Hey everyone, my name is chugfat and today I would like to share with you my general strategy for Time Attack mode in Dead Pixels, specifically solo mode. By the end of this guide, I hope that you should be able to achieve a score of 4:00 or better in time attack mode. Or, in the very least, get yourself the Time Attack Steam achievement for this game!

The reason why I wish to share this information with others is in the hope that the game will become more fun and competitive with high scores, possibly have more people upload footage of themselves playing, and to get more people to play this awesome indies game.

What I’m going to cover are the weapons, upgrades, items, techniques, and an example wave by wave loadout you can use throughout the course of a time attack run.

However, if you are just looking for the bare bones display of information to complete a run, I would recommend that you skip down to Section 6: Loadout Per Wave

The following weapons are the ones I would recommend using for Time Attack:

Wesker Side Arm

The first gun that you start with. Use this to kill the enemies in the first wave. However, as soon as you move on to the second wave, discard/sell it, as it will just get in the way of you switching back and forth between your other weapons during the rest of the run.

Burton Assault Rifle

In my opinion, this motherlover has arguably the best all around combination of range, dps, firing rate, and maybe even run speed of all the other weapons in Dead Pixels. This will be your main killing tool to take on most of the enemies efficiently in Time Attack mode. You can invest in this weapon as soon as you finish Wave 1.

Flamethrower

So up until a few days ago I was preaching how awesome the Woodsman Chainsaw was as your secondary weapon. Boy was I wrong :P. The Flamethrower in this game is insane. The range and firing width, not only make it an amazing all around midrange utility weapon, but it can also save you from ever really having to invest in melee upgrades until maybe the end of a run (Wave 6).

Here are some techniques that you can try and use to maximize your overall damage and speed at completing runs. Just for your own information, I play on a PS2 pad, which makes it much easier to aim, shoot, and move as opposed to someone using a pc or pc and mouse (imo).

My main recommendation would be to get out a ps3 or xbox 360 pad and use it for this game, especially since you can have two buttons mapped out (triggers) to shoot left or right. Of course, you should experiment with whatever controllers are available to you to find what is most comfortable, as this game is easily configured to work with a variety of controllers.

Sweeping

You know those badass scenes in Platoon where Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen would kill 3 or 4 guys at once while essentially running through them? That’s kind of what you
should try and do in this game. Starting at the top or bottom of the stage and moving up and down while firing will be able to do huge benefits for killing faster, especially in the early stages (Waves 1-3) when the enemies get torn apart by the Burton Assault Rifle. This also works well in conjunction with maximum Weapon Skill levels, and Adrenaline cartridges activated (which I will get into later through the the Items section of this guide). This technique can also be used well in conjunction with the next technique:

Picking Your Shots (Burst Firing)

When you first get your hands on the Burton Assault Rifle, your likely going to be tempted to just hold down the fire button and kill away. However, that isn’t necessarily always the best thing to do, especially when you don’t have Adrenaline cartridges. Holding down the fire button lowers your running speed, thus overall damage per second. The best way to make use of this is when you’re “sweeping” in the early stages of a wave, and most enemy groups will go down to one short burst of the Burton Assault Rifle. Firing in short bursts will often yield you the same results as when you are holding down the fire button at the weaker waves of zombies, however, it will get the job done faster as it will not affect your overall running speed as much while you’re firing.

Fire Melee

You fire your weapon and use melee at the same time. Cool. Hold down the fire button and tap the melee button to poke/jab away. This is used for when you close distance with enemies/mobs. You’ll often want to do this with your secondary weapon (Flamethrower).

Fire Melee Grenade

Definitely the most cumbersome of the three, especially considering its questionable use, but it is entirely possible to fire your main weapon, use melee, and throw grenades at the same time. I personally don’t use this technique, but its good to know that it exists just in case someone develops a great strategy with it, which is entirely possible.

Inventory Management

Switching between your weapons is very important, especially when you want to maximize damage at different ranges (ie. Burton Assault Rifle for long distances, Flamethrower for close/midrange distances). It can also be important to switch between grenades over the course of a run, (should you develop a strategy that does so) due to the various properties of different grenades.

You can also switch your items and weapons during the course of a game by opening up your inventory, by pausing the game and managing your items to fit a certain situation (for example: pausing the game, then switching your items, and going back to the game). Essentially, you can cheat :P. I haven’t really tried to mess around with this, although it is possible.

This is where I feel the level upgrades for Dead Pixels fall in Time Attack:

Weapon Skill

Great all around skill for maxing out your damage. IMO, this should be maxed out as soon as possible.

Max Health

For closing distance on zombie groups (usually projectile groups) and overall survivability.

Melee Skill

Again, you’ll often be closing distance with enemies at some point (one side mobs, mobs with high health enemies) so melee becomes important when you want to get that little bit of extra damage and potentially save you a few seconds on a wave.

Running Speed

Movement speed. Can be supplemented throughout the early runs with the speed boosts you can gain from adrenaline, but this should be maxed out before the end of a run in order to have your highest average damage per second.

Luck

Upon reading a post on this link (http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/102383/what-exactly-does-upgrading-luck-do) about the Luck stat in this game, and experimenting a little bit with the upgrade, it appears Luck does increase the chances of you gaining a critical hit. This could become a stat that makes or breaks a high score, depending on how one would experiment with where they place luck upgrades during a run, and/or incorporating it into a strategy that involves keeping your health low during the course of a run. However, I would recommend that this be upgraded after health and movement speed, for the purpose of overall survivability.

Strength

Increases the amount that you carry. Since you most likely will not be equipping items that will make you more encumbered, and unless this does something else, there is no use for this stat in Time Attack Mode.

So in my opinion, here are the upgrades listed in terms of greatest priority to least priority for Time Attack:

Weapon Skill

Health

Speed

Luck Skill

Melee Skill

These are the items which I have used throughout my runs of Time Attack:

Medium Medkit/Large Medkit

These will always be necessary, and you can invest in them at various points throughout a run as they are generally low in price.

Adrenaline

Increases your speed DRASTICALLY! I would recommend trying to use these after you have fully upgraded your weapon skill, so when you pop one of these you can stick to “sweeping” enemies instead of having to take the time to pick your shots on the weaker enemies.

Painkiller

Makes you more resistant to damage. You can invest in these after you have a reasonable amount of health (level 3 or higher) so you can approach mobs and take damage without having to worry about your health, or using too many medkits at once to cover damage being dealt to you when you try to engage these mobs.

I only recommend using Painkillers as the effects last over a duration, and you don’t have to divert your concentration from killing to mashing the item use button for medkits (because damage can really accumulate from projectile zombies).

The main reason as to why I wish to explain the load out of Time Attack sessions in this game, is due to the importance of resource management (lol Starcraft).

After the first wave of a time attack session for Dead Pixels, resource management will affect the entire rest of a run. Here I will cover the bare essentials that I recommend you spend money on in terms of weapons, items, and ammo, to which you can then decide more freely what you wish to use in terms of upgrades (maybe you like to have a bit more health for approaching mobs, maybe you will invest more into Luck for the possible critical hits, maybe you want speed for overall dps, save your money for an upgrade you want on a later wave, etc).

When to pickup money

The only times in which you should have to specifically pickup money in Time Attack are during the first two sets of enemies in Wave 1, and at the end of each wave when all enemies have been killed. Of course, there are always methods in which you can experiment with the amount of money you pick up during a wave vs the time that may be lost doing so.

Wave 1

Wesker Side Arm

Items: x2 Small Medkit

Throwable Weapons: x2 Hand Grenade

Your starting loadout. Use the Wesker Sidearm to take care of the first two sets of regular zombies. Next, close distance with the first set of fast zombies that appear. Shoot at them as you close distance, then let them bite at you for about a second and a half. Just trust me ;). Then, hit em with your first grenade! You will likely have to finish some of them off with your main weapon/melee. You can heal yourself with a small medkit just before the second set of fast zombies appears, to which you then repeat the process. Then the wave is finished. Good job! Pick up the money laying on the ground and go buy some goodies! Also, this is the only wave in which I personally use grenades.


Wave 2

Before the start of Wave 2, you should now have enough money for:

X1 Burton Assault Rifle

Ammo: 200 7.62 millimeter rounds

Upgrades: Weapon Skill Level 2

Sell: Wesker Side Arm

This is all you need for the second wave. I would recommend using the “Sweeping” technique as well as Picking Your Shots from earlier to fire when you need to.

Wave 3

Ammo: 400 7.62 millimeter rounds

Upgrades: Weapon Skill Level 4

Optional: x1 or x2 any medkits

x5 Adrenaline

Adrenaline is very good for this point of the run, and you can use three shots during the wave. Every enemy crumbles from the Burton Assault Rifle on this stage, and now you can “sweep” up and down for much of the run to bring down most of the enemies. You may even have adrenaline left over for the coming waves.

Wave 4

x1 Flamethrower

Ammo: 600+ 7.62 millimeter rounds

500 Gasoline

Upgrades: Running Speed Max Level

x2 Painkiller

I decided on the use of pain killers for the mob that you have to take down (Old Zombies, flanked by projectile military zombies).

Optional: Medium or Large Health Upgrade

Wave 5

x600 7.62 millimeter rounds

x500 Gasoline

Max Health

Max Luck

If you have any remaining Adrenaline cartridges, I would reccommend using them for the start of this run, when you may have max health already and can absorb a good amount of damage.

Wave 6

x1600 7.62 millimeter ammo

x4000 Gasoline

Max Melee

x3 Painkiller

This last round is a bit more free form as you have plenty of money to afford plenty of whatever you need (ammo, items, etc).

I hope that you look at the material I have posted here and utilize it to the best of your ability. Even though I feel that this is a good portion of the knowledge that can be applied to Time Attack mode, this guide should be able to get you started in discovering your own strategies for completing Time Attack mode.

I would also like to thank my friend Bartenderjoe899 for introducing me to this game just before the end of 2012, and to all of my friends who have played this game with me (you know who you are)!

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this guide, and I hope you all have some very happy zombie killing.

Peace.