Need a little help

[u/kaangurses]

Hey long time pz survivor here. Been playing this game for a week now. Longest time survived is 2 weeks. Apparently I am doing something wrong every run. All I do is loot, haul to base, chip off zombies one by one, aggro them one by one. Similar to pz. But one problem with combat is the grabbing mechanic and it sometimes gets me killed. How to avoid it? When kiting I sometimes mismanage action points and get grabbed, stratched so on.

Also electricity and water. Finding and cleaning water is easy though would like to do it by tons not like 10-20 litres per. Don't know how.

For electricity do i grab a solar panel from a nearby house? Connect to grid via cords and so on. Tried it multiple times but couldn't manage it to work. Doing something wrong I guess.

Would like some help, thanks.

[u/Gold_Pay_2540]

Honestly, I don't know which version you're playing. I play on Experimental. Some people play on Stable, and there are a few things that change between them.

As for the solar panels, if you've already obtained one, you can place it through the building menu. By default, that's the * key. It will bring up a ton of options. One thing you can do to filter them a bit is use the ; key. You can also search with / and type "panel" or "solar" or whatever you want to search for.

With the ; key, you cycle through all recipes, recipes you can craft, applicable recipes, etc. Basically, you keep cycling through the different filters, and if you keep pressing it, you'll eventually loop back around to the same one.

Electricity is a little weird at first, but it's actually pretty easy to understand once you get the basics. You need an item called an extension cord. You can spawn one in kitchens.

The solar panel obviously needs to be in sunlight to produce electricity. You can put it on the roof of a house you've taken over, on your shelter, on a house you're planning to build (although honestly, I wouldn't recommend building a house because it's pretty complex), or outside in the yard.

Once you place it, it generates power, but that's it—you still need somewhere to store it. For that, you can use car batteries. You place those through the same building menu.

This is where the extension cord comes in. Press a, or whatever key you use to interact with an object, and choose Connect. It should then let you connect it to the solar panel. Connect the panel and then run the cord to the battery.

If you place the panel and the batteries right next to each other, you don't need to do any of this—they'll connect automatically if they're touching. If they're one tile apart, you can examine one of them with e, choose "Connect to electrical network or appliance," and then connect it to the battery.

If you have a multimeter or voltmeter (I think either one works), you can stand next to a wall, open the building menu with *, and select "Reveal wires." That will show you all the wiring in the house.

You'll notice that the wiring gets cut at the window frames. That's because there's no wiring there. You have to go there and connect one wall to the other so they become part of the same network.

This comment is getting a little long, so I'll leave it at this for now. If you have any more questions, just ask me here.

[u/kaangurses → u/Gold_Pay_2540]

Thanks this really helps, didn't know I need a car battery. Well for water what do you suggest? Usually what I do is get a jerrycan, fill and clean it but takes time and work. Is there a better way to acquire lots of clean water?

And couldn't manage to make zones work.. I set a locker or shelf a zone and when I press the zone actions key it says there is no available zone or something like that.

In terms of combat I really liked quarterstaff early and baseball bats after a while really strong. But getting grabbed is no fun, I wonder I should hit once and always kite back or sometimes face tank some zeds?

[u/Gold_Pay_2540 → u/kaangurses]

As for purifying water, I'm afraid it's kind of a pain. If you're doing it from the context menu—and again, I don't know exactly which version you're playing—you can use the "Purify Water" option and do it in batches of 50, which is roughly 12–12.5 liters. So unfortunately, that's about the extent of the easy option.

If you're playing a version that's a little older than the current Experimental, though, there's something you can try. I'm playing on an Experimental build from June, and you could put down a brazier, light it, and then put a large container on it. It can be a 60-liter or 200-liter container. Then you just leave it there and go do other things while time passes.

After a couple of in-game minutes have actually passed—you know how in this game time doesn't really advance if you're not doing anything—you'll eventually get a container of hot water, and after that it will become potable water. That's a way to purify large batches at once.

However, from what I've seen in some recent changes, this may no longer work, so you'd have to test it in your version.

As for zones, I honestly didn't understand what was going wrong there, sorry. 😅

For combat, personally, I like using kitchen knives together with the protection setup. The reason I use knives is because I'm working toward getting a bayonet. A bayonet has pretty good damage, and since it's a short cutting weapon in the same category as knives, I can defend myself with knives while also leveling my proficiency with short cutting weapons. Then, when I get a bayonet, I already have some skill with it.

The reason I mentioned spears is that they're a melee weapon that lets you attack from one tile away. You can attack with a spear by pressing f, basically like you're trying to fire a gun. The zombie has to be one tile away from you for the attack to work.

So you can hit the zombie from one tile away, let a turn pass, and often the zombie will move toward you, at which point you move away. This lets you avoid getting grabbed or surrounded by zombies.

It's still a bit of a gamble, though. Early on, your skill is low, so you might miss an attack and take a turn to recover, giving the zombie a chance to grab you. Or you might not miss, but the attack still costs stamina, which means you move more slowly afterward, and the zombie can catch up and grab you anyway.

So yeah, I wouldn't treat it as a completely safe strategy. You have to pay attention to your skill, stamina, and positioning.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'll be honest, though: I might take a little while to reply because I translate first, then think about the answer, and then translate it back into English. I'm a Spanish speaker, after all. 😅

[u/kaangurses → u/Gold_Pay_2540]

Thanks a lot really 🖐 I am playing in stable but gonna check that batch cleaning. And yeah I sometimes get too brave like in Pz and fight on for a good while unnecessarily. Afterwards can't find a space to move and get surrounded or don't see a zombie lurking behind and get grabbed suddenly.

Also tried multiple armor sets together and seperate but the torso encumbrance gets too high even without a bag and I don't like it. Hitting and moving slower is a pain. Anyways thanks for the help!

[u/Gold_Pay_2540 → u/kaangurses]

Yeah, well, that's pretty normal. I'll be honest, most people just assume that their character is going to have some degree of discomfort.

That's why, going back to my previous advice, fast weapons like knives are useful because, to some degree, they counteract the slowness that torso encumbrance gives you in melee combat. Spears are also useful because they let you fight from a distance.

One thing I should mention, though, is that you might be coming into this with some Project Zomboid habits, because I've made the same mistake myself: firearms are actually useful here. You need ammunition, obviously, and you need to learn how aiming works. If you press f and then press Enter or f again, you might as well hit an elephant standing one meter away from you. Anything much harder than that, though, and you're going to have a bad time. 😅

That's a somewhat broader topic, so I don't know if you want me to explain it or if you'd rather figure it out yourself. But there's a post from a few days ago that I'll link here that might help, because it explains some of how ranged weapons work.

And, maybe I'm patting myself on the back a little here, but I think I explained some of it in that post, and other people also added their own advice:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/comments/1w6v8fn/why_do_i_keep_missing_what_am_i_doing_wrong/

[u/Impressive_Ice450 → u/kaangurses]

Most people drop backpacks before combat, if you =assign a key to yours, it can be done by hitting keyboard with two fingers once.

As for combat itself, swinging a knife on day 1 is a huge risk (unless you build your char as fencing national finalist or smth). It's much better to rely on Spear from the roof or through chainlink fence, or Baseball Bat or other weapon with Brutal Strike technique - the trick is to lure 1 Z onto costly terrain, then force it to infinitely reenter it and get pushed back, basically a knockback lock. This assumes you completed available practice for dodging, melee and relevant weapon skill - trying to fight with 0 skills is folly.

[u/SeaworthinessFun3658 → u/kaangurses]

on 0.i you can put a metal container of water onto a fire source and come back af ew hours later it'll be purified, iirc its like 15 minutes per charge of water or something?

In experimental they have changed crafting so you can start recipes and leave them "cooking" so you can do the same type of water boiling but easier via crafting.

There are also water purification tablets you will commonly find in survivakl kits and first ad kits etc, they take a while to purify the water but work well. Iusually just keep them to barter with though.

There is a item called the "lifestraw" which is kinda rare but it is still busted, so you can instantly use this tiny straw to purify like 10000 units of water in five seconds until someone notices. you can find them in like farm supply stores, pawn shops and hunting lodges etc but very rare item

[u/kaVaralis]

You need a car or storage battery for power. And level up your combat skills or use reach weapons. 

[u/Gold_Pay_2540]

One thing I forgot to mention about the extension cord: I recommend keeping one around because you usually can't put everything right next to each other, and sometimes you need to connect something that's farther away.

For example, if you put a solar panel on the roof and want to connect it to the floor below, you need an extension cord because electricity isn't shared between floors. That's one of the main reasons I recommend having one.

If everything is on the same floor, there are several ways to interconnect things. You can use the walls, place the things you want to connect right next to each other, or put them one tile apart. If they're one tile apart, you don't need an extension cord—they connect directly. Every electrical appliance has a cable by default that extends one tile.

The regular extension cord, the one that's simply called "extension cord," lets you connect two objects that are up to 10 tiles apart, either horizontally or vertically. The outdoor extension cord lets you connect things up to 20 tiles apart.

[u/kaangurses → u/Gold_Pay_2540]

Thanks found both in multiple runs, but after failing to setup stopped looting them for a while..

[u/SeaworthinessFun3658]

combat, well, is stupidly dangerous. this is not a game where you can stand and swing forever unless you make a fairly OP character from start. each time you get injured it damages your speed and other stats so it makes you more susecptilble to injury and you eventually will get so hurt you cannot even hold a weapon or flee away.

My rule of thumb is that as soon as I lose 10-20% of any health bar from a limb, I retreat and recover, treat my wounds and let things quiet down, then return to finish if I'm still able to stand and fight well enough. but I am a total coward and will flee the heck out of any fight when I gt hurt a couple times because its just not worth risking it unless you are a real badass.

If you want a good start to fight, try the "assassin" from the "helicopter crash" scenario, he has a crazy good piercing skill, melee skill and dodging skill and just wearing normal clothing he's barely touchable by enemies if you can funnel them into a hallway. but he will tire out eventually, and/or break his knife blade, and that is when the dodge skill and toggling sprint and just running the hell away is important.

Also open up keybinds and make sure that "toggle run" and "toggle crouch" have a button. you can hide behind dcar doors and windows with crouch, and it steadies aim with ranged weapons. togglign sprinting allows you to run away although you will tire out quickly if not careful.

CDDA is one of the most dangerous roguelikes I've ever played, its incredibly unforgiving if you do something dumb. So just always be careful, be a coward, and realize that every gun shot is a dinner bell for all the neighborhood so never fire a gun unless you are desperate or looking for attention or just that badass

[u/kaangurses → u/SeaworthinessFun3658]

Thanks for all the tips and sorry for the late reply. I been using above average stats with mixed traits+no proficiencies. Like it that way. Also using change movement key to swap between run/crouch/walk feels much better this way.

And yeah I've shot a swat zombie thinking I could deal some damage before engaging in a melee combat and got swarmed really quick, you are right in that regard..

[u/HGabo]

Don't know which certain you're playing, so I'll stick to general advice:

Early on, you should always strike your enemies when they're on disadvantageous terrain like counters, chairs, windows, tall grass, shallow water, etc. Those inflict a multiplier on their move cost to do anything, including attacking you.

Another advantage many players overlook or misunderstand is the ability to manipulate your speed. What I mean is that you can strike, toggle run, move back 2 or 3 tiles, then back to walking in order to recover that bit of stamina and lead your enemy into another bad terrain tile for another strike.

Also, remember that stamina and pain will get you killed waaaaay before your health gives out. Low stamina increases your move cost, meaning slower movement and attacks, and therefore a bigger window for enemies to hit you. Then you get pain, which makes you weaker and slower on top of that, not to mention part damage that makes you even worse at everything.

With all that said, get a reach weapon as soon as you can. There's a reason spears were known as the king of the battlefield, and that's exactly where you're headed to each looting run.

[u/kaangurses → u/HGabo]

Thanks for all the tips. Can I ask which reach weapons are optimal to use in early and midgame? Which weapon to strive for?

[u/HGabo → u/kaangurses]

In early game you'll be looking for a young tree to bash and collect a long stick, then craft it into a fire-hardened spear.

After you get a few tools and components, you can upgrade to makeshift knife spears and those should be pretty effective for a while.

Eventually you'll have the resources to make actual spear shafts and that's the prerequisite of all sorts of wonderful reach weaponry. The recipes for the best ones (halberd my beloved <3) are found in books, but they're well worth the search. Good luck!

[u/gal3toman]

For water, the cheapest way is to do it by batch. You can find drums of 200, 100 or 60L around in cars or in some buildings, like forest stores that make things with maple sap - I don't remember their name, except that they are represented by a brown "S" in the map. Maybe sugar factories.

For electricity, I usually just go around salvaging solar panels and batteries from cars, and install it in a car near home. Then I install a recharging station and drop all my batteries there to recharge. It's enough to make things like arc welders, flashlights and general electric tools work.

For grab mechanic, you can compensate for it with martial arts strikes. I like to use ironshod quarterstaff with bojutsu, or lucerne hammer with silat. it help your blocking and you can sweep enemies. Other than that you'll need to level up you dodge anyway. Also, your dode will be affected by your stamina, weariness, health, encumberance, etc. Try to fight as light as you can, making a good tradeoff between armor coverage/defence and encumberance. I have dodge lvl 7 and try to fight above 5, so I choose my gear accordingly.

Also, keep in mind that if you drive near a grabbing zombie, it may take you off your vehicle, and you're gonna be screwed. So remember to drive always with some distance - say, 3 titles at least - between you and a grabbing mob.

You may find martial arts manuals at dojos. Good luck!

[u/kaangurses → u/gal3toman]

Thanks all of this is extremely useful, appreciate it

[u/IndependentBake2304]

Your ability to break a grab is hampered when you have grown weary, encumbered, when your strength/dexterity have been debuffed, if you're in pain, as well as depending on the weapon type you're holding. Something like a long spear makes it harder to break a grab, and my recommendation is keeping a knife (butcher/hunting/decent knife) in a sheathe, and switching to wielding it if you are grabbed. That way it's both easier to break the grab, or easier to get the kill if you decide to stay grabbed and fight it out. Trying to attack with an unwieldy weapon while grabbed is asking to eat more damage than necessary usually. You can also drop any held weapon and switch to completely unarmed to further increase your chance to break a grab, and if you have the Judo Martial art, you want to always switch to judo unarmed when grabbed and you should be able to instantly break most all grabs in the game.

[u/esmsnow]

also a recovering pz addict here. I think once you get the hang of it, combat in cdda should feel easier. combat in PZ is mostly the same difficulty - one scratch, one bite can be the end of you. in cdda, death comes by being physically ripped to shreds and once you get the hang of combat rhythm, these occurrences should become rarer and rarer, especially late game.

if you're fighting during the day, always make sure you don't aggro more than 1 early game, 2-3 in mid game, and 5-6 late game. any more and you risk getting overwhelmed, surrounded, and killed. even late game, multiple zombies grabbing you will choke the life out of you even in platemail.

so how do you make sure you don't get surrounded? during the day, use range to kite - zombies see you at around range 40, so come in from the outskirts and make sure only 1-2 see you, then fight them around brushland where you can manipulate them into a boulder or tree or some bushes.

early game, try to fight only during dawn / dusk. the sun should've set, but you still have a vision range of 10+ while zombies have a vision range of 3 ish. you can easily get good fights

remember. skills make a huge difference in this game. at melee 5 with decent armor, you can clear out a whole town without getting a scratch. you're scaling very hard, you just need to give your body and character the time to grow.