Best tips I can give: * biggest hint: get used to using the numpad for camera control while stealthing. It gives a great deal of awareness and allows you to track zombies without changing which way your character is moving. * Prone is much more effective then crouch-walking. * There is a major noise difference between walking and running. * The surface you are moving on makes a big difference, only crouch-run on grass safely. * Zombies' eye-sight is a lot better then it use to be, so line of sight is more important. * Zombies seem to be attracted to movement and sound, I've stood still before and had one walk a foot away from me with out aggroing. * Zombies can be distracted with flares, lights, and smoke gernades. Throw them if you want to quickly get past a lot of them. * Lots of people like stealthing in prone because its more effective, but if you stealth in crouch-walk and you pull aggro, you can instantly switch to a full run to loose the zombies, while if you're prone you have to come to a complete stop in order to switch to a run, which many times will cause you to get hit. * Like many others have said, many times it is better to just run past zombies and enter buildings (with two exits) to loose them. My philosophy in early game is to "enter towns fast and leave slow". Gear wise you have little to lose early game, and if you know what you are doing you can quickly get into towns, loose zombies, raid gear, and then slowly work your way out to avoid getting tailed by zombies or other players.