I wanted to write a build/guide for newer players who have had a hard time surviving the first couple of days.
notes: this assumes you are playing with the default number of points and settings and assumes you know the general controls of the game. (the only thing i turn off is skill desegregation)
Character build:
what: This build focuses on giving your character an early game means of managing zombies
how:
traits: starting in the traits panel take the following negative traits. addictive personality, glass jaw, heavy sleeper, light weight, truth teller, ugly, weak stomic.
The reason why these traits are taken is many them do not affect game play, true tell and ugly have little effect due to NPC’s not being in the game so they are free points, addictive personality, light weight, and weak stomtic are only bad if you are consuming things which have no benefit for you (ie rotten food and alcohol, which which may make for a “fun” time are not necessary to survival). this should give you the max of 12 bonus points from this section.
stats:
set strength to 8, perception to 12, Intel to 8, and dexterity to 12, this will eliminate any range penalties.
professions:
option 1: bow hunter: gives you a skill in bows and survival
option 2: any that provides a backpack
skills:
evenly distribute any skill points left into bows and marksmanship respectively (if you chose a backpack profession you will want one point into survival (though option 2 does make things a little harder)
starting out: start by smashing all the wooden benches and counters in the evac shelter and crafting as many wooden arrow shafts as humanly possible (you may want to set up a key binding for the make as many as possible command (forgot what it is actually called). once completed step out side and find a rock and return to the shelter and smash the lockers. now use the metal and nails from your smashing to make as many field point wood arrows as you can (dont worry about how much you can carry, with out a back pack you can only hold 40). now that is done, check the basement for anything useful. Take any non volume items or if you are lucky any backpacks. now smash two windows, take the string(s) and craft your self a long bow using the wood and string from the window, now you are ready for the world with a bow, a stock pile of arrows, and a decent fabrication skill.
general strategy:
starting out: avoid areas with fungaloids, blobs, or other infinitely spawning monsters. start by heading towards a populated area, if you did not find a backpack in your evac shelter then you will be living house to house until you do find one. While moving around systematically take out zombies and clear out your general area.
fighting zombies: normal zombies can be kited so you should never have to take damage from them, you may take a bite here and there from zombie dogs but all in all it should be manageable, highly armored zombies like soldiers can not be damaged so head to another populated area if they spawned around you, hulks and jaber jaws may also prove challenging. just keep at range and retreat to the evac shelter if you run out of ammo, most of it should be recoverable though.
home: once you have backpack select a building to call home, I usually chose one on the outer edge of town, I recommend a house and not a business (less windows usually), if the evac shelter is not very far away you can move your ammo you left there/ any supplies in the basement, ammo is easy to make too so you could always just make more.
pace: move at a pace where you can keep track of what is going on, not noticing that you walked into a bear or a zombie can spell your doom, but you should be able to shoot any problems down if you are careful.
Other: you can break a window on a random house you are looting for sheets to use as blankets
mid game: so you survived your first few days, have a place to call home, and a couple of supplies, welcome to the mid game.
staying organized: I recommend keeping your loot organized, I usually keep separate piles of tools (ie wrench, screwdrivers, ect), components of recipies (ie metal, plastic wrappers, nails, really anything you can use to make something (empty cans), things you want to deconstruct, two separate food piles (one for things that will parish faster) and one for canned and long term foods, medical supplies, fresh drinkable, empty water container pile, weapons, ammo, books. This will be a god send when you need find something trust me, also try not to store in stuff like fridge or cabnit, remember floors have unlimited space ;).
this is a good time to read any books you have to assuming that you have the food and water to not do anything with your day.
Things to look for in the mid game: tools are the big one, hot plates or water purifiers are high on the list as well and books are incredibly useful. A warm set of clothing could also help you out.
reading: while reading make sure you are in a secure room, wildlife int he apocalypses seems to hate books and all who read them. making a filter mask is also a necessity to manage smokers. once you have a means of making clean water such as a hot plate, you can upgrade your damage potential.
other notes: keep empty cans and metal items and chemicals you find, this is good for making batteries to power hotplates sand water purifiers.
transitioning out of the mid game:
This happens when you are able to make metal arrows (see the crafting menu for requirements), as they are pretty strong and almost better then some guns I have tried using and are cable of handling anything you come across (have not tested against the jaber). due to weight you probably will not be able to carry very many but when you can one shot zombies that does not matter but they do pack a heck of a punch. A secondary weapon will also help you stay out trouble at this point.
Picking a secondary weapon:
Some times you do run into trouble, a big zombie, a lot of zombies, you were not keeping an eye on your ammo, you open a door and there is a bear, you wake up to a bear at your bed side, you fall asleep in a car and ever spider in the game is out side your car, stuff happens. Shot guns make for some of the best secondary weapons, as well as desert eagles or other .45 cal weapons, in a pinch you can switch to them, i recommend doing so when they are in an adjacent tile, you will likely not miss and you will likely one hit your target into a bloody mess. it really helps for targets that you can out run and given you may be carrying limited metal arrows this really helps with any short comings this build may have.
the late game:
you have a means of purifying water, plenty of supplies, have read most of your books, and have a sizable cash of stuff, metal arrows, and a secondary weapon with some ammo, whats next?
this is a good time to start exploring some of the rarer special buildings, military bunkers and out posts are dangerous but can have lots of goodies inside, honestly though at this point anything but ammo inside the military complex’s will likely not be too useful to you. Research facilities tend to have really good stuff in them though, bionics and plenty of supplies for making batteries to keep your pure water supply high is always a +.
this is about as far as I have made it with one of these build, usually i die for some dumb reason, (last time it was not keeping an eye on my arrow supply and not reloading my shotgun).
Ideas for the end game: while I have not gotten this far some ideas maybe to explore portals, build a house, build a mobile home, and just in general having fun,