tips for this beginner ?

[JOHNNY]

i remember that i refund the game because the chainsaw man scares the living ♥♥♥♥ out of me.

[SirDmitry]

Shotgun knockbacks almost any enemy.
Chainsaw man scares a lot. Later there will be fight with 2 of them in small area. Be ready))

[JOHNNY]

Originally posted by SirDmitry:

Shotgun knockbacks almost any enemy.
Chainsaw man scares a lot. Later there will be fight with 2 of them in small area. Be ready))

ooooof like f*ck. thanks for the heads up.

[pcdeltalink]

I've played through this game several dozen times so I can give several that I can think of. This will be a long read. I'll have some basic tips and, for a bit more in depth reading, some more advanced ones as well as a small section on my weapon picks.

1. Your gun is not very effective just starting out. You're going to want to go for headshots, followup with a kick to knock the enemy over while they are staggered, and then knife them to death. This will save an absolute ton of ammo and is almost required if you don't want to eventually run out of ammo. Get used to using your knife, it will help so much. You will want to do this most of the game honestly.

2. Thrown enemy projectiles can be shot out of the air. You may have found this out by accident but if an enemy throws something at you, you can shoot it out of the air with any weapon (hint: especially dynamite throwers). You can even knife enemy projectiles out of the air if you're skilled/lucky enough.

3. Free shotgun in the first main village area. It's in the two story house near the center of town. Don't leave without it. Shotguns are amazing crowd control in this game. Save for when you are surrounded/overwhelmed or when you need to knockdown an enemy (chainsaw man). For chainsaw guy starting out you can conserve shells by switching back to handgun when he is down and shooting him with that. Switch back to shotgun if you need to knock him down again.

4. For your first playthrough buy the treasure maps the merchant sells. Unless you are using YouTube guides or something similar just buy the treasure maps for each main part of the game so you don't miss any treasure. There are points of no return as you progress so if you see a treasure on the map (marked as stars) and you can get it then, do so.

5. When buying capacity upgrades for your gun try to have your clip empty or nearly empty. Buying a capacity upgrade automatically fills your magazine so this is free ammo. Curb the gamer reflex of reloading until you upgrade. This is especially helpful early game for rarer ammo types like rifle and shotgun.

6. Try not to upgrade your starting handgun. You can get a slightly better weapon for free early game by shooting the blue medallions that are in the farm and the graveyard area. Shooting all 15 of them will give you a new gun from the merchant with the first firepower upgrade for free giving you a very slight damage boost over starting handgun.

7. Your grenades are very powerful but save them for when you need them or for large groups of enemies. My general rule is 1 - 3 enemies: handgun, 3 - 5 enemies: shotgun, 5 or more enemies: grenades. Hand grenades have a pretty large range so you will usually kill the whole group if you get it in their vicinity. Flash grenades will cause stun in a massive area for about 10 seconds and will kill exposed plaga parasites (you'll see them once nightfall hits) instantly. Flash grenades also kill crows instantly.

For more detail on enemy AI and using your knife better.

1. Enemy AI predicts your movement and tries to swing their melee weapon at you accordingly. This is easily learned and tested by intentionally baiting out attacks by moving toward an enemy in close range and either immediately stopping your run or backing up. They will swing and hit air.

If you are quick you can follow up these moments by closing distance after they swing and going for a knife attack to the face which then staggers them. Kick and finish them with knife. You can clear multiple enemies without ever firing your weapon this way. With some practice, you can kill chainsaw enemies with only your knife.

Note: rarely, when trying to knife enemies at close distance you may not get the stagger animation and they may act like you didn't hit them. You'll then be hit or grabbed more than likely. This is rare (and may be a bug?) but it just happens sometimes.

You can see some examples of simple knife combat in the first episode of the playthrough I did. Skip to 27:00 in. A few basic things shown till 28:40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWzBsJjCY6o&list=PLvgByLSq4fWmZHOk8FWLeK7jF8JY6dNcn


Pros and Cons of later weapon choices.

I won't cover every weapon here but just the primary choices (handgun, rifle, shotgun) you will have to make as you go through the game. I should emphasize here that these thoughts are my opinion as I know some people would argue with me on these.


Handgun. Red9 vs Blacktail

Red9 ends up with the highest damage per shot of all handguns so you get the most damage possible from each precious round of ammo (and it sounds epic!). However, it has some recoil and without the optional stock (that takes up inventory space) your aim will be less accurate at long distance. Max firepower of 6.5

Blacktail is the fastest firing handgun in the game that still has decent damage. This thing can crank out bullets insanely fast in a pinch. It is the second most powerful handgun in terms of damage. It also gets a fairly large clip to make use of its fast fire rate even longer. Max firepower of 4.5.

Personal Conclusion. I think the Red9 is the best handgun in the game due to having the highest damage per shot. The recoil isn't awful and with practice you don't need the stock for long distance (though it is a nice quality of life thing to have). If you're in a situation where you need to make full use of the Blacktail's super fast firing rate to hold off enemies I'd argue you should have pulled out your shotgun instead.


Shotgun. Riot Gun vs Striker (Biggest debate will probably come from here)

Riot Gun
Available as soon as you hit the second main area of the game. The primary benefit of this shotgun vs the Striker is that the pellet spread is much less making it much more accurate at a distance. You can get kills from surprisingly far away with this weapon. The Riot Gun also is slightly faster at aiming compared to other shotguns.

Striker
Available toward the later half of the second main area in the game. Highest damage per shot but only at absolute point blank range. Damage and accuracy on this falls of very quick and within a pretty short distance and it has what is (again, IMO) a worthless exclusive upgrade. It gets a 100 shell magazine. Sure this gives you lots of free shells but by the time you get access to the exclusive upgrade (partway through the final area of the game) I personally already had around 80 shotgun shells.

Personal conclusion: Striker is inferior to the Riot Gun in most circumstances and the increased firepower of the Striker (12.0) vs the Riot Gun (10.0) does not make up for the various downsides of the Striker.


Rifle. Rifle (bolt action) vs Rifle (semi-auto).

Rifle (bolt action)
Available from the first merchant of the game. You'll want to grab this just to have a long distance weapon at that time. What decision you will make later is if you'll keep this rifle or not. This Rifle ends up with a staggering amount of firepower by end game (30.0) which is actually equivalent to a magnum bullet. That's insane. However, as it is a bolt action rifle you have to cycle the round after every shot. This also pulls you out of the scope so you'll have to aim again between each shot. Naturally, this also means your fire rate sucks.

Rifle (semi auto)
Available as soon as you hit the second main area of the game. This rifle fixes the two biggest downsides of the bolt action version. It has better firing speed and it doesn't pull you out of the scope between shots. The exclusive upgrade makes the fire rate on this thing go insanely fast. However, you pay for this with less max firepower (15.0). That's still great damage but not near what bolt action does.

Personal conclusion: I use Rifle (bolt action) for two reasons. I like the insane damage. The lower firing speed makes me play the game better as it allows for less mistakes. My first few playthroughs I stuck with Semi-Auto but now it's Bolt Action all the way.

Geez this ran longer than I thought it would. Anyway, I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[SirDmitry]

Some addition to pcdeltalink guide.

0. In your first run i recommend using Striker shotgun and Semiauto rifle. They are easier in use.

1. If you search all areas and collect all loot/treasures you could get enough money to obtain all upgrades for 5 weapons - handgun, shotgun, rifle, tmp and revolver. Look for any guide at steam/youtube, choose your weapon in every category and upgrade only choosen ones. Dont waste money on every gun.

2. You will get small amount of money from every killed krow. In some areas there are bunch of them sitting on the ground (cemetery for example). If you shoot one of them - others fly away. Use your flash grenade and you could easily get 2000-3000 gold. Its much better then selling grenades for 500 to trader.