Fighting thugs (and other questions about weapons)

[Zarvanis]

Is there a secret to fighting these guys? I've tried baiting their attacks then going in for a hit, but half the time they do a stab attack immediately after. There's no way to predict it, and there's no delay to the animation. It hits immediately.

After dying an absurd number of times to the stab, I've had to resort to extreme save-scumming every time I fight thugs. I get that combat isn't the focus of this game, but fighting thugs for their cash seems like the most efficient way to afford anything.
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How much damage does a weapon do at 0% compared to fists? It feels like the it takes 10 hits to down a single thug with a knife.
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Is there a particular gun I should get? I've got 2 revolvers that I never use, and I've seen kids selling ammo for shotguns and rifles. That one guy whose name I've forgotten sells guns, but they're uber-expensive and I don't know if it's worth the investment.

[Griffith]

the combat in this game is baaaaaad.
its just awful.

actually, thats probably the largest issue with this version. the easiest way to play is to save scum at night for every single bandit, and simply loot every corpse one finds. it breaks the hobo-economy.

if you're still gonna rambo everything, all you need to do is save-scum, and knife them in the back. idk if it works with 0% knife, but you'll get a special animation when you hit the sweet spot.

[malek86]

You get used to the combat after a while. After that, thugs weren't a problem for me anymore. Didn't even need to save, except I still did, just in case someone stole my kill.

Mind, starting from day 4, fighting bandits suddenly isn't your best source of money or food anymore. You are better off breaking into an abandoned house and killing the looters. They are much more annoying than bandits, but there are... somewhat legitimate ways to deal with them easily. (if you want to know: jump on a table and they will be completely unable to hit you as you punch them to death from above) They don't drop as much money as bandits, but they are far easier to find (just get into any abandoned house), and they always drop a crowbar. Five crowbars can be exchanged for a big piece of meat from many patrolmen. Plus, abandoned houses contain a lot of medicine that you can sell for a tidy profit. Keep the yellow tablets though. Just some advice.

This way, you can also keep your ammo for more dangerous times. There will be a few quests where guns help. In those cases, a revolver is almost always your best choice: cheapest ammo and good damage (headshots are pretty much guaranteed kills against any enemy as long as you keep the gun in good shape).

Also, save a lot before and during infected districts. Always travel next to houses, so if you see that a plague cloud is chasing you, you can simply enter a door and leave immediately. Even then, save scumming is your best tool in infected districts. Especially later, when the plague gets worse. If you save scum, you probably won't ever need protective clothing either, meaning you can sell any of those too.

In both of my playthroughs, after a few days, I was already swimming in meat and money. While this game has a reputation for being unforgiving (and it certainly is if you want to play "fairly"), save scumming and some underhanded tricks will let you get very far ahead of the curve. On the plus side, once you don't have to worry about food and money anymore, the quests becomes a lot simpler too.

[Deminox]

Well, if you sneek behind a bandit, or any human enemy for that mater, you equip your knife and point to the neck. The neck will be gloing, and you'll get a special animation of sneek execution. Now, if you get into a fight, just don't use a knife, just don't, take out your revolver and point to the head, or even the area of the collarbones can oneshot kill and enemy most of the time. If you have the rifle, even better, and is a good idea to buy it as soon as you can. You can also use the knife when your target is fighting someone else, he will keep fighting without engaging with you. Do get close for taking a shot, don't be afriad, unless you are fighting someone who can shot you back that is. And avoid using any weapon at 0% whatsoever, knifes get dumb and take ten or more strikes to kill and fire weapons become utterly harmless, I think evem your fists would be even more efective is such case. Do barter for ammo whenever you can, but don't give it all for bullets either, be sure of having barter materials for shmowders at all times for example, and don't be afraid to spend some good money on ammo with Bad Grief, specially on the later days, and if you are swimming in money and resurces already.

[nuriawall555]

Originally posted by Demian Lmnt:

Well, if you sneek behind a bandit, or any human enemy for that mater, you equip your knife and point to the neck. The neck will be gloing, and you'll get a special animation of sneek execution. Now, if you get into a fight, just don't use a knife, just don't, take out your revolver and point to the head, or even the area of the collarbones can oneshot kill and enemy most of the time. If you have the rifle, even better, and is a good idea to buy it as soon as you can. You can also use the knife when your target is fighting someone else, he will keep fighting without engaging with you. Do get close for taking a shot, don't be afriad, unless you are fighting someone who can shot you back that is. And avoid using any weapon at 0% whatsoever, knifes get dumb and take ten or more strikes to kill and fire weapons become utterly harmless, I think evem your fists would be even more efective is such case. Do barter for ammo whenever you can, but don't give it all for bullets either, be sure of having barter materials for shmowders at all times for example, and don't be afraid to spend some good money on ammo with Bad Grief, specially on the later days, and if you are swimming in money and resurces already.

I disagree with literally everything. Sneak killing works with any weapon, even fists, if you point at the right spot, which is usually the back of the head where the hair swirls, not only the neck. This is really difficult as Clara though, because you're tiny lol. If you get on a head on fight, the gun IS your best bet, but only if you already have it equipped, it is not worth it to open your inventory.
Using knives at 0% is much better than using your fists, because the attack animation is shorter and easier to time. Firearms at 0% are utterly useless, though. I never had to barter for ammo, but that's probably because I'm a dirty savescummer and almost never used guns.
DO NOT BUY GUNS, IT IS NOT WORTH IT. I never got a shotgun as Bachelor or a rifle as Haruspex, and I never missed it either. If you need a gun for a quest, you will get it. As the Bachelor you can get a 100% and two 30% revolvers in the first two days.