I Need Strategy Help

Game Talk The Bunker
21

It is the same world, but I use one character at a time, and reset it each time the character dies.

Between scrambling around to fetch the last pieces of Xmas dinner and car trouble, I haven’t had time to do anything with the game, except write a Cataclysm’d version of Piano Man in the General Discussion subforum.

I’ll probably be busy for all weekend, but I do appreciate the advice and information, and will apply it and report back the first chance I get.

In the meantime, will someone consider telling me what elbereth is? Is it an inside joke to casually mention it, but dodge questions about it?

22

I think moose are provoked by seeing you run from them, or maybe thats wolves… bears? Pretty sure something is, any ways, you probably would have been better breaking LOS since it only warned you 3 steps latter, I imagine thats how long it took moose to get ticked off enough at your existence to decide to end you.

Yell more in the future, then run from zoms. At the very least if you can get moose to back away some, you can use it as a meat shield to fight the zoms for you while you do whatever you feel most prudent (run, smash up some isolated zoms, setup traps, switch weapons to best suited etc…

23

It’s probably a NetHack reference. The game tells you not to write “Elbereth” because writing the word on the ground or inscribing it on an item won’t protect you from monsters like it does in NetHack.

24

It’s probably a NetHack reference. The game tells you not to write “Elbereth” because writing the word on the ground or inscribing it on an item won’t protect you from monsters like it does in NetHack.[/quote]

Ding! We have a winner!

25

You can peek around things using ‘X’ rather than 'e’xamining closed curtains.

I suggest peeking around every corner every time in early game.
This has increased my survivability nearly 100%, I can now regularly survive the first 3 days, assuming a hulk or moose doesn’t bust into the shelter for no apparent reason and I don’t get gunned down by a random crazy NPC.

Also I turn off static NPCs, they tend to attract things to the shelter that they can’t take out.

Regarding actual strategies, aside from being really cautious and looking around corners every time I tend to throw a few rocks at each zombie before they get close, this makes them much easier to kill.
Of course, a lot of the game does rely somewhat on luck, and while you can get a lot of things just by busting up the shelter you start in you still will need to gather supplies from town.

Don’t be worried about food/water more than big zombies, you can actually become extremely hungry and thirsty before you take serious debuffs, and it’s better to circle a town looking for an easy place to loot until you’re starving and dehydrated than it is to run into a pack of zombie dogs or a brute or hulk early on.

26

The latest character has the Night Vision trait, and 10 Perception.

This creates four squares of visibility at night. How far ahead can the Zombie Soldiers, and all those more dangerous than them see at night? Also the acidic, spitter, and corrosive ones. I can probably handle anything less dangerous than a Soldier or Survivor, so I’m not really worried about how far they can see.

This character spawned in a shelter with an NPC who appears to be Ip Man reincarnated (Snow ‘Meow’ clobbers the zombie for 84 damage!) so I’m just going to lead everything to him. Only problem is that his mission is “Get Antibiotics”, and I’m not sure if not taking it will keep him from dying of infection.

In the past I kept moving my base of operations as close to unlooted buildings as possible (as in I moved every other day or so), but
since I’ve yet to have a character see day 5, I’m going to try staying put instead. Ferrying everything scavenged will take longer, but since I’m not moving as much maybe I can put down more defenses. Are there any easily creatable defenses aside from Spike Pits, and Nailboard Traps?

27

If you aren’t getting enough nailboard traps remember that you can deconstruct pretty much any furniture to get planks and nails. I’m pretty sure the traps are lighter than their ingredients as well.

28

I’m pretty sure your NPC will die of infection if you don’t get him the antibiotics within 48 hours. It’s part of the quest; I don’t believe they actually spawn wounded, so there’s no physical bite to disinfect even if you do manage to make them trust you and follow you around.

29

I know that much. I meant will he die even if you don’t take the mission?
It seems like the deadline should still be there even if you’re not seeking antibiotics. On an unrelated note, I once got a mission from and NPC who needed antibiotics, then checked to see what he had for trade, and he already had some.

None of that matters, though, since that character died too. Apparently despite being able to two-hit kill Zombie Soldiers bare handed, Snow ‘Meow’ was terrified of Smokers. I guess that’s Karma, since I lead a little over eighty zeds, including five Soldiers, to him by day 2.

30

I actually lead a soldier ant into a town and it dispatched a lot of zombies by itself. I think it’s mostly due to the natural armor it had.

Anyway, I remember that I spawned in with a katana wielding starting NPC in back in version 0.A, managed to make it tag along with me, and later picked up the weapon when it finally died.

I also had a starting NPC in my bionic patient run, and he needed antibiotics, which I found literally in 2 seconds. His starting knife spear saved my frail body from death.

31

[quote=“Rot, post:30, topic:13171”]I actually lead a soldier ant into a town and it dispatched a lot of zombies by itself. I think it’s mostly due to the natural armor it had.

Anyway, I remember that I spawned in with a katana wielding starting NPC in back in version 0.A, managed to make it tag along with me, and later picked up the weapon when it finally died.

I also had a starting NPC in my bionic patient run, and he needed antibiotics, which I found literally in 2 seconds. His starting knife spear saved my frail body from death.[/quote]

I bet that was fun. A few times NPCs have spawned with an LACP laser pistol, and you could always tell when it happened because there was an error message saying something about the ammo type. It stopped happening a while back, In fact I haven’t even seen an LACP in quite some time.

Giant Rattlesnakes are great for infighting since the zeds don’t fight back for some reason. They’re slow as well, so it’s not hard to keep ahead of them, but the zeds are faster too, so you need to get them caught on something like a car or wall to fully exploit it.

32

Loathe as I am to drag a seemingly dead topic back up, I’m still having quite a bit of trouble.

Just today, I had a world going pretty well, after a mad dash from a Mi-go, and the valiant sacrifice of Marcy something-or-other, I was able to set up nailboard traps and chase said Mi-go off. Then off to dig around in the two houses about three overmap tiles to the east.

I got into the first house, by opening the window with a makeshift crowbar, searched it and decided that it was as good as any other house to set up a temporary base in.

Both houses were on the outskirts of a medium town, and facing forests, so I approached the second house from the back intending to stick to the forest facing side, then peek around the corner to see if the resistance was slight enough to make looting the house worth it.

I was about eight tiles from the back of the house when suddenly a Shocker Brute appeared twenty three tiles away, and already aware of my character’s existence. Speed penalties for cold made it a virtual impossibility to outrun it, but the house was close enough to get in and maybe hide in the basement. I’m not sure that hiding will make it go away, but it didn’t matter, because the basement had a Slavering Biter.

This is Day 1 with a Poor Student, nine Nailboard Traps and two Knife Spears . I could always start armed to the teeth, but I wanted to work my way up, and I still do.

This isn’t just bad luck or it would have let up by now, every world is like this, so it must be par for the course with PK’s Rebalance.
I have a screenshot of a three building town with 61 zeds in it, and another of a four building town with three Brutes, and twenty or so other zombies just by the two buildings I could see.

So, any veterans of this mod willing to offer their survival methods? I can’t get into any towns to secure bottles for molotovs, or gas, or even a hose to siphon it.

33

I haven’t played the mod because it is difficult. I know there wild life is buffed. If it is already morning, you can look for bear, moose, or wasp outside town, which can fight many green zees. When there is still brute in town, you can kick here and bash there, where he can’t see. The sound will confuse him.

34

I generally just grab a giant pile of rocks and throw them at the local wildlife for the first half-day until I have a decent throwing skill, then I try to lure small groups of zombies out so I can kill them.

If your problem is freezing to death, you can always break an evac shelter’s window and wear the sheets to keep warm until dark, wherein you can then head into town to find loot.
You can also try to sleep on a square covered in clothes/sheets to raise your temperature as well as pass time.

When it comes to distracting enemies I tend to just throw a rock through a window that’s a bit away, then hide and go the long way around.
If you’ve already been spotted, try to duck behind a vision blocking square and then throw stuff to make noise, the average zombie will commonly go towards a new noise over an old sight.

35

My advice for you is to try avoid enemies (pick your fights), and look for a working vehicle. Maybe a different town is less like a fortress for the undead

36

honestly, i play PKs mod and i have hordes+static
what i do is go near the time enough so that zombies spawn but not chase me, then i go somewhere about six or so maptiles away from town, wait a day or two and hordes will form and move away from the town, all you have to do then is clear out stragglers which are usually about ten or so regular zeds

37

You’re sure that it takes two entire days for hordes to despawn?

If that’s the case then what skills would be best to grind in the downtime? And what would be the best activities for them?

How does this compare to the sling weapon with pebble ammo? It’s also based on throwing skill now.

38

Kite mobs into windows with a makeshift crowbar and beat the hell out of them with it.

Turn off hordes?

Loot in the night.

Find a good weapon first before anything.

Turn off skill rust?

I’ve lasted several hundred days with several characters, I’m sure I’m doing something right…

39

[quote=“Gnorse, post:36, topic:13171”]honestly, i play PKs mod and i have hordes+static
what i do is go near the time enough so that zombies spawn but not chase me, then i go somewhere about six or so maptiles away from town, wait a day or two and hordes will form and move away from the town, all you have to do then is clear out stragglers which are usually about ten or so regular zeds[/quote]

You, sir, have saved my sanity. I shall, sometime in the future, name an NPC in your honor. Then I probably won’t kill and cannibalize them.

Seriously, though, thank you. I was just about ready to give up PK’s Rebalancing, but waiting a while seems to have reduced the crowd to a manageable size. Oddly enough, one of the two characters ended Day 1 with 100 or so whatever radiation is measured in, but I can live with that.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions, I think I can make it now.

40

I retract that statement. I came out of my basement hidey-hole after a two day book reading binge and indeed most of the horde had disappeared, but whilst going to retrieve a baseball bat to finish the stragglers, I noticed a -1 penalty to all stats, there was no disease in the attributes, so I reasoned it was radiation, saved, and checked the .sav.

I was up their long enough to peek out three windows (I’d estimate 2 1\2 in game minutes) and acquired 124 radiation. How does anyone survive radiation in this game mod?