Can You Hide Through The Helicopter Event?

[Ittrix]

I've always been vaguely unclear on whether you can or can't hide through this event if you stay inside the whole time.

I personally always just get in the car and drive down the highway at 5 mph until the pilot gives up, but... is it plausible to stay inside? I've seen mixed sources and given the nature of the game I'd rather not find out the hard way.

[Shurenai]

IF you are inside at the time the helicopter arrives, AND you do not get caught outside when it flies off to refuel only to come back again a couple times, then Yes, Hypothetically, You could just hide inside the whole time and survive that way.

However there's a few caveats.
The helicopter, without a target, is just going to fly in wide sweeping circles around your general area.
Because of that, It's going to attract numerous zombies to your general area.
Because it's constantly making noise and leading zombies in different directions as it circles, It's inevitably going to lure zombies through your hiding place.

Ideally, you should be on at LEAST the second floor, third or higher would be better, open all the windows and doors on the first floor because they WILL be destroyed otherwise from the masses of migrating zombies.

And don't move a muscle until the event ends, Or you may attract the zombies onto you- And you don't want to have to start fighting until the helicopter is gone and you can retreat outside if needed.

Even if you survive this way, Chances are your immediate area for several chunks in every direction is full of zombies now, And it's going to be a pain to clear the area again to re-establish safety.


So... Is it plausible to just hide inside till it's over? Yes, Absolutely.

Should you? Probably not. Using the giant sound maker to lure as many zombies as you can AWAY from your base and the areas you want to loot is the best decision you can make.

[Ittrix]

Egh, that's what I was worried about hearing. Theoretically the event happens differently, but realistically you should go.

I'm thinking for future playthroughs I'm just going to turn it off. It's never actually threatened me in any way past... 'ughghgh fine. I'll get in the car for 15 minutes.'

[Shurenai]

If you're down for modding, I'd recommend the expanded helicopter events mod- Not only does it add more and more interesting events, but even the baseline 'vanilla-esque' helicopter event has been modified so you can hide through it, the helicopter wont just linger around you.

[Another Mother's Son]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

I've always been vaguely unclear on whether you can or can't hide through this event if you stay inside the whole time.

I personally always just get in the car and drive down the highway at 5 mph until the pilot gives up, but... is it plausible to stay inside? I've seen mixed sources and given the nature of the game I'd rather not find out the hard way.

If you don't find a radio with the Emergency Broadcast channel preset, get ready to hunker down in a house by day 6 in vanilla. Doesn't have to be a base, maybe better if it's not. But if you can find one with a windowless room, you are off the the races.

Clear the neighboring yards to the point that nobody is near (or interested in) your safe house. Cover all the windows and shut the lights off, especially outside. Have a day's worth of water and food ready and maybe a book or magazine.

When the helicopter comes, shut yourself in a room and sit on the floor. Do not get up or move until night falls and the helicopter stops passing overhead. It will fly over at least a couple times, once I swear it was the rest of the day!

The benefit of not being spotted turns the Helicopter Event into a zero-sum game. Hypothetically, it will draw as many zombies away from your location as to it. In the end, a helicopter flying back to base should drawn more zombies away than to, but I can't verify that's how PZ works.

CAVEAT: There was one run where I followed this protocol and got absolutely gang-banged in the bathroom of a little house in Muldraugh! Other than that... 99.7% effective

[Nijo]

TLDR; High walls or gated communities really help

I spawned in Louisville, cleared my street of zeds and on Helicopter day I sat indoors all day. The backyard fence is tall and faces the parking lot of the baseball stadium. I was relieved to know I could open the curtains without the heli spotting, and I watched the horde of zombies migrate into the parking lot. We also have the high school to the east which has a tall metal fence.

We had a few strays come from the south or the west and bang on our ground floor windows trying to get to the baseball stadium but I managed to sneak out and kill them when the heli went far enough that I couldn't hear it. If you double barricade your windows you should be fine.

[Ittrix]

since I *really* didn't want to deal with the heli event I quit the game for awhile and made this thread to see if I could sit it out.

... Turns out there's a bug which stops the heli event if you leave the game during it. Oops?

[martindirt]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

since I *really* didn't want to deal with the heli event I quit the game for awhile and made this thread to see if I could sit it out.

... Turns out there's a bug which stops the heli event if you leave the game during it. Oops?

Yes.
That's an existing bug.
Just like (in my experience) zeds disappear around you if you quit and reload. This is why I try to DON'T quit when I'm near unexplored areas : I just don't want to despawn the fun from the game.

[Ittrix]

Steps unclear wound up drinking bleach instead.

[Nijo]

Originally posted by martindirt:

Yes.
That's an existing bug.
Just like (in my experience) zeds disappear around you if you quit and reload. This is why I try to DON'T quit when I'm near unexplored areas : I just don't want to despawn the fun from the game.

Thats strange, I quit in the middle of Louisville, surrounded by zeds and they never despawned. In fact there are always too many zombies!

[martindirt]

Originally posted by Nijo:

Originally posted by martindirt:

Yes.
That's an existing bug.
Just like (in my experience) zeds disappear around you if you quit and reload. This is why I try to DON'T quit when I'm near unexplored areas : I just don't want to despawn the fun from the game.

Thats strange, I quit in the middle of Louisville, surrounded by zeds and they never despawned. In fact there are always too many zombies!

Forgot to mention:
My game is heavily modded. (2-300 mods active. Yeah. I'm a workshop junkie.)

[Liro Raériyo]

My last helicopter event was extremely benign, was inside when it started and i did literally nothing, but i was in the middle of the fenced in community in muldraugh so im not surprised in the slightest that after clearing it out ahead of time all it did was repopulate it with about the same 30 zombies i had already dispatched.

[Skeleton Minion]

Easiest thing is to just run around an already looted area with molotovs and burn the zombies to death.