PC Easy late game horde strat, with pictures

[Guest]

So I made it past day 28 on my current Navezgane playthrough. Haven't checked my gamestage, but I've only died once and I'm around level 90 by now, so go figure. Standard difficulty, standard day length, loot, etc.

For the first two blood moons, I holed up on the roof of the Working Stiffs store near Diersville. The walls are durable enough to withstand a bit of punching and clawing, and there is plenty of support redundancy anyways. Made some walkways to shoot at the zombies while they were milling about and attacking the walls below. Pretty easy, all in all.

For the third and fourth blood moons, I created a pretty simple bunker with a barbwire-lined funnel that led to a vault door flanked by two blade traps. For the third blood moon I made the mistake of not putting the vault door next to the blade traps, meaning the zombies that made it through the funnel could bash the door unchallenged. I had to retreat to my Working Stiff roof base because of that.

But on day 28 I had corrected that mistake, and all I had to do was shoot at zombies as they came through the funnel, while repairing the blade trap and vault door a bit every now and then. Most zombies died to my SMG and shotgun, the few that managed to get close while I reloaded got absolutely owned by the blade traps.

The biggest challenge for this strat is probably stocking up on ammo and resources. You probably need the reinforced concrete because other blocks might be seen as easier to get through than the door. Also, don't put spike traps in their path, they will avoid them and actually start bashing your bunker walls.

To conclude, I think horde behavior needs some serious adjustments to make it less predictable and exploitable.

 

[Hryllingur]

Just keep the doors open and you can build with just dekoblocks ... they won't destroy anything, when they have a clear path to you. Happy clay pigeon shooting.

2-3 Rifles, 50 Bullets. Maybe more, when you are bad at aiming. Game won. No need to hide behind spikes or something. Woops Tricked out the ai.

 

[Anarath]

Sounds like we achieved boredom already. If thats the solution to the new AI its gonna be even less amusing than the A16 ways to deal with them.

And we 'just' sacrificed normal base building and fortification in the process.

I really was no fan of the homing missile zombies before. And this example is another good reason for not being one.

 

[HerrKingsley]

We need more randomness in the zombies. Some smart that takes the easiest path, some tanky that dont calculate just straight to the point. Some that agro traps and are basically canon fodder.

And of course not every zombie comes up with the same conclusion of easiest path.

 

[mr.devolver]

Zombies seem to come in waves. For example if you have 4 zombies for player, 4 zombies come at you. If you kill them, another wave of 4 zombies come at you and it goes like that again and again until morning. In theory, you could simply build a weak cage of wood frames, stand on top of it, wait for the whole first wave of zombies to get inside and while still standing on the top of the cage, close the door on it to keep zombies inside, wait for the morning, kill the zombies. Done. No more waves to worry about.

 

[Saera]

One night for test and fun, we got on our bicycles and just followed the roads in a large wide circle. Zombies couldnt keep up and, aside from a few dogs, just de-spawned at the end of the night.

 

[Anarath]

Just had the feeling to again randomly rant on this topic...

The posted strategy and the ability to kite the blood moon hordes around on a bike negate everything people say about the game now being better because cheesy stuff (aka legitimate playing options) have been get rid off.

If there is a will, there is a way. You can exploit everything. The question is: What sort of 'exploit' you like more to be in your game?

Seriously, I'd rather have my underground bunker than kiting zombies on a bicycle.

Or rather have my super upgraded base (which I still have to defend actively - and repairing afterwards) than staying all night long in one place and never move a single bit while just head shooting zombies - and my 'base' never taking a scratch.

It is quiet irritating to see so many people (in other threads) ignoring the fact, that the 'better' AI is indeed a showstopper. Predictable movement will not make the game harder, but easier. And in the end we all will use the one best approach to exploit the AI. Which will make things worse than before since nothing changed - except we lost playing options on the way.

 

[iejen]

So I made it past day 28 on my current Navezgane playthrough. Haven't checked my gamestage, but I've only died once and I'm around level 90 by now, so go figure. Standard difficulty, standard day length, loot, etc.
For the first two blood moons, I holed up on the roof of the Working Stiffs store near Diersville. The walls are durable enough to withstand a bit of punching and clawing, and there is plenty of support redundancy anyways. Made some walkways to shoot at the zombies while they were milling about and attacking the walls below. Pretty easy, all in all.

For the third and fourth blood moons, I created a pretty simple bunker with a barbwire-lined funnel that led to a vault door flanked by two blade traps. For the third blood moon I made the mistake of not putting the vault door next to the blade traps, meaning the zombies that made it through the funnel could bash the door unchallenged. I had to retreat to my Working Stiff roof base because of that.

But on day 28 I had corrected that mistake, and all I had to do was shoot at zombies as they came through the funnel, while repairing the blade trap and vault door a bit every now and then. Most zombies died to my SMG and shotgun, the few that managed to get close while I reloaded got absolutely owned by the blade traps.

The biggest challenge for this strat is probably stocking up on ammo and resources. You probably need the reinforced concrete because other blocks might be seen as easier to get through than the door. Also, don't put spike traps in their path, they will avoid them and actually start bashing your bunker walls.

To conclude, I think horde behavior needs some serious adjustments to make it less predictable and exploitable.

View attachment 25670

View attachment 25671

Can you show some more screens?

 

[Katitof]

Just keep the doors open and you can build with just dekoblocks ... they won't destroy anything, when they have a clear path to you. Happy clay pigeon shooting.
2-3 Rifles, 50 Bullets. Maybe more, when you are bad at aiming. Game won. No need to hide behind spikes or something. Woops Tricked out the ai.

And then fat cop comes.

Plus, that was the point of the AI update, less destruction if there is a path to player, so traps actually work instead of being destroyed by Zs blocking themselves on each other.

 

[Mestema]

Just stay in the middle of a lake at 22:00, Z will stay at the bottom of lake while you swim and easy shot them. We can become more idiot than A17.

 

[Funchy]

At first i would have argued, that this needs activity of the player. But now i found ways to even build a passive slaughterhouse/grinder with dart traps and blade traps, that can deal with almost all hordes.

And the basic concept of it is applyable from day1, only that you need to be more active. (basic idea: barbed wire fences are not taken into consideration from zombie A.I., so you can "direct" zombies through your buildings.)

 

[Hryllingur]

And then fat cop comes.

And? He is a Zombie like all others ... and he dies in my Tunnel like all others. I', just afraid in one Zombie. Just one. I hope, i'll never meet him ....

 

[mr.devolver]

And? He is a Zombie like all others ... and he dies in my Tunnel like all others. I', just afraid in one Zombie. Just one. I hope, i'll never meet him ....

Zombie bear? I'm asking because I used to think that all kinds of turrets and blade traps, electric fences will be enough to stop them, but when I got a horde of zombie bears... well let's just say that I suddenly had enough space to build a whole new strategy.

 

[Hryllingur]

Zombie bear?

You would see me cleaning all my magazines at once hrhr, but no.

I dont know which one it is. I met him in A16, down in a POI that looked like a lab or something. With huge bottles with zombies in it. Some broken. And there he was. Super fast, super strong, no clothing. A bit like a burned one, just without the fire. He nearly scared me to death.

 

[mr.devolver]

You would see me cleaning all my magazines at once hrhr, but no.
I dont know which one it is. I met him in A16, down in a POI that looked like a lab or something. With huge bottles with zombies in it. Some broken. And there he was. Super fast, super strong, no clothing. A bit like a burned one, just without the fire. He nearly scared me to death.

That was probably feral zombie. I hate those, they are fast and strong, but prior to Alpha 17 they used to drop the best loot.

 

[Hryllingur]

Could be. I tried some feral versions with the dev tool, but all of them went down pretty quick. But this one on your pic ... never seen it again. And thats good ... damn, its ugly and scaring.

 

[Zourin]

Sounds like we achieved boredom already. If thats the solution to the new AI its gonna be even less amusing than the A16 ways to deal with them.
And we 'just' sacrificed normal base building and fortification in the process.

I really was no fan of the homing missile zombies before. And this example is another good reason for not being one.

Blade traps are really late-game. The challenge is the pre-blade, pre-dart defenses.

That said, because the AI loves the direct, level path to the player, it's really, really easy to bait them into chokes and trap funnels. I've been messing with classic pit traps and it's been working so well in testing I'm about to try it in my real game. Because they register a 'clear level path', they jump right in and get bogged down, ripe for a molotov.

 

[myrkana]

Blade traps are really late-game. The challenge is the pre-blade, pre-dart defenses.
That said, because the AI loves the direct, level path to the player, it's really, really easy to bait them into chokes and trap funnels. I've been messing with classic pit traps and it's been working so well in testing I'm about to try it in my real game. Because they register a 'clear level path', they jump right in and get bogged down, ripe for a molotov.

they are not late game fi you use the traders. We are near 5 different traders(within 3 km of each) and can hit each one before they reset, finding all sorts of electrical stuff we won't have access to for 30-40 more levels.

 

[Bubbahotetp]

Just stay in the middle of a lake at 22:00, Z will stay at the bottom of lake while you swim and easy shot them. We can become more idiot than A17.

I think lakes are likely to be too shallow to prevent cops from spewing at you but in principle you are right.

 

[LuckyStar]

So I made it past day 28 on my current Navezgane playthrough. Haven't checked my gamestage, but I've only died once and I'm around level 90 by now, so go figure. Standard difficulty, standard day length, loot, etc.
To conclude, I think horde behavior needs some serious adjustments to make it less predictable and exploitable.

Some interesting opinions on what's "late game".

Day 28 and level 90/300 = late game?

So what's day 100 and level 300 considered? Ascendance?

Let's see how these tactics work on a day 77 horde.

If they still hold up then great! I'll consider adjusting.

Until then...

Sounds like we achieved boredom already. If thats the solution to the new AI its gonna be even less amusing than the A16 ways to deal with them.
I really was no fan of the homing missile zombies before. And this example is another good reason for not being one.

"We" didn't achieve anything.

The OP found a mid game tactic that works [well to be sure].

If you are soooooo bored Anarath, please post a video and/or pictures of your boredom as I'm sure we'd all benefit from your wisdom and experience.

Surely you must be slaughtering day 70 hordes while yawning.

That kind of input is just what TFP needs in order to dial in the AI.

I bow to your superiority.

I may have 4000+ hours into the game but I never stop learning from the masters.

I'll be looking forward to your video/screen shots of said boredom.

Cheers,

~ Lucky