OneManStanding

The first bases I built exploited zombie pathing -- basically a walkway up into a meat grinder of some sort, forcing the zombies to essentially form an orderly queue whilst we cut them down. This was variations based on my wee brother's approach and we just added more and more stuff to it. However, I later made the decision to build stuff that was just more fun to defend and more epic for the zombies to chew on. For instance, a castle -- we got four bombers in one night and it was a ruin afterward. Then a pillbox-type bunker with a concrete outer fence, the bunker extending underground through several levels right down to bedrock. I dug one into a mountain but the zombies just beat their way down to us. I also enjoy simply fortifying actual buildings, trying to create a Last Stand of Hadley's Hope scenario in the Hospital. Or the Home Alone scenario, where we boobytrap the building and wait it out on the roof. But the zombies can fail to cooperate on this and they just attack the building itself.

I tend to horde all ammo that I don't use - just in case. I keep thinking I can sell it if I wanted, but I never get around to it. I focus on assault rifles/machine guns and shotguns, only making the regular 7.62 and shotgun shells for simplicity. Even if I can't make them, high level guns show up sooner or later and I can use them if I want. I do enjoy drawing a magnum on a zombie, aiming for the head and telling him "YA' BROKE THE LAW!" before blowing his head off.

I'm interested in what you're saying here, but I don't quite understand it. Are you saying that if I keep my heat-generating stuff at rock bottom of the map it won't attract screamers for some reason? I don't know what "ofc" means.

I have three, but with only the tarp and gatherer mod (filter is a bonus) I'm sure only 2 would do me. I thought I had them far enough from my base at first, but decided to move them further away just to be sure and it's helped with the screamer situation (I can run one workbench without an issue). I put them in a non-poi field opposite the trader and just let them do their thing. Weird to think me and my friend had eighteen of them -- two groups of eight in two seperate non-POI fields around the town, plus two left in the base -- in A21 and we still ran out a lot because of all the glue and duct tape we needed for just two people.

See, I'm probably playing differently to you -- I feel I'm at a point that melee is getting useless. I'm perked into blades and clubs and they're fine for regulars, but the radioatives and the sheer numbers require an M60 and an auto-shotgun. I don't understand much about the armour sets, so going to have to look into that. My only view here is that AP and HP ammo aren't really all that worth it. The additional damage is minor for the extra time spent making either gunpowder or bullet tips. Alternate ammo should cost more resources, but stand out more. More like fire arrows and explosive arrows.

Other than the pump and auto shotguns, I pretty much swear by assault rifles/machine guns because as I see it you are going to want that M60 once things heat up. Besides, needing to make only one type of ammo - 7.62 - makes things easier. Other than the pipe pistol - which is pretty nice in a pinch early on - I don't use pistols, SMGs, magnums or the vulture; I don't think they do enough damage or hold enough ammo, especially later-game. I would think that if I put points into handguns to make the SMG that I'd end up underpowered in a horde night or infestation map; needing to reload too often or using too much ammo to kill a zombie, versus a burst from the M60 which can take most down. For those who might perk into it, what are your experiences with the various pistols and the smg versus the assault rifles and M60? Do you consider them weaker or disadvantageous?

I've never made myself a "home" in 7 Days to Die. My "crafting base" is either a rooftop in multiplayer or a converted caravan on my own. We did ONCE take over a house which was sort of more homeish, as we used the living room and kitchen spaces and stuff ... but somebody annoyed a bear, and the bear tore the door down, and we had to shoot the bear, and all the zombie neighbours beat the windows and walls down, then zombie cops showed up and one of them exploded, then this lady in white turned up and started screaming the house down, which meant more zombies... After that we stuck to rooftops.

Ideally you should all be looting - not just one person. It's certainly meant to be a fun part of the game -- although I realise some people simply don't enjoy that aspect. I especially like the bigger, Tier 5/6 infestations and it's just guns blazing. Whoever we need to get certain magazines the most, we let them open all the relevant book loots. We did play with one guy who auto-opened all the book loots, despite everything we agreed, and we eventually kicked him from the game. If your friends get magazine reward bundle, considering they're out questing all the books in the POI, they could give them - unopened - to the guys staying in the base and when opened the magazines inside should reflect their particular skills. Not 100% sure if it still works, as I don't like to do it, but if you have a mission for one of the buildings that you know has a lot of book cases in it ... you can save and quit before you finish the mission, and then when you come back in you can restart the mission - resetting the poi - and go to the library again. Books, books, books.

I know there are some doors you can see through and are invited to destroy, but when it comes to the main route I don't think I have ever had to destroy a door or a wall to proceed. The holes in the wall look like zombie closets, and usually a zombie did pop out of it a moment before, so I tended to discard it as just that. But it's happened now in two of the newer, refreshed POIs: going through the hole you can see through into another room but you need to destroy a part of the wall to get out the other side. I'm just saying it's not what I'm used to, and I got lost in two different POIs on account of this. Drawing attention to it would help, by putting a light in the hole, and maybe make the other end more obviously damaged.

Okay, so I finally tried the stun baton. I have never used it before as I felt it was gimmicky -- you know where you are with a baseball bat and a good solid bonk on the head; with a run up, the zombie will need to catch a flight back to the spot it was fighting you at! I might repair the batons I found and sell them for the Dukes, and sold all the parts I found. But basically, this thing is stun lock hell for the zombies! Even the most brutal radioactive zombie had to stand there whilst I patiently bonked it on the head until - frequently - the head popped off and rolled away.

Use it if you've got it, but if you're making it I recommend just sticking with the standard. The damage buff really isn't worth it and all you'll end up with a muddled ammo chest. You might try using up the regular to get rid of it, but the game will always give you more. And when you use the AP/HP you won't really notice the difference, in my opinion. I think the dev's could do more to differentiate the rounds. Standard Ammo - enough said. Magnum Rounds - increased damage, more recoil. Explosive Rounds - massive damage, slower fire rate. Incendiary Rounds - trades damage to chain-ignite zombies. Electrical Rounds - trades damage to chain-shock zombies. Flechette Rounds - trades damage to penetrates armour. Rubber Bullets - any shot you miss rebounds and bounces all over the place until it hits something (including you). Boomerang Rounds - yeah ... never fire these.

I think an updated rope model might be a good idea, because it is a little hard to spot. Don't remember a bathtub, might have forgotten, but one of the elevator shafts had a rope but I didn't see it and so went down a broken ladder and ended up falling back a few levels.

This can sometimes happen if the map you're playing on predates some incrimental update. Happened to me and a lot of other people on the Pop'n'Pills Factory, making the POI uncompletable because the maps predated an update. In that case we had to destroy a switch on the wall that we couldn't interact with - hammering through the door to get to the yellow dot didn't do anything. There was an update in the last few weeks to V.01 which said it made changes to a bunch of POIs and you had to start a new map to avoid problems.

I've done the Athletic's Complex twice now -- always get good loot out of it, like augers and auto-shotguns. Can I ask where the yellow dot is for you...?

Okay, did the "7 Days Inn" and encountered the same problem. Ran round in circles, just after you turn off the gas main, for a few minutes because the hole in the wall didn't read as a way you were supposed to go - just looked like a zombie closet. And you had to destroy a wall to get out the other side; right up until now I would have advised anyone doing POIs that you never need to destroy anything when following the route. I will adjust to this, but it is very new and isn't well advertised. Again, maybe a light inside to clue you in - like a discarded flashlight or something.