Guides:Getting Started as a Feral Zombie

Getting Started as a Feral Zombie

So you made a zombie character. Welcome to the barhah. Now you don't know what to do? Well, that's what this guide is for. If you aren't interested in metagaming or being in one group, then you can still contribute to the zombie cause. This guide was written by a feral zombie for new zombies. As a new zombie, it can be difficult knowing what to do when you start out. The streets will feel empty and lonely, and getting started might seem impossible.

You will need patience!

Getting started as a zombie means that you will start out at the bottom of a slippery slope. Survivors do as well, but they can start with a large variety of skills. You have Vigour Mortis. Your combat skills are the only way you will gain XP for a while to come, so get used to it. Also, sometimes you will find that there are no nearby buildings with harmanz inside. You will have to wait until the tide shifts, or move to another suburb. That said, once you getting rolling with the necessary skills, you'll progress with ease.

Let's get started!

So how can you find some delicious harmanz to eat? Check the Building Information Center to see which malls or buildings are under attack. Shamble over to the closest one you can find and join the horde. Now log in often to see if the building has been breached, and when it has, shamble in and maul and bite anybody you can. When you reach 100 XP, go to the "Buy Skills" menu and purchase Death Grip or Neck Lurch.

Death Grip vs. Neck Lurch

When I got started, I picked Neck Lurch. Neck Lurch means your bite attack is maxed out and you are dealing as much damage per attack as a fully evolved zombie. However, in the long haul (and you're in for the long haul, right?), Death Grip is better. You can take down barricades and hit regularly. Neck Lurch is good, but getting frequent hits is vital at low levels.

Regardless of what you pick, try to stick with a horde for as long as possible. Survivor groups might not like people hanging around with them, but zombies are always glad for help. Once you get more XP, purchase Lurching Gait and Ankle Grab. These skills will help you conserve your AP and help you do more damage each time you log in. Also, now you can easily reach a new horde if the one you're rolling with leaves you in the dust, which often happens when you attach yourself to a rapidly moving horde like the Dead or a Mall Tour.

Your fourth purchase should be Memories of Life, so you can open the door when you claw down the last of the barricades. As tempting as it is to get this before Lurching Gait and Ankle Grab, don't. Most buildings are protected enough that a lone zombie can't break in, and by the time you lurch in front of a building with low 'cade levels, you will be running low on AP and by the time you open the door you will only have a scant few AP left to do damage, and you'll be waking up as a corpse, most likely with a headshot.

Now what?

Once you have a combat skill, Lurching Gait, Ankle Grab, and Memories of Life, you can do just about anything you like. However, there are several things that you should remember to do.

Getting a Flak Jacket/Bodybuilding

Only survivors can get a flak jacket and the Bodybuilding skill, but these are useful to the zombie cause as well. There are several roadblocks on the way, and you will need to plan carefully if you want this to work. First, you'll need to be revived. Despite being feral, you may need to find a forum of death cultists or gullible survivors to secure a revive. Combat revives are rare and never happen when you need it. Try to save up 200-500 XP before you get revived, so you can buy the following skills: Free Running, Body Building, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Knife Combat, and Diagnosis, in that order. Why? Free Running is the only way you will get a Flak Jacket. Almost every building in Malton that contains flak jackets will be barricaded heavily enough that you cannot enter from the streets. Hand-to-hand is a prerequisite for Knife Combat, and Knives are the best weapon you can have as a revived zombie. Before I'm brought down in a swarm of fire ax users, let me direct you to the Siege PKer Guide. Knives are the best way to kill generators, and if you are alive, you might as well help the zombie cause. Diagnosis is the survivor's Scent Blood, and you don't need to buy another skill first to get it. If you have Scent Blood, skip it. On the off-chance you have enough XP to buy another survivor skill, Necrotech Employment lets you identify Necrotech Buildings from the streets, but you can do that by having the Wiki open in another tab/window. Only buy Necrotech Employment if you have every zombie skill and leftover XP, and even then, you'd be doing better buying combat skills and PKing. Once you get Free Running and Body Building, then find an entry point, run into a Police Station or Mall, and get a Flak Jacket. Try not to spend the night there, as Bounty Hunters will shoot you if they see the zombie skills in your profile outnumber your survivor skills. Once you get the Flak Jacket, then jump off a high building, PK until somebody shoots you to death, or find a horde and yell "EAT ME!" Congrats, you have Body Building and a Flak Jacket.

Zombie Skills

Scent Tree: Scent Fear is a good skill to have if you didn't pick up Diagnosis in you stint in life, and Scent Blood is better. If you can find a dying survivor and land the finishing blow, you get 10 XP, which is a nice bonus. Scent Death is a great way to find a group of Zombies, which often leads to a building under siege and some tasty bra!nz. Scent Trail is fine for finding survivors, but they will almost always be in a safehouse by the time you find them, so its not really for the effort.

Digestion Tree: Digestion is only so useful, since you will usually wake up with 50 HP or 0. When you do discover you've only been wounded, then it's helpful. Infectious Bite, however, is an excellent way to spread the love. If you have maxed claws and jaws, then a couple of strategies present themselves. The most common is bite everyone in the safehouse to waste survivor AP finding and using a FAK. If you still need to finish getting zombie skills, then find all the survivors with 60 HP, then claw, bite, and claw. They've got 50 HP and an infection, you've got 10 XP, and they have to find a healer/FAK. To other survivors, it looks like they are an ordinary survivor, so if they don't know to help, then they'll pass over your victim in favor of somebody else. It isn't as AP efficient as the first tactic, but it can work for getting XP, and its pretty good in mall sieges.

Vigour Mortis Tree: If you don't have every skill in this tree (except Feeding Drag) then you better get them. Zombies live for combat, and you need combat skills to get XP. Rend Flesh makes your claws all the more lethal. Tangling Grasp gives your a better chance to hit with anything. The only unnecessary skill is Feeding Drag. The purpose of this skills is to get survivors out on the streets so newbies have a meal. Being a feral, however, you aren't playing for a team, and your AP is going to you. Once you get stronger, however, get the skill. You were a newb once, so help the others out.

Memories of Life Tree: Mostly teamplay skills, Death Rattle is a good way to plan an attack within the game, and is great for using X:00 tactics. Ransack gets XP for clearing the building, and forces Survivors to use AP to fix it up. Feeding Groan beckons other zombies to come and get some bra!nz, and is good if you breach a building that you can't take down on your own. Flailing Gesture is a less effective death rattle: skip it until you have everything else.

Brain Rot

Getting Brain Rot is a major decision, and should only be undertaken if you a certain that you don't want to stand up breathing again. While there are Rot Revive clinics, other zombies will target you because they know you will add to their number, and PKers will target you because they know you can't get revived and hunt them down. If you really want to, then go for it. Being immune to combat revives is quite useful once you have a flak jacket and Body Building, and it wastes loads of survivor AP if the waste a syringe on you.

In conclusion, I hope this helped. --Atticus