Tips on dealing with the runners?

[Ejl]

I always seem to have 2-3 on my back on missions and in clearing safehouses. They seem to come from nowhere :D I know sound attracts them, but for example turning the valve on at the tunnel on "gassed up" it seems impossible. The minute i begin fighting with the guys inside the control room, i soon hear the scream and i can't even close that door. The bus station mission is also a nightmare :D i'm whacking the big ones, but soon running in circles trying to avoid and kill the runners again.

Then i die, my equipment is more broken, i go back, get a few hits more, runners appear from somewhere, i throw one down, the other one attacks before i can move again and almost kills me before i get him off me, then the other comes and i'm dead.

What can i do witht he runners? This seems to happen pretty much everywhere, what am i missing?

[Civilian]

Check your gameplay setting I think, there you can turn off z-Raid on you, you can turn it off though.

[Blade Master]

Camouflage and takedown is always the most effective way of dealing with them. Otherwise, as soon as you hear virals are coming, climb up somewhere and stomp their heads. Camouflage, takedown and stomp require you to have its own skills.

Some elemental effects do attract virals, for example electricity or fire. Granted I don't use crafted weapons anymore so I don't remember exactly which one is worse. Some missions might even have scripted spawns.

But it shouldn't be a huge issue, make sure you're playing on Normal mode. Also, you have very little number of side missions finished in your play time, make sure that you go back and avoid progressing story further as it'll make the game more harder by buffing health of zombies, making them more resilient and aggressive.

[DedZedNub]

Yeah, Blademaster is right.

First, doing Side Missions really will beef you up with XP and that will help you earn those key skills.

Fire is the worst effect overall -- it will tend to bring Virals, the higher you are in Story Mode, the more Virals will tend to appear (although it also seems to depend on your Survivor Level).

Fire causes the Toxic Zombies (with Green Poison Cloud) to explode. Electricity sometimes does odd things also. If you can use Impact Effect or Bleeding Effect you bypass those dangers of exploding Environmental or Enemy Cloud issues, mostly. (Electricity is doing pretty well for me currently, but it used to cause issues, so it seems to vary).

After a while the Virals just seem to appear when they want. Before then, they react to any noise and any explosion anywhere -- by heading to your area.

Camouflage, takedown, Stomp from a van or any heights. That will really make it much, much easier -- arguably too easy.

Keep in mind that to save on using up your melee weapons, you want to get those special unarmed attack skills (like various kicks, stomp, tackle, drop-kick, takedown) learned and get used to how to use them. That will save you a ton on repairs and from breaking weapons (there are also skills that increase their durability and make your repairs sometimes not use up a repair on the weapon -- weapons have only so many repairs depending on color quality usually). Some NPCs down the road can repair a weapon and get all your repairs back for it, but that's for much later.

My comments above are based on Normal Difficulty. They should extend to other difficulties mostly, but it varies.

[Ejl]

Originally posted by BladeMaster:

Camouflage and takedown is always the most effective way of dealing with them. Otherwise, as soon as you hear virals are coming, climb up somewhere and stomp their heads. Camouflage, takedown and stomp require you to have its own skills.

Some elemental effects do attract virals, for example electricity or fire. Granted I don't use crafted weapons anymore so I don't remember exactly which one is worse. Some missions might even have scripted spawns.

But it shouldn't be a huge issue, make sure you're playing on Normal mode. Also, you have very little number of side missions finished in your play time, make sure that you go back and avoid progressing story further as it'll make the game more harder by buffing health of zombies, making them more resilient and aggressive.

Side missions, yes, not many of them done. My survivor rank is 8 atm, because i keep dying and dying and dying, i an't complete the sidemissions :D Mostly they fail because of the runners always attacks somewhere :D That's why i'm progressing on the story to get more survivor rank levels.

Is there any specific places to find household supplies? I'd need them for firecrackers.

[DedZedNub]

Survivor Levels 7-9 was were I recall it getting rough, with the Virals for the first time. There are certain levels well you can feel the bump and it is even in the style of the game, such as with the virals almost not needing sound to appear. They actually will begin to secretly convert and appear when in a large horde, so after a while they cannot be completely avoided -- this I think is Survivor Level related.

Ok. So a couple of things. First, you can find supply drops (air drops) and deposit them at the Quartermaster for XP. But, if you die, you will lose some of that XP until you get to the next Survivor Level as a penalty. So, you may want to look for those, which will refill every few hours or so, and hold onto them in inventory until you have enough to make the next Level. This way you don't lose that big XP source to death penalty.

HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES:

Best places are in the shops with Freezers and Cash Registers. The Freezers where you often find the food, often have them.

Just as good are any cabinets, the big double doored wooden ones for example.

Basically, house to house stuff, go into any shop. You'll find them a lot also in various chests, but there are only 2 spawns in a chest, and usually one is a weapon. For Household Supplies, unlocked chests are as good as locked ones. Also, baskets.

So basically just scavenge away. Near the Tower HQ in Slums works well, then expand if confident.

Keep in mind you can also avoid most enemies by being up high and out of sight, or inside buildings, it also means they tend to have to come thru the doors. Get those Unarmed Skills going.

Also a key tip, throwing a broken melee weapon will attack with full force and is powerful at lower levels. But don't forget you have to pick up that weapon later. Also, I often forget this, but you can if you have the skill hold the weapon for a Power Attack. This is a more powerful swing and often is even decent with a junk weapon, like a Pipe. Just get the timing down.

[ColdNhungry]

To distract while opening stuff, if it seems like they won't stop coming, the camouflage perk or firecrackers are your best friend.

To kill them, the best way is the head stomp perk. You don't necessarily need them to be lying on the ground to use it, you simply need to be about a body's length above them, so climb up something, vans are the best, and the second they start climbing, the prompt shows up. Keep doing this until they are all dead.

[Blade Master]

Originally posted by Ejl:

Originally posted by BladeMaster:

Camouflage and takedown is always the most effective way of dealing with them. Otherwise, as soon as you hear virals are coming, climb up somewhere and stomp their heads. Camouflage, takedown and stomp require you to have its own skills.

Some elemental effects do attract virals, for example electricity or fire. Granted I don't use crafted weapons anymore so I don't remember exactly which one is worse. Some missions might even have scripted spawns.

But it shouldn't be a huge issue, make sure you're playing on Normal mode. Also, you have very little number of side missions finished in your play time, make sure that you go back and avoid progressing story further as it'll make the game more harder by buffing health of zombies, making them more resilient and aggressive.

Side missions, yes, not many of them done. My survivor rank is 8 atm, because i keep dying and dying and dying, i an't complete the sidemissions :D Mostly they fail because of the runners always attacks somewhere :D That's why i'm progressing on the story to get more survivor rank levels.

Is there any specific places to find household supplies? I'd need them for firecrackers.

DedZedNub has a lot of great points in details above.

But yeah, do side missions and try not to progress in story, or it'll make it worse since you'll underdevelop your character by not allowing it enough experience from side quests, finishing story makes game harder but finishing side missions doesn't, it allows your character to develop and prepare for difficulty that increases when progressing into story.

As of dying, remember that main way of leveling up is delivering DROP(s) to Quartermaster, make sure to save these and don't deliver until you have enough to pass the next rank, you can only lose experience, not the levels, so you must use this to your advantage.

As of the household supplies, there's no specific farming spot in Slums, you can use this but it'll be slow as there's only one household supplies.

https://youtu.be/O2hD_GSXL2E

However, loot the fridges, you'll find plenty of household supplies from these, also check vendors and Quartermasters. If I remember correctly the Quartermaster should prove household supplies even early.

[DedZedNub]

Good point about distractions. I just confirmed today, that if they are walkers and walk to the firecracker, I can get behind and do a takedown to them, as if they are unaware. Nice.

[DedZedNub]

Also around your current Survivor Level you'll soon get access to other guns and the Bow. So that will be additional ways to help. I think Bows are silent kills also. Most guns, especially Pistols on Normal, don't attract enemies right away from a distance. So they are good, especially with headshots, in an emergency. Just don't forget that you may need ammo, so once they are available in stores, pistol ammo, that's okay then.

[ColdNhungry]

Originally posted by DedZedNub:

Good point about distractions. I just confirmed today, that if they are walkers and walk to the firecracker, I can get behind and do a takedown to them, as if they are unaware. Nice.

It's also great to group them up for molotovs (although oddly enough, the moment the molotov connects, the firecracker aggro drops and they agro back to you).

This same mechanic can be used to help you in challenges as well, like the "grapple zombies into spikes". Throw a firecracker next to a spike, they all gather around it, allow you just gently kick all of them into it. Sometimes they even walk right into it themselves xD

[DELTA]

cloak posion you get from the witch at the bazzar

[Prancer_Slenderfriend]

if you get in a situation where the viral spawn noise just keeps looping and more and more keep coming, quit to menu and reload your save, its been a bug since the console release that sometimes Virals just attract more Virals infinitely until you die, then the crowd of virals that killed you ambushes you the second you step out of wherever you spawned

[Lar Dass]

vault over them, they willl be stunned

[alexbruc]

Originally posted by Ejl:

I always seem to have 2-3 on my back on missions and in clearing safehouses. They seem to come from nowhere :D I know sound attracts them, but for example turning the valve on at the tunnel on "gassed up" it seems impossible. The minute i begin fighting with the guys inside the control room, i soon hear the scream and i can't even close that door. The bus station mission is also a nightmare :D i'm whacking the big ones, but soon running in circles trying to avoid and kill the runners again.

Then i die, my equipment is more broken, i go back, get a few hits more, runners appear from somewhere, i throw one down, the other one attacks before i can move again and almost kills me before i get him off me, then the other comes and i'm dead.

What can i do witht he runners? This seems to happen pretty much everywhere, what am i missing?

I find the more drop packs I have the more of them their are.

[Poppi !!]

Distraction is most effective in my opinion.