Settings and stepping it up.

[Banginurz]

So, I played for quite a while with a friend and it was fun, but he plays 120 minute days and extra xp and on Adventurer.  I want to start a single player game and step up the difficulty a bit, but don't know the default settings?  Like, some of the settings are in yellow, so do I use those?  Step it up to Nomad?  Shorten the days?  All of the above?  I'm not the greatest builder, but I fight ok and can usually handle horde nights pretty easily on the settings we played on.  Just looking for any recommendations to bring some of the fear back.  Thanks. 

[Roland]

Turn everything back to default so nothing is in yellow and try that out. If it still feels too easy here are some suggestions:

 

Go up +2 to Warrior difficulty: This is my favorite setting of all the difficulties. It makes the primitive weapons feel primitive and a good number of the zombies rage when you hit them. As your weapons and perks progress you really sense your power as the number of hits to kill a zombie goes down. In close quarters you have to be nimble and dodge and use fast footwork early on because they don't die so easily and there is often no simple straight line retreat when they rage.  At the same time, during that first week it also doesn't feel like very battle with every zombie is going to take 3 minutes of whack whack whack gameplay. Warrior is the sweet spot in my opinion-- though Nomad may be best at first if you are used to Adventurer. Nomad was the old default before they changed it to Adventurer.

 

Change the day speed of zombies to Jog: This setting is crazy when you are used to walking speed from zombies. POI close quarter fighting is tougher and if too many enemies wake up at a time you can quickly find yourself surrounded and trapped while juking around trying to kill them. Also your timing for opening containers will be totally off which is pretty funny (not haha funny so much). You'll see a zombie some ways away and think you have pleeeeeenty of time to open up that car and see if there is something good inside when WHACK you get sucker punched by that zombie that came over a lot more quickly than you thought. What's interesting is that they don't really appear to be moving that much faster especially when you see them at a distance so you keep forgetting that you increased their speed and you naturally return to your memory of how much time you have to do things before that zombie over there gets to you and those zombies keep closing the gap faster than you expect.

 

Toggle feral mode on: My recommendation is day only since I like to go out at night and feral on at night makes that super difficult with the tougher zombies spawning then. But turning it on during the day means that you will almost always have something trailing after you and coming and involving itself in your business. You'll get outside zombies come and pound on the walls of the POI you're exploring. Some may even get in and come looking for you but even if they don't the sound of them moaning and pounding adds to the stress.

 

Zombie spawn modlet: Go find one of the many modlets that increase zombie spawns and fill up your game world with 2x 4x or even 8x the number of zombies beyond default. Combining one of these modlets with the first three suggestions can really ramp up the difficulty especially during the early game.

[Banginurz]

Thanks for the reply.  I bumped it up to nomad, reduced the time to 60 minute days and increased the speed of the zombies.  The speed makes a huge difference and I have had a few 'Oh @%$#!" moments already.  Thanks for the advice! Also, will those modlets that increase zombie spawns effect blood moons?  I don't have the best rig, and when we upped blood moon count, I was reduced to strobe-light FPS.  Again, thanks.

[Roland]

34 minutes ago, Banginurz said:

Thanks for the reply.  I bumped it up to nomad, reduced the time to 60 minute days and increased the speed of the zombies.  The speed makes a huge difference and I have had a few 'Oh @%$#!" moments already.  Thanks for the advice! Also, will those modlets that increase zombie spawns effect blood moons?  I don't have the best rig, and when we upped blood moon count, I was reduced to strobe-light FPS.  Again, thanks.

 

No. Those modlets only affect wilderness spawns during the regular days and nights. Some also affect wandering hordes to beef them up a bit. Bloodmoon nights are pretty much hardcoded for zombie numbers much to the dismay of many who try with their might to do things to get more zombies to show up. 

[Banginurz]

Thanks so much!  I dropped some more hours into the game today, and thanks to your suggestions, I played more than I should have.

[Gamida]

I am trying Khaine's Wandering Horde mod right now. Just started so and just had the one random horde but seems to be pretty good so far.

 

https://7daystodiemods.com/wandering-horde-frequency/

 

You will need to have EAC off to use it as it has a dll file.

[Andros]

on single player, i find long days to get draining pretty quickly. 120 minute days would drive me a bit mad and i might give up quickly.  i find 40 minute days to be a good length so that blood moons are not too far apart and add a bit of jeopardy to the week.

 

I see some people on youtube start setting on an easier mode, and ramp up the difficulty each week or 2, might be an option for you.  that way you can get used to things, build up some kind of base and then challenge yourself a bit more later.

 

whatever you choose, make sure it is enjoyable for you!

[Banginurz]

Thanks to all of you for your replies.  Right now, I'm not using mods, but just upping the difficulty and having lower loot and less time has been doing it for me.  The faster zombies and less time to mess around has brought back the fear mode I wanted.  But I'm bookmarking this page so I can remember all of your suggestions.  One of the things I love about this game is the *mostly* positive community.  You fellas rock!

[Roland]

3 hours ago, Andros said:

i find 40 minute days to be a good length so that blood moons are not too far apart and add a bit of jeopardy to the week.

 

I like 40 minute days as well. You sometimes get caught having to finish a quest after 22:00 causing you to sometimes have to barricade the POI a bit and wait until morning to head back. I also feel like the 40-min day length fits the hunger rate a bit better so that eating seems a bit more natural. The downside is that as your gamestage gets higher you will get to the point where night is not long enough to go through all the zombie spawns on bloodmoon night so you won't earn as much xp.

[doughphunghus]

My recommendation: drop loot % down, like as far as you can stand it.  This forces you to harvest resources and craft to survive much longer until you can park into looting. When you find valuable loot, it’s exciting!

If the zeds are not giving you a hard enough time, turn in feral sense   I don’t recommend this though as it can be tough and you might be constantly fighting.  However, it might be more fun if you drop the difficulty down so it’s less hits to kill then. It’s a balance.

 

[Rotor]

Ya, I play vanilla default diff.  But have feral on night and BM.  30 min day, but looks like I should go 40min based on this reading.  30 day loot due to PoI sleepers, havent gotten around to modding that out.

 

Actually after the last update, it seems to me, that zombies seem to rush a bit more.  Specially if I pee them off with an arrow that doesnt land the 3x sneak.  I will have to pay more attention that.

[Banginurz]

You guys don't quest during the night?  Not judging, just asking.

[meganoth]

1 hour ago, Banginurz said:

You guys don't quest during the night?  Not judging, just asking.

 

Depends. If you do it the first few nights you run a relatively high risk as you can get ferals or wolfs spawning in the night. After the first week you normally have good enough weapons and a vehicle for emergencies so you can usually survive any situation if you don't get reckless.

 

For an agility stealth player night is even beneficial.

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Roland]

1 hour ago, Banginurz said:

You guys don't quest during the night?  Not judging, just asking.

 

I do. Early game I will quest at night as long as I arrive before night starts and stay there until morning. I have run into too many dire wolves at night when I'm still wearing rags and using stone weapons to risk running across the map at night. Later, when I'm geared up and have a vehicle I quest at night all the time and travel wherever I want because I know I won't get mauled. I usually wait to do turn on the power quests until I have a bike. Really it is what spawns outside at night that makes night questing more dangerous more than dealing with the sleepers inside the POI you are questing-- at least in my experience.

 

Doing quests at night with feral sense turned on at night can turn pretty ugly. I usually don't quest at night if feral sense is on especially if it is in a downtown area where the spawns are faster. 

[Andros]

Another idea: i had a thread a few months ago about having a no trader game.  it has worked wonders for me as in my current game i am on day 93 and usually i struggle to get past day 30.  i noticed that games with a trader tend to get grindy for me as i just continuously did quests (yes i could stop myself, but i dont have the willpower!).  Also not relying on getting the chem station and other things through the trader really made things a bit more of a challenge.  if i remember correctly i didnt get the chem station until about day 35 (damn you beakers!!!), the motorbike until  day 37, and the crucible until day 50 as i didn't want to waste too many points specking into them.  jawoodle is doing a youtube series on doing a no trader challenge if you have any interest.

[Banginurz]

Again, thanks folks.  With the difficulty up among other things, I'm having a blast.  Some of these Z's are no joke.  I'm only on day 19, and I almost still feel like I'm on day 1.  I mean, I have stuff, but it doesn't take too much for stuff to get hairy.  I really appreciate the replies.  It's at the point where I skip beating on the final chest (str main build) in POI's because the noise draws too much aggro.  But, wow!  It's fun having to stay busy and really pay attention to my surroundings/enemies so I don't get overwhelmed.  Y'all helped me bring the magic back and I thank you!

[Rotor]

17 hours ago, Banginurz said:

You guys don't quest during the night?  Not judging, just asking.

 

I dont quest, period.  Dont really care for it.  At night I mostly craft or Zombie snipe with bow and arrow.  Makes great practice for long distance bowing :).