Clearing Towns and Zombie Hordes Guide

How to deal with Hordes, Loners and clearing a whole Town.

Fending off a Horde

Horde warning

• A mass of bunched up Zombies wont run out of stamina
  
• Running in a single line will exhaust your stamina and wont shake off the horde
  
• Strafe slightly and use forests to make them lose line of sight
  
• This wont work if they're right behind you!
  
• Gunfire will attract more zombies but if necessary use it to recover stamina
  
• Don't run in panic, always have a target in mind. Like a vehicle or building!
  
• If needed, trace back the path you came from! At least you'll know what is already there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZb4mHNtBTY

Use a ranged weapon

• You can also use melee and fight off the horde normally if you have the stamina and are confident
  
• Guns like the pistol will attract more attention but it will still work in your favor as long as you have ammo

Aim at their Legs

• You can only aim at their legs with 1 point in Archery for bows, 1 point in Firearms for guns and lastly one point in Hand to Hand for melee

Shoot at point blank range

• Wait until the Zombie is close enough to hit your Target
  
• A single Arrow is enough to cripple both a Green Zombie or a Blue Zombie
  
• Red Zombies need at least 4 arrows to be crippled, but White Zombies need at least 6
  
• Shotguns can cripple a White Zombie in one shot

Use Melee if necessary

• A shot to the legs will always cause enemies to trip and roll on the ground
  
• If your enemy is too tough to be crippled in one shot then switch to melee
  
• Spam melee attacks to the legs in quick succession and quickly switch back to the bow

Cripple All

• The main goal is to cripple all Zombies in the end
  
• Crippled enemies are slowed down, you'll know when you've succeeded

Dispatch the Survivors one by one

• You can easily trip crippled Zombies or straight up aim at their heads for greater damage
  
• Crippled Zombies can still lunge at you at close range, dodge if necessary
  
• Stamina will always be important in a battle against Zombies. Crippled or not!

Escaping a Horde

Don't get surrounded

• The moment you attract too much attention is when you have to decide between fighting or running.
  
• This depends on the color of the Zombie, your stamina and your ability to dispatch that type of Zombie on your own.

Find a Building or Vehicle

• Escaping a Horde in an open Field is simply hopeless.
  
• It doesn't matter if the Building is surrounded, once you enter it the Zombies will stop running

Enter the Building

• The Horde will proceed to surround the Building, cutting off your escape route
  
• Make sure to Crouch while inside the Building. Once you're in full stealth is the best time to escape

Escape the Building

• Once the Zombies lost interest in you is the best time to Escape
  
• The Building will have at least two exits you can use
  
• The Arrows indicate where you'll escape from, make sure to avoid line of sight of any stragglers

Lure in the Zombies

• In the worst case scenario there will be too many Zombies surrounding the Building
  
• You can either wait for the Zombies to disperse or you could lure in the Zombies to one exit
  
• You don't need to be outside for long, as long as you catch attention the surrounding Zombies will flock to your direction

Take advantage of the Opening

• If done properly, the Horde should be investigating the Back entrance, ignoring the Front entrance
  
• Keep obstacles and Wind direction in mind while doing this

Run

• After an appropriate distance has been made simply Run
  
• You can tell you're far enough if the Enemy is out of your own line of sight
  
• Technically you can use this moment to loot the other buildings while the Zombies are distracted

Backstabbing loners

Find the target

• The easiest way to perform the backstab is one on one
  
• It is still possible to perform against two or multiple zombies as you only need one second at most

Lure in the Target

• Find an open spot that wont attract more Zombies
  
• Either run in circles or wait in front of it to lure it in

Dodge the Target

• Before a melee attack or a zombie lunge it will prompt you to dodge
  
• Press Space or the dodge button and aim the direction you want to dodge
  
• For the backstab either dodge left or right

Crouch behind the target

• For a backstab you need to be both crouched and behind the target
  
• Dodging a target effectively gives you one second before it turns around
  
• Quickly press C or the crouch button and attack immediately
  
• You don't need to wait until you're completely crouched to backstab

Backstab the target

• If succesfull it will prompt you to spam the attack button
  
• This will take up to one second at most for the kill
  
• Works on all types of targets, Humans or Zombies
  
• It technically counts as a stealth kill so surrounding zombies or humans wont become hostile
  
• Surrounding targets will still get suspicious of the sound if close enough
  
• They will walk towards you, giving you ample time to either escape or prepare
  
• This can be repeated easily due to the low stamina cost
  
• Very effective in clearing towns even with White Zombie presence

Backstab description

• Uses the survival Knife for the backstab
  
• Only possible while crouched
  
• Works even at stealth level 0
  
• Works even at fitness level 0
  
• Works even at Hand to Hand level 0
  
• Can either be a detectable stealth kill or hidden stealth kill depending if there is a spectator

Backstab during Combat

• The prompt to backstab wont appear while in combat
  
• It will still backstab if crouched behind the target even during combat
  
• Effective against White Zombies
  
• Effective for clearing towns due to not alerting surrounding Zombies

Melee Bash Zombies

Find the target

• If you have difficulty attracting a single zombie out of a group then it's better to avoid it entirely
  
• Keep a watch out for surrounding Zombies! Melee attacks attract hostile attention even outside of your view!

Lure in the target

• Smell, noise and sight can attract enough attention for them to wander into your direction
  
• Once they start running is when they've caught you
  
• In case you're close to a town, make as much distance as possible before the fight starts!

Dodge the Zombie

• Same as usual, dodge any attempts of lunges or grabs

Catch them off guard

• Any successful dodges will give you a brief moment to attack without getting dodged yourself

Hit their legs

• You need at least one point in hand to hand to aim at their legs
  
• Green Zombies barely dodge at all, if it's only one then you might also attempt to strike their head instead

Aim at the head

• Once they're on the ground you have limited time to hit any part of the body, the head deals twice as much damage
  
• In case they're not crippled you can hit their legs instead
  
• Hitting their legs stuns them momentarily, this can be repeated as long as you have stamina

Scavenge the Corpse

• Zombies will never drop high quality items except Gold and Clothes (Or the Crucific Pendant if enabled)

Author Notes

I played around a bit with clearing towns.
Made some photos and decided to make a guide out of it.
Edit:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2195188556
This Guide existed long before this, i didn't use it as reference but it uses the same methods. It also points out the leveling system and how to use it.