Calling the Mall home

[@PredSmurf21]

Okay so I have read a few other discussions about THE MALL. Most people recommend to stay away from it, but myself and others have seen movies such as Dawn of the Dead and it would be so bad @$$ to hold off a base that large. I want some questions answered that haven't been asked to help myself and others with the mega goal. 1. Is it possible to capture it solo? 2. Can you actually kill every zombie in the mall? 3. Can you claim the mall as a safe house? 4. Are the bared metal windows unbreakable? 5. If you leave the mall, will zombies respawn? 6. What is the best strategy/plan to conquer the mall (solo and/or with a team) 7. Anything else that would help players with their conquest, tips, advice, anything. Thank you!

[J's]

1. It is, but the difficulty will depend on settings (survival or easier). I recommend knives and a lot of patience.
   
2. Probably not, they move around... but you can clear it mostly.
   
3. No info on that, my closest base was the cinema next door and I just looted the mall.
   
4. I assume you refer to zombies : no.
   
5. I don't know, see #3.
   
6. Never rush anywhere, always sneak. Use knives to silently and quickly dispatch zombies. Start by cleaning small sections where you can backtrack to manouver zombies to avoid being over run should you attract some attention. Do not use guns, under any circumstances. Did I say be patient (and methodical)?
   
7. See #6, but yeah, clear a section of corridor and 1-2 stores of zombies before venturing even further. Get chirurgical (slow and steady).

[MarkJerue]

1. Yes, but it requires finesse and technique. It also depends on how much speed you want & how much of the mall you want to preserve.
- you can technically "clear" the mall by setting it on fire or sledgehammering its edges & pulling the zombies out with a loud car. But the mall won't be much use if it's burned down and/or has holes in it everywhere. Securing the second floor is much easier than securing both floors, as you can sledgehammer the staircases & trick zombies into falling down to the first floor.
- you can try to secure the second floor in the "Opening Hours" challenge by rushing toward the tool shop, only picking up a sledgehammer, then demo'ing the stairs, starting with the maintenance stairs in the southwest corner.
2. Yes, provided you're serious about barricading so wander spawns don't get in. Changing the settings so zombies don't damage the environment without provocation is essential.
3. No clue
4. They are unbreakable so long as you aren't in the Opening Hours challenge - in that challenge, at 9 AM, the windows change to normal ones IIRC
5. No, they won't
6. Solo: sound traps are your friend. You'll want to prepare for the mall not with guns or weapons, but with speed & alarm clocks. You'll also want to bring a sledgehammer & sheet ropes/nails. In my experience, one of the best techniques is to run into every single mall store (to trigger the spawning of zombies - due to game/CPU limiters, zombies only spawn in stores once you enter them, so be careful of that! Empty stores AREN'T actually empty, merely waiting to spawn!), run out immediately once zombies spawn, and get them all to spawn in an area.

Then, once they're all spawned in an area, try to get a herd following you. Run out of the mall & deal with stragglers. Then sneak back towards the entrance & throw an alarm clock or two - if you've secured the second floor, you can throw from the 2nd floor down to the 1st. Any zombies you got to spawn on the 2nd floor will also jump down to the 1st floor if possible to go after the alarm clock.

Chuck another one a few yards outside the mall's front doors. Zombies will go after it.

In multiplayer, you can do similar with radios, but you can't throw those. Set up a radio to any random station (say, 133.7, or 123.4, or some such). Set it to max volume. Run off. Then set up a two-way radio far away from that radio, tune it into the random station, & shout into it. Zombies will go after it.

The key is that zombie spawning uniqueness in the mall. Since they don't spawn until you enter the room/hallway/store, you can't pull them all out at once. And to be fair, some CPUs would crash trying to make 3000 zombies chase a gunshot all at once, and almost all would lag. But this is also beneficial; if you're avoiding certain stores entirely, you won't spawn them all.

7. Take a look at Xonic's Mega Mall if you want extra-hard mall challenge. It also works with AIZ Enhanced 2.

[Tempest]

*The large mall has spawn points inside it , so you probably cant actually clear and keep clear the entire mall no matter how good you are at barricading. There was this one spot in particular, that not only had a zom spawn point, but seemed to be bugged where as it would spawn 20+ zoms at a time. No matter how many times i cleared this area out ,they would always respawn in a day or so.

To make it worse , the area was visually separated in a strange way that though you could see the area clearly ,you could not see the zoms that were there til you entered /crossed a certain "line" at the entrance to said area.

It was on the second floor, by an internal (inside a store) staircase that lead down to the first level ,if i remember correctly.

All that said , if you remove the floors in certain areas of the second floor (sledge them) ,you can isolate most of the second floor ,allowing you to keep it and the roof clear and safe.

*You couldnt claim the mall last i played , as it consisted of multiple areas and was considered a collection of shops.I think there was one or two small areas in the mall that broke the rules and that could be claimed, but each player can only claim one area ,and it was fairly pointless in such a huge building.

*Making the mall safe from zombies outside the mall is very easy, youve got a huge lot of parked cars ,which can be used to block off the entrances (multiple layers of car wall work the best)

[WillieSea]

If you build a 'completed' log wall around the mall, it should stop all spawns inside.