0.B First Day Ritual

[Pandromidal]

After playing a decent number of games, I’ve developed a kind of routine for the first day with a new character. I’m curious what your routine is for playing the first day in 0.B. Personally I spend most of the first day sewing. (Spoiler Boxes because these are exactly the kind of ah ha moments that new players might enjoy finding on their own.)

Create 8 Nail traps. I’ve found this is be a great starting weapon. 8 nail traps is just about enough to kill a zombie or at least bring them to almost dead. You can put one down between you and the zed, move back a space and repeat. I once cleared a FEMA camp with 12 nail traps in a row, so it can be super effective. You can craft these without even leaving the evac shelter or having any skills. You can store then in a couple of makeshift slings to begin with and use a chunk of steal smashed from one of the lockers as a hammer. You might need to smash all the furniture in the evac shelter and pull down a few curtains to get enough nails.

3. Grind survival 1 and fabrication 1 to get a makeshift knife and wooden needle (for sewing).
4. Make a self bow, arrows, and makeshift crowbar for later.

wooden arrow shafts can be placed on the ground and lit to make a kind of trap for zombies to walk on. This has saved me more than once!

4. Sew lots of clothing including a duffle bag to minimize encumbrance (maybe even leather armor too!).

(If you start out as a lost submissive you can cut up your clothes to make other leather items.)

By this point it’s usually a few hours before dark and that’s my cue to raid houses or a mansion for supplies. By this point my character should be pretty hungry and thirsty but I can usually stave this off enough by eating raw eggs, rhubarb, or cooked meat. This routine still doesn’t keep me alive every time, but seams to work in the majority.

[Coolthulhu]

Similar to yours, except:

Skip 1 and 2
Use skewers for starting fires (because I don’t make arrows)
Spend as much time as possible on 4.

By the night, I usually have a hoodie, sleeveless trenchcoat, 2 cargo shorts and 2 bindles. It should be enough storage for a while and has 0 torso encumbrance. Good armor on torso, but leaves head, hands and legs vulnerable.

I play with fast zombies and zombie NV, so night raids are a huge no-go and bows are useless. Nail traps could still be useful for me, but setting up a fire is generally enough to wreck anything I’d consider engaging this early on.

[Lexx]

For me it’s make a makeshift knife, knife spear. Kill some food and make a needle. Get some good cloth armour made and sewing to 3. 4 if I have resources and time for the sleeping bag and warmth stabilised. The rest varies on how long the aforementioned takes and what is nearby. I usually do a little looting by end of first day and get onto slaying zombies the following day. Normal zombies here except for 2.0 spawn setting.

[Rhodri]

I start as a tailor, so I…

1.tear down curtains and cut them up for rags, and the string can be used for thread.
2. Craft armor, including a hoodie, duster, cargo shorts, leather pants, and hunting cap, along with other such items. (The blazer can be cut up for felt)
3.Proceed to bash zombie heads in with my fists.

[Pandromidal]

I play with fast zombies and zombie NV, so night raids are a huge no-go and bows are useless. Nail traps could still be useful for me, but setting up a fire is generally enough to wreck anything I’d consider engaging this early on.

Yea the self bow is useless, I use it for grinding archery. Metal Arrows are awesome though once you get them. (Also I haven’t mastered melee. Maybe it’s the 3-5 torso encumbrance?)

Don’t you destroy all the zombie’s cloths/items by using fire? I usually reserve fire for life and death situations. Do you just make one square of fire and melee the zombie while the zombie stands in it?

[Coolthulhu]

[quote=“Pandromidal, post:5, topic:8939”]Yea the self bow is useless, I use it for grinding archery. Metal Arrows are awesome though once you get them. (Also I haven’t mastered melee. Maybe it’s the 3-5 torso encumbrance?)

Don’t you destroy all the zombie’s cloths/items by using fire? I usually reserve fire for life and death situations. Do you just make one square of fire and melee the zombie while the zombie stands in it?[/quote]

Torso encumbrance above 0 cripples the survivor early on. With 5, even an expert will have problems whacking zeds.

Fire does destroy things only after the target dies. Currently zombies are effectively naked and spawn all their stuff at the moment of death. You can use the advanced inventory menu (default keybind is ‘/’, I think) to pull items out of fires, acid spots and the like. I often have to pull out the corpse too, because fires are really bad at disposing of corpses.

[Jakers]

Three to five torso encumbrance?! Thou must be mad! I’d highly recommend a backpack and perhaps on investing in the packmule trait. Trying toght zombies with three to five torso encumbrance is a horrible idea, as it’ll make your attacks waaay slower and your melee will kinda suck.

Once you’re in the late game however, encumbrance isn’t a biggie so long as you stay at around four or below. Try to stay storage and encumbrance efficient early game, or you’re pretty boned!

[EditorRUS]

I am used to craft knife spear at first day, reinforce all my clothing and steal-and-run to nearby towns.

[Rhodri]

Once you’re in the late game however, encumbrance isn’t a biggie so long as you stay at [size=12pt]around four or below.[/size]

And in the end-game, you can walk around in unpowered heavy power armor no problem!

[StopSignal]

Run around.
Get killed by a mi-go.

[TheTylerLee]

Usually i spawn as a backpacker, i craft myself a crowbar and then go scavenge every house until i die.

I don’t know what else to do.

[Coolthulhu]

I don’t know what else to do.

Spawn as something with 0 torso encumbrance, max out dexterity at spawn (even if you need to drop all other stats) and become invincible in melee.

[KillerHP]

What i do :
1.Grab a rock and smash a locker
2.Craft a makeshift crowbar/improvised picklock(to open doors)
3.Go in the basement for stuff
4.Loot some houses carefully
5.Other stuff

[jcd]

[quote=“KillerHP, post:13, topic:8939”]What i do :
1.Grab a rock and smash a locker
2.Craft a makeshift crowbar+improvised picklock
3.Go in the basement for stuff
4.Loot some houses carefully[/quote]
5.Hoard EVERYTHING i encounter when possible. (i even hoard pulped zeds until i have a knife to properly butcher them)
6.During 4&5 grind melee skill so that i slowly clear and loot the whole town (not complete in the first day)

This with an 8-8-8-8 char with good traits.
Until melee 5+, torso encumbrance stays under 2 if possible.

[Valpo]

i rarely even use a backpack cause 0 encumbrance <3.

[Cataclysmic_Days_Awa]

Step 1Uuse debug to raise creation points to 1000, along with all possible traits
Step 2)Max out all possibly useful skills & stats
Step 3)Grab bionic sniper as proffesion.
Step 4) Profit.

Sounds dumbd, but it works

[StopSignal]

Run around.
Get killed by a chicken walker.

[Tannen]

Start “Really bad day” for extra character points and more fun. Either random (much more fun ) or str12, dex11, int14, per11, Addictive Personality, Fast Healer, Fleet-footed, Glass Jaw, Heavy Sleeper, Less Sleep, Night Vision, Parkour Expert, Robust Genetics, Substance Tolerance, Trigger Happy, Truth Teller, Ugly

Avoid zombies - Run through houses, closing doors on any following zombies and exiting via another window until nothing is following me (this is the fun part, look out for the hunters). Try to stay relatively close to original house (next house over is usually a good choice) as running too far while naked and trashed inevitably leads to death. Try to pick up at least one rock on the way through. If I need to fight, use a window frame and the heavy stick from smashing that window (double smash for no glass fragments).

Loot bathrooms Looking for anything that can be used to get rid of the ticking timebomb that is infected wound (antibiotics, first aid kit, disinfectant), or to stop coughing. Bonus points for finding caffeine pills / sewing kits / scissors.

Hide in a non-burning house - Close all blinds, or avoid windows entirely. Scavenge anything and everything clothing related, smash a few pieces of furniture, hope that there’s a display case to smash to get metal for spike. Pray for a fireplace / boots. Take off wet towel, wear a blanket from the bed for warmth.

Level skills / create items - Fab to 1 (fishing hooks / 1 lock pick), Create stone knife. Cut up all the things. Create wooden needle. Load with thread from disassembling thread. Reinforce towel. Create bindle x 2. Create scarf. Disassemble/reassemble one of the bindles until Surv to 1. Create knife spear (for quick strike). Tailoring to 3. Reinforce bindles. Create balaclava. Create clothing that covers as much of my body as I can. Focus on things with storage space and then areas that I don’t have warmth. Aim to have - (bra, panties)/briefs, scarf, balaclava, long underwear top/bottom, socks, cargo shorts, cargo pants, long sleeved shirt, cotton hat, trenchcoat created and reinforced.

As soon as night falls, go scaving The most important thing to find are the meds I need to survive the 8am infected deadline. After that, food / water. Continue wearing blanket if still uncovered in some areas to avoid frostbite. Drop blanket if involved in combat, allowing for 0 encumbrance on torso. Coffee / Caffeine pretty essential for not falling asleep at this point.

Sleep the next day or two away. Assuming that you found meds and are not dead.

[Pandromidal]

Addictive Personality, Fast Healer, Fleet-footed, Glass Jaw, Heavy Sleeper, Less Sleep, Night Vision, Parkour Expert, Robust Genetics, Substance Tolerance, Trigger Happy, Truth Teller, Ugly

I would actually suggest against Glass Jaw as it lowers one of your most important heath stats significantly. Maybe consider near sighted, insomniac, or wool allergy first?

Create stone knife.

Maybe checkout the makeshift knife instead of the stone one. It takes a lot less time to craft

[Codeslamer]

What i do:

1. Check map and that around the shelter is clear.
2. Smash a window.
3. Pick up the stick and smash all the lockers.
4. Build a makeshift knife and crowbar (knife for butchering and attacking, crowbar for… Crowbaring)
5. Go to basement, probably find nothing, drop all the books i have (because all of the books that the students start with are useless)
6. Go into one or two houses on the edge of residential areas.
7. Lure zombies into shrubberies to kill them easily with the knife.
8. Gather food + drink + tools + clothing from houses that are cleared and finally sleep. Either in a cleared house or if not safe, the shelter on a super comfy bench.