Unarmed or poorly armed? Guide/Tips to survive hordes of Zeds in 1.7.2x

[-MadTommy 367]

Unarmed or poorly armed? Here is my guide to survive hordes of Zeds.

Ok.. the new version has been out a few days.. and the Zeds are meaner than ever.. they can detect you from over 100m if you are stupid or unlucky. The game has changed.. you need to change how you play it. This is particularly true when you 1st spawn with f all to protect you. A lot of posts have popped up where the moaning meter has gone into the red zone... don't get mad..change how you play and meet the challenge head on!

In the previous version the Zeds where basically blind.. well not any more. They can see and see you well, this is the biggest change, don't forget it.

The golden rules when unarmed:

Observe & be patient, use stealth, use distraction & know where an escape location is!

Observe & be patient: It now makes a difference whether the Zeds are looking in your direction. If they are within 50m or so only break cover if they have their back to you. They will see at over a 100m.. don't run around like a headless chicken. Use free look a lot.. or TrackIr, keep scanning around. The buggers can appear anywhere.

Use stealth: Crawl.. a lot! Simple as that... if you don't crawl they will see you! Use walk/slow crawl as your default setting. When you spawn double tap Shift.. now you will walk everywhere, if you need to run either hold hold down Shift or double tap W. This way you won't accidentally run a few steps when trying to be stealthy.

Use distraction: Smoke grenades, flares, bottles & cans are now REALLY important. A smoke grenade is more useful had a fist full of ammo. In areas with lots of Zeds the only way to get through them unnoticed is to use distraction. It works.. use it.

Escape location: You will need one! No matter how skilled you are you will get spotted by pure misfortune. You will have to run for your life! Try and always be aware of possible escape locations. These are: Large buildings with two doors, steep hills, wooded areas, large rocky areas, fences & other objects you can vault. The Zeds weakness is their pathfinding skills.. use this. Weaving around rock outcrops, around buildings, through tents etc etc tends to confuse the poor brain dead morons! if you know how to lose the Zeds... you can run around like a headless chicken and survive the Zeds... but you WILL BE SHOT by a bandit! You should use cunning & stealth before running like a loon!

Once armed... do all the above BEFORE you start shooting... only shoot as a last resort.

The new Zeds are a hell of a lot meaner than they were a week ago.. change your strategy or die A LOT!

Please add you own advice... I'm pretty new to the game so understand the challenges for new comers. (thank god i've been playing Arma 1&2 for years... :) )

Edited July 12, 2012 by MadTommy

[[email protected] 32]

After the 1.7.2 patch, I usually ran along the coastlines until i see a bunch of bushes or rock formations and loose them there. It's no use going back to the same direction you're in since i noticed the infected you've previously encountered has a perma-aggro. Best way is to log out and log in again to reset their behavior. I tried crawling but somehow the infected got alerted even when they're very far away. And this happens quite a lot even though it random. The other only way to loose them is to swim. My other advice is to drop your bag in a hidden location before searching for supplies. That way, you won't feel so hurt when you jump into a river or the sea which tend to drop stuff from your inventory.

[codeoverflow 11]

After the 1.7.2 patch, I usually ran along the coastlines until i see a bunch of bushes or rock formations and loose them there. It's no use going back to the same direction you're in since i noticed the infected you've previously encountered has a perma-aggro. Best way is to log out and log in again to reset their behavior. I tried crawling but somehow the infected got alerted even when they're very far away. And this happens quite a lot even though it random. The other only way to loose them is to swim. My other advice is to drop your bag in a hidden location before searching for supplies. That way, you won't feel so hurt when you jump into a river or the sea which tend to drop stuff from your inventory.

Did not know about the perma-aggro thing, thanks for that.

I only play for two days, still one time I managed to have lots of food, water and a AKM with 3 full mags and a revolver with 4 full "clips" (do not know the name in english, i know it's not clips).

And i got all that using one thing only. Flares.

So if I may, leave a piece of advice.

I may be wrong, but flares seemed to work better at night (or maybe i just learned to threw them better).

Log in to a server when it's dusk, almost night. You will still be able to see, but the visibility is reduced. That means flares work better, and you can still see where you're going.

Dont's:

DO NOT TAKE THAT FOR GRANTED, as the zeds tend to hear and see pretty good now, even if the visibility is 0, they will hear you and pick you off.

DO NOT JUST LIGHT UP A FLARE, if you just light up a flare instead of throwing it, you're pretty much dead, since you're in the center of a beacon of light, fully visible.

DO NOT THROW FLARES AT YOUR OBJECTIVE, remember, flares are suposed to distract, so if you throw them where you want to go, you may be able to see better, but you also will be seen better.

Do's:

CRAWL! ALWAYS! As was well said by the OP, crawl, just crawl. You can run crawl pretty much anywhere near walkers, but in villages or cities, slow crawl will get you safelly where you need to go (most of the time)

USE DISTRACTIONS, flares and smokes are your best firends right now, and flares you can find them pretty much anywhere now. Each flare "package" gets you 10 flares, so 1 will be enough for a while. Here's how I use them:

- See my objective, crawling with zeds.

- Turn mouse about 45º to right or left, throw flare just a bit farther than the objective.

- Zeds follow

- I crawl ou crouch (up to a point, then always crawl) around the other side, into the objective, grab the stuff and get out before they realize I was even there.

Flares also have another porpuse, Flares atract bandits like hell, so the same technique can be applied.

Throw a flare in some loot area, and if there are any bandits around, they will be drawn to it like zeds. If you play the path of the good guy like I do, just run like hell before he spots you.

Sorry for the long text, just what I mainly do to survive.

[The L!ne 31]

I tried crawling but somehow the infected got alerted even when they're very far away. And this happens quite a lot even though it random.

The aggro from far away depends on wether the zombie is facing you or not. The line of sight is implemented now. you can craw a zombie in the back and kiss his feet but you cant come closer than 10m when he faces you. So its not random.

And I dont think, that there is perma-aggro. Tried it myself some times and never had a had time coming around my lost-aggro-zeds.

[BoomBoom (DayZ) 4]

The aggro from far away depends on wether the zombie is facing you or not. The line of sight is implemented now. you can craw a zombie in the back and kiss his feet but you cant come closer than 10m when he faces you. So its not random.

And I dont think, that there is perma-aggro. Tried it myself some times and never had a had time coming around my lost-aggro-zeds.

It's actually pretty random.

[The L!ne 31]

As I wrote: I tried it and it didn't seem to be any random to me. i could predict the behavior evrytime in the last few hours og gameplay...