Guides:Scouting

The purpose of this page is to explain how to scout safely and efficiently.

Scouting for the impatient

1. Start in a <= VS building
2. Freerun through the buildings of interest (noting Barricade levels and Building residents)
3. Exit the last building
4. Run back to your starting building (noting the Zombies standing outside)

Efficiency: Scout 1.5 blocks per AP (e.g. run E observing the 45th latitude and run W observing latitudes 44-46)
Note: This doesn't give you the building statuses of the buildings on the 44 and 46th latitudes, but you're impatient, right?

Scouting a 3x3 block of buildings

1. Start in any building in the 3x3 block
2. Freerun through the buildings (noting Barricade levels and Building residents). The last building you should go through is the building in the middle
3. Exit the middle building and note the Zombies outside all 9 buildings

Efficiency: 1.1 buildings per AP (Assuming 7 buildings in the 3x3 block)

Scouting as the undead

If you have the misfortune of dying on a regular basis, you can serve as a scout by wandering around groups of zombies. The advantage is that you can stand outside without being mauled, you can hear groans (and see where zombies are being attracted to), and it costs 0 AP to scout the 3x3 block you are in (i.e. hit the refresh button on your browser). This is ethical unless you've created a zombie alt for the sole purpose of scouting (after all, it's not your fault that you were turned into a zombie).

Misc. Scouting tips

• Browser history is your friend. If you're being attacked while scouting, continue your scouting run without taking notes. Once you're in a safe place, use your back/forward button on your browser to record everything you saw during your run. A warning: Performing any action besides moving between buildings may disrupt your browser history (making your previous pages irretrievable). This is because some pages cannot be seen without reposting form data (especially in IE).
• Indicating that there are no zombies in a square is useful information. Record it!
• A nice way to organize your report is: [41, 45] Keane Boulevard Police Dept (QS) (7 zombies) also 5 survivors inside.
• I recommend keeping your scouting to a 10 block radius of your starting point. That way, if you run into enemy territory you can beat a hasty retreat without panicking.
• You should barricade any building that is empty and has its doors wide open. Note: Barricading an open building also closes the doors (saves 1 AP).
• When leaving a building, it is more efficient to step into an adjacent square with no building than leaving the building and then moving to that square.
• Report significant zed presence to your team(e.g. > 5 zombies standing outside a building, zombies inside buildings, # of zeds at a Revive Point).
• Report fallback positions and safehouses if your suburb is under heavy attack.
• Don't attack zeds. You're a scout; take the blows and finish the job.