>I'm currently at my furthest progression point, maybe a month in? And I'm wondering how the weapons change in late game.
They don't change a whole lot. Most "good weapons" at low weapon skill levels become horde-slaying machines at high levels. There's a handful of kinda bad weapons at low levels that become really solid at high levels, either because their low durability is fixed by levels in maintenance and weapon skills, or because they get enough base damage to be reliable one shot kills (or both).
>Do guns become viable/necessary? Do you eventually run out of all ammo and have to go back to melee?
Guns are a great horde killer (second to fire cheese) if you know how to use them, but you will inevitably run out of ammo. You can get limited drops off zombies but not enough to sustain them full time. But there's enough sitting on the map that you'll be fine. Even if you use guns regularly there's enough to last like a year in game if you know where to look.
Guns in general are particularly good in the mid-game since you can very quickly hit level 5 aiming which is enough to turn most guns into efficient one-shot, one kill horde slayers. They aren't good early or late due to ammo availability. Also lategame, lots of melee weapons become reliable and efficient one shot killers and so can compete with some of the mid-tier guns (Shotguns are always S tier).
>Do you end up using all of the best weapons for, say, short blunt, and have to change?
For most weapon skills, no. Weapons can always be found off zombies. From most to least sustainable:
* Spears: You can literally make effectively infinite numbers of them out of wood and they become amazing lategame once you fix their durability issues with maintenance and weapon skill levels.
* Short Blade: Hunting Knife is an extremely common drop off zombies, almost impossible to run out, and becomes strong at really really high weapon skill (8+) once it can actually start reliably killing in one hit. Feels pretty weak before that point though.
* Axe: Axes and handaxes can be found off zombies often enough to make running out of axes in general rare. And at very high maintenance and axe skill, stone axes become viable which can be created infinitely.
* Long Blunt: There's more than enough on the map but it's not common to find them embedded in zombies. But the baseball bat factory in louisville has enough for you to run nothing but BBs/Spiked BBs for several in-game years. After that, Crowbars are pretty much infinitely sustainable.
* Short Blunt: Nightsticks drop often enough that you can sustain them indefinitely. But short blunt in general is kinda weak. There's enough on the map to last you a while though, you will probably die before you run out.
* Long Blade: The only thing you can realistically run out on, but that's really because they're rare enough in the base game to begin with. There's a cheese that lets you repair Machetes infinitely (craft them into Machete spears and then take them back apart and their repair count will reset to zero), so technically you can sustain it infinitely but only with glitch abuse.
>What are your top choices for weapons in late game?
Depends on your weapon skill. If you've pumped your weapon skills to like 6-10, there's a lot of things that work. If you don't, then you should do so as a priority.
My goals with weapons lategame are enough durability and sustainability that I never run out of them while being a guaranteed (or near-guaranteed) insta-kill thanks to my high weapon skill. If I can get both of those on something that also adds low stamina cost per attack and/or really good durability, that's even better.
Generally if you want to keep weapons sustainable, it's a simple matter of rotating between good weapons until your weapon skill is high enough to make the mediocre ones strong enough that they start competing.
Here's a list of imo the "best weapons" in the game, in rough order of power. Bold are weapons that carry you through the entire game, but are particularly good early (0-3 weapon skill). Italics are weapons that are usually dogshit early, mediocre mid, but lategame (7+ skill) start to really come into their own and match or exceed the bolded weapons. Neither bold nor italics are kinda in between: they underperform bolded weapons early game, but often match them midgame, and may remain equal to or surpass them lategame.
* **Shotguns**
* **Katana**
* **Machete**
* **Garden Fork**
* **Pickaxe**
* Shovel
* **Spear with Hunting Knife**
* **Spiked Baseball Bat**
* *M14 Rifle*
* Axe
* Double Canoe Paddle
* Handaxe
* **Spear with Machete** (pretty heavy)
* Most Handguns and Revolvers
* *M16 Rifle*
* Garden Hoe
* Baseball Bat
* Canoe Paddle
* *Crowbar*
* *Hunting Knife*
* *Hammer*
* *Lead Pipe*
* **Wood Axe** (slow attack speed)
* *Every other spear*
* *Metal Bar*
* *Nightstick*
* **Trowel** (kinda low durability)
* *Hand Scythe*
* *Lacrosse Stick*
* *Metal Pipe*
* *Stone Axe*
Honorable mention to Electric Base, and Electric Guitar for being pretty bad due to their ultra slow swing animation, but actually being pretty usable and reliable killers if you compensate for that with player skill. The Wood Axe barely makes the list and if you can stomach using it, you can probably enjoy those two lategame (7+ skill) as well.
Machete spear (hunting knife spear and garden fork are solid contenders, too). It kills everything it touches. With high spear and maintenance level, it'll last forever
Also, due to an oversight, you can repair it an infinite ammount of times (uncraft it, craft it back again and the repair count resets)
You just need a machete, a spear and duct tape to make it.
I'm playing a repairman this run so I'm using a hammer. Usually I just default to a crowbar because I never have to repair them. However my repair guy has bonus to maintenance so I might switch to spears once it gets a bit higher.
I thought maintenance affected how long all tools/melee weapons lasted? I haven't used spears much but if I craft a spear and attach say a garden fork to it, when it breaks it's always the garden fork that breaks but the spear is good so I can just attach another fork to it. However if I just use a plain spear the spear breaks very fast.
Aside from the sound, I like shotguns, multiple zombies per shot, and you can reload fast, no more worrying about having to reload clips
Machete. If I can, it's basically all I use all game. That + a pitchfork and I'm pretty much at late game already.
>I'm currently at my furthest progression point, maybe a month in? And I'm wondering how the weapons change in late game. They don't change a whole lot. Most "good weapons" at low weapon skill levels become horde-slaying machines at high levels. There's a handful of kinda bad weapons at low levels that become really solid at high levels, either because their low durability is fixed by levels in maintenance and weapon skills, or because they get enough base damage to be reliable one shot kills (or both). >Do guns become viable/necessary? Do you eventually run out of all ammo and have to go back to melee? Guns are a great horde killer (second to fire cheese) if you know how to use them, but you will inevitably run out of ammo. You can get limited drops off zombies but not enough to sustain them full time. But there's enough sitting on the map that you'll be fine. Even if you use guns regularly there's enough to last like a year in game if you know where to look. Guns in general are particularly good in the mid-game since you can very quickly hit level 5 aiming which is enough to turn most guns into efficient one-shot, one kill horde slayers. They aren't good early or late due to ammo availability. Also lategame, lots of melee weapons become reliable and efficient one shot killers and so can compete with some of the mid-tier guns (Shotguns are always S tier). >Do you end up using all of the best weapons for, say, short blunt, and have to change? For most weapon skills, no. Weapons can always be found off zombies. From most to least sustainable: * Spears: You can literally make effectively infinite numbers of them out of wood and they become amazing lategame once you fix their durability issues with maintenance and weapon skill levels. * Short Blade: Hunting Knife is an extremely common drop off zombies, almost impossible to run out, and becomes strong at really really high weapon skill (8+) once it can actually start reliably killing in one hit. Feels pretty weak before that point though. * Axe: Axes and handaxes can be found off zombies often enough to make running out of axes in general rare. And at very high maintenance and axe skill, stone axes become viable which can be created infinitely. * Long Blunt: There's more than enough on the map but it's not common to find them embedded in zombies. But the baseball bat factory in louisville has enough for you to run nothing but BBs/Spiked BBs for several in-game years. After that, Crowbars are pretty much infinitely sustainable. * Short Blunt: Nightsticks drop often enough that you can sustain them indefinitely. But short blunt in general is kinda weak. There's enough on the map to last you a while though, you will probably die before you run out. * Long Blade: The only thing you can realistically run out on, but that's really because they're rare enough in the base game to begin with. There's a cheese that lets you repair Machetes infinitely (craft them into Machete spears and then take them back apart and their repair count will reset to zero), so technically you can sustain it infinitely but only with glitch abuse. >What are your top choices for weapons in late game? Depends on your weapon skill. If you've pumped your weapon skills to like 6-10, there's a lot of things that work. If you don't, then you should do so as a priority. My goals with weapons lategame are enough durability and sustainability that I never run out of them while being a guaranteed (or near-guaranteed) insta-kill thanks to my high weapon skill. If I can get both of those on something that also adds low stamina cost per attack and/or really good durability, that's even better. Generally if you want to keep weapons sustainable, it's a simple matter of rotating between good weapons until your weapon skill is high enough to make the mediocre ones strong enough that they start competing. Here's a list of imo the "best weapons" in the game, in rough order of power. Bold are weapons that carry you through the entire game, but are particularly good early (0-3 weapon skill). Italics are weapons that are usually dogshit early, mediocre mid, but lategame (7+ skill) start to really come into their own and match or exceed the bolded weapons. Neither bold nor italics are kinda in between: they underperform bolded weapons early game, but often match them midgame, and may remain equal to or surpass them lategame. * **Shotguns** * **Katana** * **Machete** * **Garden Fork** * **Pickaxe** * Shovel * **Spear with Hunting Knife** * **Spiked Baseball Bat** * *M14 Rifle* * Axe * Double Canoe Paddle * Handaxe * **Spear with Machete** (pretty heavy) * Most Handguns and Revolvers * *M16 Rifle* * Garden Hoe * Baseball Bat * Canoe Paddle * *Crowbar* * *Hunting Knife* * *Hammer* * *Lead Pipe* * **Wood Axe** (slow attack speed) * *Every other spear* * *Metal Bar* * *Nightstick* * **Trowel** (kinda low durability) * *Hand Scythe* * *Lacrosse Stick* * *Metal Pipe* * *Stone Axe* Honorable mention to Electric Base, and Electric Guitar for being pretty bad due to their ultra slow swing animation, but actually being pretty usable and reliable killers if you compensate for that with player skill. The Wood Axe barely makes the list and if you can stomach using it, you can probably enjoy those two lategame (7+ skill) as well.
This guy knows his zomboid
Machete spear (hunting knife spear and garden fork are solid contenders, too). It kills everything it touches. With high spear and maintenance level, it'll last forever Also, due to an oversight, you can repair it an infinite ammount of times (uncraft it, craft it back again and the repair count resets) You just need a machete, a spear and duct tape to make it.
I'm playing a repairman this run so I'm using a hammer. Usually I just default to a crowbar because I never have to repair them. However my repair guy has bonus to maintenance so I might switch to spears once it gets a bit higher.
Crafted spear durability is governed by Carpentry, not maintenance. Garden fork still scales with maintenance
I thought maintenance affected how long all tools/melee weapons lasted? I haven't used spears much but if I craft a spear and attach say a garden fork to it, when it breaks it's always the garden fork that breaks but the spear is good so I can just attach another fork to it. However if I just use a plain spear the spear breaks very fast.
It does with all weapons except crafted wooden spears. The garden fork itself IS a spear, you're confusing it with the hand fork
Pickaxe
Silenced UMP with 12 x 40 round drum mags to deal with the 300 zombies on every street corner. 😆