So I just found
An artifact coat that makes my footsteps silent, and an artifact harp that makes me invisible. Both with incredibly benign side effects.
I think I won.
And then, as I typed this, I learned of a new bug … Dont save while wielding artifacts 
The rage is over 9000 right now.
First part of my 0.4 character’s story.
Elijah Bennett
As a kid I always had a love for science always top of my class at all science subjects especially Physics and Chemistry Biology was always my weaker science subject but even then I was far better than most no matter what school I was in, always thought science would help make a better world. I had just landed a job at a top Research and Development Lab in the Bionics Department, always was interested in using technology to enhance life it was my dream job. Only 1 week into the job we were making great progress on a prototype teleportation bionic for military uses it was a joint effort between the bionics department of the lab I was working in and a lab located in Japan that was making great progress in ‘Point to Point Matter Transfer’ better known as teleportation. Suddenly IT happened, the Cataclysm as I like to call it everything just went to hell that day turns out about a week before I started there was a leakage of some substance the genetics department known only as ‘XE037’ and it somehow got into water treatment facilities and able to avoid being removed at the facilities it ended up infecting the water supply, this stuff is apparently capable of reviving a dead body creating what is essentially a ‘Zombie’ that you see in horror films but it also has ‘post mortem mutagenic effects’ causing the ‘Zombie’ to change to become something worse than a walking corpse that wants to kill everything there was an outbreak of these zombies reported in many towns.
People were being advised to head to their nearest Evac Shelter and wait for help to arrive, me and bunch of other scientists decided to follow the advice we fled L3, my department, without issue L2 was another story, L2 was the genetic department which was undergoing its own zombie outbreak I was the only one who survived due to being faster than everyone else, I escaped L2 unharmed and L1 was pretty much an entrance there was no one there, as I exit I swipe my single-use ID card in the scanner to shut the doors behind me to block of the zombies, no way they could tear through concrete walls and metal doors. I make it to the Evac Shelter and wait around for a couple days for other survivors and help to show, nobody showed up. Help seemed like it was never going to come, faced with death by starvation or dehydration I decide to set out and gather some supplies to survive, I go out and pick a large heavy stick and use my pocket knife to carve a point into it making a rather primitive spear, not much of a weapon but it will have to do. I head out at 7 Am to the nearby town which I now call ‘Dawn’ it’s a new dawn on a new world, figure it would be kinda appropriate.
En route to Dawn I find some supplies surrounded by traps, I carefully disarm a crossbow trap, I still set it off, and that is why I didn’t go for a shotgun trap didn’t want to get my limbs blown off. The crossbow trap is dismantled and I got a useable crossbow and some steel bolts for it to fire. Although the town is directly east of the shelter I approach from the south seems like a quieter part of town, I find a bunch of crates with a warning label stating that it contains explosives, I got nothing to open the crate with and don’t want to risk smashing it and setting off the explosives I continue on into town noting the location of the crates. I fight my way to a gun store, figuring if I am going to survive I am going to need to learn how to use guns, conveniently a zombie I killed dropped a H&K MP5 but no ammo for, gun store probably has some 9mm is supposed to be a pretty common bullet type.
It’s been raining/thunderstorming/lightningstorming for the last two days. Getting a little annoyed at having to read, boil water, cook food, read, boil water, cook food… ugh.
Also, I’ve had influenza the entire time.
Why does the game hate me.
Chug those vitamins, all of it at once to prevent the flu. Also raincoats.
I died. Went out after it stopped raining, tried to raid a gun store, ended up using all of my ammo trying to take out enemies only to have an even larger horde come at me. Ran, got to a 1x1 opening, but there were too dang many of them. Also, didn’t help that a damn wolf spider bit me and lowered my strength ANOTHER 2 points, making it a whopping THREE.
Chugged a ton of cocaine to try and speed up, but the pain modifiers were counteracting it too much. Stupid cougar was on my tail as well.
Damn wildlife is a bigger threat than the zombies are.
R.I.P. Oscar Green.
At least he died in a really good mood. Thanks, cocaine.
Enter brave new world.
Look at worldmap - HOREYSHEET - shelter is RIGHT next to suburb area of huge town. Am I already dead?
Peek outside, see few residential houses immediately… No zombies. PHEW.
Make nailboard. Go look around.
First day I strip-scavenge 8 houses - NO ZOMBIES SEEN. Holy hells.
Day 1 turns to dusk. I have shelter full of water, food, all kinds of clothes including full rain/hazard set, many tools, few books.
Day 2 dawns. Spiders have been spotted near shelter. Sneak in, burn their huge nets… Just to realize Im getting really hot. ARGH. Pain full, superhot. Well, the spideys are mostly gone, I limp to shelter to patch myself up. Nothing major, just lots of pain … and no pain medicines. Wait it out, no trouble from water or food now, can afford to throw time away. In evening sneak to raid some more houses… Find a gun, find heroin and TADAA JACKPOT find 60 doses of marijuana from one basement… And still no zombies seen! - End the day by reading books by campfire.
Day 3 dawns - Craft a bow and arrows. Go deeper into town, stop heaving most stuff back to base and concentrate on finding medicines and booze. Finally find some codeine and tramadol. Also run into house infested with black widows… yuck. Get bitten, first real risk situation so far. Limp back to base to patch up … then go back and BURN THAT HOUSE DOWN. (quick peek to make sure I wont destroy anything meaningful in the process). Great success! While dancing around the bonfire see first zombies - horde is here! Alert! … O wait. Its one zombie. I have raided halfway to town and this is first Zed i see and its alone. I dispatch it with my bow and … Oh. It carried Mossberg shotgun. Not bad. Toss in few caffeine pills to shove off the tiredness - I will celebrate this awesome peaceful start now and it requires some more effort.
Day 3 ends in reading about computers by the campfire, then making big hot fruit pie, sip some coffee & root beer with it, listen to mp3-player and smoke ALOT OF marijuana. This does not feel like apocalypse. This is funocalypse!
So, I caught the flu, and decided to stay in my shelter until it gets better. I was running out of things to do, when I remembered that I still hadn’t chopped up the logs from the tree I fell early on.
So I start doing that, and I notice a wolf spider nearby. To be on the safe side, I decide to go and kill it before it jumps on me mid-crafting.
Remember I had the flu, so I had to get real close because my strength was too low (6) to wield my bow properly.
But as it happens, I got too close too fast, and the spider was now right next to me, and I was poisoned.
Oops, well I think it’s no biggie, I’ll just kill it… except now my strength is at 4. I can’t even use my bow, and the spider seems to have the upper hand in melee combat -I haven’t trained that and I have the flu+poison+pain debuffs.
So I start running back to my shelter, thinking that maybe I can get back enough strength with dayquil. I make it, but I only get to 5 strength even with dayquil, and I can only fire on my own tile. I start to panic, run around trying to trap the spider outside, but obviously it doesn’t work. Then I remember that I have a bunch of unused guns on a counter somewhere, so I run for that, and just as I get there, I remember :
Oh yea I have a finger-mounted laser and 10 power.
Fzzt! Headshot ! You hit the wolf spider for 50 damage. It dies !
And that’s how I just survived my own stupidity.
Well. Crater with a ton of dead soldiers. Grabbed army pants and utility vest, then took off for the town. Karate’d some wasps to death, walked into the house they were living in, and stumbled upon a power armor helmet.
Huh. Pretty rich civilians, huh.
Yeah, Wasp’d houses seem to have better/more science-y gear than ordinary houses. I put it down to mad-scientist or some military experiment gone wrong.
Re crater: So far as I can tell the important difference is that a Crash Site is cyan # like this and a Mini-Crater is grey # like this.
(It’s important to know the difference: mini-craters are guaranteed radioactive, so far as I know. Crash Sites aren’t.)
The preilous adventure of Bo Burdam, my second character, started out quite in a surprise as wolves raided the shelter so bad that almost immediately it was rendered obsolete for, y’know, sheltering. Regardless, I took a dog quest from the NPC and headed outwards to town with no intention of saving said dog. Right away my route lead me to some military corpses, loaded with bags, food, and ID cards! Had to smash a window to get into a house, but no zombies seemed to be all too interested in it. I was beginning to think I was safe for then…
Heading over to the pharmacy, I came across my first SOMBEH and with it came a horde as I fiercely scavenged for absolute gold mines of food and medical supplies. The zombies were so aggressive that I couldn’t even force them through one square, requiring me to consantly move back. However, I took next to no damage from it and was beginning to feel much better. Deeper into town Bo went towards a sports goods store. Once again I would up unsettling the horde, much more than last time, and found next to nothing useful within the store itself. It took quite a few hits on me to actually break out of the department store, and then the kid zombies came… I was much faster than them, but my attention lead me astray and I wound up running/attacking full force into a zombie that my torso wound up badly damaged. Time to get the hell out.
I fled back to the shelter, not remembering how badly the wolves had absolutely wrecked it. Fortunately, the NPC was still alive and stomped my pursuers like he did those wolves (and was actually still fighting the wolves when I came back, time stops in non-occupied regions I suppose). Now there’s little point in staying around with a zombie ifested town and a decimated bunker, so my journey takes me West. Along the way, there’s some bear traps surrounding and interesting corpse. Bo, being a perception freak, works his way past them and comes across a mutagen and cleanser. I drink the mutagen and gain upgrades to two previous perks: Increased speed but also increased nausea. Since it’s impossible to tell how bad a defect is until you play with it, I didn’t take the risk and drank the clenase… Which cleansed the nausea but didn’t remove the speed! Awesome! Now I think I can even outrun wolves!
Checking the map for possible leads, I see to the North a sewage plant and a Parking Lot. Along the road though is a dangerously close pack of fungal zombies, and of course they see me. They’re really not a threat so long as I can run, even if more of them are way beyond the group. Coming up to the sewage plant there doesn’t appear to be any leakage, but I look ahead to make sure. Low and behold, what do I find? A 100% functioning car in the parking lot. That’s amazing for just two playthroughs, no?
With reckless abandon I jump into the vehicle and find I can drive it. I do a bit forward before turning and discovering how hilarious ASCII graphics are at rotating! Then is my vendetta time. Those fungaloids were gonna pay! I drove straight over the shroomy bastards, though quickly decided that I’d be better not wrecking my car through bushes. Going backwards though was a bit more than it would appear… Since I wasn’t stopping forward, I decided to turn around and hope to get back on the road.
I don’t know if I just didn’t recognize what I was doing or was jsut too enthralled by it… But my car went headfirst into the sewage treatment plant. Straight through the wall and half buried inside, I found myself unable to move as my chat log blew up with stuff. I tried every which direction, bashing, un-using, but none of it seemed to actually move the character even though it said I lost control of the vehicle. I was actually able to back the car up one square before it just stopped entirely. To my left was dangerous toxic waste, in back were fungal zombies chewing through the car. I awaited them, but once they came, I couldn’t even fight back because I was “bound” to the car I guess. Thus ended the intrepidous and lucky life of Bo Burdam, but it was such a fantastic 30 minutes or so!
And so begins the adventures of Jonathan Grimm! A younger guy that doesn’t have any useful skills seeing as he never paid attention in school or had many hobbies, but who is a bright person nonetheless, and also is somewhat athletic.
The cataclysm hit when he was on his way to his first day of working as a mechanic, so he still had his mechanical supplies.
Day 1:
After emerging from the shelter for the first time in what must’ve been weeks, the bright sunlight hurt my eyes. I had run out of food, and despite the monitor inside reminding me to stay inside for fear of nuclear fallout, I had to venture out. Perhaps I’d find survivors?
After following the road to the nearest town, I reached the outskirts when I saw what appeared to be a person coming towards me. It wasn’t until I realised that it was missing its lower jaw and screaming like a bat outta hell that it wasn’t a human anymore. Seeing as there were supplies I needed in the town, and that it was hardly alive to begin with, I pulled out my wrench and got into a fight with it.
It got off a few good hits on my left arm and leg, but I was otherwise fine. The undead had a bottle of aspirin on it, and I, at that time, just noticed that there were bear traps all over the road, with what appeared to be a druggie’s stash in the center. Well, no cops to tell me what I can’t smoke now.
As I tried to delve deeper into the city, I was quickly evicted from it by the previous residents of the town, all before I could even reach the first house. It seems these undead folk are pretty territorial.
Running away wasn’t easy, some dogs with half their flesh falling off nibbled at my heels until I beat one with a wrench and the other ran all-too-enthusiastically over a bear trap, but luckily all the other undead freaks chasing after me weren’t exactly track runners, and I was able to leave them in the dust.
One of the zombies followed me a disturbing distance away from town, and after getting into a tussle with it (and finding a flashlight and some antibiotics on it, to boot) I kept on runnin’, hoping to find someplace to stay that has food and water. A bunker I crossed would’ve been the ideal candidate if not for being locked up tight.
I didn’t get too far from the base when I was set upon by a pack of wild wolves. It seems that everything in this friggin’ world wants me dead at the moment.
After running from the wolves I blindly ran right into a bunch of mosquitos the size of my head. Bugs like those are annoying when they’re normal sized, and these were much bigger than normal.
After flailing about with my wrench for a few minutes, I was eventually stung to death when one of the buggers pierced me in the heart with their oversized stingers. Got 4 of the sons of guns, though.
Started: 7AM. Died: 9AM. That went well.
A bit off topic: If I were to make a fanfic of this game (out of boredom), that wasn’t a character I made and RP’d with and was just purely literary instead, where would I put it? I’m thinking of perhaps writing one. (A bit more seriously than this, anyway, seeing as this was quite full of fail)
After a great couple of military surplus stores and a basement, I have a fully stocked fridge (20+ canned food, 10+ MRE, 10+ clean water, various other food/drink), a nice sized library, and plenty of crafting supplies while hunting on the way there and back. My home is at the end of a street next to a hospital, yet to be fully cleared or searched (but provides great butchery practice). Past the end of the street there are landmines that I cannot see (a lesson that cost a few tramadol, first aid, and hard arm guards), and to the south there is a well trapped area that I can see, which has so far saved me from a couple of brutes.
I’ve just found binoculars as well, it is now time to explore! But not after reading up on mechanics and survival skills… then I’ll pack up some rations and head out with my trusty javelins, teleporter, and nail gun.
Considering building a deathmobile, but kinda cba, since I have a more-than-adequately destructive spikemobile with two V6 engines and 4 wide wheels…
Maybe I’ll focus on CBMing and lab raiding instead.
Had quite an adventure recently, and did probably my best character ever.
Started normally, ran out of the Evac shelter into the nearest city. Right near the road in, there was a gun shop. After attracting a sizable horde of zombies (classic ones only, because I’m a wuss), went into the shop, grabbed a Mossberg, and started blowing heads off left and right.
I had tons of 00-Shot, and cleaned out half the town just looking for bandages. Found a gas station, and brought some “Friends” in. Looted the place while they broke in, then spattered the inside with moar blood and guts. I quickly found out that ammo flies as you’re rampaging, and had run out of ammo.
When I ran back to the gun store, I found out I had taken all the shotgun ammo, so I was forced to abandon my faithful friend in favor of a marlin. Grabbed that, all the ammo for it, and an SKS for a spare, and looted the rest of the city.
I looted EVERYTHING that was useful, and I’m pretty sure I only left 25-50 zombies alive. I ran out of town in search of food and drink around 5:00 PM, and an hour later I found a mansion. Found absolutely nothing. This… this is where everything goes downhill. I came across ANOTHER horde, and I was in bad shape, so I ran and ran and ran. And then I found a bear. Guess who won?
Me. And then a wolf found me and murdered me. I HATE wolves. Hate 'em.
And that’s my wall of text. 
Also, I got a debug message that said “Stopping out of map vehicle”. Wat.
Well i think i’ll start to cataloge my more prosperous characters in this location,
I tend to be the most hard core charge into the fray and pull the guts of the zombies out type of guy, and normaly manage it out pretty well, so i feel like sharing the character i spent 3 hours today fighting against the zombies, in which this man was my 10th most incredible soldier yet, i slew nearly 600 zombies though up close and personal tactics only, the drunk insain fighter, as for my greatest character, he has yet to fall, and has seen the purification of nearly 50 towns, and has challenged military bases and survivor outpost locations, cleared 5 fungaloid spires and has killed over 3000 zombies alone, he is on the 2.0 patch and i use a separate file for him to maintain him
[He is what i play when i lose a really great character and want to just experience the game without caution]
i call him The Wanderer, and he is on day 731, but the part i love the most is, he is a unarmed fighter without a style XD and has never used a weapon, >:3 .
now then, for todays hero, Zululululu.
Zululu started out very rough, after wrestling with a zombie hulk that smashed through the doors, zululu teamed up with garcia rio to take out a pack of 7 wolves and finaly, after being heavily maimed, went on to bash garcia’s head in with a 2x4 after she shot him with her shotgun. Zululu searched her body to find she had 2 cbm modifications on her, a nerve dulling unit and a torso alloy armor cbm, after picking a poppy flower to rest his pain off, he smoked a cigar and took his knife and proceeded to slice into his neck to install his nerve dulling unit, afterwards he removed a good portion of the flesh on his torso and bonded himself into the alloy armor unit, both of which went off without a hitch.
[Time: 11:35]
(((Now proceeding to Zululu active log)))
[Time: 2:25]
Tsk, i feel so terrible… (mood swing -175) but… but… i guess i will head out west to see what i can find across this highway…
[Time: 2:45]
Oh… great, there seems to be a sewage dump ahead… i think ill go arou- is that a bear? no problem… wait… is that a zombie hulk… erm well its not impos- is that a dog… SEWAGE DUMP IT IS!
(((Now proceeding to WhiteSamurai meta log)))
After running into the toxic dump, zulu engages the zombie hulk with a 2x4, both of his arms are broken and looses two teeth but is able to bring the beast down, however, Zululu has absorbed to much of the toxic sludge and has sprouted horns, rough skin, incredible intelligence, and chinton armor, there were two other traits that Zulu would gain, after he emerged from the cespool, he notices that he is emitting a slight radiation.
[Time: 4:50]
Zululu is extremelly weakended from the heavy radiation, and as he limped back to his fall-out shelter, he glances to his right hand, and notices that the flesh is slowly melting away, he realizes with terror that he is disintegrating. Realizing that his time is limited and that he is a very speedy healer, so as he travels he picks and inhails the fregrance of the mutated poppies as he travels, and negates the affects of his condition, and finds that his body’s production of radiation usefull as he begins to find his disintegration condition being contained by a new development from within as his body begins to convert the radioactice waves into flesh and begins to realize that he may have reached an equalibrium between his very precarious situation and proceeds to a location on the map that shows a survivors settlement, however once he reaches the settlement, it becomes obvious that those who once lived there have long since turned, and encounters an entire platoon of zombie soldiers. Zululu buckles down at the chain gate enterence of the facility and begins to bash the soldiers one by one, soon 5 zombie soldiers lay at his feet, then 10, and by the time Zululu has finished, 23 zombie soldiers have fallen infront of him. Zululu takes his time to study all the materials around him and choses a lazer rifle, two millitary rucksacks, and 50 fusion cells for his new-found weapon. suddenly, a zombie scientist comes from behind and bites deep into Zululu’s neck, to which he is sent flying into a daze and thrown into a tree, and with a bonk from Zululu’s old 2x4, the zombie scientist’s head provides a nice red color to a nearby tree.
Zululul, now with his regeneration, desintergration, heavy radiation, and radiogenesis, has found he has almost no energy left within him, as his very survival is based off the destruction of his cells, and the irradiation of his body burning away at his very being, only to be reformed again from the very internal fire of his radiation and his cells ability to rebuild themselves faster then they melt away, Zululu has lost all sense of existance as he has lost the ability to sense pain (100 pain .-. ) and has begun to struggle with the souls of his dead family (guess who got skitzo?). In his madness, Zululu took to his machete and his Lazer rifle to the nearest town, and spent 4 hours killing nearly 150 zombies, including a Hulk and several zombie masters.
The next few days surrounded Zululu writhing in pain and madness in a Science lab after he blew the door in with a C4 explosive.
on his fourth day, he finally came to some far stretch of sainity (guess whose skitzo is gone?) and proceeds down below and begins to search around. to his amazement, he finds himself inside a massive cloning room filled with over two dozon limbs of different origins and types, and he is ENTRALLED ( >:3 GUESS WHOSE A GENETICALLY RICH CANABLE?) Zululu spends the next day Feasting and developing such a wide varriety of different abilities and traits, to which his cells have stopped desintergrating and his flesh has stopped emitting radiation, but has grown a tail and a the most exotic variety of different traits and disabilities.
Zululu then stumbles into a room filled with over a dozon CBM’s, and after taking a rest for a day to finally recover his long lost stability, and has leveled out his pains and suffering. Zululu then uses his electro hack to break into the CBM holding stations and piles them into the center of the room and sits down to smoke a series of different drugs and stimulants and spends the next 10 minutes to successfully install 23 modifications, of which only 3 failed, and only caused pain and did not interfier with his other installations.
Zululu unfortunatly decided to face his demons once again (DANG IT ALL SKITZO) and went above ground, and decided that it would be fun to charge with his sledgehammer straight in Banzai style into a military compound. Zululu charged valiently into the fray, and quickly dispatched two zombie soldiers and 4 turrents, finding himself very weak and vonerable, he deploys his tent and takes a rest after deploying his own turrents around his possition.
Suddenly in the middle of the night, he is awoken by a sharp pain coming from both of his legs, he awakens to find two bears, a hulk, and 5 zombie soldiers surrounding him (WTF game…). Zululu grabs his lazer riffle and shoots the hulk 8 times but doesnt fall, but niether does Zululu as he grabes his machete and proceeds to take the head from the zombie hulk and one of the bears. Crunch one of the bears has broken Zululu’s left leg but is quickly dispatched by Zululu’s cold blade. Now Zululu begins a small tactical retreat and strike skirmish with the zombie soldiers, one, three down, now 4, and finally 5. A sigh of relief comes from the core of Zululu’s being, and snacks on his last mutated arm from his trip down below, and develops a set of talons. Zululu knows that he is gravely injured however, he is suffering from an infected bite wound and is bleeding all over, not to mention both of his arms and one of his legs are broken, Zululu bandages up his wounds and drinks himself to sleep.
[Day: 9 _ Time: 8:35AM] Zululu awakes still very wounded, and coughing as he had caught the cold, he packs his base up and moves on. But luck has never been on his side, after fighting off a pack of 12 wolves, Zululu finds himself in the middle of no where as a Acid Rain fall proceeds to melt his clothes off of his body and burns his flesh away. after nearly an hour of constand first aid and bandages and regeneration and pain suppression, the Acid rain finally stops, and Zululu is out of medical supplies and is very low on health. ** puf puf puf puf puf puf puf* Zululu had just traveled into a Fungle spires domain, and was in no shape or supply to challenge its reign over the region, but Zululu skoffed and stated “ALL RIGHT YOU DEMON COME AT ME, IM HERE, PREPARE TO TASTE MY BLADE” and charges straight at the spire before its spores took root and cuts his way into the spire and takes it out from within. Although he feels different and strange, Zululu cast the thought aside as symptoms from his cold and went on after he cleared the area of spores.
(Do not ask me how i managed, i was trying to kill him off by this point XD)
After an hour, Zululu begins to feel a pain within his chest, he begins to wrench and roar with pain as he spews forth a near unending source of spores from his being, from every source, from his skin and his blood and his being.
(I kid not, he just kept throwing up more and more and more spores =.= and do note that i had like 30 health on my head and torso, my limbs were all broken)
Zululu proceeded to cut down Fungaloids left and right as he spewed forth new numbers, two for each he would cut down, an endless fight, he throws 3 C4 units and 2 granades into the hordes of Fungaloids, but they continued to come. Soon, Zululu came to realize that he could never hope to suceed in his defence against the hord and somberly reaches into his backpack, and pulls out his final stand weapon. He pulls out a mini nuke, and primes the detonator, then places it back into his bag, takes a smoke from a cigar and drank a half of his bottle of Wiskey.
Beep Beep Beep Sigh, looks like i lost this one Booop
-Fin
I didn’t even know there WERE mini-nukes…
Hm.
Well, I’ve been playing for a while on this character, and I managed to find the corpse of one of my previous guys, Freddie Griffin. He had a power armor helmet on him, but I didn’t have much space in my inventory and I also had no Power Armor itself, so the helm would be rather useless. Finally managed to get to a point where I can safely say that my character is self-sufficient (600 batteries, a hotplate, decent ability to butcher corpses), but eventually I’m going to have to restock on stuff… hopefully at that point I’m an overpowered super-soldier and a few zombie hulks is no problem… but I doubt it. I really wish the damn Cougar spawn rate was lower, or at least there was some variety of predators besides just Cougars and Wolves. They’re both horrible, and yet I manage to melee them to death with a makeshift machete.
Also, does anyone know if there is a second book to raise your Tailoring skill? Mine is at 3 already from “Sew What” and I really want to be able to make more epic clothing.
Afraid not. Fur Coat/metal guantlets is available at 4 and Leather Jacket at 5. Reinforcing your clothes and making extra gear may help.
Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the princ- ARGH!
Oh boy! My first unusually longterm character.
He’d made it into mid-summer without any debilitating mutations and he’d always manage to scrounge together food and water in a pinch. At the worst of times he was hunting squirrel (and the occasional zombie) with .22 CB. Guy’s a firearms nut who learns what he needs when he needs it. His integrated toolset has always served him well but it seems to come with integrated bad luck as well. There’d never be enough ammo, never enough to drink, never enough to eat. Well, until he figured out that turrets hold plenty of 9mm. Labs enough to drink, animals enough to eat. Used to take the turrets out with .44 Magnum while supplies lasted. Almost ol’ Ed in a few times. Those military outposts, man.
So, the day came when Ed wanted to find himself a vehicle. He’d been tinkering with the idea a few towns back, trying to weld some stuff together as he’d never had the luck to find a workable heap. Well well. Strong enough engine acquired, small frame and two wheels. Plenty of tanks to work with. Missing seat and controls. “Dang.” Oh, how he wanted to travel in luxury instead of having to slog through muck and mire on foot. Lots of target practice but the dreary forests and disgusting creatures get to you, you know. He was simply sticking around too long and food and ammo started running low. Had to move on. You know how it is.
The thought of riding along down the highway never left the back of his mind. Gunstore after gunstore, farmhouse after farmhouse. But nope, no luck for ol’ Ed. He once ran into a golf cart at a parking lot though. Figured he’d strap some solar panels on it and… no, the engine was busted all to hell. Of course. Goddamn apocalypse was starting to taunt him! Heaven or hell, he’d have to walk there. No free rides. Ah, but then, one late morning…
“A town like any other at the horizon. Wait, no, that looks more like… hey, yeah! It’s a dang city!” And that it was. Ol’ Ed was toting a suppressed Glock 19 with an extended magazine in his holster. A rucksack with around 200 rounds in his rucksack. This was gonna be good, he thought. He scavenged for about three full days, creeping through every important building, picking at anything of value. The usual. And then, at the outskirts of what looked to had been trailer-trash heaven, he found a motorcycle. In a musty garage, he found a workable motorcycle! The front wheel was trashed and the engine had seen better days but he could damn well get it running. He’d seen a suitable wheel when entering the city so he set off to get it with all the haste his currently sober body could muster. A nip from the good bottle always seemed to help with the heavy burden on his back but Ed would still call it relative sobriety until he got into the heavy stuff.
New tire lugged on tight, ol’ Ed had finally done it. He got on and checked the tank. He’d be running on fumes but he knew where to find a drink for his new friend. The place was even close by. “Here we go.” Ignition.
“Well God DAMN if you ain’t loud! Holy shit, the muffler ain’t on right!” A late realization that could easily cost him his life, no matter how much ammo he had on him. He’d been in this situation before, only now he’d set off an entire city of zeds. He decided to gun it, get to the gas station and then book it out of the city, never to return. What sights he beheld as he roared out the garage. All kinds of menacing shapes coming for him from all angles. Regulars, shockers, boomers, spitters, maybe even a master… ALL kinds! Tons! TONS! This’d be a close shave, he thought as he left the barely warmed up seat at the station. Place was already swarming with zombies. Three shockers heading for him. He’d have to fight them off.
What a fight, what a rush! Just enough bumps of the white powder to feed the Glock with haste and he’d gotten it on. One magazine down. Two, three, four! “Damn it, shit! Get away from the bike!” Without him noticing, he’d slowly been moving away from it. Towards the forest. Toward safety. But no, he wanted that bike. He wanted the luxury. Apparently, more than his own life. Charging into and between the plethora of monsters, pain, he saw them climb it, bump it, hit it, scrape it. The cause was lost. If he got to it he’d never accelerate quick enough to leave in time. They’d tear him to shreds. One more empty magazine. Reload. Another empty. No time to reload, he had to start beating them back. Barely enough time to reload. Empty again! No way in, no way out. “I need to… I gotta…” Things had never been this bad before. He beat them, they beat him. Weaving, dodging, shooting…
I found a fungal bloom not too far from my base, and I noticed how far away the fungaloids were spreading from the map tile, so I decided to check out the nearby parking lot and found a car. I hauled ass through the area as to avoid conflict and holy shit, I’ve never seen this kind of concentration of enemies before. I ended up crashing the car at the edge of the danger zone so I left the area unscathed, thankfully. It was a huge experience for me, but sadly my guy died from a skeleton hitting him in the torso after an epic conflict with two smoker zeds and a few normal ones.
Well I’m currently on day 7 I’m in a LMOE that is now my base/home. I have some bionics installed and aparrently I have hooves… I have no Idea how I got them unless it happened when I went through sewage or when I drank un-purified water. Food situation is good and water is great. I have about a page full of clean water in one of the crates.