 > V8 240 > bread 240

Drink - Orange juice 120 > Apple cider 144

 

Every Two days: MINIMUM

Go hunting and lug back 3 days worth of meat at the least. Replenish the flammables stock, and make sure you have plenty water and that it's clean water and not regular water. Make a water trip if it isn't.

 

Otherwise go looting at your time of choice. If you have don't want to loot and leftover xp throw shit/train tailoring, boil water, butcher stuff. If it's light out read. If it's dark you can cut/smash wood from a nearby forest you scouted.

 

Notes & You:

Mark vehicle parts you find on the road, 1-window killzones, houses with fences for later nail/wood harvesting, traps, other killzones/trapped alleys, swimming/shallow pools in mansions and wilderness, whether you've taken all the royal jelly from a beehive, looted the crater, found a map extra like military/lab bodies/copter crash/crates/etc., the high radioactivity craters, where your vehicle is if you have to walk out of eyesight, what kind of useful loot a garage has, and where stashes/home are.

 

All that's left now is to prepare your vehicle the best you can and roam the world marauding and looting. Happy slaying!

 

--------------------------------

4. Guide to the Game

--------------------------------

 

Most of the stuff you read in this section will be information pertaining to the early game. If you're just starting, it'll probably all go over your head. After all, there's a lot to do in Cataclysm, so it's best to do read this as you play along.

 

Any information beyond this section will be EXTREMELY spoilerly, so it's recommended that new players read up to "Tools and Accessories" and then go play the game themselves.

 

If you do die in-game, any new characters you make will spawn on the same map, so you can theoretically go loot your old body if you manage to find it. If you'd like to generate a new map, just delete your save folder or have the option enabled in the options menu.

 

[Commentary] TL;DR

 

Survival:

>Save, quit, and backup all the goddamn time

>Find backpack/military rucksack

>Find shallow pool within a reasonable distance of a shelter on the outskirts of a town (These are temporarily disabled for bug fixing. Find a mansion in the wilderness or make night runs to fill up containers)

>Periodically hunt for food by throwing rocks/wooden spears/Javelins and looting by night

>You can now essentially live forever.

 

a. Character Generation

-----------------------

 

The Chargen screen is made up of four tabs: stats, traits, skills, and description.

 

[STATS] are the most important. Generally, the most important stats are intelligence, then strength, with dexterity and perception trailing in behind. An 8 in a stat is decent enough to get you through the game, but intelligence governs skill growth, skill retention, ability to install bionics (fuck yes!) and all that jazz, so you'll pretty much always want to jack it up to 14 unless you like being 'tarded. Book breakpoints for int are:

Robitics:14, SCIP:13, Chemistry:12, Adv Electronings & Comp301:11, Transistor/first aid:7, Hood/Web:5, Sew/trap/knife:4. Strength is another good one to boost up a little to 10 or so. Dex somewhat boosts your crit and dodge rate with skill being more important. Perception is kind of pointless to boost beyond 8 since your skills matter much, much more when it comes to damage and accuracy. Keep in mind that you need 10 Per to spot land mines. Mechanics crunch here.

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Stats

 

[TRAITS] are basically advantages/disadvantages. It's generally up to you which positive traits and negative traits you want, as they can add flavor to a character if you're into that kinda stuff (sup /tg/).

 

0/12 Good negative traits:

2 - Near-Sighted (Do NOT take this if you expect to melee at ALL. Keep in mind that it will also eat up two precious inventory slots for glasses+safety glasses)

1 - Heavy Sleeper (if you pick this, sleep somewhere secure or you could wake up with a zombie dick in your mouth)

2 - Poor Hearing (Be aware that if you take this you may bumble into threats like black widow houses in the dark that you would have known about from the skittering sounds otherwise. If you can accept that then it's a nice 2 points)

3 - Glass Jaw (If you're taking significant damage to the head from a brute/hulk etc. you've already fucked up badly)

1 - Lightweight (Generally the negative effects are manageable and wont cause a problem. Stuff like getting drunk or high easier and for longer)

3 - Addictive Personality (If you aren't doing tons of drugs every day, slamming stacks of nyquil, and being an in-game alcoholic you'll be fine and this is a nice 3 points)

2 - Trigger Happy (if you pick this, keep an eye open for a sniper conversion kit for your automatic rifles)

1 - Smelly (Wolves/zombies will track you easier but that's generally not a big issue unless you're completely unprepared for a fight)

1 -Wool Allergy (Keep in mind that now that temperature is activated wool clothing can be pretty useful.)

2 -Truth Teller (Implemented finally but if you read to level speech at all you wont need to lie anyway)

1 -Ugly (some NPCs won't like you if you pick this. Isn't too much of a deal if you don't plan on interacting with NPC's)

 

0/12 Good positive traits (they're all pretty damn good, but here are some thread favorites):

3 - Fleet-Footed (gotta go fast! +15% speed on normal ground)

3 - Quick (makes everything you do 10% faster; best trait by far)

2 - Fast Healer (heals HP very quickly as you sleep; good for newer players)

1 - Night Vision (Oh Lordy where to start. This helps an incredible amount when looting at night and seeds your mutations to get high Nv/Full NV. A very solid choice.)

1 - Poison Resistant (for those pesky bees and drinking toilet water. Not a big issue now that we can boil with pots/pans but it can help a lot if you bumble into black widows/toxic gas etc.)

3 - Pack Mule (A non-standard choice but is very useful for a melee build trying to keep a low encumbrance. Points may be better elsewhere.)

3 - Fast Learner (XP from your pool goes into your skills faster. Lets you dump your xp faster then go forage/search for the rest of the day. The tldr is that at high skill levels there's a lower rate of skill comprehension which means you're putting a lot of xp in and not getting much +skill. This bumps the comprehension rate up 50%.)

2 - Deft (quick recovery time for melee builds. As anybody who's missed vs a grabber while fighting on the other side of a window can tell you, missed attacks hurt. Probably not ideal to take but is useful)

1 - Animal Empathy (So wild animals will attack you less. Generally not worth it unless you're having trouble with wolves/cougars/etc. and can't be bothered to throw rock-chans.)

2 - Inconspicuous (This pushes back the spawn timer when you're running around town. Gives you more time to get in further and close curtains/butcher the dead from the previous wave.)

1 - Light Step (quiet like a ninja! Zombies at night are less likely to hear the noise from your quieter footsteps and will have to rely on smell to find you at night)

2 -Robust Genetics (if you want to dick around with mutations this is practically a must)

3 - Martial Arts Training (Taekwondo is the best hands down. You're better off spending time till autumn+ searching for an NPC who can teach it to you and put the 3 points in stats to make taekwondo better. But if you want to have fun it's a reasonable starter)

 

[SKILLS] represent your character's ability to do shit. Dumping chargen points into skills is a waste. Your skills will grow fast enough on their own once you start playing and reading skill books. In the game itself, skills are raised in three ways: practice, books, and NPCs. Practicing the skill (i.e. firing a pistol practices your Firearms skill) draws XP from a pool that regenerates over time and maxes out at 800. Once your pool drops to around 6 or so XP, your skills will stop growing, so go do something else like reading a skill book and let your XP pool refill. If you're about to go to sleep and have xp left over throw stuff, boil water, craft bolts/arrows, etc. to dump that leftover xp.

 

NPCs and certain books can raise your skills without using the pool, so make use of these when you can (books especially).

 

Be aware that skills have a chance of degenerating over time, the chance increasing with skill level. Check the '@' screen to look at your skill list and see the levels and experience in each skill. Skills in red are currently degrading, and if they aren't practiced or kept up by reading skill books, they will eventually drop down one level. It's wise to keep on hand some of the higher level skill books like SICP and Robotics for Fun & Profit and study them right before you need to use those skills since constantly maintaining them is a hassle.

 

Important note: to stop training a skill, scroll down to it and press spacebar - the name should darken to indicate it's turned off.

 

[DESCRIPTION] is your gender and name. These don't affect gameplay, so go nuts. "Dick Butt" is a good male name.

 

Sample Build:

 

Generics Take:

Points remaining 4

Str 10+

Dex10+

Int13+

Per 6-10+ (6 is about the min to notice basic traps like spike boards and shotguns. Don't be surprised if you're in the 4-6 range and step on an xbow trap.)

 

Good Muts:

Quick

 

Bad Muts:

Heavy sleeper, poor hearing, Glass Jaw, Lightweight, Addictive Personality, trigger happy

 

Options for:

1 - Night vision - Helps night raiding immensely and seeds you for high NV.

3 - Fleet footed - Helps you outrun even more fun after getting beatup while overburdened and in pain w/o wasting drugs

2 - Fast healer - Will recover all your hp in one night vs having to spend 2-3+ days sleeping off a failed brute/hulk fight.

1 - Poison resistance - Isn't as important now tht we can boil water but if you expect to be fighting lots of bees/spiders and have shit luck getting a pot/pan it's still a solid choice

2 - Deft - Helps cut down on time loss when you miss which as anyone who does window+wood spear clearing will tell you is important

2 - Inconspicuous lets you easily sneak into town and close window curtains before spawns start dicking you over. Helps give you more time to butcher the previous too

2 - Robust with good starting seeder muts can greatly boost you. Especially for stuff like regen/disease immune/full NV/etc

3 - Martial arts training to get taekwondo

 

More dex to help with dodge/crit cals

More str for dmg & carry weight

Fuck int. If you aren't going to read robots for fun and profit leave it at 13 and if you can deal w/o SCIP you can even lower to 12

Raise Per to help shit weapons like ruks/nailguns/longbows be more effective on the late end 10 per lets you spot land mines instead of finding them by accident take 6 if ballsy

You can swap out glass jaw for a couple other bad muts as well.

 

---------------------------

a.1. Archery/Survival Build

---------------------------

(Taken and updated from the old Archery/Surv build.)

The Archery survival build is all about hitting the ground fast, crafting a Day-1 longbow thanks to Archery/Survival:2 on chargen, and then using your virtually unlimited arrows to wreck your way across town. Keep 50 arrows on you at all times at a bare minimum and a two tile gap between yourself and a hostile zombie as reloading rarely gives them enough time to lunge two tiles and attack. Remember that you can '('Deconstruct rope for string and that you can craft thread into string. YOU NEED 10 STR TO FIRE A LONGBOW

 

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 8

Perception: 12

 

Good Muts:

3 - Fleet Footed - Unreduceable speed boost on 100 movement cost terrain that can't be lost to pain/etc,

3 - Quick - +10% speed to soak minor speed loss to pain/overburden/etc.

2 - Inconspicous - Longer time between waves on dynamic (Replace with whatever if playing on static)

 

Bad Muts 12/12:

1- Heavy Sleeper

2 - Poor Hearing

1 - Lightweight

3 - Addictive Personality

2 - Truth teller

 

Make up the remaining 3 points with:

2 - Near sighted - If you don't mind losing two inventory slots for glasses+safety glasses

3 - Glass jaw - If you can soak the reduced head hp

2 - Trigger happy - If you don't plan on using SMG/Assault Rifles. EVER.

1 - Wool Allergy - If you don't mind having a lot more trouble staying warm

1 - Ugly - If you don't mind harder speech checks with NPC's

 

Personally I recommend taking glass jaw as not wasting ammo burst firing is pretty useful in the late-game

 

Skills:

1 - Archery **

1 - Survival**

 

Modifications:

You can drop Quick or fleetfooted and light step for 4 points and get:

 

Stats:

Str - More carryweight and a larger safezone for having the str to use the longbow

Book breakpoints for int are:

SCIP:13, Chemistry:12, Adv Electronings & Comp301:11, Transistor/first aid:7, Hood/Web:5, Sew/trap/knife:4

Per: 12 for a bit more help getting longbows strong enough to down brutes at medium-high skill

 

Muts:

2 - Fast healer - Fully heal or nearly so after getting banged up badly

1 - Night Vision - Easier time looting at night

1 - Poison resistant - Help block str loss so you can keep using that longbow through the poison

1 - Light Step - Easier time looting at night.

2 - Robust Genetics - For if you're going to go on a mut binge

 

If you play on static then inconspicuous & light step will be of reduced value to you and may be better spent elsewhere.

 

Skills:

1 - Blunt/Cutting/Pierce** to give you a solid melee option vs skeletons you have trouble shotting early on. Blunt & a Nailboard is a solid choice.

1 - Dodge** - To help mitigate all the dodge loss from encumbrance

4 - Dodge**** - Actually have some dodge while enc

 

----------------------

b. The Important Menus

----------------------

 

You'll be looking at these menus regularly, so here's a quick tour:

 

Press '@' to open the character status menu.

 

You'll see six boxes. You can press 'tab' to cycle through the boxes and the arrow keys to look at the various items:

-stats - your base stats and modified stats

-encumbrance - encumbrance caused by the gear you're wearing; read through them to see what effects encumbrance has on each body part

-traits - your base traits and any mutations you have; they're all listed together, but traits cannot be removed

-effects - the effects of any drugs or food you've ingested

-skills - your current skills; listed is the level and the percentage to the next level in parentheses; skills in red are currently degrading

-speed - lists your speed and any modifiers affecting it; you want to keep this as high as you can, so you can run away; 100+ is a decent speed to have

 

Press '%' to view morale modifiers affecting you. High morale means faster XP. Low morale can make you too depressed to do anything. You can raise morale with stuff like candy, booze, Xanax, Marijuana, and porn (go figure).

 

Press '&' to open the crafting screen and see what recipes you have available. You can add more recipes by increasing relevant crafting skills. Items listed in white means you have the necessary materials to begin crafting.

 

Press '*' to open up the construction menu. A higher Construction skill reduces build times. Items listed in white means you have the necessary materials to begin construction.

 

Press 'i' to open your inventory. This is all self-explanatory.

 

Press '?' to open the help menu. Various useful things in it. '1' lets you rebind keys. Bind manual burst fire to + and unbind commit suicide to prevent accidents. '2' lets you change the screen size, turn on autosave, gradual nightfall, etc.

 

-----------------

c. Essential Gear

-----------------

 

First off, you should open up the HELP screen with '?' and check out the Commands section. You'll eventually want to check all sections out, but for now, you're all right just reading Commands, Introduction, and Movement.

 

Your character will start off in a shelter along with one neutral NPC. NPCs are clinically retarded/insane, so you don't have to worry too much about them for now. Just press 'C' to chat with the NPC and beg for junk (you probably won't get anything useful) and see if s/he has any errands for you. The quest is kind of pointless, so don't worry about completing it unless you really feel like it.

 

Press 'm' to open up the world map. You are the blinking white '@' and NPCs are pink, blinking '@'s. Stay away from NPCs. They're mostly insane (some are bros) and will fucking murder your ass for a can of beans. Anyway, look for the nearest town, represented by a cluster of colored arrows. Scroll over them and figure out which buildings are which. You can make notes by pressing 'N' while the map is open; do this whenever you find important things that you'd like to remember or investigate later like shallow pools, unopened crates, or clusters of traps (so you don't fuck up and run into them again).

 

Zombies start spawning at around 9:30, so you have about an hour and a half to get into town and get some quick gear in safety. Either smash a locker in the evac shelter for a pipe, smash a bench for a 2x4 (recommended) or grab a rock & smash a bench to craft a nail board (~+8 dam but no block vs the 2x4) so you have a basic weapon. Go up to the windows and (c)lose the curtains so your NPC doesn't run off while you're gone. Make a beeline for the following:

 

-Sporting Goods

 -two Backpacks (greatly increase carrying volume)

 -Binoculars (Increase view distance by just being in inventory)

 -Flashlight (Seeing in the dark)

 -30ft rope (If you're walking along in a field, carry one of these around to be safe; trust us on this. Can be cut down into smaller ropes and eventually string via '('deconstruction)

 -Frying pan/Pot (These things are your LIFE. you need them to boil water and a pot lets you make advanced stuff like coffee/tea/soup/etc. Houses will have these too and you may want to break in. They're that important.)

 -Cheap lighter (To start fires of course. Houses will have these too. 'a'pply the lighter to a dropped paper wrapper/cardboard box/flammable clothing/heavy stick/wood spear/2x4/log to make a fire to cook/craft with.)

 

-Military Surplus

 -Army Helmet (Protects your noggin until you get a cotton/fur hat that you can actually repair.)

 -two Utility Vests (For carrying more shit.)

 -Military Rucksack (Same as wearing 2 backpacks but only takes up 1 inventory slot.)

 -Combat Knife (To butcher/cut up fabric/rope/carve wood)

 -Army pants (The superior leg storage solution)

 

-Clothing Store

 -2 Backpacks. (Messenger bags/purses will work better in a low-enc build once you have them.)

 -Skirt (Take off your jeans if they are not -1 Encumbrance and switch out for a skirt to run faster; pants slow you down)

 -Cargo pants (Weaker version of army pants for if you prefer storage to going fat)

 -Rain Coat (So you don't catch a cold...no, I'm serious. When you wear it, take off your trenchcoat and put it back on to make sure the rain coat is protected. More on that in the clothing section)

 -Trenchcoat (Swap out your utility vests/t-shirts for these for the good warmth/+storage Make sure they are the 0 Enc fitted versions!)

 

-Hardware Store

 -Nail Gun (Amazing at killing zombie fodder. This will change your life.)

 -Crowbar (For opening locked doors with making only a little noise as well as lifting manhole covers and opening supply crates; can be easily crafted from a pipe & rock with mechanics 1. Needed to lift the manhole cover to use the access tunnel to the mines if you don't/can't use the elevator.)

 - Hammer & Screwdriver (For Disassembling furniture and removing windows)

 

 

WARNING: wearing clothing causes encumbrance (check your status screen with '@'), which affects various stats depending on the body part. Lots of torso encumbrance greatly hampers your melee skill, dodge skill AND SLOWS YOUR ATTACKS, so if you're planning a melee build, you'll want to keep the amount of stuff you wear low. try to be in the 2-3 range. Lower is better yo.

 

--------------------

d. Getting a Vehicle

--------------------

 

Wiki entry:

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vehicles

 

When you see zombies, run away. Unless you're loaded down with four pants, boots, and more shit than you can carry, you should be able to outrun them just fine. Weaving in and out of houses can slow down a horde behind you, especially if you have the Parkour trait. If the doors are locked, you can chuck a rock through a window/smash it and climb in that way, eventually making your way out the back and leaving the deadites stumbling around behind you. Zombies can't open doors, they can only smash through them, so close any doors behind you to slow them down even more.

 

Now that you have your initial gear, keep an eye out for a parking lot or garage (garages are in the mod/bugfix). You'll want to run near the lots and use the look command ';' or 'x' to scan over and see if there's a vehicle in them. With garages, you'll have to go up to the winch and raise the door to look inside. Eventually, you should find one of the following:

 

-car - quiet, safe, can ram zambeez for fun, nice trunk space. (Recent vehicle updates have made these a death trap if they have an engine much larger than 2L so be careful)

-motorcycle - a bit louder, for badasses only, no safety, little trunk space, can squeeze in between buildings and ride through fields easier

-truck - very loud, zombies will come from miles around just to wreck your shit in new and fantastic ways. (noise can be reduced greatly by installing a muffler)

-Quad Bike - Anywhere from quiet to very -very- loud based on engine. Good as a starter but is doomed to be cut into parts.

-Bicycle - Has a pretty slow 1 mph accel as you're essentially trying to move a dumpster with your feet. Will be stopped cold by any shrub it bumps. Will have to do if you have nothing else but don't be surprised if you gotta ditch it.

 - Other Stuff - There's lots of rare vehicle spawns like a Schoolbus/Military supply truck, VW Beetle,Semi, etc. They're essentially mobile spare parts

 

Cars are probably best for new players. They protect you from rain, can run over zombies, and have mufflers already installed unlike trucks and motorcycles. As for shit you should know:

 

-to board a vehicle, step into the driver's seat. To leave, press 'e'. Do not leave a moving vehicle unless you want to eat pavement.

-DO NOT SAVE YOUR GAME WHILE CONTROLLING A VEHICLE. Leave with 'e' first, then save. Weird shit happens if you don't.

-the arrow keys control the vehicle like an RC car. It'll take a little getting used to.

-the '$' key turns cruise control on and off. Keep it on for the most part.

-watch your damn fuel. Keep it topped off at gas stations or you'll be rolling on empty in zombie-buttfuck-central. You can refill it from containers full of gas by wielding them and (U)nloading them while adjacent.

-to put shit in the trunk, just drop it over the trunk tile. To get stuff, press 'g'. Trunks can only carry 27 items at once, so just dump your heaviest shit in there.

-watch out for clusters of traps on the road and shrubs in fields. They can blow out your tires, leaving you properly fucked. Put a note on your map and come back later with traps 4/a zombie pack to collect the crossbows.

-stay around 30 or 20 mph, so you don't crash into a police station and die in a fiery explosion.

-do NOT drive above 30-40 mph on a road you haven't scouted yet. You'll drive right over traps and blow your tires.

-if you're using the mod/bugfix, you can rename your vehicle by pressing 'e' to interact with it

-eventually, you'll want to carry a repair kit in your vehicle (welder, wrench, hacksaw and a few spare wheels) in case it gets damaged in the middle of nowhere. Since batteries stack now it's not much of an issue but back in the day we had to craft UPS's and stuff them with batteries.

-WANT PLATING? WELL HERE'S HOW BUDDY. YOUS GONNA SMASH UP DISPLAY CASES AND LOAD HUNDREDS OF UNITS OF SCRAP METAL INTO YO SLICK RIDE HEAR? WHAT'S THAT? YOUS CAN'T FIND ENOUGH? WELL GET TO A MEGAMART STAT. THEN YOUS GONNA TAKE IT DOWN TO A HARDWARE SHOP WITH A RECYCLER, DROP 26 UNITS ONTO IT, 'e'XAMINE AND TELL IT YES. YOUS GONNA REPEAT TILL YOU USE UP ALL YO SCRAP. THEN YOUS GONNA LUG ALL DAT LOOT BACK TO YOUR RIDE. RUN LIKE LOKI'S AFTER YOUR DICK IF YOU SEE A SPITTER. MELTED STEEL AIN'T GOOD FOR ANYBODY. THEN YOU GONNA GO CREEPER AT THE PARKS UNTIL YOU FIND A SLIDE TO DISASSEMBLE FOR PLATING AND WELD IT ON. THEN YOU GOIN TO HEAD TO A SAFE PLACE, WELD UP ALL YOUR CHUNK/LUMPS AND ENJOY DEATHWAGONEERING AROUND. SOME SCRAWNY SISSIES MAY TELL YOU FRAMES ARE FINE BUT BOSS'S USE PLATING.

 

Keep in mind that an unmuffled 2L engine & 5L muffled produce 60 noise per thrust essentially being a rapid zombie spawner.(Presuming a linear growth of size to power)

 

Driving will be a bitch at first. You'll swerve all over the road until your Driving skill hits level 3. The good news is that Driving levels up fairly fast, so just drive around for a few days looting to quickly get it to 3. You'll need the practice anyway.

 

Now that you have clothing and a vehicle, you can be a little flexible in what you do next.

 

 

 

Oh and a heads up for future loot wagon planning.

 

1 trunk - Spare parts and tools like welder, hack saw, wrench, 1-2 full sets of tires, 2+ sheets of glass to make sure your drivers seat is always considered inside. You may want to consider adding a extra trunk for your non-car parts and keep one dedicated to your rig once you're at the RV stage. Build a water purifier if you're too lazy to explore fields for shallow pools!

 

1 trunk - Books and your two messenger bags, purses, and extra backpack

 

1 trunk - Medical supplies, drugs, spare clothing like two rain coats, utility vests, a set of heavy armor if you feel you need it for clearing a bulletstorm. Wont hurt to put extra spikes/blades in it to replace your zombiecatcher in case of heavy resistance/shit driving.

 

1 Trunk for 26 UPS(Unified Power supply. They each hold 10 batteries for 26,000 units of power if you fill them all. you can build them after reading the advanced electronics book and breaking down junk like flashlights and radios. Not as much of an issue now with item stacking but always hoard batteries.

 

1 trunk for guns and utility guns + their ammo

 

1 Trunk full of ammo purely for your main gun if you are primarily a gun user

 

At least 5 trunks for any significant amount of looting. You'll easily fill them in 2-4 houses. 6+ is pretty comfy.

 

2 Trunks - It's not required but 52 molotovs is pretty goddamn good at slapping shit. add a third for inactive turrets you find and you're golden. You'll love this when you have to go clear a fungal spire.

 

Install a second metal tank as soon as possible for less reliance on towns and aim for 4+. Garages & hardware stores will rarely have these. Do NOT pump until full, tell it no to only pump a bit in at a time. It'll tell you when it gets full it's broken and it'll spend like 2 hours filling your tanks instead of like 20 min and you'll get fisted by hulks. Consider keeping a handful of spare bottles filled with gas for fuckups and emergencies. Keep a jerrycan or 2 of gas in your trunk just in case.

 

If you're going long range without breaks you'll want about 6 units of uncooked meat and 6 bottles of water per day which adds up to about 2 days per trunk of supplies with occasional stops/scouting runs at shallow pools/bee hives to replenish supplies. Use canteens>carboys>jerrycans to save space.

 

Do NOT go faster than 30-40 mph on a road you haven't scouted ahead of time with at least 6 perception to spot traps below landmines/xbows Once you've done that feel free to travel at your max safe speed.

 

A cool tip i've heard is keeping the materials for a loot bike in a trunk and building a fast loot bike to run supplies back to your loot RV and chosen repository for overflow loot from that town. it's pretty reliant on finding extra vehicles to cut down and/or good crater/wreckage drops

 

 

 

>Vehicle noise is equal to 0.25 * engine power, 0.25 * 0.4 * engine power if a muffler is installed.

 

Cycle, 1L engine (120 power): 30 noise, (12 with muffler)

Car, 2.5L /w muffler (300 power): 30 noise (75 without muffler)

Truck, 6L (800 power): 200 noise, (80 with muffler)

 

Note that noise propagates as many squares, and anything over 60 triggers a swarm. A truck (or at least anything with a 6L engine) will trigger ALL THE ZOMBIES within a 200 (or 80 with muffler) square range.

 

Comparatively? A shotgun does 60 noise each time it fires while a person walking does 6 (or 2 with light step) each time they move.

 

gun volume = ammo_damage * 0.8, +20 if result is greater than 5, plus gunmods modifiers) (silencer is -25)

 

If ammo dmg is equal to or greater than 50 you'll summon a swarm every shot.

 

 

----------------------

e. Establishing a Base

----------------------

 

Nightfall happens around 7:00 PM, so you'll probably want to have a base available that you can go sleep in. Most places work fine as long as they are removed from town to prevent zombie attacks and far enough away from monster hives. You don't want to wake up to triffids or fungal zombies ruining your shit, though bee hives might be desirable since they have royal jellies and honeycombs, and the bees themselves are a semi-replenishing source of bee steaks once you're a decent shot with a rock/longbow. Check the world map, and find one of the following:

 

-Laboratory - has metal doors, which few things can break down. Probably the best for bases. Requires Scientist IDs, which can be found on bodies scattered randomly. If you start getting zombie scientist spawns in the basement head up to the surface and go hunting or grab some sticks and they'll reset. NO, you cannot close the card reader doors again. you gotta build a door or just ignore it.

-Secluded Cabin - as long as it's a bit removed from town and not near any monster nests. Toilets make good water sources if they have it. Otherwise you better be prepared for runs into town to fill your carboys/jerrycans

-Starting Shelter - it works fine on day one if you're in a pinch.You can generally do better though. (c)lose all the curtains immediately and always keep all your loot in the basement to avoid a ligthning strike starting a fire and burning all your goods.

-Secluded Mansion - if you're feeling ritzy. Indoor pools make decent water sources (as long as you purify it first). You'll probably want to pick a room as your home and start boarding up the front door n shit with materials from deconstructed bookcases

-Secluded Cave - These can work fine as a base if it's not miles from town but also not so clase as to be in the spawn zone. WARNING: There's a rare event where it's FILLED with sewer rats who will rape you. HAVE STRONG STIMULANTS AND AT LEAST TWO MOLTOVS.

 

Also, keep a fire extinguisher in your home base, and hang onto it while you're sleeping. Blazing infernos happen more often than you'd think as a result of unfortunate lightning strikes, so don't keep around containers full of gasoline (including fueled chainsaws) or flammable trash laying around.

 

Important note: if you sleep in a building with windows (your starting evac shelter for example), be prepared to deal with wolves waiting outside for your tasty ass. Have a gun ready to deal with any critters. Mostly irrelevant when you have curtains but it's still an issue.

 

--------------------------

f. Food, Water and Meds

--------------------------

 

Dump your excess shit off at your base first before you go hunting for food; You don't really need a hammer/screwdriver/crowbar/etc and that's more space to carry meat with. You can eat strawberries/blueberries from bushes/apples from apple trees in the woods for the first couple of days as a freebie to slake your thirst and quell hunger. You'll want to have more permafood though for later emergencies. What's that? Emergencies? Yes, in case shit happens cause if you can't get out and hunt it up you need every scrap you have chillin in your stash. You want ~5 survival skill to successfully harvest wild veggies. Get some of the following to last you a couple days:

 

-MREs - found at military surplus stores

-bottled water - found everywhere; get a lot of these

-beef jerky/potato chips/candy/chocolate - they don't spoil either, so stock up. Can be found in various stores.

-canned food - keep an eye out for grocery stores (which are colored suspiciously like houses, making them hard to tell apart)

-honeycombs - found in beehives; keep your distance from the bees or they will go hostile and sting the shit out of you

-ant eggs - found in ant hills (dangerous to get, but extremely nutritious and can be made into superglue for bandages. A .22lr rifle is enough to kill basic giant ants but have stims to escape and something heavy in case you have trouble with a soldier ant. Take rags and booze for torches.)

-Chunks of meat - Go hunting with your harem of ~10-20 rock-chans every other day to ensure you are well fed.

 

Water is covered in the next section.

 

Special mention: Plastic bottles hold 2 quaffs, glass 3, canteens 6, carboys 10, jerrycans 40. You can lug a carboy of bleach/ammonia home, dump it/use it for superglue/pheramones and then go fill it with water. Once you have two jerrycans (1 clean water and 1 of raw water to purify into your clean/canteens of clean) you have about a 6 days of water.

 

Load up until you feel satisfied. Some other foods like sandwiches, milk, orange juice and others eventually spoil, so eat those first and unload it once rotten for the container. It might be a good idea to pick up some alcohol from bars, so you can make molotov cocktails & bandages(always have a few on hand along with a lighter).

 

For meds, they're all generally useful, but keep an eye out for the following:

 

-Antibiotics - Take 1 once your bite wound is actually infected to begin recovery.

-Aspirin - take in pairs to mitigate low pain. If you know a grabber has a chance to hit you while clearing a mob take 2-4 to preempt it.

-Adderall/Cocaine/Meth/Coffee - Greatly boost intelligence and running speed. Carry some around for emergencies when you gotta go fast. Use before installing bionics for a higher success rate

-Bandages - Heals a little hp at low skill. Good at leveling up first aid

-Caffeine Pills - Gives a +8% boost. Only the first use has an effect

-Codeine - A weak painkiller but better than nothing

-Dayquil - for being awake with a cold and not coughing all over the damn place.

-First aid kits - Hulk smash puny human into pulp? Want to get out of town alive? Well these babies will help you do it. Can be used to patch up a bite before it gets infected.

-Iodine Tablets - Reduces radiation from when you've been running around craters so you don't mutate. Check your radiation with a Geiger counter before wasting these.

-Marijuana - Raises morale. Double bump for more xp. While it -can- be found in the sewers it's not that good of an idea to go there looking for it. Just be happy when you find some in houses.

-Nyquil - for sleeping with a cold. Double bump to use as an inferior sleeping pill

-Oxycodone - the best painkiller

-Poppy Sleep & Poppy Painkillers - If you've run out of the better stuff you can harvest and craft these with decent cooking skill. Keep in mind that every 1-3ish you'll pass out for a couple hours and take leg damage so be careful

-Prozac - the Patton Oswalt, post-apocalyptic special. Keep on hand if you expect to take massive hits to your morale

-Rags - (a)pply these to stop bleeding. Not a 100% chance tho which is where bandages are good. disassemble shirts, cut clothing/sheets with a knife,scissors, disassemble beds

-Sleeping Pills - Take these if you're having trouble getting rest. If you run out of these and nyquil craft some Poppy Sleep.

-Tramadol - A strong long-lasting painkiller and a must if you need to get around while frostbitten or anything where you have to deal with significant pain for long durations.

-Vitamins - Boosts your immune system to counteract your running around half-naked in the rain. '='rebind to a and slam the whole bottle down when you have time to spare

-Xanax - A Morale booster.  Gives +morale so double dump it when you need more xp and aren't wet/cold/killing zombie children

 

 

------------------------

g. Surviving in the Wild

------------------------

 

In the long term, you'll eventually need to learn how to make food from wild animals using the Survival skill. Survival is a bitch to raise, so the best way is to run over a zombie horde/clear a mob at a 1-window bathroom, then go back and hack up the corpses by (B)utchering them. Remember to stop once your XP pool is depleted, otherwise you're just wasting time. Alternatively, Find the "Pitching a Tent" book and read up. Get a longbow, crossbow,nail gun,15 or so rock-chans, a bunch of wood spears or .22 rifle/handgun to hunt wildlife. Cooked meat will rot in about 24 hours, cooked veggy in 50, and chunks of veggy in 80.

 

When you run out of fresh water pillaged from stores (it'll happen sooner or later), you can refill your plastic bottles from various water sources like toilets, puddles, rivers, and swimming pools, but raw water has a higher chance of being poisonous the dirtier it is. Get a water purifier from a sporting goods store, build one yourself, or use a pot/pan to boil water. Water purifiers will purify the whole container at 1 batt charge per quaff. You can change the letters assigned to the bottle and purifier with '=' to make this process less of a pain. A less painful way to handle it is to go fill your jerrycans/carboys and have an empty jerrycan/carboy to pour the first full one into and rotate down the line.

 

If you need to get something out of a bottle (w)ield it and then (U)nload the stuff inside.

 

Chance of Food Poisoning:

Deep water - 25%

Shallow water - 30%

Toilet water - 60%

Sewage water - 100%

 

You'll want about 5 or 6 or so pieces of cooked meat/veggy a day as well as 3-6 bottles of water per day, so remember to hunt/make a water run at LEAST every other day but it's preferred to do it every morning in case of chain drizzle/rain/thunderstorm/acid drizzle/acid drain keeps you holed up at home.

 

How to make campfires: (a)pply a lighter to a dropped rag/paper wrapper/cardboard box/2x4/heavy stick. Then hit 'e' to interact and select what you just lit to recover your firestarter without wasting it. A rag lasts about 3 cooked meats. 2x4s/heavy sticks last about 5 cooked meats. Keep scissors on you to cut up clothing from homes/sheets for rags. Do not make one inside a mansion or any structure really. It can lead to hilarity.

 

AVOID SWAMPS AND RIVERS. MOSQUITOS THE SIZE OF A SMALL BLACKBEAR ARE NOT A GOOD TIME. IF YOU SEE A FUNGAL INFESTATION TURN 720 DEGREES AND MOONWALK AWAY AND NEVER RETURN UNTIL YOU HAVE A PURGE KIT. DO NOT GO INTO CAVES WITHOUT AT LEAST 2 MOLOTOVS IN CASE OF RATCAVE.

 

-----------------------

h. Firepower and Combat

-----------------------

 

Once you dump off your foods at home, go back for some fucking guns. One of Cataclysm's greatest points is that you can use almost anything as a weapon.

 

All guns are generally good and will get the job done, and you'll want to experiment to find what's best for you, but when starting out a new character you'll generally want to stick with a gun that fires .22 rounds/nailgun9mm because they're fairly quiet and the ammo is plentiful. Grab a .22 rifle like a Marlin 39A and as much .22 ammo as you can carry. Take a .38/.44/.45/shot hulkbuster. Leave the rest of the guns for now unless you really want that SKS or Savage 111F. In gun stores, keep your eyes peeled for a silencer (you can also make one with a rags & a pipe or muffler).

 

You'll also want a handgun. The choice of which is up to you, though another .22 plinker/nailgun makes for a good practice gun. You can come back later and pick out your most favoritest gun once you've leveled up your various shooting skills and can actually hit the broad side of a barn.

 

You can also use a bow or crossbow if you're into that Burt Reynolds shit. It might be worthwhile to pick one up at a sporting goods store along with a couple arrows to train with later. They're silent, and you can retrieve the ammo for reuse. With a wood ax, you can chop up wood and make unlimited amounts of arrows, or (s)mash young trees (represented by green 1s) for heavy sticks to carve into more arrows), making archery sustainable in the long term if you ever run low on conventional ammo. Even if you don't have an ax, you can smash young trees for sticks to carve into arrows.

 

Melee builds and ranged builds play VERY differently, so ask around if you're unsure of what weapons and armor to stick around with. Melee characters want to carry light armor/clothing to prevent encumbrance penalties while ranged builds want some protection to soak up attacks due to their shit defenses. Tons of different builds are possible, so feel free to be creative, though the ranged build is best for new players.

 

For melee builds being followed by a horde: it's recommended to smash a 1-window bathroom (remove it with a hammer+screwdriver if there's no mob, crawl through, and then fight the zambees from the other side as they try to crawl through the windows. You can get 2-3 free strikes due to the huge movement cost of crossing the window. The ideal location is a room with only 1-2 windows and a closed door so you don't get swarmed from things seeing you from the other room. Once the dust settles, clean the glass first with the construction menu, then butcher the corpses. Doing this will let you kill errything up to a zombie hulk (in which case, either pull out a shotgun/hulkbuster or get the fuck outta there).

 

When you come up against a new enemy, try asking the thread first if you're particularly worried about it. Enemies with dark red names are the most dangerous. Most baddies can be killed easily if you have a decent weapon and the skills to use it. The wiki is a bit incomplete but has the statlines for a lot of stuff

 

Also, if you kill a zombie, butcher its corpse if you can. The dead can return again...

 

KEEP IN MIND THAT WEAPON INFO MAY BE OUTDATED OR MISSING SOMETHING. ALWAYS REFER TO YOUR ITYPEDEF.CPP FILE FOR THE MOST ACCURATE.

 

Melee weapons:

 

Special properties are listed at:

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Techniques

 

TEC_PRECISE, -It stuns monsters for 1-4 turns, or stuns players for 1-2 turns and adds 5-8 pain.

TEC_RAPID, -Reduces the attack time to 1/2 of normal.

TEC_SWEEP, Makes the opponent "downed" for 1-2 turns, and adds falling damage to monsters, or 3 bash damage to characters. It has no effect against characters using Judo.

TEC_BRUTAL, -Can be attempted against opponents that are not downed, and if the attacker passes a check measuring their melee skill + STR against 4 + monster's size, or against 5.5 + 1/4 character's STR. Knocks the enemy back (one tile?), and stuns for one turn.

TEC_WIDE, - Can hit Adjacent

TEC_WBLOCK_1, "Weak Block" - Available if the defender passes a check of (DEX + melee skill) 3 sided dice vs the attacker's (melee skill) 10 sided dice. Reduces damage to 0

TEC_WBLOCK_2, "Parry" - Available if the defender passes a check of (DEX + melee skill) 6 sided dice vs the attacker's (melee skill) 10 sided dice. Reduces damage to 0

TEC_WBLOCK_3, "Shield" - Available if the defender passes a check of (DEX + melee skill) 12 sided dice vs the attacker's (melee skill) 10 sided dice Reduces damage to 0

 

(Ba = bashing damage; Cut = cutting damage; Pie: piercing damage; Hit = accuracy bonus; MPA = Moves per attack - Attack speed essentially)

 

Tools - Generally you will never use these to fight with but if you're in a pinch and have nothing better...

 

Wood Axe -      24 Ba 18 Cut +1 Hit 163 MPA  (Decent weapon, but too rare to use and pretty slow)

Stone Axe -     15 Ba 18 Cut +0 Hit 171 MPA

Hatchet -       12 Ba 12 Cut +1 Hit 103 MPA

Shovel -        15 Ba  5 Cut +3 hit 165 MPA

Stone Shovel -  15 Ba  5 Cut +3 Hit 171 MPA

Wrench -        15 Ba  0 Cut +0 Hit  83 MPA

Frying Pan -    14 Ba  0 Cut +2 Hit 101 MPA

Pipe -          13 Ba  0 Cut +3 Hit 101 MPA

Muffler -       19 Ba  0 Cut -3 Hit 185 MPA  Parry

Stone Hammer -  12 Ba  0 cut +0 Hit  89 MPA

Rock -          12 Ba  0 Cut -2 Hit  75 MPA (if you see a guy in the thread telling you to use a rock, ignore him)

 

 

Cutting - Damage is somewhat reduced vs armored insects/Zombie hulk and strongly by Skeletons and Zombie soldiers. Stronger Robots in general shit on everything

 

 

Katana -        4 Ba 45 Cut +1 Hit 161 MPA Rapid Attack, Parry

Broadsword -    8 Ba 35 Cut +2 Hit 115 MPA Weak block

Machete -       6 Ba 28 Cut +2 Hit 125 MPA Weak block

Rapier -        5 Ba 28 Cut +2 Hit 107 MPA Weak block, Rapid attack, Precise - A VERY strong weapon

Combat Knife -  2 Ba 22 Cut -2 Hit  77 MPA

Butcher Knife - 4 Ba 18 Cut -3 Hit  89 MPA

Makesh..Halbred 4 Ba 15 Cut +2 Hit 119 MPA Weak block

Makesh..Machete 4 Ba 15 Cut +1 Hit 103 MPA

Blade -         6 Ba 10 Cut -2 Hit 117 MPA

Steak Knife -   2 Ba 10 Cut -3 Hit  73 MPA

 

Pierce -

Awl Pike -      8 Ba 50 Cut +2 hit 157 MPA

Knife Spear -   2 Ba 28 Cut +1 hit 101 MPA Weak block, Rapid attack - A Very solid weapon

Wooden Javelin  6 Ba 22 Pie +2 Hit  91 MPA Weak block, Rapid attack.

Wasp Stinger -  0 Ba 22 Pie +1 hit  69 MPA Precision - A GREAT Low vol/weight throwing weapon if you amass these.

Wood Spear -    4 Ba 18 Pie +1 Hit  91 MPA Weak block, Rapid attack - a VERY solid starter weapon.

Bee Stinger -   0 Ba 18 Pie -1 Hit  69 MPA Precision - A GREAT Low vol/weight throwing weapon if you amass these.

Scalpel -       0 Ba 18 Pie -4 Hit  69 MPA Precision

X-Acto Knife -  0 Ba 14 Pie -4 Hit  69 MPA Precision

 

Bashing - Has less trouble with the armored things cutting does. Is pretty reduced by Triffids, giant slugs, and Hulks.

 

Sledge Hammer - 40 Ba 0 Cut +0 hit 213 MPA Wide, Brutal

Mace -          36 Ba 0 Cut +1 hit 141 MPA Sweep

Morningstar -   32 Ba 4 Cut +1 hit 149 MPA Sweep

Nail Bat -      28 Ba 6 Cut +3 Hit 133 MPA Weak block

Baseball Bat -  28 Ba 0 Cut +3 hit 133 MPA Weak block

Aluminium Bat - 24 Ba 0 Cut +3 Hit 117 MPA Weak block

Nail Board -    16 Ba 6 Cut +1 hit 101 MPA Weak block

Two by Four -   14 Ba 0 Cut +1 hit 101 MPA Weak block

Steel Chain -   12 Ba 0 Cut +3 Hit  97 MPA Grab(can wrap around an enemy for 0-7 extra damage)

Heavy Stick -   12 Ba 0 Cut +3 Hit 109 MPA

Pickaxe -       12 Ba 0 Cut -1 Hit 135 MPA

 

Ranged - Almost all non .22 rifles are great for the long run if you have decent skills. Get a Silencer for your handgun/rifles ASAP. Keep in mind Longbows need about 10 Str to be fired:

 

General Use:

Nails - Nailguns are great for shooting up weaker stuff and burst firing fast zombies. Don't underestimate it's value as you can smash/deconstruct furniture for more ammo. Expect 4-7 nails per basic enemy and about 100-150 per loot run. More if you're clearing. Bind your manual burst fire key and use it when needed.

 

.22 rifles - quiet, good for hunting and hunting lone zombies.

        Marlin 39A - Increased damage and holds 19 shotps but is reloaded 1 shell at a time. IMO it's

                better

        Ruger 10/22 - Similar stats to the Marlin but mag reloads. Either will work fine for you really

                unless you're using .22 C or rat shot in which case Marlin 4 lyfe

 

9mm Handguns - A Fine choice for general use but you'll want better for the stronger stuff.

        Glock 19 - Better stats than the USP but either will work

 

It -MUST- Die - Hulkbusters:

.38, .44, .45 Handguns - A bit loud but effective at DESTROYING brutes and messing up hulks

        Ruger Redhawk .44 - Is a significant improvement over the deagle brand deagle unless you value

                 mag reloading over actually hitting the target.

 

.223 rifles - decent amounts of ammo can be found; great endgame weapons

        Ruger Mini-14 - Is an excellent choice especially if trigger happy makes using the assault

                rifles undesirable for you

 

7.62x39mm rifles - ammo can be found in bulk, so use this for cleaning up the trash

        SKS - this is a good workhorse mid-range rifle with fairly common ammo and good damage.

 

.308 rifles - death machines, but loud, and the ammo can be rare

        Savage 111F - is a very good sniper rifle

 

.30-06 Rifle - Long range rifles for the most picky of Hawkeyes. Either will do really.

        Remington 700 - Extra Dam

        Browning BLR - Slightly better Acc but good in combination with a gunmod suite

 

Shot - VERY loud. As in killing that brute just spawned two more a block away loud.

        A Remington 870 for +dam or Saiga-12 for mag reload is recommended.  If you're hurting for space

                you can use a sawn-off but keep in mind that your acc is shit.

 

Specialty:

Flamethrowers - Finally Fixed! Huzzah! Uses the shotgun skill which is amazing for training. Shots place a 3x3 square of flames on the target square. Consumes 100 fuel per shot. Reccomended to have a carboy/jerrycan to lug gas around with and until it's fixed are reloaded by unloading the gas into the flamer. If you need to clear up the forests raised by Triffid queens this is your man. Keep in mind that your loot WILL be destroyed.

        Simple flamer - Craftable as these are not exactly the easiest class of weapons to find.

                 Relies solely on the flames burning damage. 8 shots per reload

        Flamethrower - The shots actually do damage and even has a burst fire. 16 shots per reload.

                Found in Military bunkers

 

Gun Mods:

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Firearms_modifications

If you're using an underslung shotgun, railfired crossbow, M203 nade launcher use F to swap fire mode to it.

It's all pretty self evident, FEMA camps, Mil bunkers/outposts if you need to stock up on goodies.

 

IMPORTANT SHIT FOR BOSS NEGROES: read Guns N' Ammo to get Firearms to 1, then install a silencer on your weapon. Seriously. Always use a silencer.

 

Martial Arts Descriptions

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Martial_arts

Essentially Taekwondo is the best followed by Krav maga, Muay Thai and they're all better than just your fists.

 

Throwing dmg calc

http://whalesdev.com/forums/index.php?topic=1849.0

 

Special Moves

http://whalesdev.com/forums/index.php?topic=1843.0

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Techniques

 

---------------------------------

i. Armor, Clothing, and Tailoring

---------------------------------

 

You can use sewing kits to reinforce and repair clothing.

 

Armor and clothing works on a layering system, so if you're wearing a kevlar vest over a trenchcoat, the vest will take the damage first. Wear repairable clothing over your more valuable gear, so you can repair it whenever it gets damaged and protect your rarer goods. Here's an example where the trenchcoats will usually take damage leaving the unrepairable kevlars intact:

 

Kevlar Vest

Kevlar Vest

Reinforced Shirt

Reinforced Utility Vest

Reinforced Utility Vest

Reinforced Trenchcoat

Reinforced Trenchcoat

 

An example Set you'll aim for, for generic use, is:

 

Reinforced Fur hat

Filter Mask (Optional for fungal/smoke/toxic gas)

Reinforced Scarf

Reinforced Under Armor

Reinforced Trenchcoat

Reinforced Long Underwear

Reinforced Army Pants or Cargo Pants if you haven't found any. -1 Enc Jeans/Skirt if gottagofast

Sneakers

Reinforced Wool Socks. Socks otherwise

Reinforced Glove Liners

Reinforced Leather gloves

Military Rucksack

 

Options:

2 trenchcoats and +1 backpack in colder weather

Sweater/winter coat/winter gloves/winter boots by your makeshift bed in your lair for when stuff gets bothersome late-game and you just want to sleep.

Extra backpack if you can soak the torso enc slowing your attacks and really want that +storage

Gas mask/Filter masks under your scarf to protect vs fungals and other air disease shit

Rain coat layered under all your junk for fffffuuuuuuuuck rainy weather

Army helmets/Kevlar vests/steeltoed if you expect to get shot up badly for some reason

 

Keep in mind that clothing you craft is fitted, which reduces its encumbrance cost, so that 1 Enc Trenchcoat is now a 0 Enc Trenchcoat. Those jeans? -1. You'll want to eventually make sure that all the gear you can is fitted and reinforced

 

Read "Sew What? Clothing!" until you get your tailoring skill to 3, so you don't damage clothing when you repair it. Then you can tailor clothes like a boss. You could be a fucking tool and grind dress shirts and sewing kits until you manage to level it, but seriously, just get the book from a library and get to level 3 in about two hours of reading.

 

------------------------

j. Tools and Accessories

------------------------

 

Keep an eye open for these while looting various shops. You'll want to have one of each stashed in your home base:

 

-Batteries - to power stuff. To take batteries out of things, wield the item with 'w' and press 'U' to unload the batteries into your inventory

-Books - You'll eventually want to collect one of each, as they level up your skills without using your pooled XP. Read when it's light out and

-Bone Needle - Craftable at 3 Survival. Acts as a sewing kit

-Car seat, Vehicle Controls and Steel Frame - construct a vehicle with just these two for a decent makeshift bed in the middle of your shelter. You can make real makeshift beds now though. But hey, install a headlight for an expensive desk lamp.

-Chainsaw - If you can't find a wood ax, this'll do

-Cheap Lighter - (for setting flammable materials on fire and lighting fat blunts. Can be be '('disassembled for a pilot light for grenades)

-Crowbar and/or lockpicking kit. - Allows you to enter a house w/o smashing the door in. You can (a)pply the crowbar to break fences into nails n 2x4's. If you're just wanting to do unlawful entry take the lockpicks only to save space n weight. You can craft one out of a Pipe & rock with mechanics 1. Smash/deconstruct a locker/display case/fridge for a pipe

-Cutting implement - Like a Pocket knife, Butcher knife, Combat knife, Hatchet, Machete, Katana, Wood Ax, or Broadsword for butchering/carving wood spears/cutting up rope/clothing/etc.

-Geiger Counter - To check yourself and your environment for radiation. With Electronics 5, you can craft one using parts from flashlights/radios.)

-Hammer & Screwdriver - For deconstructing windows and furniture. If you can't find these You'll have to get by with smashing for lower yields and making lots of noise

-Hammer and Nails - for building just about anything

-Hotplate, Frying pan/Pot - for cooking stuff. Generally just stash the hotplate for when you need to ea or die and it's been thunderstorming for 4 fucking days straight.

-Pipe With the mechanics skill, you can craft it into a pipebomb or Silencer. Always need more silencers.

-porn - For rainy days

-Molotov Cocktail - Crafted with a empty bottle, rag, and some booze. KEEP TWO ON YOU AT ALL TIMES. SHIT HAPPENS!

-mp3 player - to listen to when you get depressed...no, seriously. The morale boost increases the xp in your xp pool but guzzles batteries

-muffler - Essential for any vehicle; can be made into silencers. Used in crafting Gas masks if you don't want to splurge on using filter masks instead.

-Scissors - for cutting spare clothing into rags for use in further crafting projects

-Shovel/Hoe - for digging pits and building fortifications around vulnerable parts of your shelter. also used to make/reinforce escape routes and killzones in town. Shovels can clear up rubble and metal wreckage for rocks & steel/pipes respectively when you examine that tile.

-Stone Hammer - Cheap replacement craftable at 1 surv. Essentially useless unless you can't find a regular hammer

-Stone Pot - Craftable at 2 survival with some cooking skill. Useful if you can't find/get one from town

-Stone Shovel - Craftable at 2 survival. Use if you can't find a regular shovel and need to make pit fortifications

-Stone Axe - Craftable at 3 survival. Use if you can't find a wood axe to chop down trees

-String - 3 Ft. String particuarly - Used in longbows and can be crafted up from threads or '('deconstructed from 6/30 ft rope

-Torch - Use these to skimp on flashlight use. Cycle two torches and lug a carboy of booze and some rags

-Electrohack (for conserving your ID cards when getting into labs/mil bunkers. Can also be built using processor boards and RAM. With sufficient skill in Computers and Electronics you can break into bank vaults.)

Ski Goggles/Swim goggles (Used in crafting gas masks and just keeping your eyes safe.)

-Tent (Lets you not die to acid rain when walking long distances In recent versions you can build a shelter as well.)

-Tires (always need these guys handy for when you get a blowout; throw them in your trunk. Try to have a 1-2 full sets of spares)

-Water Purifier (To purify the poopy toilet water you'll be drinking on a daily basis; found in sporting goods stores. Can be crafted with 3 Mech/electronics skill)

-Wrench, Welder, and Hacksaw (to modify your vehicle; consider putting these in the trunk along with a few spare tires in case your wheels blow out)

-Wood Ax (fairly uncommon but incredibly useful; can usually be found in pawn shops; can be used to cut down trees and make 2x4s, spears, etc.)

 

Containers:

        Jerrycan - Holds 40 quaffs, 8000 gas, or a fuckton of booze. Found mainly in Garages. Fill one with water and purify it into another empty for the easiest water solution. Use the repeat last crafted recipe command.

        Carboy - Holds 10 quaffs. Found mostly in labs/houses

        Canteen - Holds 6 quaffs. Found in sporting goods, mil surplus, and dead body map extras

        Waterskin - Holds 6 Quaffs. Craftable with 2 tailoring, some survival, 6 leather/fur and some other junk

        Glass Bottle - Holds 3 Quaffs. Found all over but Liquor stores & FEMA camps are loaded with em. Used in Tov crafting

        Platic Bottle - Holds 2 Quaffs, 400 gas and are found everywhere. Unload bleach n shit into extra to free up your carboys

 

List of skill books (can be most easily found in libraries):

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Books

 

In addition, keep your eyes peeled for Military IDs and Scientist IDs, which are used to get into military bunkers and laboratories respectively (fabulous prizes await). They can be found on clusters of dead soldiers and scientists, which have the highest chance of appearing on roadways. You'll more than likely come across some while driving around town on other errands.

 

------------------------

k. Traps

------------------------

Long story short, Read "How to Trap Anything", disarm, and repurpose whatever you see fit. You need about 10 Per to spot land mines or you can be instagibbed. If you can't find a book keep in mind that you have an amazing success rate of disarming nailboards at 0 skill and can set, disarm, reset as needed to Traps Two and start manufacturing good stuff. DO NOT USE LANDMINES/BOOBY TRAPS. YOU CAN AND WILL TAKE A LETHAL SHRAPNEL FRAGMENT TO THE HEAD/CHEST

 

-Bear Traps - Use these to slow things down. Does 35 damage to monsters. Put in the path of the escape route from a killzone to make a gap if you have to bail. Crafted from scrap metal and a spring at about 2 mechanics and traps skill

-Blade Traps - Your strongest trap. Utterly shreds zambeezies and makes for great meatgrinders. Needs about 4 mech & traps and an electric motor+blade. This is why you check all those garages after you have a ride.

-Crossbow Trap - Pretty much just a source of crossbows and steel bolts. Bu you can use them in  your emergency evac route if needed

-NailBoard Trap - These heavy buggers are your bread n butter on terrain you can't pit. Does 6-10 damage and slightly slows the target. Crafted at 2 traps with 3 2x4's and 20 nails. 'a'pply your crowbar to the fences outside homes if you need to get a bunch of nails quickly. Otherwise you can deconstruct bookcases for max yields or go on a serial smashing spree. If you lack guns you can get by with these and spiked pits.

-Shotgun Trap - Generally more trouble than they are worth as the only reason to ever use them is to get rid of hulks. But if you're making them you can just use the shotgun....

 

Per required to Spot:

1 - Spike board

2 - Bear traps you set

4 - Shotgun trap

5 - Crossbow trap, Snare kit, booby trap

6 - Tripwire

9 - Buried bear traps. Like what you'll find at Trap map extra's

10 - Landmine, Sinkhole

 

 

============================================

WARNING: MIDDLE AND LATE GAME SPOILERS AHEAD

============================================

 

=====================================

DO NOT READ IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE GAME

=====================================

 

===================

SERIOUSLY, NIGGA...

===================

 

==========================

...IT'LL SPOIL ALL THE FUN

==========================

 

 

 

 

----------

5. Bionics

----------

 

Wiki entry:

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bionics

 

"Holy shit, I'm JC Denton!"

 

Bionics are amazing. Take our word for it: you'll want to dabble in these eventually. They're just too useful to pass up. If you have a question about a specific package or bionic, ask the thread first since some are better choices than others. There are two types of bionics: passive and active. Passive just sit there and do their thing without you having to manage them. Active bionics mean you have to open up your bionics menu with 'p' and then select the bionic and activate it manually.

 

Bionics are found in preset bionics packages called CBM:[name of bionic package]. (Update: Bionics have been split into the components of their package. Same drop spots though) You can find them in the following locations:

-laboratories (go here first for guaranteed CBM: Utilities, CBM: Power Source, and CBM: Internal Battery)

-laboratory endings (sometimes generates advanced bionics)

-zombie scientists (can sometimes be carrying them; found in laboratories)

-military bunker (usually carries some military bionics)

-sewage plant (will usually have CBM: Hazmat)

-dead scientists (may carry CBM: Hazmat)

-dead soldiers (may carry military bionics)

-helicopter crash sites (rare bionics found here occasionally)

-supply crates (unlikely, but you might as well look anyway)

-NPCs (they can occasionaly have bionics for trade)

-Killing and butchering Shocker zombies

 

Installing bionics depends on intelligence, electronics, first aid, and mechanics in that order. Bad shit can happen if you have a low success rate (rarer bionics are harder to install), so get your skills jacked up by reading books first. Robotics for Fun & Profit gets your electronics up to 10, so give it a read before you begin performing cyber surgery. The actual installation occurs instantaneously, so you can take a bunch of intelligence-increasing stimulants like cocaine, adderall, or meth, and then install all your bionics in one go.

 

Be advised, you can only install 26 bionics before you start running out of letters for them, meaning you can no longer use active bionics that no longer have a letter. This shouldn't be a problem if you're selective with what bionics you install.

 

Bionics require power and a power source, supplied by CBM: Internal Batteries and CBM: Power Source respectively. Batteries increase your power capacity by 4, and power sources are ways to get power. Ethanol Burner (you are powered by booze!) and Internal Furnace are the best power sources by far, so you can install both if you want for a great deal of flexibility. Solar panels aren't all that good but better than nothing. The other two power sources are considered not worthwhile and a waste of bionics slots.

 

Here's a list of some of the best bionics that you should pretty much always install:

-Enhanced Memory Banks (use power to prevent skill decay)

-Targeting System (damage and accuracy increase for long-range weapons)

-Recycler Unit (greatly reduce need for food and water)

-Integrated Toolset (turns your hand into a Swiss army knife)

-Implanted Night Vision (see in the dark without a flashlight)

-Sensory Dulling (completely replaces the need for painkillers)

-Repair Nanobots (completely replaces the need for bandages and first aid kits)

-Blood Filter (instantly flushes toxins and drugs out of your system)

-Finger-Mounted Laser (so insanely good: no recoil, very accurate, decent damage, can light things on fire; uses the Handgun skill)

-Water Extraction Unit (can extract an infinite amount of clean water from any corpse)

-Hydraulic Muscles (you become the Incredible Hulk)

 

Here are some bionics that are mostly worthless unless you really want them:

-Internal Climate Control (hasn't been coded to do anything yet)

-Internal Storage (unless you want to be like Bender or something)

-Alloy Plating: Legs (slows your running speed, which is always bad news)

-Mini-Flamethrower (too limited in use, and a Finger-Mounted Laser can start fires just as well)

-Blood Analysis (you'll never really use it; once you get it, you'll probably already be able to diagnose your illnesses without it)

-Cranial Flashlight (weaker than a normal flashlight, and Night Vision is better anyway)

 

 

 

 

--------------------------

6. Radiation and Mutations

--------------------------

 

Wiki entry:

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mutation

 

If you have the Robust Genetics trait, playing with mutations will go a lot easier on you.

 

Mutations are acquired in various ways:

-consuming mutagenic products (misshapen fetuses, bottles of mutagen, sewage samples)

-being irradiated (by being in irradiated environments like craters; mutations occur over time)

-consuming Marloss berries (has some strange side-effects other than mutation)

 

Keep a Geiger counter on hand to see if you're irradiated or if the environment is irradiated. Consume iodine tablets to cure some radiation poisoning or royal jellies to cure all of it. Bottles of purifier remove some mutations and can be found in laboratories along with fetuses and mutagen.

 

Mutations work on a category system, meaning that if you have one mutation, you'll probably pick up a related one (good or bad) if you mutate again. For example: if you start with Glass Jaw, you have a higher chance of developing further mutations from the "Bird" category, if and when you do mutate.

 

Wandering over craters for hours is a good way to accumulate mutagenic radiation if any of them are radioactive and you lack a geiger counter to check. The geiger counter can be made with electronics 5, a power converter, and 2 ampliefier circuits. The parts can be made with 4 flashlights and/or radios that you (U)nloaded batteries from. Consume iodine tablets to reduce your radiation level.

 

 

-----------------------------

7. Locations and Map Features

-----------------------------

 

Wiki entry (spoilers ahead!):

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Map

 

Locations & Map Extras:

 

- Anthill - Leads down to the ant tunnels. the food rooms have misc fruit/veggies etc and a chance for a CBM. Egg rooms have lots of ant eggs, The best permafood your can find. Queens will actively lay eggs which rapidly grow into larva so ride her ovipositor like the cowgirl you are and hope she doesn't slap you for getting uppity.

 

- Cave - A decent place to rest/home if it's in a good location. Keep in mind that there are 3 versions. An empty harmless cave, a Bear cave which can and will tear you up, and a rat cave which is FUN. Hope you brought a tov. All 3 can rarely have loot including food & CBM's

 

- Crater - A map tile filled with rubble. May contain up to or not at all, Steel frame | Lump of steel | A couple chunks of steel | rocks/steel chain/springs(Bear trap component)

 

- FEMA Camp - Exactly what you think it'd be. Has a metal fence perimeter you can hop over by examining it instead of finding a hole. Infested with zombie soldiers and has some zombie spawns and zombie scientists. Loot ranges from meh to incredibly good. Command tent has weapons, delicious gunmods. the lab has medical goods. Mess halls are full of bottles and knives for tovs and spikes respectively. There's also a fair amount of crates so bring your crowbar.

 

- Fungal Bloom - terminate with extreme prejudice or the fungus monsters will spread everywhere. Use lots of molotovs to burn it down while shooting it with a strong raifu. Make sure to wear a filter mask at the minimum with something repairable over it and have at least 1 spare mask in case it gets wrecked.

 

- Giant Bee Hive - These are essentially a training camp & permafood repository. Make sure you have poison resistance to mitigate str loss & dmg. Drop all your gear, take off your clothes, and stand on the other side of a shrub when a giant bee comes to attack you. repeat until about 3/4 hp. Butcher, grab bags, loot, then fuckoff to read books until you repeat the next day.

 

- Grocery store - lots of canned food & materials for stuff like soup/fruit pies/pizza/ etc.

 

- Hospitals - Lots of medical supplies. If you lost a limb go here for stem cell treatment.

 

- Laboratories - Lots of bottles/CBM's/junk clothing/etc. Detailed more in the next section

 

- Mansion - good place to find medieval weapons, books, and other rich-people junk. Can have swimming pools which, after deconstructing/smashing the library/stuff for wood and reinforcing the place, can make a good wilderness home

 

- Megastores - lots of zambeez. Lots of treasure. Can have Tools, guns, misc clothing, misc food, food recipe components, drugs, yields lots of 2x4's, scrap metal, chunks of metal, pipes. If you need to make plating clear this place out, smash it down, then lug the scrap to a recycler behind a hardware shop

 

- Military Bunker - Sweet delicious military loot. Needs 7 mil id cards to get all the loot/an electrohack with good skills. Use a mil id on the front door to despawn the turrets or don't. A Source of flamethrowers/nades/c4/etc. Very worth looting

 

- Military Outpost - Has 2-8+ turrets along the perimeter and a handful of zombie soldiers with a fierce 8 Ba Protection and 16 Cut Prot. Shoot everything down from mid-range with a rifle like the sks. If you're having trouble with the soldiers get a large lead, run to a forest and start a forest fire and let that sort it out. Has Mil id's, turret death drops, and other misc military goodies.

 

- Mines - The location of our favorite hydraulic muscles CBM. Can also have the integrated toolset among others. Wear a filter mask at the bare minimum to have -some- protection against toxic gas. Explore carefully as some loot is in small spiral tunnels with a dead miner at the end. When you reach the end of the mine you'll get one of the 4 ends.

 

- Nuclear/Missile silos - Back up your save before entering. These are extremely buggy at the moment. NO SERIOUSLY. BACK UP YOUR SAVE NIGGA. IT WILL GET REKT LIKE A NAIVE SCHOOLGIRL IN A TENTACLE HENTAI!

 

- River - AVOID THESE. IT IS AN INSECT INFESTED HELL WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF VALUE

 

- Roads, Bridge & Highways - Route from town to town. Highways & Bridges have railings so don't go too fast with low skill. All three have chances of traps and vehicle components to spawn on them. Don't drive above 30-40 mph on an unscouted road or at night. You're risking driving into traps and wrecking your tires. Turn on your headlights and read/sleep instead.

 

- Sewage Treatment Plant - Sometimes has CBM's from the hazmat suite Don't bother trying to unlock the door until you have a respectable computers skill. You can download very useful sewer maps from the underground computer. You can get and quaff 25% mutagenic sewer samples if you drop a container in the sample dock and tell the computer to pour out a sample. Be warned that ants are fucking assholes and will eventually reach your treatment plant and bug you every couple visits. They'll even come upstairs to say hello!

 

- Shallow pools - have a chance to spawn pretty much anywhere on the map. Go to (m)ap and (N)ote where they are. It's recommended to make a crude map in excel/graph paper so future characters will know where to find fresh water. Ditto for gas stations. (Temporarily disabled while in bugfixing)

 

- Strange Temple - Contains hidden fun stuff. Rumors say that the pedestal holds the key to proceeding. These are extremely buggy at the moment. NO SERIOUSLY. BACK UP YOUR SAVE NIGGA. IT WILL GET REKT LIKE A NAIVE SCHOOLGIRL IN A TENTACLE HENTAI!

 

- Spiral cavern - A strange and wonderful place....

 

- Subway - Underground routes around town. DO NOT ENTER W/O MULTIPLE DAYS WORTH OF SUPPLIES AND KNOWING EXITS VIA MANHOLES/OTHER SUBWAY STATIONS/SEWER TREATMENT PLANTS. Be aware of your halfway point on your flashlight/torch supply and head back. Has a small amount of empty plastic & glass bottles/tin cans/aluminum cans. Can be useful to get around w/o having to clear zombie packs but w/o high night vision you're wasting supplies/and taking risks with the rat/snake populations. Some areas of the tunnels have passages with metal doors you can use to rest unless a hulk is after you.

 

-Swamp - AVOID THESE. IT IS AN INSECT INFESTED HELL WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF VALUE

 

- Toxic Waste Dump - A Mecca for robust genetics takers. Has a mil id and sometimes a CBM from the hazmat suite/hazmat clothing. Run around the highly mutagenic sewage with a geiger counter to find one with some rads. 0-10 isn't much. 40 is time for fun. 60+ is The train has no brakes time. If you do end up wanting to purifier some off wait until you scan yourself and have no radiation. Keep in mind that you can get a fuckhuge amount of muts and some can be your body rapidly decaying, emitting severe radioation to shit up your surroundings, or even being burned to death by sunlight. BACKUP BEFORE YOU GO MUTATION WHORING. IT'S LIKELY FIXED BY NOW BUT BACK IN THE DAY YOU COULD SOMETIMES GET A CRASH.

 

- Triffid Grove - Prime targets for nuclear strikes. Flamers can be used to conserve ammo if you don't mind waiting 15 min per volley for the flames to die down. May need to craft and bring a bunch of grenades if the root walls block access to the triffid heart.

 

(wiki copypasta)

Map extras:

    Helicopter crash site May contains uncommon bionics, or random guns, or items from dead soldier or scientist. Clean up the wreckage with a shovel for steel.

    Dead military squad 2d6 bodies with military equipment, sometimes ID card, and some rare items.

    Dead scientists 2d5 bodies with scientific equipment, always ID cards, and some rare items.

    Stash, rounded with traps Trash, wood, drugs, food, ammo, or rare items.

    Dead drug-dealers 2x3d3 bodies, sometimes with melee weapons or firearms, and always lots of heroin, meth, cocaine, or weed.

    Supply drop 1-5 locked crates with military food, grenades, armor, and rifles. Use a crowbar to not break glass stuff.

    Portal, surrounded by rubble Spawn of 0-4 random nether monster.

    Minefield Beware of dirt mounds!

    Wolf pack Spawn of 3-6 beasts.

    Puddle of shallow water (Temporarily disabled)

    Crater (these are differ from regular ones - they are always highly radioactive)

    Fumarole (some lava on the surface)

    One-way portal from Nether world Marloss, and sometimes gelatinous blobs, flaming eyes, krecks, and blank bodies.

    Anomaly with natural artifact and traps, which are related to its effects.

 

Chances of appearance by extras flag:

         %%%    HEL     MIL     SCI     STA     DRG     SUP     PRT     MIN     WLF     PUD     CRT     FUM     1WY     ART

road    50      40      50      120     200     30      10      5       80      20      200     10      8       2       3

field   60      40      15      40      80      10      10      3       50      30      300     10      8       1       3

subway  75      0       5       12      5       5       0       7       0       0       120     0       20      1       3

building        90      0       5       12      0       10      0       5       5       0       0       60      8       1       3

 

Chances are relative to each other; e.g. a 200 chance is twice as likely as a 100 chance to appear.

 

 

 

 

---------------

a. Laboratories

---------------

 

Laboratories, especially the labyrinthine megacomplexes, can be nightmares for newer players.

 

However, there are ways of systematically (autistically) clearing them out to eliminate the danger you'll face.

 

First of all, you need to know what you're looking for when you dive in so you don't waste your time. Laboratories have the following loot:

-bandages (great for power-leveling your First Aid skill)

-ammo (from turrets and SecuBots)

-electronic components (from turrets and SecuBots)

-batteries (you can find a shitload of these)

-bionics (CBM: Utilities, CBM: Internal Battery, and CBM: Power Source)

-mutagenic substances (fetuses in glass containers, bottles of mutagen, mutagenic body parts)

-bottles of purifier

-royal jellies

-tools (scissors, scalpels, fire extinguishers, rags)

-clothing (leather jackets, sneakers, jeans, trenchcoats, sewing kits, etc.)

-map data (many computer consoles allow you to download world map data)

 

The real meat of the laboratory is the ending, which is represented by a teal 'L' on your map and is always on the lowest level of the lab. There are a number of lab end variants, but you can sometimes get advanced weapons or rare bionics by checking them out. The rest of the lab is divided into subsections (blue 'L's on your map) that are separated by sets of double doors. It's usually best not to go into a new subsection into you've adequately explored the one you're in (so you don't overlook bionics storages or down staircases). However, if you want to zip to the lab ending, you can just dash through the complex looking for that teal 'L' on your map.

 

As for actually clearing out a lab safely, just follow these guidelines and you probably won't die horribly:

1. Keep a flashlight and spare batters. Laboratories are pitch black.

2. Keep some spare first aid kits and painkillers for when you get hurt (you will).

3. Keep Safe Mode on at all times, so you don't go bumbling into a turret's line of sight.

4. Close ALL doors (especially double doors) behind you to prevent hordes of monsters from wandering between rooms and gangraping you.

5. Put on a note on your map whenever you find a down staircase (up staircases are automatically noted).

6. When your first go down into a new level, try to stick with exploring the outermost subsections to clear out a ring first. This way you won't miss any subsections.

7. If you hear a lot of sounds behind a door, you might want to consider coming back later instead. Some rooms can have 20+ monsters inside.

8. Lab monsters increase in number the longer you're down there, but they all reset when you leave the lab. When things start to get hairy, leave and come back later to finish the job.

9. Do not light shit on fire or use molotovs in the lab unless you want to burn the entire place to the ground. Laboratories are extremely flammable for some reason.

10. Use 2x4's from deconstructed counters to mark off looted rooms. Spray paint is fine too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

-------

8. NPCs

-------

First off, NPC's in Cata are all kinds of retarded. They can and will kill you just because they feel like it. Approach at your own risk

 

Npc's can be (C)hatted with in order to ask for jobs,trade, travel with me, combat preferences, etc. If you're a daring man (C)hat them and convince them to join you. Then run back to your shelter, trade them your crap/excess guns for a couple thousand dollars, and then have them teach you everything they know. If you want to use them as a escort go into combat commands and disable grenade use and change their aggression to whatever you prefer. If you just want you gun back set pref to only attack enemies I attack, run into town to grab a huge horde, then attack 1 zambee and watch them make a Last Stand. Circle around later for all your guns. Thanks for the "free" training Mr. NPC! This is a very helpful thing to do as you can get hard to level skills like dodge, tailoring, computers, etc all without using materials or books. It's also AMAZING at jumpstarting a melee/ranged build by raising the associated skills without having to worry about xp or skill comprehension rates.

 

You can also just keep accumulated NPC's and have a personal army if you take care to keep them alive and don't run too far ahead of them.

 

 

 

 

-------------------

9. Specific Enemies

-------------------

 

Wiki entry (spoilers ahead):

http://whalesdev.com/wiki/index.php?title=Enemies

 

If you're worried about an enemy, either look it up on the wiki, or ask us about it.

 

Better yet, stop being a pussy and run at it with a shotgun.

 

Enemies:

 

-squirrel/rabbit/deer - huntable vermin that move far faster than you ever will. Use a bow or .22 rifle to hunt.

-wolf - annoying hit and runner. Shoot if ranged, and run backwards and attack when it's in melee range.

-bear - do NOT engage in melee. Hits like a truck. Great source of meat and pelts if you have a ranged weapon you can use. They only attack if you get too close.

 

-giant bee - essentially a training dummy if you have poison resistance. Does hit and run attacks. Just stand on the other side of a shrub or a (s)mashed down young tree to get an extra attack in. They only attack if you draw near

-giant wasp - Do NOT fuck with these carelessly. With decent gun/throwing skills you can kill at range.

-wolf spider - aggravating fucker. Use a gun.

-web spider - irrelevant. Kill however you want.

-jumping spider - irrelevant but obnoxious.

-giant ant - good for meat and chitin. They only attack if you draw near.

-soldier ant - rarer than their worker cousins. Have a weapon with armor piercing capabilities on hand.

-sewer rat/snake - Easy crap. just blam with your longbow and carry on. remember where patches of rubble/lava are if you need to kite a pack of them.

 

-zombie - standard scrub. Kite with a ranged weapon, mantaining a 2-tile distance at all times (they can lunge at you).

-shrieker zombie - weaker than a zambeh but the noise it makes can and will bring friends. Shriek can easily bring a brute or hulk if it gets too many off.

-spitter zombie - spits ~5x5 pool of acid that can and will melt shit on the ground. if you see one draw it away from your home and do not die in a pool of acid no matter what. if it looks bad start throwing your valuable gear as far as you can. as strong as a zombie but you gotta kill it asap. Yes, acid does hurt zambees and it's a common way to get rid of skeletons by running them through the spitters acid pools.

-shocker - shoots worthless electrical discharges. Slightly stronger than a zombie, and can zap your ass for some serious pain if there are plenty of them. Can sometimes recover a CBM from its corpse

-fast zombie - hit and run dickhead. Wait until it comes at you from the rest of the pack, then whack it.

-boomer - fairly weak scum. Can spew bile and blind you, so keep your distance.

-skeleton - if you're using a gun, you'll do fine. If you're using a bow or crossbow, grease your anus. They have high armor and can resist lighter rounds. Melee builds shouldn't have any issues here.

-grabber zombie - like a regular zombie with a grabbing attack. Just use a window/bench/railing/table to slow it down and kill it. Or just shoot it when it gets near.

-zombie necromancer - can ressurect dead zambees. THIS is why you butcher erry zombie errywhere all day erryday.

-zombie brute - early-game difficulty-check and is about as strong as two zombies and hits with the power of 4 with every attack. Have a decent rifle and a decent rifle skill, or you might as well grease your anus.

-zombie soldier - hits like 2 zombies and wears kevlar to defend against piss-weak melee attacks. Bring a rifle and blow them away.

-zombie hulk - "I have become death, Destroyer of worlds". Extremely high armor, around 260 HP, hits like eight normal zombies, and can smash through walls like the Kool-Aid man. If you have a good rifle, you'll be fine. If you melee with a rock, grease your anus.

 

-blobs - Wierd shit that came from a goo pit. Try to not engage in melee to avoid getting the slimed disease. Easy peasy to shoot with a ranged weapon.

-young triffids - free food and skill training.

-triffid - aggravating fuckers that move like a gang and infest the place. Do not engage in melee unless you can funnel them in through a window (unlikely). If you have a decent ranged skill, you should do fine. If you use a bow, prepare your anus.

-vinebeast - hard fuckers to shoot if your ranged skills suck.

-fungaloids - stay away from them unless you have a gas mask. They reproduce like roaches and split into dangerous spores. Avoid areas with fungaloids until you're ready to deal with the hive itself.

 

-turret - get far away and shoot from a distance until it blows up. Peek out and fire, then take cover repeatedly.

 

-netherworld monsters - exterminate from a distance. Don't let them touch you. Beware, as some are quite fast.

 

-------------------

10. Extra Warnings & Meta Tips

-------------------

1. Closing cata with the X in the top right saves NOTHING. Character progress? Gone. 5 hours of digging pits? Gone. Ditto if it crashes. save & quit OFTEN. AND TURN ON THE AUTOSAVE

2. Only the character is saved when you save and go to the main menu

3. The map & items on ground are saved when you hit quit on the main menu

4. NEVER save while driving a vehicle. If  you do try to get the vehicle moving and try shit until you can get yourself thrown from it. That fixes it.

5. If you see repeating terrain like a mirage. RUN! Pray it doesn't fuck your game up. It's the fucking Missingno. of Cataclysm.

6. Play like it's an unstable Pokemon emulator. Find something cool? Save and quit. Then backup the save folder by compressing it into a zip. EVERY TIME. I lost a CBM: nutrition, 3 hard plating, 1 steel plating, and a spiked plating cause I didn't backup after finding it and my previous backup didn't have the tile explored after my save glitched so when I went back the copter crash map extra wasn't there.

7. If you move/organize your stash. Save and quit. you don't want to do it again

8. Save and quit before you go downstairs to sleep if it's at an evac shelter. Backup too. EVERY TIME. Trust us, after the first time you lose a promising character you too will become this autistic

9. Find a welder/shovel? Save and quit + backup. IMMEDIATELY. It's not worth losing it.

10. Do ANYTHING that you would be pissed to do again? Save & quit.

11. At start (C)hat the starting NPC for a quest then step outside, find and grab two rocks, then head to a forest and (s)mash down a (1)young tree for a heavy stick to use as a weapon. You can now survive in the wilderness until the flu and boredom kill you.

12. You outrun all the early game shit. don't forget this

13. Noise reduces your early-game spawn protection as well as increases the number and quality of zombie spawns until you reach shotgun blast levels which summon a swarm per shot.

13.a. Boomers make noise which reduces your day 1 spawn protection. Later on it'll bring shriekers who will bring Hulks. Nobody likes Hulks.

14. (Made outdated by update)

15. Read when you have no/low xp in your xp pool and/or search nearby map tiles for shallow pools. Map this shit in excel/open office calc

16. Keep a spreadsheet in excel/openoffice with the roads/gas stations/shallow pools/and map extras. This is incredibly important later when you need to remember where x stash is in relation to town y that character z found after g's death and you want to get your old car back.

17. Throwing rocks is surprisingly viable at hunting. (t)hrowing rocks at an adjacent tile for 800xp will get you to about throwing 3-4 which is good enough for hunting squirrels/rabbits at close range. Throwing 5-6 is sufferable for hunting wolves/giant bees.(Gather dem stingers! They're amazing for throwing.)Throwing 7+ will let you snipe bears/giant wasps while they sit and be pelted by rocks. Save stingers for 1-2 tile distances when that higher dmg will be put to good use.

18.Vital books are birdhouse monthly/const 301 & Under the hood. Read to construction 1 and keep a screwdriver+rock to remove windows instead of breaking them and get mechanics 1 to craft a crowbar from a pipe if you haven't found 1

19. Loot at night. Zombies use sight/noise/smell in that order to locate you so do a run-through the first day to get the town mapped and find a backpack then come back during the night to find that construction book to start removing windows to make places to fight in town.

20. If you use cutting weapons and have like <13-14 str carry an extra because even broadswords can get stuck in a zombie and pull it to the other side of a broken weapon when it dies.

21. Giant bee hives are a plentiful food source and you can train your dodge up to 4 easily if you take poison resistant and mind your pain levels

22. Take fast healer and poison resistant every time. No exceptions. Consider robust genetics once you start living long enough for mutations to be an issue.

23. Get used to making do with 1 active backpack on at all times and 1 bonus loot backpack that you only put on when you're about to leave town at the speed of light. Only do that stupid backpackx2 messenger bagx2 pursex2 shit when you have a loot wagon to dump it all in. The dodge/melee penalties are just too crippling.

24. (w)ield (-)nothing to empty your hands

25.hit (_)unarmed fighting style and then (i)nventory (:)equipped unarmed style to examine it

26.(w)ield) glass bottles n shit and (U)nload the rotten contents. Ditto for taking batteries out of electronics/dumping gas into a vehicle

27. UPS's & welders can hold 10 batteries. Remember this for conserving trunk space you an make UPS's with 5 skill in electronics and 10 fleshlights/radios broken down into amp circuits/power converters

28. Sewage samples at sewer treatment plants: Put an empty container where it's gonna expel the sewage sample to get it in the container. Whales' nokia can't handle letting you pick liquids up off the ground with a rag/mop for whatever reason. (Mops can clean up spills now)

29. You can cook mutagen and purifier(cMut) at high cooking levels, Stockpile bleach and ammonia once you're comfortable and have all your survival gear.

30. If you have driving 0/are new to driving don't go faster than 20 mph. once you get used to it you can go 30 but stay below 40 until you have a couple driving levels unless you wanna make a 90 degree turn into a building with a brute and a shocker right behind you

31. Read the fucking pasta and use the wiki. it'll save you a lot of grief.

32. Read how to browse the web to get computers to 2 for using sewage and mine computers. MAKE SURE TO TAKE 13 INT NO MATTER WHAT. Get to comp 8 with comp 301 and scip if you want to get cbm's from labs n other computer related shit.

33. Ants, Fungals, and Triffids all spread further and increase in quality the longer you are around them. Keep this in mind

34. Sewage plants are a bad place to live if there's a nearby anthill despite all the beautiful space to spread out gear.

35. Do NOT start a fire underground like labs. It's made of dryer Lint. Store ALL your loot underground when possible to avoid it getting destroyed by a fire started by a lightning strike

36. Cook up zombie pheramones and keep some handy if you don't have an easy way to handle hulk/brutes/fuck up badly. It charms them for a short time allowing you to run away.

 

Forgot the super secret tip that new guys take too long to figure out

 

9000000. Fight from the other side of a empty/broken window. The game uses movement points to calc shit with 100 essentially being 1 turn and a window needing 500 to get through which amounts to about 2 free hits before the zombie even has a chance to attack despite the most atrocious stuck weapon/miss rolls slowing you down. I once killed about 70 zombies and assorted boomer/shrieker/brute popcorn from the other side of a REALLY nice window configuration. With a good gun you can even down multiple hulks and give 0 fucks. septupply so if you dug pits with a shovel to slow and damage the zombies beforehand during the night.