need combat tips (dont care if they are exploits)

[LeoFIN uTube]

I will give this game second chance.
Last time i rage quit it, because combat was way too hard.

Main problem is that combat starts very easy and more i level up the more harder combat comes.

Tips i have heard so far.
- keep ur weapons at ur level by using workbench. (so i will pay more attention to this)

Im playing Dani this time.
Using heavy attacks (cus it seems there is explosion that stuns other zombies for little time)

Also im using maiming weapons this time and trying to maim legs.
So in later stages if i cant one shot zombies, maybe they lose leg and be smaller problem during fight.

Skull enemies seem to be problem for me.
(no matter what i do, they just one shot me each and every time)

Do i rlly need to learn block / dodge???
Is this something that will ruin gameplay experience if i dont do these????

[Collateral damage]

The only "exploit" I know of is the interaction of Dani/Jacob skill card that gives you attack speed on maim with a legendary dagger (and maybe some other knives/daggers, I haven't tested). Doubt it will actually make you good at the game, but it's fun and very powerful.
That aside, I will provide some input.
1. For whatever reason weapon perks that should increase attack speed don't work. The ones that reduce attack speed, however, do. This only refers to weapon perks, ability cards boosting attack speed work as intended. When modding, prioritize power/impact while not harming attack speed. Power is important because that's how you stagger zombies, deal limb damage, and stack elemental debuffs.
2. In my opinion, all mods besides electric, mutilating and impacting are trash. The only exception is liquidator (toxic) machine pistol.
3. Try different weapons and find whatever suits you best. Weapons are not equal, there are faster bases and slower bases, with longer and shorter range, while damage for them will be similar. Catars are strictly superior to claws, pole saws superior to pikes, for example. When you spam melee attacks, you will see that some execute attacks one after another without delay, and others will have pauses between attacks. These are gimped bases, find something else. There are many trashy clubs, swords, axes, etc. Gimped bases will be just as good for heavy attacks, but they will be bad for light attacks (because of the delay). I recommend looking for pole saw (electric is goat), brass knuckles, catars, machete, composite sledgehammer, dagger.
4. Take note of the archetype of your weapon and what you need to do to make it crit. Maiming weapons crit on limb hits, headhunter on headshots, etc.
5. If you can't take on a crusher, use peggy or uzi.
6. Take curveballs that apply stuns, chembomb is goated. Use them on elites that you have trouble dealing with.
7. Dodge doesn't provide i-frames, for that reason I prefer blocks. Blocks can also stun apex variants easily, like crushers or butchers.
8. If combat is too hard, rush autofage asap, doesn't matter if you take trash cards at first. It will give you insane life leech and you will spam your way through anything. Before that, rely on healing from maiming, dash ability, counter (this one is very strong with block and a card that increases hp regen, but will recover a small amount even without a card). You don't really have to learn block if you reach autophage 3, though it will help with apex zombies (but you can completely ignore it if you stun/wet them with chem bomb then paralize with electric weapon such as pike or pole saw, or spam impactor knuckles, they will not even be able to retaliate. You can also use dash attack to close distance and stagger them before you start your bullying attack chain).
9. In an emergency go rage and recover hp from attacking zombies, cancel rage to preserve your charges. You can take "short fuse" card to activate rage more often.

>Skull enemies seem to be problem for me.
You shouldn't fight them in the first place, skull means you're heavily underleveled. Come back later. You can deal with one or two with methods I described though (chem bomb, blocks, impact, electrocution), but it's basically a sequence break. Yes, in some areas they are positioned very poorly, developers want you to backtrack a lot. In some areas you can unlocks some good mods by defeating skull enemies, but it's not really worth the hassle.

>Do i rlly need to learn block / dodge???
I would say it's flavor. I don't want to learn jump kicks or slide attacks, even though there are some good cards that will boost attack speed and damage, or weaken targets. I can simply take cards in my build that will not involve those abilities. If you don't want to block/dodge, I recommend taking dodge because it helps you get away from the hazards (break distance). I would still recommend at least trying to learn block/dodge and counter because it's a nice way to heal, especially early on. But it's not big deal if you don't want to, you can absolutely clear the game without using counters. There are other ways to heal and there are other ways to stagger enemies (like heavy attacks).

[LeoFIN uTube]

At least im doing better now than my last try long time ago and this time i alrdy killed second boss.
First time, i didnt even make to the second boss before i felt game is too hard.

I rlly like Dani with heavy attacks, that small explosion that happens that stuns enemies for little time rlly helps much.
Sometimes just need to be careful, cus it triggers exploding things in environment also.

Also it seems maiming weapons are my thing, much easier to get criticals with them.
Last time i was playing bulldozer weapons and i cant even remember what character i played and it didnt work out, thou i propably didnt have any idea what i was doing anyways.

And this time i put dodge on my mouse side button and ground stomp (whatever) skill on second mouse side button.

[Dr.Abscondus]

!. Run away from 'skull' zombies.
2. Climb up on anything above ground level. Cars are good , trucks are best. Zombies have a much harder time hitting you and they're very vulnerable when the they try to climb up. A lot of them can't climb at all. There's a side mission where you're trapped in a room with three Butchers. I hopped up on a table and killed all three because they were confused and couldn't use their bullet shield arms. Electricity is good against them. I carry one electric rifle just for them, but avoid elemental damage on all my other weapons.
3. Use your Curveball weapons. Meat bomb is excellent, then either pipe bomb or Molotov cocktail.
4. Dying in this game isn't much of a penalty. You just spawn where you died and you're good to go.