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Also bind your backpack to `d` and drop it before you fight. It lowers your torso encumbrance which makes you more capable in combat. And if you assign `d` to the backpack in your inventory, you can just hit d twice, once to open the drop menu, and again to drop the backpack.
You can change keybinds in almost any context menu with ? key, play around with this, there are often functions that have no keybind by default, but which really improve QoL.
Rest ( '|' key) for 5 minutes, whenever you've been sprinting a little bit (10-20 tiles) or been in a melee fight, or trying to smash down walls or doors or furniture or zombie bodies. If you have sound on, most sound packs have a loud and annoying heartbeat or heavy breathing sound which is a warning that you need to duck out of combat or stop what you're doing, and catch your breath. If you're resting for 5 minutes and an enemy appears, you will be ready for it and also, that enemy won't sneak up on you later and surprise you in a bad spot. Resting is a great way to ensure an area is truly safely cleared, especially when combined with a noise making item like a whistle or gun.
Wield your container/backpack, instead of wearing it. Dropping an item that is wielded is nearly instantaneous, and wielding a heavy container full of loot won't hurt your dodge, while trying to remove a backpack you're wearing, will allow enemies to close with you and attack you. Just because a container is wearable doesn't mean you want to, and just because it's not wearable doesn't mean it's lousy - body bags are some of the best containers in the game for this reason!
Whitelist your weapons to the sheath/holster/belt you want them to live in! Open Inventory, select a container type item via Enter key, and then use 'v' to whitelist/blacklist. If you whitelist a cudgel for a leather belt, that belt will "grab" the cudgel when you unwield and stick it back into your inventory, and the belt will ignore other items to keep room for that weapon. This is super helpful and reduces keypresses and annoyances like finding a pair of scissors in your gun holster, when combined with wielding and dropping containers and then picking them back up. If you want to keep a plastic bag and have all your food go into it, then select that bag and whitelist category -> food, etc.. This is very powerful and helps your inventory management a lot.
Turn on "Map Auto Notes" option, and be sure to turn on "Auto note dropped favorites". If you go into inventory and select an item with Enter and then hit "f" for favorite, it'll put a * next to it, move it to the top of your item lists, and with the mentioned options turned on, the game will leave a note on your overmap saying "LARGE MILITARY RUCKSACK" etc when it's dropped. You can then find your lost containers or sledge hammer easily, and hit D on the map screen to delete that note. If you have auto notes for events, you can delete those notes too once you loot anything of interest. If you drop a favorited item in a basement or upper floor level, the autonote will be on that level but you can search for it by item name... I lost a heavy sledge hammer in a sewer the other day, but when I realized I'd probably lost it underground, I was able to locate and retrieve it easily by using < and > to look on a lower level of the map and then search on that level. You can also search for events, so if you need science ID cards try searching for "scientist" to see if you left a pile of dead scientists in a field or subway tunnel somewhere, IF you turned on "Enable Map Extras" autonotes..
You can hit "E" on the overmap to mark a tile "explored" and it'll change its color to a greyed-out version. This is useful for tracking your progress as you raid buildings, or to mark the place you burned down a patch of forest as a shortcut for your car.
You can search the overmap with '/'. If you need weapons, search for gun shop or police station etc, if you want gasoline, search for gas station, if you want to learn krav maga or kick boxing, you wanna search for dojo... Etc etc. Note that the search function has a limited range so if you travel 600 tiles away, the game won't mention a dojo in a town that's super far off.
Build couch forts. No, seriously! Melee is exceptionally dangerous, especially early in the game or when you get overwhelmed by large numbers of enemies. The best way to give yourself an edge is to use the environment to advantage.. So any time you walk over something and it says "you struggle to to keep balance/you move slowly over this/are you SURE you want to walk onto that jagged metal rubble?!" take note - it also slows down or damages enemies, or both. I often will find a lone small boulder, or bush, and use it as a fortification and lure enemies to that spot before fighting them, and then "pillar dance" to make sure they step on top of the obstacle before I engage.. If I'm in a town, I'll run inside a house, close the windows and shove couches and tables and chairs ('G' button) in front of the window, so enemies cut themselves coming thru the window and then are slowed as they climb over the furniture barricade - giving me easy and free shots at them. Wrecked cars or even normal cars are also a great place to post up if you're taking on a few enemies.. Open the doors you want them to come through and then stand on top of the vehicle and bash the enemies as they come at you. It's noisy as hell, but you can take down 20-40 enemies with melee by standing on top of a big car wreck, or finding an L-shaped hedge of rose bushes and firing a gun once to draw stuff to you. Combining environmental obstacles with knock-back weapons such as a fire axe or sledge etc, allows you to take out a lot of enemies in a row without them even getting a chance to attack you.
When in doubt, try to keep your worn encumbrance below 20 on any body part, but especially your torso and legs! Torso encumb hurts dodging, and leg encumbrance means you can't run away fast enough. Head encumbrance often gets pretty high and doesn't hurt much, but mouth encumbrance hurts your stamina regen and will get you killed eventually in a tight spot. Once you know what you're doing or have good armor, dodge isn't as important so you can begin to ignore encumbrance, run speed won't matter because you aren't going to get overwhelmed accidentally, and you won't mind missing swings due to hand encumbrance when enemies can't touch you anyway.
Always play like a coward. Damage reduces your ability to do almost everything, so once you get hurt, you're more likely to get hurt worse and probably end up having stat drains from blood loss or pain maluses. So when you start to get noticeable damage (over 10-20% of your health on ANY body part), think about sprinting away before your legs are too injured to retreat. A damaged limb also is easier for enemies to hit, so even if you're not in pain, a badly hurt leg will keep getting hurt more often than other body parts for several days in-game if you aren't careful.
You are immune to some of your own traps. Experiment with them, they can save your life and save tons of ammo and time clearing large groups of enemies. Solme of the professions and skills and traits make it so you are LITERALLY immune to traps, and standing in your own blade trap and meleeing everything down is hecka fun and very effective if you use a couple of them near to each other and stand in the middle. Try the soldier start with traps professions "special operator"
Bandages and disinfectant can be used in tandem, and they stack! Even poor bandages like cotton balls, and poor disinfectant like cattail jelly, will heal you pretty fast when used together. Enemies can damage bandages though, and bandages wear out over time, so always check them before going to bed or reading or crafting, and do the best first aid available before starting a long project or sleeping or reading a book for a few hours.
Enemies often hate each other so you can lure them into each other and then hide or run away and let them take each other out. Many dangerous wild animals hate loud noises and turn hostile at the sound of car horns or gunfire - while some others such as coyote packs will run away from loud noises - if you have high enough STR you can even shout loud enough to chase them away! Insects hate zombies, but turn into "zombies" after they die, so taking out the biggest threats in an area can mean that the leftover creatures will get overwhelmed by other zombified creatures quickly, which isn't always the most desirable outcome. Animal Empathy trait is extremely helpful for this and other reasons.
Vehicles are life. Finding a single bicycle or motorcycle or car or truck gives you huge mobility bonuses and allows you to escape from many threats, or you can just ram down a wall with a car if you have no lock picks or pickaxes or sledge hammers etc.. Just be sure you have a seat belt, and remember that vehicles without a fully enclosed space can allow you to be hit, and also you will suffer from hot/cold (motorcycle in the winter time will give you frostbite VERY fast!) Once you understand how to drive, seeing that a quest objective is 400 tiles away, becomes almost inconsequential as long as you keep your vehicle moving, and you can do fun stuff like ride a bicycle or motorbike through a crowd and drop a grenade, then drive away!
Grocery Carts are life. And you can keep spare ammo, tools, containers and weapons in them, on top of using them to ferry loot by 'G'rabbing them. You can make folding grocery carts, which you can collapse and then carry or drag ("\" key) up and down stairs, so you can take them with you as you explore multi-level environments. Don't shoot over or through your grocery cart, or allow enemies to hit them... Grocery carts without wheels are noisy and also tire you out quickly! You can find grocery carts in grocery stores, but also in a lot of other stores such as dollar stores, clothing stores, etc. Hardware stores and open sewer projects have wheelbarrows, which are a poor man's grocery cart.
You can also 'G'rab and drag vehicles such as bicycles, motorbikes, or even a small car if you're strong enough. You cannot drag vehicles (including carts) up and down staircases, but if you find a bike in a farmhouse' root cellar you can drag it up the ramp more safely then trying to drive it out.. And you can drag the shelves out of the way or smash them as well, so you don't bash up the bicycle by accident.
Use the "remember vehicle position" option liberally, on any vehicle you are using, or one which you may want to come back to for parts or to repair later on. This is hugely helpful for keeping track of your grocery cart, but also is a good way to keep track "emergency vehicles" that you can use to bash down walls or escape from a bad situation. You literally cannot have enough working vehicles available, and you can add your own map note for reference, such as "nice humvee, needs a new battery and air filter" or similar info so you can come back later with the right stuff.
Don't drive through cities unless you're crazy, or its a last resort, or you've cleared it all. If you do, think about using a golf cart (silent!) or a motorcycle (agile and thin enough to squeeze through gaps!) and leave your car on the outskirts of town.
Feel free to stop your car and burn down patches of forest or buildings or smash all the lamp posts along a sidewalk to clear a path for your car to get through safely.
Fire is incredibly useful. Fire and a car allow you to deal with some really ugly stuff - try lighting a 2-story building on fire and then hide nearby and read a book for 30 minutes... The "CRASH" noises will attract tons of zombies, which will promptly DIAF. Fungus is very annoying, but a lighter or two and a car allow you to burn down the enemies and read a book in peace.
Fires raise the air temperature which cause more fires, and making multiple fires near each other allows fire to spread faster and do more damage quicker. This can hurt you, or help you. Molotovs and incendiary grenades spread fires extremely quickly.
Staff slings are overpowered, and allow you to throw grenades far enough you won't get hit by shrapnel. You can carry a staff sling in a spear strap or a large/long container, and also it's a decent melee weapon in a pinch.
If you throw grenades, shrapnel is a thing and can badly hurt you, so you probably want to sprint away and/or go prone or duck around a corner.. Anything to get as far away and reduce your body size as a target, helps.
Weapons take damage and wear down, eventually. You can repair them, often quite easily. A soldering iron and scrap metal can fix some fairly nice stuff, or a misc repair kit (easy to find, or make with an X-acto knife and a wood saw) and a plank can fix spears or a fire axe, easily and with materials that're readily available almost everywhere. If you notice your weapon is damaged, it's worth repairing it before it gets more damage and becomes a hazard to you. If you're spamming autoattacks with Tab button and notice you don't seem to be killing things as fast as you usually can, check your weapon's health. You don't need backup weapons if you're aware of your gear's status and retreat to repair it.
Experiment with 'a'ctivating everything! You can cut through metal-barred windows with a hacksaw, or saw off a shotgun stock with a wood saw. You can attach or remove holsters to belts and MOLLE packs, blow whistles, start fires with binoculars or eyeglasses, turn on a talking doll and then wield+throw it as a distraction, cut through a fence or locked gate with bolt cutters, or use a radio to switch channels and figure out which direction the nearest evacuation shelter is, as a few examples. This is extremely powerful and there's a lot of "hidden" tricks you can do with some very basic items, this way.
'm'ending has limited uses, but it's very powerful. If you cannot start a car, examine it and if the engine says (faulty), you can 'm'end it to see specifically what is wrong and how to fix it.. You can replace a bad air filter with one cobbled together with paper, or replace a drive belt with a leather belt and duct tape you crafted in a pinch. Guns get fouled and faulty as well, and some types of gun screwups have to be mended to fix them.
There is almost always more than one way to deal with an obstacle. No grenades? Try throwing a can of butane into a nearby fire. No computer skill to hack open a door? Find an acetylene torch to cut down the door, knock down the wall, cut through the windows, or climb a rain gutter and look for an easier point of ingress on the upper story of the building. Can't defeat an enemy? Lure it away or convince something else to kill it for you. Can't make an anvil? Find a good-sized rock or a piece of hard plating, and then use it instead.
Larwick is probably the most fleshed-out graphical overmap UI currently. It's easy on the eyes, and the sprites actually represent the type of building most of the time - a house is a house, but a duplex house looks like a duplex, a tiny house looks like a tiny house, and a trailer looks like a trailer, a fire station looks like a fire station and a radio tower looks like a radio tower, etc. Some of the other graphical map tilesets are very incomplete and everything may look like identical blocks if you use them, which isn't very helpful at imparting useful information quickly since you have to select a tile to read what it is, if the entire town looks like identical grey blobs.
its waay different from bright nights. i used to walk out of the evac shelter with copper spears and high volume outfits
Use one pipe to make a makeshift crowbar.
Smash some benches, use planks and chunks of steel to make a screwdriver.
Go outside and find a flaking rock, craft it into a sharp rock.
The above will give you a lot of the basic tool qualities (cutting,hammering,prying,screwdriving)
Smash a young tree and craft the long sticks into long pointy sticks.
Hit e on windows to take down curtains. Use sheets to craft a makeshift sling to use as a backpack.
This should be enough to get you started. It's no metal spear and high capacity clothes, but it's easy to get and make and should carry you until you scavenge or craft better gear.
options>general>autonotes set to true , (map extras)
options>general> safe mode> turns to reactivate safe mode on (i got mine on 50)
it will make your game much smoother
- Once you find a bag you prefer, open its "pocket settings", click on the biggest pocket, and set a priority on it greater than 1. From then on, anything you pick up will attempt to go into that pocket first. Negative numbers will avoid a pocket.
- A couple people already mentioned the Zone Manager. You can use it to loot any building in under a minute. If you set up a personal zone to "Unload Everything" and check every option, it'll automatically dump out every backpack, unload every clip, and detach every gun mod from the loot on those tiles.
- Crafting will draw from items within 6 walkable tiles of where you are. So when building your base, try to keep everything within 6 tiles of your crafting spot for maximum efficiency.
There's lots of little features like this because someone, somewhere, wanted to do the same thing you did, so they made it a reality!
I've never tried this and I'm scared of messing it up, having the grenade explode in my hand. How is it done?
-activate grenade
-peek
-throw
Simple at that?
Yep, just that. Make a quick save and Alt+F4 if you're worried you might mess it up.
Turning off autosave and just hitting "Esc->a" before you get out of your car, or get INTO your car and drive a long distance, is a pretty good idea. Especially when I'm tired I'll end up smashing my super customized car into a boulder or something and ruin it, and not want to spend the time and resources to repair it, so it's quicker to just alt-f4 and reload.
Just Do It!