Am I equipped enough to attempt my first Science Lab?

Game Talk The Bunker
1

Hi, noob here!

This is my first successful run after two first-day-death attempts. I’m playing on stable 0.E-2 Ellison-2 with some easy world options (spawn rate 0.8, monster resilience 90%, season length 91, only mod: No Fungal Monsters). See world options screen.

My character is STR 12, DEX 9, INT 8, PER 9 with Night Vision and Packmule. Negative traits: Lactose Intolerance, Truth Teller and Ugly (I don’t plan to interact with NPCs, at least in this first game). See charater sheet. I’ve been taking multivitamins for like 2 weeks, but still has that VitA definciency (AFAIK it’s not functional).

I’ve seen some of Vormithrax videos so I’m a bit spoiled but still a complete noob. I think I managed to get to mid game after a while (Sumer, Day 53 with season length 91; no idea how many days is that) and I have a fully repaired deathmobile Humvee with a kitchen and 1870,3 kg / 1547,02 L of material. I have (almost?) all the usual tools: toolbox, welding, electric forge, anvil, etc.

My biggest weakness is combat, in several ways: character skills, character weapons and my own incompetence ^_^. I’m usually very bad at fighting in videogames. Now I feel confident to fight the weakest zombies (normal zombie, decayed, fat and the occasional tough zombie) but I run away, if I can, from everything else.

This is my current inventory.

I have some guns and amo, but I’m illiterate in guns. I know the .22 is a weak calliber and no much else.

I got a few CBMs and I wanted to install them. I’ve found only 1 doctor’s office (no autodoc) and no hospitals.

Air Filtration System
Battery System
Cloaking System
Internal Chronometer
Shotgun Arm

The only Science Lab I found seems like a cold lab (see temperature change when going down to the 1st floor).

My questions are:

  • Am I equipped enough to attempt to enter the Science Lab and look for the autodoc?

  • What (weapons, armor) should I take down?

  • Any enemy I should be specially careful with? I’m aware of robots (and turrets?) inside barracks.

  • Any general suggestion or advice? :slight_smile:

Thanks to the developers for such a great game!

And thanks to the community for the help.

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Honestly labs aren’t actually particularily dangerious, especially compared to say a street in a city. it does have some very dangerious spawns but mostly the metal doors can solve any problem you can’t deal with yourself. Just make sure you have a vest to protect from gunfire just incase. The real queation is do you have a lot of ascetalyn torch fuel or computer skill to get to the loot of the place. For the most part baracks, vehicle test labs, and the finale room are all thats dangerious. Especially barracks, grenade hacks are bad news.

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I would take in a gun, in case you have to deal with something at range like a grenade hack, or want to try and start a gunfight with something that has armor to back up its own guns. Looking at your collection and ammo, I’d go with the M1 Garand. You’ve got a decent amount of ammo for it, it hits pretty hard, you’ve got a couple of clips for it, and the Garand clip is one of the few magazine items that can be easily crafted, since its just a metal bracket to hold rounds in. 2 should be fine if your using it as a backup, but the potential is there to make more. Word of warning, I haven’t personally tested a Garand with 30-06 against a turret anytime in the experimentals, so I don’t have recent context on how beefy they are.

You could also do the STEN or the MP5, better magazine size, easier for a novice survivor to use, but not as effective against anything with substantial armor. 9x19mm ammo is a relatively common ammo type as well, regular zombies can drop stacks of 50 of it, and lots of guns use it. If you have a cleaning kit to deal with the fouling on the MP5, I’d go for that, otherwise use the STEN.

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4

Oh yeah you’re totally fine, definitely bring a decent gun for emergencies, medical supplies, and something that goes boom.

Mostly just be on the lookout for turrets and any heavy hitters that look particularly scary. Otherwise everyone’s advice is really good here so I don’t have anything else to add.

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Well, all I can add is:
Be careful around Shocker Zombies and defective (sparking) generators. They can hurt a lot.
Use the terrain (doors) and the peek-function to your advantage.
It’s usually not worth to fight a mi-go if you can find a way around one.
Listen to footsteps and other sounds, they can indicate if something and what’s behind a door/corner.
Manhacks are usually not that bad, but if they appear in swarms they can take you down - better run and close doors behind you.
Frosted glass doors can take quite a bit of punches, so use them to gain extra time or lock up weaker monsters.
Just be aware that some monster have special abilities and might be able to open doors.

You might want to clean out and designate a room where you can drop collected loot (unless you leave with it), so it doesn’t weigh you down.
Bring warm cloths/armor, but don’t wear too much, as both cold and encumbrance will slow you down.

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6

Just look at the gun description, the damage and penetration is pretty much everything you should check for. Wel, and aiming time but those are usually more or less equal.

Those numbers are okay - unless you go under -30, which is helpfully shown in blue text, you’re fine. I’m actual;y wondering how are you wearing all those clothes and not getting a heat slowdown in summer.
…or maybe you do, don’t notice it, and that is one of the reasons you have problems in melee fights.

Shoggoth. If you see one and it is not contained in a nice, cozy isolation cell, evade it at all costs.
Also, and advice: before opening a (opaque)door which can lead to trouble (say, barracks). skip a turn. This will make sure you have your full actions to open a door and, if you need, have enough actions to close it before either the thing which was standing right behind the door would move onto opened door tile therefore blocking it, or the turret would shoot you in the face.

And if you see mi-go scout, nope the eff out of there. Those things will shoot you to death from quite a distance. Not that I’ve ever seen scouts in labs but who knows.

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make sure you have a vest to protect from gunfire just incase

I don’t know which are the bullet-proof vests, I’ll take a look on the crafting menu. Thanks

The real queation is do you have a lot of ascetalyn torch fuel or computer skill to get to the loot of the place.

I have computer 6 (as shown on the char sheet) and some fuel (> 400 uds).

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@Profugo_Barbatus Thanks for the very specific info about the guns! Very useful.

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Just look at the gun description

Yeah, the problem is that I have too many firearms. It would take me a couple of hours to get all the info in a way I can easily compare them (in a spreadsheet?).

I’m actual;y wondering how are you wearing all those clothes and not getting a heat slowdown in summer.

I did put on everything to take the screenshot. You are right that I’m getting heat slowdown in summer, even naked (unless I’m inside the car). Which is funny because I tend to forget I’m naked when trying to fight something.

Shoggoth. If you see one and it is not contained in a nice, cozy isolation cell, evade it at all costs.
Also, and advice: before opening a (opaque)door which can lead to trouble (say, barracks). skip a turn.
And if you see mi-go scout, nope the eff out of there.

Great advices!

Thanks!

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Not sure if you’re aware of the [I]tem compare function…
I usually go with just comparing two at random, picking the better one and comparing that one to the next weapon. Drop the really bad ones as you go… If you want to find the “best” weapon quickly and don’t care to actually document everything you have, that is…
Don’t forget to unload them first, as the damage/penetration also takes the loaded ammunition into account - if they are all unloaded, it uses the default ammo in the comparison.

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I’ll try to give it a try, but when you know literally nothing it’s hard to make sense of the numbers. E.g.: is +10 damage worth it -10 range? (Take that question as an example, not an actual question)

As you can see on the inventory screenshot, I already unload all magazines from guns and ammo from magazines, but thanks for the advice.

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In the lab? Yes. You usually want high damage output - it’s a confined space, so you don’t need that much range (unless you want to actually fight turrets instead of avoiding them).
Since it’s “close combat”, I don’t see dispersion or recoil as that much of a problem.
I don’t suggest reloading during a fight and, since you can run away and hide behind doors, the reload time shouldn’t be your main concern.

So… Go for damage. And magazine size.
…And a weapon that uses the ammunition you have the highest amount of.

Yes, but that doesn’t mean that you quickly reloaded your weapons after taking the screenshot or that you’re the only one reading and trying out my suggestion(s), so it doesn’t hurt to state the mechanics behind the item comparator.

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of note: the best bulletproof vest you can get is the ESAPI vest, but that really only protects your chest, riot armor, ballistic masks, etc can all help you from getting your head, arms and legs blown off by a triggerhappy turret.

… alternatively, if you’ve got the time and electronics skill, you could rig up an RC car (it wont be detected by turrets and zombies will leave it alone too) with some C4 and blow up everything that seems dangerous~

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I will test the RC car at some point!
Sadly, it seems you cannot attach a camera to it :(.

15

Oh, and I’ve almost forgotten about this… Take a look at the item browser.
It has lists of all ranged weapons (as well as melee weapons) and armors in the game, which might save you some time.
The one downside I can think of is that you’ll have to manually see what weapons you have at your disposal… but it should still save you from painstakingly extracting all other infos out of the game.

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… yet~
it’ll probably be changed in the future. mabye with like… an advanced remote control that you place down like a vehicle, so you can install vehicle parts (like the camera controls, or the electronic controller)

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Oh I forgot to mention bring a bunch of hemostatic powder or you’ll probably die.

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18

When (and why) would the hemostatic powder be needed?

EDIT: I see, it’s like a better bandage.

Thanks, good to know.

19

No problem. Individual guns have a lot of quirks, there’s some exotic and rare weapons and ammo that may buck trends (That G80 you have is a great example, never seen that before) but below is a rough noobs guide of common ammo’s, and then you can match guns to more or less fit this behavior.

.22 - Less Damage than a combat knife. You can use these against small groups of basic zeds to train up if you really want to, but its probably not worth it. Would still gather to disassemble for making other ammo though, since its a common ammo to find. IRL its popular for small game hunting and range shooting since its small and cheap.

9mm - Super common pistol sized ammo. Decent damage, fairly common. The range isn’t great on this, and its ability to deal with armored enemies is limited, but its otherwise an effective, reliable round for killing most enemies.

.45 - Less common pistol ammo, you can more or less treat it like a 9mm that does more damage.

.223/5.56 - Technically they’re not quite interchangeable, but many guns will happily use both. This is a common Rifle round, good for dealing with all but the most heavily armored enemies. This is the same round used in many military weapons, and performs as you’d expect from that.

.308/7.62 - Similar scenario as above, but bigger round, does more damage. Not as interchangeable, and not as common. Outside of military weapons, you’ll see hunting rifles in this. The .30-06 I recommended using is very similar to this round in performance.

.50 - This is what you use if you want to be sure that what you shoot is dead, regardless of what its made of. This round is usually fired from very big weapons, and IRL is reliably used to kill vehicles, not people. This will absolutely destroy a cars engine block, so set your damage expectations according.

12 gauge - Shotguns, high damage, bad against armor. Range is generally higher than you’d think, more accurate too. Video games lied to you, they’re not super short range weapons. 00 Shot is the regular ammo, kills unarmored enemies very well, not so good against armor. Slug turns it into an oversized rifle, but still mediocre at dealing with armor. Birdshot is about as effective as .22.

Most other ammos out there are either rare, special, or falls near or between the above categories. The last bit that’s good to know are these acronyms. FMJ and JHP. You’ll see these a lot with 9mm, but I believe other rounds have them too. FMJ, Full Metal Jacket, better against armored targets. JHP, Jacketed Hollow Point, better against unarmored targets. Its a small difference, but now you know and don’t need to go comparing stats :stuck_out_tongue:

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20

Great summary. Thanks a lot!

Now the gun list feels less daunting.

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