PC A17e small tips, tricks & hints [Spoilers]

DaVegaNL

DaVegaNL

Beloved Curmudgeon
Maybe it's time to make a topic with bite-size small tips, tricks and hints for the A17e gameplay? Maybe people can share them if they want. I put spoilers in the topic, so people are warned for that.

I'll have two;

* I just found out that you can get honey from destroying tree trunks.

* You can get a pine seed from destroying those little tree trunks in the desert

 
* Always wear bandages and cloth for emergencies

* Try to grow coffee ASAP (because of stamina depletion).

* Keep track of your temperatures because cold or heath will randomly decrease your perks.

 
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- Trunk tip spikes are gone. RIP early game passive defenses

- Wood Spikes are trash.

- Barbed Wire Fencing is surprisingly effective, as is an SMG.

- Trader missions can reward a pile of Dukes and possibly herbal antibiotics. This can save you if you're infected, and the Dukes can pay for an early Hoe. Treasure hunt missions can also yield a bunch of food as well. Worth a once-a-week trip until you get your hands on a bike.

- Don't expect stone-age tools to accomplish anything. As always, the game doesn't start until iron tools.

- Bang on the walls of buildings to wake up zombies inside and open up doors for you.

- Don't run away from big hordes during the day. They are massive XP pinatas

- The blunderbuss is crap again, don't bother. [it used to be a great bear-hunter gun with a slow debuff]

- Don't bother with bows/stone arrows for the first six days. An iron reinforced club is substantially superior and cost efficient for survivng. Use the ammo for horde night instead.

- Zombies can jump now, but it's still not enough for the AI to navigate drawbridges, barriers, AND jumps made from hatch doors.

- Having a 'dump chest' at your base or safehouse is a good way to save time and encumbrance. Organize at night during downtime.

- The blocks you use at ground level don't matter, they're going to be destroyed anyway. You can't kill worker/fat zombies fast enough to prevent breaches. Make sure your main base platform is supported by metal to prevent collapses and don't drag hostile hordes around for them to path/chew on more walls than necessary.

- Punching fully grown crops harvests the plant and resets its growth timer. You do need five plants to make 1 seed, which is why it's much slower to fill a crop field without a natural supply. Punching a [growing] crop yields a seed, allowing you to replant it elsewhere. Handy!

 
* Always wear bandages and cloth for emergencies* Try to grow coffee ASAP (because of stamina depletion).

* Keep track of your temperatures because cold or heath will randomly decrease your perks.
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Coffee actually works now?

 
Put some stones in your belt... and throw them to DISTRACT the Zombies.

Seems the Zeds B-line straight to where you threw the rock to investigate...

throw it over a fence or in a house if you want them to take a little more time to get to it...

Be careful, they will return to your last known location if they were chasing you...

 
- Trunk tip spikes are gone. RIP early game passive defenses- Wood Spikes are trash.

- Barbed Wire Fencing is surprisingly effective, as is an SMG.

- Trader missions can reward a pile of Dukes and possibly herbal antibiotics. This can save you if you're infected, and the Dukes can pay for an early Hoe. Treasure hunt missions can also yield a bunch of food as well. Worth a once-a-week trip until you get your hands on a bike.

- Don't expect stone-age tools to accomplish anything. As always, the game doesn't start until iron tools.

- Bang on the walls of buildings to wake up zombies inside and open up doors for you.

- Don't run away from big hordes during the day. They are massive XP pinatas

- The blunderbuss is crap again, don't bother. [it used to be a great bear-hunter gun with a slow debuff]

- Don't bother with bows/stone arrows for the first six days. An iron reinforced club is substantially superior and cost efficient for survivng. Use the ammo for horde night instead.

- Zombies can jump now, but it's still not enough for the AI to navigate drawbridges, barriers, AND jumps made from hatch doors.

- Having a 'dump chest' at your base or safehouse is a good way to save time and encumbrance. Organize at night during downtime.

- The blocks you use at ground level don't matter, they're going to be destroyed anyway. You can't kill worker/fat zombies fast enough to prevent breaches. Make sure your main base platform is supported by metal to prevent collapses and don't drag hostile hordes around for them to path/chew on more walls than necessary.

- Punching fully grown crops harvests the plant and resets its growth timer. You do need five plants to make 1 seed, which is why it's much slower to fill a crop field without a natural supply. Punching a [growing] crop yields a seed, allowing you to replant it elsewhere. Handy!
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Thanks a Lot!

One day to late for your first advice. Already spent a full in game day getting wood and making spikes....

 
If you want to beat the crap out of a bee-line of zombies from a horde then better to use a club than a bow.

If you want to clear silently a POI then it's better to use a bow, because you get some distance (they don't simply stand up when you come to them to hit) and with the skills the headshots bring them down in 2-3 arrows to the head. Also, the silent approach doesn't spawn excessive zombie amounts that could destroy containers in the POIs.

I have created a row of dug ground 1 block deep filled with wooden spikes. Surprisingly this works well as i have seen zombies go through the row horizontally (from a side) towards the door and over a few spikes. They cost a lot, but they do stop a few zombies.

Iron tools are surely better than stone tools, but everyone forgets that they DO get things going from the start. Also, if iron tools use a lot more stamina, you will have a problem with using them over long periods of time. Testing required to compare it all...

Don't know about coffee, but Yucca Juice (and maybe water) drank increases stamina regeneration for a few seconds (the time the water level rising?).

 
I must respectfully disagree about the bow and arrows. Clubs are great with the new power attack, but melee increases the chance of infection. If you haven't found any medicine (not uncommon in the early game), you're screwed. Besides, bows and arrows cost virtually nothing in terms of time and materials, plus it's fun to shoot zombies and turn them into pincushions. :)

 
If you want to clear silently a POI then it's better to use a bow, because you get some distance (they don't simply stand up when you come to them to hit) and with the skills the headshots bring them down in 2-3 arrows to the head. Also, the silent approach doesn't spawn excessive zombie amounts that could destroy containers in the POIs.
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POI's have excessive zombies anyway (at least 5x too many). The fastest way to thin the herd is to bang on the walls of the building and bait them out.

Which leads me to:

- Always have an out. If you hear ANYTHING you can't see, check behind you and leave until you figure out where it came from. Be VERY careful about rooms with only one way in or out.

I must respectfully disagree about the bow and arrows. Clubs are great with the new power attack, but melee increases the chance of infection. If you haven't found any medicine (not uncommon in the early game), you're screwed. Besides, bows and arrows cost virtually nothing in terms of time and materials, plus it's fun to shoot zombies and turn them into pincushions. :)
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I've run a couple Treasure missions for the Trader, and both times I was offered a pack of herbal antibiotics. I highly suggest doing this early (day 1 or 2) for them. If it's not on offer, the reward for some digging also has a pretty big payout and you should be able to just buy some. Both times I got some foodstuffs, but it's a treasure hunt, so you could hit a lot of money instead to get set up with.

Stone bows and arrows are a waste of time when you don't NEED to keep your distance (night/horde night). You need a LOT of perks to make them even close to feasible, while the club excels while perkless. This changes substantially when you get access to a compound bow and iron arrows, but even then, you need a lot of Perception, headshot, and stealth damage perks to make it even close to useful. A bow IS useful for hunting deer, rabbits, wolves, and boar, but that's about it on the normal run-around.

Lastly:

- Plan to kill every zombie you see. They are the ONLY reasonable source for XP, and if you're diligent (and brutal) enough, you MAY be able to hit level 20 by day 7. There is no other way.

- DO NOT FIGHT THE BEARS, THERE IS NO FREE BEER.

 
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Love all the tips except the treasure one. I'd rather gouge out my eyes than dig for a treasure with a stone shovel on day 1. If that's what 7 dtd was to be I'd never play it. Although that was without the perk. Maybe the perk would change things for me.

 
Love all the tips except the treasure one. I'd rather gouge out my eyes than dig for a treasure with a stone shovel on day 1. If that's what 7 dtd was to be I'd never play it. Although that was without the perk. Maybe the perk would change things for me.
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The perk also doubles as a loot enhancer/speed looter, so there's no reason not to take it if you're going to be salvaging a lot. Also, you don't need to take a Treasure Hunt for a stream/vid, take a kill/retrieve mission instead. Clean out a POI, return for reward. Tactical Zombie Removal is more exciting.

Early treasure, probably good in multiplayer with two people digging? I'd probably go for a kill/retrieve as a general recommendation.

 
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Use books instead of skills at the beginning.

For example if you need skill to only make a chemistry station or forge, just use book instead to gain 30 mins of that skill to build what you need and spent skill points in fighting skills or healing that you need all the time instead.

Ofcourse you need to have required main skills - but still this way you can save some points early on.

 
POI's have excessive zombies anyway (at least 5x too many). The fastest way to thin the herd is to bang on the walls of the building and bait them out.
Which leads me to:

- Always have an out. If you hear ANYTHING you can't see, check behind you and leave until you figure out where it came from. Be VERY careful about rooms with only one way in or out.

I've run a couple Treasure missions for the Trader, and both times I was offered a pack of herbal antibiotics. I highly suggest doing this early (day 1 or 2) for them. If it's not on offer, the reward for some digging also has a pretty big payout and you should be able to just buy some. Both times I got some foodstuffs, but it's a treasure hunt, so you could hit a lot of money instead to get set up with.

Stone bows and arrows are a waste of time when you don't NEED to keep your distance (night/horde night). You need a LOT of perks to make them even close to feasible, while the club excels while perkless. This changes substantially when you get access to a compound bow and iron arrows, but even then, you need a lot of Perception, headshot, and stealth damage perks to make it even close to useful. A bow IS useful for hunting deer, rabbits, wolves, and boar, but that's about it on the normal run-around.

Lastly:

- Plan to kill every zombie you see. They are the ONLY reasonable source for XP, and if you're diligent (and brutal) enough, you MAY be able to hit level 20 by day 7. There is no other way.

- DO NOT FIGHT THE BEARS, THERE IS NO FREE BEER.
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This is you saying two different things (in previous post and this one): "Don't bother with bows/stone arrows for the first six days." is the opposite of "A bow IS useful for hunting deer, rabbits, wolves, and boar, but that's about it on the normal run-around."

There are various playstyles and everyone will decide how they want to play, but realistically speaking bow and stone arrows are good for the time they are crafted (start of the game), just like the stone axe is. I'm sure you could simply kill 400 zombies, get 4 int, get forge skill and craft a forge to get iron tools... but wait, you STILL need to use any kind of pickaxe/stone axe with any shovel to get required materials to smelt them into Forged Iron. If you can't find a pickaxe, you won't get any iron. If you don't get an iron/steel shovel, you won't get any clay (unless found in lootables, but that is rare).

My point is, however you want to start and progress, stone tools and bow, just like the club are basic essentials and easily crafted. You don't have to use them for long or the entire game, but they DO come in handy for the first hours of gameplay (whatever the number of days that is). To describe it better, the only tool i got in my current playthrough better than stone one is a Fireaxe, which will give me only wood. I still need to gather iron from anything i find by using a stone axe.

Considering hitting on the walls - yeah, my first paragraph. There are various playstyles. Surely you could spawn more zombies by hitting on the walls, get more xp or perhaps do it a bit faster than just killing every sleeper one by one after you go inside undetected. I think both ideas can be useful but in different ways. You want to speedrun the game? Sure, that's your idea, go with it. Surely you will do great, but will everyone?

Also, no can do on trader quests, he's over 3km away and that is way too far for me for the time being. Most people have that issue though...

 
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Mousing over the Lock on a perk will pop out a tip that tells you what you need to unlock said perk ("Requires Intellect 5" or something like that)

Stuff that will get you killed

- [Material Name] 50 Pillar walls no longer work. Many people died to bring us this information

- 50 Pillar Walls with Poles in the corner of the closest block seems to slow them for 10-20 secs but they can still go right thru without breaking

- Missing bottom ladders do not work

- If you knock down a zombie with a hit and the ragdoll makes them fall off a clip, they will TP to where they were when they fell over during the "stand back up" animation

Stuff that will save your life

- Bicycle can be ridden with Shift held all night to outrun a bloodmoon horde. Does not consume stam like sprinting does

- Hatch elevators still work. Tested in SP using a Stainless Steel "U" and wooden hatches turned upside down with advanced rotation

--- Z will swing randomly and break hatches, but they will attack the SS blocks just as often and do not seem to Prioritize blocks based on durability when there is not path to you

- GET "Fortitude -> Living off the Land (Rank 1)". This lets you craft seeds from 5 crops. Unlike Generated crops, Player placed blocks revert to stage 1 when harvested. Punching a crop that is in the "(Growing)" state will give you a seed back regardless of actual growth progress

- Dying after lvl 5 gives you a 1 hour debuff that will reduce your base perk stats (Perception, Agility, Fortitude, Strength, Intellect), and perks that require higher then the amount you have when debuff is active WILL NOT WORK

General Useful info

- Making a forge & Iron Tools requires - lvl 20, Int 4, Int -> Hammer & Forge Rank 1. IF YOU FIND A FORGE you can craft Forged Iron and repair Iron tools you have found

- You no longer "Learn" Schematics. Schematics are consumed to craft whatever item you craft with them

- Current Stam = Whichever % is lower between Food and water. 100% food and 30% water means 30 Current Max Stam

- Food no longer reduces water

- Raw food such as Yucca, Corn, Blueberries now has a chance to give you food poisoning

- Rotten Flesh can be used to craft food with the Int -> Master Chef perk. Hobo Stew, anyone?

 
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Pro Tip. Find Coffee or Beer, make and Iron Reinforced club early. Go NUTS on zombies. As for surviving horde night....well that got super hard since the only way to up trap spikes is with forged iron.

Tips for horde night: Plan the base, and just stock mats until day 6 or 7, then start making it. Until then, fight zombies, hoard mats. Try to run a few of the dungeon POIs (I just got like 4 levels from a 3 story I just found in a desert biome)

Always know where you are and have an out. If you do not know your way out, you are as good as dead. Especially when 7 zombies come flying out of a wall in the middle of a room on you.

Vultures are easy targets when you recognize their patterns, and are a good source for feathers if you are having trouble with nests.

Plan your perks out. This should compliment early game fighting and resource gathering initially. Branch from there.

And that, folks, is my 2 days of recommendations. About to do day 3, but that is what I see so far :) Hope this helps.

 
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If you want to beat the crap out of a bee-line of zombies from a horde then better to use a club than a bow.
If you want to clear silently a POI then it's better to use a bow, because you get some distance (they don't simply stand up when you come to them to hit) and with the skills the headshots bring them down in 2-3 arrows to the head. Also, the silent approach doesn't spawn excessive zombie amounts that could destroy containers in the POIs.

I have created a row of dug ground 1 block deep filled with wooden spikes. Surprisingly this works well as i have seen zombies go through the row horizontally (from a side) towards the door and over a few spikes. They cost a lot, but they do stop a few zombies.

Iron tools are surely better than stone tools, but everyone forgets that they DO get things going from the start. Also, if iron tools use a lot more stamina, you will have a problem with using them over long periods of time. Testing required to compare it all...

Don't know about coffee, but Yucca Juice (and maybe water) drank increases stamina regeneration for a few seconds (the time the water level rising?).
Click to expand...
Yucca juice is gone. There IS a Yucca smoothie but it takes snow, blueberries, Yucca, a Jar and something else

Pro Tip. Find Coffee or Beer, make and Iron Reinforced club early. Go NUTS on zombies. As for surviving horde night....well that got super hard since the only way to up trap spikes is with forged steel.
Tips for horde night: Plan the base, and just stock mats until day 6 or 7, then start making it. Until then, fight zombies, hoard mats. Try to run a few of the dungeon POIs (I just got like 4 levels from a 3 story I just found in a desert biome)

Always know where you are and have an out. If you do not know your way out, you are as good as dead. Especially when 7 zombies come flying out of a wall in the middle of a room on you.

Vultures are easy targets when you recognize their patterns, and are a good source for feathers if you are having trouble with nests.

Plan your perks out. This should compliment early game fighting and resource gathering initially. Branch from there.

And that, folks, is my 2 days of recommendations. About to do day 3, but that is what I see so far :) Hope this helps.
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Beer was bugged, didn't give stamina regen in B197. B199 claims this is fixed, I have yet to confirm

 
Yucca juice is gone. There IS a Yucca smoothie but it takes snow, blueberries, Yucca, a Jar and something else

Beer was bugged, didn't give stamina regen in B197. B199 claims this is fixed, I have yet to confirm
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I can confirm. I just ran a dungeon with it. Made life so easy.

 
Before the forge -- As long as you have some basic materials, you can repair (almost) any tool you find or buy at any level.

If you have enough Dukes to buy a Level 5 pickaxe, just buy up to 10 Forged Iron to repair it.

You end up using the weapon for quite a while before willing to repair it.

Those Iron Clubs go a long way as well, and you only need 2-3 Scrap Iron to repair them.

 
Good perks to pick up:

I'd say these would have to be my top 5 after completing the tutorial.

- Healing Factor - Natural healing beats drugs, especially when you don't have any drugs.

- Pack Mule - We wanted more backpack, but we only get more of what we already had.

- Sex Rex - Less stamina used

- Rule 1 - More stamina gained

- Slow Metabolism - More stamina kept/Food works better.

Other Notables:

- Agility in general - Stamina, Stamina, Stam, Stam. Stamina. STAM! STAM! STAM! STAMINA! MOM! STAM!

- The +/- Temperature tolerance looks really handy if you are in the desert/snow biomes, or just can't be bothered to deal with the games' mood swings

- Headshot + Sneak damage is good if you want to 'try' the stealth approach, but until you can 1-shot sleepers, better to save the arrows for horde night. This takes a lot of point-investment to pull off (Perception + Headshot + Agility + Sneak Damage)

- Increased melee knockdown chance - Seriously, safety first! Specifically, your own.

-----

It looks like you can be a hell of a rhino with the right build. Heavy Armor, Bull rush, reduced damage while sprinting, and flat damage reduction. Probably pop a painkiller to shrug off stuns.

Now if TFP would be so kind as to allow chainsaws to work on zombies, that would have to be a pretty amazing thing to see succeed (It probably fails HORRIBLY!). I REALLY want to see it possible to go toe to toe with the feral horde on the ground on day 30.

 
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