First night is too hard

[fredingue]

I just bought the game, followed the tutorial and built a small base with a few workshops.
I could not gather the materials to build walls, lights, traps but killed a few Zeds with arrows during daytime.

Problem is that i thought that on night one a few Zeds will attack and that i would be able to kill them one by one with the axe, standing in front of the stairs.
Hopelessly, about a dozen of them attacked me and i just could kill one.
The rest was a sad revive, get killed, rince and repeat.

To make it short, i died about 10 times and at 1AM game time i was fed up and i quit as i was not going to repeat this for 2 hours of game time untill dawn.

When you discover the game, you spend a lot of time learning how to craft this or that, so midnight comes very fastly.

This first experience was quite frustrating...

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1598170299887728190/9DFBA3B7691A663E3535072F7974360F703E3A9E/

[LoboFH]

Difficulty?

You should also craft a better weapon than an axe, there is not excuse to not have one spear and a bow for Day 1 horde. And if you explore POI's you can be lucky and get better stuff, I found a katana in the first building I looted.

Just restart and learn from your mistakes, only with a pendulum you can easily beat first day on normal difficulty.

[fredingue]

I played on normal, and i had craft a bow, but it was useless at night

[Archless]

Originally posted by fredingue:

I played on normal, and i had craft a bow, but it was useless at night

Honestly your first play you should follow the tutorial and learn how the game work and probably died, the second time you will know how stuff work and are prepared well enough and know what's gonna happen, making it easier to do all the things you want, this is what I had to do, I understand it's not what everyone likes tho

[3Ddeath]

I'm playing on hard, spear and running around pretty much kills everything

[FuturistDreamer]

Originally posted by fredingue:

I played on normal, and i had craft a bow, but it was useless at night

Did you hit 'L' to turn on your light? Did you build a platform with just one entry, so you could at least control the flow? Did you put at least two spike traps out to damage and soften them up as they come in?

[Whiplash711]

Originally posted by fredingue:

I played on normal, and i had craft a bow, but it was useless at night

This is why when I buy a new game the first attempt is a learning attempt. Once I have a few hours under my belt I wipe and start over. Now that I know the mechanics of the game I have the knowledge to conquer the game.
If you try this you will find that the game is not hard but that you lacked the experience with the game to succeed. If the game was easy on that first attempt then what is the point in the game? With out some sort of challenge to the game there would be no interest.
The other thing you might try is lowering the difficulty. I am a survival junkie so betting this game would be silly easy. I only play these games with friends and we all agree no dedicated servers we are not interested.
So what am I doing here? Well I am keeping an eye out to see what they have planned.
Remember survival games are all about planning. When your first plan fails you try another. That is where the fun and challenge should come from. Not from being able to beat down zombies with an axe. 7 Days to Die is stupid easy on any default difficulty but you still would not survive night one if attacked by zombies with only an axe.

If you struggle for a workable plan, try prioritizing some height where you can attack from but not be attacked. Only have the bare needed benches to get you to day 2. Make sure you have a bow and 100 arrows. If you can make a platform stand away from your base.

[rcummons]

Goals for Night one. Build a base at least three platforms long, with a stair at one end. Get a bow and spear. Place three spike traps in a zig zag pattern on the first platform at the top of the stair. you can easily walk through the spikes the zombies will bounce around them like pinball. Shoot your bow a bit and spear the ones that get through. If more than one gets through, jump off and run back to the stairs. The zombies will follow you back through the spikes. Rinse and repeat.

[tallyhotel]

You're not meant to fight the zeds yourself. You're supposed to build a gauntlet that kills the zeds as they try to get to you. Your personal weapon is last defense only, and really, as said above, jump off the base, run around to the beginning and run through the gauntlet yourself, they will follow.

Note: Animals do not trigger your base defense traps like shredder and pendulum. Wolves will just waltz right on in. Jerks.

Note 2: Day 5 will make you rage quit for real. Prepare for the absolute worst. Building a gauntlet away from your main "house" is not an entirely terrible idea.

[FuturistDreamer]

Originally posted by tallyhotel:

Note: Animals do not trigger your base defense traps like shredder and pendulum. Wolves will just waltz right on in. Jerks.

THIS!! Yeah, bears, wolves, and stags have ALL waltzed right into my base and started smacking me.

BTW, this is a reason to put a minefield of spike traps spread out in front of your base entrance.

[fredingue]

thanks for all comments, i will hang on :)

[Kraft51]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2213587248

this will help you get going, its just information and beginner tips to get you on your feet :)

[Not Sure]

One of the first "quests" is to build the Pendulum Trap. Use it!
It has a knockback effect and it swings back and forth (2 hits).
Just make sure you place it correctly otherwise you might kick enemies INTO your base...

[Kraft51]

Originally posted by Not Sure:

One of the first "quests" is to build the Pendulum Trap. Use it!
It has a knockback effect and it swings back and forth (2 hits).
Just make sure you place it correctly otherwise you might kick enemies INTO your base...

just put spike barriers in the space at the ends of the pendulum, it'll knock the zeds into the spikes for more damage. i use 3 pendulums with spikes for the first 3 nights, giving quite a bit of prep time to upgrade or modify your Horde Base.

[fredingue]

Well i restarted (in the easiest mode to learn the basics) and i had a good time.

I had the chance to spawn near many cars and houses so it helped.

Now i'm ready for night 2 ;p
I just wait for the surviving zeds in front of my locked door (if i die i will have more time to reequip with stocked gear)
(i added walls after this screenshot)

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1627443817965743901/E65BD77E36C40DE293976B4EE6DFC00503352CB3/

[Kraft51]

Originally posted by fredingue:

Well i restarted (in the easiest mode to learn the basics) and i had a good time.

I had the chance to spawn near many cars and houses so it helped.

Now i'm ready for night 2 ;p
I just wait for the surviving zeds in front of my locked door (if i die i will have more time to reequip with stocked gear)
(i added walls after this screenshot)

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1627443817965743901/E65BD77E36C40DE293976B4EE6DFC00503352CB3/

make sure you've upgraded all your foundations before night 5, you'll start getting special zeds specifically the burning zeds that explode when they die otherwise you will lose you're entire horde base to fire, and fire spreads from one part to the next unless you are super fast to repair it. i've lost bases to night 5 because of this, i keep getting distracted by looting too long and forget to upgrade my wood base parts.