A good place to start

[janaka42]

Newbie here. Only played an hour or two and have died horribly several times already. For one attempt my starting position was in a room surrounded by zombies-that one lasted about five seconds. At the moment I'm still struggling to navigate WASD movement and smashing buttons in panic when attacked.

I watched some youtube uploads and they make the game look so easy, but the reality for a newbie is very different.

To get me started, what I really need is some advice on best place to start so I don't die immediately! I need a slower start so I can get used to the controls and figure out what I'm meant to do:-

What settings should I use?
What occupation and traits should I take for a beginner?
Is there a way to dial down the number of zombies for my first few games?

Any other tips for a newbie will be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[maviscruet]

There's some good advice here. So I have little to add but:
1. You're going to die. A lot. So early characters exist for you to learn how to play.
2. With this in mind, make builds that have skills in whatever it is you want to learn. If it's combat, find traits that boost fitness and strength. If you want to learn carpentry, then do the same for carpentry.. Pick negative traits that affect skills or activities that aren't going to affect what you want to do.
3. Once you've got the basics start using traits that boost how you want to play the game.

[therealiimarco21]

Originally posted by Sangra69:

I am having trouble myself. Combat mechanics in this game is just horrible. I am probably just used to games like State of Decay or 7daystodie. I can't tell if I am hitting the zombie because I am always shoving them.

There should be a setting in your game that allows you to highlight the zombie. It will make it easier to see where you're aiming and who you're hitting!

ESC > Options > Display tab > "Aim Outline"

[Greg "The Gripper" Garcia]

The Tutorial is a good place to start.
Go to settings and find "weapon highlight" and select all weapons, that's a good start.
Also, remember this, this game has a STEEP learning curve, everyone dies almost instantly at first.
I'm sure this was already stated, but "builder" is a good starting difficulty

[janaka42]

5 days and 3 hours. Killed a dozen zombies along the way. So getting better.

Died because I'm still struggling with WASD in combat. I turned and faced the wrong way by accident when pressed the wrong key and got bitten as a result. Still lasted nearly 2 days before dying after being bit. Kind of a slow, lingering slide into oblivion.

[janaka42]

Originally posted by Kayedon:

Left-most panel of the skills/health/etc pop-up, says on the bottom below all your traits how long you've been alive, how many Z's you've killed, and your most-used weapon. (Bare Hands is feet).

If you're struggling to find a watch, an alarm clock in your main inventory will also tell you the time. But you will definitely find a watch before too long.

Found a watch on a zed when I finally worked out how to loot corpses.

I can see the number of zeds I've killed on the pop-up you describe, but still cannot see where it tells me how long I've been alive.

[Foomish]

Once I've been bitten, I stash anything good I can somewhere, mark it on the map, and it is underwear and shotgun time.

[Kayedon]

Originally posted by janaka42:

Originally posted by Kayedon:

Left-most panel of the skills/health/etc pop-up, says on the bottom below all your traits how long you've been alive, how many Z's you've killed, and your most-used weapon. (Bare Hands is feet).

If you're struggling to find a watch, an alarm clock in your main inventory will also tell you the time. But you will definitely find a watch before too long.

Found a watch on a zed when I finally worked out how to loot corpses.

I can see the number of zeds I've killed on the pop-up you describe, but still cannot see where it tells me how long I've been alive.

Directly under where it says your weapon and kills, unless somehow you've managed to disable this from displaying.