Early/New Weapons & Armor

[UberZacht]

There’s a pretty large amount of armors you can get fairly early on now, as well as more variety in weapons. Jerseys are actually pretty good, maybe a bit too good. The Bookplate, a great use of those duct tape rolls, besides possibly holing up in a shop where the windows don’t close. Scrap armor, Football Pads, The Chefs Shirt. And then weapons, the rock in a sock, the steel knuckles, clubs and hockey sticks.

I’ve actually been making good use of an umbrella to clear out small towns lately, with a TEC-9 for sticky situations (A few bears and brutes). Then you have Rivet’s blacksmithing overhaul which opened up end-game weapons like the Zweihander, Eastern Curved Blades, and a bunch of medieval weapons and armor in general. Shortly after the .8 experimental builds were back up, I managed to scrounge up enough parts (I found a crucible on a Zed, a charcoal forge under the bed next to the TV) and the books to create stuff, set up next to a hardware store with a steel compactor.

To actually phrase my question, what weapons & armor do you guys tend to go for in the beginning (use what you find, or try to find and/or create specific things). And has anyone else managed to create the esteemed Yoroi/Kabuto (or anything with the blacksmithing overhaul)?

[EkarusRyndren]

I tend to just use whatever I can find in the beginning, avoiding combat as best I can (Which is easy once I’ve got my vehicle working) until I can build a Heavy Survivor Suit, A Rain Hood, a Survivor Vest, some Combat Boots, and a Survivor Mask.

Rivet’s stuff is awesome. XD …and it reminds me of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for some reason.

[FunsizeNinja123]

Nowadays when I have enough points into tailoring I can smash up the lockers or a few refrigerators in town and grab a rock to make metal arm guards. Most of the time I make a long sleeve shirt and a duffel bag from the sheets, and some cargo pants and cargo shorts. I’ll make boots if I find leather things in houses or in the basement in the shelter. I also like the armored fingerless gloves. Leather gloves spawn too much in my opinion. I mean, does everyone have a pair of leather gloves in a bookcase?

[esran]

plate mail is truly awesome, but i usually prefer a nice chitinous armour. my current character IS running around in full plate mail, and feels invincible. also slow. also wet :(.

[system]

Army shirt, military rucksack, steeltoed boots, army helmet/SWAT helmet. That’s very easy to obtain, unless RNG isn’t in mood for today.
Weapon - nail rifle or zweihander, depends on situation and type of character. If either are inaccessible(which is almost unbelievable for nail rifle) - whatever I find.

[Lost]

It’s pretty easy to start off the game with a crowbar after scuttling one of the lockers in the evac shelter. It’s a very practical weapon.

Pointy Sticks are also formidable weapons, even if it sounds very stupid in name. Spears are okay, but Javelins are outright vicious! They attack fast and with a high enough dodge/melee skill, you can block almost any attack that comes your way. They also seem to be more effective than most other items as throwing weapons, so if you ever go on a zombie rampage, it may be worth bringing about ten of them into battle with you.

I lucked out and found all the armor/weapon making books and learned all the recipes from them, so I have the ability and resources to make medieval weapons. The nodachi is unbelievably powerful with a cutting power of 60, +1 hit bonus and being only slightly slower than the katana. It also hits all adjacent monsters, has knockback and rapid attack. On a critical (which, at my skill level, is almost constantly), I can deal almost 200 damage to zombies. If it could parry like the katana, it would probably be the most powerful and broken weapon in the whole game.

[vultures]

Most characters find it very rewarding to try and obtain a crossbow early on. Even with archery skill stuck below 1, the damage done to the
zombie variety is unmatched. Make sure you’re strong enough and by all means do use metal bolts.
A biker character with a baseball bat is also a good hand-pick. Tailoring for protection is a must if you’re to skip minor nuisances early on,
so do spend an afternoon practicing to lvl 5 or 6.

[Dyne]

Leather vest is best in the early period.
Zero encumberance.
Blocks normal zombie attacks.
3/4 attacks go to the torso.
Can be easily reinforced.

As of weapons- if you have a strong character- go for edged.
If a weaker one- go for blunt.

I usually prefer slow hardhitting melee weapons.
Also the ones you can block with are a great bonus.
In the very beginning it can be a simple club of any sort you can make/find.

[jcannon98188]

I have found starting with the Military Recruit profession and playing with a Combat Knife to be fun

[jimboblordofeskimos]

Early melee im still big on the nail board, after that I probably want something smaller for a ranged char and bigger for a melee guy. I often end up using the crowbar as my melee for a ranged char just to save on space. Melee/martial arts guy is grabbing all teh armors he can get his hands on early game. Hard arm guards/bike helmet/leather vest seem to be what I often end up with early game.

I generally try and run mostly blunt weps, as if I have to pistol whip down some zombies in a tight spot higher blunt skill will help.

[BadSniper]

Until my laptop broke, I almost always smashed a locker for a pipe to make a crowbar. The Military Recruit’s combat knife seems pretty decent, but the -2 to-hit penalty always pushed me away from it unless it was the only weapon I had.

I also always made a beeline for a gun store, or at the very least, a hardware/sporting goods store to grab a hammer.

[TaintedHolyWater]

Remove sock, add rock.
Whirl a full pound of modern flail at target’s head until motion ceases.

[jimboblordofeskimos]

We do need some upgrades to the rock in a sock. Im hoping for the full gamut from ‘poolball in a beanie’ to ‘cannonball in a gstring’

[infectedmochi]

Nah, rock in a sock is OP right now, nerf plz!!
size=8pt[/size]

[deadmerits]

I never thought the simple idea of a rock in a garment would take off. Too bad Rivet didn’t want to add my rock in a shoe, or my favorite, the rock in a sweater vest, but rock in a sock made it in and it seems to be generating some buzz.

[jimboblordofeskimos]

A few rocks from the side of the train tracks in a beanie where pretty much the weapon of choice for kids when I was in highschool. I always figured it was popular everywhere.