Modern Suburbia: Surviving Level One

Welcome to Malton! Now get the hell out!

Please note, this guide was originally from September 2007 but the information is still accurate. If a Mall can go down in a few hours, who cares what happened almost a year ago?

This Day and Age

The city is getting older. As it does, its residents grow with it. And as the world turns, how quickly we forget the little ones, the newcomers, the bright-eyed young ones just starting out. This is a guide for the newbie survivors - because they get so little love any more.

Please note: this guide is NOT a First Day in Malton guide, or something that tells you to "be sure to sleep in buildings!" or that "VSB means you can go inside!" or that "some players have more than 50 HP!" (Although it does have a few of these, just in case.) Those guides are useful and they are out there and it is assumed you've read them. This guide is to help those who have read or already know the obvious stuff, but would like a little advice on beginning their journey - and they'd like a little advice that's not over two years old.

Before You Start

The city is rough these days for a beginning survivor. You need to be prepared before you even start. The first and most crucial choice you'll make is what class to play. This will determine how you will be spending your first few weeks in Malton.

You Don't Have Many Good Choices

The most important thing you can do as a newbie is: not be a newbie anymore. To do this, you must gain XP. The game is extremely difficult for your first few levels, and the only way it gets easier is to gain XP and get skills. Sadly, because you're such a low level, you don't have many viable options to gain XP quickly or safely. For the most part, you have two main options for gaining XP at level 1. The first is attempting to hurt zombies in melee. The second is healing others with first aid kits (FAKs).

Firefighter

If you've never played the game before - and are therefore are the target of this guide - you should play a firefighter. Period. They are easily the strongest starting class in the game, and more importantly, they are probably the most fun to play at level one. They have several things going for them:

They begin with a Fire Axe and a 25% chance to actually hit anything
They start in a Fire Station, which is a building that is easy to "base" from since it's not over-barricaded as often and not as big of a zombie target
Since they use an axe passably well, they do not need to constantly search for ammo to be effective
As a civilian, they only pay 100 XP for any skill

The only major drawbacks are that it's hard to get FAKs and gain XP from using them (since basically all hospitals are EHB and you don't know who to heal).

Doctor

A good second choice. They have a few benefits but also some big drawbacks... more of a choice for those wishing to help "the cause" or who like to RP. Your primary profession also has the fastest XP gain you can get at level 1, and it's 100% guaranteed to work each time as long as the person isn't at full health. However, the Doctor as a class can be somewhat more boring and can really only do one thing effectively: heal others. (Note: this ability also depends on "others," which are not actually you and therefore notoriously unreliable.)

Doctors begin in a Hospital which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because finding FAKs is much easier. It's a curse because you might as well paint a giant target on your head for staying in a hospital.
Doctors begin with one of the first three skills you should buy: Diagnosis. It is an especially useful skill when combined with "being in a hospital," because it makes it very efficient to heal people.

However, there are some major drawbacks as well.

You can't do ANYTHING but heal people for XP, so I hope you enjoy a) not doing much, and b) searching and not finding anything, because that's what you'll be doing all week. Unless you're unlucky, and you get killed. (Whee! Variety!)
Because you are a scientist, the #2 skill you HAVE TO BUY is 150 XP, and that's a loooong way to go at first. Also, it's a shame that ultimately you will pay more in XP than other classes to max out your skill tree - but this is less of a newbie concern.

What You Shouldn't Be

Any Military personnel. I know guns sound like fun, and theoretically you can use them to kill things, but if you are a newbie starting with guns is a great way to stop playing this game out of frustration. First, you only have a 5% higher chance to hit anything than a firefighter, but you also have to find ammo. That means your first week will be spent doing exactly the following:

Trying to find a lit Police Station that is NOT set to Extremely Heavily Barricaded (EHB). Estimated time: 1-2 days (or more, depending on your starting luck)
Searching for Ammunition and guns and not finding anything. Attempting to get enough weaponry together to kill one zombie. Estimated time: 5 days
Finding a zombie and shooting your entire wad only to still not kill the thing (especially since it was wearing a Flak Jacket). Estimated time: 1/2 day
Crying as you run back to your safehouse and realizing that if you'd only played a firefighter, you could have half-killed a zombie every day instead of once in 5-7 days. Estimated time: well, you never play again, so... infinite

The only advantage is that your #2 skill you HAVE TO BUY is only 75 XP, but this really isn't worth it. Scouts are nice because they start out with the skill you HAVE TO BUY, but they have no good way to gather XP - which means they're probably going to be flailing about until they can find a hospital and try to be a doctor until they can get 150 XP for Diagnosis, which can easily take over a week.

You should also avoid being a Cop for the same reasons as above. Although, cops at least start in a police station, so you don't have to find one.

Please note: I'm not saying that using guns isn't a valid tactic, or that later in the game this isn't often superior to using melee weapons. I'm just saying that when you have a 30% chance to hit and have to spend weeks scrounging for ammo, it's just not fun.

The Other Classes

A NecroTech Lab Assistant is tough because your only XP source is tagging zombies. This means you're going to start in a Necro-Tech building, which is the BIGGEST target in the game (i.e. MOVE NOW). AND you're going to have to constantly get out there and find large numbers of zombies - which means you'll be close to ...a large numbers of zombies. Firefighters only need one or two zombies to gain XP, but you need loads and loads. And while doctors can remain relatively safe and usually near lots of easy access to FAKs, techs are forced to roam constantly for their XP.

Granted, the situation is generally getting better for you, what with the survival rate heading south and with all the RPs overcrowded and clogged up. RPs are a pretty decent and relatively safe place for you to grab XP, but the profession as a whole is still very risky overall. If you're NOT a newbie, and understand how to hide yourself well and get around to maximum effectiveness, then this class isn't so bad. You're also lucky in that you don't have to search for anything to tag zombies, and you get more XP per tag than a firefighter with an axe. But if you're a newbie, the 150 XP wait until you get the #2 skill you HAVE TO BUY will be a very long one, and possibly filled with extra death. In the end: just be a doctor.

And lastly, being a Consumer is widely regarded as a tough choice, because you can't really do ANYTHING to gain XP, so you pretty much just have to scrounge any way you can. You will most likely have to follow the Scout's example and try to blindly heal others with FAKs. The good news is that you only need 100 XP to get to your next skill. The bad news is that you'll need at least 200 XP before you can reliably gather XP in any useful fashion, and that will certainly take longer than a week.

Once You Started

Congratulations on waking up in a zombie-apocalypse hell-hole! Your first task is to assess your situation: immediately go to the Suburb guide, look up your suburb and location, and try to determine if you're in a decent area to set up shop. You're trying to decide if you should just stick around and try to gain AP here, or move somewhere safer. Try not to get hung up on the idea for too long, though - you want to save some AP for useless searches or missing with attacks!

Online Meta-Gaming

The Wiki is the best source for information for a newbie. That said, it is also full of a lot of worthless junk. Things that are generally helpful:

The "big" Suburb map, and the map of each area. These are mostly right (I have seen some errors), but they help you try to find the next best place to be, and how quickly you can get there. Keep in mind that the next best area may share spaces in multiple suburbs, so it pays to use tabbed browsing to view each map and plan your routes. Also keep in mind that the zombies who want to kill you are using the same maps.
The static information on Items and Building Types. You need to know what you need and where you can fruitlessly search for it.

Generally anything that is "static" (i.e. unchanging fact lists, statistics, and other hard numbers) is good and very useful.

Here are some of the things that are worthless:

Any news update older than half a week. If a Mall can go down in a few hours, who cares what happened a few days ago? Local reconnaissance will be your best friend, and more useful than a non-updated news section.
Any detail on "plans" for how buildings should be barricaded or how RPs are supposed to work. These are just jokes now. Assume any building you want to get into is at EHB and all RPs are not being maintained, and if you find one of either that is not, you're lucky. Stay there.

Another decent place to check is the [Revive Queues] page, and other pages that track survivors asking for revivification. These aren't particularly useful for asking for revives, but if you see that there are tons of people requesting revives in your area, that's a good sign that it's a bad place for newbies. (And if you die, it is a good resource to give you one more ray of false hope that you'll be picked out from the 22 other "Mrh?"-ing zombies standing there with you.)

Overall, if you're in a "green" area and you can see several Tactical Resource Points that are within 5 moves, then you're doing pretty good. If you start in an area that is "red" and has no good buildings nearby, you should move. Sometimes the online reports are useful, but nothing short of your own personal legwork can make sure of what's out there at this exact moment in time - so always try to reserve some AP for walking around and seeing what's out there (assuming you can get back into your safehouse, of course). And of course, it's always a delicate balancing act: the closer you are to lots of zombies, the more chances you'll have to a) try to hit them or b) heal people who are hurt by them. However, you're also ...closer to a lot of zombies.

In any case, get yourself to a good area that has lots of lights on. Lights are a great sign for newbies, and if you find an area with several lit buildings, you know you are relatively safe. (Good zombies always go for generators first, especially in resource buildings.)

How to Earn XP

This is the most important part of what you'll be doing your first week in Malton: gaining XP. You need to gain as much XP as quickly as possible, because quite frankly being a newbie in Malton really sucks. Ironically, the higher level you are, the easier (and faster) it is to gain XP. So, if you can just make it to level 5 or so, with the right skill purchases you can make your life as a not-so-newbie much more enjoyable.

As mentioned before, the two main ways to gain XP at level 1 are:

Healing others with FAKs
Trying to hit zombies with an axe

The two abilities that enable you to do either of these well are Axe Proficiency and Diagnosis. The former allows you a 25% chance to hit a zombie, and the latter allows you to figure out who to heal very easily. You generally want to rely on these two skills as much as possible to get XP as quickly as possible.

Also, please note that it is said that you can, in fact, use other melee weapons available in this game. This is like saying "you can always use a moped" to drive on the interstate. Be sure to throw them all away so they don't clutter up your inventory while you're using your axe.

Trying to Heal Others

If you're a doctor, it's easy (if occasionally a bit boring): generally, you just stay put in your area. Find a good, lit hospital and spend all day searching and then heal anyone who manages to get in. Occasionally it's a good idea to move around, and if your hospital is ever under attack it's probably best to run like crazy, but for the most part if you've got a good thing going, don't knock it. If you're not on the edge of a warzone, you will probably have to hunt around for other safehouses full of folks to heal. This is problematic because your own hospital is undoubtedly at EHB. Just try to spend as long as possible filling your entire inventory with FAKs, and then head out the door. But wait - why is this better than using guns, you may ask, since you're searching for days and then using all your items, just like searching for bullets? Because FAKs have a 100% chance to hit, and give more XP than a pistol (since all zombies have flak jackets).

A lot of folks will ask you not to heal certain people, and you can try to be responsible about it, but at level 1 you can hardly afford to discriminate. The main thing you have to worry about is the coming zombie break-in to your safehouse (especially likely if you never leave your hospital), and whether or not the building is maintained (lit). "Searching an unlit building is an act of desperation." Unless you're about to die, don't bother.

If you're not a doctor, you can also try to heal folks with FAKs, but generally you'll find yourself wasting at least as many APs trying to blindly find those who are not at full health as you were missing with an axe. If you're particularly desperate, you can also heal zombies, but it's as easy to find a wounded zombie as it is a wounded person. Generally, healing zombies standing outside barricaded buildings doesn't hurt "the cause" very much, since they'd just get right back up fully healed if you killed them, anyway. Healing a zombie inside a building is a very bad idea.

Another tip: go into your "settings" and uncheck "newspapers." That way you'll automatically discard any you pick up, which you will if you're in a hospital searching for FAKs. If you enjoy wasting time then read them; otherwise it's a little faster to have the game auto-drop them for you instead of having to do it yourself.

Additional tip: also be sure to do this with all melee weapons that are not axes. (Well, you might as well keep knives, too.) Also, whenever you find your constant-use-item that never needs replacing (axe, flak jacket, knife), you may want to uncheck their boxes as well.

Missing Zombies with an Axe

If you're a firefighter, you should make sure you're in a Very Strongly Barricaded (VSB) building (so you can get back in), and then slowly branch out, covering the area, looking for small numbers of zombies. Keep in mind that you'll never kill one unless you just happen upon a zombie with only a few HP left, so regrettably you'll probably leave them standing (and knowing where you are, thanks to their Scent Trail ability - go ahead and assume all zombies have this, in the same way that you can assume all zombies have flak jackets). Always concentrate your attacks and don't go around whacking every zombie you see - you want as few knowing where you're holed up as possible.

If you're not a firefighter, why are you even outside swinging at zombies? A 10% chance to do anything means you might as well quit and try something else.

And most importantly: WATCH YOUR APs. You never, ever want to end up stranded outside without any APs. I know this should go without saying, but people still screw this one up. Sure, you MIGHT make it back in time, but you might also be very quickly killed by a zerging group of 10 zeds who are all really just one person with a basic knowledge of IP routing. Don't forget you need 1 AP to move to your building's square, and 1 more to go inside.

Other Important Tips

Find Others

The main issue you have to worry about in your first week is that unless you're in an area with only a few unorganized zombies (a good thing!), you are constantly either a) in a heavily-targeted building or b) leading zombies back to your hideout by being unable to kill them. Your best bets against this are:

Move often, or better yet...
Find a building with a zillion people in it

Some online guides encourage you to be a loner: these guides are wrong. Newbies survive with NUMBERS. Find as many other people as you can and hang around them. They are both your protection and - in the case of doctors - a source of XP. It is much safer to be in a VSB building with >50 people in it than a EHB building with <5.

Help, Help, I'm Being Attacked!

Unfortunately for newbies, these days the odds of your area coming under attack are high - especially if you're close enough to the front lines to be gaining XP quickly, or if you're stationed in a hospital for maximum FAK availability. Sadly, the best thing you can do at level one is honestly to RUN AWAY. (Typically crying like a little girl at your complete ineffectualness is involved, but it is not mandatory.) I know it seems rough, but the harsh reality is that you simply don't have the skills to help the cause well enough to do anything but be a Meatshield. And since that mostly involves extra death, you're generally only going to make the game harder for yourself. The best strategy for stopping zombies is a simple, well-published one: 'Cade, Heal, Kill, Dump. To do this you need: Construction, Diagnosis, any combat ability, and extra AP. As a newb, you are categorically excluded from 1. and 2. (and you generally suck at 3.), and without 1. and 2. happening, 3. and 4. are completely pointless. Granted, if you're in a building with 10 survivors and only one or two zombies, go ahead and whack 'em with your axe or try to blindly heal a few folks. You're still more safe with numbers than without, and it only takes one smart zombie to kill a generator and frustrate those still in the building. But otherwise, your unskillful life just isn't worth throwing away if you can help it.

The only major drawback to running away is that you're now stuck with the very real prospect of being trapped outside, since you're now going to have to find another building set to VSB or lower (percentage chance: "not bloody likely").

50 AP Isn't Enough to Do Anything

50 AP sounds like a lot, but it's not. Searching and not finding anything can take 40+ AP easily, and you can spend it in under 5 minutes. Hacking at a zombie with an axe will - on average - never be enough to take one down. The main thing you need to get used to in your first week is that you will not be doing much. That's just how this game works: it is very, very slow. However, you can always take solace in the fact that at least you aren't spending all of your time hunting for bullets only to miss the majority of the time and then have to search again for days for more bullets.

Always Carry 2+ FAKs

It's a simple rule of thumb: always carry at least two FAKs. If you're a doctor, you might want three. If you started as a firefighter, it's worth spending one of your days finding and searching a VSB hospital (a VERY RARE find): you need the FAKs. Why do you need two? One is for when you get attacked and infected. You NEED to be able to take care of an infection IMMEDIATELY. This will kill you almost as fast as a horde of zombies. And the second: for when you get killed anyway, and somehow miraculously get revived. You'll need that last FAK to cure your infection and get you back to 30 HPs so you at least have a slim - but fighting - chance.

As a doctor, the third is for the guy who runs into your building and screams "PLS HEEL INFEKTID!" Sure, he's an idiot 14-year-old who's probably a PK, but hey: that's 5 free XP right there. And you need 150.

So What About These "Newbie" Items I Hear So Much About?

It's said that knives are "newbie weapons" because they have a high chance to hit, even without several useful skills. It's also said that lengths of pipe can be used by newbies to barricade buildings. These rumors are basically crap.

Knives are worthless to newbies because you can't get into any buildings in which you could fruitlessly search for them. The best place to find a knife is in a mall, and those are far out of a newbie's range.
Lengths of pipe are worthless because you won't be cruising into any buildings where you could find these either, AND you're never going to actually use one even if it dropped out of a zombie's ass and into your inventory. If you're in an unbarricaded building, you don't need to waste an inventory item to make it just barricaded enough to draw zombies to your hideout: you need to move. (Maybe in some bygone era having a lightly barricaded building was considered safer than being out on the street - but those days are long gone.) Why waste time setting up shop and painting a bull’s-eye on your door when you could be hopelessly searching for one of the rare VSB buildings left in the game? And as for using either of these items as a melee weapon: why aren't you using your axe? Hiding in an unlit, unbarricaded and ruined building with the door open is far more useful than pretending that a lightly barricaded building will keep you alive until morning as many zombies won't waste the APs to check yet another presumably empty structure.

These items are a waste of space for a newbie. In fact, thanks to the incredibly high value of the new toolbox item, you may as well plan on setting aside 16% of your inventory right now. (Well, that's 16% in addition to the 2% for a flak jacket, 6% for an axe, 4% for a DNA extractor, and 4% for your last two FAKs. Plus any syringes you want to carry around. So really, more like 60-64% of your space is negotiable. Unless you want to power any buildings - that's another 30% for a generator and fuel. So REALLY, you pretty much have enough room left over for a couple of cupcakes and a peanut butter sandwich.)

All these steep inventory costs means say good-bye to all role-playing-related items, like non-axe melee weapons, GPSs (you have the wiki, right?), mobile phones (forums and wiki chat cost no AP!), and anything else that isn't essential - like worthless "newbie" items you won't find anyway.

How to Level Up

There are exactly three skills you need immediately. It is possible to debate the order of the second and third; it is not possible to debate the first.

YOU HAVE TO BUY FREE RUNNING

At some point in the past, newbies going around with Free Running and very little else were regarded with suspicion as zombie spies. To all those who still believe this to be true, I can only say: well, screw you. You were the ones who made every building in the game EHB. Deal with it.

EVERY NON-RUINED BUILDING IN THE GAME IS EXTREMELY HEAVILY BARRICADED. This might not be entirely, 100% true - but it's close enough that there's no other skill you should purchase before this one. Even buildings with spray-painted messages inside that say "VSB FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" that are considered "newbie safehouses" and are "maintained" by groups are all at EHB. You cannot access any of these buildings without this skill. Therefore, without this skill you can barely even play the game.

Rarely, you'll find resource buildings set to VSB, which is great for firefighters to "base" from or to gather supplies. Occasionally, you'll find yourself in a building with less than VSB: if there aren't many people in there, then you should probably get out. Anything less than VSB means that zombies are attacking the building.

I cannot stress how critical this skill is to survival today.

Diagnosis is Your Friend (and Your Friend's Friend)

It just makes sense: you heal faster and more effectively when you know who to heal. This gains you XP faster, and it also helps EVERYONE by contributing to the common good. Plus, it's one of the highest-gaining, 100%-chance-to-work actions in the game, and the only one available to newbies. This means that as long as you have a steady stream of "customers," you cannot level faster than searching for and using FAKs. Healing is your 5 XP friend.

Construction Helps Everyone (Even You)

Building barricades is a thankless, time-consuming, XP-free, and often pointless job - but let's face it: barricades are the only reason you're alive. You need this skill as soon as possible, so that you can at least attempt to contribute to your safehouse's well-being. You'll often find that you waste AP doing it, and it gets much harder once you hit the "heavily" level of barricades, but each AP you spend on barricades makes a zombie spend many, many more - so barricade everything you can.

It'd be nice if you could repair ruined buildings, too - but you can't, because you haven't been to a factory and found a toolbox yet (don't feel bad - no one has). Once you have Free Running and Construction, it's a good idea to set aside a permanent 16% of your encumbrance for a toolbox, because at this point Malton has just about gotten to the point that more resource buildings are ruined than not.

Another tip: being in an EHB building doesn't mean you're "safe." Zombies often attack in groups and groan to attract others, and it only takes a few to get through any level of barricade. Check your safehouse's barricades often if you can. Remember: anything less than VSB means zombies are attacking (or just as likely, their PK buddies are getting you ready for their attack).

After Those Three

The next few skills you need to pick up depend on your class and how you want to spend the next few weeks.

If you're a firefighter, Hand To Hand Combat is not a bad choice because you'll finally be able to miss zombies slightly less often, and it's technically possible for you to kill one in a single day and thus get the coveted bonus 10 XP (good luck!).
If you're a doctor, you might start the Necro-Tech path and pick up NecroTech Employment and Lab Experience. This allows you to use syringes to revive people - it's a natural RP choice, decent AP (once you have Free Running) since you can tag zombies as well as heal people, and relatively cheap for you (only 150 XP for both). Not to mention that if more folks actually did this, we'd have shorter lines at the RPs. Once again: contributing to the common good helps yourself as well. (Firefighters may also want to think about this path very soon in their careers.)
Regardless of your class, Shopping and Bargain Hunting can make your life a lot easier and your XP gains a lot faster, because malls are an excellent source of nearly everything, and there are always more malls standing than destroyed. "Once you start searching malls, it's hard to go back" - you will immediately notice how much faster you can find things in malls, even if you only have the Shopping skill. Searching hospitals is more efficient than searching Drug Stores for FAKs but if you're already in the mall you may as well take advantage of it. (Note that Free Running is a requirement to get into any mall, since they are all set to "permanent EHB.")

Important tips for malls: while searching malls will certainly spoil you, it's worth noting that they are the most dangerous place to be in the game. This is because they are both a high-profile zombie target (for obvious reasons) and they are a haven for PKs (who also find lots of ammo and easy targets there).

In any case, you do NOT want to take First Aid. This makes you heal others faster, which reduces your XP gain and slows down your leveling. (This is one of the few instances in which the "common good" is just too much of a burden for the newbie to bear.) Take this skill later, when "healing fast" is more important and "gaining XP" is not your main priority. You also do not want to bother with any "shooting" skills, or really any Military skills other than Free Running, for the same reasons you wouldn't want to start out as a Military class. And you probably want to avoid the more "RP" oriented skills for a while as well, such as Radio Operation and Tagging.

In any case, once you're level 4 or 5, this guide isn't for you anymore.

Welcome to Death! Well, You're Pretty Much Screwed

Sadly, death is a fact of life in Malton. And as a newbie, there's a good chance you'll die. You just don't have the skills that allow you to gather XP from multiple sources, so you're going to have to do "risky" things in order just to level up without taking months at a time. And the bad news is that these days, if you want to be a survivor: death really sucks.

I Hope You Made Friends

So you're newly dead and just spent 10 AP standing up. Where do you go? Well, you can try a local revive point, but if you're in a "red" or otherwise hot area, you might as well just start a new character. (Seriously.) Many Revive Points (RPs) are clogged like mad these days with dozens of poor hopeful saps, and technicians quite frankly don't want to spend that much time in an area that is both naturally dangerous AND potentially filled with "rotters" who are only hanging out in RPs to kill them anyway. ("Sacred ground?" Yeah, right!) Your best bet is to move incredibly slowly toward a safer area of the map. This can easily take days, however, and is about as much fun as missing 7 times in a row with a shotgun (~90 APs worth of searching, gone!). And to top it off, even if a few techs do come along and see you, who do you think is going to get revived first: the level 33 guy next to you with tons of survivor skills who is most likely better equipped and can contribute to the cause right away, or some level 1 idiot who everyone thinks is a zombie spy anyway? You had best head to the back of the bus, newb.

The best bet you have is to:

Hope you have a buddy with a high level character who can help you. This is actually the best possible tactic; all your buddy needs is your Profile ID, and he can pick your zombie butt out of the bloated, swelling crowd at the RP. (Note: you must be standing to be revived!)
Learn to love the zombie life. (Not recommended, unless you like missing even more often than with the axe - only zombies who started as that class can really gain XP even moderately quickly. Also see: why a 10% chance to do anything is worthless.)
Start a new character. It's only been like a week, right?

In the amazingly rare occurrence that you DO get revived, you need to pay attention to this golden rule:

DON'T MOVE. (Once you have >45 AP, you can move.)

Standing up again takes 10 AP. Once you do, you'll be at 25 HP and probably infected. (You DID save that last FAK, right?) That means if you're FAK-less, you have at MOST 23 turns to find a VSB or less building (you need a turn to walk inside and you need at least 1 HP) and then hope you're healed before you're killed again. (Remember that speaking uses AP but doesn't cause you to lose HP.) If you have a FAK, that means you have at MOST 38 turns to find a VSB or less building (need 1 to heal and 1 to walk inside). In either case, finding a VSB building can be extremely hard. Add to that the constant threat of PKs picking you out because you're both low-level (i.e. "probably don't have a flak jacket") and wounded, and the chance that you'll get back to the point where you can generate XP quickly is always getting lower.

Avoid death, because it's even slower than being a consumer for the non-career zombie.

Conclusion

And that concludes our modernized welcome to Malton. Remember these tips for good happy fun:

The majority of other players have far more XP than you, and they don't care if you can get into that EHB building or not. Get Free Running.
There is no such thing as "spies" or "spying" anymore. The amount of meta-gaming that happens in this world is so great that everyone knows everyone else's tactics anyway. Assume zombies always know where you are and what you're up to.
Assume all zombies have a flak jacket. Assume all zombies have Scent Trail.
Don't expect to be able to kill anything in one day. Actually, don't expect to be able to kill anything.
Searching takes forever and you will not be very successful even in a well-lit building. It's probably the least appealing part of the game. Play to minimize time you spend searching, either by relying on constant-use items or by good XP gains on your search returns (i.e. healing).
The only thing worse than searching is getting revived. Play conservatively for the first few levels to minimize the time you spend dead.
Don't forget to save that last FAK for yourself.

And lastly, if you ever manage to get to a high level:

Don't be an ass. Help the newbies.

evilbob 23:27, 28 August 2007 (BST)