Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

See also…shocker brutes, scientist zombies, technician zombies, zombie bio-operators, the fancier electronics stores…

Power Substations. Zombie technicians can pull your weapon out of your hand but they’re less of a threat than shockers.
Once survival hits 3 you can start butchering shockers, technicians and a few other enemies for CBMs-- Bio-Operators are pretty rare and they’re pretty dangerous, but not unbeatable. Shocker Brutes too I think.
I think there were some more, but I’ve forgotten. Z-9? The robot dogs? Scientist zombies? Can’t remember.

As to reliability, you can usually find a very nice selection of CBMs to get you started in the new style electronics shops-- they’re a godsend for bionic-focused players like you and me. Mines, once you hack the elevator or the manhole cover might have some on the equipment rack as you enter-- and very rarely in sewage treatment plants.

The best and rarest CBMs I’ve found tend to be in military bunkers and bank vaults-- it’s usually well worth your time to grab an acetylene torch and break in to the vaults, although I’d be careful with the bunkers unless you can deal with the turrets and not eat a facefull of lead.

If I am not mistaken labs are a great place for CBMS too. Don’t be afraid to check ALL the crates. Bring your crowbars.

Ah yes, the crates in labs can carry some too. Worthwhile bringing an acetylene torch too unless you have computer skill at 5+ or above-- labs tend to have prisons and barracks around the periphery on some levels-- The barracks sometimes has an armory with a lot of decent loot in. Can’t remember if it stocks CBMs though–

Also I think there’s a CBM/tech finale for the lab too right? Not just Mininukes or Diamond forge. Protip, if the fighting in the finale has damaged the mininukes, stock up on iodine.

Edit: Forum Tags, Forum Tags Everywhere.

Epic spoiler is epic. o3o

Why are NPCs and wandering hordes shown on the map, even when they are too far away for my character to realistically know? Is this just because I’m playing an experimental version?

I assume it’s more for the player’s benefit than any realism factor. Because you want to get ninja’d by a random NPC? D:

Yeah, I would prefer it to telepathically knowing where all NPC’s and wandering hordes are. Wandering hordes less so as it may be due to the fact that there aren’t any actual hordes, only moving spawn points.

For NPC’s though, I wouldn’t mind being surprised by one, I mean, why not? It also seems to fit more with the rest of the game if there aren’t any magic markers on the map.

About the safes in the banks, is there any way to break them without using a stethoscope?

Ram them with a vehicle, collapse the ceiling on them, hit it with a sledgehammer a lot of times, get a hulk to smash it apart.

This NPC talk reminds me.

Is the 2 way radio actually useful? I’m not sure what the various options it gives you do.

Ram them with a vehicle, collapse the ceiling on them, hit it with a sledgehammer a lot of times, get a hulk to smash it apart.[/quote]

All of those can work (I wonder if you can jackhammer them?), but it will destroy any breakables inside… but then, I think the only thing that drops in them that is “breakable” is mutagen and purified, which are much more available elsewhere.

Critters first:

-I find zombie scientists to be the easiest and a good place to start. They actually drop some really awesome ones VERY rarely, but they butcher several useful ones reliably.

-Broken cyborgs butcher to power CBM. REALLY easy.

-Technicians butcher to some useful things and are pretty easy.

-Biooperators and shocker brutes butcher to REALLY nice stuff.

-Shockers butcher to some decent starter stuff.

-Survivor zombies drop some occasionally, but I haven’t had one butcher a CBM in a long time, if ever.

-Survivors sometimes butcher to some - usually power, sometimes power Mk II, I think I’ve gotten a few other things, very rarely.

-Soldiers very rarely drop some pretty good ones, but I’ve never seen one butcher to a CBM.

Now places:

-Science labs - the “utility” style rooms sometimes have some VERY nice ones just lying around (in the crates or on the racks). The CBM storage rooms are a great place for the basics. And, of course, there are lots of scientists, some broken cyborgs, and the occasional biooperator. I’ve even seen a few in the barracks armory before. Also, there are some books that give you the recipe for several useful CBMs, at least one of two of which ONLY spawn here. In experimental, you better BLOODY WELL HURRY if you want the special stuff at the bottom, as the secubots blow themselves up on the dissectors and destroy it all if the loot isn’t sealed up.

-Electronics stores - pretty rare in the normal shop, fairly common to get a few one of the rare configurations, sealed in glass or locked in the display case.

-military crash sites - sometimes, these are AWESOME. Seriously, when you get a CBM-themed one, it can be just WOW.

-Ant hill - fusion blaster arms (no idea why) and metabolic CBM. Maybe one more… I forget.

-military bunker - one of the storage room choices is a CBM stash. Rare, but VERY nice.

-Sewage plant - odd, but I’ve occasionally seen some really good stuff here. I also found the elf mutagen book here once, oddly eough.

-mines - racks near the top, the corpses you find lying around.

-military outpost - I don’t recall finding any here just lying around, but this is decent source of bio-operators (seen as many as 5 at one outpost).

-Libraries, bookstores, mansions, and schools (for the library) - not that there are any CBMs here, but you can get books with recipes to MAKE several CBMs, including a few that are fairly rare to find otherwise (aero-evaporator, for instance).

I think that about covers it. Did I miss anything?

I need a reminder about vehicle enclosing.

My tank came with boards on the sides and rear of the command seat/main gun “turret” (not actually a turret). But quarterpanels at the front.

One of those quarterpanels has an actual turret chassis installed on it with a .50 BMG machine gun.

For the seat to count as enclosed, what do I need to do? Do I need to put windscreens in? Can I even do that onto the turret chassis?

Also, how the HELL is the safe speed 54mph and the top speed over 500mph when I had to remove the nuclear reactors from the tank? It’s running on three enhanced electric motors only and it can still act like an M1 Abrams with 100x the normal jet engines installed?!

dg123 - tank threads decrease your safe speed dramaticaly

The divide between safe speed and top speed is gloriously, stupidly insane. ._.

And…the seat SHOULD be enclosed if it has a roof, and all spaces around it are either boards/quarterpanels OR interior spaces that also have roofs.

Now I’m wondering what this is referencing. I don’t recall Megaman ever fighting antbots o3o

You misunderstand. I’m not complaining that I can’t GO FAST.

54mph is already too fast to move around in town.

I’m just wondering how three electric engines can make it go that fast, and what the heck the point of the nuclear minireactors was.

nuclear reactors is to solve the power problems of using 3 overcharged elertic motors…

Ah, they drain power a lot faster than normal?

Time to start installing petrol engines I suppose. I have absolutely no idea how to get hold of microreactors or fuel.

Mostly that they drain a crapton of power in general. I could’ve sworn last time I tested an atomic mini-tank, it had 100+ MPH safe speed.

Unless my beefing up the main gun’s weight was enough to make the weight take a nose-dive? Or…hmm. Have there been any nerfs to multiple electric engines?

I remember adding the diesel engines to the other vehicles and accounting for the fact that they have less power combined than they would by themselves, but when I did this to the electric engines, their collective power was equal to the raw sum of their individual outputs.

I assumed the halfed safe speed was because I removed the reactors.

By default the tank has three enhanced electric engines and I think two mini reactors.

Or do those not directly count as engines and merely generate power?

Also, holy CRAP at how much damage that 120mm tank cannon does. Can anything survive a shot from that?