Tips, Tricks and Newb Questions: Reborn!

[Unawares]

Not sure if it’s from a mod or what, since everybody seems to be saying you can’t craft CBMs anymore, but I found a book in a lab that did in fact allow me to craft subdermal armor CBMs using superalloy.

Thanks Nate, yes that’s in the base game, good catch. So there’s some good use for that superalloy, if you don’t find those CBMs and want to craft them.

What about the portal generator, does it have a use? I know there used to be a nice portable hole device from a mod that you could make, for storage, did that ever make it into the base game?

[Kadian]

You need to put the funnel on an empty tile. It needs to be a flat surface too, so yeah.

[Unawares]

Airova, have you tried deploying the makeshift funnel on various different ground tiles? Maybe there is something about the spot you wanted to put it. I’ve never run into this one, but I don’t normally use the makeshift funnel type either.

[airova]

Yeah, figured it out. I was placing it on tall grass tiles. I didn’t realize that was a restriction. Worked fine when I finally placed it on a normal grass tile.

[Unawares]

Perfect, and you taught me something new. I play with tiles that don’t show the tall grass, so that would really confuse me.

[Wojtek94]

I don’t know if it is a good place to ask this question but: how is it possible that device like a fireplace, a charcoal kiln, a charcoal smoker etc doesn’t fill your house, cave or LMOE shelter with smoke? I know that it has to be like this but I’m curious about the way in which it is explained

[airova]

Hm… There appears to be a mi-go running amok in my starting city. It hasn’t seen me yet and I’ve been avoiding it (only going out at night with night vision and light step traits). In a way, it’s doing me a favor, taking down lots of the zombies for me. But I’m a bit worried I’ll run into it unexpectedly. How afraid should I be? I don’t have a ranged weapon except for a bow and a few wooden arrows. I’ve been using a homemade pike and a cudgel for fighting so far, still haven’t found any proper weapons. Only a few days into the game.

[Invalid_Username]

How afraid should I be?

Very. Mi-gos have been the death of more of my early characters than spitters have, and I HATE spitters. Once you have the ability to deal good damage from range, or enough melee skill to effectively kite them with a spear, then take it out. Until then, maybe just use it as an oh-shit button if you end up getting chased by a horde. Good chance that the zombies and the mi-go will end up fighting each other, but there’s no guarantee of that, as I have learned to my detriment in the past.

[Unawares]

What strategies do people use for getting a good mix of mutations? And in particular, to get rid of a bad one without losing too much with it?

On my current lab start run I managed to get a very nice mutation mix including full night vision. But I did have a tail stub with that. And because that can so easily mutate further into a tail that prevents various armors from use, I finally decided to get rid of that. (I waited until I had a good mix of bionics in place first.) Took two purify attempts, and wiped out plenty of good things with it (goodbye quick and light eater, etc), but surprisingly left my full night vision alone this time.

Any suggestions on how best to do the mutation thing?

[Rose]

What strategies do people use for getting a good mix of mutations? And in particular, to get rid of a bad one without losing too much with it?

Save scumming.

2020202020

[Unawares]

Save scumming.

Grin… OK >besides< that.

I use saves heavily to try different things and learn the game. Using it to perfectly stack every good mutation under the sun though, for me that wouldn’t be fun.

For example you can try to get hard / risky mutations you want first, because you can easily purify back to square one and try again.

Once you have some good mutations, it’s tricky. Currently I try to make small changes at a time, and if I get a bad effect: add a couple more mutations and then purify (drinkable version, not the stronger serum). Because purify will remove more than one thing, and it seems to like removing the more recent changes first (sometimes…).

I’m still trying to figure it out.

[airova]

What determines how much stamina you lose when butchering a corpse? When I watch videos of people playing and they seem to be able to butcher corpses with very little stamina loss. But when I play, I lose half my stamina bar every single time and have to wait to catch my breath before doing the next one. Even pulping seems to take a lot of my stamina bar. This has happened with several different characters with wildly different stats. Surely I’m missing something here, but what?

[Trigon]

My best guess would be mouth encumberance. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed losing stamina from butchering a corpse though.

[Trigon]

And the best mutation strategy I’ve found is to start with the mutation category with bad mutations and then use some mutagens from a mutation tree that cancels them out. Obviously this is much easier with Robust Genetics. So I don’t recommend serious mutation without taking or acquiring robust genetics.

[airova]

Hm… I’ll try removing what I’m wearing around my mouth and see if it helps, thanks.

Meanwhile, another question: where are the best places to find a wrench? I think I’m having awful luck. Raided a mechanic, a load of houses, even a hardware store, and haven’t found one. Is there some kind of makeshift version which can be made? A lot of my plans for next steps rely on finding one.

[Tamior]

Can you just kill a bunch of normal Z’s?
That usually works for me when looking for basic tools.
Also, pretty sure you can craft a wrench.

[airova]

I’ve killed quite a few. Found tons of scissors but no wrench. And there’s no wrench in the crafting menu. According to the wiki (I know, I know, it’s out of date), it can be crafted but it needs some pretty advanced tools. Guess I’ll just keep hunting. Thanks though.

[Tamior]

You can totally craft it from scratch. But it will take a couple of in-game days with all the other tools you need to craft first to craft the wrench.
Also you need fabrication 6 (maybe 7?).

[Trigon]

Yeah. You can forge a wrench, but generally I’ll find one on a dead zed before it’s needed. But if you continuously can’t find one it will probably be best to make it from scratch.

Of course as soon as you do forge one the next zombie you kill will have one ripe for the taking.

[Walegrin]

That’s what I thought. Thanks for confirmation though.

Tell me about fishing someone. Dependent on survival skill? Can I exhaust the fish in an area?