The War Z Wasteland Survival Guide

The War Z Wasteland Survival Guide by Nick930930

I wanted to make my own guide to help newcomers survive in this ruthless world of WarZ. I’ll try and include as much as possible, feel free to add suggestions in reply.

1) Trust Absolutely Nobody.
You can trust someone if you run at them with a baseball bat and they run in the opposite direction. Even then, just let them run off and go in the opposite direction. You can usually only fully trust a player when they’re in your teamspeak/ventrillo with you.

2) Keep a melee weapon handy.
Zombies are not as threatening as they are in most games, but it’s a pain in the ass losing all your stuff just because you didn’t have the right weapon ready to use and you die going through your inventory as a single zombie is coming at you. Keep that hammer ready! You can find these melee weapons almost anywhere. You can bash in a guys head with your flashlight if you sneak up on them and that’ll help get you on your feet.

3) Avoid the city.
The large city is home to zombies and bandits galore. The apartment building at the southside has several windows and almost always has a gunman somewhere inside. I’ve never gone to that building and not been shot at. Only go there if you have friends with you or already in the city with good overwatch positions (aka: snipers)

4) No Flashlight
The flashlight can and will be seen by other players miles away. There are no lights in the game and as soon as that thing is equipped, 10 players have already seen you and are looking for an easy kill. It is incredibly weak against zombies and takes several hits on a player to kill them. Just get rid of that shit and don’t bother picking any extra ones up.

5) Water/Food First
When you first start your primary goal should be to find food and water. The towns and cities usually have potato chips and random energy drinks. But don’t bother, the risk is not worth that reward. Instead, head northeast or northwest. There’s some abandoned shanty town like areas that ALWAYS have food and water and sometimes even melee weapons. It’s a long walk, but worth it. It’s very rare to find bandit players here as well.

6) Avoid the roads
This should just be common sense. Roads are the main path to and from major landmarks in the game. Zombies rarely walk on the roads so if a player sees anything moving on the road, it’s likely to be some noob walking from point A to point B. Don’t be that noob. Stay off the roads. Sprint across them if you need to, but be very careful when doing so. Stay in the heavily wooded areas, it’ll make it harder to pick out at long distances.

7) Avoid Zombies
I know it’s a zombie game, but trust me, fighting the zombies is not fun at all. You don’t even want to bother. You should always try and sneak past them. They’re pretty stupid so as long as your crouched and a few yards from them, they won’t seem to notice you. If they DO notice you, run like hell or take them out as fast as possible. Go into first person view (C) and aim your camera a little above their head and start swinging. This will guarantee a headshot and will probably take 3-4 hits with most weapons to kill. As soon as you kill the zombie, run like hell to cover. Chances are somebody will have noticed you fighting a zombie and will take advantage of the distraction.

8) Turn Terrain Decoration on LOW
I hate that this has to be included in the guide because I can actually run this game very well on the highest graphics. But unfortunately, the developers thought it fair to allow toaster oven computer players to be able to see you at extreme distances even if you’re hiding in a big thick bush on your screen. Terrain decoration on low will remove all the bushes and grass decorations in the game, making trees/rocks your only form of cover in the woods. Yes…snipers can see you hiding in that bush two miles away. I personally think this is bullshit and hope the developers fix this. But in the meantime, take warning.

9) Never leave the safezone with rare loot
People love camping the safezones. Most players spawn there ready to play. Always go to a safezone and drop off your cool new loot into your global inventory. This cleans up space for your backpack and saves your items for later use. I’d recommend spawning into the game with 3 water bottles, a moderate food item (Can of tuna, Ham), a melee weapon, pain pills, and bandages. If you’re feeling like you might get into a firefight, bring your pistol or rifle, but I’d recommend saving it for when you have a big group of friends playing with you. Be aware that players are waiting for other players to leave the safezone, so look around before leaving and run like hell along the sides to cover. Get out of that safezone area as soon as possible.

10) Don’t Get Mad
If you die out there, don’t flip out. It’s only a game. Your loot will drop and players will take it. That’s the point of the game. Just understand that everything you ever pickup you will eventually lose in one way or another. Might as well have fun with the items while you have them. Don’t save that shotgun for some magical moment where you just know you’re going to be in an awesome close quarter combat situation. Just find it, use it, store it for next time and use it again. Plus all the stuff we’ve collected in alpha will be reset anyway so just use your stuff now before you lose it.

11) Don’t Double Team Kills (Melee)
Do not join your friend in killing a zombie with a melee weapon. Every single time someone does this one player gets hit by accident. Just have one person run up and hit the zombie. It takes like 3 hits. No reason to have 4 people beating up a poor walker.

12) Don’t Hesitate
This comes in two parts. When you’re in a gunfight with a player, don’t hesitate. As soon as you see him unload until he is dead and his gear falls on the ground. When you’re fighting a zombie, run in and hold the LeftMouseButton. Don’t hit it and walk backwards and forwards and hit again. That method works in other zombie games but NOT this one. Just walk up and hold the button. They can’t attack you if you’re holding down the melee button trust me. If you think you’re in a bad situation, GET THE HELL OUT NOW! Don’t hesitate. Do what comes to mind first. If you see another player coming towards you with a weapon drawn, unload on him. Don’t be tricked by the “Friendly” bullshit. Nobody is friendly unless you started playing with them. Anyone with better stuff than you will never befriend you, only kill you.