PC what to do your first few nights?
- Thread starter ghostshott
- Start date
Boidster
New member
Following up with testing:
I tested as a level 1 n00b survivor with no perks or skills. I tested several different zombies, but many had the same results so only 2 are listed below, plus the dreaded mountain lion (which is really a big puddy). The test methodology was 1) spawn zombie, 2) get its attention from about 10m away, 2) run the opposite direction for 50 stamina and 100 stamina (completely drained). Tried naked and with full set of leather armor. Also used both 'Run' and 'Sprint' settings. Zombie max speeds have some RNG in them so except for the cats I only tested once for each.
Summary: Arlenes (and other standard-template zombies) are fastest, mountain lions are no sweat due to their very limited aggro/follow distance. If you go out at night, go out naked (or with just padded armor).
NAKED
Arlene
Wight
Mountain Lion
Zombies "Run", 50 stamina
Lost after ~50m
Lost after ~50m
Lost after 30m (trial 1)
Lost after 80m (trial 2)
Zombies "Run", 100 stamina
NA
NA
NA
Zombies "Sprint", 50 stamina
Still chasing
Lost after ~80m
NA (they don't sprint)
Zombies "Sprint", 100 stamina
Lost after ~120m
NA
NA
FULL LEATHER ARMOR
Zombies "Run", 50 stamina
Still chasing
Still chasing
Lost after 20m (trial 1)
Lost after 40m (trial 2)
Zombies "Run", 100 stamina
Lost after ~70m
Still chasing (this was a
pretty fast wight)
NA
Zombies "Sprint", 50 stamina
Still chasing very close behind
Still chasing
NA
Zombies "Sprint", 100 stamina
Still chasing ~10m behind
Lost after ~100m
(right at the end of stamina;
had to backpedal
a bit to get it to lose interest)
NA
Summary: Arlenes (and other standard-template zombies) are fastest, mountain lions are no sweat due to their very limited aggro/follow distance. If you go out at night, go out naked (or with just padded armor).
NAKED
Arlene
Wight
Mountain Lion
Zombies "Run", 50 stamina
Lost after ~50m
Lost after ~50m
Lost after 30m (trial 1)
Lost after 80m (trial 2)
Zombies "Run", 100 stamina
NA
NA
NA
Zombies "Sprint", 50 stamina
Still chasing
Lost after ~80m
NA (they don't sprint)
Zombies "Sprint", 100 stamina
Lost after ~120m
NA
NA
FULL LEATHER ARMOR
Zombies "Run", 50 stamina
Still chasing
Still chasing
Lost after 20m (trial 1)
Lost after 40m (trial 2)
Zombies "Run", 100 stamina
Lost after ~70m
Still chasing (this was a
pretty fast wight)
NA
Zombies "Sprint", 50 stamina
Still chasing very close behind
Still chasing
NA
Zombies "Sprint", 100 stamina
Still chasing ~10m behind
Lost after ~100m
(right at the end of stamina;
had to backpedal
a bit to get it to lose interest)
NA
Still does not take into account running 50-100m with increased spawns, but escaping from one or two zombies coming from the same direction should not be much of a problem if you're naked.
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Roland
Moderator
It is true that with increased spawns you tend to pick up new chasers even if you leave old ones in the dust so in those cases you definitely need a plan for stamina recovery. If that plan DOES NOT involve nerdpoling then you have my respect. 
That is a cool table, btw. Nicely done.
That is a cool table, btw. Nicely done.
Roland
Moderator
Throwing rocks for crowd management is definitely the thing to do at night with larger maxcounts. Also, it should be noted that unless the zombie is feral it is pretty easy to run a short distance then crouch and sneak to the side and you will lose them. At night they are NOT following you by sight. They are following your breadcrumbs so if you sidestep while crouched from the position they last heard you they will go right past you to that location and then stop. It is scary to sit there and trust that they will run by but....they do. (not if their eyes are glowing though...)
Also, armor does spoil the speed differential but I was answering the OP's direct question about what you do at night during the first few days. Typically, you don't have full armor by then and even if doing quests you probably only have a few pieces and are still faster.
Stranded_Napkin
New member
True, but those flying death machines don't care about your sprint speed or stamina. On harder difficulties it's almost like they are telepathic in their ability to deviate directions when you actually take a shot at them. I go out at night, but I know that the real threat isn't on the ground.
Roland
Moderator
Well...I was assuming going out at night healthy not going out at night at less than 90%.
Of course, if you are talking about doing some POI infiltration during your first couple nights and running into POI sleeper vultures-- that is a bird of a different feather. Those can tear you up during the daytime.
Of course, if you are talking about doing some POI infiltration during your first couple nights and running into POI sleeper vultures-- that is a bird of a different feather. Those can tear you up during the daytime.
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canadianbluebeer
New member
You mean the badminton birdies?Well...I was assuming going out at night healthy not going out at night at less than 90%.
Of course, if you are talking about doing some POI infiltration during your first couple nights and running into POI sleeper vultures-- that is a bird of a different feather. Those can tear you up during the daytime.
Iron club or baseball bat will take care of'em.
(so will a pistol or shotgun. or ak, or.. ok, any gun)
RipClaw
Well-known member
That depends on which zombie is chasing you. Different zombies have different base speeds. A cop zombie you can outrun even at nightmare speed because he is rather slow. But a biker zombie is just as fast as you on sprint speed. And on nightmare speed the biker is even faster than you.
Boidster
New member
Well, I did say that I tested several different types of zombies, and only presented a couple of different ones. I did not test Nightmare speed, since OP appeared to be asking about first few days in game for a new player who presumably wouldn't put it on Nightmare, but I will give that a try and get back here.
The Biker has the same aggro speed as most other template zombies (ones which use the zombieTemplateMale settings). The feral version is the same as other feral zombies as well. So a Biker and an Arlene ought to have about the same speed ranges. It is RNG driven, though, so even between Bikers you may see different speeds.
-------------------------------------
Edited to add more testing!
This time I did Arlenes, Bikers, and Cops, normal and Feral versions, on Nightmare mode. I only tested a full-out run until the end of stamina. And to Roland's point about armor in the first few days, I tested with just the chest piece.
[TABLE=border: 1, cellpadding: 3]
[TR]
[TD]NAKED[/TD]
[TD]Arlene[/TD]
[TD]Biker[/TD]
[TD]Cop[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]After 100 stamina run, Normal[/TD]
[TD]Still chasing, 10m behind[/TD]
[TD]Still chasing, 10m behind[/TD]
[TD]Lost at ~50m (but he did spit at me)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]After 100 stamina run, Feral[/TD]
[TD]Lost at ~80m[/TD]
[TD]Lost at ~90m[/TD]
[TD]Lost at ~40m (also spit first)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]LEATHER CHEST ARMOR[/TD]
[TD]Arlene[/TD]
[TD]Biker[/TD]
[TD]Cop[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]After 100 stamina run, Normal[/TD]
[TD]Still chasing, 10m behind[/TD]
[TD]Still chasing, ~7m behind[/TD]
[TD]Lost at ~50m (spit again)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Finally, I took the fastest zombie - the Biker - and looked at how much armor I could add before he would just catch me while running. The answer is two pieces of leather. Just having Chest + Legs was enough to make running from a Biker futile on Nightmare mode.
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CrainBramp
New member
On the first day, I usually find me a parking lot, build a small 5x5x3 flagstone room w/bars for windows, plop a claim block down, build a campfire, and work on whatever I have from the day's lootings. If I've got extra time, I might do some clay gathering (since it's mind-numbing). I'm usually not doing night POIs ... unless I get really lucky with loot, until day 4-5.
uselessjunkaccount
New member
One thing I sometimes like to do is to start a smaller POI at like 21:00 hours and go clear the zombies while ignoring 100% of the looting and scrapping, then when you're at the end it's usually just hit nightfall so I then go back through and loot/scrap literally everything inside. If you get a trader quest for the POI then all the better. I also like to save up my points during the day then decide on where to spend them during the night instead of wasting a couple of hours doing it during daytime.
Xtrakicking
New member
Deleted
Soulbreeze
New member
I usually try to be in an area with those large boulders (the 5-6 block high ones) and just smash out stone at night breaking them down. It's good xp, you're gonna need the stone, and it's a bit safer than being at ground level. Gather some clay during the day and just craft cobbles and get stone at night.
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BFT2020
Well-known member
MechanicalLens
New member
I just crouch in the corner and do nothing until I have level 5 iron tools by the 5th or 6th day. I don't have the tools to mine effectively, I have minimal food, and sub-par weaponry to defend myself with.
So I just sit in the dark and put a podcast on. No point watching paint dry in silence, even if it breaks just that little bit of immersion.
Once I get my level 5 iron tools, I mine every night from then on until the end of my game.
Sorry for the double necro. Lol Perhaps I should check dates more often huh?
@Roland For unobservant people like me, is there a feature you can enable that automatically locks posts from further replies after no one has posted in said thread for x number of weeks/months?
So I just sit in the dark and put a podcast on. No point watching paint dry in silence, even if it breaks just that little bit of immersion.
Once I get my level 5 iron tools, I mine every night from then on until the end of my game.
Sorry for the double necro. Lol Perhaps I should check dates more often huh?
@Roland For unobservant people like me, is there a feature you can enable that automatically locks posts from further replies after no one has posted in said thread for x number of weeks/months?
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