Guides:First Day in Malton

 

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This page is for all those people who come to the wiki after (or hopefully on or before) their first day in Malton- or for those who wish they had done so. In such cases, you need fast instructions on what to do, and not a lot of justification as to why. After getting off the ground with this bare-bones guide, you will have a better idea as to what further information may be helpful. This wiki has many other useful articles with more in depth information. Where appropriate, they are linked to in the text below, and some also can be found in a table at the end of this article.

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Getting Around

In the upper left quarter of your game window, there is a map. This is where you move around. The central square is your current location. You move by clicking on the button in any other square in this map; doing so will take you to that square, and refresh the page view. Read the entire scene description after you move each time - they may contain useful information. As you move, the amount of your AP will go down. You have limited AP, and do not want it to drop to zero, unless you are a zombie or are inside a barricaded building. Your AP goes back up at a rate of one AP per 30 minutes (at X:00 and X:30), and you can never have more than 50 AP. Use them wisely, and use them every day.

Advice for the Living

"Survivor" characters seem to be the "default mode" for Urban Dead, although this is purely a matter of player choice. Playing as a living character offers you a wider range of actions you can perform, but is arguably more complicated. Staying alive can be surprisingly hard at lower levels. Following sections include more specific info, both on what to do and how to do it, but always keep the following rules in mind if you don't want to play your characters as a zombie. If you do want to play as a zombie, which is equally fun, just skip to the end of this article.

• Sleep inside. Most survivors will have a "safehouse" (basically just a barricaded, zombie-free building that they know they can enter), and will return to it when they get low on AP. Barricades can be built by survivors with the "construction" skill. If you log out / leave the computer for a long time and are standing outside, it is very easy for a zombie to find and kill you. You will likely want to go outside each day to explore, but if you find a building that seems safe to sleep in, you may want to remember the location and return to it. This map can help greatly in doing so. Most buildings in Malton are Extremely Heavily Barricaded and could be difficult to find one building to get in, it is best to have the Free Running Skill.

• Earn experience points. You use experience points to purchase skills. Skills are generally helpful either in staying alive directly, or in earning more experience points more quickly.

• Read and obey advisory graffiti. Spraypainted messages such as "revive point here" and "keep building at VSB" are typically put there by other survivors as part of an overall community effort to organize defenses.

Entering Buildings

You need to know how to do this just to survive, and also to find any useful items. If you are outside and you run out of AP (or even just get close - that's why you get the big red warning when you get to 9 AP) you are very likely to die. Zombies can't enter most buildings without spending a lot of time (AP) working at it, so you are MUCH safer inside than outside. Even in buildings where zombies can reach you, they can not see you if they are just wandering around the map, so you are still a bit safer even in a building that has no defenses than you are standing in the streets.

To enter a building, you must move onto a block that has the building and then use the "enter building" button. However, barricades may impede your progress. If the building is described as Heavily barricaded, Very Heavily barricaded, or Extremely heavily barricaded (and many, many buildings are) you will not be able to enter. Buildings that can be entered are described as Open, Secured, Loosely barricaded, Lightly barricaded, Quite Strongly barricaded, or Very Strongly barricaded. Buildings that are Quite Strongly and Very Strongly barricaded offer good protection against zombies. Lightly or Loosely barricaded buildings afford almost no protection (beyond getting you out of sight) and have likely come under attack recently. They may even still have zombies inside!

If you started as a military Scout, you will have the Free Running skill and can move directly from the interior of one building to the interior of a building in an adjacent block. You still must find a building you can enter, but from there you can move to buildings with the heavier barricades - which offer the best protection from zombies, and tend to also have high level survivors defending them.

If you did not start as a military Scout, buy the Free Running skill as quickly as you can!

According to the Universal Barricade Plan, most Police Departments, Fire Stations and Hospitals should be kept at Very Strongly Barricaded (VSB) to allow new players to have a safe place to stay as as well as allowing those players to gain XP. However there are lots of inconsiderate players in Urban Dead who will go ahead and barricade these buildings to Extremely Heavily Barricaded (EHB). If you are at such a building, inside or out, go ahead and remind people either through graffiti or speech that they are impeding the enjoyment and progress of newer Urban Dead players.

Gear

Guns

Chances are you have a gun - most folks choose characters who come with them. Your gun will run out of ammunition FAST. You can get more ammo (and guns) by entering a police department and searching it. There are other sources for ammo and guns, but at low levels, you will not be able to use them. For example, you need special skills to search the mall effectively.
Shotguns and shotgun shells are of little use until you get skills for them, so you may want to drop any that you find if your load is getting heavy. If a gun indicates zero bullets, you need to click on a clip (or shotgun shell) to re-load it.

Once you have a decent load of ammo, you will find that injuring and killing zombies (with your gun or any other weapon) earns you a decent amount of experience points (XP). However, there are other (equally fast) ways to earn experience. Finding ammunition and then attacking zombies is pretty safe- the zombie player is rarely online as you attack, so you can often score a kill without any reprisal. If you take this path, remember NOT to get stuck outside- you will be equally vulnerable! Firing a bullet from a pistol into a zombie and damaging them will gain you four or five XPs. Doing the same to a survivor will gain you two XPs. Killing either will gain you 10 XPs.

Axes

If you started as a Fireman, you have an axe and know how to use it pretty well. Attacking zombies with it is a good way to earn experience points, but remember not to get stuck outside. You want to end your day in a nicely barricaded building, even if it means you don't get to kill a zombie - and usually you won't kill one, as your attack is pretty weak. On the plus side, you never have to search for ammo, so can probably earn a couple dozen experience points every day. Each time you manage to strike and damage a zombie with your axe, you will get three XPs. Damaging a survivor with your axe gets you only one XP. Killing either gets you 10 XPs.

First Aid Kits (FAKs)

You may have started with one or two of these. You want more of them. LOTS more of them. You can find them by entering and searching either a hospital or a church. Hospitals are best because they let you find the first aid kits much more easily. Every time you use a first aid kit on somebody who actually needed it, you get five XPs, regardless of the amount of HP healed. If you have the Diagnosis skill (which you may have started with, if you play a Doctor) it is very easy to tell who needs it; the HP number next to their name will be below 50. Most high level survivors actually can have 60 HPs, so if you see somebody with 51-59 HPs, they also need healing. If you don't have the Diagnosis skill, just use common sense and keep trying - you do not lose the FAK if you use it on somebody with full health, but you do lose an AP. (Hint: anybody standing outside with a zombie in the same square likely needs some healing.) You can also earn five XP by using FAKs on injured zombies. It's best not to heal zombies that are standing inside buildings, as it makes it harder for other survivors to clear and repair the building. Healing zombies standing outside is usually harmless.

Infection

Infection occurs when a high level zombie bites you. It's really bad news-you lose one HP for every action you perform, except for speaking (allowing you to ask for help if somebody is around). You WILL die from it, unless healed with a First Aid Kit. Being healed not only cures the damage, it removes the infection. Anybody can find and use a First Aid kit to heal, and you can heal yourself. If you want to stay alive, make sure to always carry at least one First Aid Kit to use in case of infection. If you don't know about infection and are not prepared for it, it can kill you. If you do know about it and are holding a FAK, it's just a painful bite and entirely manageable. Healing yourself does not gain you any XPs, however.

DNA Extractor (DNA Scanner, Scanning Zombies)

If you started as a Nectotech Lab Assistant, you will have one of these. Getting a sample of a zombie's DNA grants you four XP. Some zombie DNA is hard to scan, but most take only one try. This is risky work, however. Many zombies in the game have the Scent Trail skill, which allows them to track down those who extracted DNA from them. As a guideline, its best if you stop scanning zombies when you have 20 or so AP left. You then need to move away from any zombies you scanned. Normally you'd need to go at least 10 blocks, but its OK to just go far enough that the zombies will see alternate food sources when they follow you. Find a building you can enter, preferably one with strong barricades, and maybe with resources inside that you need.

Finding and Hauling Stuff

You may not have some or all of the above items, or you may run out of them; ammunition gets used up, and FAKs are a single use item. To find more, you need to search an appropriate location. As you pick up more and more items, you encumbrance will increase. Encumbrance can potentially go over 100%, but when it is 100% or higher, you can no longer pick up more items. This has no effect on your other actions; encumbrance does not hinder movement or combat in any way.

Other gear

A variety of other implements, devices and jeejaws will surface as you play the game. Most of them can be used by clicking on them in your inventory; when you click on radio transmitters and generators, you will permanently unload them and set them up in whatever building you are in.

Getting XP

There are several ways of gaining XP and leveling up. If you started as a cop or a private, camp in Police Departments, search for ammo and unload into the nearest zombies. You can use both pistols and shotguns, as they both have the same accuracy. To reload, click "pistol clip" or "shotgun shell" in your inventory - this will cost you 1 AP.

If you started as a doctor, camp in a hospital instead and use your AP searching for First Aid Kits (FAKs). You get 5 XP every time you heal someone, and this is your only way of getting XP at the moment. Look through the list of survivors that are with you, and heal people who aren't at full health. Also, check people's profiles as every so often you might find someone who has Body Building at 50 HP. Go ahead and heal those people that other's have missed.

If you started as a firefighter, you're pretty much set to start gaining XP. You already have a fire axe, and with Axe Proficiency, your starting accuracy is 25%. Camp in any building that's VSB and whack on any zombies you see to gain XP fast.

If you started the game as a corpse, simply attack barricades or survivors whenever you come across them (which will be all the time), but if you have a choice, go for survivors first, as they yield more XP than attacking a barricade.

If you started as a lab assistant, scan any zombies you see on the street for XP, although you can only scan a zombie after it's taken at least one action since it's last scan.

If you started as a free runner, a medic, scout or consumer... you might consider making another character =P

Advice for the Dead

Whether you are dead by choice or by accident of fate, you may find yourself dead. Everybody dies. The game is called "Urban Dead", after all. The good news: you can come back.

Dealing with Death

Death in Malton has its upsides. First, nobody can do anything to harm your dead body, although they can move it from the inside of a building to outside that same building. Other than that, you are "safe" until you stand up. Use that time as a breather to let you AP refresh up to the full 50; its gonna cost you 10 (or even 15) AP to stand up. The one thing you do NOT want to do is stand up when you have fewer AP than needed to do so; you will immediately be blind, and quite likely just be killed again, starting the waiting cycle over.

A second potential upside to death is that you now are a zombie! Many people enjoy playing zombies. Every one of the zombies you see is played by a human being just like you! In fact, the game offers you a choice of starting out as one, and it is a good idea to do so if you want an effective zombie character. There is no disadvantage at all to doing so (or to playing for awhile as a zombie) even if you wish to play again as a survivor. Earning XPs as a zombie can still help you become a stronger survivor; you just save the XPs until you get revived.

Clarence! I want to live again!

No problem - that's OK. Most high level characters can bring zombies to life (called "revivification" or "revive" in game). These folks generally travel from cemetery to cemetery (or to other places marked as "revive points") looking for zombies that want to live. Move to one of these places and then just wait. You might have to wait a whole day - but during that time, you will regain APs, and its not like you have to worry about being killed! If it takes more time than that, try a different cemetery. Worth noting is that characters who start out as zombies can be brought to life just like dead survivors, and can buy any of the skills and become survivor characters if they wish.

Eventually, somebody will inject you with a NecroTech syringe, and you will drop to the ground. When you stand up again, you will be alive.

Many players use revive tools, which allow others to post revive requests to make things easier for everyone. The most popular of these tools is run by DEM (a survivor group). Consider posting a revive request on the tool if you are going to be in one place, waiting for a revive.

Or...

BRA!NZ!!!

Attacking survivors (or even other zombies) as a zombie can earn you XPs very quickly. If you want to do this, you should have the Vigor Mortis skill, or buy it as quickly as possible. Characters that begin play as zombies start with this skill, and those Zombies who lack it earn experience quite slowly. Damaging a survivor by biting them gets you four XP. Damaging them with your claws will typically get you two XP. Biting a zombie gets you two XP, and clawing them gets you one XP. Killing either a survivor or a zombie will earn you 10 XPs.

The main obstacles to your success at finding living meat as zombie are barricades and doors. You should only attack barricades with claws, as bites have no effect. Damaging a barricade (which happens half the time when you hit- other hits just make it creak) earns you one XP. Once the barricade is gone, you still can not enter the building if it has a door, unless you purchase the Memories of Life skill. Most buildings have doors; for some reason, churches, cathedrals and junkyards do not. Joining a zombie group will let you meet up with other, stronger zombies who will happily remove barricades and open doors for you. These high level zombies can even use their advanced skills to grab survivors and drag them outside so you can eat them! However, when there are many survivors (or even just zombies) standing around outside, lone zombies can do very well indeed, with no need to worry about attacking barricades.

Enjoy your unlife! Even if you plan to play as a survivor, at some point, you will find yourself as one of the Urban Dead.

For more information

Guides:

• A Beginners Guide to Urban Dead - similar to above article, but with much more detail for survivors
• A Zombie Guide - a general purpose guide to zombie (un)life, both mechanics and tactics
• Guides - Guides for all characters, focusing more on tactics than mechanics
• Frequently Asked Questions - Kevan's guide to the game

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