New player guide

Note: It is encouraged and recommended that you take premade backgrounds such as soldier, police officer, or labour they are the strongest. This guide will help you decide which role you want to play for your group and help figure out custom backgrounds. This is just a *recommended* guide. You do not have to follow it. This guide has been approved by JimD, everything is accurate.

Fighter: skills (recommended for new players)

Preferred skills: Ranged Weapons and Hand to Hand Combat

Recommended Hobbies: Distance running, Exercise/Drawing

Challenges to avoid: Night Blindness, Visual Impairment

The fighter's role for the group is...well, fighting. As a fighter/soldier you will be best suited when teamed with a scavenger, guarding your base, going on rescue missions and attacking enemy camps. The fighter has a very high levels in Ranged Weapons, Hand to Hand Combat, Close Combat Weapons, Stealth, Stamina, Survival, and Athletics. As a fighter you will be able to gun down hordes of zombies from a long distance where others would very easily miss. Your fighting skills would be greatly respected among the group. The fighter could also be a good intimidator when interrogating an enemy. Whenever you or the group needs dirty work done, the fighter is there.

Scavenger: Skills

Preferred skills: Stealth and Scavenging

Recommended hobbies: Drawing, Mediating

Challenges to avoid: Claustrophobia

The scavenger will collect supplies for your group. An ideal scavenger must be stealthy, athletic, have a good level stamina, high scavenging skill, high searching skill, as well as driving. A scavenger's job is usually very risky, which is why sending them along with a fighter/soldier is recommended. Being able to sneak around an enemy base is important if you plan on looting, which may require high stamina to tolerate the fatigue and a high willpower to deal with the stress. Climbing over walls and being able to do parkour is very helpful when detected and you need to escape, but when the time ever calls, Hand to Hand Combat is ideal for surviving a fight. Scavengers are very important for the group's survival.

Doctor: Skills

Preferred skills: Medicine and science walk hand in hand

Recommended hobbies: mediation, distance running

Challenges to avoid: Addictions

The doctor's role in the group is to treat the most fatal injuries and care for the critically sick, where an average person couldn't treat himself. This role would need very high skills in medicine, science, empathy, driving, stamina, and willpower. A doctor's job in an apocalypse is even more stressful than before, as this time the doctor may not have the correct tools and objects to complete his job or the modern medicine to tend the sick. So it is important for the doctor to adapt to the new environment with scientific skills it's encouraged to have a good level of search and survival to find plants for medicine, and much needed supplies to tend injuries. High willpower is important to tolerate the stress stamina is needed to be able to stay on your feet for hours and hours at a time, for those who require the most medical emergency attention. As stated above, you will need to adapt it's important to team up with crafters and survivalists if your craft and survival is low. For this role, a crafter could easily craft medical supplies for the doctor. A doctor is suited to staying inside your base/camp as a support role. Never send a doctor alone always team him up with a fighter or survivalist.

Well-rounded: Skills

Preferred skills: Player's choice

Recommended hobbies: Player's choice

Challenges to avoid: Player's choice

The point of a well rounded survivor is to be evenly skilled in everything. You have no specific skill, you are skilled in everything at an adept level, while at first you will be pretty useless. later on during the story you will become more and more honed. Don't expect to be a hacker on day one, or be able craft guns during the first days. You will be mostly useful in non-specialized situations.

Challenges
'While challenges are negative having some challenges can make your story much more interesting. Here you will learn about challenges in a more deep detail to learn about each one.'

Note: Addictions are not recommended for new players

Nicotine- This means you must smoke a cigarette every few hours, but when you do it will lower your physical skill performance such as stamina and agility. When you don't meet the required amount, you skills drop even further making your job as a survivor even harder. This means you must scavenge for cigarettes, but will will use up 1 slot when you could've taken something more important to your survival. However cigarettes will be high in demand to some survivors who will happily trade anything for a pack.

Alcohol- Like nicotine you must consume alcohol daily, but unlike nicotine you will be under the influence every day with affects your skills even more than nicotine. Going one day without alcohol will cause withdrawal and if you suffer withdrawals far too long your character will die.

Claustrophobia- Is not recommended for scavenger players, this challenge means that your character will not enter small places. This includes basements, closets, elevators, and so on. This is not recommended for scavengers due to the importance of the skill, while having claustrophobia doesn't completely prevent you from scavenging it does take away chances of finding great loot for your survival.

Allergic to pollen: This may sound harmless however, when exposed to pollen your skills and attributes lower. This will also cause you to be distracted making it harder to search or use hand to hand combat, unable to use stealth, and difficulty aiming.

Deep sleeper: This only affects you during mornings or whenever your character wakes up. This challenge means you won't wake up. Even to the sound of a gunshot you won't even budge. If you did your performance is slowed and will not be able to properly fight back. Your skills will be temporarily lowered upon being awoken.

Fear of heights: Is not recommended for parkour players. This challenge will prevent you from climbing over normal heights, even going to a second floor will trigger this challenge. You will flee the environment when overcome with fear.

Hearing impaired: You will not be able to hear soft noises, or multiple sounds will be unrecognized. Being hearing impaired you will not fully understand other people/sounds without a hearing aid, ironically however you are able to understand conversations on a cell phone which completely defies this challenge.

Kleptomania: Is for impulsive players, this means you will take anything(shoplift, steal, etc) this only happens when stealing is an option. Such as entering a store or another person's house. Even worse. Your own group, this is a really dangerous challenge, if you were to steal from the wrong person in your group it can become very violent and you or another person could end up killed or seriously injured and end up having companions leave your group.

Night Blindness: This challenge is not recommended for fighter/soldiers of the group. Your skills of driving, shooting, cooking, fighting. Is greatly lowered in the night. Even a lightly dimmed area will affect these skills.

Vegetarian: Everyone knows what this is. A vegetarian is someone who completely refuses to eat meat. In the apocalypse a vegetarian's meals are limited and when forced to eat meat your character will become sick causing your skills to lower.

Short fuse: This challenge you will become easily angered even if the action wasn't intentioned, while this doesn't exactly affect skill performance it does affect relationships and making it harder to negotiate.

Visual impairment: Also not recommended for fighters/soldiers without glasses or contacts you will be unable to drive a car or shoot a gun, let alone safely run away from danger without running into something. Like night blindness you cannot perform anything that requires sight, however this affects both during the night and the day time.

Pet Owner:This is a mixed bag.While pets do require food and supervision,they can be beneficial.Retrievers will hunt for you,Shepherds will guard your items,Huskies will do manual labour for you and Chihuahuas and cats will provide morale boost.

Dependent Child:The best Challenge in the entire game.Trust me,you'll have a blast with this.Even though the child will need food and supervision,he will acually help you collect supplies and will recommend that you make simple meals.It also helps that he's the best character in the whole game.

Walkthrough
'This heading will walk you through the game step by step to make the game more enjoyable for you. BEWARE OF SPOILERS'

Day One:
When you come home you have the option to lock up your house, if your crafting is adept and at 60% it will take 30 minutes to board everything up. Seriously saving you much time, however it is ONLY recommended you block the windows with metal, secure the perimeter, set up a camera, and an alarm.

Next you will have the chance to call your friends, do not call Parker, vince, or Jamie. Parker and vince will not pick up their phones, and there is no need to speak to Jamie all he will tell you to do is lock up the house and gather supplies(which you already just did).

If you live in the country, call billie if you have high intimidation or persuasion and say "can you spare me anything to help?" Then pick either intimidate or persuasion and she will give you 10 portions of food. Also living in the country you will have access to a well so there will be no need to find water for part one.

If you live in the shrubs do not call sean, he has nothing to offer, then goes silent the next day, so it's a complete waste of time.

If you live in Nightfall and not a vegetarian, if you go to fred's house he will leave a pot of chili for you. If you help him reach his mother, he will give you two bags of supplies if your stealth skill is too low you will not be able to get the second bag, because it fell between houses.

If you want to know what's going on in the apocalypse, check the news and watch TV. This will just keep you informed with what's going on.

It is now recommended you rest and do your hobbies, your stress and fatigue will lower, keep your means TYPICAL if 20 portions of food or above.

Sleep at least around 10pm if your stamina is low. You will wake up without losing any skill points.

Eventually a zombie will try to break into your home, it doesn't matter what option you pick, but your stress will increase and if you choose to fight with low combat skills, you will suffer gash wounds which will give you a skill plenty until you heal yourself. High medicine isn't required for minor injuries.

If you want to craft an item, do not craft miscellaneous items. Unless you want barbed wire, you will need 2 metal parts 2 wood parts, crafting tools, and 60% crafting. The barbed wire bat requires  [1 barbed wire, 1 baseball bat, crafting 50]. Which is very useful even with low combat skills.

At 9:00 pm a mob will form at your neighbor's house. If you have high intimidation, leadership, or persuasion, you will influence the crowd to leave,

Day Two:
When you wake up, DO NOT make a large meal. Much of your food has already rotted away and more will rot the next day. Make it a typical/small meal.

You will again have an option to call parker. This time he will answer. However there will be no benefit besides relationship increase..Depending on how you talk to him.

Do not repair your home right away, it's important to scavenge as soon as possible pick "scout the area" then scavenge all the homes.

In time there will be an 'injured soldier' on your front yard, this is a way to build your character's personality, killing the soldier is possible even with low ranged weapons, however DO NOT ATTACK the other soldiers with low ranged weapons, you will be killed.

Scavenging the boarded up house: Here you will meet a new character, and find good things to scavenge. Once you've made it in the house if you choose the option 'take items from the makeshift camp, but want to be a good character do not 'read the note' it will be a plea to not steal his supplies or your morality will lower.

Do not bother killing sifer, unless you're a complete monster. You will not get her supplies, and you ruined a possible recruitable character who is very skilled in combat.

When visited the expensive rancher home, again if you have low combat do not kill the zombie, you will die. When you answer the ringing phone answer it. When you do someone named greg will be on the other line. Answer honestly about his parents and he will give you a combination number that will give you supplies. You can then continue searching the house without anymore interruptions.

When you visit the last house, there will be a group of zombies, if your combat skills are high enough you can kill them all and search the entire house. If not you can sneak for a bag with a gun, if not high enough, then it's recommended to walk away. You will die no matter what choice.

Now you will see two strangers approaching your house, named lyle and jillian if you are an impulsive person immediately invite them into your home, if you're more calculated watch them then crack the door open, if you decide to let them in make sure your empathy is high enough, 'WARNING: These two strangers will rob you if you cannot get them like you. 'Or you can just completely ignore them. However Jillian can join your group, but she doesn't show much skill besides conning.

If you invite them in you MUST do these following steps in order.
 * 1) Don't let them in directly.Crack the door open first,then allow them into the house.This'll give you a relationship boost.When Jillian asks to use the bathroom,pick the option to escort her there.This will give you another relationship boost.
 * 2) DO NOT PICK THE 'Speak to Lyle and Jillian' OPTION.Contrary to what you might believe,it'll actually DECREASE your relationship with both Jillian and Lyle.
 * 3) Feed them. It doesn't matter how big, but remember you will lose portions of food.
 * 4) You will eventually catch Jillian going through your bag. You must have either intimidation or leadership. Once she admits it, forgive them and she will return the stolen items(OR you can tell them to leave then rob them/kill them)
 * 5) Lyle, will be caught faking his blindness. Once he does you can ask him point blank to stop pretending to be blind. Once then if your relationship was high enough lyle will ask(again) to be forgiven. If you say "Fine, but no more lies" You've successfully gotten a new companion(Jillian)
 * 6) After that you will be safe to leave them alone in your home

Day three:
Again, more of your food has rotted away so it's recommended beyond this point to eat small meals.If lyle and Jillian joined your group, and your intimidation/leadership is high enough it is safe to follow them to their car. You will encounter a minor antagonist named Dillan along with Rosie and Edgar(Driver). If your ranged weapons is high, you can shoot him, but lyle will die in the process which is why it's recommended to have intimidation at least 50% (You MUST have a gun to successfully intimidate Dillian) If lyle survived he will leave the group to find his daughter, but jillian will stay and becomes an option for romance.

Repair any damage done to your home. After that you will get a visit from Rachel,who will ask you to rub her nipples.Accept the offer for a massive relationship boost.You'll then be inttroduced to Woody,Jaime's cousin,who can repair your house for you.call from Jamie, informing you that he sent his cousin Moses to stay with you(you cannot decline this is a forced decision) Jamie will then ask what supplies you require. Depending on your skills or challenges pick either "Food" "Construction material" "medicine" or "Cigarettes/alcohol" if you have addiction challenges.

The next thing it's recommended you go to the store and either buy or shoplift food. However you can literally shoplift everything and walk out of the door if your charisma is high enough or bribe the guard. If you took all the possible food you will get 60 portions of food. Water won't be needed if you live in the country with access to a well.

You may or may not speak with moses, all this does is give you an ideal look on who he is and increase your relationships.

At 2pm You will rescue Jamie from the school. If you have the pet owner challenge, do not bring the pet if he is untrained.

On your way to the school you will be chased by gangsters, it doesn't matter how high or low your skills are. No option is the wrong one.

When you've arrived to the school. No other option matters beyond here on out. You can choose whatever option you want. There is no deaths or injuries.

Personality traits
This section will explain personality, how to increase or decrease, and definitions. Personality greatly affects your story in the game, how other people will treat you, and how you will react to certain situations, this guide will help teach players how to shape their character. Some people don't care for personality while others do. This part of the guide will teach you everything you need to know.

Honorable: The definition of honor is honesty, loyalty, selfishness, being ethical and moral. In order to increase your honor you must commit virtuous acts. I.e save lives, be moral, help those who need it, sparing your enemies greatly increases honor. An honorable survivor is probably lawful good.

Pragmatic: Is not completely opposed to honor, but it is defined as being realistic using facts instead of ideologies. As a pragmatic person you do not listen to emotion or ideas you listen to facts. Such as common sense. Would you invite two complete random strangers into your home? A pragmatic person would say no. There are not enough facts to know who these people are. Common sense would say they could be dangerous and you signed a death warrant. A pragmatic survivor could be neutral or chaotic good trying to stay alive.

Humanity: There are two sides of this personality, if one was high in humanity they would be civilized. A civilized survivor would save a life whenever necessary even if this person had evil intentions. While a depravated low humanity survivor would be the opposite. Taking lives, executing enemy survivors when they are at your mercy this includes killing zombies. A deparvated survivor would be an example of chaotic evil.

Ideal: Being an idealistic survivor means you are optimistic of the future, you have positive thoughts such as believing the apocalypse will end, you and your group will survive, and that your group will become like a family. This can increase by sharing your positive thoughts with your companions etc.

cynical: Is the opposite of optimism, a pessimistic survivor is the negative thoughts of the future believing humanity is doomed and there is no hope also believes that everyone secretly has their own hidden agenda taking advantage of you(not the same as paranoia) as a cynical survivor you believe that everyone who comes into contact with you is up to no good, and you truly believe that you and everyone else is going to die in the end.

Impulse: A impulsive survivor is someone who is bold, but very reckless. As an impulsive survivor you don't think. You act without forethought or using rational thinking. Such as cooking all your food in one day, accepting any random survivors into your group, driving recklessly. Any choice made without thinking or just blant our reckless is considered impulsive.

Calculated(not to be confused with calculated behavior) A calculated survivor would be alert and paranoid using rational thinking and careful analyzing before making a decision, thinking critically before deciding which idea is the best one. A calculated survivor takes careful planning or preplanning before deciding to make a move much like chess a calculated survivor doesn't sacrifice all his pawns impulsively.

Moral compass: Means being compassionate, patient, nice. Everything civilized people are, being patient with other survivors or situations increases moral compass. Low moral compass is self-centered, rude, and selfish. A survivor with low moral would upset/anger another person and not care, looting supplies from people's camps. Basically your everyday jerk-face.

Truth: This is straightforward or manipulative, a straightforward person gives honest direct answers. Even if it were to upset another person or get you in trouble. You would always tell the truth this however does not mean you should admit anything, only when a question is asked to increase straightforward you must answer the question directly. Manipulative is the opposite. As a manipulative survivor you will lie. No matter how big, no matter how little you will lie, hide your true feelings, say what people want to hear. A deceptive cunning survivor controls people through words you will say you truly care for another survivor, however inside you're actually just using other survivors for you benefit while not giving to theirs.

Some survivors based on their personality will enjoy a ruthless cunning leader. Other survivors in your group may fear you, mistrust you, and be wary of you. While other survivors prefer an honorable, calculated leader. Be advised sometimes manipulations is a wise choice to avoid trouble or chaos in your group.

Tips

 * DON'T Cook large meals. Even if you have a high level cooking, eat a typical meal at least once or a small meal and a snack, especially if you have the dependent and pet.
 * DON'T waste all your time analyzing LEGIT reports on Zeta in one day because it's very time consuming. They can be reviewed later on in time as well.
 * DON'T use all your crafting materials on day 1, there is no need to use them unless you plan on leaving your house during day three. It is recommended to get crafting to at least level 4 or 60 percent, because when you craft it will take 30 minutes instead of an hour and 30 minutes. In this case block the doors and secure the outer area.
 * DON'T spend too much skill points on driving. Driving is not very important during day one or day two, it is advised however to increase them later in time.
 * DON'T stress yourself on trying to get all the skills at a master's level. You can't have every toy in the toybox.
 * Have at least one high combat skill to fight, it doesn't matter which one. You can't charm zombies, they find your face more delicious than words.
 * You can't shoot your way out of every situation no matter how high your ranged weapons are. Either you or someone else will be injured/killed in the process make your choices wisely.
 * Get one ranged weapon even if your skill is low. You can't kill hordes of zombies with your bare fists even if you were chuck norris, and even with low ranged weapons you can still shoot zombies.
 * Make sure your scavenging is at a good level. You don't know what you will be missing out when looting homes.
 * Non-combatant professions are not recommended for players who are new to the game and need to learn how it works.
 * Avoid picking challenges that would seriously conflict your main skill. E.g. Scavenger with claustrophobia.


 * Don't bring your dog with you if he is untrained.
 * The day ends at 2am use your time wisely.
 * High stamina and high willpower means you will need less sleep per day.


 * A well-rounded character in attributes will do better than a highly specialized character.
 * Many attributes influence multiple skills such as intelligence - don't ignore this when building a character.
 * When choosing a weapon be aware of its ammo-type - some ammo is tougher to find than other types. Choosing an AR-15 is recommended due to its common ammunition.
 * Hobbies are a great way to round out a character's attributes.
 * Some beta testers found Dancing, Drawing, Video-Game Playing and Exercising to be valuable hobbies.
 * Remember to use your hobbies to relieve stress and fatigue. Especially with low willpower and stamina.
 * You don't need huge meals if you remember to eat at least once a day.
 * If you get fatigued too frequently, consider raising Stamina.
 * High Empathy helps you make friends faster.
 * The internet can help you find the truth.
 * Pick the Dependent Child challenge.
 * Shopping is expensive, but you don't need to pay for everything.