Guides:The Newbie's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse

DO NOT EDIT THIS PAGE

Developed by Rohndogg1 to help all Newbies out there.

Overview

This guide was developed to help newbies to Urban Dead that play as survivors and want to be able to survive and level up better than those who are uninformed. From here on I will detail everything necessary for a new survivor to know.

I want to mention that some of these tactics may become less effective to you depending on where you are and how long you've been playing, but this guide is specifically focused toward newbies and is designed to help those in even the worst situations, so some of the info may become irrelevant for some.

Important Terms/Abbreviations

These are often used so it's important to understand them.

Cade Levels: lB(Loosely Barricaded), LB(Lightly Barricaded), QSB(Quite Strongly Barricaded), VSB(Very Strongly Barricaded), VSB++/VSB+2 (Highest cade level that still lets survivors enter from the outside) HB(Heavily Barricaded), VHB(Very Heavily Barricaded), EHB(Extremely Heavily Barricaded) Suburb Statuses: Green("Safe," break-ins rare, max 50 zombies in suburb and no zombie groups above 10), Yellow("Moderately Dangerous," active zombies and break-ins, but no 50+ hostile hordes), Orange("Dangerous," zombies inside many resource buildings; or hostile mobs of 50+ zombies), Red("Very Dangerous," most buildings wide open or zombie-infested; or hostile zombie mobs of 150+)

    FAK: First Aid Kit
    NT: NecroTech Building
    GH: (General) Hospital
    PD: Police Department
    ATM: At This Moment
    Flak: Flak Jacket
    CR: Combat Revive
    RP: Revive Point

Starting Skills and Progression

These are some ways to get a character going that will make your early days a hell of a lot easier.

Private: Starts with basic firearms training, a pistol and spare ammunition: This is a good skill to start with as it gives you an effective means of leveling up by killing zombies. The obvious downside to this however is that you'll have to search for ammo soon. Because of this, I recommend these skills

   * Pistol Training
   * Adv. Pistol Training
   * Hand to Hand Combat
   * Axe Proficiency or Knife Combat (Find the weapon to match you skill)
   * Free Running
   * Diagnosis (if you plan to heal for XP)
   * After that it's up to you, this list gives you the best way to level up and stay alive

Police Officer: Starts with basic firearms training, a pistol, a flak jacket and a radio. This set is nearly identical to a private and thus you should choose the same skills.

Firefighter: Starts with a fire ax and a radio, and ax-handling training: This set is good because it doesn't require ammo.

   * Hand to Hand Combat
   * Basic Firearms Training
   * Then choose a fire arm tree
   * Free Running
   * Diagnosis (if you plan to heal for XP)
   * From here I say it's up to you

All Non-Combat Classes:

   * You should get everything up through axe proficiency
   * Complete a gun tree
   * Anyone other than Doctors should get Diagnosis (for healers)
   * Other than that pick your own skills Free Running should be High priority if you didn't start with it.

Safe House Guide

As you all probably already know, step one of surviving is finding a good safehouse. The type of safehouse you use really depends on your skills, so, I'm going to break this down a little bit.

Total Newbies: Those without construction and free running.

For suburbs that are "green," "yellow," or "orange" I recommend just checking the barricade plan on the wiki and finding a building reading very strongly barricaded and just sleeping there. Remember, the best place for a newbie is in a suburb with established survivor groups with a barricade plan, these areas are usually good because patrols go through the area and check on things regularly.

For an overrun suburb I recommend going to a building without any cades (ruined is even better) and at least one block away from resource points. The reason for this is that zombies tend to go past these buildings and leave you alone because there are nice juicy resource buildings nearby, but not on top of you so you don't look like a hiding place. This is by no means "safe" but it kept me alive for three weeks safe when I started out.

Construction Workers: Those with the construction skill, but not free running.

The obvious benefit to this skill is that you can build barricades. This is useful for staying alive but is not the best method. If you are a construction worker then you should follow the same idea as the plan above except you should cade the building to EHB. This will deter any zombies from attacking your building because it's out of the way and there are bigger and probably more full resource buildings in the area for them to target.

Free Runners: Those with the free running skill

This is definitely your best chance to survive. Anybody that has this skill should follow this method. Find any well populated building with cades at EHB and hide there. MAKE SURE IT'S NOT A RESOURCE BUILDING!!! Resource buildings are magnets for zombies and should not be slept in. Also, if the building is unpowered then do not power it, lights scream that there are survivors inside ready to be eaten.

If you follow these tips you will optimize your chances to survive.

Inventory Strategies

In this section, I was going to give you a list of good inventories that I have used and proved to be useful. Although, I believe that people should develop there own style so I will instead give guidelines for building your best inventory.

Focus on your skills: Don't carry a load of shotguns if you're not trained in them, it's a waste of useful space. If you get skills later then grab some new items Carry a back-up weapon. If you run out of ammo during a fight then you will want to have a fire ax or a knife so that you can inflict more damage on the foe and maybe score a kill which nets you XP that can use to get more skills. Always carry at least one FAK for curing infections or other emergencies Carrying 5 loaded guns saves AP compared to carrying one loaded gun and four clips since you don't have to reload, but it takes more space

Weapon Overviews

Fire Ax: Best melee weapon in the game (3rd overall), the second most accurate with all skills, but it deals more damage (3HP). This is a great back-up weapon for gun users.

Knife: Second Best melee weapon, it is the most accurate with all skills, but only deals two damage. Pretty reliable in a pinch.

Pistol: Second strongest weapon in the game, with all skills it has 65% accuracy. The pistol deals 5 damage (4 against Flak). The pistol is good because one pistol clip gives you 6 shots which can total out to a max of 30 damage (24 against Flak).

Shotgun: Shotguns are the Strongest gun in the game, dealing a whopping 10 damage (8 against Flak). The shotgun reloads one shell at a time and only holds two shells, meaning it takes more AP to use when compared to all other weapons. This is bad because one full shotgun can only do a max of 20 damage.(16 against Flak)

Other Weapons: Don't even bother with these, they honestly aren't worth it.

Glossary of Other Useful Items

FAKs: A First Aid Kit will restore 5 HP to any character; 10 if you possess the First Aid skill

Can be found in: Mall Drugstores, Hospitals, Churches, and Infirmaries FAKs are a single-use item; they have a 2% encumbrance

NOTE: With the October 14th update, the search rates for First Aid Kits have been greatly changed. Although exact rates are still unknown, it is proven that Hospitals are now the best place to search for FAK's. Even an unlit hospital has yielded FAK's with a greater rate than a lit mall.

NT Revivification Syringe: Used to revive a zombie. Reviving a zombie requires the Lab Experience skill and 10 AP.

Can be found in: NTs, or can be created for 20AP in a powered NT using NecroNet Access Syringes are single-use items; they have a 2% encumbrance

Toolbox: One of the most important items now; only usable by people with the Construction Skill. This item allows you to repair a ruined building when no zombies are present. It also allows you to fix generators and radio transmitters.

Can be found in: Mall Hardware Stores, Auto Repair Shops, Factories, Fort Vehicle Depot, Fort Storehouse, and Power Stations. Can be used infinitely, but has 16% encumbrance.

Flak Jacket: Reduces damage done by firearms by 20%; useful for both zombies and survivors.

Can be found in: Armories, Police Stations, and Junkyards. It has a 2% encumbrance.

The soak does not stack so carrying more than one is a waste of space. Worn automatically.

Portable Generators: Can be used:

In a hospital or infirmary, allows use of the Surgery skill. In a building with a mobile phone mast, allows mobile phones to function in that suburb. In an NT, allows use of the NecroNet Access skill. In all building-types, improves search rate. To change the external and internal descriptions of some other buildings (such as movie theaters and nightclubs) to indicate power is on. To allow for Radio Transmitters to be used.

One downside is: Buildings with lights on can been seen outside by zombies and this usually draws them to it.

Lit Buildings appear yellow on the 3x3 map. Must be fueled to function.

Can be found in: Factories, Power Stations, Mall Hardware Stores, and Storehouses They have a 20% encumbrance

Radio Transmitters: A radio transmitter can be set up in a powered building to provide broadcasts to portable radios and other radio transmitters. Broadcasts can be up to 50 characters long, including spaces. Despite the name, the transmitters can also receive messages.

Can be found in: Mall Tech Stores, Fire Departments, and Storehouses They have a 20% encumbrance

Radios: A portable radio that receives messages, whether living or dead, on any frequency between 25.90 and 29.00 MHz. It is possible to carry multiple radios to listen on multiple frequencies.

You can retune a radio while alive by clicking on it then selecting a new frequency; this takes 2AP

If a portable radio is retuned to a frequency where one or more transmitters are active, a message "The static hisses to a clear silence" is seen. If no transmitters are active on the frequency, "The radio begins to hiss static" is seen instead. These status messages are only seen on retuning.

Can be found in: Mall Tech Stores, Police Departments, and Fire Departments They have a 4% encumbrance

These are the most important items you will find in UD.

Searching Strategies

Powered buildings always yield a better search rates, unless you're searching for syringes Never search ruined buildings, you rarely find anything useful

Other Tips

This tip I cannot stress enough. Always pay attention to your AP and plan your actions. Know how far away your safehouse is and how much AP it takes to get there. Do this and you are much more likely to survive. Getting stuck out side is the worst thing that can happen.

End with 1 AP. This allows you to log on every few hours and check on your character.

Closing Statements

Follow this guide and ask for help when necessary and you will roughly double your chance of surviving the apocalypse.

The wiki can help you with anything I have not covered in this guide.

I am also able to answer any questions you have, just send me a PM or an Email and I'll get back to you at my first chance.

Special thanks to Forever Seth for providing me with ideas.

This guide may be reproduced, but please ask me before posting it anywhere else.

You may post this on any site unless I specifically tell you not to when you contact me.

Please do NOT pass this off as your own work, I worked very hard on it.