User:Qydra

This user page is currently being used as a sandbox for revising and expanding the Challenge--Lab guide.

Guide based 0.B (Brin). But updated in a lot of places to also apply to 0.D (Danny)

Some of the information present here might not apply to future versions, see the 'Notes on different versions' paragraph.

WARNING: This page may contain spoilers and ruin the joy of adventure. Remember, the fun of a lab challenge is figuring out how to survive and get out. This guide can spoil the experience!

Choosing a Good Beginning

The benefit you reap from a Challenge--Lab start often depends on what kind of lab you spawn in and where it is. Unless you believe in attempting whatever situation fate gives you, you will find great benefit from repeatedly restarting your run until you spawn in a good lab. On the last screen of character generation on which you name your character, press the slash (/) button and select the third (3) spawn option, "Bottom of the Lab". This will spawn you in the final "treasure room" of the lab, which will give you valuable info about your lab with very little risk (The hardest room to escape is the Mutagen Lab, which you can usually get out of by keeping the mutagen vault or cubicles between you and the security bots).

Now that you have spawned in the lab's final room, you can assess whether this is a great spawn location. A great starting lab has as many of the following things as possible, in descending order of importance:

• THE LAB IS NOT CLOSE TO AN ANTHILL. Anthill tunnels will intersect with your lab and make it an absolute nightmare to survive in the early game. Unless you want a special challenge, an ant-infested lab is not worth the effort.
• The lab is deep. Use your map (M) and the (<) and (>) keys to figure out how many floors are between you and the surface. A good lab is four to five floors deep. Remember that if your lab is under a different structure like a house or prison, the first floor underground is not part of the lab, so leave that off when you count. (You might think a shallow lab is easier to escape, but that means you have much fewer resources to loot and escape with.)
• The "treasure room" you spawn in is a Mutagen Lab (with generic or your favorite type of mutagen inside the tank), Rare Firearms Vault, Rare Bionics Vault, or Purifier Smart Shot Vault. The other possible rooms are probably not worth it for your first lab; if you spawn in a useless Sub-Prime Portal room, you might as well restart immediately.
• The "treasure room" has a Science ID Card on the floor next to the treasure (Mutagen Labs do not have one of these, but have lots of other goodies if you like mutating).
• The lab is in the countryside, not in the middle of a city or other dungeon structure (like a prison). Alternately, the lab is under a house not far from the edge of the city or with a Butcher Shop nearby.

Finding the Exit

Finding the exit is easy using the map. Move your cursor to the lab entrance on the overworld then scroll down with >. You aren't guaranteed to spawn at -1 z-level, though.

Character generation

The Lab start scenario grants 8 extra points, which can be spent on useful skills.

The most important skills for a Lab start are Computers, Electronics, First Aid, and Mechanics, especially if you are a Broken or Failed Cyborg who needs to uninstall your Leaky Bionic at the autodoc. If you are a Cyborg, you need to train these four skills as high as you can unless you have the Safe Autodoc game mod. You do not need to invest in Cooking, since it is easy to find lab skillbooks that can train your cooking as high as 10.

An 8 in Computers will enable you to reliably hack into any door in the lab. This skill level can be achieved during your lab run if you get good books (namely, SICP) from the lab libraries and bookshelf rooms.

A 4 in Electronics will unlock the EMP grenade recipe (cheap and useful for destroying robots and 9mm turrets), atomic lamp (a permanent light source), and the electrohack (which also requires 1 in Computers, but allows a chance to easily escape).

A 5 in Electronics will unlock the electric jackhammer, which can be used not only to escape, but to rob the entire lab. However, crafting the jackhammer is rather hard, as it requires a welder (2 mechanics at start or 3 for autolearn), 3 heating elements from the ovens in lab living areas, welding goggles (semi-common drop) and a set of tools.

At least 2 points in cooking are necessary to escape the lab using crafted explosives.

Escaping

The main entrance of a lab is secured with two defenses: a Card Reader that accepts Science ID Cards, and usually a 9mm turret positioned by the door--usually on the interior side of the door. In basement-type labs, the 9mm turret may be absent or on the exterior side of the door.

Therefore, you need two things at minimum to escape the lab: something to defeat the sentry turret, and something to defeat the card reader.

Card Reader

The topmost level of the lab has a card reader controlling the main door. If you manage to activate it with a science ID card or an Electrohack, the doors will open.

There is a guaranteed science ID card in most of the possible finale rooms that can spawn in the lab. Take care that the ID is not destroyed by explosions.

Electrohack

This is the easiest way to escape if you have the required skills. Crafting an electrohack requires a 4 in Electronics and a 1 in Computers. If you are lucky, you may find one lying around in the lab. Using it on the Science ID Card reader may not work and may permanently fry the reader instead. An EMP grenade (4 electronics) may also work and likewise it may also fry the reader instead of activating it.

However, if your lab is under a basement rather than being a standalone lab, there may be an active 9mm turret waiting for you on the other side of the door, and hacking the door will not deactivate it! Therefore, in "secret basement"-type labs, it is recommended that you use a Science ID card to escape, which should disable the sentry turret outside the main entrance.

Teleporter

A Teleporter is a rare drop that pretty much guarantees escape. Just use it on the topmost level, preferably at night.

It is possible to gain a "guaranteed" teleporter by uncrafting a teleport pad, but disarming a teleport pad is very risky and requires a moderately high Trapping skill.

Explosives

Concrete walls will take actual explosives to go down. The easiest "serious" explosive to craft is the dynamite, which requires 7 cooking and a chemistry book. The chemistry books found in lab require 5 cooking. The biggest problems here are leveling cooking to 5 to be able to learn from the book, finding (or crafting) a chemistry kit and finding the book itself.

The Lab Technician profession starts with the chemistry set, which solves one of the issues outright. It also helps a lot with leveling, since most cooking recipes that can be used in the lab require the kit (other lvl 3-4 cooking recipes generally require specific food items, which are very rare in the lab).

Possible skill progression from 0 to 5 can look like this:

• Level 0: clean water
• Level 1: human broth
• Level 2: superglue, acid water
• Level 3: zombie pheromone
• Level 4: ammonium nitrate, hydrogen peroxide, lye powder, concentrated acid

Note that level 1 is particularly devoid of any easily craftable recipes. This makes starting with cooking 2+ a good idea.

Book spawn can't be guaranteed in any way.

Once you have 7 cooking, you can craft dynamite. Dynamite is enough to break concrete walls. To improve chances, use the dynamite in constrained spaces - the less room it has to expand (especially directly at epicenter), the more likely it is to destroy adjacent walls. You can construct bookcases to surround the space where you'll place the dynamite.

After placing the dynamite, RUN. The explosion radius can be pretty big. Try to close doors behind yourself.

Climbing

(THIS SUBSECTION MAY BE OUTDATED.)

If playing in Z-level mode, you can climb up with <. This will require you to remove the roof first, then prepare something to function as a makeshift ladder. The roof can be removed by explosives or fire. Any adjacent unpassable terrain or furniture (for example, walls and bookshelves) help with climbing, but you may need to nearly surround yourself with those to actually be able to reach the roof.

Once on the roof, you can just walk down to an edge and examine it to drop down safely.

Older Game Versions

In older versions of the game the walls are made of wood and thus can be bashed down by a strong character (18 strength for a 2-by-sword, 11 for a quarterstaff, homewrecker required otherwise), burned down or destroyed with a match bomb.

In newer versions of the game, the walls are made of concrete and won't go down as easily.

Safety

• You can tell a room has a turret because it will have lit up walls. Big rooms can have turrets far from doors, but those won't see you if you don't have a light source and stand in the darkness while opening the door.
• Peek around corners X if there are no walls/doors.
• You can tell room has mobile creatures in it by knocking on (smashing) its wall and waiting for reaction - zombies will hear the knock and get angry and start whacking the wall, robots will start moving around.
• Metal doors can take all zombie hits (except maybe hulks, but those don't spawn here), so if you see something scary, just close the door.
• Bionic room computers can spawn security bots on failure. Other computers can only zap you, shutdown or spawn manhacks (which are harmless and can drop combat knife).
• Avoid being bitten by zombies. The only reliable way to cure infection in the lab is royal jelly and those aren't very common.
• Skitterbots are dangerous if you have low dex, low melee skill and bad weapons. They have quite a bit of armor, so light weapons aren't all that good against them. They have no light source (unlike manhacks or turrets), so telling them apart from zombies requires being close. They're significantly faster than your walking speed (comparable to dog speed) and hear well. Leading them into dissectors or blob pits works well.
• Manhacks are hard to hit, but rather weak. They also have hit and run flag, so they'll disengage after every hit. Just hide in the darkness if you don't want to fight them. You can train bashing and melee by missing them with a plank. If you started with 4 electronics, you can detonate EMP grenades in your own inventory to take out nearby manhacks.
• Broken cyborgs are great punching bags. You can miss them with heavy weapons (10 bashing or more) or hit them with light ones (a 0 dmg item will train bashing, but won't deal damage unless you're hulk mode strong). If you've got 0 torso encumbrance and didn't gimp yourself by lowering DEX, you will dodge most of their hits and even those that hit are very weak.
• Zombie bio-operators are highly dangerous zombies with zapback defense (like shocker zombies) and a knockdown attack. Zapback makes it so that the best weapons can't be safely used against them - you'll need something purely wooden (or purely plastic). They are also heavily armored and hit accurately. It is possible to beat one up with a plank without high skills, but without a good armor or huge (18) dexterity, it is very risky. Lead them into dissectors or blob pits (note that blobbed bio-ops no longer drop CBMs when butchered).
• Turrets just stand there and wait for you to come. You don't need to kill any of those, not even the "boss turret" on 0 z-level. They have really good armor and (at this point in game) incredibly powerful burst attack. Their light radius is pretty huge, making non-grenade weapons impractical. If you start with 4 electronics, you can safely destroy them with EMP grenades.
• Security bots don't spawn unless you do something stupid or reach the finale. If you see one before it sees you, throw items behind it to lure it away, then run. Don't let it see you, not even from afar - it's a turret on wheels (without a flashlight). You can lead it onto a dissector or blob pit or make it waste ammo by shooting through armored glass (its 9mm SMG will not pierce the glass).

Robots can't smell you, but some of them can hear stuff. If you see/hear a dangerous bot creeping around, stand still and throw something to lure the bot away.

Food

Generally, there is enough food in the lab to survive until you escape as long as you use your time wisely and do not prematurely mutate. If you wish to mutate before leaving, save it for just before you move out of the lab. Getting the Carnivore mutation before you are ready can be a death sentence unless you have purifier serum.

• Human corpses and mutated limbs are nutritious, but the morale penalty from eating them will stack and prevent crafting. If you get famished, cut up one of those naked corpses, cook it all up (make sure you cook enough before starting eating) and eat until full. It's a good idea to eat before sleep - even if you get -400 morale, most of it will go away before you wake up.
• Water is common and there are rooms with infinite water, so thirst is only a problem if the RNG hates you or if you fail to secure your water supply before grinding your skills. Various beverages are ubiquitous in office and living areas of the lab.

Common Mod Tip--If you have the KawaiiMaidMod and have a good supply of batteries for your chemistry set or hotplate, you may find it useful to order a few A&M 20L Jerrycans and gather a supply of water from toilets or pools.  

It is generally simple to obtain a hotplate or chemistry set to cook with (in fact, some professions spawn with the latter). Chemistry sets spawn in laboratory cubicles and Mutagen Labs, and the batteries to power them are most often found in crates. If you must cook food over an open flame, use a filter mask, keep the flame tiny, and stand far from it. You'll still choke on smoke, just much less. Remember that ovens can safely contain a fire.

• Chunk of tainted meat will debuff and hurt you, cause vomiting and pain and generally be very unpleasant. Don't eat it all at once or you risk vomiting it all back up. One piece of tainted meat usually takes 2 minutes to be fully digested. If you have a Royal jelly, you can gather a lot of tainted meat, eat it all at once and then cure the poisoning with the jelly.
• If you started with Herbivore mutation, you'll need to subsist on blob globs, veggies from farm rooms, veggie dishes from refrigerators, or vending machine food. It is actually possible (more - feasible) to survive on blobs until the escape. Lead things into blob pits, kill big blobs, then lead small blobs into pits once again to maximize glob harvest.
• The Poison Resistance trait will help a lot with poisonous food, making zombie meat and blobs nearly safe to eat. The Strong Stomach trait will help with vomiting (this is one of the very few cases where this trait is useful, though it is still not generally worth the point expense).
• If

Enemy Encounters

In order of threat, from lowest to highest:

• Small Blob
• Zombie
• Zombie Dog (Often in groups of 3 in kennels, with one already loose)
• Blob
• Fungaloid (Fungal portals can spawn during level generation alongside fungaloids; if you kill them all, they will not propagate. Beware of getting a fungal infection, though!)
• Insane Cyborg (Good for practicing your melee skills, since they are tanky but do very little damage if you are wearing decent clothes.
• Hazmat Zombie
• Giant Web Spider (3ish spiders spawn in webbed-up rooms.)
• Zombie Scientist
• Zombie Technician
• Manhack
• Skitterbot
• Crawler
• Shocker Zombie
• 9mm Turret
• Zombie Soldier (0-3 can be found in a Barracks)
• Zombie Brute (one spawns guaranteed just outside an Experiment Cell)
• Shocker Brute (Rare)
• Security Bot (spawns in the treasure room on the bottom floor, occasionally after a failed door hack, and VERY rarely in random places in the lab.)
• Sewer Gator (Deals very high damage unless you are a Broken Cyborg. Has the ability to give you a guaranteed deep bite.)
• Giant Naked Mole-rat (One occasionally spawns loose on a floor; listen for "SMASH!". They deal devastating melee damage but can be taken down by a few gunshots.)
• Armored Zombie (And "armored" here means power armor. Run!)
• Zombie Grenadier (Occasionally in barracks. If you see one in a barracks, IMMEDIATELY run and close the door behind you. If the zombie throws a grenade drone that makes it out the door, you are probably dead. Take a swing at the drone and pray. Do not engage unless you are heavily armed and armored, which you probably aren't at this point.)
• A metric crapton of Ants, Soldier Ants, or Acid Ants (But you read the bolded, all-caps bullet point in the "Choosing a Good Beginning" section, so you won't have to deal with this, right?)

In addition to these, most types of eldritch creatures can be found caged inside a Containment Zone or a Sub-Prime Portal Laboratory, including mi-goes, grackens, krecks, and crawlers. Floating Eyes may be found in the cages of Sub-Prime Portal labs.

Locked Structures

• Note: If you force your way into any of these rooms with tools such as a jackhammer, there will often be active turrets waiting for you on the other side! These turrets do not spawn if you hack your way in successfully.

Easy rooms to open

Library

Arguably the most important locked room you can find, since it contains a large number of skillbooks and two guaranteed vending machines, which are usually intact. Libraries are more common in the shallower floors of the lab.

Prisoner Containment

Don't mess with the inner section where the prisoners are; they contain powerful zombies, including brutes and grapplers. The important parts are the two side rooms in the first section; the one on the left contains three lockers with good medical supplies (painkillers, bandages, disinfectant, cough syrup, inhalers, any type of pill, and first aid kits) and three tables with beverages, eyewear, flashlights, and bags. Always walk onto the two tables across from the lockers, since for some reason the contents of the tables are invisible from a distance. If you want to open the secure area for the skill experience, you can do so safely since the main door does not open automatically, but this is not necessary. The side room on the right contains lockers, various gear, and a centrifuge you can smash for copper wire.

Up to two Zombie Scientists and their manhacks can be found running loose in the main lobby of the Prisoner Containment Zone.

More difficult rooms to open

Bionic Vault

A small storage closet that contains up to 8 lockers with bionics of varying rarity. If you fail to open this room, it may spawn a security bot.

Sometimes, you will find a room with two little bionic vaults in it. These are generally much easier to open than proper Bionic Vaults.

Advanced PEV-12 (Mutagen) Samples

A small storage closet that contains up to 8 units of any syringe, purifier serum, or mutagen serum other than Medical, Raptor, Chimera, Alpha, or Elf-a. Somewhat easier to hack than the bionic vaults.

Barracks

These are extremely valuable sources of high-storage clothing, combat knives, sheaths, pistols, and skillbooks for marksmanship, melee, survival, cutting weapons, and martial arts. There are several beds that are fairly safe to rest in if the barracks is secure.

Barracks may be empty, or they may contain 0-3 Zombie Soldiers, manhacks, 0-2 Zombie Bio-operators, or a Zombie Grenadier if you are especially unlucky. When you first open the barracks entrance, peek in quickly to determine what is on the other side. If there are zombies inside, you should close the door immediately and stay out of the barracks until you have very powerful and accurate ranged weapons. Be especially cautious around the devastating Zombie Grenadier, who possesses several ways to one-shot even a well-armored character--not the least of which is a C4-drone that can bring down the entire room. If the grenadier deploys one of these bomb drones, you must destroy it FAST before it explodes or get out of the room and close the door before the drone gets through.

Barracks Magazine

The magazine (armory) inside the barracks may be the most difficult door to hack into in the whole lab. Do not attempt to hack it unless you have a very high Computers skill, or unless you desperately need food or guns (The good news is that a failed hack rarely results in anything worse than the console shutting down). The magazine is a large storage room with lockers full of ammunition, firearms, launchers, MRE's, first aid kits, ammo magazines, and the occasional explosive or accessory. Generally, you can put together one to three working firearms (the gun, the ammo, and the ammo clip or magazine) from one barracks magazine with many other bits of gun paraphernalia left over, depending on your luck. If you force your way in, expect to fight two 9mm turrets, one near each back corner of the room.

Occasionally, you may find a Barracks broken open by a collapsed ceiling. You may find clothed human corpses in front of that barracks entrance.

Misc tips

• Lab characters can be even better than Really Bad Day ones, because they can pick mutant traits. The only mandatory trait is Night Vision, but it's an amazing trait on everyone.
• You don't need to fight anything in the lab. Intelligence can help with book reading, CBMs and hacking. Other stats don't help as much.
• You can lie down on blankets to warm up. If you do it on solid rock while not tired, you're unlikely to fall asleep. If playing in Ice Lab, this is pretty much mandatory for survival.
• Falling asleep can be hard with all the mi-gos shouting. More than doubly so in z-level mode, where you can hear them from other levels. Try to craft a noise canceling headgear.
• "Famished" hunger status is not an emergency. Neither is "Near starving". It takes more time to starve to death from "Starving" than to get to "Starving" from "Full". Just do not try to fight when weak from hunger.

RNG can rob you of hard-earned "victory" by generating an inescapable lab, with no teleports, chemistry books with dynamite recipe, and no path from finale to topmost level, but this is relatively rare. Most labs are escapable, though not always easily. And lab escapees are generally strong characters, with better traits than regular survivors.

Notes on different versions

• In 0.C (Cooper) the flaming eye has been nerfed. It no longer destroys terrain. It is still a dangerous monster, even when in captivity due to Teleglow, but no longer releases everything.
• In 0.D (Danny) lighting has changed, and this makes night vision even more important. But it also makes turrets a lot harder. It can be almost impossible to escape the top level turret of the lab.
• In 0.D (Danny) the lab walls are made of concrete, making escape much harder, but with the experimental Z-levels turned on, you can climb out of the lab, as it has no roof. The turrets can still shoot you.