Survival Guide/de

Erste Schritte

Das Tutorium beginnt mit deinem Charakter und seiner verletzten Frau, Kate Smith. Die Umgebung ist am Anfang abgesehen von einem Zombie relativ sicher, damit du in aller Ruhe üben kannst, wie man Fenster verbarrikadiert, Essen sammelt, und Zombies tötet. Um zu zeigen, wie der Tod überall in Knox County lauert, gibt es mehrere Art und Weisen, wie dein Charakter mit Leichtigkeit sterben kann.

Man kann das Tutorium auf zweierlei Weisen überspringen: Erstens für die Kaltherzigen, indem man ein Kissen vom Schrank nimmt und Kate erstickt, und zweitens indem man die Esc-Taste während ihrer Rede drückt. Wenn Esc gedrückt wurde, wird es immer eine übrige Mission geben, Kates verwundetes Bein zu versorgen. Die Hilfssymbole können auch ausgeblendet werden, indem man auf eins klickt und "no more" auswählt.

Jetzt sollst du das Haus, in dem du dich jetzt befindest, sowie das anliegende Haus (das eine Dose Suppe enthält) durchsuchen. Dein Kampf ums Überleben beginnt.

Von hier aus begebe dich schnell südlich zum nächsten anliegenden Haus, in dessen Küche wichtige Vorräte gesammelt werden können. Diese Plünderungen stellen ausreichendes Essen für nächste Zeit bereit sowie geben dir eine Chance, Waffen und Munition in den verschiedenen Schränken zu finden. Sollte dir ein Zombie über den Weg laufen, während du unbewaffnet bist, ist es besser, ihm zügig auszuweichen, bis du eine Waffe gefunden hast.

Wenn du die drei Häuser schnell genug geplündert hast, kannst du das nächste Haus ebenfalls vorm Einbruch der Dunkelheit erreichen. Wenn die Vordertür abgeschlossen ist, kannst du eine Hintertür finden, die wahrscheinlich noch auf ist. Wenn du dabei Zombies angelockt hast, ist es ratsam, sie durch eine offene Tür zu locken, damit du sie einzeln erledigen kannst (hierzu kann man Balken oder einen Hammer verwenden. Obwohl der Hammer die gefährlichere Variante ist, kann man Zombies schneller töten). Vermeide es, die Tür in diesem Fall zu schließen, denn Türen können dir den Arsch retten, indem sie eine Barriere zwischen dir und einer großen Anzahl von Zombies bilden. Zombies werden nach einiger Zeit eine Tür einschlagen, doch die Zeit, die sie brauchen, reicht meistens aus, um sicher abhauen zu können. Wie Fenster können Türen auch verbarrikadiert werden, was die von Zombies benötigte Zeit, sie einzuschlagen, erheblich erhöht (um Stunden). Eingeschlagene Türen können durch gecraftete Türen ersetzt werden, doch das fordert Zeit und Ressourcen und beides sind knapp in dieser Welt.

Verbarrikadiere alle Fenster im Erdgeschoss (besonders im mittleren Zimmer und der Küche). In der ersten Etage sollten die Fenster in der Treppe und dem Schlafzimmer ebenfalls verbarrikadiert werden. Das sollte reichen, um einen sicheren Bereich vor den Zombies einzurichten. Wenn die Balken nicht ausreichten, dann bleibe fern von den nicht blockierten Fenstern, bis du sie verbarrikadieren kannst.

Jetzt ist dein Überleben in der ersten Nacht außerhalb des Starthauses gesichert.

Strategien

When playing sandbox for the first time, you will most likely be unsure of how to go about setting yourself up for a long and healthy life. Because sandbox does not have any objectives or prompts to help you along your way, you will have to plan and go about collecting your equipment with no assistance. Remember to barricade up your doors and cover your windows with bedsheets for maximum protection Here is a good strategy that should cover every need your zombie survivor will have.

STEP ONE

The initial spawn point in sandbox will be randomized and you could end up in any of the 20 or so buildings the town has to offer. No matter where you start, your first call of duty will be to strip the house of everything. You are mainly looking for a weapon, food, and tools such as hammers and items such as blankets which make bandages and curtains which you will want later on. Once you have done this you can progress to step Two.

STEP TWO

Your next objective, which is arguably the most important and crucial step to surviving, is to secure a considerable amount of food. The general store (building 9), is packed with non-perishable food items such as packets of chips and soft drink. These are easy items to secure and can last many days before you will need to consider cooking perishable food items and soup. If you spot a zombie, it is recommended to avoid him and run to a suitable distance. Avoid battles until you have a reliable weapon and generally avoid zombies early on. By now you will unlikely have enough daylight left to move to the next equipment location. So rapidly progressing to step three is advisable.

STEP THREE

Right beside the general store is the Tower Block (Building 10), which consists of 7 levels. The first 3 levels should be avoided as they still allow for detection from zombies who are close to the block. The easiest option is to secure the 4th floor as it's the most accessible of the safe levels. Once secured you will want to bandage any injuries you may have sustained and consume some of the food you have gathered (consumables first). Get a good nights sleep and get ready to move out early next morning.

STEP FOUR

After resting, you should dump all your gathered supplies that you won't immediately need in the drawers and cupboards, so as to not weigh yourself down which can lead to problems such as slow movement and injury. The best time to head out is around 8am, which is about the time it gets bright. Your next objective is to move down to the warehouse (Building 13) to secure tools. You are primarily looking for planks, hammers, oil cans, torches and definitely a shotgun. Right next door to the Warehouse is the Tool Shop which has a fair amount of extra hardware supplies which could definitely come in handy. Move rapidly back to the Towerblock, killing any lone zombies along the way who could possibly cause problems for you later at night if they follow you.

DECISION TIME

Now that you have secured food, weapons and tools, you have a few options. You could remain holed up on the 4th floor, only going out to collect food and the other crucial supplies, but this rapidly becomes boring. Another option is to systematically clear out the town house by house each day for the sole purpose of keeping busy. Another, quite fun objective could be to build a fortified house with various weapons on hand. After doing this, you could lure the horde to your fortress via gunshots or fire from Molotov Cocktails and attempt to hold out as long as possible. Any way you choose to play, just make sure you have a goal to work towards or else the game can become dull fast.

Choice of fortress

Any place you choose to stay for the night should have multiple exits, but preferably not ones that are visible from each other. A very good way to confuse zombies or avoid them altogether is by going up a flight of stairs after having dropped out of sight: as such, multi-story buildings are ideal. You're also going to want a place with storage space because as yet players are unable to craft and place any form of container.

Some appropriate buildings in the Suburbs are buildings 4 and 10. Remember to board up or cover your doors and windows and try to avoid running indoors because it can make a lot of noise which will attract unwanted attention.

4 (the house mentioned above) makes an ideal fortress as it has plenty of storage space upstairs and is convenient to access from the starting location. You can collect supplies from houses 1-3 and get into 4 with enough time to settle down within the first day. Barricading nearly every window is a must in the Pre-Alpha due to some glitches that let you see out of windows in the front room while being in the middle room. Naturally, the zombies can see in as well. With two exits and an upstairs hidden from view of either of them, it's quite easy to let the zombies shuffle in one door and out the next while you hide upstairs. The only disadvantage currently is the location. House 4 is on the edge of the current map, forcing forage trips to often go overnight to reach the opposite edge of the map. Clearing out double story houses and/or building 10 for an overnight stay is a good idea.

10 is another crowd favorite because you can live on the 4th/5th floor well out of sight of any zombies. And it also lets you cull a zombie horde one by one as they come up the stairs. Storage space is adequate, but there won't be much in the way of supplies when raiding the apartments as they tend to be rather barren. There's also the chance that the front door is locked, forcing a noisy entrance. For a game start, this is by no means ideal.

Daily Activities

Zombies spawn in lesser numbers during the day, but they have greater vision range. It's still well worth avoiding the night time though, because the streets often become crowded with the undead. If you have a reliable melee weapon (The spiked baseball bat is an excellent choice, although a fire axe works as well) clear out the area around your fortress and any areas you're foraging in. Since zombies seem to attract each other, it's best to not let any follow you, even if you're just on a routine cupboard search. Never use guns for this purpose, and try to stay away from doors so you don't accidentally bash them and make more noise than needed.

Keep an eye out for houses that make good secondary fortresses. Even if you have a main one where you collect supplies, be aware "circumstances" may prevent you from returning for up to a couple of days at a time. Knowing multiple defensible places to stay is a good idea when you have to make trips further afield for supplies. Also stock enough food to get you through a day or two when going on an outing, just in case you get stuck before finding anything edible. Remember that nighttime is the most dangerous time for you to be out and about. Not only is vision limited, but more zombies will spawn. Stay indoors when it is night. Also try to avoid building barricades at night because you will make a lot of noise. The last thing you want is a nightly horde to stumble onto your doorstep. The day is the perfect time for you to go out and forage for supplies and equipment, but always keep an eye on the clock and be indoors before it is dark. Spend your nights sleeping, eating and healing.

When the undead finally find you and you are on the run, always turn corners twice when escaping zombies. They will know enough to follow you around the first, but if you can make it around a second you'll have lost most of the shufflers. When entering rooms, be aware a zombie may be standing vacantly just out of sight, but within lunging distance. A good tactic is to run to the corner of the room you can see fully, giving you space to deal with any zombies who lurch after you. A pushing weapon such as a plank/bat/spiked bat is ideal for close quarter encounters since you can fend off multiple zombies while dealing damage.

Combating the undead

When you're starting out, you have two choices of weapons. Although the hammer does some damage, the very short range and lack of instant killing power like the axe make for a horrible weapon. Any time you're using this, you're risking a scratch/bite injury. When starting out it's actually better to use wooden planks as a weapon since they push zombies away. Even though it may take 20 hits to kill that one zombie who's stubbornly followed you into a building, it's much better to be safe than sorry. Even the most minor of injuries can result in infection and eventual death, so keeping the undead at arms length is a key to surviving more than a couple days. A rough order of usefulness for melee weapons is:

Spiked Baseball Bat > Axe > Baseball Bat > Hammer > Wood planks

Guns (assuming there will be more than the shotgun added at some point) are very much a last resort weapon. If a horde of zombies has you pinned in a dead end room and is breaking down the door, then you use it. Another group of zombies will almost certainly be attracted, but the idea is to clear a path so you can run, not to clean the area of zombies. The liberal application of a spiked bat can still allow you to take out quite a few of the shamblers before darting around them though. Use guns with caution, and preferably never around an area you'd like to spend the night in.

Injuries and Infection

"An ounce of prevention is worth... everything. There is no cure after all." - Jackson Buckle

Injuries currently only come from zombies at the moment (guns seem to kill instantly). Infection can happen when the skin is broken, wounds that break the skin are labeled as scratches and bites. A scratch has a 25% chance to cause infection, however a bite is almost guaranteed to infect. Eating well and resting (for convenience sleeping pills make the resting part much easier) help heal injuries, although it's unknown if this has any effect on the chance of infection from an injury. Bandages should be applied to flashing injuries to aid in healing, and as soon as possible for bleeding wounds as they cause additional damage if left untreated.

One of the worst injuries to have is any type of foot injury. Walking in any way will cause your character to experience pain, but it's currently impossible to lie down or rest in a way that doesn't involve sleeping. As such you're forced to constantly pop painkillers every night before bed if you want any chance of sleeping that night. The best way to heal this injury is to stock your inventory with food, pain pills and sleeping tablets. Feed up before drugging yourself unconscious and the wound will heal over time.

Unfortunately, early infection (before the queasy moodle appears) seems to cause generalized minor injuries to the entire body, including the feet. Because this counts as a foot wound, your character will be in constant pain whenever he tries to walk. This puts a serious drain on pain pill supplies since you need them to sleep. It's unknown how long this early infection stage lasts if no further injuries are sustained, or if it only increases your chance of full infection upon the next skin breaking injury.

Once the queasy moodle happens, your days are numbered. Even with lots of bed rest and good food the infection can take over your body in as little as 4-6 days. Unless you're trying to push for an extra couple of days on a record game, it's probably best to make your bucket list and start on it immediately.