User:Siddhant/Guide:The Zombie Returns

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The Zombie Returns

Welcome to Urban Dead, or more poignantly, Urban Living; where humans wear trench coats, have tons of ammo and carry katanas. Zombies are minor nuisances and aren't particularly feared. And so, you decide to play the underdogs. Whether out of sheer macho bravado or stupidity, welcome to the underdog's side. Pit your tooth and claw against guns. Welcome to the resistance.

Now let's get a few things straight. Being a zombie, or worse, a low level one, sucks big time. You will hate what happens to you every day, but if you persevere and stick through the course, you will see the effort will be worth it. So you maxed out a zombie without getting a single XP in human form? That is hardcore.

I revel in it. Hard mode on.

Progressing through the levels

In two words, "Teeth suck". Biting is a big, bad waste of time. Drill that in your mind. Waste of time. Why? Well, lets compare the two.

Claw : Up to 50% hit rate, Up to 3 damage, lets you take down barricades, and tangling grasp requires you use claws which increases your hit rate to 60%
Bite : Up to 30% hit rate, 4 damage, lets you infect people, lets you regenerate health, 40% hit with tangling grasp.

On paper, Bite may look better; but you can infect a person only once, and infection can easily be countered by one First Aid Kit. Healing isn't that important either, since you'll either be dead or hanging around on full health. Real time fights are rare. At low levels, especially at low levels, XP turnover rate matters the most and this is where Claws shine. Besides, being able to take down barricades is a godsend, especially since you don't have junk biting skills wasting your XP.

Skill Progression

Level 1  : Vigour Mortis
Level 2  : Death Grip
Level 3  : Rend Flesh
Level 4  : Lurching Gait
Level 5  : Ankle Grab
Level 6  : Memories of Life
Level 7  : Tangling Grasp
Level 8  : Body Building
Level 9  : Diagnosis
Level 10 : Brain Rot


To Level 1

You are a level 0 zombie (A freshly killed survivor), your first priority is to get Vigour Mortis. You officially suck now. Either you can stick it out and be proud about it later, or just junk this character and start a new one. Don't worry, almost everyone does it. (I haven't) If you do decide to persist, kudos to you. You will have a pathetic 25% hit rate to attack people, 10 AP to stand up (15 if headshot), 2 AP to move from square to square and you will be unable to open doors. Doesn't daunt you? Good... Good...

To Level 2

All right, you have Vigour Mortis. What next? Death Grip, of course. This will increase your hit rate to 50%. Now ... Why not Rend Flesh, which will give you a 1.05 HP / AP damage, as opposed to the 1 HP / AP damage of Death Grip? Very simple, really. Death Grip increases your chance to take down barricades. There you have it. The perfect selling point for it. With Death Grip, you can take down barricades as quickly as a maxed zombie. Perk or flawed game design... You decide.

Okay, so now we know why we're taking Death Grip next. How do we get the XP to do all this? The first thing to do is bookmark the urbandead wiki and the map of the city of Malton. Now figure out where you are. Now look at Ridleybank at the centre of the map. That is the zombie Mecca and you have to make a pilgrimage to it. It's quite simple really, the rest of Malton is overrun with humans and RB is the last bastion of zombiedom. So, now you start your Hajj to the holy land. If you find humans sleeping outside in the streets, kill them and inculcate them into the BARHAH. Do not bother chasing actives.

If you come across a group of 10+ zombies somewhere, rest amidst their company and break bread with them, for they are your brothers. Rest and regenerate your AP to continue your pilgrimage to the holy land.

In the event that you hear a feeding groan nearby within the past 30 minutes, go and check it out. There might be food nearby. Avoid malls like the plague and walk, walk to the homeland.

Finally, if you're in a stack of zombies and there is a junkyard or church nearby, and you wish to prolong your journey (After all, the journey is more important than the destination), you can break the barricades to them and enter in the hope of food. That's right! While other buildings have irritating things like "doorknobs" which you don't know how to use, junkyards and churches are thankfully devoid of those. Also, with a day's AP, you can break into a Very Strongly Barricaded building with a couple of AP to spare. The barricade levels are given here. Now, humans cannot enter a building that is Heavily barricaded or further, and humans normally don't overbarricade, so a cool thing to do is to wear down the barricades to Very Strongly Barricaded (Not Very Strongly Barricaded + 2), regenerate a full day's AP and then break into the building! And of course, at later levels, in the case that you come across a lesser than very strongly barricaded building, it's your duty to break into it ... Heh.

Play two times in the day, spending only 24 AP to walk towards Ridleybank each session. Should the event arise that you have food nearby, spend the extra AP on feeding. Don't forget to head back to the biggest horde of zombies you can find at the end. Sure, you may not get the 10xp kill bonus, but it's better to not waste 15 ap from a headshot.

To Level 3

So, you are near or in the homeland. While you're there, pay a visit to Moggridge Place Police Dept.. History was made there. The RRF was formed there. Touch the stones and wander around the hallowed corridors of this place. Now, with that aside, it's time for our next skill, namely Rend Flesh. Now, when you hit people, you really mint the XP; getting 1.5 XP / AP as opposed to the measly .7 XP / AP you were doing earlier.

Now, you can either wait for feeding groans or alternatively try to breach junkyards and churches. Look in the map for such. Especially if they are near important resource buildings like NT buildings, Hospitals or Police Departments. They will have humans inside them. Now once you break into a building (or hear a groan), you feed inside the building and GET OUT. That's right. Staying inside is like holding a placard saying "SHOOT ME" with a "REVIVE ME" on the back. Get back to the nearest decently large stack of zombies. There is a metagaming concept called Revive Queues where humans who want to get revived go like cows and Mrh? in a pasture, waiting for a revive. Of course, lots of humans abuse this by shooting and xp farming the cows (serves them right), but many also get revived. And finally, there are instances of zombies killing other zombies standing in the queue (to get more XP and in the mistaken belief that they'll get revived faster). Now, if the revive point you selected doesn't have much human flyby activity, you can stay near there and foray into the surroundings with impunity. Just keep your eyes and ears open and log in multiple times in a day (so you do not fall to the bottom of the stack) and get to listen to groans.

Finally, if you walk into a room, the fastest way to figure out everyone's health is to hit everyone once. If you find someone with low HP, work on him so that you can get the cool bonus 10 XP for a kill.

To Level 4

Well, now you can mint the XP, so it's time to get AP efficient. Lurching Gait means you no longer have to spend 2 AP to walk from square to square. Just 1 AP. That means more AP for the hitting. That sold you to the skill? Great, Now go get it! Don't forget to save a few APs to get outside and back to your favourite group of zombies. Don't be afraid to wander away from the homeland. Go where the groans lead you. Just remember, find a stack of zombies to rest in. You might have bad luck and get shot, but don't worry. As long as you avoid it most days than not, you're cool.

To Level 5

Okay, Ankle Grab was once the great equalizer. No more, but it is still potent. Now, when you die, instead of spending 10 AP to stand up, its just a measly 1 AP. Of course, if you get headshot it's still 6 AP, but its a far improvement over 15 AP to stand up. That should sell it to you. But don't be so anxious as to die. It's still not worth it. Go back to the bored horde and hang out amongst them.

To Level 6

All right, you know the drill. Groans, Breaking in and all that jazz. Unfortunately you're left exclusively to groaned buildings that other people opened, newbies stranded outside and the few meals in junkyard and churches. Why restrict yourself to all those? Stop letting Valets do the work and open the dang doors yourself! Memories of Life! That's it! Now you can break into any dang building you want and eat anywhere you want. Death ain't so scary now, either. You should really enjoy the game now, but it's not over.

To Level 7

Tangling grasp. Make the already deadly claws deadlier. It actually sucks with respect to the other skills and is in essence nonessential, but is fun to have. See this.

To Level 8 and 9

Start hoarding 200 XP and get a revive. Hunt up a flak jacket (found in Police Departments). Buy Body Building. Now you can stay inside buildings and tank bullets meant for weaker zombies. All that dodging you did in your lower levels? Don't bother about it anymore. Now is the time to pay back the loan the big bad zombies took for tanking for you.

Finally, Diagnosis lets you see the HP of nearby humans. Kevan made a stupid decision and made the zombie equivalent 300 XP away (instead of just 200 XP) so just spare yourself the pain and get Diagnosis as human. Does the same thing for cheaper

Scent Blood is now 200XP (prerequisite is Scent Fear) and detects infections, while Diagnosis does not.01:14, 26 July 2007 (BST)

To Level 10

Brain Rot. Finally, you are a hardcore zombie and any skills you take after this point don't matter much. You're as strong and as powerful as a level 38 guy. Enjoy Malton, join the #RRF on irc.zirc.org and metagame. That is where the real fun of the game is ;) </shameless plug>. And of course, try to have fun.

Appendix

Marina is a hardcore zombie. She died early on in the game, and saw that the game sucked for her. Then, much, much later, she decided to give it another try and metagame in the process. Look at her now! (She didnt follow my guide, but she is truly hardcore ;) )
Siddhant was my second UD character (wcil was the first, now happily retired). He got all his human skills (including body building and a flak jacket) after getting a brain rot revive late in the game.
Joshua Simpson is my latest character and he has followed this guide to the letter. At the moment, he needs a revive (has 250xp in store) in 23 days! (and died only 5 times (corpse class start with 1 death) Edit: Joshua Simpson completed this guide in a total of 26 days, with a total of 6 deaths. Not bad, eh? You can read his adventures here. (Click List: Posts); I've stopped updating this and have opened it to public. The first 26 days are worth a read.