Enough is enough - I need strategy

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Ok, so the first few hours were all laughs and just silly fun. Now I'm trying to actually win a run, and finding it literally impossible to get past around 8 days to Canada. Its slightly frustrating at this point. I have a solid understanding of most of the scenarios and have been trying different things.

I need some advice from some veterans who have been having more success than us.

Here is my general strategy:

1. I collect everything at every location.
2. I don't ever fight, unless I have to (like, if I'm cornered).
3. If a CYOA option uses someones skill for a special option, I choose that (seems like its always the best outcome).
4. I've talked about this in another thread, but I still don't see why I should take the whole team in, so I just take one guy. The others rest in the car. I can't justify it any other way, since the AI usually dies when I drag them around. I certainly have tried taking the whole team in and literally see no advantage (in fact, all disadvantage).
5. I save all my ammo.
6. I have decided that morale takes first priority over nearly everything else.
7. Keeping a car is also a top priority since everything goes downhill when on foot (plus I doubt you can really win on foot).

What am I missing? I mean day 8 isn't even that far in. Thanks in advance,

[El Mythical 23 k.s.c.]

I'm with you on this, i keep dying from random events later in run. Heal my self to death, kill myself working out. You know the kind of stuff you expect to kill your run. I'm been stocking gas and food to skip all the later events where hordes are always huge. But i keep dying before i can just try to make a striaght run to canada.

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by El myth 23 k.s.c.:

I'm with you on this, i keep dying from random events later in run. Heal my self to death, kill myself working out. You know the kind of stuff you expect to kill your run. I'm been stocking gas and food to skip all the later events where hordes are always huge. But i keep dying before i can just try to make a striaght run to canada.

Right on. Yeah I wonder how many people have had successful runs? I've read one person on the forum here won, but there are likely others. Weird.

[AtypicalChook]

At the end the chainsaw was really helpful because I had a ton of extra gas and it mows through swarms; but I got lucky to get a chainsaw and have gas so that's not a super reliable strategy.

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by AtypicalChuck:

At the end the chainsaw was really helpful because I had a ton of extra gas and it mows through swarms; but I got lucky to get a chainsaw and have gas so that's not a super reliable strategy.

How many successful runs have you had?

[AtypicalChook]

Getting to the 3 hour end swarm and dying getting to the door is my closest sucessful run.

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by AtypicalChuck:

Getting to the 3 hour end swarm and dying getting to the door is my closest sucessful run.

Ok cool. I wasn't sure if you beat it yet. Thanks man.

[AtypicalChook]

My tips so far, and feel free to correct me on any of this:

-Use a controller; it's like night and day how much better it is

-Throw furniture; if you have the stamina and strength you can down or outright kill a few zombies in a line tossing shairs and shoppping carts at them then finish off the rest

-Close doors; if the horde permits I will close doors behind me when leaving stragglers. If I walk in a room with no loot and 5 dead heads closing the door seems to prevent them from following me as fast (if at all)

-Hold down the car start button; I thought I had to mash the button as fast as I could to start the car but holding it down is a quicker way to get the hell out of dodge

-Don't always pick up survivors; if you have 6 food don't grab an extra player unless they are someone you just can't afford to take on

-If you have supplies for days and the next stop is too dangerous just skip it; may not be worth it

-The junkyard has a safe and if you find the combonation in the junkyard itself you get a ton of the ammo/heath of your choice so it can be a wise risk to take trying to open it

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by AtypicalChuck:

My tips so far, and feel free to correct me on any of this:

-Use a controller; it's like night and day how much better it is

-Throw furniture; if you have the stamina and strength you can down or outright kill a few zombies in a line tossing shairs and shoppping carts at them then finish off the rest

-Close doors; if the horde permits I will close doors behind me when leaving stragglers. If I walk in a room with no loot and 5 dead heads closing the door seems to prevent them from following me as fast (if at all)

-Hold down the car start button; I thought I had to mash the button as fast as I could to start the car but holding it down is a quicker way to get the hell out of dodge

-Don't always pick up survivors; if you have 6 food don't grab an extra player unless they are someone you just can't afford to take on

-If you have supplies for days and the next stop is too dangerous just skip it; may not be worth it

-The junkyard has a safe and if you find the combonation in the junkyard itself you get a ton of the ammo/heath of your choice so it can be a wise risk to take trying to open it

Great list. A few things to note:

Picking up survivors has always gained more food (from stuff they brought) in my experience. WHile I agree that its not always the best choice to take more people, I always do.

I agree with the tips on fighting zombies, but I only fight when its a siege, otherwise I just dodge. THere is no advantage to fighting, I don't think. I mean some of the leveling up is dependent on that bug my gawd its soooo many.

[AtypicalChook]

Oh and when you are in the level where you walk to a new car you can loot the cars with glimmering twinkly lights and if they have gas the longer you wait the more gas you siphon

[AtypicalChook]

Also if you lose a friend try to get all the stuff they dropped if it's safe enough.

[Hal]

I just managed my first run, and I got really, really lucky all throughout.
I took some screencaps if you wanna see.

For the last siege I only had one character, and full ammo for Snubnose, Shotgun and Hunting Rifle. I guess the only reason I could win that is because there was only 1 entry point for the zombies, bottom of the room (plus the ones coming through the ceiling) and a big wall in the middle. I could just kite em around.

Reading those tips, they all seem pretty sound.

I probably just got lucky, so take my advice with a grain of salt or something? ^^;

I am currently only able to use my left hand (RSI) So I just play with WASD CTRL SHIFT SPACE E and Q. Cant confirm the controller thing, although I imagine it's true.

I always brought all my guys along, and always recruited everyone.
I think the main reason I did this is cause the custom character I play as has the Paranoid trade, which I feel is borderline essential.
It lets you size up new recruits, and get out of a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ambush and trap situations.
There are some downsides, but it's mostly advantages!

Also, I think the main cause of death of the AI is if you "guide them badly"
they will always kinda tag along, but there are definitely some landmark constellations they have trouble with. I tend to avoid those by making a detour if possible.

Having 3 people on my tail, I usually push a zombie over, and then "walk over them", my posse just trampling them.

Oh, also, I always pick up and throw stuff. usually chairs and small tables, bricks and shopping carts. As the ingame tips reveal, downed zombies take extra damage.

I feel like Food is not that big an issue, I've never managed to starve so far.
Even if I had too little food, I'd still recruit people.
But even with all this, I might just have been damn lucky.

I guess that's all I can think of right now.
Seriously man, good luck!

Oh also, I was kinda reminded of Dead Rising in this game, in the way that...when you first start, your abilities are kinda low.

I would say, "waste" some runs by making the bad decision to train your skills?
I mean, that gets you permanent progress. It's like Leveling up in Souls games!
That invested food goes towards leveling your perks, which you will keep on future runs.
Killing zombies does level up some perks, too! so it's not entirely pointless.
I went out of my way to upgrade healing and mechanics, just to level those perks to increase my chances with future runs.

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by Hallogreen:

I just managed my first run, and I got really, really lucky all throughout.
I took some screencaps if you wanna see.

For the last siege I only had one character, and full ammo for Snubnose, Shotgun and Hunting Rifle. I guess the only reason I could win that is because there was only 1 entry point for the zombies, bottom of the room (plus the ones coming through the ceiling) and a big wall in the middle. I could just kite em around.

Reading those tips, they all seem pretty sound.

I probably just got lucky, so take my advice with a grain of salt or something? ^^;

I am currently only able to use my left hand (RSI) So I just play with WASD CTRL SHIFT SPACE E and Q. Cant confirm the controller thing, although I imagine it's true.

I always brought all my guys along, and always recruited everyone.
I think the main reason I did this is cause the custom character I play as has the Paranoid trade, which I feel is borderline essential.
It lets you size up new recruits, and get out of a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ambush and trap situations.
There are some downsides, but it's mostly advantages!

Also, I think the main cause of death of the AI is if you "guide them badly"
they will always kinda tag along, but there are definitely some landmark constellations they have trouble with. I tend to avoid those by making a detour if possible.

Having 3 people on my tail, I usually push a zombie over, and then "walk over them", my posse just trampling them.

Oh, also, I always pick up and throw stuff. usually chairs and small tables, bricks and shopping carts. As the ingame tips reveal, downed zombies take extra damage.

I feel like Food is not that big an issue, I've never managed to starve so far.
Even if I had too little food, I'd still recruit people.
But even with all this, I might just have been damn lucky.

I guess that's all I can think of right now.
Seriously man, good luck!

Oh also, I was kinda reminded of Dead Rising in this game, in the way that...when you first start, your abilities are kinda low.

I would say, "waste" some runs by making the bad decision to train your skills?
I mean, that gets you permanent progress. It's like Leveling up in Souls games!
That invested food goes towards leveling your perks, which you will keep on future runs.
Killing zombies does level up some perks, too! so it's not entirely pointless.
I went out of my way to upgrade healing and mechanics, just to level those perks to increase my chances with future runs.

This is some GREAT advice. Damn I didn't know the leveling up is PERMENANT. Makes soooo much more sense now.

...And congrats on winning one handed! Thats crazy.

This really helps, thank you again.

[Hal]

Originally posted by Ryan Dorkoski:

This is some GREAT advice. Damn I didn't know the leveling up is PERMENANT. Makes soooo much more sense now.

...And congrats on winning one handed! Thats crazy.

This really helps, thank you again.

You're welcome, dude!
I hope there will soon be more Canadian Citizens among us ^_^

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by Hallogreen:

Originally posted by Ryan Dorkoski:

This is some GREAT advice. Damn I didn't know the leveling up is PERMENANT. Makes soooo much more sense now.

...And congrats on winning one handed! Thats crazy.

This really helps, thank you again.

You're welcome, dude!
I hope there will soon be more Canadian Citizens among us ^_^

So I just did a run following your advice and yeah for sure it really helped.

Paranoid is a GREAT trait to use. That is golden.

[Hal]

Originally posted by Ryan Dorkoski:

Originally posted by Hallogreen:

You're welcome, dude!
I hope there will soon be more Canadian Citizens among us ^_^

So I just did a run following your advice and yeah for sure it really helped.

Paranoid is a GREAT trait to use. That is golden.

Cheers on that! Don't make too much of a fuss about it tho, devs are listening..
the mighty fear the nerf.... <w<;;;