Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

[AllisonW]

A heavy stick is already firewood; you don’t need to cut it down further–though if you were dead-set on doing it, you could use a knife to cut it up into skewers, which are still wood and will burn. I don’t know if they’ll work quite as well as a heavy stick or two-by, though.

In order to cut tree trunks into logs (which can be picked up and then be cut into two-by-fours and splintered wood by using the axe on a log in your inventory), you’ll need to open the Construction menu again, but you’ll need at least 1 rank of the Construction skill to do it. If you don’t have an entry-level Construction book to read, you can grind your first level of it by disassembling furniture with a hammer, screwdriver, and the Construction menu; by cleaning glass out of broken windows via the Construction menu; or by chopping down more trees, all of which are tasks that require Construction 0 and thus will train it up to 1.

EDIT about changing professions in the save file: I tried it (using Notepad, of all things), and it did in fact change my current character’s displayed profession on her character sheet (I went from “Punk Rock Girl” to “Shower Victim”; that was just a test and will be reversed). It also didn’t fuck with my skills or inventory or traits or bionics or anything, so that’s good. However, I just opened up the game and took a couple of turns; I don’t know if there would be any consequences down the road. I don’t see why there would be, but I’m not a coder. It’s kind of an awkward edit, but so far it looks like I could, in fact, use this to “promote” shower victims who survive their Really Bad Day. (Also Novice Martial Artists and the like whose Melee, Unarmed, and Dodging skills develop to higher levels.) Maybe I could also use the same method to change names if I feel the need, like granting my character a new moniker after a post-threshold mutation or something.

[TheStoryteller]

So today I spent an hour playing with my PDA, hoping in vain that it might prove to be more useful than just a flashlight. Tragically, it seems that this is not the case. I mean, even my cheap knockoff 3rd party PDA Slab has an SD card port.

Is there any reason why I shouldn’t just yank the batteries and hurl it into the lake?

[AllisonW]

[quote=“TheStoryteller, post:6222, topic:42”]So today I spent an hour playing with my PDA, hoping in vain that it might prove to be more useful than just a flashlight. Tragically, it seems that this is not the case. I mean, even my cheap knockoff 3rd party PDA Slab has an SD card port.

Is there any reason why I shouldn’t just yank the batteries and hurl it into the lake?[/quote]

I’m not sure but it might be able to tell you where the hell you left your bike if you install a vehicle tracking device on it.

[TheStoryteller]

I’m not sure but it might be able to tell you where the hell you left your bike if you install a vehicle tracking device on it.

I suppose I could stick one of those on my Shopping Cartavan and at least keep track of my junk… but after Punk Rock Chick plowed her meth lab through the front of a hospital, I don’t really trust her with moving vehicles anymore.

[John_Candlebury]

I would just grab the batteries and then set it on fire, the PDA is only good as a mediocre flashlight. A broken laptop on the other hand…

[AllisonW]

[quote=“AllisonW, post:6223, topic:42”]I’m not sure but it might be able to tell you where the hell you left your bike if you install a vehicle tracking device on it.

I suppose I could stick one of those on my Shopping Cartavan and at least keep track of my junk… but after Punk Rock Chick plowed her meth lab through the front of a hospital, I don’t really trust her with moving vehicles anymore.[/quote]

My Punk Rock Girl sticks to a bike for this exact reason.

[Nickal]

Any ideas on how to open the big fenced off gas tank at gas stations?

[AllisonW]

Any ideas on how to open the big fenced off gas tank at gas stations?

I haven’t done it before, but can you smash the fence or cut it with bolt cutters?

[Jarlaxle]

How do I scroll down item descriptions? Never dared to ask before but espacially weapons with all their stats don’t show their regular description. I think that the “vv” at the top right corner indicate that I can scroll somehow?

The < and > keys scroll up and down. Can’t remember which does which though.

[KA101]

[quote=“Rookie, post:6217, topic:42”]How do I scroll down item descriptions? Never dared to ask before but espacially weapons with all their stats don’t show their regular description. I think that the “vv” at the top right corner indicate that I can scroll somehow?

The < and > keys scroll up and down. Can’t remember which does which though.[/quote]

< = up

= down

Same as stairs.

[system]

All these years ;_;
Thanks.

[Zireael]

Pretty confident that when I tested foot-pedal generation, you could just be “driving” at 0 MPH and generate power. (Prevented reading books, though.)

Quoted for truth.

Also quoting my own question:

How do I add curtains to an existing (not built by me) window? I have everything on hand but can’t select a direction, it tells me can’t build there…

[Coolthulhu]

[quote=“Zireael, post:6232, topic:42”]Also quoting my own question:

How do I add curtains to an existing (not built by me) window? I have everything on hand but can’t select a direction, it tells me can’t build there…[/quote]

It should work when the window is closed. If it doesn’t, you probably have a “strange” window and it won’t work.
I think windows with alarms won’t work. Try deconstructing and reconstructing the window.

[Namal]

Hello good people, I just had a nice game in which I have killed about 30 zombies but then out of nowhere a moose came and run me over (I have quick and fleet footed). How can I avoid or kill them ? Also, is it possible to have safe mode on with particular monsters/zombies excluded? I don’t want the game to stop with every dog, black rat, boomer etc.

[AllisonW]

Hello good people, I just had a nice game in which I have killed about 30 zombies but then out of nowhere a moose came and run me over (I have quick and fleet footed). How can I avoid or kill them ? Also, is it possible to have safe mode on with particular monsters/zombies excluded? I don’t want the game to stop with every dog, black rat, boomer etc.

If you want to outrun a moose, you’re going to need some powerful stimulants. Meth is far and away the best (for emergencies only), but Adderall is also a powerful stimulant, and in a pinch even a couple of caffeine pills might be able to do it especially if you already have Quick and Fleet-Footed.

You can also fight moose if you have the skills or tools–early on this is easiest to do with a strong ranged weapon (a moose encounter in the early game warrants shotgun use if you have one), but once your skills are developed, it’s entirely possible to fight a moose in melee. With developed characters I’ve just shrugged my shoulders and punched them to death before, as well as their zombie variant, the antlered horror.

Some recommendations for actually standing and fighting a moose, that apply to fighting in general, especially in the early game: sewing kits are your friend and reinforcing all your gear will dramatically improve your survivability; Parry is an excellent melee weapon property that can be found on things like baseball bats or even the humble pipe, and it too will protect you from quite a bit of damage; torso encumbrance is very bad mojo for melee as it will significantly increase the time it takes to make a melee attack and also drastically penalize your Melee and Dodge skills, and if they’re penalized below 0 you’ll be a sitting duck (a note: the basic Survivor’s starting winter coat is a lot of torso encumbrance!); leg encumbrance isn’t quite as bad as torso encumbrance but will still penalize your Dodge skill to a lesser degree than torso encumbrance.

Sadly, you can’t customize your Safe Mode warnings. If you know you’re in the presence of dangerous enemies (or just dogs) already and don’t want the game pausing when something new steps in, you can push shift+1 to temporarily turn Safe Mode off–if you have auto-Safe Mode on, it’ll re-enable itself after several turns with no visible enemies. Pay attention to the sidebar when you have Safe Mode off, because you don’t want to fail to notice a hulk or brute or shocker or moose or such showing up.

[dovla]

What exactly happens if you consume two serums from different families one after another. I just downed spider followed by ursine and the second didn’t give me any mutations…

[Catfoodbob]

What exactly happens if you consume two serums from different families one after another. I just downed spider followed by ursine and the second didn’t give me any mutations…

Looks like you breached… probably gonna be stook as a spider

[dovla]

Looks like you breached… probably gonna be stook as a spider

Yeah I’m getting those weird messages too. Will purifier remove it?

[Namal]

thank you for the answer, allison. How much encumbrance should I have at most? 2?

[Jakers]

How much encumbrance should I have at most? 2?

Probably 1 at the most if you’re going up against a moose. Whilst it isn’t a huge problem if you miss a single strike once you’ve reinforced all your gear as previously instructed, you still don’t want the moose to have an advantage over you. 2 is usable, but the main thing is that it will reduce your moves per attack. Moves per attack are very important when you’re up against a hard-hitting creature like the moose; if it manages to hit you in an unarmoured location, you’re going to pay for it.

Aim for 1 or below, 2 encumberance can really get in the way if you’re an early survivor, and missing / slow attacking isn’t something you want to do when 1v1’ing a moose, unless you’ve acquired some really good armor like an MBR Vest or something.

Also, lure mooses to bushes, set alight the bush and make sure the moose is standing in the flaming bush whilst fighting it. The combat advantage you will receive is incredibly large and you’ll be able to get in about 3 attacks before the moose gets in its first. Also it’ll slowly die so there’s that. If you’re using a decent weapon like a baseball bat / pipe / some other cool shit then you’ll easily take out a moose whilst fighting it in a flaming bush! The only problem is that you won’t be able to harvest the moose’s corpse afterwards, so it’s up to you if you want to set the bush alight for the slight edge or not. Even so, fighting a moose in a non-lit bush will still give you a huuuuuuuuuge advantage.

Whilst fighting a moose out in the open, however, you’ll want as little encumbrance as possible. Try to get 0 if you can, but make sure you’re still protected. If you have something like a leather jacket protecting you and giving 1 encumbrance, sure, keep it on. But if you’ve got something needlessly encumbering like a military backpack then take it off; you can just put it back on later.