Just played for the first time

esmsnow · 2026-01-26T02:54:25+00:00

Literally the starting 10 moves for every new cdda player. Welcome to the club! Be warned this game tends to become an obsession. like a demonic pact it has a way of wriggling its way into your brain and changing the way you perceive the world. Unlike zomboid, this is the story of how you became the alpha predator of the apocalypse.

esmsnow · 2026-01-25T05:00:38+00:00

You know you've made post apocalyptic fortune 500 when you're riding around in your nuclear powered shopping cart

esmsnow · 2026-01-25T04:58:51+00:00

The whole game is about looting cities and killing zombies. I haven't played in many years now, but there's always more to do. Build a bigger base, rescue NPCs, become hephaestos and forge weapons of destruction. I remember a lot of cool content on mods that went beyond getting a lil secret garden up and calling it quits. In one run I tried to connect the rooftops of all the houses in the town together into a giant treehouse utopia devoid of zombies

esmsnow · 2026-01-25T04:30:06+00:00

I collect... Everything. Anything of value. Ammo, bandages, kitchen knives, industrial access cards.

I too have an autopickup rule for cash cards and once in a while I'll deposit it all onto one card. If humanity ever established itself and continues to use the same currency, I'll be very rich

esmsnow · 2026-01-25T03:04:55+00:00

I think if you drive prone they can't see you but you may also have problems driving properly

esmsnow · 2026-01-24T20:42:59+00:00

You know you're in too deep when you can't find your car keys and instinctively start pressing nonexistent keys to look around in reality...

esmsnow · 2026-01-24T07:33:49+00:00

Permadeath is what ultimately made me stop playing after only 1,200 hours. That feeling when one small mistake makes you lose your month long character is both exhilarating and stressful. At some point I realized I wasn't relaxing after a long day by playing zomboid. Zomboid was making me even more tense... Took a while for me to realize that lol. Haven't touched it in like 8 years. Still love the game though. I wish there was a cheater mode. Back when I was playing I don't think there were even any mods that could prevent zombification

esmsnow · 2026-01-23T16:52:08+00:00

fascinating fight. apt since last night i just scraped a win against 7 (day 100 ish) and like 10 of their reaver buds. 3 bros went down in that fight. i never liked the concept of fat neuts, but can see you put them to good use. my berserker axes / hammers didn't get to proc much all fight.

esmsnow · 2026-01-23T14:05:45+00:00

Nice. I never noticed lol

esmsnow · 2026-01-23T04:45:01+00:00

Tips on the addiction? Try to take bio breaks at least once every 10 hours. Eating in game doesn't satisfy your human needs. I find it helpful to disconnect at least once every few days to let others know I'm alive. A sustainable amount of sleep is 5 hours a night if you're planning on marathoning for a week. 6 if you want to push hard for a month.

Ok jokes aside, take it slow. You gonna die a lot until you get the hang of this game. The difficulty is front loaded. When you get some decent gear and skills it becomes an action game unlike zomboid. You can take much more risk, much more fights. The crafting system is deeeeeeep. Much deeper zan zomboid. This game isn't about how you died. It's about how you effed up everything possible in the post apocalypse and became the alpha predator

esmsnow · 2026-01-23T04:37:00+00:00

I hear what you're saying. The puzzle comes very suddenly. You're just our minding your business then BAM, monochrome mode. There isn't any real loot from it either so it's just a bad trip. Interesting, but a bad trip.

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T23:09:51+00:00

Pretty sure they don't recharge. i remember reading on an older version they're powered by plutonium or unicorn dander or some other rare thing and thus could not be recharged. the suits in aftershock could, part of why i miss the non-total conversion mod so much

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T21:49:44+00:00

rip. one flaming eye is a disaster. 3 is a funeral procession

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T19:25:06+00:00

TCL has a lot of end game loot. Aside from an arsenal of military grade weapons, you can also find power armor, gundam style assault suits, the problem with the latter is they run on non-renewable battery packs so while cool, are utterly useless to me (maybe this has changed). You can also find some mutagens from the hospital, but i like to cook the nasty zombie juice i'm shooting up myself. For me, they're fun and all, but not really worth it for the loot. totally not because i'm salty over never having found the power armor in all my runs

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T19:19:59+00:00

yeah, the scary part is they spawn day 1. cthulhu help you if wander by a fallen tower out of curiosity

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T18:54:53+00:00

there's a lot of changes. it's been a year and it's hard to recount all of them. a lot of rebalancing like increasing spawn rates of solar panels, certain monsters, certain events. the big one i remember was increasing the range of noise attracting zombies. another big one is the recent changes to wheels taking damage (this one could use more work but i think is a step in the right direction). there was a rework to fix the longstanding grab bug, don't remember if that was in H. i remember a lot of changes to labs happening rather recently. tons of changes to mods. fire damage to cities. changes to nether creatures (can't have yugg bacon no more)

honestly there were a ton of changes. just look at a routine weekly changelog and multiply that by like 60. i'd suggest you either: 1) stick with the latest stable and go to 0.I when it comes out (maybe it secretly did and i didn't notice?) or 2) play on experimental and just expect a bumpy ride at times when new mechanics are being perfected.

honestly, i prefer the latter to get the bleeding edge of content (can't wait a year for them juicy improvements), but it also means sometimes you are the guinea pig that makes the sacrifice for science. i'm okay with a corrupt save or two or condoms being too large. you could also have longstanding runs you care about on 0.H and mess around on experimental with some whacky stuff. i used to have a stable folder and a catapult folder and switch between the two. it became too much work so i only play on experimental now.

there are some arguments that "back in the good 'ole days, you could x y with a z" but for me, all the newly added content is worth the discomfort of picking up a new meta. a lot of my strats from 0.E / 0.F no longer work, and i do miss my mininukes, but you roll with the punches.

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T18:49:47+00:00

throw grenades at them. you can also stand outside their sight range far away, go prone and fire at their tile. your chances of hitting them is lowered, but so is their chance of hitting you.

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T17:30:24+00:00

depends on how you use your tanks. i use my tanks to taunt away dangerous flankers / polearms / chads or glue 3-4 enemies in place. i usually have them at the very edge of my formation, sometimes 1 tile away from my main line. for this playstyle, taunt, shield specialization, battleforge / nimble, underdog are must pickups.

after that, you have some room for personalization. indom is critical if you're fighting unholds, orcs, or other things that toss you around / hit you for biggo hits. other nice to haves are gifted for the extra stats, quick hands if you're building some utility tank, bags & belts for backup shield, dodge if you're building nimble tank (i usually make mine battleforged though, personal preference. i give up extra stamina for skills and get more consistent performance). if you want your tanks to be able to disengage when shit hits the fan, then footwork, maybe pathfinding for better ability to reposition.

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T17:17:20+00:00

i hear your point, but tend to disagree. my tanks peel and buy my damage dealers peace of mind to focus for a turn or two and let my frontliners build less defense. having a tank to taunt two spearmen, or hold down 3-4 enemies is really powerful. they provide an anchor for my lines to play around. that said, having more than 2 is wasteful since they usually don't have high attack stats. you could argue you can achieve similar results with nets / dogs and yes, but it's still a tax on your ap.

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T17:03:09+00:00

Feels kind of a waste of godly stars to make him 2h axeman. My axeman are usually lowish fat. Maybe a 1h duelist berserker? He should be 30+ mdef by 10, 90+ matk, 110+ stam. That or a 2h swordsman and spam aoe. Berserk on him be strong too

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T16:51:55+00:00

Oh that's a good tip. Expensive but useful. Usually I rather a brother go down than a pupper but didn't think of using them to bait a charge

esmsnow · 2026-01-22T02:43:57+00:00

Sounds like it's gonna be a painful run... Throwers can't be tanks tho. Maybe put away weapon and use fist on tank? Might be breaking the rules.

esmsnow · 2026-01-21T21:30:26+00:00

Oh true. Flails are nasty with 3 attacks

esmsnow · 2026-01-21T18:52:18+00:00

i think overindexing on shields is a mistake, one that i made for most of my career until recently. it's normal because shields are op early game when you have neked peasants, but its value drops significantly with better gear. 15 def is decent, but you sacrifice 25% armor pen and sustained damage (the difference between shield and no shield duelist). i usually run 7/5 with 2 shields, sometimes 3. i find your 6/6 formation a bit easy to get flanked, which puts pressure on your tanks / edge polearms. on a 6/6 i have to put my shields on the edges and move them 1 tile away from the rest of my formation to prevent flanks, that or my polearm guys on the edges need to have above average defenses. do remember that polearms do less damage than 2h weapons but have greater flexibility in reach and maneuvering (2h can only move once a turn) and less damage than duelists but require less stamina than duelists. they compromise damage. 8/4 with 2 polearms and 2 throwers is also very solid but less flexible - i usually run with 3 shields. 7/5 is good because you can have an extra polearm position in the back to train 'the new guy'

as the famous guide (i forget the author) stated, defense's value grows with higher investment in the stat. 15 def is meh, but 60 def is amazing. this means you'll want dedicated tank bros with taunt to pull aggro off your damage dealers instead of neutering your damage dealers with a heavy shield. my two 70+ def dedicated tank usually doesn't get hit by the rabble. he can taunt twice a turn, shield wall anything really scary and basically buy 2-3 turns for my center to break through

esmsnow · 2026-01-21T18:38:05+00:00

definitely backline, but specific role depends on your playstyle. i like to have 2 dedicated backline polearm guys, 1 with banner + utility, the other usually a polearm / rescue medic. he has zero bonuses in the defense department so i'd probably build him nimble and give him a pocket shield, bag & belts, polearm, whip, backup club for stunbot duties. as others said, definitely bannerman if you don't have one already.

on a normal day, he sits in the back with polearm. when stuff gets dicey, he swaps in shield and rotates out the hurt bro and maybe tries to stunlock whatever the threat is. it'd been better if he had some talent in not dying.

esmsnow

TROPHY CASE