Need an honest opinion on weapons.

[maxcorps]

Just finished another run. Broke into a house with a hoard or 2 nearby. Alarm goes off. I schedadle to another house across the street. And of course a straggler see me and slowly the hoard comes in. Beginning of the end. I got scratched. Managed to get out of there and to the safe house. Got anxious and sick. Got it my car. Went on one last joy ride. Crashed then gotten eaten. Now that Sh*tstorm could have been avoided because before I attempted to enter the alarmed house my trusty crowbar broke. I had a backup baseball bat but alas wasn't enough. Sorry just giving you my state of mind. Is it better at the beginning to focus on one type of weapon or should you diversify so You don't find your self in my situation. I had other weapons with access to more. I was 20 days in. but I had no skill in any of them. I found the crowbar in the first house I was in and that's what i used till it broke. So should I alternate between 2 long and short blunt? Or should I just focus on 1 melee skill thru out the run.

[william_es]

I do short blunt and long blunt. Spiked baseball bat on back, and 1 more in inventory. Hammers and a police baton in belt slots.

The only reason I'm leveling short blunt is I do a LOT building, and have a hammer out a LOT. But the bat is for hordes. Long blunt is almost up to 4, and maintenance is 5 1/2, so they last a good long time now.

[Undefined]

Originally posted by maxcorps:

So should I alternate between 2 long and short blunt? Or should I just focus on 1 melee skill thru out the run.

I think there's good arguments to be made both ways.

I'd go with leveling up 1 melee skill in the beginning so you have something you can trust. With that said, as in the situation you found yourself in, make sure you have ample supply of that weapon type.

In some ways, Long Blunt is kinda rare, at least the good ones. A Crowbar should last you until you find another, but that requires either a bit of luck (finding them on zombies) or map knowledge of where they tend to spawn. And Baseball Bats are more rare than Crowbars, but you can convert them to Spiked Bats and repair them with Nails, so it should last you longer.

The two weapon types that are tough to ever run out of and you will always have access to good versions are Spears and Knives. Spears can be made from Tree Branches and Knives can be commonly found on zombies, and they can also cut down bushes, which have a chance to spawn Tree Branches. And both have one-shot capability.

[DarkFenix]

Depends on which type. If you want to go with axes for instance, it's pretty easy to end up out of luck and out of axes, so a secondary focus might be in order.

If you're going with short blunt or blade, they're everywhere. And spears too, because you can craft them.

Long blunt can be slightly hit and miss for the first few days, until you start finding crowbars, but it's very much a slow start followed by plain sailing. I believe I'm sitting on about 10 spare crowbars (mostly at full hp) in my current game, default loot settings (if memory serves I'm playing at 1.5x pop, so not high pop, but more than default). Once you raid a few places that are likely to have them, you'll almost inevitably start to build a stock of them, then zombies drop them fairly regularly too.

I've just hit long blunt 10, so I might diverge a little into long blade (found 2 katanas and 1 machete so far). Only weapon category it's impossible to main, maybe when blacksmithing comes along.

[Greb]

I tend not to think about my weapons that much, really. I've always played on Extremely Rare loot settings and I always end up with a good stock of weapons, but I have to admit I'm not one to go on rampant killing sprees and when I do it's usually using a shotgun instead of melee weapons.

There are definite benefits to raising a specific weapon skill higher and higher, but face it - you can start the game with 0 in every weapon skill as a Pacifist and still do pretty well with almost anything you can pick up, so in my opinion it's not worth focusing on a specific weapon type unless you're actually focusing on a specific weapon type - and by that I mean you've gone like, Lumberjack Brawler or something and really want to make the most out of your massive XP bonus in Axes as well as the speed boost etc.

But I guess that's just an opinion, really.

I'd definitely favour longer ranged weapons over the short ones, in fact I pretty much only ever use Short Blade / Blunt in the early game when I have nothing else available. I like Axes because (at least in my case where I don't fight everything I see) I find axes to be highly renewable - both Hand Axes and Fire Axes spawn inside zombies.

For me though I don't think about it too much, I just try to have my hands on a high tier weapon of any type and use that. So long as its got reach, go for it.

[dustbiter]

I don't think weapon skill is that important to survival, I mean it's often a bad decision/move that kills you rather than low weapon skill. Here it's a failure to avoid all the zombies, sometimes you just have to spend a lot of time trying to lose all zombies, or at least most and to kill the few following you. Typically when I continue after getting drowsy I may make a bad decision as I start to prioritise avoiding combat too much.

I'd usually store the better weapons like crowbars and axes and end up not using them. Usually I'd get too many short blade weapons like screwdrivers and I'd use them for single zombies.

[Blue_Skies]

When u are leveled up in 1 type of weapon u can kill hundreds a day. So apart from the first few days of settling in somewhere, I would absolutely recommend u stick to 1 weapon type. Its personal preference what u choose they all have their pros and cons.

The faster killing weapons like spears and axes drain stamina quickly, spears break easy early on and axes are hard to find. But leveled up u feel like a terminator.

Short weapons are easier to find but kill a tad slower (more hits), but don't drain stamina. Short blades are delivered to u by zombies, later on in high pop areas you'll never need to worry about short blades.

Long blunts are a good all rounder, crowbars are delivered, long lasting but still drains stamina.

Pick yr poison.

Originally posted by dustbiter:

I don't think weapon skill is that important to survival, I mean it's often a bad decision/move that kills you rather than low weapon skill.

Its true what Dust said, most deaths are caused by not thinking logically, I don't know why I have to fight a giant horde in the middle of a storm thinking "I'll be fine".

[maxcorps]

New strategy. Use what evers handy. I had some metal pipes and hammers so I used them. Found another crowbar but only used it for crowd control. Still ended up get bit in the shin of all places.

[hardy_conrad]

I don't think baseball bats are that difficult to find. School gyms can have them, as well as sporting goods stores, to say nothing of the occasional closet. Add crowbars to the mix, which are fairly plentiful themselves (hardware stores, warehouses, etc) and long blunt is a pretty safe one as far as such things go. Absolute worst case scenario you could just grab a plank and stick some nails in that. Short blunt may be easier to find, but you'll need to get up close and personal with a stinky. To say nothing of the generally very limited damage you'll be doing with short blunt weapons.

[gothmog77]

It might be good to have a primary weapon type that you try to get to a high level, and that you keep on hand to deal with difficult fights, but also carry a secondary weapon of a different type, to practice that skill in easy fights.

Personally, I don't worry about that too much because tactics and strategy are more important. I just carry a decent weapon in each of my 3 slots and don't really care about their type. There are pros and cons to different weapons sure, but the best weapons are useless without good tactics, and you can clear a horde barehanded if you use the right tactics.

You should be proactive about clearing zombies in the vicinity around your base, both for safety and for skilling up. Grab the attention of 1-3 zombies, pull them away from the rest and toward your safe zone, then kill them. If you do this, the area around you base will generally be a safe zone to retreat to away from hordes (make sure to lose them first though, by going around a corner or two).

Don't fight with any negative moodles, and preferably try to have whatever the green "full stomach" buff is. If you have a safe moment, sit down to catch your breath (this is dangerous though, so remember to spin around while sitting). If you are at all sleepy, getting to a safe place to sleep is an immediate emergency. Don't wait until you get exhausted. Carry vitamins in case you can't get to a safe bed in time.

Baseball bat with nails is a good recipe to remember.

[hardy_conrad]

Good advice. I find the baseball bat with nails is pretty useful for knocking down zombies compared to a crowbar.

[DezZzO]

Considering weapon weapon focus: you usually want to start with durable blunt weapons (crowbar is perfect) and level up your maintenance a little bit (like lvl 2-3). Then you can switch to maining one weapon type. There's no point in switching weapon types.

Considering weapon types, it depends on your playstyle, but generally:
Spears - require long term investment, but spear with a hunting Knife is the best weapon in the game by far if we judge weapons by availability, endurance consumption and dps.
Axe - crafted axes are okay, non-crafted are RNG, but axes have utility over spears (cutting trees, breaking doors). 1H axes are not THAT rare and they're also the best 1H weapon.
Long Blade - would be above Spears, especially if we're talking about katana, but good luck maining a weapon type that is pretty rare to find. They're really good in terms of stamina and DPS though. If you somehow got a stache of machetes and katanas - main Long Blade.
Long Blunt - only notable for durability.
Short Blunt - worse Long Blunt, but you can carry it with additional bag in hand. Basically a worse 1H axe.
Short Blade - not unusable and in the right hands it is viable, but the only advantage it has is long-term horde kiting due to it's lowest endurance usage. It's the most risky to use due to range and that insta-kill animation being too generous on when it can proc (for example spear's one shot animation will never betray you proccing when more than 1 zombie is around).

[Undead Llama]

Me like crowbar. Me also like metal pipe when no crowbar. Frying pan make funny noise when bonking.

Hammer ok, me guess. Not like stabby knives. Spears break alot, no like that.

[Grizzly]

the biggest weapon is your brain


now go, download a mod that lets you headbutt zombies, and go insane