Guides:Survival

This is a general guide for how to survive in the zombie infested Malton, assuming you are still amongst the living.

1. Do NOT end your day outside in the street.
   • This is the single most important rule. If you want to live, get indoors. It even applies to zombies, but they don't necessarily care about dying as much.
   • Being out on the streets is an open invitation for attack. Zombies and crazy people both will find you without effort, and either might decide that you'd be better off as a zombie.
   • One way to NOT end up outside is keep a reserve of APs. There is a reason why the AP counter turns red when it goes under 10. If you have only 30 APs, plan to spend only 20 to 22. That leaves you 8-10 APs in case of emergencies.
   • Keep the map handy. See if there's a route to your destination that doesn't expose you to the streets, if you have Free Running. Check that you are taking the shortest way back to your hideout.
   • Remember the entrances and exits (even if you have Free Running). Many of the population centers (see below) have been heavily barricaded and cannot be entered. The only way to get in is through another building that's less barricaded, THEN use free-running. Thus, if you leave, note your exits and entrances, and search nearby for alternate hideouts (see reserve AP suggestion above) in case situation changes.
2. Avoid population centers! Don't sleep in police departments, hospitals, or malls.
   • It's not obvious, but being around many survivors is often a bad idea. While those you heal usually won't shoot you, it's impossible to tell a normal human apart from a lunatic out for blood. Also, zombies are just dead, not dumb, and they know where people like to congregate, and will form mobs to break open the box of tasty goodies.
   • If you do find a group of survivors in a well-barricaded building, it's good etiquette (and potentially life-saving) to tell them what you've seen outside: "2 zombies, 3 dead bodies at hotel 3 blocks east & 1 block south." If possible, give coordinates, either from the map or a GPS Unit. When those players rejoin the game, they'll have a good idea of nearby threats and targets without having to waste AP looking around.
   • Speak etiquette: keep it short and precise, like "3 zeds at the PD 5 blocks NNW. Any one have heal?" Also see "communicate" tip below.
   • When choosing buildings for the night, lean towards "generic" installations. Factories, warehouses, railway stations and such work well. There's no particular reason for zombies to come inside.
   • If you happen to find an empty police department, hospital, or mall, it's likely that a zombie horde came through recently and forced the survivors out. The ones they didn't infect, that is. Be careful.
   • One of the safest locations aside from unmarked buildings are NecroTech buildings (which can only be seen by characters with NecroTech Employment). Stray zombies generally only go there intentionally if they're seeking revivification. To many humans, NecroTech buildings look like any other random buildings. But Necrotech Buildings are somewhat more likely to have friendly faces in them, unless some of them are zombie sympathizers. The downside to NecroTech buildings is that they are generally the first place to get overrun in the event of an organized zombie assault in order to prevent the victims from being revived.
   • On the other hand, the safehouse that you pick SHOULD be within easy travel distance from what you need, be it ammo, first-aid kit, or other. By "easy", I would say 2-3 blocks at most, so you don't spent a lot of APs just traveling and end up searching very little. Consult the map for optimum locations.
   • Zombies seem to attack the longest-living players first. Like the level 10+ ones who have never died yet. So if you're a newbie there is safety in numbers for you among a crowd of more experienced players. But if you're the 'oldest' player in the building, check in frequently to make sure you aren't being attacked.
3. Learn the Free Running skill
   • Free Running allows you to move between buildings without stepping outside. This lets you enter heavily barricaded buildings, by locating an adjacent building you can enter, then move to the heavily barricaded building. This gives you valuable escape options. But beware neighborhoods where one building after another is barricaded... you may find yourself out of AP before you find a building to enter and use your free running skill in.
4. Do NOT barricade buildings to heavily barricaded (This is a debatable but popular viewpoint.)
   • It's understandable that you'd choose to heavily barricade police departments and malls. But bars? Hotels? Junkyards? A light to medium barricade is enough for most zombies to lose interest, since they want to conserve their action points like yourself, and they'll likely head toward the buildings they know contain humans (on more than one occasion a survivor has evaded zombies by hiding in a building with its doors wide open because the zombies assumed that nobody would hide in a building without at least closing the doors). Over-barricading only leads to the following:
     • Forces you to spend future actions finding entries into and exits out of buildings.
     • Possibly strands humans (including yourself) outside to be killed.
     • Expends action points that could have been used to gain experience instead.
   • If you DO heavily barricade a building, as a courtesy give some hints (maybe spraypaint) so people can tell where they can find a building that they can still enter.
5. Communicate with fellow survivors!
   • Zombies cannot communicate with each other (well, not like we do) and thus we have this advantage over them!
   • Speaking costs 1 AP, but the sentence can be very long, so keep typing and typing and get it out in one long sentence. Combine all you want to say (such as instances below) into one long sentence.
   • Let other survivors know if you've wounded any zombies so someone else can finish it off before it gets healed, or regenerates (through digestion). While you don't get the kill bonus, one less zed is one less to worry about.
   • Let other survivors know you are injured so they can heal you for the healing XP.
   • Let other survivors know what zombies you have spotted recently, usually as direction and distance, like "Saw 3 zeds to NW, 4 blocks out" or "2 zeds just outside the door, 6 more next block over!"
   • Let other survivors know about alternate safehouses nearby (if you want to), beware that some survivors may be zombie sympathizers and may leak safehouse locations to the zombies.