PC Spears Are Overpowered

[hiemfire]

I think that’s debatable, considering I can clear the hospital on day one with the sledge.

Stone sledge? If so, Iron and Steel are actually very different beasts. They hit harder but swing allot slower and eat up way more stamina per swing. The stone sledge, especially with the weighted head mod, is brutally efficient for straight str builds till you start having to fight rad zombies. Unless you do nothing but spam power attack, like allot of club jockeys I've seen do, then it is absolute crap.

 

[edyonline]

Stone sledge? If so, Iron and Steel are actually very different beasts.

Exactly. The different nature makes them good for different things.

I carry a stone sledge for AOE power attacks. And carry the strongest version iron or steel for the big mommas.

The stones swing speed means you have more chances to proc the head pops and AOE CC abilities. Which means it has the highest kills per minute. Whereas the steely just has the biggest slam. But I find I’m vulnerable in mobs of 3+ because I wear cloth armour for the mobility/evasion.

I like to swing across two or three mobs  at a time with stony, can pop multiple heads in one go. 

By endgame I have enough buffs to use steely full time. I also have full steel armour so nothing really matters by then TBH.

 

[Riamus]

Casually cleared the hospital in under 15 minutes on day 10.

That seems hard to believe. I'm not sure I can run through the entire hospital, hitting every room that has zombies in under 15 minutes even if there aren't zombies in there.  To kill everything in that time seems a bit much, not matter what you use for a weapon.  Admittedly, I haven't tried to run through it as fast as possible, so maybe it can be rushed through that quickly.  I don't care for speed runs.  Never thought they were any fun.

As far as doing POI on day 1, if you know the POI, any POI can be done on day 1 regardless of the weapon choice.  Maybe you have to be a bit more careful, but none of them are all that hard over you know the POI.  Your first time in some POI might get you killed, but afterwards they really aren't that challenging unless you bump the difficulty up a ways.

Yes, but we were told that paper loot was going down, so there is that negative.

I mean, how else are you going to keep your sanity at night on a character that never sleeps if you can't just build paper airplanes all night long?

Paper airplanes... The new zombie distraction.

 

[edyonline]

That seems hard to believe. I'm not sure I can run through the entire hospital, hitting every room that has zombies in under 15 minutes

…

As far as doing POI on day 1, if you know the POI, any POI can be done on day 1 regardless of the weapon choice. 

It depends on your build and game stage. Still mostly regular zombies, but my build is purely DPS. Food buffs for more stamina, and coffees on the go makes it easy.

Ive tried day one tier 5s with fists. Usually takes two whole days, and that’s fighting at night time too. The skyscraper took me 3 days. I’m thinking of trying a day one spear run, I doubt it’ll do it in one day too though. Neither will clubs IMO, but I might have to test that too.

Sledge is in a class of its own, IMO. Just that most people wear heavy armour and use up all their stamina. My play style is more active and destructive. Basically a glass cannon. If I get stunned, it’s pretty much death if I don’t use pain killers in time, or that big 50% damage mitigation.

In fact I don’t see many people buffing up at all. As an ex-world of Warcraft min/maxer it’s a huge wasted opportunity IMO.

 

[edyonline]

Did a day one hospital full clear with spears. Spears are officially S tier in my book. Only found two skill books on the way. And I started on the other side of the map, so didn't enter until 1530.

Had to do the top two floors at night, easy with spear to manage distance. 

GG. 
 

I recorded the whole day. If anyones interested I can upload to YouTube.

 

[Ramethzer0]

I say do it!

 

[hiemfire]

As an ex-world of Warcraft min/maxer

Explains allot.

 

[Pille]

Using a sledge hammer you can reach 1000+ zombie kills and level 30 (on insane, nightmare running speed day and night, 1h per day, 100% XP, 100% loot) before the first horde night on day 7. I doubt very much that this is even remotely possible with any other melee weapon. So in my eyes, spears are rather mediocre.

 

[edyonline]

Using a sledge hammer you can reach 1000+ zombie kills and level 30 (on insane, nightmare running speed day and night, 1h per day, 100% XP, 100% loot) before the first horde night on day 7. I doubt very much that this is even remotely possible with any other melee weapon. So in my eyes, spears are rather mediocre.

Challenge accepted.

I say do it!

Ill render and upload tonight. Takes a while on my mobile data.

 

[edyonline]

Using a sledge hammer you can reach 1000+ zombie kills and level 30 (on insane, nightmare running speed day and night, 1h per day, 100% XP, 100% loot)

Seems impossible. Trying to survive day 1 is doable. But it’s going to take 3-4 days before I can consistently kill things.

 Unless there’s some kind of cheese…

Im scoring the weapons based on usability clearing POIs, doing quests, and fighting out in the world. And fighting the horde like a man. I’m not a fan of standing in a cheesy base and AFK farming. 
 

Scoring on pure damage, obviously means sledge is top. But spear wins in a fight PVP. It’s range is phenomenal, and key to not getting hit.

 

[FA_Q2]

Seems impossible. Trying to survive day 1 is doable. But it’s going to take 3-4 days before I can consistently kill things.

 Unless there’s some kind of cheese…

Im scoring the weapons based on usability clearing POIs, doing quests, and fighting out in the world. And fighting the horde like a man. I’m not a fan of standing in a cheesy base and AFK farming. 
 

Scoring on pure damage, obviously means sledge is top. But spear wins in a fight PVP. It’s range is phenomenal, and key to not getting hit.

If you sink all your points you are getting on that one skill and fire up a zed farm, I can see it.

It does not take much to set up a consistent farm and an amazingly simple cobble structure can let you just sit there and hammer away.

Only thing that I can see being an issue is food - you will get hungry killing all those zeds.

 

[RipClaw]

The books from the book sets are unchanged in A21.

This may be true for most volumes of Spear Hunter, but volume 3 allows you to craft a steel spear. I assume that this book has been replaced.
 

 

[FA_Q2]

This may be true for most volumes of Spear Hunter, but volume 3 allows you to craft a steel spear. I assume that this book has been replaced.
 

Why? 

I thought all unlocks were being moved to books, not away from them.

 

[Uncle Al]

Why? 

I thought all unlocks were being moved to books, not away from them.

Crafting unlocks are being moved to magazines, a different thing.

@RipClaw is, as far as I remember there being a dev comment on this, quite right. The books that grant knowlege of schematics like steel spear, steel clubs and M60s are to be replaced, in the same way that schematics themselves will no longer be a thing except for weapon/armour mod schematics.

Thinking about it, Strong Arm and Punctured Lungs in Spear Hunter will need replacing too, as they're only relevant to throw attacks.

 

[edyonline]

If you sink all your points you are getting on that one skill and fire up a zed farm, I can see it.

It does not take much to set up a consistent farm and an amazingly simple cobble structure can let you just sit there and hammer away.

Only thing that I can see being an issue is food - you will get hungry killing all those zeds.

Is that an achievement though?

we all know sledge hits the hardest. The increased run speed just makes a farm like that easier.

 

[Pille]

If you sink all your points you are getting on that one skill and fire up a zed farm, I can see it.

It does not take much to set up a consistent farm and an amazingly simple cobble structure can let you just sit there and hammer away.

Only thing that I can see being an issue is food - you will get hungry killing all those zeds.

I doubt that sitting there and wait for zombies would be fast enough. It's done mainly by non-stop clearing of (preferably high-level) POIs. So a little luck is admittedly part of it, since you need a decent world seed / spawn point, and also some decent loot. Getting nerd glasses and stamina mod early is a big advantage. 

The rest is then

* focus only on offensive skills (strength, skull crusher and sexual tyrannosaur).

* wear only armor that doesn't slow you down.

* do trader quests only occasionally (if you pass by the trader anyway).

* have a high "headshot" rate

* don't build a base

* don't waste much time on sorting loot and deciding what's worth keeping

* if possible buy things from trader that improve offensive capabilities 

 

[FA_Q2]

I doubt that sitting there and wait for zombies would be fast enough. It's done mainly by non-stop clearing of (preferably high-level) POIs. So a little luck is admittedly part of it, since you need a decent world seed / spawn point, and also some decent loot. Getting nerd glasses and stamina mod early is a big advantage. 

The rest is then

* focus only on offensive skills (strength, skull crusher and sexual tyrannosaur).

* wear only armor that doesn't slow you down.

* do trader quests only occasionally (if you pass by the trader anyway).

* have a high "headshot" rate

* don't build a base

* don't waste much time on sorting loot and deciding what's worth keeping

* if possible buy things from trader that improve offensive capabilities 

It is far faster.

You fire up a dozen or so campfires and once you get 2 screamers the flow of zeds simply never stops until you want it to.  Kind of breaks progression though.

 

[Roland]

This may be true for most volumes of Spear Hunter, but volume 3 allows you to craft a steel spear. I assume that this book has been replaced.
 

I was responding to a statement that the book sets had fundamentally changed in A21. They have not. They work exactly the same. Reading a book grants a perk. Reading all the volumes in a set grants a greater perk.

It is true that specific volumes that gave recipes are changed to grant a perk instead. However, fundamentally, the book sets still work the same way in A21 as they did in A20

 

[edyonline]

It is far faster.

You fire up a dozen or so campfires and once you get 2 screamers the flow of zeds simply never stops until you want it to.  Kind of breaks progression though.

I did this in the no loot challenge, as I had nothing else to do after clearing most POIs. I was too chicken to leave the grasslands without a gun until after Forde night lol.

But the screamers only summon a certain amount. They must have patched it. In the end I had three screamers running around screaming, but nothing happened. So I ventured into the burnt forest for some charcoal to keep the cookers running longer.

 After a while I found a cheese around the patch. Just run the cooker’s  until you see a screamer. Then turn them all off. When they run out of summons then turn them back on.

In a world where you can find a decent axe, you could probably just find enough coal to keep them running.

I doubt that sitting there and wait for zombies would be fast enough. It's done mainly by non-stop clearing of (preferably high-level) POIs. So a little luck is admittedly part of it, since you need a decent world seed / spawn point, and also some decent loot. Getting nerd glasses and stamina mod early is a big advantage. 

The rest is then

* focus only on offensive skills (strength, skull crusher and sexual tyrannosaur).

* wear only armor that doesn't slow you down.

* do trader quests only occasionally (if you pass by the trader anyway).

* have a high "headshot" rate

* don't build a base

* don't waste much time on sorting loot and deciding what's worth keeping

* if possible buy things from trader that improve offensive capabilities 

I’ll have to try again with sledge. I had a few tries with spear. If I died then I tried again. Then I tried a few cheesy tactics, still seemed impossible.

Have you seen someone else do this, or do you have video?

 

[BFT2020]

Another way to farm xp is to build a horde base in the wastelands.  After surviving the horde night in my last playthrough, I think I ended up spending the next 4 hours just trying to get the screamer situation taking care of.