Best time for looting?

[Blaze1711]

Good morning guys. I have been having trouble with DDA’s latest version, i can’t seem to raid towns anymore! It’s always full of those zombie dogs, child zombies and common zombies! I want to play with static spawn enabled so that i may one day secure a place for my char but i can’t seem to even find weapons/food before being surrounded by those damn zombie dogs!
Is there any strategy i can follow that may or will help me in static spawn mode?
OBS.: I’m playing on classic zombies mode cuz i can’t stand those damn shockers’n shit around me all the time…

[Mate]

Checking only some buildings on the edges and wondering with a bottle until I find a gas station and practicing throwing on animals in the meanwhile seems to work for me. Just make sure you can find a shelter for the night.

[Blaze1711]

Checking only some buildings on the edges and wondering with a bottle until I find a gas station and practicing throwing on animals in the meanwhile seems to work for me. Just make sure you can find a shelter for the night.

I’ll try! Any other suggestions?

[Blaze1711]

Worked! I keep running around throwing rocks at squirrels and rabbits while my throwing skill raises. I have butchered a rabbit and have food now, just need some water ‘-’

[system]

If you see a cluster of houses far from any store-like building go crazy. Zombies don’t spawn in those cul-de-sac type arrangements so feel free to loot those houses by day. The most you’ll run into is a wolf spider or a bear. They generally ignore you if you stay away from them

Also throwing is very strong early game. Make a few pointy sticks and grab a handful of rocks and eventually you’ll be able to take out entire towns at a time. The higher the piercing damage the more damage it’ll do (generally)

[JMatt]

Non-residential buildings tend to have zombies around/in them. That means if you see a cluster of residential housing with no shops too close on your map, those buildings will relatively be safe to loot (might run into a straggler or two, but doable). Also, the more concentrated the non-residential buildings are in a given area, the more numerous the zombies will be. So, if you find a shop that’s on the outskirts and practically surrounded by residential houses, there should not be an excessive number of zombies, in my experience. Caution’s still advised, but careful tactics/planning should make them easy to dispatch. So that is my rule of thumb when checking out towns.

[Weyrling]

If I don’t see any far flung houses on the evac shelter side of town, I’ll circle around while eating berries and throwing rocks at miscellaneous animals until I get a clearer picture.
After that I go for any house more than 5 map tiles away from any stores, starting from the outside edge, you might run into a couple zombies if you run around breaking windows on the close side, but I almost always have plenty of stuff before I even spot a zombie.
Then I start looting my way through all houses in the town, leaving a trail of broken+cleaned windows behind me as an escape route, moving bookshelves and chairs/tables so that I can easily run past while the zombies stumble over all of them.

In most towns you can find atleast 1 gun w/ammo in a house somewhere, once I get a decent weapon or some decent skills, I start making runs for liquor stores, mil surplus, or gun stores.
Also, the best way to kill zombie dogs is a bear trap, I’ve never seen one fail to instant kill a zombie dog.

[JMatt]

In addition, molotov cocktails are your friend. You can find all the components (bottle, alcohol, and rag) in houses easily enough. They’re -awesome- against tougher zombies like brutes and hulks. Even decent against a mob if you lure the zombies correctly. I usually make them a priority in the beginning.

[prytoclasm]

As soon as you find a nailgun you’re pretty much set for an almost infinite time. Of course hulks, soldiers, brutes, smokers, web spiders and wolf spiders are a bit off limits without proper melee skill, but anything else is no problem. Find a gas mask and you can use smokers as ‘natural’ cover. Just don’t get hit too often.

Also, butchering all zombies you’ve slaughtered is a wise choice.

[Accursed91]

An strategy that works for me is to set some points in archery and survival at character generation, then when the game starts i craft a longbow and some wooden arrows, after that you are more or less set for the entire early game if you keep training those skills (archery by killing things with bow and arrow, survival by butchering said things).

I can garante that you will never really have to run out of ammo since you can find wood pretty much anywhere. Also by the time you have reached level 7 in archery you will score headshots more often than not. You will also be able to make cool things like fire drills, stome axes and stome shovels when your survival gets higher. For an added bonus, set an point in traps so you will be able to make snares and such.

P.S Also, if possible, avoid raiding at night. But if you really must have something and it can’t wait until morning then make sure you bring at least two flashligts, lots of ammo, some molotovs and a lighter.

[ClaytonRISING]

Here are a few tips from being in your same situation:

Get as many glass bottles as you can, IE: Rotten milk, alcohol, ect. and pour out the milk. Get some scissors and make a bunch of rags, then find your way to a gas station on a non-town road and make molotovs.

Don’t be afraid to pop some adderall if you need to run away.

Sometimes you can get to a store on the outskirts that has very little zombie activity, if it means getting to gun store or pharmacy, ect, you shouldn’t be afraid of fighting a handful of zombies in melee.

Risk management/mitigation!

[vultures]

Best time for looting is the time with two mounted plasma cannons, a bag of candy and some rotten beer to wash the windshield.

[TaintedHolyWater]

Amen!

Oh, and do it at night at a minimum of 300mp

Seriously if you go at night everywhere is safe… if you keep moving and avoid question marks… and have a weapon for when you can’t… Ok. it’s not really safe but you can creep your way through town to get what you need.

[Blaze1711]

Thanks for everyone who answered! And sorry for my absence, i had some connection problems…