PC How Good Are Molotov's...?

OneManStanding

OneManStanding

Active member
I've never really gotten around to using them, I feel they're weak. I know you can go into the data about them, but I'm not sure how it actually works out.

In Left 4 Dead if you threw down a molotov it created a barrier which killed any regular zombie which tried to charge through it; meanwhile I've seen molotovs used in 7 Days quite a few times and they barely seem to do anything. They set a lot of fire, they might set you on fire for various random factors, and the various zombies caught in it will catch fire and maybe spread it ... but I don't see any zombies falling dead or even reacting. They'll still come right for you, climb ladders, swipe, and cops will still belch at you.

What sort of damage do they cause? Is there an initial blast damage when they hit the floor? And how is it best to use them? If I've got the zombies in a choke point is it worth it to have molotovs? At the moment I just sell them as soon as I find them.

 
Not sure about the initial impact, if it does anything extra, but the dot is relatively strong. It will kill all normal zeds outright, and ferals don't have much left afterwards. You do need to hit a couple to really make them worth it, but if your horde base supports them, hitting 5 zeds is trivial, 10 is achievable. If you think about the damage in terms of club swings, even if you're one-shotting things, 5 dead zeds takes 5 swings and a bit of dancing. Early game, when you need 3-4 hits to drop one, well.. it adds up fast, stupidly powerful against groups compared to baseball bat -tier things.

Rads will regen thru em, so they don't do that much there, but if the rad has a few regular friends, light em all up and focus fire the rad.

This is a bit hacky, but they also light things on fire thru walls - you can be perfectly unreachable and happily light things on fire. Or at least circumvent the silly back and forth bounciness of zeds beating on walls.. if yer that glitchy just to make aiming hard, well, eat some aoe.. :)

In short, they're great, aim for multiple zeds thou.

 
We use them at our base at night from the roof. Throw a rock to get the zeds to group up then set them on fire with the molotovs. Early zombies don't survive.

Use them for early horde base also. Get the zombies to climb a ladder and set them on fire at the bottom. By the time they get to the top of a moderately long ladder they are weak enough to kill with standard melle weapons.

Max

 
You’re right that molotovs appear lackluster compared to Left 4 Dead. Because the fire doesn’t linger on the ground nearly as long, you need to hit a cluster of zombies where they are, instead of pre-throwing the molotov for area denial. In 7DtD they’re more of an offensive weapon. A choke point is good. Something that slows them in one spot is better. Most recently, we’ve set things up where the zombies have to break through a series of iron double doors. When they cluster on the door trying to break it is the perfect time to throw a molotov.

Molotovs detonate on contact, so there’s no bouncing or rolling away from where you wanted it. The flip side of that is shattering on e.g. the railing a foot in front of you, setting you on fire. So have some drinks on hand. Fire also kills demolishers safely. Each one takes 300 gas to craft, which is significant in the early game, but it’s easy to come by once you’re mining oil shale and using a chemistry station. If I’m still on Tier 1 or Tier 2 quests, molotovs are always a solid choice for a quest reward.

Here’s my dirty little secret about fire though... campfires are dirt cheap to make and fuel. Place some along the zombie’s path, turn them on at 21:00, and over the course of a horde night you can probably set about as many zombies on fire as you would with a supply of molotovs.

 
Crater Creator said:
Here’s my dirty little secret about fire though... campfires are dirt cheap to make and fuel.
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Wasn't the campfire damage nerfed a lot at some point? The POI "fire doors" were, so I might be confusing things, but I think they made the campfire damage (to zeds) quite insignificant?

 
theFlu said:
Wasn't the campfire damage nerfed a lot at some point? The POI "fire doors" were, so I might be confusing things, but I think they made the campfire damage (to zeds) quite insignificant?
Click to expand...


It’s hard to tell from observation alone. But zombies seem to stay lit as long as if they’d been lit by a molotov, so I assumed on fire was on fire in terms of damage. What does limit this tactic is the low chance of any particular zombie getting lit in the time it takes it to run over one fire.

 
Crater Creator said:
It’s hard to tell from observation alone. But zombies seem to stay lit as long as if they’d been lit by a molotov, so I assumed on fire was on fire in terms of damage. What does limit this tactic is the low chance of any particular zombie getting lit in the time it takes it to run over one fire.
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I'd imagine campfires in front of barbed wire would do the trick.

 
They are great imo, especially at higher difficulty levels to soften them up. And you can toss them at closed doors and it will burn them when they are on the other side.

They are more of a support than a main weapon.

 
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Crater Creator said:
It’s hard to tell from observation alone.
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Indeed, so I figured this warrants a quick test, soo:
1.3(b9)

Molotov, hitting a feral moe with the throw,
(health remaining / max health)
234/515 = 281 dmg
197/481 = 284
205/488 = 283
312/589 = 277

Hitting ground next to zed,
207/530 = 323 dmg
172/545 = 373
233/552 = 319
243/574 = 331

Takes less damage if hit... ok. Not significant, but quite weird :)

Campfire .. zed takes 1 dmg / sec, and the fire goes out almost as soon as they step off the fire. Fun to watch, and sorry to break the illusion, but does nothing :(  

 
OneManStanding said:
I've never really gotten around to using them, I feel they're weak. I know you can go into the data about them, but I'm not sure how it actually works out.
Click to expand...
Molotov's provide a nice AOE early game.   Many regular zombies (on easier levels) will die before the fire does.

If you need crowd control and the pipe rifle, pipe shotgun, don't behave...

 
theFlu said:
Indeed, so I figured this warrants a quick test, soo:
1.3(b9)

Molotov, hitting a feral moe with the throw,
(health remaining / max health)
234/515 = 281 dmg
197/481 = 284
205/488 = 283
312/589 = 277

Hitting ground next to zed,
207/530 = 323 dmg
172/545 = 373
233/552 = 319
243/574 = 331

Takes less damage if hit... ok. Not significant, but quite weird :)

Campfire .. zed takes 1 dmg / sec, and the fire goes out almost as soon as they step off the fire. Fun to watch, and sorry to break the illusion, but does nothing :(  
Click to expand...


Well that’s a major disappointment, but good to know so thank you. If the only placeable block that can do fire damage must do effectively nothing, then they really need to make that actual flame turret they showed concept art for a couple alphas back.

 
Crater Creator said:
If the only placeable block that can do fire damage must do effectively nothing, then they really need to make that actual flame turret they showed concept art for a couple alphas back.
Click to expand...
Yeh, I never used the campfire for damage, other than accidentally in screamer farms; but I never saw the point to completely neuter it. Make em break akin to spike traps if need be. Some flame traps would be great, burning some fuel for damage, from red hot coal pits to lawn sprayers modded for gasoline ... :)

 
The campire door trap did occur to me -- but the zombie was on fire for a long time and never died. Maybe the zombies need to react to being on fire...? Maybe it's because they don't react that I'm left thinking they do nothing. They just walk through and keep going.

I will try out a fire pit base - a little grouping area for the zombie, chuck in some molotovs - and see how it works. But also, considering they can be costly to craft early game, maybe I only come by them later on when the zombies are tougher.

Pity you can't craft a more powerful molotov the way you can make a higher tier gun.

 
I haven't played in about 6 months, but I used to use them for POI clearing pretty effectively (imo anyway). It wasn't the molotovs ability to kill off zeds, or even the damage they did that I used them for. It was for flushing out zeds, getting them in the open, and gunning them down.

When your looking into a room and see a bar counter on the other side, you just know with a 99% certainty that there are zeds "sleeping" on the other side. With certain builds, instead of moving into the room to deal with them, I'd simply toss a molly over the counter and mow them down as they stood up while staying safely back. There are other blind spots in POIs when your instinct just goes "yep, there are zeds just out of eye line, and if I go in there the whole room will come alive". So toss a molly and immediately find them all without being surrounded.  It's the zeds I can't see that worry me, so flushing them out in a controlled way works for me.

Note: I haven't really played since the patch that made the screamers omniscient and ever present, so your millage may vary since I don't know if that change was ever tweaked.

 
I feel like fire feels really under powered, but then again what are you relying on? Their bodies literally cooking until they fall apart. They don't feel pain. 

That being said, they should damage "living" targets more than zombie.

Is there a damage type armor modifier. Or is it a straight % off total regardless of weapon type?

 
warmer said:
Is there a damage type armor modifier. Or is it a straight % off total regardless of weapon type?
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To quote borderlands rats: "I ssmell delicioussss!"

1.3 b9: tossing a molly into air to land on myself or nearby: no effect from armor. With armor or without, each molly did about 100 damage. I think dot damage is not mitigable here, but I haven't tested beyond that, lately.

 
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