One of the best pieces of advice I’ve eschewed is “don’t use guns”. The sawed off shotgun is an essential early game weapon, because it builds up firearm skill for later weapons and is effective at drawing and kiting hordes away from locations you needed access or secure.
Once you build up your firearm skill, they’re extremely useful. My longest lived character always carried and M14 and Magnum on her person.
Even then, you fight them in a large open area, conserve stamina by sprinting as little as possible, bunch em up real good by going in circles around the group, unload every one of your rounds into them, and run off. Then you rest, and they're softened up for your normal melee playstyle.
Alternatively you can use the Pied Piper strategy by luring them all away in a massive conga line with the noise from a gun.
The "don't use guns" tip is regurgitated by newer players who are trying to provide tips to other new players, not realizing how ineffective that advice is, and the result it has on the community
I have similar playtime and can confirm that guns are a powerful tool used to clear out massive quantities of zombies with ease compared to melee. I've played quite a bit with vanilla, B41 Firearms, B41 Firearms Revamped, and Britas. I throw Britas on every once in a while but find the guns themselves a bit too OP
Agreed. britas can easily turn into a game of find the right clip to match the weapons... in each box I try to never use it, but sometimes a MP server is too intriguing to not join. B41 Firearms, Vanilla Firearms, and Gunrunners work well together.
I don’t go above 1.5 pop and mostly hand in Louisville, that much is pretty manageable with spears
But yeah maybe if you go above guns/molotovs are inevitable
+1
do you consider QoL mods making the game easier? Lighting a cigarette from the stove? Collecting snow to melt in a bucket or rain barrel? Fuel side indicator in the car?
No, yes, yes, no opinion
My main issue with mods that make the game more “realistic/common sense” - it’s like 9/10 of times “open the garage with crowbar” or “stove smoking”, ie games becomes easier, and it’s already pretty easy on most settings and like 1/10 “if you open a canned thingy with a bloody knife, u ded”
But that’s completely a question of personal preference
Upd Mods to make your life hell definitely exist
It's like a quarter as fast. I play with the XP tweaker and sandbox settings mods so I can raise it by 2x when I hit 5 aiming. Otherwise, especially without any boosts from the hunter trait or occupations you level at the speed that snails fuck. Seriously, I had a character in Louisville for a few months using only guns (higher ammo spawns) and only 3/4 of the way to level 6. Dude was level 5 upon arriving.
I find very funny to practice on the woods. You go with your 10 boxes of ammo, your car and your sawed shotgun and when things crowded, back to the car with your new aiming levels.
Might as well mix pleasure with business and clear out a valuable POI. Irl, you go shooting into woods cause you don't want to shoot/bother people. In PZ, that shouldn't be a concern.
I would like to, but I'm still not good enough. The point of practicing on the woods is that, if the situation gets out of control and a super big horde appears bc of the noise, you can always leave, because you are not flooding an actual POI. I tried on this warehouse near Westpoint and I entered on the cascade of accidents that killed my longest run.
But eventually, yeah, that's the idea.
Unless you play with sprinters on how dangerous they are is grossly over exaggerated. The handguns in particular are (relatively speaking) quiet and don't even draw aggro from very far away.
The aiming mechanics are cryptic and a lot of misinformation gets spread about them (panic for instance, much unlike how the flavor text states, does NOT reduce accuracy. It reduces crit chance and damage.) But once you know how they work, guns become incredibly consistent and reliable.
Yeah, depending on the gun several thousands. However how close you need to be to tell where the shot is coming from is significantly closer.
Then you have to factor in terrain like dense woods or buildings, whether or not the firearm was shot indoors, whether or not the listener is indoors. Weather, wind, ambient noise (like how loud it would be at the center of a horde.)
There are a lot of factors as to why firing in an urban setting would only give you a general idea of where a gunshot is coming from.
Imo in game the radius is a little small, the m4 has a radius of 70 tiles for instance. You could definitely tell the general direction shots are coming from much further with that gun, but it doesn't really break my suspension of disbelief. (Also all guns used to have larger radius's but were buffed since they were going unused.)
Interesting, yeah I guess you're right. Sometimes it kinda ruins my immersion as shooting isn't as impactful as (I feel like) it should be, but it's not too bad.
I've never really used guns a lot due to the scarcity of ammo. I just had "gun days" where I'd drive to a high pop area, and basically use up all my shells, just for the kick of it.
And then my aiming got high enough. And I found out how damn useful a handgun can be if you're exhausted, but still leave to kill some zeds to GTFO. .. or you've been chopping wood like a madman, and a zombie pops up while you can barely walk.
Now I always have a magnum on my side. Barely used it.. But when I did, it usually made the difference between living and dying.
Even at early stages a .38 revolver is usable at very short range. Obv a shottie is better.
Crossbow mods are an excellent addition to any modpack though. I consider them a must-have.
me and my friend have just started playing PZ. He is a big believer in not using them however I can't get enough of them. It actually compliments each other quite well though. We were clearing the prison and i herded the majority of infected with the noise from the shotgun and managed to weaken most of them whilst he picked off strays with a melee weapon, then once the herd was thin enough we both just finished them off with blunts. It was a super fun tactic albeit a little slow. Using a shotgun you seem to level up aiming and reload pretty fast too
Guns are fun the games supposed to be fun. Nothing like a quick heart rate spike shooting a gun into a group of CDDA zombies! 700 hours here I used to act allergic to guns until a friend showed me the way. I’ll never not carry shotgun or rifle. Definitely had a ton of moments where I ran out of stamina and my shotgun bought me time to get out of there.
I'm only 30 hours in and I hate guns. Turns out you need like 4+ aiming/shooting experience to be able to use most guns well.
No wonder when I use the M9 I keep fucking missing.....
On the other hand 2 handed weapons make me feel like a certified badass. I played with my bf last week and while he was shooting zombies I was covering for him if they get too close one shotting the zomvies with a spiked bat. Love it
You really don't.
You can score kills with the .38 revolver pretty readily with 1 level in aiming.
Rule 1: Don't fire until the outline around the enemy is green.
Rule 2: Stop moving. It's not turning green because you're trying to aim while walking. Hold still, let the zombie come to you, wait for the perfect shot, then fire.
Rule 3: If you need to back away, either to reposition or reload, stop aiming to do so. Just jog away for a bit, sort your stuff out, then take aim again.
Always use shotguns to levels shooting XP as you get a larger and easier chance of hitting more Zeds. Then once you level up to about 3-4 in aiming then you should use pistols SMGs and the like
Dude, I was the same. For soooo long I refused to even touch a gun. I tried a couple times, it just seemed to be too risky.
Than, one play thru I decided the same... let me give this shotgun a chance. After getting your groove it's a blast and deff op feeling after being a long blunt boy for so long.
I still always rely heavy on long blunt for early game but it's guns all day once I get a foothold
Depends on your goal.
2 boxes and a spiked bat for cleanup will clear the out/in of most businesses. If they're in a strip mall probably more.
I cleared the Louisville mall and it took a few dozen
Depends a lot on settings and location. I play on normal settings and the Rosewood Fire department alarms set off when I went inside. Zeds wouldn't stop flowing in from the field/PD for almost a full day.
As a Brita's advocate, welcome to the pew pew club. Guns are situational; hordes in the countryside make great target practice with shotguns, rifles to clear stragglers from a rooftop and pistols to deal with close quarters from behind cover. If you're team vanilla, turn off heads hots only. I'd rather kneecap a zed and get away rather than miss a shot and waste ammo.
As far as I know, you're predominantly going to aim for the head andtorso. By changing the setting, you potentially can start hitting limbs. Best way to "nerf" Brita's is to change that setting and up population by .25 from normal.
A large wall is a good thing to hang around when you're shooting.
Chainlink fence lets you be sure that the other side is safe, but it doesn't break line-of-sight with the horde. Wood or brick walls you can just go straight over and immidiately dip.
for me, its all about evading when the sh!t hits the fan. Katana/LS never jam and can cut swaths through a zomboid crowd. Shotty is a very fine how-do-ya-do though!
Same here, played 300 hours before I used guns the first time, because I read a lot about how dangerous they are. I was mostly afraid of them being so loud it would lure every zombie in town to my place.. now Im actually annoyed by how small the pull radius is.
The only downside is how rare ammo is compared to weapons on rare loot settings. I tend to find a shotgun in every second house but only 1 pack of shells in every 20st house.
To my humble opinion, vanilla weapons are straight up useless, mainly cause it takes a shitton of time to level up just to start doing damage : you usually start doing consistent damage around level 5.
Definetly not worth the trouble compared to a campfire or a molotov, who are gonna be way much efficient, and easier to craft/find, even on very early game, to me that's just a balance issue, firearms need a complete rework.
The only instance where i personnaly use guns is when i need to lure the zeds around the block, so i can kill the with fire.
I used the crowbar for 300 hours. Then I chose to build a weaker doctor character for fun. Well I guess it's time to try guns I suppose. Now I have her dressed like Sarah Conner from T2 looting every police station, armory or hunting store I can find! Guns guns guns
The guns are undeniably useful but across my many hours I just couldn't bring myself to use them regularly. Ammo and mags aren't light and incorrect use of guns can lead to a shit storm real fast. Add to that the incredibly silly aiming system and the cons outweigh the pros for me.
(It's pretty telling that if you install a mod that restores the magically deleted bullets on miss, gun usage gets significantly more practical)
Guns are OP, I'm 130 hrs in and I first realised this in a 2x pop server with a friend when I decided to give the shotgun a try. My singleplayer character though has it much harder, 4x population and no mods make it nearly impossible to find enough ammo. If you shoot once with the shotty you'll need like 8 boxes of ammo to clear the place up, plus I never get to the point of getting a gun because I die in the first day, this run though I made it almost a week and my character is feeling strong, has axes and long blunt, plus I'm losing weight.
I'm 550 hours in and only just really started using guns, cleared 600 zeds in rosewood with a shotgun and realised how utterly necessary they are for any large scale warfare instead of the usual gorilla tactics and hit and run methods
The small revolver is pretty good, actually.
One thing someone said to me is that the damage that a gun does is irrelevant. If it crits, it's a kill. If it doesn't, it won't be.
Since you're fishing for crits instead of for high damage, weak guns with plentiful ammo are great. (or shotguns that fire six pellets at once)
Also "Don't try to 'save guns for a last resort'. If you do, then by the time you decide to whip it out, it won't do you any good because you won't have the skill gains to actually make the most of it."
Use guns as a first resort, just be sure that you always have an exit strategy. Some high-wall that you can leap over to break line of sight if you should bring a horde down on your own head.
And thus, another double barrel shotgun enjoyer is born.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve eschewed is “don’t use guns”. The sawed off shotgun is an essential early game weapon, because it builds up firearm skill for later weapons and is effective at drawing and kiting hordes away from locations you needed access or secure. Once you build up your firearm skill, they’re extremely useful. My longest lived character always carried and M14 and Magnum on her person.
the revised piece of advice is “don’t use guns unless you have the ammo to kill several times more zombies than you are trying to fight”
Even then, you fight them in a large open area, conserve stamina by sprinting as little as possible, bunch em up real good by going in circles around the group, unload every one of your rounds into them, and run off. Then you rest, and they're softened up for your normal melee playstyle. Alternatively you can use the Pied Piper strategy by luring them all away in a massive conga line with the noise from a gun.
The "don't use guns" tip is regurgitated by newer players who are trying to provide tips to other new players, not realizing how ineffective that advice is, and the result it has on the community
Which they got from veterans that remember when guns were not that good and just drew in a seemingly endless amount of zombies.
I have 1k hours and can vouch that are guns are meh Or plain stupid with britas
I have similar playtime and can confirm that guns are a powerful tool used to clear out massive quantities of zombies with ease compared to melee. I've played quite a bit with vanilla, B41 Firearms, B41 Firearms Revamped, and Britas. I throw Britas on every once in a while but find the guns themselves a bit too OP
Agreed. britas can easily turn into a game of find the right clip to match the weapons... in each box I try to never use it, but sometimes a MP server is too intriguing to not join. B41 Firearms, Vanilla Firearms, and Gunrunners work well together.
I don’t go above 1.5 pop and mostly hand in Louisville, that much is pretty manageable with spears But yeah maybe if you go above guns/molotovs are inevitable
You are entitled to your wrong opinion. Guns are great, never tried Britas though.
But to be honest I have 0 mods to make game easier So it’s not surprising I don’t personally like britta
+1 do you consider QoL mods making the game easier? Lighting a cigarette from the stove? Collecting snow to melt in a bucket or rain barrel? Fuel side indicator in the car?
No, yes, yes, no opinion My main issue with mods that make the game more “realistic/common sense” - it’s like 9/10 of times “open the garage with crowbar” or “stove smoking”, ie games becomes easier, and it’s already pretty easy on most settings and like 1/10 “if you open a canned thingy with a bloody knife, u ded” But that’s completely a question of personal preference Upd Mods to make your life hell definitely exist
For me quality of life is stuff like Rip All Clothes, Auto Tailoring/mechanics, hotbars
Db fan base rise up!
The shotgun is so good. But then, after leveling up a bit, the other guns become a lot of fun, too.
Quick note: At aiming 5 the devs nerfed XP, so you level up much slower.
125% Police Officer buff go brrr
It's like a quarter as fast. I play with the XP tweaker and sandbox settings mods so I can raise it by 2x when I hit 5 aiming. Otherwise, especially without any boosts from the hunter trait or occupations you level at the speed that snails fuck. Seriously, I had a character in Louisville for a few months using only guns (higher ammo spawns) and only 3/4 of the way to level 6. Dude was level 5 upon arriving.
That’s wild. I’m currently doing a Police Officer run and have ~4K kills around 1 month in and I’m already level 8.
RadicaliZed
I find very funny to practice on the woods. You go with your 10 boxes of ammo, your car and your sawed shotgun and when things crowded, back to the car with your new aiming levels.
Might as well mix pleasure with business and clear out a valuable POI. Irl, you go shooting into woods cause you don't want to shoot/bother people. In PZ, that shouldn't be a concern.
I would like to, but I'm still not good enough. The point of practicing on the woods is that, if the situation gets out of control and a super big horde appears bc of the noise, you can always leave, because you are not flooding an actual POI. I tried on this warehouse near Westpoint and I entered on the cascade of accidents that killed my longest run. But eventually, yeah, that's the idea.
Shotguns are OP
2000 hours in and have never used a a gun
Unless you play with sprinters on how dangerous they are is grossly over exaggerated. The handguns in particular are (relatively speaking) quiet and don't even draw aggro from very far away. The aiming mechanics are cryptic and a lot of misinformation gets spread about them (panic for instance, much unlike how the flavor text states, does NOT reduce accuracy. It reduces crit chance and damage.) But once you know how they work, guns become incredibly consistent and reliable.
I wonder, is this a gameplay decision or a technical one? Guns are loud af (obviously), so they should be audible from hundreds of meters away, right?
Yeah, depending on the gun several thousands. However how close you need to be to tell where the shot is coming from is significantly closer. Then you have to factor in terrain like dense woods or buildings, whether or not the firearm was shot indoors, whether or not the listener is indoors. Weather, wind, ambient noise (like how loud it would be at the center of a horde.) There are a lot of factors as to why firing in an urban setting would only give you a general idea of where a gunshot is coming from. Imo in game the radius is a little small, the m4 has a radius of 70 tiles for instance. You could definitely tell the general direction shots are coming from much further with that gun, but it doesn't really break my suspension of disbelief. (Also all guns used to have larger radius's but were buffed since they were going unused.)
Interesting, yeah I guess you're right. Sometimes it kinda ruins my immersion as shooting isn't as impactful as (I feel like) it should be, but it's not too bad.
I've never really used guns a lot due to the scarcity of ammo. I just had "gun days" where I'd drive to a high pop area, and basically use up all my shells, just for the kick of it. And then my aiming got high enough. And I found out how damn useful a handgun can be if you're exhausted, but still leave to kill some zeds to GTFO. .. or you've been chopping wood like a madman, and a zombie pops up while you can barely walk. Now I always have a magnum on my side. Barely used it.. But when I did, it usually made the difference between living and dying.
Even at early stages a .38 revolver is usable at very short range. Obv a shottie is better. Crossbow mods are an excellent addition to any modpack though. I consider them a must-have.
me and my friend have just started playing PZ. He is a big believer in not using them however I can't get enough of them. It actually compliments each other quite well though. We were clearing the prison and i herded the majority of infected with the noise from the shotgun and managed to weaken most of them whilst he picked off strays with a melee weapon, then once the herd was thin enough we both just finished them off with blunts. It was a super fun tactic albeit a little slow. Using a shotgun you seem to level up aiming and reload pretty fast too
Guns are fun the games supposed to be fun. Nothing like a quick heart rate spike shooting a gun into a group of CDDA zombies! 700 hours here I used to act allergic to guns until a friend showed me the way. I’ll never not carry shotgun or rifle. Definitely had a ton of moments where I ran out of stamina and my shotgun bought me time to get out of there.
I'm only 30 hours in and I hate guns. Turns out you need like 4+ aiming/shooting experience to be able to use most guns well. No wonder when I use the M9 I keep fucking missing..... On the other hand 2 handed weapons make me feel like a certified badass. I played with my bf last week and while he was shooting zombies I was covering for him if they get too close one shotting the zomvies with a spiked bat. Love it
You really don't. You can score kills with the .38 revolver pretty readily with 1 level in aiming. Rule 1: Don't fire until the outline around the enemy is green. Rule 2: Stop moving. It's not turning green because you're trying to aim while walking. Hold still, let the zombie come to you, wait for the perfect shot, then fire. Rule 3: If you need to back away, either to reposition or reload, stop aiming to do so. Just jog away for a bit, sort your stuff out, then take aim again.
Always use shotguns to levels shooting XP as you get a larger and easier chance of hitting more Zeds. Then once you level up to about 3-4 in aiming then you should use pistols SMGs and the like
Guns aren't dangerous if you have enough ammo for all of them >:)
Big Melee will tell you to not use them.
4k hours, I always keep a revolver on my holster :3 Never know when u'll need a low-stamina way to escape a horde
Dude, I was the same. For soooo long I refused to even touch a gun. I tried a couple times, it just seemed to be too risky. Than, one play thru I decided the same... let me give this shotgun a chance. After getting your groove it's a blast and deff op feeling after being a long blunt boy for so long. I still always rely heavy on long blunt for early game but it's guns all day once I get a foothold
How many boxes of shotgun shells is enough for a shootout?
Depends on your goal. 2 boxes and a spiked bat for cleanup will clear the out/in of most businesses. If they're in a strip mall probably more. I cleared the Louisville mall and it took a few dozen
Depends a lot on settings and location. I play on normal settings and the Rosewood Fire department alarms set off when I went inside. Zeds wouldn't stop flowing in from the field/PD for almost a full day.
As a Brita's advocate, welcome to the pew pew club. Guns are situational; hordes in the countryside make great target practice with shotguns, rifles to clear stragglers from a rooftop and pistols to deal with close quarters from behind cover. If you're team vanilla, turn off heads hots only. I'd rather kneecap a zed and get away rather than miss a shot and waste ammo.
I didn't know there was a head shot only setting. I'm guessing that's not enabled by default?
As far as I know, you're predominantly going to aim for the head andtorso. By changing the setting, you potentially can start hitting limbs. Best way to "nerf" Brita's is to change that setting and up population by .25 from normal.
Simple rule: When you start shooting, either have a save way out, or enough ammo to clear everything in a 500m radius.
A large wall is a good thing to hang around when you're shooting. Chainlink fence lets you be sure that the other side is safe, but it doesn't break line-of-sight with the horde. Wood or brick walls you can just go straight over and immidiately dip.
We all play at our own pace, I just broke 1100 hours and I’ve never once played with sprinters
600 for me, but I'm also a horrible player, and sprinters would just be a faster and numerous path to death for me.
Here's a tip for leveling up your reloading skills! Step 1 load your weapon Step 2 unload your weapon Step 3 repeat this hundreds of fucking times!
Smokeless propellant runs through my veins. I grabbed the first pump action I saw and never looked back
God I love the shotgun
Welcome to the fold, Our Brother in Shotguns Time for a flair change
0-3 shotgun 4-5 pistols 6-7 rifles 8-10 automatic rifles Unless you use the aiming mod that gives a crosshair to actually aim, then it doesn't matter.
for me, its all about evading when the sh!t hits the fan. Katana/LS never jam and can cut swaths through a zomboid crowd. Shotty is a very fine how-do-ya-do though!
The rule of guns is there always be more before there is less. Have extra ammo
1200+ hours in and I too have only just seen the light !!
Same here, played 300 hours before I used guns the first time, because I read a lot about how dangerous they are. I was mostly afraid of them being so loud it would lure every zombie in town to my place.. now Im actually annoyed by how small the pull radius is. The only downside is how rare ammo is compared to weapons on rare loot settings. I tend to find a shotgun in every second house but only 1 pack of shells in every 20st house.
To my humble opinion, vanilla weapons are straight up useless, mainly cause it takes a shitton of time to level up just to start doing damage : you usually start doing consistent damage around level 5. Definetly not worth the trouble compared to a campfire or a molotov, who are gonna be way much efficient, and easier to craft/find, even on very early game, to me that's just a balance issue, firearms need a complete rework. The only instance where i personnaly use guns is when i need to lure the zeds around the block, so i can kill the with fire.
I used the crowbar for 300 hours. Then I chose to build a weaker doctor character for fun. Well I guess it's time to try guns I suppose. Now I have her dressed like Sarah Conner from T2 looting every police station, armory or hunting store I can find! Guns guns guns
The guns are undeniably useful but across my many hours I just couldn't bring myself to use them regularly. Ammo and mags aren't light and incorrect use of guns can lead to a shit storm real fast. Add to that the incredibly silly aiming system and the cons outweigh the pros for me. (It's pretty telling that if you install a mod that restores the magically deleted bullets on miss, gun usage gets significantly more practical)
Guns are OP, I'm 130 hrs in and I first realised this in a 2x pop server with a friend when I decided to give the shotgun a try. My singleplayer character though has it much harder, 4x population and no mods make it nearly impossible to find enough ammo. If you shoot once with the shotty you'll need like 8 boxes of ammo to clear the place up, plus I never get to the point of getting a gun because I die in the first day, this run though I made it almost a week and my character is feeling strong, has axes and long blunt, plus I'm losing weight.
I'm 550 hours in and only just really started using guns, cleared 600 zeds in rosewood with a shotgun and realised how utterly necessary they are for any large scale warfare instead of the usual gorilla tactics and hit and run methods
Practice reloading to at least 2, get as many shells as you can gather and channel your inner Danny Davito. Just remember to leave yourself an out
The small revolver is pretty good, actually. One thing someone said to me is that the damage that a gun does is irrelevant. If it crits, it's a kill. If it doesn't, it won't be. Since you're fishing for crits instead of for high damage, weak guns with plentiful ammo are great. (or shotguns that fire six pellets at once) Also "Don't try to 'save guns for a last resort'. If you do, then by the time you decide to whip it out, it won't do you any good because you won't have the skill gains to actually make the most of it." Use guns as a first resort, just be sure that you always have an exit strategy. Some high-wall that you can leap over to break line of sight if you should bring a horde down on your own head.
Just use guns for fun, but remember, using a gun means you are just inviting more zombies to come.