Guides:AP Efficiency

You want to make the best use of your APs. Here's how to.

Keep in mind that this guide is not written for the purpose of survival or winning fights- you should read some other guides if you want that. This is only about for making the most of your 48 APs a day.

Typical Uses of AP

Think about where it goes and which ones are most important to you.

• Movement
• Killing stuff
• Standing up after death

Survivors:

• Barricading
• Scanning/Reviving
• Using FAKs
• Repairing Ruins
• Gathering Supplies
• Dumping Bodies
• Setting up/Refueling Generators
• Binoculars/Necrotech "Radar"
• Closing Doors
• Graffiti
• Broadcasting
• Cleaning Defiled Graffiti
• Cleaning Bloodstains

Zombies:

• Destroying Barricades
• Feeding Drags
• Defiling Graffiti
• Scent Death
• Feeding on Corpses

Basic General Tips

First things first.

Diagonal movement is king (not bishop :P) - Simply put, you combine both one north/south and one east/west movement into one AP, rather than split it into two APs, as would happen if you moved cardinally (non-diagonally).
Move diagonally as much as possible to shorten the path to your destination. Even if your destination is in a straight up/down/left/right line, diagonal movement is just as fast as cardinal movement AND you get the slight bonus of seeing slightly more area when moving diagonally.

Know where you are going- If you are not very familiar with your destination, whether it's another building or another suburb, always check a suburb map, whether it be the Map on this wiki or something else. You might be surprised how often people waste traveling APs by going in the wrong direction. Do the obvious thing- ask for directions.

Reserve some AP for Opportunities.- If you have the ability to check on your character multiple times a day, you should reserve some of your APs until an emergency which requires your AP comes up (i.e. zombie break-in, so you can kill survivors/zombies). That way, you won't be out of luck if an emergency happens. If no such emergency happens at the end of the day, then find the next best thing to do and blow your reserved APs on that.
OR
Do all your "errands" in one journey.- Try to do your day's activities in one shot, if you aren't going to wait for an emergency (i.e. you are in a safe suburb stocking up). Making two trips to a target in spends more APs moving than one. Spend less time moving to the target and more time actually getting things done.

Know where the good lootings are at. - It seems like common sense, but it's all too easy to ignore. Weigh your options. What shape is the target in? How far away is it? Is it lit? What are the search rates compared to other buildings? Find out the search rates of each building, and gather as much information on the state of nearby TRPs from this wiki, your group (if any), radio reports, etc.
OR
Know where the good bra!nz are at. - Similar to above, but for zombie players. Which buildings are still up? Which buildings are more vulnerable to attack? Where are the harman hidey-holes at? Use Scent Death and feeding groans, if you have it, to figure out where the horde is at. And again, use the wiki, group reports, eavesdropped radio reports, etc.

Nothing to do? Find something to do. - This should be a no-brainer, but it seems many cowards uneducated survivors flock to perfectly safe suburbs to lounge around rather than to do something actually stimulating/worthy. If you find you are stocked up and healthy, and your suburb is getting boring, use the wiki Map or Current Events page to find somewhere where you can get some action.

Join a Group. - A group can save you a ton of AP in various ways. Division of labor, sharing battlefield intelligence, breaking through sieges with coordinated strike teams, providing rescues, etc, there will always be strength in numbers.

Advanced General Tips

Use the Contacts list- The Contacts list can save you AP in one of two ways. The first way is skipping DNA scanning- if you have friends or enemies on your contacts, you can figure out which zombies need what without needing to waste an AP scanning (or without guessing, if you can't use an extractor).
The second way is highlighting your friends/enemies so that you won't accidentally miss the chance to help/murder them if you stumble across them.

Prioritize your targets- Be careful of what you are attacking or helping. Is that survivor you're clawing/healing actually a PKer/GKer/death cultist, and how does that change your priorities? Would your zombie AP be better served killing the generators or wasting that survivor?

Be smart in real-time battles - Know that real time battles sometimes aren't worth the trouble. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages in preparation for such a situation. It's up to you what your priorities are in such a situation, but always consider running away. And if you are a survivor indoors and your opponent is active, dump the body immediately to avoid retaliation and retreat to safety.

Survivors

Avoid unnecessary zombie-killing - Unless you have a rotter clogging a revive point or really need some XP, never kill zombies outdoors, because they will take piddling AP damage while you waste tons of AP/ammo on them.
If you disagree with me on this, because teh zombies everywhere, especially the ones outside, have to be killed at all costs, then you are a badass, with your badass trenchcoat and all. In that case, you should sleep outside the barricades every day, because you are so badass no zombie will attack you in fear of your elite katanas and uzis.

Immediately barricade for small break-ins - If there are 1 or 2 zombies breaking into a building with lots of survivors, you can just barricade to cut off zombie reinforcements and let the other survivors take care of it. Sure, the survivors might get a few more scratches than if you spent lots of AP care of it yourself, but the break-in will be repelled regardless.

Dirt Nap after getting revived- Because those 3 APs you have left after you stand up aren't going to do you much good. Wait until you can make the full journey to safety before standing up.

Talk is not cheap. - You can fit 256 characters into each AP of talking, and roughly 50 APs into each AP of spraying graffiti or broadcasting. Make the most of that space- spending more AP than necessary talking isn't going to do any good.

Search for syringes instead of manufacturing them - It takes, on average, 14 AP to find a syringe in a lit NT building, compared to 20 AP to manufacture the same syringe. Manufacturing is more or less obsoleted by good old searching.

Consider sacrificial Free Running- To move from a Building A to a Ruin B, you have two options. Either leave Building A, move to outside Ruin B, then enter Ruin B (takes 3 AP), or just move to Building B directly, fall outside of the building, and then enter building B (2 AP). The latter option, free running directly, saves 1 AP but comes at the risk of losing 5 HP while you are at it. If you feel the need to do so,

Avoid unnecessary FAKing- If you are in a safe suburb and are not at risk of getting PKed, you can get away with letting others take care of your HP for you, because a FAK-happy someone will eventually come along and FAK you all night long from behind so you don't have to do it yourself.

Avoid unnecessary corpse-dumping - Most of the time, when killing a zombie or PKer, you should dump the body so it doesn't rise again and attack people inside or ruin the building. However, if you don't care about the people inside (say, you're a PKer or they're all PKers) or you don't care about the building, don't waste that AP dumping.

Use the DSS_Satellite_Phone app - Just like a mobile phone item, except it takes zero AP to call with it and it's always available regardless of your situation. Hint hint.

Use binoculars - Using binoculars within a ruin/tall building shows you how many zombies are outside with one click, so you don't to spend the APs walking outside and back in to scout zombie numbers.

Cleaning bloodstains or defiled graffiti is a last priority - There is no place for hypochondria in the zombie apocalypse. Removing bloodstains and graffiti defiling is pretty damn useless on the grand scale of things.

Avoid Scouting Safehouses - Although it theoretically saves AP and improves search rates, there are too many conditions required to get your invested APs back- you must remain near the building, not die, and keep the building from being ruined. Unfortunately, this all rarely happens outside of a safe suburb, in which case you'll get what you want anyway. Don't bother.

Zombies

Avoid the trenchie scum in safe suburbs- Trenchies usually hang around safe suburbs and annoy zombies outside with constant headshots or combat revives. Therefore, if you are in a safe (for survivors) suburb, either get out of there or hang out in the same square as other zombies to decrease the chance that you'll lose a few APs to a trenchcoater.

Feeding drag instead of killing- If you want some near-dead survivors in a building out of the way quickly, drag them outside then come back in. It takes 2 AP instead of the 3-10 AP you'd spend finishing them off AND it donates the kill XP you'd get to other zombies, including low-level ones.

Avoid unnecessary ransacking- If there's a lot of zombies already inside a survivor-free building , you can usually rely on them or another passerby zombie to ransack (and kill the generator and graffiti-defile) the building for you.

Parachute whenever possible- If you find yourself suddenly revived but infected one day, death-cultist parachute to save the time you'd normally spend breaking down barricades.