Super early minibike + getting rich early strategy

[MechanicalLens]

There is a meta known within the community on how to get yourself a minibike by day 3 or day 4 if the right cards are dealt and you use them wisely. For anyone who is unsure of how to achieve this, the following steps must be put into action:

 

1. Spend your first three skill points into Intellect and invest a single point into Advanced Engineering. Get your forge going as soon as possible to start burning down iron and clay, preferably on day 1. Alternatively you can hold out on this until the very last minute, choosing not to spend the last skill point into Intellect in case you find yourself some nerdy glasses.

 

2. On your very first day, loot as many kitchens in houses as possible. Acquire a wrench and 2 bottles of acid.

 

3. With the wrench you've just found, salvage some cars for an engine or a battery. Be on the lookout for school buses and other large vehicles as they are (virtually? completely?) guaranteed to give you both of these items as drops.

 

4. Invest a single skill point into Miner 69er to craft yourself a claw hammer. Alternatively you can craft one if you find the iron tools schematic, or you can simply find one; this process is made way easier if you can find yourself a working stiff tool store.

 

5. Meanwhile, invest your next skill point into Advanced Engineering and craft yourself a workbench. Over the next day or so once you've accumulated another 2 skill points, dump them both into Grease Monkey.

 

6. Craft yourself a minibike.

 

 

Minibike handlebars are quite cheap to craft (the only limiting factor being headlights, which are a rare drop from car chassis), and they also sell for quite a pretty penny - upwards of 350 dukes per set of handlebars. On top of that their stack size is 50. With two points into Grease Monkey crafting them will be even cheaper. Just by the default sell price alone a stack of minibike handlebars sell for 18,000 dukes. If you wish you can dump a point or two into Salvage Operations and spend a good portion of daylight for several days during the first week or two doing nothing but breaking down vehicles on the road. By day 21 you could have over 30,000-40,000+ dukes to your name, and that does not include questing and selling other items.

Edited August 17, 2021 by MechanicalLens (see edit history)

[BFT2020]

Weird, I never play like that (i.e. trying to get a minibike ASAP).  I've had games where I just got a bicycle crafted before the first BM horde at 7 days.

 

I think that is why even after 3k hours into this Alpha game, I still will start a new one and enjoy the experience - since I don't play it Min-Max and try to optimize how I play it.  I wonder if I was to try to get a minibike within a 3-4 day of start, the game itself will lose interest?

[MechanicalLens]

2 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

Weird, I never play like that (i.e. trying to get a minibike ASAP).  I've had games where I just got a bicycle crafted before the first BM horde at 7 days.

 

I think that is why even after 3k hours into this Alpha game, I still will start a new one and enjoy the experience - since I don't play it Min-Max and try to optimize how I play it.  I wonder if I was to try to get a minibike within a 3-4 day of start, the game itself will lose interest?

 

Maybe, maybe not. In my current world I got a level 5 auger crafted on day 6, and the world hasn't lost any appeal for me.

 

To be clear, I've never used this minmax strategy myself. My usual path is dumping points into Strength/Miner 69er/Mother Lode/Sexysaurus to craft level 5 iron tools by day 4 or 5.

Edited August 17, 2021 by MechanicalLens (see edit history)

[JCrook1028]

I haven't even used a minibike at all since the motorcycle was introduced. they're simply not something I'm interested in. I go bicycle to motorcycle and no further.

[hiemfire]

2 minutes ago, JCrook1028 said:

I haven't even used a minibike at all since the motorcycle was introduced. they're simply not something I'm interested in. I go bicycle to motorcycle and no further.

I actually prefer the minibike due to the nice 2 stroke song the engine plays as you ride it...  Nothing wrong with the motorcycle though.

[TWORDY]

46 minutes ago, JCrook1028 said:

I haven't even used a minibike at all since the motorcycle was introduced. they're simply not something I'm interested in. I go bicycle to motorcycle and no further.

Same here. If pickup had 2+ seats then I could use it, but there is no point at least for now.

[hiemfire]

1 hour ago, TWORDY said:

Same here. If pickup had 2+ seats then I could use it, but there is no point at least for now.

The 4x4 does have 2 seats. Did you mean more than 2?

[TWORDY]

By 2+ I meant more than 2 seats. In general, 4x4 is slower than a motorbike and requires more fuel than a single motorbike. So, I don't see a point in using 4x4 while it does not have more properties that would make it worthwhile. On the other hand, Gyrocopter is faster than any ground vehicle. Such properties make gyro very potent, but the steering itself needs some tweaking. Reversing on the ground has to be faster.

[hiemfire]

8 minutes ago, TWORDY said:

By 2+ I meant more than 2 seats. In general, 4x4 is slower than a motorbike and requires more fuel than a single motorbike. So, I don't see a point in using 4x4 while it does not have more properties that would make it worthwhile.

Okay, so you'd like 3+ seats in the 4x4.

9 minutes ago, TWORDY said:

On the other hand, Gyrocopter is faster than any ground vehicle.

Have sprint mashed constantly do you? I don't want your fuel bill.

 

Motorized vehicle speeds in 7d2d, confirmed back in 19.3 (iirc it was @Boidster that did the checks, might have been @meganoth)

 

Vehicle	Speed	Sprint Speed
Minibike	7	10
Motorcycle	9	14
4x4	9	14
Gyrocopter	7	15

 

 

Funny thing is that sprinting Bicycle + College jacket, Steroids and Mega Crush is even faster than a sprinting Gyro (if what I noticed in game about the jacket and chems effects working while on the bicycle as well is accurate)

 

Bicycle Sprinting	10
With College Jacket	11
With college jacket and steroids	12
with college jacket, steroids and mega crush	17

 

Just doesn't have the same ability to ignore terrain as the Gyrocopter.

[BFT2020]

1 hour ago, TWORDY said:

By 2+ I meant more than 2 seats. In general, 4x4 is slower than a motorbike and requires more fuel than a single motorbike. So, I don't see a point in using 4x4 while it does not have more properties that would make it worthwhile. On the other hand, Gyrocopter is faster than any ground vehicle. Such properties make gyro very potent, but the steering itself needs some tweaking. Reversing on the ground has to be faster.

I use the 4X4 if I am going to loot several buildings close by or a T5 factory.  I use it more for my big hauls than anything else.  Gyrocopter is more for quick runs (most likely when I am hitting traders after they refresh their stock - I like to be able to go straight distances to each one).  My last playthrough, I actually built the minibike before the bicycle as I had everything I needed to do either (but not both) so I just waited for enough XP to get the next level and unlock it.  Though I still end up building the bicycle later on to use around my home base - I have mines for iron, coal, potassium, and lead near by so I use the bicycle to not waste gas (I know I can just mine a ton of shale and convert it over, but I try to only use my gas to charge my batteries in my base, for my bigger vehicles to go to nearby towns to loot, and for the auger / chainsaw when I need to harvest a lot of materials at once).

 

But I am weird - I did build a two vehicle garage for my 4X4 and motorcycle even though I play SP  🙄

[Kyonshi]

Btw, the 4x4 is slightly faster than the Motorcycle. Capp made a video where he tested them on the same distance. Its faster but not by a landslide. You could almost say its the same top speed for both but at least with the 4x4, you got massive storage capacity. Of course, it uses more fuel.

[ZombiDweller]

On 8/17/2021 at 6:35 PM, MechanicalLens said:

There is a meta known within the community on how to get yourself a minibike by day 3 or day 4 if the right cards are dealt and you use them wisely. For anyone who is unsure of how to achieve this, the following steps must be put into action:

I have to ask what are the loot settings for this?

I usually play with 25% loot abundance, finding wrench is hard job. Zombie difficulty cranked up and searching houses is slower.

 

IHMO this is totally relative to game difficulty settings.

[MechanicalLens]

10 hours ago, ZombiDweller said:

I have to ask what are the loot settings for this?

I usually play with 25% loot abundance, finding wrench is hard job. Zombie difficulty cranked up and searching houses is slower.

 

IHMO this is totally relative to game difficulty settings.

 

Default loot settings