# Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [January 3, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42 "2013-01-03T03:04:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 578

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**Author:** ![Dampe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@Dampe](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Dampe)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11542 "2015-11-13T20:34:49Z")

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Badly infected! D:  
Where can I find antibiotics other than in a pharmacy? (Already searched the only one in town.)

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**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11543 "2015-11-13T20:41:20Z")

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[quote=“Dampe, post:11542, topic:42”]Badly infected! D:  
Where can I find antibiotics other than in a pharmacy? (Already searched the only one in town.)[/quote]

Doctor’s offices, hospitals, ambulances…very rarely in bathrooms.

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**Author:** ![Noctifer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/noctifer/32/458_2.png) [@Noctifer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Noctifer)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11544 "2015-11-13T20:43:01Z")

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[quote=“Dampe, post:11542, topic:42”]Badly infected! D:  
Where can I find antibiotics other than in a pharmacy? (Already searched the only one in town.)[/quote]  
Bathrooms of house sometimes have them.

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**Author:** ![COS\_Cecillian](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/cos_cecillian/32/485_2.png) [@COS\_Cecillian](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/COS_Cecillian)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11545 "2015-11-14T00:50:18Z")

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What do zombie masters do exactly? I never figured that out. Also, on a random note, is anyone watching the news right now? About the terrorist attacks in Paris?

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**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11546 "2015-11-14T00:57:45Z")

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> [@COS\_Cecillian](#):
>
> What do zombie masters do exactly? I never figured that out. Also, on a random note, is anyone watching the news right now? About the terrorist attacks in Paris?

They upgrade zombies. \>.\>

And…holy shit what.

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**Author:** ![COS\_Cecillian](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/cos_cecillian/32/485_2.png) [@COS\_Cecillian](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/COS_Cecillian)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11547 "2015-11-14T01:00:49Z")

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You didn’t know? Gunmen and suicide bombers claiming to be from ISIS killed about 140 people in Paris in a stadium.

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**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11548 "2015-11-14T01:19:50Z")

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I’d been out most of the day and hadn’t been watching the news when I got home. @\_@

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**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 1:32am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11549 "2015-11-14T01:32:05Z")

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> [@noble](#):
>
> Can you get plutonium back out of a minireactor?

I don’t think you can remove it from the vehicle or from the minireactor (not allowed to unload), and you can’t craft or install a minireactor that has plutonium in it, BUT plutonium in a minireactor counts as being contained by the minireactor, so you can still use it to craft with, so craft an advanced UPS or a power storage CBM (with no other plutonium around) and it will use the plutonium out of the reactor - I had that problem just last week and finally figured it out early this week.

[quote=“Adragis029, post:11527, topic:42”]Question: is there a way to refill gas tanks direct from bottles/tin cans?  
I may have wasted a pump’s worth of gasoline…[/quote]

In experimental, you can go the item in your inventory and hit ‘U’ to unload, and if you’re touching a vehicle, it will ask if you want to refill a vehicle. If you hit yes, it will wait for you to choose a direction (just in case there’s more than one vehicle nearby, I assume), then it will unload the item into the vehicle - you don’t have to find the tanks that that way.

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**Author:** ![Taraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Taraq](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taraq)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11550 "2015-11-14T03:36:48Z")

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> [@Random\_dragon](#):
>
> I’d been out most of the day and hadn’t been watching the news when I got home. @\_@

Yeah, speaking of “things happening in my randomly generated apocalypse,” there have been various attacks all over paris today. A couple distinct gun/knife men at cafes and the like, a theatre’s patrons held hostage by five or so guys who are now dead along with roughly 80 to 100 of the patrons, and then 40 or so others confirmed dead elsewhere in the city. Right, and the suicide bomber or maybe grenade thrower it ain’t clear at the stadium.

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**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11551 "2015-11-14T03:39:54Z")

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Scheisse. .\_.

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**Author:** ![Taraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Taraq](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taraq)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11552 "2015-11-14T03:40:23Z")

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> [@BearytheBird](#):
>
> [quote=“Taraq, post:11506, topic:42”][quote=“Random\_dragon, post:11505, topic:42”]Only problem is while you could build cargo, wheels, a funnel, and a faucet for a tactical water cooler, a second tank for clean water plus a purifier would need a second vehicle space. =w=

Don’t forget the cloth roof so it has a tactical turtleneck.

EDIT: For some reason I can’t see further than 1 tile in the dark. Night vision, contacts, no mask or eye encumbrance, not boomered, it’s been like this for ~maybe 1 day in game. What’s going on? (My nightlight is covered.)[/quote]

Did you turn it off by accident? You can toggle night vision on and off in your mutations page now.[/quote]

YES BRILLIANT HELPFUL PERSON. Since when did we have a mutations page!?

And random only now do I realize I posted that in the non-random apocalypse thread…

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**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11553 "2015-11-14T03:40:59Z")

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_facepalms_

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**Author:** ![Zireael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/zireael/32/956_2.png) [@Zireael](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zireael)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 11:46am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11554 "2015-11-14T11:46:16Z")

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Are the hotels worth it or not? The wiki isn’t helping… ☹

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**Author:** ![Noctifer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/noctifer/32/458_2.png) [@Noctifer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Noctifer)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11555 "2015-11-14T13:11:00Z")

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How should I arrange the blue print or the following vehicle?

ttt  
V\*V

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**Author:** ![Azrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Azrad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Azrad)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11556 "2015-11-14T13:54:57Z")

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> [@Zireael](#):
>
> Are the hotels worth it or not? The wiki isn’t helping… ☹

Basement has a pool for water at least, and the ground floor has luggage carriers which is kinda okay as a wheelbarrow, but is two tiles long so dragging it around certain areas can be tricky. I recall several rooms having a decent amount of coffee powder.

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**Author:** ![Topsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Topsy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Topsy)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11557 "2015-11-14T15:47:34Z")

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a couple of noob questions:

What are the meanings of the various book colors? I’m fairly sure what grey and red mean, but what distinguishes blue, yellow, and pink books? They never quite behave as I predict, however I have the vague idea that yellow books are more or less okay to read.

Why are some ranged weapons described as having 0 range and 0 damage?  
Rail rifle apparently has 0 range and damage [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/rebar\_rifles](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/rebar_rifles)  
Bolt driver apparently has 20 range and damge [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/helsing](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/helsing)

I’m also not entirely sure why ranged weapons and their ammunition both have range and damage properties.  
Longbow has 20 “range” and 7 “damage” [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/longbow](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/longbow)  
But a fletched metal arrow has 6 “range” and 20 “damage” [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/bolt\_metal](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/bolt_metal)  
How are these two different sets of numbers factored in when I’m actually firing a longbow with a metal arrow?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zireael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/zireael/32/956_2.png) [@Zireael](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zireael)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11558 "2015-11-14T16:07:36Z")

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Book colors:  
Grey - does nothing except increase morale (if at all)  
Red - unread, you don’t know what it does  
Blue - you can learn skills from it  
Yellow - there’s recipes in the book you don’t know yet  
Pink - no idea

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**Author:** ![Azrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Azrad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Azrad)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11559 "2015-11-14T16:08:33Z")

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Blue means you can still gain skill levels from it.  
Yellow means there’s still recipes you can memorize.  
Pink means you don’t have enough levels in that skill to further increase your skill level. For example, your skill with computers is at 1 and you try to read SICP, which requires level 5 in computers to understand, I think.  
Also a book can be yellow even if you lack enough skill levels to learn anything from the book.

For most guns, the range is damage is 0 because it’s dependent on the ammo it uses. Check the ammo, it should have range and damage on it, as well as a number of other things that’ll modify the stats of a gun if it gets loaded.

If a gun has range and damage properties, it’ll be added in the appropriate ammo’s range and damage properties.

For example, an unloaded gun with say, a recoil stock would show that it has negative recoil, but it might not be in the negative value if loaded with particular ammo, like shotguns and shotgun shells.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11560 "2015-11-14T16:10:51Z")

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[quote=“Topsy, post:11557, topic:42”]a couple of noob questions:

What are the meanings of the various book colors? I’m fairly sure what grey and red mean, but what distinguishes blue, yellow, and pink books? They never quite behave as I predict, however I have the vague idea that yellow books are more or less okay to read.

Why are some ranged weapons described as having 0 range and 0 damage?  
Rail rifle apparently has 0 range and damage [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/rebar\_rifles](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/rebar_rifles)  
Bolt driver apparently has 20 range and damge [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/helsing](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/helsing)

I’m also not entirely sure why ranged weapons and their ammunition both have range and damage properties.  
Longbow has 20 “range” and 7 “damage” [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/longbow](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/longbow)  
But a fletched metal arrow has 6 “range” and 20 “damage” [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/bolt\_metal](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/bolt_metal)  
How are these two different sets of numbers factored in when I’m actually firing a longbow with a metal arrow?[/quote]

The first one has been asked before. Red of course means you haven’t read it once yet, grey means you have and it has nothing to teach you whatever. Blue means than reading it will give you experience in a given skill. Yellow means one of two things. One, that you’ve got all the experience you can from it, but it has recipes you can still learn from it. Or two, that your level is too low to learn from it, and it also has recipes that can be learned. Pink means your level is too low to gain experience from it, and that there are no recipes to be learned from it.

As for ranged weapons, their range and damage (and other stats too) are derived from both the gun and the ammo. If it’s loaded, you’ll see the stats added together for a total. A lot of random guns have damage bonuses added arbitrarily, but the general rule is that 0 is the norm, and most exceptions tend to be weapons that aren’t semi-auto. In the case of bows that CAN’T be loaded (they’re loaded and fired when you nock an arrow), you have to do the stat math yourself.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Taraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Taraq](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taraq)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions/42/11561 "2015-11-14T17:04:45Z")

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[quote=“Random\_dragon, post:11560, topic:42”][quote=“Topsy, post:11557, topic:42”]a couple of noob questions:

What are the meanings of the various book colors? I’m fairly sure what grey and red mean, but what distinguishes blue, yellow, and pink books? They never quite behave as I predict, however I have the vague idea that yellow books are more or less okay to read.

Why are some ranged weapons described as having 0 range and 0 damage?  
Rail rifle apparently has 0 range and damage [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/rebar\_rifles](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/rebar_rifles)  
Bolt driver apparently has 20 range and damge [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/helsing](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/helsing)

I’m also not entirely sure why ranged weapons and their ammunition both have range and damage properties.  
Longbow has 20 “range” and 7 “damage” [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/longbow](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/longbow)  
But a fletched metal arrow has 6 “range” and 20 “damage” [http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/bolt\_metal](http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/bolt_metal)  
How are these two different sets of numbers factored in when I’m actually firing a longbow with a metal arrow?[/quote]

The first one has been asked before. Red of course means you haven’t read it once yet, grey means you have and it has nothing to teach you whatever. Blue means than reading it will give you experience in a given skill. Yellow means one of two things. One, that you’ve got all the experience you can from it, but it has recipes you can still learn from it. Or two, that your level is too low to learn from it, and it also has recipes that can be learned. Pink means your level is too low to gain experience from it, and that there are no recipes to be learned from it.

As for ranged weapons, their range and damage (and other stats too) are derived from both the gun and the ammo. If it’s loaded, you’ll see the stats added together for a total. A lot of random guns have damage bonuses added arbitrarily, but the general rule is that 0 is the norm, and most exceptions tend to be weapons that aren’t semi-auto. In the case of bows that CAN’T be loaded (they’re loaded and fired when you nock an arrow), you have to do the stat math yourself.[/quote]

Don’t bows also use strength for damage? Or, shouldn’t they?

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