Your Much Needed Guide

Look, I get it, whether you are new to the hordes that roam or just are looking for a refresher, you need a guide. I do, you do, he she we, all do. Due to the utter lack of the most neccesary guide to the hordes that roam, I have decided to entitle thee to one, this one. Thankyou and read on young survivor.

Quick Summary Over Content

Oh lord, you need to read this? Well... I guess you can. Diffrent things I will speak of (In no particular order):

First Week Tips
Shelter/Safehouse Tips
Carpentry Starter Guide
Different Basic Gameplay Stages
Short-Term Character Building Guide
Long-Term Character Building Guide
General Build Tips
Cooking/Trapping/Foraging/Farming
The Do's and Do Not's of the Hordes that Roam

Glad that we have finished that, now we can get to the part I am sure you have been waiting for, as it is the bread and butter of this document.

Chapter 1 : First Week Tips

When you first open Zomboid (Or the Hordes that Roam, same thing really), you should go through the tutorial, and say hello to Spiffo. Nothing against Spiffo or anything but he does not do the greatest job of instructing you young survivors of what to do past the first several seconds in game. So, I will fill that gap.

Get Sheets
Search The Kitchen
Sneak Everywhere
Get a Weapon

This you should be able to do completely on your own, if not go through Spiffo's guide again as it explains this all. With the sheets in your main inventory, right click on a window and press "Add Sheet". The little list of options that pops up may include "Close Curtains" if the currently selected window has a curtain already attached. If you don't have enough sheets for all of the windows and your starting house is two or more stories, go upstairs, right click on a window (If it has a curtain on it of course) and press "Remove Curtain". This will add a sheet to your inventory that can be used to sheet up the rest of the downstairs windows. If there isn't a second floor in your starter house, that is okay, we will be moving out of that one soon.

You should have also raided the kitchen and gone through all of the cabinets, looking for a weapon. Here is a list of weapons in order from best to use to least. Quick note: this list only contains what may be found in the kitchen.

Frying Pan
Rolling Pin
Kitchen Knife
Butter Knife
Fork
Spoon

You may also find a bat or possible an axe depending on what type of house you started in. Both of these are much better than all of the above listed weapons. If you find a pistol, for right now, leave it as it may become tempting to use it. If you do use it be careful as it is very loud and will attract zombies in a large radius.

The entire time this has been happening you better have been sneaking (LCTR or RMB). If not, you will have already started to hear the sounds of the undead trying to get to you, wanting to add you to their list of recently met.

After you have found a weapon and are about ready to go outside, try to find some type of bag. In first bite you will start with one but if not, you will want to find one immediately. They can be found in closets and occasionally in drawers. Also, here is a list of things to take with you once you go outside of your starter home if you have the additional space.

Sheets
One to Four Cans of Food
A Bottle of Water
Nails
Alarm Clock
Hammer
Can Opener
Bandages (From the bathroom(s))
Lighter

All of these items can possibly save your life, as they have for me many times. Later on we will talk about a standard set of items to always have on you no matter what.

Now you are ready to go into the real world.

When you first walk outside, always look around your house and kill any walkers moaning around your house, as any one of these could sneak up on you and finish you off at any time. Combat is not hard, it just takes time to get the timing down and to not be afraid of every zombie you come across. After clearing around your house, you will want to start raiding, for the first few days the house you started in should be fine as a temporary safe house. Some houses are even great enough to keep long-term! But we will get to that later. To start your career in looting, you will want to pick a nearby home, later on in the guide I will talk more about effective looting but for right now a nearby house will work just fine. Before you start trying to break in, go around the house and look in through all of the windows, looking for the occasional jumper that could end you. Once you are sure it is safe or manageable, go to the front door. Before you actually walk in though, listen to your gut as it is a good indicator if you should loot the house. There have been many times I have guessed there was an alarm and had my life saved by it. Again, once you are completely ready, try to unlock the front door. If it doesn't work that means it is locked so try a window. Walk up to it and press "E". If that still doesn't work, keep trying windows until one opens. If none open, for right now, try a different house.

If does work though, CONGRATULATIONS! You have committed your first crime in the Hordes that Roam. Go through the house as you did your own, but take canned food, weapons, nails, batteries, etc... These will all come in handy as we move on. Make sure you take everything with a use, as you will want every possible advantage against the mindless walkers.

Truthfully speaking, this should just be repeated for the first week, as really it should be spent stocking up on everything. If an alarm does go off when you are going in a house, run, as the mindless roamers will start coming towards the noise en masse.