Avoid Volatiles At Night

[Doc Clarke]

I've seen other posts about this, after the second air drop. The advice I've read is based on using maxxed out characters and skills so far down the skill tree I'm no where near that level.
I have agility to level 4 by thge time I got to this mission and have unlocked 3 pretty basic agility skills, all the others are level 1 or 2. I mean this mission occurs only about 3 hours into the game.
So how come some players are "maxxed" when they do it.

First things first "git gud" is no use in my case. I'm getting on in years and my reactions and ability are what they are - they ain't going to get any better. That said I can complete Dark Souls 1 and 2 on the hardest levels, so I can't be THAT bad.

So 2 questions

Do you need to have better skills to do this?
If so how (so early in the game) do these guys giving advice get those skills?

It may be of course that I'm just not good enough to do this :)

[Kita]

just run and turn corners thats all u have to do

[JimmyIowa]

At low levels, use speed booster potions (craftable from herbs). They are a huge help in evading pursuit. Just have 3 speed booster potions ready when you go out at night.

When you hit a higher survivor level you get grappling hook. This is a HUGE help in evading pursuit from volatiles. Once you have the hook you can quickly grapple to the top of a tall building then grapple a few buildings away. Done.

Also, anyone who just replies "gut gud' is probably a newb who doesn't know any actual strategies.

[Alexoferith]

Hi, Doc, my advice is that first of all, enable ALL safehouses during day time. Plan your route to be so. Jump and climb as much as you can on route to safehouses. This is to get your agility up. Sleep at night if you are not sure to venture out at night. Otherwise, climb and jump loads during night time to get your agility up double time. Once ALL safehouses are enable, next make sure you have the skill to create potions. You need the resistance potions (primary), then stamina. Of course, you need to stock up in medi packs. If you have to fight zombies, pick the lowly one and never pick a group of more than 3 or 4. If you do, make sure you can separate them so that you end up fighting one or two at the most.
Now, by this time, you should be quite confident to deal with zombies, i.e. when to run and when to fight. Next, we will do some serious zombie killing, the volatiles of course. Remember one thing, zombies cannot survive in water. See what I am getting at. To do this, I call it XP farming exercise, no cheat. Just being smart that is all. Locate the single house very near to the entrance of a tunnel at one end, the other end, well, round the corner to be exact, is the fishermen villiage. The village is on the south east of the map. You cannot miss it as it is part of the story line. The single house is actually below the fishing village in the map. To be sure that you find the house I mean, there is a red (medium) locked chest at the back of the house. The whole house sort of on stilt in the water, with the walkway to the house being broken. This is where you fight the volatiles. So, if the fishing village is not activated yet (can only be activated by furthering in storyline), i.e. safehouse, locate the nearest safehouse. Sleep night, then run down to this house and stand on the platform facing the broken walkway. Now, either use your firecrackers (which I recommend) or use guns to attract attention. Then drink a resistance potion. Arm yourself with a machete or similar class (don't use heavy weapon or light weapon). Stand on the platform, wait for the volatile rushing to you. Naturally, you will be panicking. Don't worry. Watch the volatiles or virals, when they jump towards you, press the button for Kicking. Just kick them and they will fall into the water. Leave them in the water. Don't fire gun at them. They will die within seconds. However, remember one thing though. Keep using your Q sense just to spot if any of them showing up behind you or to your right. Then run to face them before they jump on the platform. Your weapon at this moment is too weak to kill them. If they get on the plaform, you won't have a chance at your level. Oh, sorry, I forgot that one weapon you can use to kill them even at low level. You have to get the skill to build explosive throwing stars. For normal type of volatiles, you need 4 explosive stars to kill one. For the new second type which have spikes coming out of their spines and darker colour skin, you need 9 or 10 explosive stars. For Virals, you only need one. So if you have explosive starts, arm yourself with the star instead of a weapon. So, if some of them managed to jump on the platform to your right, throw the stars to kill them. Now, if your health get lower than 50%, jump into the water. You can last long enough for the alarm to subside, then come back out to heal and regroup yourself. Start the fight again. Oh, don't forget to loot the dead one. In fact, don't forget to loot at all during day time and night time. You didn't say how far you are into the storyline. I can tell you, may be a bit late for you. It is best to enable all teh safehouses when you are 8% into the storyline. You should be able to get out staying at 15% into storyline. I have done it even in nightmare mode.
And if you want to learn more, message me. I am over 50 so not much younger than you, hehe and you have finished Dark Soul 2 & 3, I haven't...LOL.

[TrefanSVK]

I'm not sure if you're having a hard time avoiding them or escaping them.

You can easily pass the whole night without any skills, just use survivor sense.
Even on nightmare difficulty, you can still see the volatiles through objects for a few seconds every time you use it.
Maybe also try using headphones because you can hear their loud breathing from far away.
And also, even if you are choosing your path carefully with the survior sense, don't take a long time killing zombies. Basically, at nigh, avoid everything you can.

[string28]

There is a You Tube video that says to run to the beach and into the water, then across the bay and thru a pipe. I got killed trying to go thru the pipe and ended up in a safe house then I got killed a couple times trying to go from the safe house to the tower. Finally I ran to the tower from the safe house and made it. Check out You Tube.

[Frag Maniac]

It's kinda hard to determine exactly what you're asking, but I take it you mean how to get back to the tower from the very first scripted encounter with evading volatiles after getting to the air drop in the dark?

It helps a lot to beforehand unlock the safehouse between the tower and the air drop. You won't be able to sleep at it in that first part of the game, but you can use it as a safe spot to leap frog to the tower with.

Once you're there, you can go to the roof, turn on the flashlight, and look for rooftops to use on your way to the tower. The volatiles generally don't use rooftops when searching, but you DO have to remain quiet and dark when they're near.

If you don't have that safehouse unlocked, just keep running and using duck unders, turns and climbs, and gap jumps to lose the first volatile, then get on a roof. Trust me, you can do this. I'm 58, and I doubt I'd do well at ANY Dark Souls game. I've beaten it and The Following on Nightmare, and I plan on playing both from a fresh start on Nightmare soon.

Once you know the game well, you know just what to do to survive. It's not as hard as it first looks.