Guides:Fast Zombie Builds

Here are some very fast zombie builds. The skills here are taken based on the skill sets present as of 10/26/05.

Zombie Skill Progression: Starting as a corpse

1) Vigour Mortis - Your attacks are your growth rate. Attack Modifiers like this are vital as a zombie and should be among the first things you invest your XP in.

2) Neck Lurch - High attack rates will help you level up, and the reason I prefer this to death grip+rend flesh as your first maxed out attack is:

a) It will give you 2 XP instead of the 1 XP maxed claws will give you when you resort to ZKing (attacking/killing your fellow zombies).

b) Claw zombies invest one extra level into attack that could easily go towards other skills that are vital to a beginner zombie. Don't get me wrong, claws are good, but they are much better in combination with bite attacks. They tend to be more present in higher level zombies.

3) Lurching Gait - Some may say to consider Memories of Life instead, but you'll need this to get around and scout out buildings to use Memories of Life on anyways. Also with the lurching gait being a pre-requisite to ankle grab in my opinion it is better than memories of life. Get this after you max out your first attack (bite or claw). The more AP you save, the more you can attack, kill, and thus level.

4) Ankle Grab - 9 extra AP a day is very good. You are no longer so limited in your AP and can do more damage, and gain more XP. Now the only reason death is annoying is because of headshot.

5) Memories of Life - This skill is to help you find targets. When you see that a building has been secured that usually means there's someone inside, and is out of AP. Finding targets is important to a zombie, and this gives you targets that would be otherwise out of reach. This will save you AP on walking around and searching for someone stuck outside a building.

6) Death Grip - It's time for you to start working on your claw skills. You could get digestion in order to gain back HP, and make yourself harder to kill which in turn makes you less prone to headshot. However most level 10+ characters can kill you easily even if you are at 50 HP, unless you have body building and flak jacket you probably would gain more from maxing out your claw attack now.

7) Rend Flesh - After you get this claws are your main attack now. Unless you are biting zombies for extra XP to gain a level you should be using this attack. This is the best zombie attack at a averaged 1.5 damage per AP.

8) Digestion - If you are weakened you can gain back HP and make you less vulnerable to headshots. This is also the a requirement for infectious bite which really helps during sieges.

9) Infectious Bite - A useful skill, when in a busted safehouse infect those with headshots. If they don't have a first aid kit handy they will probably flee. In a horde this is especially useful, and helps weaken characters that may attack you or barricade the building back up. During real time fights most humans simply cannot stand up to you if you keep landing bite attacks. They lose HP via infectious bite, and you gain HP back via digestion. When on a idle targets you may want to infect high level humans first, and then go for the claw attack.

At some point in time you have probably gotten revived. If you have around 75 XP when you do get revived try gaining that extra level and buy body building or diagnosis. You gain levels quickest as a civilian by healing people, and while you are alive at least pick up a flak jacket at a Police Dept. if you don't already have one. Even if you plan on getting Body Building/Diagnosis later, a flak jacket still offers you protection from firearms and makes you less prone to headshots.

That's about all you need to know, the skills at this point don't make too much of a difference. Just try to put off Brain Rot until you get a flak jacket and body building.

General Tips:

1) Always buy a skill immediately when you hit 100. Even if you are at 25 AP and still attacking someone I'd suggest you spend that XP immediately. In your early levels, every skill you have will probably help you kill your target faster.

- Note: This tip is less important now that headshots no longer drain XP. If you have decided to make your next purchase a combat skill, then you should should go ahead and "combat upgrade" once you hit 100 XP for the above mentioned reason. Otherwise, it's really not a pressing concern.

2) Hide in a horde (6+ zombies, if you have the option), and if you are in a area that has a few busted safe houses try hiding in a building or a church as a last resort.

Zombie Skill Progression: Human First

Necrotech

a) Find somewhere to settle in. Ideally you want to find a area that isn't overrun, but also isn't absent of zombies. In fact as long as you are careful you can probably survive in a area that's has a strong zombie presence as long as you are careful and DO NOT GET GREEDY. If you see a few zombies on the way to your safe house IGNORE them, they are not worth the extra 8 XP if you die and only have enough for 1 or 2 zombie skills. Remember when you die you are behind corpse class zombies by one level, so if you saved up only 100 XP congrats you are the equal of a level one corpse class zombie. Save at least 400 XP before you die, and if you do die before that read the revive tips in this guide to help you get back to the living.

b) Remember that you can get more than one zombie in a square. Just keep putting the DNA extractor to target a zombie and it will go from one zombie to the next. If a zombie has brain rot it will say ERROR. CORTEX DAMAGED. REPEAT EXTRACTION. If there are at least 5 or so zombies then you may want to do the extraction multiple times until you get it so you'll move on to the next zombie and get the XP for all the zombies in the square. However if that's the only zombie there, or there are only 2 or 3 then just skip the brain rotted zombie and find a new target. There is a additional risk they may have scent trail, but that's usually among the last skills they get and it's worth the risk if you can get 13 or so zombies in a single square.

c) Keep track of your safe house. Have at least 10 AP when you start to head back home although in more heavily barricaded areas you may want to head back home at 15 AP. Another good way to budget AP is using the Urban Dead homing beacon. If you get lost use the map of the city of malton (http://www.jonathanfletcher.f2s.com/urbandead/mapping.php). Also check the barricade levels of the buildings you pass by on the way to your safehouse, if you can find one that's at very strongly or below then by all means spend the night there as long as you don't think zombies will bust in while you sleep.

Overall there are two ways you can go at this. If you want to play a zombie somewhat early just get body building, diagnosis, flak jacket (search in police depts.), and 400 XP then feed yourself to your fellow zombies by simply standing outside for a while. Remember no matter how reckless you are and how many zombies you tag you will NEVER get past 200 XP in one day so it's usually not worth making a extra effort to tag as many zombies as possible unless you plan to die at the end of the day anyways.

Now for the second option, there is also the slow and steady route. If you want to save up like 1000 XP and then become a zombie there is that option. Just be careful, but really it's good to play a mid level zombie to get a taste of what it's really like.

If you go for the level 7 build (Body Building, flak jacket, diagnosis, and 400 XP) I suggest these zombie skills when you die:

1) Vigor Mortis 2) Neck Lurch 3) Lurching Gait 4) Ankle Grab

Some of you may think: Why Diagnosis? Well it will save you a level or two in the long run, and it's pretty useful. The 10 XP kill bonus is really good for a zombie and being able to tell who's weakened will help you get that bonus. As a necrotech it will cost you 75 XP and as a zombie scent fear and scent blood that do the exact same thing except Scent Blood will detect infections, and will cost you 200 XP. It will help you gain levels early. If you decide not to get it you probably won't get it's zombie counterpart (scent blood) until you are quite close to maxing out.

Revive Tips:

If you die prematurely don't worry. You are a necrotech, and you can recognize necrotech buildings from the street even as a zombie. Some say that it's better to stay outside a necrotech building with very few zombies outside. There is also the option of revivification clinics (buildings that are tagged by players as "Revification Clinics" and they try to revive people there) however some think if you don't have much luck just keep moving around to new necrotech buildings until you get revived.

That's the conclusion of the tutorial, thanks for reading.

- Trunksoul