What is your raiding strategy?

Game Talk The Bunker
1

I go for a hit-and-run effect at first (usually when I first get hungry.) Making an effort to not be be noticed by or outrun zombies, I explore ONE house (usually, occassionally restaurant), then run with my stolen food, drink and gear. Later, I will make longer trips into town, still raiding the edges and attempting to avoid zombies. Eventually, I will make a run deep into the town (often for the lure of a pawn shop, museum, gun shop or garage.) This will usually begin as a concerted zombie killing effort in the beginning, and degenerate into a mad dash into and then out of said target.

Sadly, I have never advanced beyond this point. My first character who reached this point was almost one-shotted by a moose, and my second died by crashing a newly made electric car, which, despite going at about 5 mph, burst instantly into flames.

2

Did this really need another thread? Should have just named the first one “raiding gear/strategies”.

3

I like to find a shopping cart of wheelbarrow ASAP, then hit enough buildings until I have enough supplies to last me a bit.

4

In the front door, with my m4a1 at the ready.
In most cases thats all i need to clear an area, if it’s not then i nip back to my car and get a grenade or a few pipe bombs.

Then its time to grab my bags and fill them.

5

Get a gun for zoose anything or a molitave cocktail is easy to make early on.

6

my tactis is to stay away from towns until i loot mainson and later i just do night raids (grabbing shopping cart of course too!)

7

I just glanced over the 0.B improvements and spent a bit more time on this board, only to find that this game has grown very, very much since the last time I really though of it @whole.
I guess I’ll be cutting no one off when I mention there’ve been a lot of similar topics earlier; besides micromanagement disputes, most of the guys/gals employ default military, or tactical approach if you wish.

Melee&Protection / Securing a Base / Recon / Obtaining Supplies / Arming Yourself / Resourcing&GearUp / Vehicle Acqusition / Recon / … and so on …

If someone chooses to do some exploration on his/her own in order to experience a slightly different CataDDA, maybe arming yourself to the teeth so the next zombie horde doesn’t matter really isn’t your dish after all. Sure, surviving long enough to actually see that katana is worth the trouble but there are alternatives, especially if you grab yourself a working car / mobile home. Diving into challenges such as Labs, Malls, Hospitals and Mines in general can be satisfying when you know you can retreat, heal and fight another day and - 4 glory.
I guess I’ve weighed; cleaning up a town only to own everything in its radius - versus an adventure in post-cataclysmic perils with hazards that hide rewards greater than your imagination. I doubt the next game I’ll play should be like the one before. :slight_smile:

8

Do not go wherever you want.
If you go wherever you want, do not go unprepared.
If you go unprepared wherever you want, do not be surprised.

…I do not abide to these rules. Trying to do as I want and kill everything that stands in the way is too damn absorbing.

9

I go where the fun is.

Today I decided to raid a 2-story hotel right after chargen.

A smart choice since RNGesus blessed me by dropping two random NPC’s around the hotel. One guy took on a horde by himself, and the other took out a hulk, shadow snakes and half a pack of wolves…

Now I’ll have all the warm clothes I want without having to resort to rag crafting garbage.

10

For me as of late, I’m bunking down in an elevator belonging to some huge refugee center on the border of a town, surrounded by vehicles, a few buses that work and so on… The raids occur mainly at night, I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on some NV Goggles, so I usually just wait until the evening, down a couple of energy drinks and set off exploring the world in darkness, zombies have a hard time spotting when they can’t see you, only problem is, the town is riddled with a bunch of tank drones, scary stuff I can’t deal with right at the moment, so I have to try and dodge those in order to survive, it’s difficult.

11

NV googles are waste of early game batteries better get nv trait at char gen and later do something what cause mutation and it will turn in high nv

12

My raiding strat is to ride into the middle of town with my mobile fortress and calmly explore nearby buildings while the laser turrets take care of any nearby zombies. :smiley:

Before that it was to run into the middle of town, make some noise, and then shoot down all approaching zombies with my bow.

Before that it was go into a house to scavenge, and use a slingshot and kiting tactics to deal with lone zombies. Often had a shopping cart to help with that.

13

Started out a mall cop. Turned the city rate on my map to 7 so it’s pretty urban. There was a school and FEMA camp nearby so I consolidated the concrete building in the camp into a base. However, I found a nearby lab with a freezing basement. I couldn’t pass up the possibility of unlimited cold storage so I modified a gas engine car to load more cargo and have been making trips back and forth between the lab and the FEMA camp. One more run to get as many vehicle parts as I can and I’ll knock down a wall and build a generator structure outside. I’ve found several APCs so all I need is more juice for my welding equipment or a vehicle welding rig to build a reinforced vehicle.

Best I can say for my starting strategy is to pick a unique fighting style. Ninjutsu and all perks that make you quiet are fabulous for night raiding. Throwing skill is easy to train and if you manage to get a decent stack of throwing knives. Throwing knives require high skill to use effectively but throwing axes do not. So if you start with axes and then master knives (knives will strike with the blunt end at low skill) you can carry more ammo (axes deal more damage, but are heavier and take up more space) Early strategy was to get a good cart. My new strategy will involve getting the tools necessary to construct a larger cart as soon as possible. My mall start was nice because the mall is loaded with consoles you can disassemble from the construction menu for electronics and construction skill for lots of plastic chunks and electronics scrap. The mall usually has 3 sets of vending machines early on for food. You can later turn all the rotting fruit juice into fermenting vinegar. Once fermented, you can batteries from the vinegar. Don’t hesitate to Unload rotten milk jugs and save the empties. It’s good to have spare large storage space and 4 gallon jugs can later be made into plastic jerrycans for hand-portable bulk liquid movement (steel jerrycan is way heavier than plastic) Look for objects made of plastic to cut up. Butchering plastic garments and objects will grant early fabrication boosts. I try to find an MP3 player as soon as possible. The constant morale bonus will accelerate your early level gain and put you at less risk of damage. Always put points into dodging. It’s hard to train without some initial training.

14

Considering this is still the early game, here’s the equipment I use:

-8 Improvised picklocks. Silent and effective; they usually won’t work but that’s why I make 8 of them. They take up no volume in one’s inventory, so these are essential for me.
-Talking Doll. Never understimate the talking doll! It’s a great distraction for zombies to mindlessly walk into! If you have a bear trap, then you can use that in harmony to the talking doll to get an easy kill.
-Makeshift Knife. The best starting weapon if I’m honest. Quick and deadly, and easily able to dispatch of a basic zombie. If you use Pentajack Silat like I do, then you can send pesky brutes reeling away and crying.
-Stone Hammer. If I run into a shocker, a stone hammer is usually the most effective and storage efficient way to take down a shocker zombie; using a knife against it will just get you zapped and killed.
-Backpack/Trenchcoat/Hoodie. I usually start with a tailoring skill of 3 or more, just so I can get this setup. Wearing this gives you the most bang-for-buck storage, warmth and protection for 1 encumberance. Sure, you can find better stuff and make survivor armour later, but I’m talking about starting setups here.
-2 Pairs of Cargo Shorts. Look. If you have a tailoring skill of 2, just do it okay.
-Wearable flashlight. Easy to wear with no encumbrance, saving inventory space. If everything goes to shit and I’m spotted, I’d at least like to know where I’m going.

As for my raiding strategy, I just raid at night and night only. Lockpick in through the door if it’s locked, take what I need, and walk out again as if nothing ever happened. Zombie in my way? Talking doll away.

I usually prioritise sporting goods stores, because they have some good stuff for your starting survivor. Gun stores are harder to get into now with their locked metal doors - good thing I bought lockpicks! Antique stores really are incredible though, they almost always have a great late game weapon such as a broadsword, rapier, morning star etc. Pawn stores can be really good, but at the same time they can be really shit. It’s always a gamble because pawn stores have alarms built into them.

To summarize, I stay quiet and out of trouble. I can clear cities with my late game badassness later; just stay safe and get what I need, and hopefully grab a combat knife. Once my character has a combat knife (or machete) I’ve ‘won’. Gallon jugs are important to, because the makeshift funnels you can make with them are an excellent source of water with all these lightning storms hitting New England recently.

Ninjitsu helps, but isn’t essential. I just tend to not attack a zombie unless I’m cornered in with it, you can easily just run away from it and make it lose vision of you again. Light Step is good but not at all essential too.

15

I don’t know if I have a strategy per se, the build I’ve been using of late tends to be able to wade through regular zombies with melee from the start. I’ve been thinning them out without any particular “strategy” since about Day 4, just keeping an eye on my health and making a hasty retreat from shockers or if wounded. Keeping clothing reinforced is a must though. I keep a Desert Eagle for when things get bad(ie: shockers, I hate shockers. I also use it on the ones that blow up.) and generally flee shortly after using it to avoid getting swamped. I try to kite, as at this point I tend to get hurt enough to run before I run out of volume.

Sometimes I’ll wait for night to hit a specific store in an area I haven’t thinned yet, in which case I just sneak in, pick a lock, and try to get out without getting swamped. Getting swamped is the fun part, ducking through houses and throwing doors shut behind me, abruptly changing direction, killing a few as they crawl through window frames, etc. This is my first character with any real length of surviving though, and I’m trying really, really hard not to get cocky and die.

He’ll likely be dead before the day is out, but at least I’ve been hauling stuff back to the shelter at a constant rate.

16

The general new start strategy.

Beat some zombies to death, get protective clothing.
Find a town, stay away from the biggest zombie clusters.
Get max volume over 60. Carts help.
Eat and drink on the spot, bring what you can’t finish.
Get tools and drugs.
Get books.
Find a safe place.

That’s pretty much it.

17

My stratigy is to prepare for the day in evac center then run into town midday like a madman…

18

If i am not that strong yet i dig several pits near town and kite the hordes right in.

19

zui quan is a really awsome fighting style for it will actually probably allow you to dodge all the turrets bullets if you have cbm: uncanny dodge

20

Mine is only go into a few buildings a time, and go at night if possible. Stay away from any of those pesky 2’s and any overpowered shocker brutes which could easily take you out of the game in one clean punch, no-matter your skills, armor, weapons or if they’re climbing through a car at the time.