CD DA challenge, my experience, plus a few tips

[Ugly]

So, been playing this mode the past 5 days, maybe 100 different characters....a lot of 5 minutes deaths.

Longest survivor was a fire fighter who lived long enough the deep wound actually healed on its own (guess lucky, only 7 days to heal), even with slow healer. He got killed in the train yard south after my damn inventory was open and i couldn't close it in time (playing on a steam deck). Didn't help the helicopter event happened while he was there...

Had a fitness instructor adreniline runner last 14 hours with 1500+ fire kills, but he died of thirst after the last of the horde dropped dead, but too far to get to water.

Most recent character is a veteran, former scout, athletic, outdoorsman, lucky, fast learner, cat's eyes, and all the negative traits I could stack, except slow healer (which I always take, but it is a death trap in this mode). Got lucky and found a needle (foraging right outside of starter house), stitched up. Went to loot a house nearby and set off an alarm. Game over right? Well turned out this actually helped, with some quick dodging I manage to ditch most of the zeds so headed to farm. On way to farm luck #2, avoided most zombies since most got attracted to house alarm, but got followed by 3 zombies, 1 with an embedded axe. No weapon but the trusty foot stomp, +1 fireaxe. Got a tea cup, bowl and a mallet from the farm, 4 cans were useless without a can opener and couldn't carry them anyway with 12 carry capacity and no bag. Decided to head north to radio towers and from ther cabin with well. 2nd choice was south to cabins by lake (unsure if I made the right choice, but with weak stomach and no way to boil water..). Got foraging to 5, only found 3 bullets though (main reason for going veteran), berrys and rose hips are plentiful, but cant get enough calories to not lose weight and of course I have no trapping or recipes for trap.

Hit barracks past power lines, scored a backpack (finally something other than a plastic bag which I couldn't really use since I was wielding spears to save my axe from deteriorating). Also picked up military coat, camo pants and a can opener. Located a generator in a shed, don't think I will use it though given how impossible it is to find gas or a cat with a battery not at zero.

Feeling confident about this guy, need to find a way to get higher calories, may need to relocate to a lake for fishing unless I get lucky and find a trap recipe magazine.

Finally a few tips:

Foraging - important, eat all berrys except holly, discard those unless you want to die.

Positive traits - atheletic, but need to keep it at 9 for endurance recovery boost.

Outdoorsman - important for foraging and cold resistance after you get over the first one.

Lucky - loot is so low and foraging so important, you need that little extra boost.

Optional - cat's eyes, fast learner, maybe a bonus foraging, trapping or fishing trait

Negative traits: prone to illness, high thirst, slow reader, weak stomache, conspicuous (starting cold makes stealth impossible), pacifist, thin skinned, smoker, short sighted (don't like the forage penalty on this, but need the points). Fear of blood, maybe if not a veteran, just keep a clean pair of ckothes for sleeping.

On spawn, immediately pull glass from wound and try to get to a window with shades before they burn. Rip sheets and bandage. If you get burned, just restart. Bonus if you can grab a water container of some sort in kitchen.

Try to foot stomp a zed and grab shoes, without shoes your game is pretty much over.

At this point you can try to loot nearby houses, though after so many restarts I think it is hardly worth it, maybe you get lucky and find a needle (in all my resarts found 1 needle and 1 suture needle).

Otherwise get to farm, hope for some food, forage for chipped stone and branches for those spears. Kill zeds and get as much clothing layers as possible. Try to get that cold healed asap, otherwise you are just a zombie magnat. Get foraging to lvl 4 for rose hips. After that game is open to lots of choices.....