Best Weapons

[ESOS]

Name one of the first and secondary weapons for the lethal zone.

Which one is the best suppressor, handmade, improvised, or professional?

I've just finished my first playthrough in the standard zone and now I'm trying lethal zone but I'm having a hard time dealing with the zombies in the lethal zone. My professional suppressor still does some noise and attracts nearby zombies as well in the lethal zone and the crossbow is too slow when got attacked by a horde.

[キールス]

引用自 Esos：

Name one of the first and secondary weapons for the lethal zone.

Heavy weapons + Stimulants are the best for destroying plague hearts. Any gun is good at dealing with zombies that isn't a juggernaut on lethal but doesn't beat the rear end of a car.

Blunt/Bladed weapons are decent but will eventually need to be repaired. Close Combat is really good at dealing with a small group of zombies once you know how to throw them around because of the quick execution animation.

引用自 Esos：

I've just finished my first playthrough in the standard zone and now I'm trying lethal zone but I'm having a hard time dealing with the zombies in the lethal zone. My professional suppressor still does some noise and attracts nearby zombies as well in the lethal zone and the crossbow is too slow when got attacked by a horde.

Personally don't like stealth on Lethal since there are too many zombies. I make sure I have an escape option before doing anything(npc missions/infestation/plague heart clearing), go in loud and get out as quick as possible.

Car's are really cost effective at dealing with any zombie that isn't a bloater or a juggernaut as long as you know how to drive on reverse. I personally reserve guns for base defense or killing ferals.

The only weapon that I have tested that is silent on lethal is the crossbow but you could try a silenced .22. .22 caliber guns in this game are usually the most silent especially if you attach a silencer on it.

[Crazy_Raccoon]

It depends on difficulty up till lethal zone any silenced weapon will do the caliber is not that important as you simply do headshots so .22 and 7.62 mm will do the same job.
On lethal you only use gun if you absolutely have to because even small caliber with advanced suppressors attract zombies from big area around and suppressors damage guns faster meaning you will be forced to spend more on repairs not to mention that ammo is less common and producing higher tier rounds cost more.
All you need is crossbow and some molotovs. Silently kill zombies that are further from the group, take down screamer with crossbow that is surrounded by 2-3 random z's and just through a molotov on a horde. You can stealthy kill whole horde easily or you can just use 1 molotov instead of 10 or more bullets/bolts.
Travelling light and not burning your stamina fast is best option IMO and if you equip main gun and secondary/handgun you already have some weight to carry around. I personally see no point of having secondary gun except from visual appeal.
As for melee cc weapons does the job just fine and dont require any repairs. When you play for some time you kinda start to see where ferals spawn or you notice them before they do now heavy melee weapons+stamina snacks comes in handy. You can deal with normal ferals easily if you have a gunslinger but as blood ferals need more shots clapping them with beatlle Mallet is prob the easiest way to go. Trip or use crossbow for bloaters - ignore juggers if you dont have antimaterial rifle you can escape from them - there is no point wasteing other bullets and attracting tons of zombies.
Infestations are easily cleared with fire cracker and molotov. PH depends on what you got - smash it with heavy melee untill it burst drop c4 run outside - detonate - repeat. Just drop molotovs on exposed ones. For those inside houses and in small rooms use automatic 7.62mm with 100+mags for easy fast kills that is if you have enough bullets - you will kill it in seconds and if you have car nearby you will be long gone before all the unwelcome quests start to show.

[Defektiv]

The fire grenades that don't leave a pool behind are super useful. It only takes a handful to take out a heart on lethal and the best part is they don't cause more zombies to spawn when they explode. So if you can quietly neutralize the threat outside without spawning more zombies, then you just sneak through the building where the heart is, stealth kill all the ones idling there, you can just crouch and toss off the grenades until the heart pops. I always try to carry a few for clearing out super hordes if I get in over my head. They will even act as a slight distraction to zombies nearby that don't get caught in the blast as well.

Professional suppressor all the way. Improvised is going to cause your gun to break super quick. I use the M4 because its quiet and comfortable, and comes with the warlord boon. Aim snap skill on hunters 100%. Only way I can deal with ferals is aim snap, usually from on top of a car or vehicle wreck.

[Protectron]

The best suppressor is the Advanced Suppressor, found on some rare weapons and sold by the Mysterious Wandering Trader.

While .22 do one-shot a zombie head, the hit box is smaller and the kill range shorter. The higher the calibre, the longer the range, the more stopping power and the bigger the hit box. The noise is also greater, but as noted above, you shouldn't move on from crossbows to guns until you have 1000+ Parts (Salvage Station/CNC), and you have the facility mods to produce the rounds for the gun you plan to use. By the time I move on from crossbows I often have 2000+ Parts and 400+ 7.62 rounds, and the X3 repeating crossbow is not sufficient to deal with the number of zombies I have to deal with so that I have to run from too many missions and looting runs (in Lethal)... so many that it becomes annoying.

What happens then is that it doesn't matter how many zombies are spawned in when I enter a building or stop the car. As long as the zombies don't scream/roar and call in even more, the noise I make by shooting 7.62 is just going to help me clear the area faster. I also often run into the house and fully explore the house before I deal with all zombies outside, because when all the zombies are killed the house is a safe zone right away.

But to the point:

Top 3 .22 guns:
Prepper's 10/22
Exterminator's 10/22
Sleeper Cell PPK

9mm:
Spec Ops MP5A2
Restored Echo-S4 SMG
Custom MP5A2

.45:
Spec Ops Vector SMG
Mac-V

5.56:
M4X1 DMR Heavy
AKS 74U Valentine
Sighted M4A1

7.62
Eternal Guard's Infinite Rage
Prepper's AK47
RTX Stormbringer

(note that some Bounty Broker weapons may be very good and not listed here)

[Defektiv]

Good call on clearing the house first to make it a safe zone. I keep forgetting that's a mechanic.

[Scorp721]

The X3 Repeating Crossbow is the crossbow you want for Lethal zone as it holds I think 10 bolts so you don't have to reload after every shot. Also while crossbows are silent, the bolts themselves DO make noise when they impact a surface or a zombie.

You "usually" don't have to worry about them coming to you if you're shooting at zombies far enough away (while crouched of course), they'll just go to where the bolt impacted. Just make sure you keep an eye on an area and make the call to bail if it looks like the sound is drawing in too many extra zeds.

You could also use a single bolt as a distraction. Say you're looting a building and you see a hoard inching it's way towards you, (Especially the storefronts with only one entrance) just shoot a bolt into a wall or the ground somewhere away from the building and they'll go to the impact sound, giving you time to sneak out.

Of course if you plan on using the crossbow a lot you'll want someone with Resourcefulness for the increased chance at recovering your bolts.

You can usually get one from the Echo Trader and sometimes the "crossbow killer" will have one on them. I'm sure there are a couple more ways that I'm not remembering.

Edit: Crossbows also give an increased chance at recovering Plague Samples if you ever find yourself in need of them.