User:Dazaras/beginners

Welcome to Dazaras' Beginners guide. This guide is meant to be a short summary of getting started in Urban Dead. This guide assumes you already have a passing knowlege of the game, about as much as you should have picked up getting to this point.

If you've already made a character you can skip to step 3.

Step 1: Choosing Zombie or Survivor

In general, I've found that playing a zombie is a bit easier than a survivor if you can find a nice volatile place to hunt. In my opinion, a little too easy. There isn't really anything to it, even if you join a metagaming group you move from attacking random stuff to attacking less random stuff. I prefer Survivors because they are, again, in general, much more interesting. But, that's just my opinion.

Step 2: Choosing a class

Your primary concern for at least the first few days will be getting Experience Points (abbreviated as EXP); Experience Points are used to buy new skills.

The best classes to choose, for survivors, are:

1)firefighter:

Pros: start with a fireaxe and the skill to use it, making exp very easy to get.

Cons: Rarely, you will find yourself in an area lacking in zombies. In this case you should relocate to an area that is not lacking in zombies, which should never be too hard to do.

2)Doctor:

Pros: Start with the diagnosis skill, which provides a good source of EXP provided you can find people to heal

Cons: If you can't find anyone to heal, then you're out of luck; and it isn't always easy to find injured survivors without the free running skill. Also, this is a scientist class, meaning they spend less exp for science skills, but more for military skills, meaning they must spend more exp overall.

3)Cop:

Pros: Starts with a Pistol and the skill to use it, also gets a Flak Jacket.

Cons: Pistols need reloading, meaning that until you get the skill free running, you will need to find a Very Strongly Barricaded Police Department to find ammo, which is not always easy.

4)Private:

Pros: Starts with a pistol AND two bonus Pistol clips, and the skill to use them.

Cons: This class is a Military class, meaning they must spend more exp for Science skills and less for military skills, meaning they must spend more overall. Also, same as for the Cop, must find a VSB Police Department to find more ammo.

Choosing a class for a zombie may seem straightforward, as there is only one option, but you may want to think of it this way. If you start as a Cop you get a "free" flak jacket, which reduces all damage from firearms by 20%! That's a lot! And most people use firearms to dispatch a zombie quickly. If you choose to do it this way you should be sure to rack up at least 100 EXP for the Vigor Mortis skill with your pistol before dying.

Step 3: getting started.

Rule #1: Never sleep outside

If a building is barricaded above "Very Strongly" (abbreviated "VSB") survivors cannot enter, so the first thing you want to do is find a building that is Very Strongly Barricaded. Some classes will start in a building of the type you want to find, Police stations for cops, or hospitals for doctors. For other types of characters, it matters a little bit less. A hospital is a very good choice as they are usually well maintained and guarded, are a source of First Aid Kits (Which let you heal yourself or others), and are full of other players with lots of FAKs, ready to jump on any unsuspecting injury you may acquire. This is why MCM always makes their home in hospitals. Many Pro-Survivor players respect the Uniform Barricading Policy which says that certain important buildings are to remain at VSB so people without the Free Running skill (ie, you) can have access to important resources.

Once you have a safe house, the next step is to get 100EXP using whatever method you can. If you chose Cop, Firefighter or Private then you should attack zombies. If you chose NecroTech Lab Assistant then you poke zombies with that nifty little DNA Extractor you start with (if they've already been poked you don't get EXP). If you chose Doctor then you hang out in the Hospital and heal anyone who's injured, or if you feel adventurous, you can poke around outside and in any nearby VSB or lower buildings to see if anyone needs healing.

If you chose any other survivor class (Consumer, Scout or Medic) then you're out of luck, I'm afraid. If you don't want to just start over and make another character, then you're stuck doing it the hard way. You'll have to hang out in the hospital and either try healing random people or ask if anyone needs healing repeatedly. Sometimes, older players will call out the names of those who are injured, or, in times of extended calm, hit each other with fireaxes to give the newbies something to heal. You'll definitely want to keep an eye out outside, anyone who is sleeping outside probably needs healing. If you get really desperate you can also heal zombies, but remember that that's hurting your side, so only use do it if you really need to; remember, you growing levels is helping your side too.

Onward

Once you get your first 100 exp (or possibly 75 or 150) it's time to buy your first skill. Free running is always a safe choice because it greatly increases your survivability. Free running should always be your first or second choice. If survivability isn't really a problem, either because you started in a safe area or you found a very safe safehouse, then you might instead want to improve your exp source first.

If you are a firefighter this means getting hand-to-hand combat, if you are a cop or private you should get pistol training. If you are a doctor your exp source is already as good as it can be so you should just go straight to free running. do not get first aid, it is a waste of a skill at this point. Later on it will make you more helpful by making your FAKs go farther, but right now you are trying to get EXP and healing twice as much for no more EXP is counter-productive.

From here on you can really do whatever you please. Construction is a helpful skill to have, although it doesn't grant exp it does help protect you from zombies so I highly recommend it. If you like to use guns it will probably be a while before you have all the gun skills, if not then don't bother with them since there are so many and the Fireaxe is almost as good.

Two zombie skills that should be in all survivor's skill sets are Ankle Grab and Lurching Gait. Whether you like it or not you will die eventually. These two skills greatly reduce the amount of AP you will have to use to get back to life.