Greetings Everyone, I have lurked for a bit on this sub and have about 130 hours into the game. I have figured out a few survival tips that have seen me through starting fresh several times as well as defending my base alone against a massive day 28 horde (70+ zombies, multiple ferals, 10+ cops, and 10+ dogs). Also, I would like it if everyone posted some of their tips as well. First spawn tips: 1. Make multiple stone axes until you get one of at least 30 quality
Pick a small tree to cut down
a.Turn this into planks and then sticks right away
While you’re converting the logs into planks and sticks gather as much of the following as you can in your immediate area…
a. Small stones
b.Cotton i.You will need lots of cotton starting out… so don’t ever stop picking it up
c.Goldenrod i.Once you have a campfire and cooking pot you can make goldenrod tea. You should convert all bottled water into tea and coffee, once you are able.
d.Chop grass for plant fibers i.Gather enough for a bow, pants, and shovel
e.Bird nests for feathers (leave the eggs for now, but later you can make bacon and eggs but that will require a grill and pork)
4.Craft a bow
a.Made a second one when your first bow hits around 20%
5.Craft arrows
a.Do this as often as you have materials for them
6.Turn your cotton into cloth
7.Craft a bedroll and place it down
a.Craft another when you have time and materials. You never want to be at the mercy of finding a bed.
8.Craft a bandage or two
a.Don’t waste your only healing bandage on the bleeding out debuff
b.Craft a splint
9.Craft as much of the cloth armor set as you are able to do and as soon as you gather more cotton craft the rest
10.Make plant fiber pants
11.Craft a shovel
As you explore around your starting area, loot everything and continue to gather feathers, small stones, cotton, and goldenrod. Don’t waste your time on bushes, always cut down trees. As soon as you level up make a new stone axe (getting one around 100 quality is normally my goal when I am first starting out. At that quality level it is a decent melee weapon and good enough to cut down most trees).
Surviving your first day and night:
If you spawned in…
1.Wastelands….. GTFO!
a.Don’t stop to loot things, ignore my first spawn tips, and basically run for your life… Zombie Dawgs suck really really bad.
2.Burnt Biome… GTFO!
a.Not as bad as the wastelands, but there are still zombie dawgs…
3.Snow biome…. You should leave, but it is not as dangerous as the wastelands or the burnt biome
a.Try to stick to the roads. It can difficult to see the Zombies when you are in the forests in this biome
b.Do gather blueberries while you are leaving. Try to save them for blueberry pie, and or seeds… they are rare outside of the snow biome.
c.This biome tends to have a lot of lootable tree stumps, and these often have good food in them. So keep an eye out as you leave
4.Desert Biome: Another biome I tend to leave quickly but there are a few things that are nice
a.Aloe is awesome gather as much as you can
b.Yucca is awesome gather as much as you can
c.Cacti can be beaten with your stone axe and give a fruit that is pretty good early game
d.Sand is plentiful
5.Arid/Savannah Biome: I tend to get spawned in these biomes starting out and they are pretty great for a new player. All of the first spawn tips apply to this zone.
a.Be aware that the same open plains that afford you great sight lines work the same way for the Zeds.
b.Lots of corn around. Not great for early game, but once you are established it can be used to make lots of useful things. I always make it a point to at least gather a few for seed or to make cornmeal with early on.
6.Deciduous and Pine forest biomes: these are also great and are my favorite places to spawn and eventually set up a base.
a.Lots of water, trees, and game
b.Camps can be found in the forest.
i.These are great as they normally have a bedroll, cooler with food and typically some ammo or a weapon or two.
ii.The tents can be busted up into cloth fragments.
iii.There is typically a campfire and a cooking pot laying around.
7.Clay can be found at every biome border on the banks of the canal. Just look around for a reddish looking dirt. Gather enough that you can make the molds you need for your forge later.
8.Once you find the forge book, and the leather tanning book. First priority is a crossbow and bolts. Night is coming what do you do? 1.If you are in a town
a.General stores: These are great, they are typically 3 to 4 stories and have an internal roof access. This is normally a building I pick to make my first base
i.Do not break down the metal back door. Unless you have the means to craft a metal door. Wood doors are garbage and will get you overrun very quickly.
ii.The front of the building will typically have 4 plywood type blocks blocking the entrance. Crouch and chop your way through the bottom of one of these.
iii.If you have enough wood make a wood frame and place it in the hole you made, and upgrade it as well as you are able.
iv.Reinforce any and all of the 1st level entry points, Loot what you can and make your way to the roof.
v.Once on the roof place a bed or bedroll, make a storage chest, place a campfire, and whatever else you have time to do before 6pm hits.
vi.Make a wood frame and place it over the ladder or remove the bottom two rungs of the ladder from above (you can do this while on the ladder)
vii.After 6pm and until 6:30am don’t craft, cook, or open containers or your first night will be a tough one. It’s boring but you are not ready for nighttime Zeds on your first evening.
b.If you cannot find a general store get in the tallest house you can find with an attic.
i.Basically follow the steps from the general store, except you will need to craft a door and wood will probably have to do.
ii.Use the attic instead of the roof
2.If you are in the wilderness without any structures nearby
a.Close to a bridge?
i.I will typically dig out some under the bridge and then build an upgraded wood frame shanty with the bridge as my roof. Then I crouch and pray.
b.Hills nearby?
i.Dig a hole in the base of the hill until you hit stone. Gather some dirt from outside if you need. Bury yourself in the hill side.
c.Have lots of wood and time to craft?
i.Build a platform that is at least 4 blocks off the ground and 5x4.
1.Crouch in the middle and hope for the best
d.None of these apply?
i.Dig a straight down and cover the hole up with dirt. Be careful trying to get out in the morning … broken legs are the best!
ii.Do your best to clear the area of zombies find some natural cover and hunker down for a long and scary night
Hopefully that will help you out if you are new, and are unsure of how to get started.
General Tips:
Last bit I promise 1.Couch parts are fantastic for burning. These are my main resource for campfires and forges
2.Fridges, lockers, and file cabinets are a great source of scrap iron
3.Reinforced concrete, and iron bars are your friend. Once I get going well enough to start crafting these, I always build bunkers around my base at ground level to deal with the hordes. I prefer to connect them via underground tunnels.
4.Build a safe house away from your base. Stock it with backups of armor, weapons, medical supplies and food. Put your bed here. That way when a crazy horde overruns your base and kills you. You don’t respawn in the middle of it. If you have time and the tools build an escape tunnel leading from your base to your bunker. This has saved my life more than I can count.
5.Barbwire sucks.. don’t waste the iron
6.Wood log spikes that are not fully upgraded are a waste of materials
7.When you loot containers from POIs make sure you empty the containers completely. If you don’t want the stuff throw it on the ground. If you don’t and comeback after the loot respawn timer the container will still be holding the garbage you left in it.
I could keep going but I think this post has gotten out of hand. Hopefully, you guys have some things to share and this information will help some people out.
Edit: Sorry the formatting got wonky. I wrote this in notepad and then pasted it... looked fine on the preview page but once posted it has scroll bars everywhere. I will try to clean it up when i get home