plague hearts killed in close-combat?

[TIMBS]

does this mean destroying plague hearts with melee? if so i did that twice and it aint counting.

[Poofer]

no, it means close combat. unequip your melee weapon and kill it with your small close combat weapon.

[Someguyinhere]

Yep. Close combat refers exclusively to your knife.

[Война]

The devs don't know what "close combat" means and think it is using knife only)

[TIMBS]

Originally posted by Poofer:

no, it means close combat. unequip your melee weapon and kill it with your small close combat weapon.

Originally posted by Someguyinhere:

Yep. Close combat refers exclusively to your knife.

Originally posted by Война:

The devs don't know what "close combat" means and think it is using knife only)

tyty, godspeed

[Vexov]

Also: You just need to FINISH IT! with the combat weapon (small).

I think you can do 3 fuel bombs, then it should die in 10-15hits?.

[Protectron]

Originally posted by Vexov:

Also: You just need to FINISH IT! with the combat weapon (small).

I think you can do 3 fuel bombs, then it should die in 10-15hits?.

4 will get you closer in Nightmare. I don't know how much the Hearts can take in the other difficulties. Normally, I use 6 but once I did it in 5 for some reason.

Also, if you can, establish an Outpost as close as you can to it, and then drive away/quit to main menu and restart to de-spawn the zombies within the safe zone. That should prevent zombies and Ferals from spawning most of the time (not 100% guarantee and I don't know why).

[Alien SlaYer]

Originally posted by Poofer:

no, it means close combat. unequip your melee weapon and kill it with your small close combat weapon.

I can't seem to get this bounty. I killed a plague heart with a knife, just my knife, and no other melee weapon equipted, and still didn't get the credit.

[billy_blue69]

I just finished it with my karambit. I threw my other melee in my van. Did 2 of them like this. Had to run for my life a couple of times though!

[Alien SlaYer]

Originally posted by billy_blue69:

I just finished it with my karambit. I threw my other melee in my van. Did 2 of them like this. Had to run for my life a couple of times though!

Hmm, just wondering, were you alone? Just had a thought, that I had another survivor tagging along, but I am sure he/she was to busy with the other zeds to be shooting at the heart. I had dropped my melee weapon on the ground, outside the house, that the heart was in. However, the other survivor that I had recruited might have gotten some shots off at the heart, without my knowing it. Think I will try later, and use some scent block, to keep the zeds off me, while I try again, LOL.

[Sternitzky]

In these cases it's wise bringing a community NPC along, since you can choose their weapons too. Something you can't with NPCs from allied enclaves.

[billy_blue69]

Originally posted by Alien SlaYer:

Originally posted by billy_blue69:

I just finished it with my karambit. I threw my other melee in my van. Did 2 of them like this. Had to run for my life a couple of times though!

Hmm, just wondering, were you alone? Just had a thought, that I had another survivor tagging along, but I am sure he/she was to busy with the other zeds to be shooting at the heart. I had dropped my melee weapon on the ground, outside the house, that the heart was in. However, the other survivor that I had recruited might have gotten some shots off at the heart, without my knowing it. Think I will try later, and use some scent block, to keep the zeds off me, while I try again, LOL.

Yes, solo. I find my companions get in the way and I have to run and try and save them. lol. I parked my vandito right next to the window where the heart is. I hit with other weapons first too. Then run in smack away a few times and run back out and jump on my van. :)

[Protectron]

You don't have to kill the Heart only using the close combat weapon.

Lethal: It takes 1 Drone Strike + 2 Pipe Bombs or even 3 Soda-Can Bombs to kill a Heart. This means that you can call in the strike and throw 2 Soda-can bombs to have just a few stabs left before it dies.

It takes 20 regular hits (non powerhouse powered hits) with a Groundbreaker Shovel to kill the Heart. You can therefore count to 19 and then put the shovel away. It takes 18 with the Beetle Mallet. These are the two weapons with the most Impact in the base game, and they are both rare. If you have the common Sledge Hammer, for instance, it has pretty good Impact too, so you can stop at 20 strikes and then just allocate more time for the stabbing (or find out exactly how many strikes it takes first).

It takes 11 Fuel Bombs to kill the Heart, and you can throw them from the roof of your car without being in any danger except Juggernauts and Bloaters. Just throw 10, then, and then run inside and get the rest before the zombies gathering around your car knows what happened (shoot the Feral first).

Nightmare: 1 C4, 1 Thermite Grenade and 4 7.62 (suppressed) rounds kills the Heart in 10-15 seconds. However, given the Heart's gas attacks, it's a bit inconvenient to have to wait for the gas to clear for that stab (or a few stabs at most). I don't remember how many strikes it takes with heavy melee on Nightmare anymore, but it is easy to find out. ScentBlock is your friend here as that will give you all the time you need without getting disturbed too much.

So, basically, on any difficulty you can find out exactly how much damage the Heart takes before it dies, and then just finish it off with the close combat weapon. Any follower is very likely going to mess that whole process up, so go alone.