Originally posted by Overrunned:
I’m no good at these but these info is basically out there in several of the comments, there’s just not an easy topic right now collecting everything that’s been said.
Quest items:
1) Kelly’s Glasses – It’s three inches near the door where you find her (in the previous room). Inside the store. Before the door there’s a small area. Around the lower waist/legs area. Just hover around it and eventually the cursor will change. It’s not on the ground and it doesn’t look like glasses. I’d call it pixel hunting if there isn’t actually a reading glass that’s a generic item.
2) Don’t throw away the paper weight and the broken pipes. Don’t ignore them either. Just keep them even though other misc. items don’t seem to have much value.
3) Stats:
Smarts – Don’t bet on this increasing the books. Low smarts will give lower benefits to books but at best you get a +1 and it’s not some mysterious stat boost.
When it works you will see the description on the book change so don’t save up on those books unless the payoff is really low.
Blunt vs. Blade – Blade is probably a late end weapon while Blunt is clearly the default choice early on. Therefore unless you plan to stick with melee, it’s better to focus on blunt + a late end weapon.
Don’t overlook fitness/survival – Early on it’s easy to stack food items but later on it can get rare. You are also better off conserving the supply rather than trying to fill the bar.
Do conserve your cash – This is one of those games where better weapons don’t pay off if the stats and the ammo isn’t there.
Increase First Aid to satisfactory level before Endurance – Early on you get tons of medical items but you can easily waste them (i.e. use more than one) if your first aid is low. Mid-game you want to start tanking for your teammate. I haven’t really reach that far into the game though so I don’t know what end game is like but basically among all the side stats, first aid has the highest rate of increase. You could even go custom and have absolutely low endurance and it will get you far as long as you focus on blunt and a high knockback melee weapon.
Edit
Walkthrough for Luck Stat Focused Melee Character on Survival Mode
Pro:
+Changes the game from an action shooter to an action stealth game with shooting elements
+Opportunity to get items much faster
+Makes the game slightly more strategic – you have to be really good with taking opportunities from stunned and downed and falling enemies and shuffling your feet forward and back.
+Forces you to micromanage stats
+Gives you plenty of food
Cons
-Character weaker and easier to kill
-Low Stats for Guns and Low Stats for Strength
-Limited inventory
-Reliant on companion
Starting Stats:
Strength: 8
Endurance: 8
Luck: 9
Guideline
Don’t put any on strength or endurance. Or put just 1 on each and put everything else on luck after the beginning.
Mind you the stats aren’t perfect and I did die while playing with these stats but most of the deaths were from being sloppy or getting surprised by an enemy. Meaning no death from hordes.
Important!
In the beginning, do this: Level Up. Put 1 on Intellect, 5 on Blunt and 5 on Smarts.
Continue putting 5 on Blunt every level up until you get any version of the Sledge Hammer (including damaged)
Continue putting 5 on Smarts until it reaches 35. (This would give your books +5 so don’t use them until you reach this stat)
After that put everything on Luck and then 5 on Blunt and 5 on Search until Search is 35.
From there on it’s up to you to choose however you want to put your stats as long as you keep raising Luck every level up. 35 is the magic number for the Skills raised by Intelligent though. You could or should ignore security because you will get books that will raise that on it’s own. You could ignore First Aid until you stock up on medicine items but chances are you won’t get that opportunity.
Note that at the beginning it might seem like you can get away with low endurance or strength but sometimes the game will screw you over and you’ll find yourself in deep waters even at the beginning. This is why by the mid-point of the game, you should heal when your health is down to 50%. Normally you can wait a bit but it is extremely urgent that you heal at 50% unless you like an absolute challenge and don’t mind dying.
Walkthrough
Tip: Remember that any newly equipped gun needs to be reloaded. Don’t switch to it at the time of battle only to see it having zero ammo.
For the most part the game is random so just play normally and explore everywhere except for the things mentioned here.
In the beginning the best melee weapon is the baseball bat because of it’s knockdown. As long as you keep adding +5 to Blunt, you might not even need to use a ranged weapon.
Danger Zone #1 You’ll come across a room with a memo written by a kid with a chest underneath. Move one room forward and then get out of the house. There’s a death trap waiting for you on the other side and all it has is a can.
As mentioned above, Kelly’s glasses are in the room prior to where she is. Also you should gather every junk and preferably keep them at this point. Even the heavy paper weight and metal sheets.
Eventually you’ll get the quest about needing broken pipes and paper weight. Finish all three and you’ll end up with a suppressed pistol. Sometimes you’ll get this from the items due to your luck but sometimes you won’t.
Anyway if you haven’t found a better weapon, give this to Kelly. Suppressed weapons can be the best weapons for her to not attract hordes but for the most part it’s up to you.
For the most part you won’t lose Kelly as much as you will lose her because she fell and you died.
Another time I lost her because I thought equipping her with a chainsaw indoors would help keep her alive. Big mistake. All the companions are bad in close range but then again the same can be said for the player. Chainsaw is just not a good emergency weapon unless the horde hasn’t reached close enough.
Danger Zone #2 When you chanced upon a room with a fallen man, immediately exit without talking to him. This is because you can’t have two companions. This guy is better than Kelly but chances are your luck has allowed you to find Kelly a killer weapon.
Also avoid the double sided wooden door after this building. There should be a door in between that’s ok to enter but for now ignore the wooden door.
Later on if Kelly dies you can return to the man, accept his quest and he’ll join you. He won’t join if you reject him after doing his quest. The apartment where you need his quest items will host a safe that requires 35 security. By then you should have read enough books to get to that stage. You could also easily die in the apartment so that’s one headache you’ve avoided.
Tip: In small rooms with huge hordes, it is better to exit then heal rather than heal as sometimes the zombies can reposition themselves slightly. Also sometimes your luck can weaken zombies. I’m not sure by how much but you could even chance upon a rare room where returning to it would have no zombies even though you just got out.
Tip: In the dark, never hesitate on using flashlights. Your luck will help with your stealth. The reason for this is because you could easily die from a hidden dog.
Tip: The sledgehammer does not quite hit dogs. You need to back off a little bit.
Eventually you will chance upon a quest for a key. The person is looking for is at the end of the subway so don’t enter the door after you went down and miss that person. You could also skip a rest if you started this quest with at least 50% tiredness. The journey itself is short and you could easily backtrack back. The hard part is in locating the quest.
At this point, depending on how you are doing and what weapons you have, you should put some on guns. Preferably automatic. There will come a point where you will face humans with guns instead of lumbering zombies.
Tip: The baton can be a good mid-way weapon if you still don’t have the sledgehammer
Anyways you will reach a point in the game where you will face zombies with police shields. Normally you shoot them in the face but at close range, you aim for their leg area with the sledgehammer. Don’t make the mistake of wasting all your medkits to find this one out like I did.
Eventually you will get to a point where the zombies are just too plentiful and if not strong, they are well armored and many and you are forced to use a gun.
This is where the Automatic stat will come in handy. If you want an Automatic that feels like a Machine Gun, as Sgt. said, SAW does well. However if you’re like me than you might want to farm for a FAL Battle Rifle which functions closer to a shotgun.
In the last quest for the C4 explosives, just remember that the area is two sided. Don’t move one area and then exit. The background can look the same.
Eventually you’ll come at a point where you are being attacked and you have to escape from the zombies. You can opt for a rifle here or you can just rely on your sledgehammer or other melee weapons. Either way it shouldn’t be too hard.
