Taking the piss out of the First Day

Guide created using 0.D (Danny) of Cataclysm DDA.

Taking the piss - an expression meaning to mock, tease, ridicule, or scoff. Most widely used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

The purpose of this guide:

• Create a challenge for players
• Teach early combat tips and techniques
• Prioritize how to obtain basic needs under pressure
• Explain to quickly reach a state of self-sufficiency and reach mid-game.
• Highlight the value of Preventative Maintenance, which in game-terms is primarily tailoring and mechanics.

World Generation

For the most part, you may generate whatever world you prefer. The default world works, and so long as you can start in a city or close to one. Even a suburban outpost.

For this guide I will assume that you have taken the following options:

• Static NPCs

• Surrounded Start

• A Start in darkness, before dawn/after dusk

• Wandering Hordes and Static Hordes

I have other settings I play with, however these will guarantee the conditions I aim to address. They are cold, restricting start options, fraught with danger and the need to move and keep moving.

Those wishing to take on even more challenge should consider the following options:

• Spring or Winter season start
• Reduced item spawn rates
• Increased monster spawn rates and a rebalancing of the zombie spawns.

Character Generation

It is most important that you start in the city or one close enough to walk to in short order. As such, we don't address wilderness or lab starts. It is most preferable to start within 5 tiles of a city edge, so that you can retreat into the field/forest should you need to.

Whatever scenario you pick to start with I would recommend taking night vision as a trait. It isn't required, but especially for a newer player or a player without a flashlight it really helps navigate.

I prefer to build a strength-weighted character, and since melee is the last line of defense and never runs out of ammo it’s the easiest combat for a player in a new situation. That means a strength of 10 or higher, and enough dexterity to hit critters.

My personal preference is to build a Hobo slow-learner character with bad knees and an itchy trigger finger; possessing high intelligence and lower perception and dexterity. He typically has robust genetics and the masochism trait, and 2 skill in first aid and computers.

The above is not at all optimized, but gives you an idea of what I do. New players wishing to survive in this environment may do well to take 2 or even 3 mechanics and 2 - 3 melee or unarmed; in order to ease their growing pains.

Possessing Your Character

You wake up at 0000. In the midnight air, you immediately hear zombies crashing through your windows; your partner's gun firing off as they take their last stand a little too literally. Not wanting to abandon them, you gather whatever you can from your room and find them dropping zombies.

Most survivors, from shower victims to firemen, will want to check the bodies of the zombies for goods, either to trade to your partner or to wear. Or hold on to. Zombies drop tools, batteries, and food in addition to their clothing, and anyone playing with reduced item spawns will appreciate how vigilance will pay off.

Gathering the goodies from the ground, it is important to stay out of the reach of the zombies while you are exposed and unarmored. Running is definitely your friend, because naked you would take huge amounts of damage. Sprint around zombies and stay inside, out of the LoS of the horde outside. Chat up your partner, and try to bum an item from them; then trade. (You can also buy everything from them except the expensive item you want, then bum an item) Since the 0.D (Danny) the NPCs often carry themed item lists around, be they trappers, or arsonists or medics. The Hitchhiker profession will have a very valuable book they can trade for most of the inventory of the NPC, but good luck carrying it all without zombie loot.

Items you are looking for are Storage, healing, flashlights, batteries, thread, drink, stimulants, duct tape, and wrench/hacksaw/rubber hose. The hose is available by smashing the fridge, and with an empty bottle or jar you can siphon gas from vehicles. The wrench and hacksaw will let you loot vehicle parts if/when your skill is high enough. Weapons might be tempting, but consider their immediate worth. A heavy stick or a pipe looted from furniture will defend you adequately for now, and you can upgrade these into spears, nailboards, and makeshift crowbars with a little time and light. If you want a jump on that consider starting a fire in the starting structure before fleeing, and make yourself a weapon.

Having traded with your partner, you could try to stick close by and loot their corpse after their inevitable demise, but zombies tend to prefer your flesh to that of others. I'd advise against it in most cases; but if you die it’s not like you lost much time.

Time to flee. Raid as much as you can from the house without trapping yourself with the growing stream of undead conga-ing behind you. Then use the cover of darkness to exit the building.

Tips:

• Smash windows and take the strings. These can be disassembled into short strings which can then be easily disassembled into thread.
• Consider throwing any noisemakers you have away from you when you attempt to leave. Most zombies will be drawn to your companion, but in the absence of noise, there's nothing like a good car alarm or a couple firecrackers to mask your footsteps.
• Duct tape will let you repair or install parts without a welder. It won’t last long, but you get 4 installs for every roll of duct tape. Grab them, as even without a car it’s useful.
• Look at your map and consider how long it will take to get to any area of interest. 6 1/2 hours is not as long as you might think . . .
• Sling and slingshots may not be the manliest or most damaging of weapons, but they are cheap and will hit what your melee can't. Consider their use against anything you can't seem to hit in melee, but consider your health more.
• If you are the gambling sort and plan to do anything that is based on chance and 'out of your league' (such as hacking a computer terminal or repairing armor) try taking a few caffeine pills to boost your chances-caffeine increases all stats.

Fleeing

Once outside your house, kindly consider never going back. Your overworld map should give you an idea where you want to go. Because of the frigid night I recommend you travel by or on the road, and stop by houses for loot/shelter/warmth.

Identifying Working Cars

I advise checking for working cars if possible at all times. A vehicle will need to be approached to confirm it is in working order (evident by examining it), you can use the X examine command to scan its parts from afar, and e examine the car in greater detail from an adjacent tile. A vehicle will require:

• Wheels. A vehicle will spawn with no working wheels or all working wheels.
• Power. An engine will need to be present on the vehicle somewhere.
• Fuel. A vehicle will need fuel. When checking for gas tanks be careful that the tanks aren't damaged to the point of displaying yellow or below condition. At this point fuel could leak from the tank at an alarming rate. Check the tile beneath the tank for leaking fuel. It is possible to choose which fuel tank you fill, and thus only 1 of the vehicles fuel tanks needs to be capable of holding fuel.
• Battery. A vehicle will need something to start its ignition or power its lights. Badly damaged batteries can lose power over time.
• Controls. A car without a way to steer is a car you aren’t driving.
• Seat. For some peculiar reason there needs to be a seat, saddle, or bed on the same tile as a controls in order to properly control the vehicle.

A vehicle with all these parts may run. It still needs fuel and a charged battery. Fuel is fairly upfront; if the tank is leaking and gas is under the vehicle then move on unless you are desperate. If the battery is not charged you can (f)ill it with at least 100 batteries to charge it. A badly damaged battery will not need to hold a charge as long as the vehicle is running; the engine will function without it after it is rotating. If an alternator is installed over a battery it will charge the battery as long the vehicle engine is on. Solar panels will charge the battery in 'Sunny' or 'Clear' Weather conditions.

Remember that although you can bypass security systems with a screwdriver, without skill you may just end up attracting all manner of attentions to yourself and endanger the car.

Destinations

While searching for a car, I recommend you path towards the following locations:

• Garages with adjacent Hardware Stores are top-priority destinations. These beauties have multiple slots for cars, food, booze, drinks, 2 stores worth of tools, and even some tobacco for that unhealthy fix.
• Garages. An excellent source of tools and the occasional vehicle. Don't get obsessed with taking all those heavy goodies with you unless you have a car.
• Sporting Goods Stores will provide flashlights, weapons, and food/drink to the wary.
• If you need storage or warmth go to a Clothing Store.
• Pawn Shop or Military Surplus Store. While a gamble against the odds of triggering alarms and finding nothing, the clothing here is superior, the MREs fantastic, and the specialty items found here may be worthwhile.
• Parking Lots. Getting a vehicle and getting out of the city is your ultimate goal.

Don't specifically go out of your way to get to these stores, but if you pass by them take advantage of the following:

• Gas Stations. You want to check on the outside for working vehicles. Sometimes you can find a road map in here, which will reveal the road network in an enormous area.
• Grocery stores have shopping carts, and may carry other non-essential goodies, like painkillers and fungicide.
• Pharmacies are great for their stimulants, and usually don't try too hard to lock their back rooms.
• Hardware stores may have helmets and useful tools, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Worth stopping at if it’s on the way.
• Museums. The samurai loot is definitely an upgrade, and the flintlocks are strong if nothing else.

Actively avoid the following locations:

• Slime pits. Just no. Don't let frame rate loss happen to you. Plus, while a single small blob is cute, 1 big blob will wreck you early game, and 20 small blobs will surround you and kill you with attrition.
• Cockroach-infested areas. Giant cockroaches are the newest insect to pest its way into your heart. Not especially dangerous, it’s as fast as you and more than capable of matching an unskilled character.
• Wasps. No need to tempt the devil. Cool things tend to spawn in wasp-houses, but so do wasps. Venture by at your own risk; you can’t outrun a wasp once it starts meleeing you. Though a quick-thinking survivor might be able to distract it with fire or close a door on it . . .
• Black widow basements. Good sources of food for a mid-game character, these aren't particularly exciting otherwise. Don't tempt fate.
• The Rave to the Grave. If you check your map, and you can't see the city because all the Green Horde markers are present, turn around and go somewhere else.
• Areas with several unmarked craters. They won't be on the over-world map, but you'll know them if you find them. You can try to figure out their purpose if you want to, but they'll only be an FPS drain to an early-game survivor. Don't confuse these with standard craters, which are relatively safe places due to the lack of spawns nearby.

As mentioned above, the goal is to get a working vehicle with working lights and get out of the city come sunup. People with flashlights should travel on the side of the road, occasionally flicking it on to check for working cars. Those without it should listen for hordes and travel in the road in a relatively serpentine pattern.

Defend Yourself!

The city is a harsh place for a new character, and assuming you have special undead turned on you need to be prepared for some dirty fighting. The tools for your survival are diverse, and each must be weighed on carefully. While I cover combat more in-depth later in this guide, the methods of combat are listed below in the order you should generally prefer their use as it pertains to the dark of your first day.

Stealth

Discretion is always the better part of valor. Most, but not all, zombies can see you from 4 tiles away, while even with the night vision trait you can only see 2. Hearing them coming is important and luckily easy. Just avoid the yellow marks if you can, and Sprint away " if you can. Zombies will try to see you, and will try to follow your scent if they can’t see you. They will follow any sounds if they can’t see or smell you.

Stealth can extend to avoiding extraneous noise, but you shouldn't shy away from breaking into a house to escape the cone of light from headlights or some other dangerous situation. If the zombies are making even more noise than you are (say destroying a car that is running) you can safely make quite a bit of noise. The zombies will prefer the louder sound if they can get it.

Oh yea, stay out of the light. Zombies will immediately path to you should they catch a glimpse of you. Worse, you won't know how many there are or from where they'll come. Go around flashing lights and stay away from headlights. Consider going to the source and turning it off if you must. You could even go so far as setting off alarms in vehicles in the hopes of attracting a horde to that location to destroy the lights.

Melee

The obvious choice for ridding yourself of unwelcome callers in the night, melee is currently a quiet method of disposing a zombie. Stand on the other side of a bush or in an empty window and let them struggle to climb over it. The shopping carts or wheelbarrows will provide mobile obstacles for your protection. (Shopping carts are no longer boardable in 0.D (Danny)).

How willing you are to fight should depend on circumstance and skill, but even an untrained brawler can usually beat a zombie 1v1, albeit with damage. If you are specced to fight then by all means kill it and take its loot.

Whatever the case, just as you want to avoid creating unnecessary noise you want to make sure the pursuing zombie doesn't spend his time smashing into shrubs and shattering glass. This will cause unwanted attention and eat up your own time. If he wants to mosh with a bush let him and move on.

Ranged

Perhaps not a very applicable combat style in the dark of the first night, but nonetheless it is possible. Should you possess the ability to shoot/throw at zoms you could do it. However, unlike most melee weapons, many ranged attacks will create significant noise.

Quiet ranged attacks, such as slings or crossbows should be utilized if the opportunity presents itself. You have the means and items, so why not? Don’t get too attached to trying to keep the ammo intact though.

Firearms or thrown items carry the risk of noise. You miss with that throwing axe and it’s going to thump into the ground, and like firing a pistol that noise is going to attract more zombies. Try to shy away from reckless use of firearms.

Fire

My good old standby. Fire, whether from a lighter or a molotov, is an amazing weapon for a low-level character. It causes incredible and predictable damage, hitting no matter what your skill level is and damaging everything without worry. It provides ambient heat and light, and can spread to absolutely ravage buildings. Even robots aren't completely immune to its wiles.

Molotov cocktails should be used with caution. Because of the light they throw off and the noise they cause, molotovs make good last-ditch weapons against shocker brutes and hulks. Or zombears or jabberwocks or whatever other unnatural horror you should face on the first night. Note however, that in damp or otherwise unfavorable conditions a molotov may fail to stay lit.

Personal lighters and matches will be the slightly safer method. Again, because of the light they throw off this should be resorted to as a lastish effort. Fast zombies such as hunters, dogs, runners, or one you can’t kill easily are the primary targets of fire. 2 turns in the fire will kill most dogs, 3-5 will torch most zombies, and hunters will tend to jump around too much to get a quick kill on them. Really consider luring them onto an obstacle before flaming them. I’d even recommend going as far as getting inside and torching a whole building to kill 1 hunter on the first night. Seriously, don't play with them; if you can’t kill them or get away from them you do what you have to to survive.

Ramming

Okay, so if you can ram a zombie you already have a car. But, if you have the option of ramming them you should consider the benefits of it. Until you get a vehicle welding rig installed you likely won’t have the luxury of wasting valuable hull integrity on a single zombie or killing a horde for no good reason. Get out of the car, you lazy-bones, and smash its head in the good old-fashioned way.

Obviously, it’s not always possible to avoid a crowd. They tend to clog streets and spawn in-between you and escape. Just try to preserve your batteries, engines, and special parts like kitchen units, guns, or wheels. And headlights. Your headlights are your lifeline at night in the early game. Nobody wants to be that guy hanging out of his car window in the middle of winter, shining a flashlight in front of him, going 30 down the road. Don’t do it. I'd rob you in a second if we were in the post-apocalypse and you did.

Headlights will require level 3 mechanics to repair while still-operable; but only level 1 mechanics and a consumed flashlight to install a new headlight. You need to be able to drive any time, or risk a horde finding your car in the dark. And the dark is scary when you are driving.

Strapping a Car to Your Back

So it’s cold, you've put down several zombies, and maybe you don't even have a car yet. You're tired of fleeing, you're hung over, you have a bitten torso, and the sun is going to come up any minute now. Life is pretty bad.

But unbeknownst to you your salvation is all around you. If you took my advice and smashed a fridge for its rubber hose you should be able to siphon any fuel from a gas/diesel tank and put it into bottles. If you've been looting corpses and house hopping you should have at least 100 spare batteries. If you have been diligent and thoughtful in your planning you should be by the city limits and ready to flee. Here I'll talk about what to do with your new slightly pre-owned car.

Flee

The name of the game until you get yourself fortified and fed; running from the city is your ultimate goal for the first day. Take as much loot as you dare to with you, too. Wherever you go, make sure you have the fuel to get back, some food to last until the next night, and the safety to craft or sleep.

Good places to settle down for your training are

• Empty Fields. Just drive until no more zombies can be seen. Simple, moderately effective, and safe as long as you have a solid LoS; this has the unfortunate disadvantage of being left open to attack if you fall asleep. And getting attacked means your windshield will probably be smashed through.
• Caves. Caves are mild sources of Fun, and occasionally resources. They are accessible to the beginning survivor who isn't afraid of the dark. They aren't perfect, but they're cool, sheltered locations that need to be explored before their mysteries will be revealed.
• Ant Mounds. Ant mounds are hands down one of the best places in the game for a survivor with a sealed car to go sleep by. The ants will fight anything that isn't them off, and they themselves can’t smash your windows so as long as you don't have hull damage they can’t get in. It can also be occasionally hard to drive out of due to the density of the ants.
• Fungal Fields. Fungus are almost entirely non-aggressive, and those that are hostile don't go out of their way to attack you. Mind Fungal Infections if you sleep here. Or just carry fungicide or a gas mask.
• Sewage Treatment Plants/Waste Dumps/Sarcophagi. These abandoned locations are somewhat radioactive, but carry minor loot and are completely free of hostile spawns. And radiation is the poor man's mutagen. Take the robust genetics trait and roll around in the toxic waste.
• Other locations have merit, but may also have spoilers attached. Most are completely safe on the ground level if you use them like a pre-apocalyptic person would.

Whatever the case may be, your new goal now that you have a vehicle is to pick up the vehicle welding rig as soon as you can spare the time. It requires 4 electronics, 4 fabrication, and 4 mechanics, as well as a book to teach the recipe, but for all that it will literally end your concerns about vehicle health.

Loot

So you found a car a little early, and now are ahead of schedule? No problem; whether its 5 minutes or 2 hours, there's always stuff that isn't nailed down to be taken.

Listed below are useful lootz, listed from quickest to obtain to most time consuming.

• Long strings and Sheets - The loot from a smashed window. Is deconstructed into short stings and those into threads, or butchered into rags.
• Food/Drink. A grocery store or liquor store away. Should you get the chance it is worth the while since you will have to get it eventually anyway. A less rewarding/risky way may be to loot apartment buildings or fast food restaurants or kitchens.
• Clothing grab/basement hunting. Houses most reliably spawn food and clothing on the ground level, but tend to have a bit of everything. If you are willing to gamble your time away you may even find basement that can house anything from barren book rooms to preper supply storage.
• Gun-store smash-and-grab. Just because the windows have bars on them doesn't mean the walls are any stronger than a normal house. Run a car into the side of the building, run inside, and fill up. Newer gun stores tend to require a cash card for the bulk of their ammo.
• Preparatory scavenging. Pipes, scrap metal, and tools will make the process of transitioning into the mid-late game easier. Great if you already have mechanic skill or under the hood and pliers, wrench, and hacksaw. Take parts off existing vehicles and shuffle them to your car for later installation.
• Specialty shopping. Going out to get more exotic or uncommon items is usually a necessity or opportunity thing. Items on this list depend on your specific needs. inhalers, glasses, anti-biotics, lab cards, books, chemicals, gunpowder, or nomex.

Keep in mind that this isn't an exhaustive list, nor do these have to be your exact priorities.

Park

Really more of an extension of 'flee', park is about grinding you skills and actually repairing your equipment and body. Whether it’s inside a mansion, in a cave, or just in the car in the middle of the field, parking it and focusing on enhancing your potential is what is going to make you better.

The most important things to secure are going to depend on situation and skill, but I can list a somewhat generic checklist applicable to most play-throughs.

• Light. If you still don't have a battery operated flashlight or other renewable means of light you need to take some of your gas or alcohol and create torches; if only for emergency purposes.
• Clothing. Either read your book or cut up your sheets and level up by making hand wraps. Make these items until you hit level 1. If you do not have a sewing kit you can craft fishing hooks from nails until you hit level 1 fabrication and can make a wooden needle from a splintered wood. If you have a sewing kit or substitute then begin repairing looted zombie clothing after you craft a bare-bones set of clothing. At level 2 sewing start trying to refit and fortify your clothing, starting with the least damaged. Once you have a set of fortified clothing you can face the hordes with dignity and a real chance at survival. Tailoring is heavily dependent upon the dexterity attribute. If you are suffering from a low dexterity or a disease that penalizes your dexterity you may want to wait until you recover before attempting repairs.

In 0.D (Danny) tailoring was specifically nerfed so that level 2 tailoring may no longer be sufficient to repair clothing. Be more cautious in your attempts to fortify clothing, but most clothing can still be repaired with minimal issues. Try taking some caffeine to increase your dexterity for a short time; increasing your odds for important jobs.

• Soldering/Mechanics. Getting your mechanics to 3 is important. The book Under the Hood will do this, but without it you can solder spare steel or plastic items until you hit level 2. At level 2 you can remove most vehicle parts with a wrench and hacksaw, so find a car you don't need and start removing parts!
• At level 3 mechanics you can install and repair most car parts with a powered welder, a powered makeshift welder, acetylene torch, or duct tape. Start repairing your car, starting with badly damaged frames and headlights and working your way up. It’s still mighty expensive to do so at this point, so don't go crazy. Consider installing additional headlights or overhead lights; the redundancy is insurance against a Fun time.

• Reading. Level up that skill you desire, and start pumping out specialized items, such as zombie pheromone, manhacks, weapon mods, or bionics. Personally this comes even later, but it’s never too early to specialize.
• Exploring. Always a decent option, exploring lets you learn the land, choose a base, plan out better night raids, and immerse yourself in your new hellish landscape.
• Looting bodies. Some people tried to form groups and flee, only to be struck down by krecks, mi-gos, soldiers, zombies, chicken walkers; you name it. Their bodies contain uncommon goodies and is certainly worth investigating if you should find the chance. Be warned that mi-gos are vicious little things.
• Raiding. The wilderness houses all manner of structures that are just waiting to be found and looted. Labs, cabins, farms, military bunkers, shelters, and various critter homes are all up for the entrepreneuring survivor!

Hiding in the City

Let's revisit the last narrative paragraph.

"So it’s cold, you've put down several zombies, and maybe you don't even have a car yet. You're tired of fleeing, you're hung over, you have a bitten torso, and the sun is going to come up any minute now. Life is pretty bad."

Taken out of context it seems to reflect the sad truth of the cataclysm; sometimes life isn't fair, your best isn't good enough, and luck isn't on your side.

It happens. And as a believer in not save-scumming or giving up I'm going to help you power-through such a grim situation.

Where to Hide

The Sun is coming up. And the city that never sleeps is going to eat you if you don't get inside. Serious. Get into a relatively intact house or back room of a store or into a basement. You have to be careful when choosing a location; but the problem is you may not have the luxury of time, so either take what you can get or risk the increasingly dangerous city streets.

• The safest spot in a city, even if you have these early Z-levels turned on, is below ground. The walls are concrete, the entrances to your location are likely limited, and the ceiling is great for blocking LoS. You won't have any natural light, but if you can gather enough wood, rags, and combustible fuel you can create 1 torch above ground and several more below. Glowsticks also work great.

• Failing a basement, the subway will provide an entertaining way to spend the day. Less safe, less comfy.

• The back room of a store is actually perhaps safer than being in a house. While there may be only 1 door in, its located so far back that you can usually keep your scent from the outside and barring a hulk randomly pathing around you can usually remain unassaulted all day. Not much room or many supplies usually, but you do get to live, so there's that consolation prize.

• Houses may be tempting, but they carry the significant risk of leaking scent, breaking glass, and the temptation to open a window to read. They do have boatloads of things to loot and craft and deconstruct and read, but again you have to balance it. It may be worthwhile to duct tape windows and close all the doors. It however will almost never be worthwhile to move furniture to block LoS. This isn't a situation where it’s even a little bit of a good idea to draw attention to yourself; even at the edge of the city you can get caught out by trying to be cute and 'strengthen' your defenses. In the interior of the city zombies will literally spawn all around you and swarm local cars. One time I spent the day in the city and a hulk slammed a zombie master into the bathroom wall I was in. Severely injured, the master called out to its minions and I was pancaked.

• Perhaps the worst places to settle down for your first day is a store without a back room or something with curtain-less windows or somewhere with a flimsy 'theory' of defense. It 'might' be okay, and you 'might' grab the attention of a wandering zombie who aimlessly found you.

What to do all day

Once in a safe place, and possessing the ability to create/use lighting, your next step is to craft defensively. Start by making the best weapons for you that you can. Make at least 2 weapons; a main and backup. Then craft any traps you can, and set them up. Finally, focus on your clothing. As important as it was before, now you don't even have the advantage of choosing when you'll be needing this extra armor. Once all of that is out of the way, start planning your escape come dark. Cook any food you need and water you can, decide what you can leave behind and condense your belongings. Finally, read spare books or use any crafting bits you plan to leave behind. No waste here.

Remember that some enemies respond better to one weapon type than others. Shockers actually hurt you if you hit them with metal weapons. Skeletons have no armor against bashing weapons but a huge amount against cutting weapons. Robots like manhacks will have less bashing protection than cutting protection. Consider carrying several different styles, especially if your skill in any single weapon type is negligible.

Surviving in the city is about experience, patience, and luck. If you are outside during the day, use the time to dart between buildings to break any LoS, start fires to erase your scent and burn anything following you as you building hop, and look for a working car. Sometimes you get luckier than you think. Of course more often you run into death. But it’s a roguelike, after all.

On the Nature of Combat

Sometimes you have to fight. There's just nothing left to do. You don't have the skill to feel comfortable about your odds and you can’t run. What do?

As with all good things, it depends. This guide is less about the act of combat and more about how to gain the edge. I’ll leave the picking of the weapons and the styles up to you to decide.

General Tips

-First, how much time do you have? The answer is all of it. Stop pressing buttons and doing things. Take a moment to think about your surroundings, and what you left behind that might help you. What are you up against? What special abilities do they have? What special items do you have to help you, like bullwhips, smoke bombs, or lighters? Do you have classic or wandering spawns on? e(X)amine your field of vision. Consider if the danger has seen you yet. It’s completely possible they haven't, or will blunder. Since the update zombies stumble much more frequently, and even seem to be preoccupied and not chase you immediately sometimes.

-Second, get somewhere. If you don't have wandering/classic spawns on hordes will be limited in size by your initial spawn settings. You could likely put your back and flanks to a wall and keep a bathtub in front of you. You can run up and down stairs. You can dart into an alleyway to mitigate the size of the horde following you. Do anything to gain an advantage. Anything. Your survival is all that matters. And not save-scumming.

-Third, Fight them intelligently. Conserve ammo if you can, Fire Fire Fire your gun if you don't feel secure in your survival. Use actual fire wisely and bear in mind the consequences of your actions. Fire will spread and cook off ammunition, destroying items and ripping up nearby fleshy creatures. Acid and electricity will thrash a player who is holed up and immobile. Shotguns will attract whole hordes if used without planning. Brutes and hulks will send a player flying into walls, causing great damage and possibly punching holes in said walls. Clothing has a lifespan; maybe you should drop anything you can’t risk losing?

-Fourth, how well did you prepare yourself? Did you do the best job you could have? This step is the learning step.

Preparation is as always key; you need to balance out safety and task orientation. Every volume of space dedicated to your protection is a volume not used for whatever task you’re doing. Whether you are collecting rocks for a fireplace or looting a grocery store, you need to find the compromise between security and task. You need to also decide between storage, mobility, and protection. Before going out it’s always a good idea to consider all the possibilities and the likelihood or inevitability of their occurrence. And you need to take proper precautions for them.

Sometimes an item isn't going to be needed immediately in the field. So it’s safe to leave it at your base, stash-spot, or in the back of the car. Some items should be carried in the front seat of the car or even in the driver's seat for easy access. They need to be available and easily found if needed, but take up too much space if always carried on you. And some items deserve a permanent spot in your inventory. Items such as a knife, a means of fire, a weapon of your choice skill, and a 'hulkbuster' need to always be present. Alcoholics should prepare alcohol for regular use; and other addicts need to prepare rations of their vice. Carrying healing supplies and choice stimulants should also take a priority.

Your Mother only exists in your dreams; you need to take matter into your own hands.

City Fighting, or Manipulating the AI

Fighting in the city is fighting against a massive Tidal Wave. If it doesn't outright crush you it destroys the environment and drains resources. It’s the attrition that gets you as often as a flat out roflstomp. Infections, Death by 1000 Cuts, the loss of your vehicle, armor, and stimulants, and even the destruction of your weapons. The zombies don't care if they live or die; lore-wise they're actually part of a hive-mind.

But, there are ways to help conserve your strength and limit your exposure.

• Limit the Line of Sight to you. The less that can see you the less that will come to eat you from less angles. Creature AI dictates that zombies will always prefer to path based on sight, then scent, then sound. These methods are conveniently ordered from most to least reliable, so make them work for their meal!

• Use walls. The only zombie that can regularly go through a wall is the hulk, and if he's coming you have many more problems than the structural integrity of the house you are in. Walls are impassable LoS breakers that will keep you safe. Zombies will stop pathing to you once they get into range to hit you, so hiding behind a doorway will completely choke-point yourself until a brute, acidic zombie, or other such one forces you out. I’ll make a special section exclusively for dealing with them.

• Use obstacles. While it may seem like moving a counter into the path of a horde of 30 zombies is superfluous, it just might be the thing that saves your life as the zombies waste their time climbing over or destroying it. If it comes to this, stealth has already gone out the window, so focus on putting more in the way. Besides, most movable things, most shrubs, most window frames are all flammable.

• Use vehicles. Sure, I mean shopping carts, but I also mean the numerous cars strewn about. Zombies won't path around vehicles in between you and them; instead they will begin smashing their way through them. Putting vehicles in between you and the horde ties them up. If a horde gets to smashing a car in the dark or if an alarm goes off the rest of the horde will be drawn to that location first. Gas Tanks in the newest experimentals will ignite at some point, causing zombie-killing fires and light.

• Use Stimulants. Your drug use in C:DDA should increase your ability. Some will carry side effects and carry the risk of addictions, but many can assist you when used in emergency or moderation. I'll be covering the drugs I'm most familiar with here, but this list isn't exhaustive. Most drugs are most effective when taken in doses of 2-3 at once, as their effects stack to a limited degree.

-Cocaine increases your speed. A few bumps of this and you'll be zipping around, running and attacking faster. Best used in small doses of 2 or 3 at once.

-Painkillers will reduce the penalties for pain; those being speed loss, morale damage, and attribute drain. The more painkillers you take the faster your pain will dissipate; although most of these are slow-release. Asprin qualifies as a very mild painkiller. All pain killers require some moderation; with weaker ones like codeine being safer to ingest mass doses of than true opiates.

-Alcohol. Alcohol will reduce pain moderately and is only typically useful in combat when you attain the first stage of intoxication, 'tipsy'. Any more and you will suffer penalties to you attributes. Several bionics interact with alcohol to create various interesting effects, however.

-Adrenaline Injectors. C:DDA doesn't do allergic reactions, but Epipens in the game will vastly increase your reaction time, strength, agility, and survivability for a small time before draining your body as fatigue sets in. This effect is also available as an uncontrollable effect via a selectable trait at character generation.

-Rivtech Medical Supplies. Frankly OPed and hard to find.

-Oxygen. If you have a nearby Oxygen tank you can take hits of pure Oxygen for a temporary speed boost.

-Caffeine. Yes, it’s a drug. Good for a speed boost, and it decrements your sleep rating.

-There may be supplementary medicines to carry around that also affect your ability to fight. Drugs such as an inhaler, anti-anxiety medication, muscle relaxants, or other more nefarious drugs will all have some effect on you.

• RUN!! Yes, I know that stealth is blown, but if you get the chance and don't mind losing the loot hoof it to a safe(r) place. Cut around objects and start fires to destroy your scent. It’s not impossible to ditch things much bigger and faster than you in buildings or forests or w.e.

The city is a wild place, and full of all kinds of surprises, from the raw power of its inhabitants in the beginning of the game to you 'being magic' late in the game. You've got to earn your spot, and these tips should help some.

Advanced Pyromania

With stealth gone, the only reason not to burn the world is the loss of loot, the fear of the fire enveloping you, or of ammunition cooking off. All are real dangers, and the heat from prolonged fireside fighting is enough to cause early heat stroke. Here are tips for the firebug in all of us, but Ill mostly be talking about fires that are started 1 tile at a time; as opposed to flamethrowers that make massive swaths of glory.

All fires will create smoke, and the strategies for dealing with smoke are to either wearing a filter/gas mask of some kind, staying away from indoor fires, or sucking it up and hoping to patch up your chest afterward; smoke inhalation causes coughing which creates noise and torso damage.

• Carry some fuel. Splintered wood, and rags. Drop them on the ground as needed, and if you aren't afraid of a little light, torch single zombies or anything annoying. Takes 2 combat turns. Then you can beat it to level up your weapon skill with almost no danger.
• If you are in a house fire is mostly out the window unless you are certain you can be out it instead. Only the truly desperate will light a fire inside a wooden structure and stay to do any significant fighting. Don't completely discount its use, as you can block LoS to kill Hunters or brutes without exposing yourself, but try not to rely upon it.

• Cooking Ammo, on the other hand, is a significant threat with all fires and all zombies. Normal zombies, fat zombies, Cop zombies, survivor zombies, soldier zombies; most zombie variations has varying chances to drop ammo as loot, and that ammo will often cook off and explode before you can pick it up or get away. There's no good way to combat this other than using intuition, leading them out of fires for the final blow, or getting away from the high risk zombies like soldiers, survivors, and cops before they die in the fire. The explosion hurts everything, from NPCs to Zs to items to terrain. I suppose you could even get cheeky and throw ammo into fires to test the effects. Should the opportunity present itself you should use young trees and window frames as fire locations. Items will roll off these tiles but critters can path through them, meaning that when ammo laden zombies die on them they will fall off without cooking their ammo.

• Fires don't have to only be set on tiles with obstacles. You can use flamethrowers to light fires anywhere, even in the absence of fuel. Zombie clothing makes excellent kindling, meaning that a freshly killed zombie can work for you if you light him on fire. You can drop thread and light it, you can drop rubber hoses, light them, and then pick them back up, leaving a fire and a zombie walking into it. Fires can be lit anywhere, and can damage a zombie while you kill another one.

• Flamethrowers and other multi-tile firestarters; we have to discuss them ever so briefly. As with the smaller fires above, setting large, uneven terrain on fire is the most efficient because it keeps the targets ablaze longer. However because of the larger radius of death you can do more with them. Most multi-tile firemakers like hand-held flamers, Spraycan flamethrowers, and molotovs will place fire in a 3x3 diameter. The game will allow you to set an adjacent tile as your target, setting you ablaze. Don't do it. The best move seems to be to create a wall of fire that all the zombies will path into and then take out a ranged weapon and weaken the stronger zombies so the flame can finish them before they get to you. Alternatively, take out a melee weapon and beat the ignited zombies to death, taking what loot you can from the fire's edge. Alternatively grab a marshmallow and make s'mores while you wait. Be careful, fire is hot enough to cause dizziness and hallucinations.

• Offensive Firestarting. Yes, though only semi-controllable and stationary, you can use it to clear out whole buildings. Mega-stores, hospitals, and especially schools are great buildings to offensively clear with fire. Build a row of fires, by either using a flamethrower, or setting threads and sticks down and waiting until they are needed, or by lighting downed zoms as you slay them. Let this fire do your work for you; but pay attention to your surroundings. Grabbers, grapplers, and spitters will stifle this some. The idea behind it is to let them see you and come towards you, clearing the insides out so you can loot more freely. Since schools don't really have special zombies they make the best use of this tactic.

• Rain, fire, and you. Multi-tile fires are typically hot enough to stay lit for sufficient time even in rain, whereas small fires will extinguish after a few turns. While rain may dampen the Fun, you can use the rain to light otherwise dangerous fires, knowing they will be snuffed out soon. If you need to cook or craft with a fire or light, it is possible to light a bush on fire and begin crafting. Even after the rain douses the flame your crafting will continue to completion.

• Dumping water bottles on fire. This is only a method of trying to put out a small fire, and so unreliable Id only recommend it for fires set inside a building you want to for some reason save. Try to put water into small bottle or hip flask and pour 1 unit of water at a time. Dirty water and other non-combustible fluids (such as cranberry juice or rotten milk) may be used for this purpose. Again, it’s completely feasible if you have the fluids, but only effective on small fires before they spread. Use a fire extinguisher instead, should you have one.

Woodland Excursions

Though this guide is focused on the city and urban matters, nobody can argue that occasionally the forest comes to you. And you do have to leave the city to ensure peace and quiet for long enough to get your car and clothing up and running. While moose no longer spawn in the vacant streets of 0.A (Kaufman) like the days of yore, wolves and spiders and by extension cockroaches and wasps do come play by or in the city.

Woodland fighting is a whole different game, benefiting from a variety of species and inter-species hates/fears/in-fighting. We are focusing on how an urbanite would combat the critters without most advanced equipment here. Unlike the City section above avoidance is a viable tactic for dealing with many of these.

General Woodland Tips

Though there are vast differences between urban and rural fighting, all of the tips for combat still apply. Most rural Fighters are faster than you; stop and think about what you can feasibly reach before your threat reaches you. If you can get to your vehicle you theoretically have access it and everything inside, but you still have to climb inside and get it. It takes 400 movement points to cross the frame of a car that doesn't have an aisle of some kind, more than enough time for a speedy monster to close and damage you or your vehicle.

Having considered your resources, consider your surrounding terrain. Dense forests will help confuse the ai, who isn't as able to path around all the dense foliage. Are you willing to burn said foliage? If so great! Young trees make the best locations for small fires due to their inability to hold items, but shrubs work too. Random tile spawns, such as helicopter wreckage and minefields, may also factor into you combat strategy. Metal wreckage or crater rubble will injure monsters, and minefields will literally blow up the competition.

Finally, combine your items, skills, and terrain into a plan. Start sprinting wherever you need to be, and enact it. While stimulant use isn’t' discouraged, due to the lower density of spawns stimulants should be used somewhat more carefully. Survival is top priority, but thrift plays an important role in survival.

Critter Overview

We will generally differentiate the forest critters into a few groups: The Small and Helpless, The Wily Living, Plants, Nether-Critters, Ants, The Undead, Fungi, and Water-Critters. There isn't too much crossover, and each is different.

The Small and the Helpless

These are your birds, your raccoons, your bats, your foxes, snakes, and your normal-sized jumping spiders. Rattle snakes will attack if you antagonize them, wasps currently count as hostile but are completely harmless, and bats in older versions have been known to shred up a newbie character in large groups, but they aren’t exactly things to worry about. Most of these will be almost impossible to hit in melee, and even if you shot them the reward is (maybe) a single chunk of meat. Use a weak round if you are going to shot them, a sling or bow or w.e. But mostly don't even bother doing that if you aren't in dire straits.

The Wily Living

Rats, coyotes, Mooses, wolves, bears, cougars, and dogs. Dogs are the least hostile of the group, content to track you like a puppy most of the time. Rats are next, followed by bears, cougars, Moose, wolves, and coyotes. Coyotes are scrappy little jerks. Not exactly combat proficient and well-outclassed, but completely willing to attack a new player with reckless abandon. Shoot them if you can or start a fire under them.

-Cougars jump around like hunter zombies, Moose will turn hostile to you if you hang around too long, and bear are touchy about personal space.

-Wolves are the real killers here. Wolves may not start immediately hostile in every situation, but will attack in packs, benefit from greater agility and are competent fighters that cause massive bleeding damage. For a new player a single wolf is a problem; a pack is a death sentence.

- For lack of a better place, the assorted spiders and Worms can go here. Nothing super impressive, and fire works well for burning through them. Spiders may have poisoning attacks and the worms will create a visible trail of dirt mounds as they sneak up to you. The worms cannot path through roads or other rocky terrain, but will attack adjacent tiles.

How do you stop The Wily Living? Fire. Start a fire in front of you to turn the things from hostile to tracking and book it. Or shoot them and gamble with life. Either way, fire will buy you time. Most of these can also track scent very well, and the fire will also serve to help break that.

Plants

Plants being Triffid colonies. Best to avoid them early game unless you have combat skill. They ruin roads and attack everything they can. They are worth killing if they are in your way or you want their delicious plant marrow and fluid sacs. Triffid queens will create new forests around them as they travel, preventing travel and destroying roads. Burn the triffid queen growths and the fire will rapidly catch up to the queen, entombing it in its own foliage. This will leave a massive trail of ash and dirt bumps which can be safely traversed.

All triffids are weak to fire.

Nether-Critters

Worth mentioning only for completion. Most nether critters are uncommon or rare, and found only at special sites. No reason to go poking for trouble, and the only ones I'll cover are krecks and Mi-Gos. Krecks are smaller versions of Mi-Gos, easier to kill and they melt instead of die.

Mi-Gos are vicious and hateful. Semi-sentient, semi-difficult, and full of fridge horror, Mi-Gos will gleefully pursue combat and can run faster than you. When injured they will track you for a while or flee. Whether chasing you or fleeing, they will smash through any vehicle in their way very quickly. Once they are finished running or tracking they will re-engage you if you are still around. If you can’t best them in combat you'd better burn them; they aren’t smart enough to move off the fire.

Ants

Ants are simply awesome. For the unskilled character they present an insurmountable foe that uses numbers and armor to stay you. For a survivor who can hide in a sealed car they are the best early-game defense around; since they can’t smash and they engage all other life that can. They have a mild aversion to fire, tend to turn hostile when other insects get hurt, and can swarm you. Don’t underestimate them, but be aware an ant colony can feed you forever; and their eggs are the single most filling item in the game. They can drop chitin when butchered, but that requires significant survival skill.

The Undead

This list includes all the zombies of the city, as well as zombie versions of many animals. Zombie mooses and zombie wolves and zombie boar and zombie cougar and the infamous zombears. This list interestingly enough also includes zombie grenadiers, and several niche profession zombies.

- Zombies of the animal kind are only semi-competent, and a somewhat capable survivor should be able to 1v1 one of them at a time. Nothing is really too special about them, though you should consider simply driving away and avoiding combat since there is no real reward to killing them. Fire makes the perfect weapon against them since there is no chance of destroying loot or ammo.

- Human zombies are, for the most part, just small groups of the city counterparts. Take that as you will; although zombie soldiers are pretty well-armored and scientists will have several tricks for a new player.

- And then we have grenadiers. I'm not going to ruin the Fun here, but I advise even mid-game characters to pick their battle carefully. Very carefully.

Fungi

Fungi hold a strange place in the post-apocolyptic ecosystem. Extremely invasive and wholly parasitic, fungi aren't actually very threatening when taken alone. They spread pretty fast within the reality bubble, but can't outside of it yet. They mostly ignore you, and the ones who are hostile (such as converted zombies) are blind and not that good at finding you. Should you stay away from the Mother-structures, the only impetus to move on or kill them is their spores. They carry the fungal disease, which is deadly and horrifying if left untreated. Even a filter mask doesn't provide 100% immunity to the spores.

Fungii hold one of the weirdest secrets of the game within their mushroomy folds. Their meat is also bad to eat.

Water-Critters

A catch-all for swampland critters and river monsters. Swamp critters are mostly giant bugs who will kill unprepared urbanites, and fish are mostly an enigma to me due to their relative new-ness and me not caring about them.

- There are giant fish and even zombie sharks in the river. But I find fishing poles pretty often and I think you can fish for food. If you see a zombie shark your best best is to get out the water. Spears will make jokes out of the sharks, but they have a lot of health so they may be a waste of ammo. Unless you like to farm XP of course.

- Swamps are bad bears to a new character. Not impossible to deal with, they are best not anyway. Some want to eat you, some want you to bear their young. If I have one memory from the early game development it’s that giant slugs will murder you dead. Swamps are great sources of meat if you have combat skills, and with the salt water you get from shallow pools here you can survive through the longest winters.

The connection with most of the critters? Burn them or a nearby bush. Fire will scare most of them or be used to kill them. You come from the city, and have no interest in playing nice with the country folk. Burn them; or just shoot them.

The Special Undead

So you're following my advice to the letter, and just as importantly you've gotten the experience to make the calls on your own. You're holing up into defensible positions, scavenging ruthlessly, and starting so many fires you can be seen from space. Then a grappler zombie comes by and pulls you into the fire. Then a grabber pins you down and a spitter pours you over with acid filth, burning you to death in your own boots. Then a custom-made Wrestling Brute leg sweeps you and plows you into the wall. Then a bloated zombie suffocates you. Then a shocker paralyzes you for several turns. Then a necromancer reanimates the same zombie over and over. Then the zombie master upgrades the zombie next to you into a hulk.

Now you're missing half your health or more and your once impregnable defense plan is ruined. Well, that's exactly why these special undead zombies exist; to break up turtlers and increase the challenge of the game. Here's where I overview the special undead and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

Acid Zombies

Acid zombies, as of 0.D (Danny) when this line was written, come in 3 varieties. You have acidic zombies who can spit acid into a single adjacent tile. You have the spitter zombies who spew forth a large amount of acid a small distance over a large area. You have the top-tier corrosive zombies who will spit concentrated acid onto one tile a good distance away. The former evolve into the later; thus the corrosive zombie is stronger than the spitter and the spitter stronger than the acidic. All three will spill acid over their tile upon death.

• Being in a vehicle or a flier makes an entity immune to acid.
• Acid currently does not damage items or terrain, but works by damaging the legs and feet and getting exponentially worse over time, as discussed here.
• Acid and environmental protection will mitigate acid damage, and is an important stat for boots and leggy clothing.
• Other zombies are not immune to acid, but acid zombies are.

To beat them, you should instigate their ranged attack and move out of the resulting acid. Then kill them before they recharge. Acid zombies are a moderate threat no matter how skilled you are, because the damage they cause isn't subject to dodge skill. Like fire, acid is going to hit no matter what.

Acid zombies are at their most dangerous when you can’t move readily. As such, being grabbed or grappled will exponentially increase the lethality of an acid zombie attack. Acid Zombies are always moderately dangerous because their damage has no skill saves.

Smokers/Bloated Zombies

Smokers and bloaters are relatively similar in practice. They both create LoS blocking gases that choke the PC and lower speed. I will discuss the differences quickly before moving on.

Smoker zombies create smoke that is functionally 'fire smoke'. The smoke causes noisy coughing and chest pain/damage. The smokers have some small ability to avoid bullets as a skeleton can sometimes, and they are only average in combat for a zombie. When they die their smoke quickly dissipates if outside, and they don't seem to leave any loot.

Bloated zombies will create toxic gas similar to that found in mines. This will drop speed by a flat 20 points, and cause nausea. Bloaters will explode if they can, often as close to you as possible. It can be hard to avoid their explosion and the gas, but you can attempt to persuade them to pop like you can provoke spitters to waste their shot. A gas mask makes bloaters a relative waste of Monster Spawn Points (the method the game uses to place new monsters). The vapors from a bloater are thicker and hang out for much longer than smoker smoke. Don't fight in it; move out of it as soon as possible if you don't have a filter/gas mask.

• Smoker/bloaters will block LoS. However, if you see a crowd of zombies and then bloater/smoker smoke it’s a pretty sure bet that the crowd continues into and past the smoke. There are some that argue that since they block LoS they are beneficial to keep around, but they don't seem to have too much trouble seeing through their own smoke and will gleefully path to you. My take on it is to leave them alone unless they could flank me later or they bother me.
• Smokers and bloaters are more of a logistics problem for early-game characters, requiring you to shuffle or grit your teeth as you start a fire under them and flee. They are annoying, but ultimately support zombies, creating noise and weakening you so others can get you. They're simply a joke later on though.

Grabbers and Grapplers

While the grabbers existed in 0.C (Cooper), since then the mechanics for grabbing have been expanded and Grapplers have been added. Grapplers are very much more dangerous than grabbers, but fundamentally they operate using the same principles.

Grabbing as an attack was the hallmark of the 0.C (Cooper) grabbers. Since then it has been added to virtually all zombies, however Grabbers excel at it. They will prefer trying to grab you in combat over most other attacks.

Grapplers will try to grab you from a distance. From 2 tiles away, they will pull you towards them, enforcing a grabbed status and even pulling you with them as they walk in the opposite direction. They will often pull you into acid or fire, further damaging you. Even if they don't, they will slowly bring you into any horde, allowing zombies to score free hits on you.

• Being grabbed by a zombie restricts your speed and ability to aim, strike, and dodge.
• Being grappled means you are pulled forward, I am unsure if this otherwise differs from a grab aside from the zombies dragging you using their subsequent ability.

• Grabbers are slightly more dangerous than standard zombies alone. In a group, they will pin you down, but aren't strong, fast, or hard to kill. They're more like flavoring than a unique threat.
• Grapplers are a bit more dangerous. They have more health than a standard zombie, and they can pull you into the LoS of other zombies or into hazards. And in hordes they pull you into gasses, acids, fires, and the mob behind them. They are a priority target and as soon as you spot them you should keep an eye on them. They'll strike eventually and, in conjunction with other special attacks, will take large chunks out of you.

Brutes and Hulks

The stronk red guy and terrifying purple dude. These two are designed to be faster than you and throw you around. Their purpose is to dislodge entrenched survivors and are generally excellent examples of why you should carry guns.

Brutes can throw you away from them and are about twice as healthy as a regular zombie. They actually cannot cause infectious bites, and are there to stymie survivors who turtle. It is possible to kill them in melee before they toss you, but it requires skill and high damage weaponry. Or, it requires you using terrain and forcing them into disadvantageous positions. Most often they'll toss you back once, and it honestly isn't a huge deal if you have decent armor.

Hulks have arms 'the size of trash cans' and also like to toss you . . . and anything else in their way. The break down walls, are well fast enough to smother you, and in most cases easier to run over than fight. If you have high skill or a method of stunning them you could engage them in melee, but I'd just as soon shoot them with an assault rifle or shotgun. If you're doing less than 80 damage an attack phase here you're likely doing it wrong.

• The throwing isn't so bad. It does moderate damage to an unarmored survivor, and whatever you hit is going to hurt you too, but with moderate armor you can vastly reduce this. In addition, you can kind of 'guide' where they will throw you by imagining a straight line between you and them, extending 5-15 tiles behind you. Reposition for best results, and the worst part is having to stand up again.
• Brutes are a pretty high priority to kill, but only a moderate threat. Take them out to stop their special attacks, not to save your life.
• Hulks are the top priority barring something like a necromancer or master or something. They will get you even though they are clumsy rage-monsters. They're too fast to outrun, but you should by all means out-drive them. Be careful, more than 1 would-be survivor has been splattered onto their windshield by these things.

Shockers and Shocker Brutes

Shockers and shocker brutes are quite an interesting bunch. They possess an electrical field that damages the attacker if they use unarmed attacks or weapons with metal on them. They can arc lightning from their bodies, which damages you and can paralyze you. Paralysis can be fatal if you are already surrounded.

Shocker zombies aren't really that much more physically challenging than regular zombies, except they shoot lightning. They are fairly dangerous as a result. The best way to kill them is to shoot them from far away or wear items with high environmental protection and approach them with a wooden/plastic weapon. Early game there's no really good way to tank their shoots other than to try to bait them into using it poorly.

Shocker brutes are 2.5x more healthiful than their brute counterparts. They are the beefiest zombie outside the hulk, and shoot lightning to boot.

• Both shockers and shocker brutes can drop bionics when butchered, if your survival skill is high enough. Some players will avoid pulping them for this purpose.
• Shockers are moderate threats to most characters, but their threat is reduced by late game by faraday cages in clothing and bionic form.
• Shocker brutes are high threats and you honestly may want to let then toss you away from them if you can’t kill them. Flee into the wind. They take a lot of damage and will get several shots off on most survivors who aren’t doing high (>50) damage to them.

Masters and Necromancers

These are the 'leaders' of the zombie hordes, if ever there were ones. They revive downed zombies and change normal zombies into special zombies. They themselves are gifted with extra intelligence and are one of the few types of zombies capable of rational thought and curbing their rage and hunger long enough to track you from a distance.

Necromancers raise unpulped zombie corpse back to life. The time it takes depends on the max health of the zombie and how damaged the body is (bruise, mangled, burnt, etc). In the dark you may not even know they are tracking you, raising nearby corpses to hunt you down. If you butcher or pulp the bodies they can’t raise them. Butchering takes longer than pulping, but pulping costs fatigue and may damage your held weapon.

Masters will turn Standard Green zombies into special infected according to a list in the monstergroups.json file. The default change is to spitter, though other weighted possibilities exist, from swimmers to hulks to a second zombie master. These monsters will quickly convert a relatively harmless horde into a wriggling mass of walking nightmares.

• The proper move in most situations is to murderize these two as soon as possible. You have to make sure you won’t die getting within range, of course, but otherwise the sooner they die the better. These are very strong support zombies that don't hog the front lines and sometimes won't even try to engage you.
• It is possible and even beneficial to lure them away from their kin in the dark. It’s for the best really.

There are, of course, other zombie types I could cover, but they may not qualify as very special or are rare and Fun to experience on your own. These are the most common zombies with special abilities.

The Continuing Adventures of XXYY

So you made it past your first night. You got a car, got a headstart on the 'maintaining' skills, and now you have a working vehicle with nearly infinite power for welding, cooking, and light. This temporary haven is only the start of your story. From here on out you need to plan your long-term strategy, pick your fights, and prepare for the threats of the world.

• Maybe you plan to find a structure and fortify it into a base?
• Maybe you want to build your own base, and populate it as the feudal lord of this new domain?
• Perhaps you even wish to live beneath the earth, digging and dugging?
• With all the zombies and triffids and fungus amoungus, it may be better to continue adding to your vehicle until it is a super-mobile base?

Whatever your decisions, you've survived a Hard start. Not the hardest perhaps, but one that lays out exactly what will allow a player to prosper in the game. By the time you can survive this setup consistently you can survive anywhere it is possible to; and even moreso if you take additional negative traits.