Straponistas

You don't make all the rules!

I know what I'm gonna fuckin do,
Me and my girlfriends gonna push on through!

- Bikini Kill, This Is Not A Test

The Straponistas are a loose-knit organization of comrades-in-arms who originally met at an outdoor concert featuring Bikini Kill and Bruce Springsteen, in the sleepy rural Oregon town of Corvallis. For the first time, but far from the last, the ragtag bunch of friends found themselves caught up in a chaotic, mayhem-riddled situation beyond their control, as diehard Springsteen fans clashed with riot grrls in a maelstrom of muscle tees, banana slugs, and cheaply photocopied zines. By the end of the week, a 20-acre area of farmland was reduced to rubble and brush fires, a nearby truck stop was completely looted, but the Straponistas were still standing -- covered with grease, mud, and lube, but alive and filled with a spirit of hedonistic quasi-revolutionary solidarity. Since then, the Straponistas have been dedicated to always watching each other's backs, despite long distances, frequently losing touch, and the occasional violent political disagreement. When the Malton incident hit the national news, quite a few Straponistas were in the quarantine zone -- and against all odds, against common sense, and sometimes against the direct orders of superiors, those who were not already in Malton converged to try and assist their comrades. The entire group -- those trapped from the beginning, those who rushed headlong into danger, and those who airlifted in after the quarantine -- had no idea what was in store for them, or that they too would be infected with the agent 51 viral strain upon entering the doomed city of Malton.

STILL ALIVE

Is... Is everyone dead?

STILL LOOKING FOR EVERYONE

Sarah Pomanari aka Muzzleface, Shackleville

MISSING IN ACTION

Dexter Fishpaw, Status Unknown

Jimmy Godbolt, Status Unknown

Marvin Hamlisch, Status Unknown

Private Jane Holden, Last Seen Undead

Jenny Lafitte, Status Unknown

Mary MacDonough, Status Unknown

Rasi Polidori, Status Unknown

Javier Rivera, Status Unknown

Officer Helena Rosebank, Last Seen Alive

Adrienne Skye, Status Unknown

Sobin, Status Unknown

Sullen, Status Unknown

z0mb13z0mb13, Status Unknown

Political Position Statement

Political analysis to be placed here regarding validity of "zombah as lifestyle choice," appropriate language to talk about the "temporarily breathing" and the "temporarily cadaverous," whether Barhah is really revolutionary or maybe counter-revolutionary or possible some type of confusing reformist movement, etc.

The Straponistas currently have several members who are "zombie-identified zombies," which is creating a rift within the group that has yet to be resolved. (Note that these are not necessarily the same as the currently deceased list above, as many of those are unwillingly deceased.) Some Straponistas are in favor of headshotting any zombie that doesn't want to be revived and stay revived, others want to keep zombies as pets and/or sex slaves. As usual, dissension on political issues reigns supreme among the Straponistas.

A Straponista's Basic Survival Guide

1. Know your suburbs. Figure out which suburb you're in, by looking at the name above the little 3x3 map grid on your game screen. Then find that on the Suburb map and click on it. This will give you a lot of information about the suburb, some of which will be out of date... but the news bulletings are dated, usually. The most important things you'll want to note are what other suburbs are nearby, which way you'll need to go to reach the rest of the Straponista crew, where some important nearby buildings are (hospital, police station, fire station, Necrotech buildings) and most importantly, the barricade plan. This might be on a different page, or it might be incorporated into the main map of the suburb, which is usually at the bottom of the page.

2. Find a Very Strongly Barricaded building nearby. Barricades are the first concept you need to understand. Anything above "heavily" is useless to you right now, because there's no way you can get inside. (If you find yourself inside one because someone barricades it up after you enter, don't worry, you can always leave by clicking on an adjacent block, and in the meantime you'll be even safer.) The maximum security you can have at the very beginning of the game is VSB, Very Strongly Barricaded. You'll need to be inside one before you run out of your 50 initial action points! Ideally your hideout is NOT one of the following:

• a fire station
• a police station
• a hospital
• a NecroTech building (these are not labeled in-game unless you start as a Lab Tech, but you can tell once you're inside, and they are marked on the wiki maps as "NT")
• a revive point (these are marked on the wiki maps as "RP" but are almost always outside in a street block anyway)

The reason you don't want one of these is that these tactical resource points (TRPs) are frequently attacked by groups of zombies, to get at the piles of fresh survivors inside. If you can't find any other VSB buildings in the area--and sometimes these buildings ARE the only VSBs--then they'll do in a pinch, especially if they are really full of people, because your chances of being devoured are less. The worst is a hospital with a couple people inside, the power on, and a bunch of zombies or bodies outside. (Bodies are usually just zombies waiting to happen... except at a revive point.) The zombies will think there are a lot of people in there, and try to break in. So ideally, you want a motel, hotel, tower, library, generic building, school, warehouse, etc. that's VSB. So how do you find these? Check on the barricade plan! It might not be totally accurate, because many players overbarricade. Don't bank all your remaining action points on going on a long trek to an isolated VSB building, you might find it impossible to enter. And always keep an eye out for other VSB buildings on the way, even if they're labeled as extremely heavily barricaded (EHB) on the barricade plan. Important note: you can move DIAGONALLY on the map for just one action point too!

3. Now find those buildings I just told you to avoid. So now you want to figure out where the nearest police station, hospital, fire station, and NecroTech buildings are. Why? There's a reason these are popular, it's because they have lots of stuff you can loot, thus the name "tactical resource point." You just don't ideally want to stay there any longer than necessary -- the best hideout would be a VSB building a space or two away from these spots, that you can go back to after looting. If it's a long trek between looting and hideout, you might have to stay in the loot spot for a night, but you take a risk... gauge your chances based on zombie activity in the area! You can find these buildings on this handy map of everything -- just click on your suburb, or use "Find Location" and type in the name of the spot you're at. If you want to scroll around, just click to recenter the map on another building. If it turns out you might want to head into a different suburb, read up about that suburb too!

4. Choose your looting targets based on your skills. You'll eventually want to stock up on all sorts of stuff, but your priorities will be based on what you already know how to do. The goal is to get you stuff that lets you gain experience as fast as possible, by killing zombies, healing people, or sampling zombie DNA. For experience, it's all about offense or healing -- your only real defense is not lingering outside between moves, and holing up as securely as possible overnight, so don't worry about getting defensive items when searching initially; your first priority is being able to heal yourself, and having a steady source of experience. When you search a building, more often than not you'll find nothing. Keep trying! There's a small chance in every building, usually about 20%, that something will be found. It's worth noting that some buildings have nothing at all: bank, building, cinema, railway station, mansion, tower. (Unless the building or tower is a NecroTech building.) For more on what is in every building, check the Search odds section. For more on what items there are and where to find them, look at Items.

Here's a list of priorities depending on what kind of character you start as:

• Everyone should carry first aid kits (FAKs). I would have at least four or five on hand ideally, which will let you heal up from half-health if necessary. Always have at least one to keep yourself from dying of an infection. If your current base is a hospital (less than ideal) or has a lot of active survivors with first aid skill, you might be able to get away with carrying less since people will heal you.
• If you are a doctor or medic you'll want LOTS of FAKs, to use on other people and get experience. It's sure-fire experience and is probably going to be faster for you than trying to kill stuff, at least until you get a weapon skill. Doctors can also get some experience from books, see lab assistants below.
• If you are a cop or private, you have basic gun skills, so you'll want ammo aplenty, and maybe some backup guns. You can carry multiple pistols or shotguns and save on reloading time, but try not to go above 80% encumbrance--over that will keep you from finding anything big and valuable like a generator. You want to search in Police Stations. You're going to be looking for zombies to shoot.
• If you are a lab assistant, you start with a DNA scanner which you'll use to get experience from zombies. You might also want to find books (in Necrotech buildings or libraries) which will give you 2 XP, every 1 out of 10 times you read, instead of 1 XP. A slow but safe way to gain experience. Necrotech lab assistants might want to search in Necrotech buildings for syringes too, which will be great later on when you get the ability to revive the undead. Both lab techs and doctors will also want a weapon, probably a kitchen knife or fire axe, maybe a pistol or shotgun.
• If you are a firefighter, you have your trusty fire axe to kill zombies and get experience with. You mostly need medical kits, and if you want you can pick up firearms for backup, but they're not going to be better for killing quickly than your axe until you get more skills.
• If you are a consumer or a scout, honestly you have no easy way to get experience to start with. You might want to try and find a knife, which can be found in schools, junkyards, or anywhere outside. Consumers might be able to find one more easily in a mall hardware store, but most malls are heavily barricaded, and if they're not they're probably under zombie attack. The knife is your best weapon until you can pick up another weapon skill.

Important: it is always easier to search in a powered, lighted building. These show up as yellow on your map, and if you're inside you'll see description about a generator running. These need to be kept in fuel, but you don't need to worry about that yet.

5. Get enough experience to learn Free Running. This is 75 for privates and medics, free for scouts, and 100 for everyone else. (Scouts should get a weapon skill of some sort instead.) This is an extremely important skill because it lets you get into heavily barricaded buildings! What you do is, once you have this skill enter any building that is VSB or below, then when you click on a neighboring building, you'll move directly from the interior of your current building into the interior of the next one over. You can go from building to building like this for a long ways until you finally exit into an open street or park square. After you have this, your best hideouts will be extremely heavily barricaded buildings (EHB) still avoiding tactical resource points (TRP) mentioned above, but not as important because sometimes those places are great if they're being maintained at EHB.

6. While you're at it, loot some more stuff. If you're a cop or private shooting zombies, you'll definitely need to restock on bullets at a police station. Anyone else, you can take a break by looting other useful items if you want. Here's a list:

• flak jacket, from a police station. These are good in case another survivor tries to shoot you, or for surviving as a zombie. They help against bullets, not zombie attacks or anything else.
• radio. This will let you listen in on broadcasts, check the radio page for your district channel or the channel of the mall near you. Found in police or fire stations, or mall tech stores (with shopping skill).
• backup weapons. Why not? Firearms in police stations, fire axe in fire departments. The fire axe is the best weapon unless you have no melee skills at all, in which case the knife is better.
• crowbar. These are the most effective way to tear barricades down in case you have no entrance to safety, or you want to keep the barricades at the agreed-upon levels. Found in warehouses, auto repair shops, and factories.
• binoculars. These let you scan the area from tall buildings. Found in mall sports stores, hard to get without the shopping skill.
• GPS unit. This lets you see your coordinates in game, kind of handy but really you can do this just by having the map linked above open! Found in NecroTech buildings and mall tech stores (with shopping skill)
• mobile phones. Good for sending messages to people you only know in-game but have no way to talk to outside the game. Found in clubs and mall tech stores (with shopping skill)
• fuel cans and generators. Good for powering up a building, heavy to carry. Found in factories, fuel cans also in auto shops. Generators also in mall hardware stores (with shopping skill)
• DNA extractor. This is useful for being able to tell zombies apart, you can get their name and profile. Also important if you want to become a zombie-reviver, in which case you'll also need syringes eventually. Both found in NecroTech buildings.

7. Come to join up with the rest of the Straponistas. Talk to the rest of the group to find out where we're heading/based at the moment! If you have free running, use the map linked above and turn on "Free Running Corridors" to see what a good safe building-to-building route might be. If you want, loot and kill zombies on the way, but it's faster to just move, and start looking for a safehouse ASAP when you get below 30 action points.

8. If a zombie starts fighting you back, get away. It's best to get into a building where the zombie can't reach you (anything with a decent barricade) and heal up, then find other prey that's not currently active. Same goes for dangerous players.

9. If you die, find the nearest revive point. You can find this on the suburb maps and at the list of revivification points which are alphabetically by suburb, or this map. You may also want to file a request for revivification which will put you in a list that many revivers use. This is probably the most commonly used revivification tool -- you just need to be at a revive point, standing up, and put your profile ID and map coordinates in. You should probably log in occasionally while waiting for a revive to make sure you haven't been killed again.

10. Start working on more skills! Some good skills for everyone to have include Construction and Body Building and Shopping, the last if you're ever planning on being in a mall. Of course, if you're a combatant, you will want to master the weapon of your choice early on with skills like Basic Firearms Training, Pistol Training and Advanced Pistol Training or the equivalent for a shotgun or axe. (Knives are not really worth it, unless you really want to for style.) Depending on what kind of activities you want to pursue, you might also be interested in looking into Tagging and Radio Operation (for propaganda and information-sharing purposes), Bargain Hunting or the NecroTech skills like NecroTech Employment and Lab Experience and NecroNet Access for reviving zombies (who want to be revived).

Straponistas
Abbreviation:	S-O
Group Numbers:	17+
Leadership:	consensus-based collective (and Rasi, who's bossy)
Goals:	Reunite and kick ass!
Recruitment Policy:	Tough chicks, biker girls, assorted weirdos
Contact:	Straponista Forums