Feral Pains

[Jarod_Silverstar]

So not only do feral zombies run, and attack twice as fast but the appear to have a better chance of stunning you. At least I have never had a feral not stun me when I rarely if ever get stunned when hit by regular zombies.

Of course the best method of dealing with them to keep them at a distance but is it even possible within the confined spaces of a POI?

 

What are some of your strategies for dealing with ferals inside of POIs? My character is mid-30s for level, 120HP/Stamina, and level 3 leather armor and weapons. I feel I am getting lucky to survive an encounter with a single feral, and more than one means death before I can even inflict much damage on them.

 

I am playing on the default difficulty and really don't want to turn it down any more because most of the regular zombies are already wimpy enough. I like having the threat from regular ones but currently my problems with the ferals are forcing me to look at other options...

 

Advice?

[Slingblade2040]

Personally I go heavy with melle. Meaning all my points go into strength, skull crusher and sexual tyrannosaurus till they are capped for X level. After they are capped boom head shot with same strategy. At the same time I go with steel or iron armor which ever I can get from trader or find. A few headshots with the sledgehammer or fire axe and ferals die. If you tend to get hit alot go for the pain tolerance perk to keep hp loss to a minimum and to keep the chance of getting stunned lower.

[Jugginator]

RNG related, but keep checking traders for steel or iron armor (can craft iron quickly). Those really help, along with getting the armor perks. I usually sneak into POIs quietly and look for them first, but not always doable. If I encounter one without being sneaky, I use the environment to my advantage; get some distance, jump over the railing of a staircase, go through a window, those kinds of things just get some distance. When I do get some distance, I pop a few arrows at their heads and kite them around. Think hit and run tactics. I use melee a lot, the stay down perk is really nice for it (others, too, like flurry). It's also effective to keep some frames on your hotbar, along with bandages / red tea/beers/painkillers. Can boost yourself up to a ledge or something quickly to get the high-ground (just don't build a staircase with them, they'll follow ya lol).

 

Although not always possible, I hit and run while backing out of the poi to the streets, can get some distance there and use cars/such to use as cover to get a few seconds. Thing's I've learned in my dead-is-dead run in 208 lol. This works for rad wrights and such too. Melee is really good when perked and combined with steel armor, I can melee down a rad wright with proper tactics.

[Aldranon]

I loved SP melee combat but against any group that's fast, playing SP melee is death sooner or later.

 

So, my new weapon set is:

Wood club for all normal zombies (no need to waste iron).

Pistol then SMG when things start getting rough.

AK for emergences.

 

I focus fortitude then agility and intelligence equally.

 

I'll just say I live longer this way

[Whorhay]

Keep barbed wire fencing on your hot bar, drop it at a choke point like a doorway and sweet spot melee them as they move through it very slowly.

[ricp]

Honest advice?

 

Work through PoI's that have ferals carefully. After you've played enough 7DtD, and perhaps you are already past that level, you will not only have a handle of how close you can get before they are triggered but also as to where the sneaky places TFP are likely to place them. With that in mind when you have cleared out "the norms", use an SMG or AK and headhot the sleeping ferals. Even if a few get loose I find them easy enough to clear up. I mean it's "janky", I wouldn't deny that, but it's all pretty manageable - imo, of course.

[Krougal]

Run around screaming like a school girl.

 

No matter how long I play ferals always give me trouble, probably because I tend to lose my ♥♥♥♥ when I realize it's a feral.

I feel like it's still a matter of luck more often than not. I pulled a T2 clear quest the other day, MP server that I don't own, but my crew wasn't on.

I seem to do a little better there, I guess because knowing I can't just cheat my way out of a situation makes me play more carefully? (it's had enough impact to make me disable cheats on my SP, even though I could go and enable it again easily, the fact that it's off affects how I play).

 

So anywho, get a building that jumping up and then going in through fire escape seems to be de way. Cop on upper roof already comes running at me. Manage to run up and down stairs, which are broken at 1 point, which affects his pathing. I take him out, go back to sneaking. 2 ferals inside the window entrance, which I at least manage to trigger 1 at a time and use the same terrain pathing to take out. Rest of the building is normal til I find a sleeping bear (and I'm not sure what kind of bear at this point) and I back out, close the door again, make sure the rest is clear. Somehow manage to wake him up, but at least I had time to get back outside a different route, and it got outside, so was able to snipe it from the lower roof.

 

Long story short, use the terrain best you can. You need to create space to maneuver.

 

Barbed wire too. No matter how many times I come to the forum and read "Carry spike traps and/or barbed wire" and think "Wow! What a great idea!" by the time I go home and start playing, I seem to forget. One of these days it will sink in.

[fazi]

So not only do feral zombies run, and attack twice as fast but the appear to have a better chance of stunning you. At least I have never had a feral not stun me when I rarely if ever get stunned when hit by regular zombies.

Of course the best method of dealing with them to keep them at a distance but is it even possible within the confined spaces of a POI?

 

What are some of your strategies for dealing with ferals inside of POIs? My character is mid-30s for level, 120HP/Stamina, and level 3 leather armor and weapons. I feel I am getting lucky to survive an encounter with a single feral, and more than one means death before I can even inflict much damage on them.

 

I am playing on the default difficulty and really don't want to turn it down any more because most of the regular zombies are already wimpy enough. I like having the threat from regular ones but currently my problems with the ferals are forcing me to look at other options...

 

Advice?

 

First, avoid dangerous POI's at low lvl.Then, always have stamina and healing items.And the last and the best, run for your life.Use one power attack to knock him down, and then run.If you can afford, have a good gun with bullets for emergency.

[Guest]

The SMG works really well in a pinch. Cheaper/more commonly found ammo than the AK, faster rate of fire than anything else. I keep it on my tool belt for surprise ferals and dogs. Just aim in the general direction of their heads and let loose.

 

Get some mods in there, a few points into boom headshot, and things tend to die rather quickly.

[Pico]

I like to melee, and I had been using a sledge as my preference, but a POI that was overstuffed with radiated wights taught me that the sledge was too much of a stamina drain. (I was level 90+, and had all available strength and stamina related attributes at their maximum available - just one point short of the total maximum for the game).

 

A sea of wights left me exhausted and unable to fight. Backed into a corner with 3 of them still wailing at me.

After a respawn I went back with my spare weapon, an iron reinforced club and found it so much easier to fight with. You might have to land more hits with it, but it gives you more kills with the stamina available.

 

I'll retry the sledge when I get the perk where a power shot can include more than one target, but it seems it's really only feasible for a totally perked up level 10 strength and agility player (ie only after level 100 in the game).

 

Meantime, I've got some spikes to add to that club. Heh!

[CoolJ]

Did you guys forget that barbed wire exists, and you can make it from day 1, and it is made from scrap iron? I think you did. Always make your own entrances so you know where they are. Forget trying to follow the dungeon path the pimps want you to follow. When possible, enter into a room from the outside of the building. Even if it means going through the wall. Keep barbed wire on your tool belt.

 

Also, the spiked mod for the club is garbage. The barbed wire mod causes bleed and zombies bleed now and can die from the status effect. Burning shaft mod sets them on fire. Zombies die from fire. You get XP when they die from status effects now.

[Noompsie]

Because I am a cautious player, the first thing I do before entering a POI or dungeon is to place a sleeping bag and a chest. I leave anything I value in the chest along with a backup weapon.

 

I love my sledgehammer and usually can take out a feral with it, but haven't gone toe to toe with an irradiated feral yet so not sure how that would go. The barbed wire in the doorway trick sounds cool.

[CoolJ]

Because I am a cautious player, the first thing I do before entering a POI or dungeon is to place a sleeping bag and a chest. I leave anything I value in the chest along with a backup weapon.

 

I love my sledgehammer and usually can take out a feral with it, but haven't gone toe to toe with an irradiated feral yet so not sure how that would go. The barbed wire in the doorway trick sounds cool.

 

What is the purpose of the sleeping bag? So they can bury you in it?

[JCrook1028]

Did you guys forget that barbed wire exists, and you can make it from day 1, and it is made from scrap iron? I think you did. Always make your own entrances so you know where they are. Forget trying to follow the dungeon path the pimps want you to follow. When possible, enter into a room from the outside of the building. Even if it means going through the wall. Keep barbed wire on your tool belt.

 

Also, the spiked mod for the club is garbage. The barbed wire mod causes bleed and zombies bleed now and can die from the status effect. Burning shaft mod sets them on fire. Zombies die from fire. You get XP when they die from status effects now.

 

I do love that bleeding buff from the barbed club. So nice seeing z's wilt to the ground in the pack from an earlier hit.

[Scyris]

I've never had problems with them, I usually run armorless in a17 till day 14+ and lv 50+, How good is the bleed though on that club? also how do I turn on the health bar?

[Noompsie]

What is the purpose of the sleeping bag? So they can bury you in it?

 

So if I die, I can spawn close and get my stuff. Thought that would be obvious.

[CoolJ]

So if I die, I can spawn close and get my stuff. Thought that would be obvious.

 

Wait, when you die you get to get your stuff back? When I respawn, I have no stuff and it's a totally different map.

 

Clearly, I was making a reference to my taste for playing Dead is Dead. I thought that would be obvious.

[Voqar]

Melee can work. I have better luck with a pistol or shotgun (reload when you stagger them for beefier zeds). The problem with guns in a POI is that you're going to pull every of zombie nearby, so it's an emergency measure only. And you should always have an exit strategy to gtfo quickly if needed.

 

The POIs are rough in general. It gets better the more you level but ferals can still be rough, especially if you activate multiples.

 

The POIs dungeons are well done but a bit contrived to me. It's kind of silly how many zombies are just perfectly placed in ridiculous locations - sitting there for years waiting for you stop drop by. Sleepers I'm fine with but zombies up in the rafters (how) or hiding in closes and such (again, how).

[Kalarro]

The problem with guns in a POI is that you're going to pull every of zombie nearby,

 

How goo ddoes that work? If it's true, Id see it as a plus. If we are discussing efficient ways to clear POIS, wouldnt it be better to just shoot a gun and kill them as they exit the POI?

[Noompsie]

Wait, when you die you get to get your stuff back? When I respawn, I have no stuff and it's a totally different map.

 

Clearly, I was making a reference to my taste for playing Dead is Dead. I thought that would be obvious.

 

Well actually no. I have never played Dead is Dead, so how would I know that?

[Scyris]

Well actually no. I have never played Dead is Dead, so how would I know that?

 

You should try dead is dead, it adds a major spin to the game as if you die once, you delete the save/world, so you start adapting much smarter strageties to avoid dying. For example, I often go up to a poi, walk inside then fire my shotgun once or twice, then go back outside, this wakes up all the sleepers depending on the size of the poi. Bigger ones it won't get em all, and then I just let them come to me in a nice conga line to sledgehammer them down, I now have a cleared out house poi to freely loot. You can get up to 30 blocks away from the sleeper volume before they'll start to repop so you can actually run around outside by the poi while you kill them.

[LordoftheMoo]

I wonder if a quick-and-dirty Dead-is-Dead addition could be made where, while the world doesn't reset, it wipes the character and then respawns you randomly at level 1. If you can hoof it back to your old death location in time, your gear would still be there, but you're level 1 again and you've lost those days. That might make things quite interesting if you died at a high level and the date is something like day 46...

[InSanity]

I wonder if a quick-and-dirty Dead-is-Dead addition could be made where, while the world doesn't reset, it wipes the character and then respawns you randomly at level 1. If you can hoof it back to your old death location in time, your gear would still be there, but you're level 1 again and you've lost those days. That might make things quite interesting if you died at a high level and the date is something like day 46...

 

I haven't really done much of dead is dead but since it's experimental and I'll have to wipe my saves every now and again anyhow I think I'll give it a go but that would be nice, at least to add the option for a "hardcore" mode like minecraft as that seems simple enough.

[sisco]

A17 seems to have new ferals that look like normal zombies but run at daylight and do loads of damage. Shotgun doesnt even slow them down and i'm dead after two hits. They seem to spawn since i'm level 10 so just scrap armor and low level weapons, its a bit frustrating.

[Cadamier]

Day 8 level 30 feral out in open.

 

Dealing with ferals, radiated ferals, cops within POI's - it seems necessary to melee them all the way! They seem to 'calm down' as opposed to 'raging' if are using a ranged weapon. Radiated cops are another story... I can't seem to get them down within a POI... Spiders and radiated spiders are a different story... I'll try to get as many ranged shots as possible and will melee when they're close enough.

 

The key is to be able to maneuver, backpedal as you're attacking them. Doorways and other obstacles that you can use to force them into single file towards you really helps. Ever notice that they seem to do this on their own? Make sure you don't get them to split up into two branches attacking you, that is if you can help it.