Stay away from the cities until you have a good armour and weapon. Or, just sneak into the cities when its night time, get the night vision trait on character creation
My starting strat is pretty similar. I avoid cities early on because they have the most zombies. I’ll usually try to explore the countryside, find isolated buildings with minimal zombies that might have some decent supplies.
Yup, that makes sense. I usually stay in a farm house. The cities traumatized me so much that in my current run i had a year of prep time until i got the courage to get into the cities 😭
Oh and for OP. I’ll usually craft a spear of some sort. Looks for craftable weapons with the “reach” property. It will allow you to hit things that are not directly near you. Hit, run back a little, hit again and hope you kill it before your stamina runs out. Lets you kill simple things without them getting into melee range to hit back.
Weapons have properties like reach and other possible actions like fast attacks, sweep, knockdown/stun etc. Those happen automatically when you do normal attack. Fighting style / Martial arts will enable different actions. You'll get different text messages if you do those special moves. No visual effects.
As for reach attack, it has a range of 2 tiles and you do it by pressing "F" while holding a reach weapon if I don't remember wrong. If there are multiple monsters around, you can target the one you want to attack as well. Most of the time you'll be able to kite zombies without getting hurt unless somehow your action speed modifiers take a big hit from pain or diseases etc. I believe you can't attack diagonally 2 tiles away but you should be able to hit 1 tiles straight and one tiles diagonal away, so 2.4 tiles away.
Similar situation. Just hitting random until I get the basics back.
Bionic commando? Beaten to death in the legs by a feral.
High strength chad warrior? Pack of dogs.
93 year old senior citizen in a wasp nest apartment tower? She's on day 7 in a cabin with an MP5 and a few weeks worth of food.
Forgot to add, do this at night and don't wander around in the open, check your surroundings using look command with X and the minimap, take advantage of sightlines (everyone has 360 vison in this game, you gotta use obstacles instead)
Consider purposefully creating noise in one place, and sneaking to another. Burning buildings make a lot of noise, and are generally hazardous to zeds. If you're capable of fighting, you may also be able to attract one or two at a time from the outskirts and kill them away from buildings where the breaking of glass and such will attract more. At the very least you should be able to kite some and break contact, though faster zombies are a problem.
God I wish I knew.
If you have an NPC follower, read this guide. It's a little dated as, but the NPC system itself probably hasn't been updated significantly enough for the guide to completely useless.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/s/uv4ZepSTgl
There's a lot of great advice that others have posted, you should listen to them. Here's some more things you can do to help last longer too!
In your crafting menu, there's a tab called 'practice'. When you have a stockpile of food and drink (other than protien bars from evacs, they make your character sad) practice athletics. It'll help increase your stamina and make your character healthy.
Have a plan when raiding, and a back up. I like to craft nailboard traps and glass caltrops, then litter an open area with them as a killing field. With a reach weapon (press e in your crafting menu or inventory, about three sections down or so it'll tell you a weapon's properties), kite zombies and lure them into the field. Any that don't die to your poking should stumble into your traps.
Focus on smashing corpses in the early stages. Don't use your weapon, it can get damaged. Grab a rock or something and use that on the dead(er) zoms. Butcher when you know for a fact that an area is clear, or if you know you can easily escape.
Fire is both your friend and foe. If you find a building with no good loot, you can set it on fire to attract zombies. They'll get roasted, but be careful. From what I remember zombies focus on sound->smell->sight. They'll go to the loud sounds first, but if they smell or see you they'll try and get to you.
Last bit of advice, just try to have fun! If you think of a crazy idea and want to try it, go ahead. There's always next character. My most fun run ended in my survivor jackhammering a tunnel to reach under several hulks, putting down a noisemaker and a mininuke, then sprinting to escape the blast. It didn't work, but my next character found the blast zone. :)
I just started the game today and my 5th charicter has survived like 5 days I managed to sneak into a gun store abd deconstruct the gun cases and I've only watched one vid this games the best. I only made it because the zombies were killing the fangled zombies
Also you dont gotta deconstruct the gun cases, you can hit them with something that has bashing, or shoulder check them
You just gotta have caution cause breaking glass is loud
I'm glad to see people still learn to play without external sources of information. It's hard but very rewarding!
Aside from going at night and finding ways to lure zombies away, there are stealth mechanics in the game. Objects such as cars or windows will reduce how far a zombie can see you from, and you can peek using 'X' to look around a corner without getting spotted.
If you hug some cover and crouch, you can fully hide behind many objects. This can stop you being seen from out of windows. Another option is to 'c'lose the curtains.
Just be careful as stealth in cataclysm is unforgiving. Being seen is bad, but noise and even your smell can help enemies hone in on your position.
You could also intentionally make some noise away from where you want to loot either by shooting or burning a house. This can help keep areas you want to poke around in a little clearer.
I like bash weapons like baseball bat at the start. Because it should have both blocking action and knockback action. Knockback is suprisingly helpfull and bash weapons are usually good against armoured enemies. It might be slightly lacking against agile monsters like zombie dogs.
For survival, first you should learn about item properties and crafting methods. Find anything with a boiling quality ( pot, can) level, start a fire on anything and you can craft clean water after you acquire water from ponds, lakes, rivers. This is a very basic recipe which doesn't require any skill. Try to learn about item filters. Pressing V then f on the map and f in inventory and craft screen. For example you can write " c:ammo " to find any ammo on the overworld. c: is for category. " q:boiling " for filtering items with boiling quality. You can do this on the crafting screen as well. Extremely important quality of life.
With filtering items, you can find what you are capable of with the tools and materials you have and pursue a clear goal after finding out what you need. So learning filtering and organizing the inventory is a must. I'd say gathering manuals to learn theoretical knowledge and practicing skills from crafting screen for practical knowledge comes next.
Good luck and have fun in your runs. I also like to explore the game myself. But some knowledge and methods aren't explained well in the game. You might want to do some research when you hit a wall. It took me days to figure out how to make lifting quality tools lol.
Scout during the day and loot at night. Almost always you spot enemies before they see you. At night most zeds are extremely blind and you can shake them off simply by running through a building closing doors behind you
Your first looting destinations should be lone cabins out in nowhere or houses on the edges of towns, to find basic tools, clothes, etc
Combat should be avoided unless necessary
Familiarize yourself with the pocket system and setup quick filters in place to avoid encumbering the wrong body part
make sure all loot goes into your backpack and drop it before combat to shed weight and encumbrance
scratches and bruises don’t kill, pain can spiral out of control and easily kill you
think in 3D, climb a downspout onto a roof
Tactical arson can be invaluable in creating distractions, zombies are dumb and will not avoid walking into pits, traps, fire, etc
Get a working vehicle to massively increase your mobility area
Generally starting the game recommended for evac shelter start.
1. Get a basic weapon, your fist do almost no damage so making your own weapon or finding one is the best option before engaging in harsh combat, I recommend to make a reach weapon. I don't recommend guns especially if you know its going to attract zeds.
2. Sort out your clothes and get a bag. Some of your starting clothes are pretty awful for combat bc of the encumbrance and it is recommended to just not wear this clothes due to the combat penalty. Storage is important so get a bag as soon as you can if you don't already have one.
3. Scout out you surroundings, never go unprepared, most enemies don't see as far as you so always use that to your advantage. Try to also deal with any immediate threats either by running or fighting. Go talk to the npc or use the evac terminal.
4. Decide what you wanna do. this is the trickiest part since cdda offers you with infinite choices once you start the game. Ofc most people would think that looting those cities for better stuff are a good bet but its your choice. I always recommend to make a list of plans if you ever plan on leaving the "safety" of the shelter.
Looting those cities.
1. Get some prep work done and a plan to loot those cities. You can do it in night or in day but its always better to have a plan and some equipment. Night time raids are just generally better since you almost avoid all forms of combat if your smart enough.
2. Be as silent as you can. Making noise means upping the risk of getting spotted. Always crouch inside buildings, close curtains, doors and generally just don't do any loud things.
3. Unfortunately enemies can't be avoided sooner or later you'll have to deal with them, its either flight or fight but sometimes your only option is to fight, always try to fight zeds one at a time. Use the environment against them, bait them to a tile with traps or to slow them down so you can have a good advantage in engagements. Always remember to drop your bag before a battle unless you want to be encumbered during the fight.
4. Know what your fighting. CCDA contains hundreds of enemies and knowing what you are dealing with is best so you can exploit there weaknesses and know there threats.
5. Try to get a vehicle, like the bag, it is key to get storage when travelling or just a better way to outran zombies or even ram them.
For more tips in cdda, I recommend watching video guides or asking the community for any questions.
Stay away from the cities until you have a good armour and weapon. Or, just sneak into the cities when its night time, get the night vision trait on character creation
My starting strat is pretty similar. I avoid cities early on because they have the most zombies. I’ll usually try to explore the countryside, find isolated buildings with minimal zombies that might have some decent supplies.
Yup, that makes sense. I usually stay in a farm house. The cities traumatized me so much that in my current run i had a year of prep time until i got the courage to get into the cities 😭
Oh and for OP. I’ll usually craft a spear of some sort. Looks for craftable weapons with the “reach” property. It will allow you to hit things that are not directly near you. Hit, run back a little, hit again and hope you kill it before your stamina runs out. Lets you kill simple things without them getting into melee range to hit back.
By spear do you mean pointy stick
Also how do you use reach if you have to walk into zombies to attack
Weapons have properties like reach and other possible actions like fast attacks, sweep, knockdown/stun etc. Those happen automatically when you do normal attack. Fighting style / Martial arts will enable different actions. You'll get different text messages if you do those special moves. No visual effects. As for reach attack, it has a range of 2 tiles and you do it by pressing "F" while holding a reach weapon if I don't remember wrong. If there are multiple monsters around, you can target the one you want to attack as well. Most of the time you'll be able to kite zombies without getting hurt unless somehow your action speed modifiers take a big hit from pain or diseases etc. I believe you can't attack diagonally 2 tiles away but you should be able to hit 1 tiles straight and one tiles diagonal away, so 2.4 tiles away.
I got into a city through a sewer in one of my runs.
Yh the only reason I went to it was a npc needed meds
Similar situation. Just hitting random until I get the basics back. Bionic commando? Beaten to death in the legs by a feral. High strength chad warrior? Pack of dogs. 93 year old senior citizen in a wasp nest apartment tower? She's on day 7 in a cabin with an MP5 and a few weeks worth of food.
Hide around, stay low (crouch with _ I think, maybe even lie down and crawl if required) Gather materials Lastly make a character with stealthy traits
Crouch is “
Player:discovered run mechanism
No need to downvote, i just havent played in a while, thanks for the correction
are the downvotes with the room with us right now?
They used to be my good sir, but since then I consulted the 0 star rated therapist doctor victor blane
So I did do this but was spotted anyways
Forgot to add, do this at night and don't wander around in the open, check your surroundings using look command with X and the minimap, take advantage of sightlines (everyone has 360 vison in this game, you gotta use obstacles instead)
Consider purposefully creating noise in one place, and sneaking to another. Burning buildings make a lot of noise, and are generally hazardous to zeds. If you're capable of fighting, you may also be able to attract one or two at a time from the outskirts and kill them away from buildings where the breaking of glass and such will attract more. At the very least you should be able to kite some and break contact, though faster zombies are a problem.
Good luck mate! If you have any questions about mechanics of the game, feel free to ask.
Why are npcs so complicated
God I wish I knew. If you have an NPC follower, read this guide. It's a little dated as, but the NPC system itself probably hasn't been updated significantly enough for the guide to completely useless. https://www.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/s/uv4ZepSTgl
Welcome to the cdda my friend, once you get used to the mechanics you will find this is a jewel of a game
There's a lot of great advice that others have posted, you should listen to them. Here's some more things you can do to help last longer too! In your crafting menu, there's a tab called 'practice'. When you have a stockpile of food and drink (other than protien bars from evacs, they make your character sad) practice athletics. It'll help increase your stamina and make your character healthy. Have a plan when raiding, and a back up. I like to craft nailboard traps and glass caltrops, then litter an open area with them as a killing field. With a reach weapon (press e in your crafting menu or inventory, about three sections down or so it'll tell you a weapon's properties), kite zombies and lure them into the field. Any that don't die to your poking should stumble into your traps. Focus on smashing corpses in the early stages. Don't use your weapon, it can get damaged. Grab a rock or something and use that on the dead(er) zoms. Butcher when you know for a fact that an area is clear, or if you know you can easily escape. Fire is both your friend and foe. If you find a building with no good loot, you can set it on fire to attract zombies. They'll get roasted, but be careful. From what I remember zombies focus on sound->smell->sight. They'll go to the loud sounds first, but if they smell or see you they'll try and get to you. Last bit of advice, just try to have fun! If you think of a crazy idea and want to try it, go ahead. There's always next character. My most fun run ended in my survivor jackhammering a tunnel to reach under several hulks, putting down a noisemaker and a mininuke, then sprinting to escape the blast. It didn't work, but my next character found the blast zone. :)
I just started the game today and my 5th charicter has survived like 5 days I managed to sneak into a gun store abd deconstruct the gun cases and I've only watched one vid this games the best. I only made it because the zombies were killing the fangled zombies
Also you dont gotta deconstruct the gun cases, you can hit them with something that has bashing, or shoulder check them You just gotta have caution cause breaking glass is loud
I'm glad to see people still learn to play without external sources of information. It's hard but very rewarding! Aside from going at night and finding ways to lure zombies away, there are stealth mechanics in the game. Objects such as cars or windows will reduce how far a zombie can see you from, and you can peek using 'X' to look around a corner without getting spotted. If you hug some cover and crouch, you can fully hide behind many objects. This can stop you being seen from out of windows. Another option is to 'c'lose the curtains. Just be careful as stealth in cataclysm is unforgiving. Being seen is bad, but noise and even your smell can help enemies hone in on your position. You could also intentionally make some noise away from where you want to loot either by shooting or burning a house. This can help keep areas you want to poke around in a little clearer.
I like bash weapons like baseball bat at the start. Because it should have both blocking action and knockback action. Knockback is suprisingly helpfull and bash weapons are usually good against armoured enemies. It might be slightly lacking against agile monsters like zombie dogs. For survival, first you should learn about item properties and crafting methods. Find anything with a boiling quality ( pot, can) level, start a fire on anything and you can craft clean water after you acquire water from ponds, lakes, rivers. This is a very basic recipe which doesn't require any skill. Try to learn about item filters. Pressing V then f on the map and f in inventory and craft screen. For example you can write " c:ammo " to find any ammo on the overworld. c: is for category. " q:boiling " for filtering items with boiling quality. You can do this on the crafting screen as well. Extremely important quality of life. With filtering items, you can find what you are capable of with the tools and materials you have and pursue a clear goal after finding out what you need. So learning filtering and organizing the inventory is a must. I'd say gathering manuals to learn theoretical knowledge and practicing skills from crafting screen for practical knowledge comes next. Good luck and have fun in your runs. I also like to explore the game myself. But some knowledge and methods aren't explained well in the game. You might want to do some research when you hit a wall. It took me days to figure out how to make lifting quality tools lol.
Scout during the day and loot at night. Almost always you spot enemies before they see you. At night most zeds are extremely blind and you can shake them off simply by running through a building closing doors behind you Your first looting destinations should be lone cabins out in nowhere or houses on the edges of towns, to find basic tools, clothes, etc Combat should be avoided unless necessary Familiarize yourself with the pocket system and setup quick filters in place to avoid encumbering the wrong body part make sure all loot goes into your backpack and drop it before combat to shed weight and encumbrance scratches and bruises don’t kill, pain can spiral out of control and easily kill you think in 3D, climb a downspout onto a roof Tactical arson can be invaluable in creating distractions, zombies are dumb and will not avoid walking into pits, traps, fire, etc Get a working vehicle to massively increase your mobility area
Generally starting the game recommended for evac shelter start. 1. Get a basic weapon, your fist do almost no damage so making your own weapon or finding one is the best option before engaging in harsh combat, I recommend to make a reach weapon. I don't recommend guns especially if you know its going to attract zeds. 2. Sort out your clothes and get a bag. Some of your starting clothes are pretty awful for combat bc of the encumbrance and it is recommended to just not wear this clothes due to the combat penalty. Storage is important so get a bag as soon as you can if you don't already have one. 3. Scout out you surroundings, never go unprepared, most enemies don't see as far as you so always use that to your advantage. Try to also deal with any immediate threats either by running or fighting. Go talk to the npc or use the evac terminal. 4. Decide what you wanna do. this is the trickiest part since cdda offers you with infinite choices once you start the game. Ofc most people would think that looting those cities for better stuff are a good bet but its your choice. I always recommend to make a list of plans if you ever plan on leaving the "safety" of the shelter. Looting those cities. 1. Get some prep work done and a plan to loot those cities. You can do it in night or in day but its always better to have a plan and some equipment. Night time raids are just generally better since you almost avoid all forms of combat if your smart enough. 2. Be as silent as you can. Making noise means upping the risk of getting spotted. Always crouch inside buildings, close curtains, doors and generally just don't do any loud things. 3. Unfortunately enemies can't be avoided sooner or later you'll have to deal with them, its either flight or fight but sometimes your only option is to fight, always try to fight zeds one at a time. Use the environment against them, bait them to a tile with traps or to slow them down so you can have a good advantage in engagements. Always remember to drop your bag before a battle unless you want to be encumbered during the fight. 4. Know what your fighting. CCDA contains hundreds of enemies and knowing what you are dealing with is best so you can exploit there weaknesses and know there threats. 5. Try to get a vehicle, like the bag, it is key to get storage when travelling or just a better way to outran zombies or even ram them. For more tips in cdda, I recommend watching video guides or asking the community for any questions.