Finding the Generator manual

[23dutch45man]

Kind of a novice zomboid player here, but are there other places with a good chance to find the generator manual? I have already some generator and a some gas.

I have started in Rosewood and looked for it inside the school and the bookstore Book Naked, but this holy grail isnt there. The next place with a good chance would be the bookstore in Muldraugh, but due to the sheer amount of zombies, that seems to be a suicide mission or a long campaign of thinning the horde.

The AEBS radio is already mentioning that the player supply in Knox Country is compromised. Are there any other locations nearby that involves less zombonies?

[Zunak]

If you're playing in MP Servers, your best bet is March Ridge or the Louisville Elementary School once you got a good gear, most MP Servers have the "Loot Respawn" also you can search in mailboxes, sometimes you can have good luck and find magazines, if you're playing in a SP, search in any School and Bookstore.

The AEBS Radio is just to add more inmmersion and doesn't affect the gameplay but moods in certain frequencies.

The "novice" starter is always Rosewood then going to March Ridge, Muldraugh can spawn a lot of zombies (and devs love it) West Point is for more advanced players and Riverside is not a good spawn (unless you have map mods) since it doesn't offer good loot.

[DrLamp]

Muldraugh is my jam. I always start there. I didn't even know it was considered a "hard" spawn location until several deaths in.

Anyway, to your question; I seem to have good luck with generator magazines in gas stations and toolsheds. I don't know if there is anything to that or if it's just RNG.

Toolsheds are also good places to look for the generators themselves, There and storage units.

[Vae Victis]

There is a cheese method of clearing out the main strip in maldraugh if you really want to loot it, but im months into my current run with no manual and a dozen or so generators less than a day away, so just be patient if its not there.

[Jethro]

Another place I’ve found a generator book (my first day of a fresh start and I think it was actually right outside my spawn house) is mailboxes.

I’ve got a little “rule” for myself that, if I spend longer than 1-2 gaming sessions searching for the magazine and don’t find it, I’ll just spawn one in. I know, I know - super cheese. I just really can’t be bothered spending countless IRL hours looking for a book. Or maybe I’ll create another character in that world that’s an electrician. I’d much rather play and enjoy the game rather than constantly be spending time clearing hundreds of zombies only to never find what I’m looking for.

[Jambie Lionheart]

If you search some of the richer houses (oten two floors and sometimes gated), you'll find generators in them. The ones with generators often have the genny mags too. Sometimes the ones without gennies with also have a genny mag in them.

[MrMinMax]

Highest chance for it to spawn are "electronics storage" lootboxes. So electronics stores, storage units, garages.

I also think there is multiplier to spawn chance depending on average zed density. I usually find things I am missing in very "busy" locations.

[Valen Logan]

Another place to check is mailboxes.

[Armagenesis]

If going to bookstore, library, or school yields nothing, best you can do is loot every single house in the town. You'd be surprised.

[23dutch45man]

Thank you for the tips, but I couldnt find the magazine inside the richer homes, the gated community and inside the school/bookstore or some other homes. I visited March Ridge for the first time with a car and very quickly found out that place has an overwhelming amount of zombies. This it probably the same story as Muldraugh. ♥♥♥♥.

I have no method(s) yet of fighting that many and not getting bitten or turned into a buffet. I do know how to distract zombies and lead them away to different place, but this not always as succesfull, certainly with large numbers. Sneaking is not an option, due to being clumsy and conspicious, thus being a perfect zombie magnet.

And at the moment, having no power and probably soon no water either (I do fill cooking pots, buckets with water when i have them and the water supply is still going) and stealing water coolers when i have a working van or pick-up truck. It seems that this character is going for hard times until the very end.

The ways of learning to deal with more zombies are probably a West Point or Muldraugh start? And regarding a start without electricity, are there mods which allow you start a game in the middle of the wilderness, with a civilization being quite far away? That way, I can learn dealing without electricity and being better in acquiring tainted water and purifying it.

[hardy_conrad]

Yeah the generator mag is one of those things that can just be super difficult to find. Sometimes it'll turn up right away while others it'll turn into a nightmare. The good news is that a generator is surprisingly unimportant. Need water? Rain barrel plus a campfire and you're gold. Need food? Foraging. Stuff like watching vhs tapes is mostly just for flavour, although to a certain extent it does help skills. I will admit that it being dark at night can be concerning though. Flashlights of limited utility, in vanilla anyway.

[Beltneck]

Since everyone else mentioned where to find generator manuals, I'll give a tip for surviving with no electricity:

Do a rotation with farming, instead of large batches. You plant just enough for a couple days of food, since it takes 2 days for food to spoil. Then keep doing that every other day to keep a steady stream of fresh produce coming.

On default settings at lvl 0 farming; planting 5 plots of cabbage, 10 plots of potatoes every other day keeps enough fresh food around for you to get fat on 3 cabbage 3 potato soup/stew. Can reduce that once your farming level gets larger yields. Also this is assuming you reserve 1 or 2 plots for going to seed, but once you've got a large enough stockpile of seed then you can skip that for a bit. So even 3 cabbage, 6 potato would be enough at a high farming level. Potato is double because its has twice the growing time of cabbage, so to keep their numbers similar you plant twice as much.

Could also get cooking high enough to be able to use rotten foods, but then you lose a lot of food value and its hardly worth the time. Good for an emergency, not good for putting on weight.

[Quill]

I usually find most of my Generator Manuals in Mailboxes in all honesty

Whenever I'm walking anywhere I just check the mailboxes. If I don't find a Generator Mag I usually find a mag I need for something else like trapping

[Achim_Mentzel]

I don't know if that's of interest for you, but there's another nice option for a power source (and even more stuff to search for... :D):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857548524

There's also an additional mod that let's you craft the panels.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2763674009

[23dutch45man]

Originally posted by Achim_Mentzel:

I don't know if that's of interest for you, but there's another nice option for a power source (and even more stuff to search for... :D):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857548524

There's also an additional mod that let's you craft the panels.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2763674009

Thanks, i shall probably subscribe to the mod at some point. I am gonna play the game a bit longer nearly free of mods.