How To Win A Mall Siege
| Survivor Tactics |
| The information on this page or section discusses a survivor strategy. |
Welcome!
This page was originally created to help survivors at Nichols Mall facing the Big Bash. Though the mall fell, the lessons learned there can be refined into principles that will guide other sieges in all of Malton. This defence has not yet proven successful, unlike Sutherlands Defence which has from time to time resurfaced throughout Malton as a tactic.
Rule 1: Patrol The Corners
At least once a day, you should visit all four corners of the mall. When you log off each night, make sure you go to sleep in the corner with the fewest humans.
Why? Simple. Two new recent game changes, Feeding Drag and Ransack, help the zombies. They will try to drag out as many survivors as possible, focusing on a single corner. When that corner is empty, they will Ransack it and station a guard of a dozen or more zombies. It will then be impossible to barricade that corner back up because ransacked areas cannot be barricaded, and ransacked areas with zombies cannot be cleaned up. When this happens, the mall is essentially done for good. This is how the other malls, including Marven Mall, fell to the Big Bash.
You may think you will be safer staying in the corner with the most humans. Wrong. If one corner falls to the horde, all corners will collapse and you will likely be killed before you can escape.
Your corner of the mall is not its own little world. The mall depends on cooperation to survive. Therefore, make the smart decision and shore up the weakest corner. The other 200 survivors will thank you.
Rule 2: Stock Up Now While There Is Still Time
Most sieges build up slowly, especially when the horde is scattered en route. Use this to your advantage.
Spend the days before the siege begins searching for vital supplies. All survivors with Shopping or Bargain Hunting should search the Drugstore for First Aid Kits. All survivors with Necrotech training should visit nearby Necrotech offices and stock up on Revifivication Syringes.
When the siege begins, access to power may become limited. Therefore, search for supplies now while the odds favor survivors.
Rule 3: Spend Your AP Effectively
Do not exit the Mall to kill Zombies. This is an enormous waste of AP and ammo. They will stand right back up for 1 AP, then tear your throat out.
Each day, you should instead spend your AP in a way that maximally helps the survivors around you. Please follow this checklist:
First, Barricade
If there is a break in, putting the barricades back up is the number one priority even if there are zombies within the mall. This allows you to trap zombies inside, allowing you to kill them, but also stopping more from coming in behind them. This makes it easier to control the zombies inside the mall, stopping them from getting out of hand
Second, Heal
If there are wounded survivors, especially with Infections, they can only begin to help the rest of us once they are healed. Even if you can only distribute one FAK to each wounded survivor, you can cure Infections and help the survivor cause.
Third, Kill
If there are still zombies within the mall, now is the time to kill them. If you spot zombies in another corner of the mall, don't stay in your corner and wait for someone else to take care of the situation. You are active right now. So get over there and get some kill XP!
Fourth, Toss The Bodies
If a zombie still has AP left, he can stand right back up for a handful of AP even if you Headshot him.
Because of the active nature of most zombie breakins, you should dump each zombie immediately after killing him. It might be safe to wait but you can never be sure; and if he stands up again, that's another 60 HP target that needs to be taken care of. This not only wastes AP for people to kill it, but puts defenders at further risk, and if any are injured or killed you need to waste AP restocking, healing or reviving.
Fifth, Check The Other Corners
Remember Rule 1? Patrol all the corners! Do you have FAKs left? You could be dead tomorrow and those medical supplies will be of no use to anybody. Visit all the corners, and wherever you see high-level wounded players, hand out a first aid kit. Wherever the barricades are weak, or there are dead bodies, fix things for your survivor comrades. Remember: the whole mall is one group. If one corner falls, all will fall. You should patrol all the corners at least once a day.
Rule 4: Get Revived Efficiently
You should know the locations of the revive points in your suburb. If you're killed, shamble over to one and wait in line; a NT official will be with you shortly. Depending on your ammunition supplies, the state of your area upon standing up as a Zombie, and how effective you are as a zombie player, your AP may be better invested in helping your fellow survivors the only way you can; attack other zombies. Frequently during a siege a player will be dragged outside and killed whilst offline, and will log in to find themselves dead outside a barricaded building, surrounded by zombies. Immediately travelling to a revive point is a waste of AP; attacking the zombies around you can and will help the defenders inside, especially if your target lacks Ankle Grab. Calculating how many AP will be needed to travel to your Revive Point and spending your remainder attacking hostile zombies before heading off can provide a small, but not useless, amount of aid to your fellow survivors inside. Just like combat-revived zombies, you can sew confusion and havoc among the hostile horde; especially if vindictive players follow you to exact revenge.
In addition, whenever you are killed, you should submit your name to the Revive Tool. This is checked daily by Necrotech officials who want to bring you back to the living so you can keep fighting the good fight. It's easy to use, so use it.
Never, ever, ever combat-revive a zombie. You are wasting AP, giving a zombie an opportunity to spy around the mall and wreak havoc, and you are abandoning the dead survivor who could have really used that needle. What more is there to say: it's stupid, don't do it.
When you are revived, do not stand up until you have lots of AP. While you're on the ground, a zombie can't kill you again. When you stand up, you're vulnerable, you likely have an infection, and you need to find an entry point pronto. Do not make the mistake of getting yourself revived, standing up with 5 AP left, and stranding yourself on the streets to be zombie lunch again. It sounds obvious, but survivors still make this mistake. Plan ahead and you'll be fine.
If you are reviving, always ALWAYS extract before revivification. Zombies (rotters and normal undead) pester revive queues and you don't want to waste your needle. The most recent game change (of July 22nd) allows you to add extracted zombies to your contacts list. Use this to your advantage. If you don't recognize any allies or friends in the revive queue, simply extract DNA from the top 5 or 10 zombies in the stack. Go through their profiles and see which is the highest level survivor. Add him or her to your contacts list and you will be able to target that zombie specifically for revivification, skipping over any rotters in the queue.
A Final Word
No fixed target is worth holding if defeat is certain. If the mall has been breached and one corner is ransacked, evacuate the area immediately as it is useless to stay.
Tactics of zombie avoidance are most productive for survivors in the new pro-zombie game environment. More information can be found at the excellent page dealing with River Tactics.
Addendum
A First Rule of winning a Mall Seige has been proposed. This rule is a direct product of Caiger III and Caiger IV as well as countless other seiges. As a simple rule it seems self-evident but past failures to adhere to it necessitates its addition:
Go to where the Zombies are, or, failing that, go to where we're weakest (which is where the Zombies WILL BE).
