Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

[Valpo]

Thanks a lot! Tailoring is a really great crafting skill, I’ve finally got decent storage now. I also found a Taurus .38 with fifty rounds in a house, so I’m using that as a quick backup if I come face to face with something ultra-competent at melee. However, my character has inhaled two or three tiles of that noxious gas the boomer-like zombies exude. With this kill him? How can I heal the damage, etc? I’m apparently “wracked with pain”.

The gas will most likely damage your torso but not kill you.
A lethal dosis of poison is unlikely from one of those zs alone.
The reduced stats and pain which in turn reduce your stats and speed as well are the more dangerous part about poison.
Damage to your survivort can be healed by sleeping applying bandages or first aid kits.
Theres a cbm that heals you for energy too.

[blazing_glory]

I built my bike backwards. Any way I can fix this?

Nah, you have to half disassemble it and start again.

[KA101]

[quote=“Stelknecht, post:5835, topic:42”]Anyone know what these are for? Do they do anything? If I smash it, it explodes in my face and is very hurty. Can’t dissassemble, can’t reload with plutonium, can’t unload. Somehow this piques my curiosity hugely. I really feel I should be able to extract a minireactor from it, or hook up a battery to it or haul it to my base and plug it in or something.

[/quote]

Currently they’re the power source for milspec searchlights. If someone were to PR being able to take them down and repurpose 'em, that’d likely get attention.

[Rosanna_Foxfire]

Hi there! First time posting, I’ve been lurking here since I discovered the game through a LPer I routinely watch.

I’m a bit at a loss on general advice for how to survive the first day, and be in a good way. My judgement and general character builds might not be very good, as I have read most everything I can find for such advice. Even the Wiki’s guides.

I know that part of my survival woes are related to learning basics about the world, like what can kill me quickly and I need to flee from, and what circumstances I can effectively kill things.

But I’ve only once lasted longer than a day. I made it to dawn of day 2, and succumbed to freezing cold and the zombies outside the mansion room I’d barricaded myself into.

I’m just at a loss of how to extend my lifespan.

[Kampffrosch]

I’m just at a loss of how to extend my lifespan.

Craft a trenchcoat and a quarterstaff asap. Find a helmet. Makes killing basic things easy.
Kill wildlife for food or scavenge it from towns.
Take water from toilets or pools and boil it in a fire which you can start with all the lighters you find.
Don´t run into turrets and run the fuck away from tanks until you know what you are getting into.
Be a bit more careful handling hulks and brutes than the other zombies, these can actually damage you.

With that you should be able to survive until you do something stupid

[Rosanna_Foxfire]

[quote=“Rosanna Foxfire, post:5844, topic:42”]I’m just at a loss of how to extend my lifespan.

Craft a trenchcoat and a quarterstaff asap. Find a helmet. Makes killing basic things easy.
Kill wildlife for food or scavenge it from towns.
Take water from toilets or pools and boil it in a fire which you can start with all the lighters you find.
Don´t run into turrets and run the fuck away from tanks until you know what you are getting into.
Be a bit more careful handling hulks and brutes than the other zombies, these can actually damage you.

With that you should be able to survive until you do something stupid :P[/quote]

In that order?

Here’s what I’ve been doing: I find myself a rock or a stick, and smash up the furniture in the Shelter. Then I craft myself a makeshift crowbar, and another usable weapon, a knife spear if I’m willing to smash out windows, or something else. And of late, gloves, so the ever present cold doesn’t get me.

Afterwards, I head towards the nearest town, and try to loot some of the outlying houses, and check on vehicles to see if any are in working operation. I tend to die within the first few houses to normal zombies, and can barely damage them.

[Hardluck]

Don’t run to zombies you want to kill, let them come to you.

Zombies lose several turns every time then go through a bush or a window, not just the first time. The Dance of the Thousand Bushes allows you to kill anything, that is slower than you and doesn’t have a ranged attack, without you taking any damage.

[Kampffrosch]

Well the crowbar isn´t exactly a good weapon, since it doesn´t have any special attacks.
Make a cudgel or better a quarterstaff, they can parry which is reallly good.

[Alasnuyo]

And don’t forget shopping carts. They’re basically mobile bushes you can drag around.

[Rosanna_Foxfire]

Thanks for the tips. I’ll give them a shot with my next survivor.

[mdtexeira]

In that order?

[/quote]

Here’s what I do if I start in an evac shelter. Head outside…grab three rocks and check underbrush to get my survival to 1 (for balaclavas). Come back in smash furniture will rocks until I’ve got some nails. Make fishhooks to Fab 1. Then, pull down a curtain from a window, and disassemble a long string. I make a stone knife, and use that to make wooden needle. I then disassemble the remaining short strings into thread. The two sheets get cut up, and I start making clothes. I make all the clothes I will wear for tailoring 0 (socks) and then practice sewing on them until I get tailoring 1. Keep pulling down curtains as needed for rags. Get yourself arm warmers, leg warmers, cargo shorts, socks, at least one balaclava, a backpack, and a trenchcoat. If you’re a submissive like me, you’ll also have leather from your mask which you can use to make leather gloves. At this point, it’s probably almost night, but you’re well clothed. I usually take a makeshift crowbar out (in case of skellies) and do my initial exploration at night. My number one priority is a hardware or grocery store for a wheelbarrow/grocery cart. Then, I work on getting water sorted. If I get aggro from a bunch of guys, I’ll try to get them stuck in a house which I’ve gotten the good stuff out of, and I will light that house on fire. If I get one at a time, I’ll use bushes to my advantage and smack them death (after dropping my backpack). Also, I usually destroy the first fridge I come across to make a slingshot so I can start practicing archery.

This is my early game. Next priorities are getting a stone hammer made (unless I find the real deal) and a screwdriver, and working towards getting construction to 3 so I can make a stone fireplace. Before that, you’ll need to get survival to 3 for a stone axe (makes leveling construction much simpler if you can cut down and process trees). Meanwhile, collect any rocks you see, unless you end up burning down several houses (as I’ve been known to do), in which case, rocks will plentiful along the perimeter of the smoldering ruin.

[Coolthulhu]

[quote=“mdtexeira, post:5851, topic:42”]Here’s what I do if I start in an evac shelter. Head outside…grab three rocks and check underbrush to get my survival to 1 (for balaclavas).
Get yourself arm warmers, leg warmers, cargo shorts, socks, at least one balaclava, a backpack, and a trenchcoat.
working towards getting construction to 3 so I can make a stone fireplace.[/quote]

Going outside with no armor and no weapons is risky. You can meet a moose, a zombie dog or something like that. Traditional way of grinding survival to 1 is making and dissembling bindles. You can use heavy sticks (from windows) to smash furniture and steel chunks have hammering. You can make a knife from a spike (can be made from scrap from lockers) and thread (from the window string).

Backpack is too heavy early on, that 0 torso encumbrance really helps. Make 2 bindles instead and wear those until you start using a gun. Also, make a hoodie, because it has good armor when reinforced.

Building a fireplace sounds like more effort than gain. Grinding construction is incredibly slow and tedious and if you need fire, you can just put it outside. If you find a filter/gas/PBA mask (common loot from firefighters), you can just start a fire in the basement or in a brazier.

Rest of the advice is good.

[mdtexeira]

In the last 30 games I’ve played, I have died once in my original egress for rocks and survival training. I also tend to make good use of the herbs and eggs I end up with (not to mention the often useful trash…bottles). Also, given the abundance of weather effects that will put out outside fires, I stand by my fireplace. It actually takes one full in-game day to level construction to 3. I dig holes and chop trees down, then process them into logs, and then planks once logs don’t give experience. As for backpacks, they are easy to drop before melee, and I almost always have ranged weapons (slingshot and pebbles…which can zombie dogs down by half pretty quickly) by the end of day one, so bindles would be less useful for me in that sense.

All that being said, I’ll try your locker technique and see if I prefer it. I’ve been doing mine for so long that it’s almost automatic.

[Nickal]

you’ll also have leather from your mask which you can use to make leather gloves.

Never thought about the submissive thing for leather. also screwed up my quote a bit.

[Illogical_Blox]

How do you disassemble robot corpses?

[TheCondor]

I am looking to break my way into a bank vault. I failed the computer hack so now I have to do i manually. I tried to pipe bomb my way in, but sadly pipe bomb seems to not do much to the metal vault walls. Anyone else know some way to get in?

[Alasnuyo]

How do you disassemble robot corpses?

Stand on top of them. Then press ‘B’.

I am looking to break my way into a bank vault. I failed the computer hack so now I have to do i manually. I tried to pipe bomb my way in, but sadly pipe bomb seems to not do much to the metal vault walls. Anyone else know some way to get in?

Go to the nearest garage. Grab acetylene torch and welding goggles. Apply torch to metal bars/doors.

To crack the safes in the vault use a stethoscope. If you don’t have one, loot the nearest clinic or hospital for it. Jackhammers and explosives can open safes, but some of the contents can be rather fragile.

[Illogical_Blox]

[quote=“Illogical_Blox, post:5855, topic:42”]How do you disassemble robot corpses?

Stand on top of them. Then press ‘B’.[/quote]
Doesn’t work. I need another tool.

[Catfoodbob]

if you have hydraulic muscles you can smash a safe with a sledge hammer

[Rhodri]

Do turrets installed onto vehicles still betray you by destroying your own vehicle (and you too, most likely)?