BOOBS, good now that I got your attention read this: Read all of the tips because some of them contradict each other, you'll decide which tip is better.

1.Guns are very loud and therefore attract zombies. The best thing to do is stockpile them all at
your safehouse and never use them, only keep them around for when you are inevitably attacked by the lynch mob or the little girls family. Sniping isnt very effective and takes TONS of ammo to be of any use, assaulting with guns isnt at all neccessary since the more you assault with melee more and more zombies will wander out of the bulding till there is only a few left. Crossbows and silenced hand guns however can be used for assault since they are silent.

2.When breaching dont take guns. As soon as all the zombies have been cleared set your two best survivors on patrol and attack zombies. They will only use melee weapons which wont make noise and cause more zombies to attack. This also prevents large hoards of zombies from building up or even getting in to your house at all even if it isnt secured.

3.Also make sure you always modify your weapons, tools, and armor. Any tools you dont need you should scrap for barricade materials. A sparkling mop makes cleaning corpses way faster and you should always carry one.

4.If you can, kill the shopping cart lady. Trust me, its worth it. Also make sure you are taking as many backpacks with you as you can but more than 5 is a waste.

5.Once you have all the clues and the radio, if you still have a few days left dont spend it in the evac location since the longer you are in a location the more zombies come. If you can, dont go there till the last 12 hours.

6.Making custom survivors with similar backrounds is very important for new players and makes the game easier for old ones. The custom content creator is SUPER easy to use and gives you tips on how to balance your custom careers.

7.Search all the houses, warehouses, and factories first. These are really easy to breach and usually you dont need a single assault. You can clear them all in 2 or 3 days and may even have all the clues by the time you are done. Designate one or two of them as your first temporary safehouses.

8.Watching for zombies is pretty useless especially since you should always have someone attack zombies on patrol.

9.Make lots of safehouses, you dont want to have long trips for your survivors to get place to place. It tires them out faster and they eat more, plus it wastes precious hours.

10.Try to make at least one large meal and save it for emergencies. Large meals require 25 ingriedients and take a while to make, however they allow you to hold a feast which puts all survivors relationships to maximum even if they were all really low. This is super useful if in the final day your survivors are too angry at eachother to function.

11.Keep all relationships as high as possible. If they are low then performance suffers. If performance suffers surivors get frustrated with one another, creating an endless negetive spiral. This will 'cause arguments that attract zombies, can cause injuries and greatly reduce fighting ability.

13.If you have spare time and very capable survivors the police station and hospital are always worth exploring. Make sure you assault them a lot first. The bank also makes a great safehouse.

14.If a building has more than 5 zombies in it its a good idea to assault it first. Im pretty sure these are zombies like in 28 days later considering how well they tear down defenses and they dont just bite, they smash, crush and gore. So a 1 zombie per survivor is a good rule of thumb.

15. If you are surrounded by a hoard of zombies dont start fortifying. Instead build traps. Fortifying will just attract more zombies onto the end of the herd in an endless stream. Its best to let a few waves in then send all 5 survivors out on patrol too attack assuming you have enough close combat weapons. You still might lose a member though you should kill about 20 zombies per hour this way, clearing the hoard very quickly.

16.Chess sets and bottles of spirits are more trouble than they are worth. Usually one person wants to play or drink but no one else does 'causing negetive relations. Decks of cards, skipping ropes and dumbells are better options since they can be with an individual or group activity. If you have a musician its also a great idea to carry a guitar which can be modified into a haunting guitar to provide a big bonus, just remember to give your musician an hour of idle time every now and then to renew the bonus.

17. Make sure you have enough tools for everyone assigned to a task. For example if there are two people of equal skill cooking, make sure you have two pans, spoons or knives of the same skill as well. If only one person has a tool or one has a way better tool they will get frustrated with eachother since there will be a big performance difference between the two.

18.The Bar makes for an excellent Home Fort. They typically have only 3-6 entry points, and 60+ pieces of furniture to plug them with. That makes for a very easy fortifying job. There are typically 5-6 zombies parked in the Bar at first, so only go there after you've gotten some decent melee weapons or some armor. The Bank, while it claims to be easily defensible, has pretty much the same number of entry points, and more zombies parked inside. Plus, the Bar frequently has food and melee weapons. The Bank has almost no loot of any type.

19.The Hospital and Police Station are high-risk, high-reward locations. They will have 15+ zombies parked inside (frequently near 30!), so Assaults are mandatory if you want to try them. And I do mean full-on Assault. I disagree with the OP, guns are very effective at securing a location before you properly Breach it. Just remember to bring 100+ rounds of whatever guns you're using, and ideally at least one gun for each survivor. You'll still probably need to assault the sites two or three times, but eventually you'll bring the number of interior zombies down to manageable levels. Exterior zombies are irrelevant, their numbers are replenished from an infinite supply off-map. You'll just have to hunker down inside (don't bring guns to the Breach) and weather the storm until your patrollers can manage to beat the waves back. The Hospital will have tons of medical supplies and maybe a zombie-antidote (risky to use, though). The Police Station will have tons of guns and armor for your survivors to use. In both cases, I do NOT suggest staying there. Both of them have too many entrances to secure, just haul out anything you can, leaving one guy behind to keep the doors closed while the rest run gods to your already-secured base.

20.The School is a weird egg. Like the Hospital and Police Station, there are a lot of zombies inside and a lot of entry points. But staying there, you frequently recieve an event where one of your people hears laughter and finds some goods nearby. You'll neve see who's leaving presents for you, but you can get a fair amount of stuff this way. Assuming you can hold your ground.

21.If you want to clear out a large amout of zombies, you can start a bonefire in the other side of the map, make noise or play a stareo. Just remember to pull out your guy before the zombies arrive.

22. In warehouses, instead of carrying all that stuff home,I modify everything right there. This way I bring some good tools to starter base then can go back and grab some more for a new location or as backup tools.


Thanks for Zorlond and xiviriel for the tips!

23. keeping someone on watch at the base lets you know how much longer you can keep doing activities before being detected / when you need to send a patrol out (which btw, dont alert more zombies so it seems to be a good idea to clear them away asap

24. I keep at least 1 on patrol when Im searching a building, better than having them interrupt the search

25. food is the absolute #1 important resource, by your 4-5th house you're swimming in guns/ammo

26. Hotels are a tricky beast in this game. They investigate with 4-6 zombies but when you arrive there's like half the city waiting on the outside. I usually do an assault, its just safer.
More importantly, you can set your guys to 'Rest' here. This is a great option for the 'Final Push' as I like to call it (breaching the hospital and Police Station) cause you want your guys to be in top condition before attempting a breach on them.

26. This game is about speed, best to get in and get out asap. You should never be in any one spot for more than a few hours, zombies cant get a location on you

27. Ingredients and small meals weigh the same, so:
1- Dont make meals unless you're in a corpse free area
2- Once you get in an area that might have meals already prepared, check the supplies section, then clean the house out asap. prepared meals spoil quickly if corpses are around

28. When modifying items, I go for assault on my melee items. Hardened Bats are amazing.

29. Dont bother with ranged weapons too much, save them and their ammo for assault strikes.

30. Look for bars of soap (obviously), but dumbells and jumpropes give temp str boosts as well

31. You can convert all your unwanted items to scraps at your safehouse, which can then be used to fortify your safehouse. From the 'supplies' tab click on the items and there is a summary of what will get converted on the next move at the bottom of the page.

32. You can straight up breach houses and most stores/warehouses with no investigate.

33. Always carry some kind of armor into breaches. Dont know how they manage it, but Ive had 5 guys somehow share the same hardhat, and each of them has deflected blows with it. Amazing.

34. EVERYWHERE you go, search for food. In the middle of an armory, look for food. In the Hospital, look for food. In warehouses, look for food. I have 3 large meals, 27 small meals and 34 snacks now, where as when I first posted this, my guys all looked at each other like hamburgers and fried chicken legs.

35. Tools: Can be modified to be quieter, but...see *Bars. Dont waste time in the warehouses upgrading everything, upgrade your weapons and whatever items you see fit- then gtfo.

36. Always be on the lookout for backpacks: Each one adds 5lbs of carrying capacity. On the flipside, always remember to re-equip them when leaving your safehouse. Dont be a dummy like me and leave 4 and 5 of them in the safehouse...cause they are useless there.

37. ♥♥♥♥ the Piper. Especially if you see him when you're breaching the Police Station. Yes, he will unload a ton more zombies on you, but if you agree to his terms, he'll take your automatic and semi automatic rifles and riot vests. Top end gear. ♥♥♥♥ that.

38. I've heard people say dont trade with the cart lady, even to kill her. Well, she takes butter knives, saucepans and spatulas and in returns gives you semi automatic rifles, medical supplies and tons of ammo. ♥♥♥♥ that, she's ok in my book.

39. You can kill huge mobs of zombies by Assaulting locations that they are stood outside, presuming you have enough gear to pull it off. The Assault action also seems to carry less risk of injury than patrolling from inside a building, and doesn't seem to make much noise even with firearms, You can Assault any building except the building you are in, which makes it an excellent method for clearing large mobs threatening (for example) a critical safehouse. Provided, of course, that you have a second safehouse within range that you can use to launch the attack.

40. Never ever ever make experimental traps, they are more dangerous to you then to the zombies.

Thank for Shrapnel and everyone who contributes to this guide for the tips!

If you have more good tips leave them below! I hope this helps! This game is super hard and luck plays a big role, but hopefully these tips help. If the guide helps please Rate it!