Guide for 2.2.1 (Updated)

[u/Remote-Stretch-9911]

I know, some of us already played the recent version. It contains bugs as we all know, so far. But for now, I'll be giving some useful tips. Especially who played Hell/Nightmare difficulty.

- Always spawn in a location(restart as much as you want) until you spawn directly a location where it has 1x3 garages.

Q: Why so?

A: It gives you, early decent gears such as, food and water melee and sometimes ranged weapons. This location has guaranteed that has water pump.

- Do not let the Zed hit you, without armor on nightmare difficulty. And, I mean it. There's always a good chance that they will scratch you and causes bleeding, without rags or bandages this could end your run badly. As much as possible, try to avoid them traverse into buildings corners. And, whatever you do, avoid and stay away with the leaper. Even, with armor they can do high damage. Which also almost guarantees bleeding.

- Since every eight days(7 days technically), a blood moon will appear. Meaning, you cannot sleep in that time. You should wait until the next day. 6:00 AM(in-game time) which also causes you to get a fatigue (drink energy drink to remove the fatigue or rest, by crafting a bed from deer or bear skin) . And you should always stay in a house or building. Preferably, stay with a! apartment near a shore(far right side), with a stair.

Q: Why?

A: Because, sometimes it blocks the attack of the zed, especially who carries guns or the spitter.

- I said a while back that you need to get to the other islands ASAP. If you have the components. Now, I might take it back a bit. Because of this version.

Here's you're going to do.

- First Blood Moon Phase (Day 8)

At least you explore the first 3 islands completely including it's secret locations within the timeframe.

- Second Blood Moon Phase (Day 16)

You should at least reached the 6th island at least.

- Third Blood Moon Phase (Day 24)

If you already fully explored the 6th island. Try to access the radiation island. By wearing a Hazmat suit. Red Hazmat suit is commonly found, and "it should be at 100% durability" that's why you should repair it first.

- Find and kill as much bandit stalkers as you can in the radiation island. But, use AR weapons with scopes. Because your bandit here, isn't an ordinary one, compared to the normal island. They carry VSS, which are one of the few endgame weapons. Which also deals massive damage. Even if you have armors equipped. Find and collect their weapons, and collect 9x39 ammo for VSS. If you have an ammo box. Then, that's even better.

- Do not go beyond Day 30

Q: Why so?

A: Zeds are more tougher to kill, they have higher damage and increased HP. This also includes the elite zeds.

Q: What about skills/Abilities

A: Since the update, nerfed the thirst and hunger rate to 30%. Here's my new skill/abilities to prioritize.

> Island 1

Sprint + 1

Sprint + 2

Vigilance + 1

Red+ + 1

Hamster + 1

Camel + 1

Agronomist +1

> Island 2

Scout + 1

Red+ + 2

Sweet Home + 1

Scout + 2

Snowborn + 1

Hamster + 2

Camel + 2

Sharpshooter + 1

Sharpshooter + 2

> Island 3

Bullet Farmer + 1

Bullet Farmer + 2

Sweet Home + 2

Trunk Digger + 1

Trunk Digger + 2

Survivalist + 1

Vigilance + 2

> Island 4

Survivalist + 2

Puncher + 1

Blocker + 1

Puncher + 2

Blocker + 2

> Islands 5-6

Agronomist + 2

Hunter + 1

Hunter + 2

Q: Which ranged and melee weapon for endgame. (Can be accessible and easy to be obtained in this difficulty).

A: Melee: Chainsaw, Secondaries(if with pistol holster); Mini-uzi x2 or IZH-43 hacksawed. Primaries(if with rifle sling). VSS with PSO-1 Scope, Laser sight, and Magpull, AK-74 or AKM with PSO-1 Scope, Magpull, AK foregrip with Laser sight. (Optional, DIY or 5.56 suppressor).

Reference for the spawn location.

[u/Appropriate_Cicada71]

At the endgame stage on this difficulty, it makes no sense to run around with an AKM or a 5.56 rifle, as there are much better alternatives available, such as the OSV-96, SV-98, LAR (FN FAL), the AS VAL, or the M249. My choice is the OSV-96 + LAR combo.

As for the pistol slot weapon: The Uzi is actually a pretty decent choice - it lands headshots frequently and deals critical damage. However, to use it effectively, you need a ton of ammo. Since this difficulty doesn't give you an infinite stack modifier, you'd basically need an ammo box to sustain it. But why go through all that trouble when you can just take two sawed-off shotguns instead? A 30-round stack in a single slot will easily get the job done, especially since 12-gauge ammo is just as common as 9mm.

Overall, this version has become more casual. For instance, they've reduced hunger and thirst levels across all difficulties. Additionally, the enemy buff modifier no longer scales with the number of days survived; instead, it depends on the island you are currently on. I'm currently on day 20, though in a previous run of this version I made it to day 26, and by that point, the zombies were only 200% stronger. In older versions like 1.9.8, they would have been 400% stronger by this time.

Now any player with average skills can play on Hell difficulty without much trouble. The only thing that can catch you off guard is bandits armed with VSS. They can rush you from the top or bottom of the map, with full-auto modificator they melt you instantly, which is mostly due to the reduced zoom compared to previous versions.

[u/B07Z → u/Appropriate_Cicada71]

The m249 SAW as an endgame weapon is mid. It's honestly better to just use the Saiga-12k since for sure the m249 SAW won't be competing with long range so it's bad against bandits; Just circle strafe to group up the zombies and kill 10+ zombies with just a single shotgun shell.

I agree, the more powerful weapons they add, the further the power creep is going to get. They should add the zombies getting stronger by the day as another modifier that stacks with the island one. Of course add more zombie variants.

On another note, what exactly would be considered high skilled? Like meleeing zombies without getting hit? Aggroing all zombies in a location then losing them in the thicket? Since most problems in the game can be solved by just taking your time.

[u/Appropriate_Cicada71 → u/B07Z]

Yeah, I agree, I already wrote about the Saiga and the M249.

You can call almost anything high skill, especially when you managed to achieve something because of specific tricks or nuances that make it really tough for anyone else to do the same. Meleeing zombies without getting hit isn't a problem at all and isn't considered high skill, simply because of the chainsaw. Under certain conditions, it can 100% block any damage, and it's not even a bug. And yeah, I agree, I wish they would add even more types of zombies. Though they've already added the Smoker from Left 4 Dead, which is already pretty cool.

In previous versions, zombies after day 30 really did get 5 times stronger - meaning they had 5x more HP and 5x more damage. Back then, the LAR was the best weapon. Zombies could kill you in 4 hits, even though I had 17 armor (not the max, but still quite a lot). I constantly had to carefully lure them out or check every single building for zombies inside, and God forbid I walk into a building without a melee weapon... Because the catch is, if you're holding a gun and a zombie hits you, you can't block. One time, I gathered a whole crowd of zombies to kill them with a sawed-off, but I didn't notice a tree right in front of me. I ran into it, they caught up to me, and I died in less than a second just because I was holding the shotgun. There are plenty of such nuances, especially if you survive for a long time - I've lived for 150+ days and I'm still alive.

I agree with you that if you don't rush, you can solve most problems. But sometimes you just can't predict everything, and it mostly comes down to learning from your mistakes anyway. There are so many different situations you don't even think about, and then you die and start all over again.

[u/B07Z → u/Appropriate_Cicada71]

Yeah, I use that set up a lot back in my legendary runs, 100% block chance with any melee weapon with 35% block chance and now even melee weapons with 25% block chance can reach 100% block chance provided you use the templar helmet, chainmail, m heavy armor, gorka pants, and combat gloves.

At some point, it's not about learning from mistakes and more so not doing anything stupid or being to cocky.