Survivor

C H A R A C T E R T Y P E SURVIVOR

General Info A survivor (or human) is any character that is not a zombie. Survivors include civilians trapped in the city, military forces sent to enforce the evacuation, and scientists studying or supporting the effort. Survivors spend variable (75-150) Experience Points (abbreviated XP) to purchase skills, depending on which starting character class they chose. Survivors begin more mobile than zombies; expending only 1 action point (abbreviated AP) to move into an adjacent block compared to 2 AP per block moved for zombie characters. However, this difference is negated once a given zombie acquires the Lurching Gait skill (thereby taking only 1 AP to move.) Survivors possess no effective natural weaponry and thus are reliant on weapons to inflict damage. Some characters choose Melee Weapons (the most popular and effective currently being the Fire Axe) to avoid the necessity of searching for and reloading ammunition. Other survivors choose to primarily use Firearms. While firearms require additional preparation, they do more damage and have better accuracy than melee weapons for a survivor with all available combat skills. As a survivor, combat is not the only path to gaining experience and helping quell the zombie onslaught. Many survivors follow a non-combat path, electing to revive the undead or focus on First Aid. Given that reviving slain survivors is both difficult and costly, survivors generally defend themselves and their comrades through the construction of barricades. Higher level survivors often alternate performing all of the above function. Some players refer to survivors as "humans", although the game itself does not. The kiZombie word for survivors is harmanz or bra!nz. It is important to note that survivors usually outnumber zombies on the stats page. There are several theories regarding the perceived Survivor-Zombie Imbalance. An important factor is that new players choose to play as survivors at a much higher rate than zombies; choosing to recreate the gun wielding glory of their favorite horror movie human hero rather than the brain-munching gore brought on by the masses of zombie hordes. Survivor Strategy Over the years spent traversing Malton's suburbs, survivors have come up with strategies so as not to get eaten as often; other strategies often cover how experience could be gained in the most AP-effective manner. Survivor Experience Survivors gain experience in many ways, these include; Healing - This is the most common form of EXP gained by newbies, as it is low risk, as long as they stay inside a Hospital and heal injured survivors, in return for barricades or protection. Combat - Many, after gaining their first few skills, turn to combat, as it kills zombies as well as giving experience. Tagging - This is an uncommon way of gaining experience, as you only gain 1/2XP for tagging certain buildings Groups There are literally thousands of human groups, past and present. In the top 20 groups (disregarding non/temp groups such as Dual Nature and Mall Tour), there are 15 survivor groups. One of the survivor:zombie imbalance theories is that there are so many human groups, they can cover more ground, while the zombies groups, although they are large, there are not enough of them to hold so much ground.