This guide will give tips and discuss some important aspects of the game to help new players have a better start in the game.
01. Hunger, Thirst, Pee and Cleanliness
When your hunger or thirst becomes zero, you will receive damage over time. When your hunger reach zero, it means you are starving and your health will decrease by 2 point per second. On the other hand, when your thirst becomes zero, your health will decrease by 1 point every 10 seconds. If your health becomes zero, it will cause death to your character. When your character is about to pee, it will move slowly until you urinate. Your character won't be able to move or do anything when peeing. Cleanliness refers to how hygienic your character is, if the unhygienic icon appears you need to take a shower immediately. Having an unhygienic character will make zombies notice you easier.
02. Base Construction
At the start of the game, your character will respawn on a plot of land that will become your home base. This map contains a fair amount of resources and some roamer zombies at the beginning. It is advised that you clear the area at the beginning before you begin base construction. It is more efficient to layout your base by constructing level 1 floors only at first. Constructing walls at the beginning is not advised because you will be attacked by a horde of zombies daily. The only way to stop the zombie horde is by constructing level 3 walls, also the horde does not damage your furniture, work stations and chests. Therefore, you will save tons of resources by constructing floors first. It is important however that, if your are going to go this way, you should not accept the raider's request to join them. Doing so will make your base open to other raiders also.
When planning the layout of your base, there are things that you need to consider like using double walls, traps, defenses and fake rooms. Double walling is the concept where you use two walls at all sides to make your base harder to breach. Traps and defenses must be carefully planned ahead because redoing walls will cost you a large amount of resources. Place fake rooms and doors in between walls to confuse raiders. Use only level 1 walls if you are not confident with your layout yet. After you are confident with your layout, start upgrading the floors to level 3 first, leave the walls at level 1. By the time that you have enough resources for level 3 walls, that is the only time that you upgrade your walls to level 3. The efficient way is to upgrade each wall from level 1 to level 3 instantly, leaving your wall at level 2 will only get destroyed by the horde.
When planning the layout of your base, there are things that you need to consider like using double walls, traps, defenses and fake rooms. Double walling is the concept where you use two walls at all sides to make your base harder to breach. Traps and defenses must be carefully planned ahead because redoing walls will cost you a large amount of resources. Place fake rooms and doors in between walls to confuse raiders. Use only level 1 walls if you are not confident with your layout yet. After you are confident with your layout, start upgrading the floors to level 3 first, leave the walls at level 1. By the time that you have enough resources for level 3 walls, that is the only time that you upgrade your walls to level 3. The efficient way is to upgrade each wall from level 1 to level 3 instantly, leaving your wall at level 2 will only get destroyed by the horde.
03. Crafting
There are a lot of items that you can craft in the game. Weapons, armor, clothes, medical supplies, vehicles, furniture, work stations are among the things that you can craft. However, in order to craft items you must first unlock them using craft points. Some recipes can only be unlocked when you reach a certain level. Vehicles and the generator requires you to craft the blueprint first before you can build the actual thing. Some items need higher level of floors to be placed. That's why said to level up the floors first before the walls. Spend your craft points wisely, you don't need to unlock everything because not all recipes can be unlocked at max level. Finally, if you reset your craft points, the things you crafted previously will be kept.
04. Farming and Grinding
Grinding in this game is pretty straightforward, killing zombies and wild animals and gathering resources makes you gain experience. At the beginning of the game, your first priority is to gather pine logs, limestone and plant fibers in order to construct your base and small boxes. The green zone Pine Bushes and Limestone Ridge closest to your base are the perfect spots to start farming. When going to these locations, you must only carry hatchet, pickaxe, spear and backpack. Dying in these locations will make you drop everything, that's why only go there naked or on occasions, you can wear your surplus armors and weapons. Always use sneak attack when clearing the area, sneak attack deals 3x damage. With limited provisions when farming, you can use the berries to heal yourself. Farming on red zones requires you to equip good armor and weapon. Bring first aid kit or other healing supplies when going to the red zones. When farming the red zones, don't loot common materials such as plant fibers or limestone, you can find lots of these in the green zones.
05. Weapons
Weapons are items that you can equip to deal damage to enemies. The game offers a wide variety of melee and ranged weapons. Weapons can be obtained through crafting, looting or trading with dealers. Weapons can not stack in a slot and their durability decrease as they are used. Therefore, using weapons wisely is a must in this game. Guns and higher tier melee weapons must only be used to clear bunkers or finishing a quest or event. Some tools like pickaxe and hatchet can be used as weapons so be careful when using them in combat as their durability will decrease.
06. Armors
Armors are items that you can equip to reduce damage taken from incoming attacks. Like weapons, armors can be obtained through crafting and looting. Equipping an armor changes the appearance of your character, which is really cool. Armor's durability decreases everytime your character receives damage. Unlike weapons, low tier armors in this game can be easily crafted, therefore you can wear them anytime. However, top tier armors like Tactical, SWAT and Kevlar armors is hard to come by, so use them wisely and only when necessary.
07. Game Events
There are a lot of events that occurs in the game, each offers different reward and experience. To start there's the daily Horde, wherein a horde of zombies will attack your base every 24 hours. At times, a Healer will occasionally appear at your base to offer temporary buffs. Airdrop, Plane Crash, Dealer, Smugglers Camp, Wrecked Ship, Rest Stop, Holiday Van and Oak Clearing events are among the known events that happens on a daily or occasional basis. It is advised that you save your energy for these events.
08. Energy and Coins
Energy is a game mechanic which allows you to travel between locations faster. Energy recovers over time but also be bought using coin. It is advised that you only use energy during events. Also when buying energy using coins, it is a must that you deplete your energy first. Coins is the in-game currency and can be only obtained by purchasing from the game shop and by watching advertisements. Always save your coins for buying energy when events with juicy rewards appear.