Zombie Pandemic General Comprehensive Guide

Zombie Pandemic General Comprehensive Guide by Rhys

This is the Encyclopedia Zombannica, a one-stop guide for how to do just about anything in the world of Zombie Pandemic, and how to survive in this zombie filled apocalyptic society. This guide is particularly aimed at newcomers, to help them to get a feel for the game and give a few tips.

If you’re looking for a reference on how to or what to do in Zombie Pandemic, this is the place to be. If you’re already an experienced player, you can jump right in anywhere. To new players, probably a good idea to read from the start!

Enjoy!

INDEX

1. The Basics
-Learning about the game interface.

2. First steps
-Where to go, what to do, as a newcomer.
-Explaining a couple of game mechanics.
-Walkthrough of the first quest.

3. Combat
-How to find and engage enemies.
-Tactics to defeating enemies.

4. Levelling up
-Effectively allocating stat points and a summary of stats.
-A description of training and it’s uses.

5. Choosing equipment
-A simple guide to choosing and buying gear.

6. Making money & Experience
-A rundown on effective ways to earn cash.

THE BASICS

If you’re reading this guide, then you’ve probably already completed the first and most important objective of living in Zombie Pandemic – survive. Without good knowledge of the game, however, that might not last long! This guide is here to put you on your feet, whether you’re a complete newcomer or a more experiences survivalist.

Starting out can be a daunting task. There are all these options open to you – places to go, people to see, zombies to kill. Before you can head off gallabanting about the city, you’ll need a basic knowledge of the game’s interface. If you already have a grasp on this, you can skip ahead on this section.

So you’re looking at the game screen. There are values, abbreviations, buttons, etc, etc. It can all seem very confusing. First things first, calm down! Here is a run through of each and every thing on the interface.

STATUS BAR: At the top of your screen, below the ads and framing the game area is a type of status bar. The name of your character should be on the leftmost side of this. This little indicator will become a good friend in Zombie Pandemic; it tells you at a glance details about your condition – how much health you have left, your level, cash, experience, encumberance and SP (stamina points; these will be explained in chapter two).

SIDEBAR: Along the left of the main game area is a list of buttons that have various uses. Clicking on them will bring you to different aspects of the game. Here is a runthrough.

-CHARACTER: From here you can view your characters stats, level up, select perks and view a few game statistics.
-LOCATION: This brings you to an overview of the area you are currently in ingame, which is displayed in the main game window. From here you can scavenge and fight zombies.
-MAP: Navigates you to the map, showing your current location and allowing you to travel by clicking on squares in the map grid.
-MESSAGES: This is the communication hub through which you can contact and liase with other players ingame.
-PLAYERS: This provides a few game statistics, including rankings, and also a listing of clans and the ability to join them.
-SETTINGS: From here you can edit your profile information, email, forum name, gender, date of birth and password.
-JOURNAL: This is your characters collection of notes throughout the infection. Using this, you can attempt to collect evidence and find out exactly what occured in the events leading up to the outbreak.
-DONATE: This option allows you to support the game by donating money to it’s talented creators. Every little bit helps.
-RECRUIT: With this interface, you are able to invite your friends to play Zombie Pandemic.

GAME SYSTEM INFO: Just above the main game area, this recalls the last two actions that you have taken and occasionally will update you with information.

GAME AREA: This is the main ‘block’ that takes up the majority of your screen, and is found roughly in the center. Here is displayed whatever interface you are in. For example, if you selected ‘CHARACTER’ from the sidebar, in this space your stats and a rundown of your character would appear.

Now that you’re familiarised with the game, it’s time to start out on taking your first steps, as explained in chapter 2.


FIRST STEPS

So you’re familiar with the controls, you’re rearing to go kill some zombies. Now what? Your first steps in Zombie Pandemic should be cautious – it’s a dangerous world. If you go running off into the deepest fathoms of the city with that puny revolver you aren’t going to last long.

You’re going to need to know a few crucial game mechanics that are essential in keeping you alive. Perhaps first and foremost of these is..

STAMINA POINTS (SP):

Nobody is infallible. As human beings, we all tire eventually. In Zombie Pandemic, you will tire aswell. Take a look at your status bar, above the main gameplay area. You’ll notice a field called “SP” with two numbers next to it, in the format “Current SP / Total SP”. By default, the total SP you can have is 480. You may notice, however, that your Current SP is higher than your Total SP. This is perfectly normal, as all newcomers start with an initial double SP.

Basically, SP is a kind of fatigue meter used in Zombie Pandemic. The limit, as I previously mentioned, is 480. Stamina Points are used for virtually everything. Moving one grid square on the map will cost you 2 SP, whilst things like making one attack or entering a building at your current location will cost you 1 SP. Certain quest objectives will also require SP.

When you run out of stamina points, you will collapse from exhaustion. Whilst collapsed, you are unable to move or do any action other than wait for SP to recharge, which it does at about 1 SP every 3 minutes. This means that in one day, you will generate 480 SP, which is conveniently the limit.

SP help to extend the games playability and adds to the challenge of the game. You certainly do not want to be caught out in a dangerous part of the city and collapse from fatigue; you may wake to find yourself attacked by Zombies. Because of this, you’ll need to think carefully about where you want to go and how much SP it’s going to take to get there (and back, if nessecary).

HEALTH POINTS (HP):

These are pretty self explanatory, and any experienced or even novice gamer should be familiar with them. Your HP or Health Points represent how healthy your character is. If you have 0, you’re dead. Like SP, they’re shown in the status bar in the format “Current HP / Total HP”.

Your total HP is a function of level and the stat CONSTITUTION. As you level up, or raise CONSTITUTION, your Total HP increases. A level 40 with a strong constitution will have HP well within the hundreds. As Zombies attack, they will damage your HP. The level and type of zombie will effect how much damage they can deal to you.

Health Points can be regenerated with certain items, or over time. You will regenerate health at 1 point every 30 minutes, whilst items such as Stimpacks or food will restore it instantly in exchange for some cash and 1 SP to use them. The amount healed by items depends on the item’s rarity or price.

If you die, you will be taken to a screen where you are given three options. The first is to regain your feet, as a human, with very low health and stamina. This is useful when noone is around to rescue you. The second is to await rescue. Chances are that if someone arrives, they’ll help you up for the experience. You do not lose any Stamina for this. The third and final option is to temporarily become a zombie.

ENCUMBERANCE (ENC):

Every item in Zombie Pandemic has a weight, including ammo, food, restorative items, junk and equipment. Encumberance is the indicator which dictates how much your character is able to carry. It is displayed in the status bar with the same format as HP and SP, “Current weight carried / Total encumberance”.

Your Total Encumberance is affected by the stat STRENGTH. A higher strength stat allows you to carry more items.

EXPERIENCE (XP):

Experience is displayed in the status bar, and tells you how close you are to achieving the next level. You start at level 1. Killing zombies, discovering locations and completing quest objectives will reward you with experience towards the next level. It is presented as “Current Experience / Experience until next level”.

Once your Current Experience exceeds your Experience until next level, you will earn one level and be granted stat points to allocate. This will be explained more in Chapter 3.

Now that you’re familiar with these concepts, you can begin to explore and expand in Zombie Pandemic (if you haven’t already!). You will notice that your first quest will be to investigate your apartment. If you need to review your current objective or remind yourself what it is you’re supposed to be doing, you can check your current quest by clicking on the CHARACTER tab in the navigation bar on the left, and then hitting the QUEST tab in the main game area.

First things first, you have to go to your apartment. Getting there shouldn’t be an issue. Go ahead and click on the MAP tab to open up the map. Your current location will be marked by a blue square. Using the grid reference given to you by the quest, make your way to your apartment by clicking on map squares within a range of 1 square of your current location. As you reach these squares, they will be revealed and the red “fog” covering them will dissappear. Once you have visited a location, you can return to it from anywhere on the map by opening the MAP tab and clicking the square.

When you reach your apartment, click on the LOCATION tab. You should be presented with a description of the area, as well as the tabs SCAVENGE, ZOMBIES and SUBURB. Stay on LOCATION INFO and hit Enter apartment. Once inside, a new tab should be available, QUEST. Hit QUEST to be presented with options for completing your current objective.

Congratulations, you completed your first quest in Zombie Pandemic! Quests are a great way for newcomers to earn equipment, experience and general knowledge of the game, and are certainly worth doing at first.

Now that you’ve completed your first quest, you are given an empty palette in which to play. Your first order of business should probably be to make your way to the College Campus, a nearby safehouse that can provide training, safety and shops.



COMBAT

Chances are that you are going to be thrown in at the deep end, and at some point you will have to fight a zombie, or zombies. Combat is such a wide topic, that I will only briefly explain it, and give a couple of tips as to what you should do.

In order to engage an enemy, or group of enemies, click on the LOCATION button in the navigation bar, then select the ZOMBIES tab. A list of zombies in the area will appear. To attack these zombies, press the ‘ATTACK’ button to the right of their name listing.

So you’ve just encountered your first zombie on your way to the apartment – don’t panic. You will start the game equipped with a rather weak but still useful revolver.

In Combat, you are presented with a dialogue you use to kill zombies. In this dialogue, you are given a list of the zombies you are currently in combat with, their current HP, their distance from you and the speed at which they are approaching you.

The key to fighting zombies (unless you’re a melee user), is keeping them at a distance so that you can pick them off with your gun. Let’s say you’ve encountered a crippled zombie baby and a crippled rotting female. You notice that the female is both faster and closer than the zombie baby – with this knowledge, you should target the female, as she presents a greater threat to your HP.

To do this, click on the name of the Female Zombie. In the list of zombies, the name which is highlighted in white is the zombie which you will attack if you press the ‘Attack’ button.

You are given several other options in combat. Bear in mind that choosing any option, including changing weapon, reloading, advancing or running, will use up 1 SP and will also end your turn.

You will notice that your Revolver’s range is limited. If a zombie is at, say, 50 yards, and your revolver is only capable of firing up to 40, you will have to use the ‘ADVANCE’ button to get within a range that you can shoot in. Once you are within range, press ATTACK to fire a shot at the zombie. Your chances of hitting said zombie are displayed as a percentage to the far right of the zombie’s name. The chance of you hitting the zombie with your shot at ranges above 0 yards are based on your MARKSMAN skill. If you are successful and hit the zombie, their current health will be somewhat depleted for the next round.

You can view a summary of all the combat events that have occured thus far by scrolling down below the list of zombies. Your aim now is simply to finish off the zombies by shooting them until their HP is 0.

If you find you are unable to kill them, or it is too difficult, you should attempt to escape by pressing the ‘RUN’ button.

Be ever mindful of a zombie’s distance from you. If a zombie manages to reach you, and their distance value is 0, you will enter ‘CLOSE COMBAT’. During close combat, you are unable to use certain weapons (particularly rifles, shotguns, etc. Large weapons). You are able to use melee weapons, and most handguns and submachineguns. Note that when you are in close combat, your chance to escape drops from 50% to 30%, so if you feel that you can’t defeat an enemy, it’s better to run sooner than later in combat.

Finally, if you find it is tedious to continually press attack, you can repeat your action several times by using the ‘Attack multiplier’. Several checkboxes above the list of combat commands allow you to decide how many times to attack. If you select 3x, 3 rounds will elapse in which you will fire your revolver three times. Bear in mind, the zombies will also continue moving, and would do so 3 times, or attack you 3 times if in close combat.

Be warned – certain enemies have ranged weapons. Some humans, throughout the outbreak, have gone utterly insane. Unfortunately, such humans are still able to use guns. They are typically more powerful than zombies and will not advance towards you, but instead shoot at you from a distance.

As you progress through the game, you will find more powerful weapons and equipment to help protect you from attacks, as well as help you launch your own, dealing more damage.

LEVELING

Leveling is a very important factor in becoming a successful ZP player. As you progress levels by gaining experience (as explained in chapter 1), you are given 5 Stat Points to allocate into various attributes in-game. By investing stat points in these attributes, you prepare yourself for in-game eventualities and become more powerful as you go up levels.

Here is a list of stats and their effects, as well as a few tips on how to distribute your points. Because the game already has very good explanations of the stats, I will use theirs here.

Agility
The agility skill indicates your physical agility and affects your close combat skill (avoiding attacks), your chances of fleeing from combat (not done yet) and game play including quests related to agility such as climbing buildings etc. With a higher agility, the chances of a zombie landing a succesfull hit on you is lower.

Close combat
The close combat skill indicates how skilled you are at fighting either unarmed or using close combat weapons in 0 range combat. With Close Combat, your percentage chance of hitting in 0 range combat increases.

Constitution
Constitution affects your health and thus your hit points. A higher value will give you more hit points for each level. Constitution will also be useful in game play restoring health as your hit points will regenerate faster and consumption of food and using stimpacks etc. will be boosted (not done yet).

Marksmanship
The marksmanship skill indicates how skilled you are at using ballistic weapons such as guns. Arguably one of the most useful stats, Marksmanship is used in determining your percentage chance of hitting an enemy with ranged weapons at ranges of 1 and above.

Technical
The technical skill indicates how skilled you are interacting with technical challenges in the quests and general game play such as electronics, traps, locks etc. (currently not available in beta).

Smarts
The smarts skill indicates a combination of your intellectual, street smartness and charismatic skills aiding you in negotiating prices and dialogue with NPC’s as well as persuation and awareness of enemies. Having smarts can be useful in quests because it increases the chance that you will succeed at completing certain quest objectives.

Strength
The strength skill indicates how physically strong you are affecting your close combat skill, your encumbrance (how much you can carry), and game play related to physical strength in the game such as moving obstacles etc. (currently not available in beta). As your strength increases, you are able to carry more.

The ‘best skills’ to invest your stats in are widely disputed and depend hugely on what type of character you wish to play. Those who favour melee, for example, will have entirely different stats to a skilled sniper. On the subject of melee, take a look at Irus’ Big Guide of Melee if you’re thinking of following a melee skills route, written by one of the more prominent melee users of the Zombie Pandemic community. It can be found http://blog.zombiepandemic.com/Forum/tabid/65/aff/1/aft/762/afv/topic/Default.aspx

The average player will definitely want to invest some points in Marksman – without the ability to take down zombies quickly, you’ll find yourself getting killed alot. Other than that, personal preference plays a large role in determining which skills should be developed. I would reccomend, however, that players try not to spread their skills too much initially. It is best to focus on two or three areas at first, especially combat skills, to lay the foundation for levelling at a later date. As you get more powerful, you are then able to divulge into other skills.

Another way to raise your skills, apart from levelling, is TRAINING. Training is available at most Safehouses. It allows the player to train a certain skill over a period of time. For example, if a player wishes to train his marksmanship, he would go to the College Campus and enter the shooting range, then select the number of hours he wished to train for. You generally gain 1 skill point every 10 hours. You do not need to be logged in for training time to elapse. During training, you can not commit any actions that require the use of SP.

It is a good idea to get into the habit of going to a trainer before you log out, especially when you’ve used all of your SP – it provides a convenient way to make use of the downtime, and after several days can amount to a significant difference in gameplay.

EQUIPMENT

You will undoubtedly have noticed by now that equipment is crucial to survival and even more useful in amassing strength. Without weapons, clothing, armour and other bits and bobs, you won’t be effectively equipped to combat the zombie scourge.

Stores can be located across the world. Generally they like to set up shop at safehouses such as the College Campus or Religious HQ, though it is not uncommon to find independant traders throughout the city who are peddling their goods.

As can be expected, inflation has meant that the value of money has gone through the floor. This means that you can expect weapon prices to be high. Sky high. However, earning money is not as difficult as it may seem – I will explain more of this in the next chapter, but for now I will describe the uses of various pieces of equipment you should use throughout your foray in the world of Zombie Pandemic.

ARMOUR:
Armour is a very useful thing. You may have noticed whilst exploring the Character tab that you have an ‘armour percentage’. This value tells you what percentage of an enemy’s damage will be absorpbed by your armour if you are hit. The current maximum armour is around 50% to prevent making it too easy for survivors!

Armour is often very expensive, and for this reason, it can be cheaper to scavenge it (I will explain more on this in the next chapter). However, it is essential. Having the assurance of a good bit of armour is just what you need in conjunction with a good weapon. As they say, the best form of attack is a solid defense.

Needless to say, when selecting armour the first thing you should look for is a high armour value. That medieval breastplate is going to absorb more damage, for example, than that hawaaian style shirt you’re wearing. However, armour value isn’t the only thing you should consider when selecting your clothing. Take a good look at an item such as the Military Pants or Combat vest. Examining these items will reveal that, in addition to providing protection, they will also boost your encumberance, allowing you to carry more objects.

This can also work inversely. Certain armours may be detrimental and actually reduce stats, so carefully examine your armour before you purchase it! Also remember that some item have a level requirement, so don’t purchase something you can’t use.

WEAPONRY
Arguably the most important purchase you’ll make at any of the stores scattered around is a good, decent weapon or two. There are several different routes available when it comes to weaponry. Remember that due to rarity, just because something is more expensive doesn’t nessecarily make it better!

When purchasing a firearm, there are several factors to consider. Firstly, you need to decide if you want an automatic or semi automatic weapon.

If you choose to buy an automatic weapon, there are several things you need to be keenly aware of. Remember especially that any automatic weapon that you purchase will reduce your chance of hitting with that weapon by 30%. It is possible to make this effect negligible but you need a very high marksman to achieve that. Also remember that, depending on the burst cost of the weapon, it will fire several shots. This is the advantage of automatics, as well as the disadvantage. There is no select fire mode, so every shot you fire will use the burst mode, meaning you may waste ammo on the weaker enemies. However, with a good marksman skill, automatic weapons can be extrememly powerful. The obvious disadvantage is that they do require alot of ammo, so be wary of immeadiately purchasing an automatic.

For the reasons stated above, I would reccomend to the average newcomer one of the cheaper rifles. After a few quests, you’re bound to have $1-2k sitting around. You can purchase a decent rifle with an exceptional range for very cheap, which does not require a huge marksman skill. The disadvantage is that you will definitely need a close combat weapon incase things get sticky, so keep a fireaxe or a pistol nearby.

Remember that for whatever weapon you’re choosing, you’ll also need to purchase ammo (unless, of course, you’re going for melee. I wouldn’t reccomend this unless you’re following a strict scheme such as Irus’). You may decide it more worthwhile to buy a 9mm submachinegun than to buy a 5.56 M16. Like armor, some weapons have requirements so be cautious of that too.

Above all, despite what weapon you’re carrying, be it a lowly beretta or a fearsome minigun, keep a decent sidearm nearby. A pump action shotgun that can be used in close combat, a cheap pistol with cheap ammo, or an inexpensive submachinegun to use as a bullet hose – all are infinitely useful when you find yourself out of ammo for your primary weapon or stuck at close combat.

ACCESSORIES
There are other items available to help you on your way. You may find it worth investing in a backpack, available at several stores. They are especially useful as they provide an additional encumberance boost, allowing you to carry more. This is handy for those who make income based on scavenging, as it means less SP wastage in constantly returning to stores to offload.

In general, it is highly rewarding to carefully plan your setup. In my own configuration, I generally aim to have a high armour value whilst also having a very high encumberance. For me, this is absolutely nessecary, being that the weapon I have and the copious amounts of ammo I have to carry for it (literally up to ten thousand rounds at a time) are extremely heavy. This is a practical example of why you should consider both your armour and weaponry together – when you’re selecting a weapon, do you have the strength to practically carry it?

Making Money & Experience
Below are a few of my tips for making money and experience seperately. If you have a specific target, say, to purchase a minigun, you may wish to focus solely on earning money. If you wanted to reach a certain level quickly, then you would undoubtedly want to neglect scavenging to do it. These are a few ideas to give you a headstart:

Money
Scavenging is definitely the route you want to take if solely focussed on making money. The easiest way, in my experience, is to sweep the map systematically and scavenge only certain containers. The best containers to search in order to make money are military and police vehicles, including Police Cars, APCs, Military Trucks and SWAT vans. These harbour your best chance of finding decent useable equipment and guns. By not killing any zombies or otherwise wasting SP, you’ll find you are able to search and find ALOT more than you would simply killing and looting as you go.

It is also worth checking the zombie tab when searching for money. You may have noticed that some types of Zombies typically carry an unusually high amount of cash in conjunction with their level. They generally yield low experience, however. These zombies are Zombie Shopping Mall Santas, Zombies in Suits, Cab Drivers, Psycho Wall Street Stockbrokers, Psycho Shopkeepers, Any type of group or horde, and a few others. It is definitely worth selectively targetting only these zombies, as they cost little SP but can drop upwards of a few hundred dollars.

Experience
In my experience (excuse the pun), the best ways of gaining purely experience is to target zombie groups and individuals which will grant the best exp, and selectively attacking them out of all the zombies in an area. While at lower levels, it may work to just kill anything and everything you come across, at higher levels it is often worth more to simply move along and find better prey than kill what is available.

Set yourself a simple target – for every SP that you use in combat, you should gain X amount of experience. My personal target, for example, is that for every SP I use in combat, I should gain at least 300 experience. For a lower level player, it could be as low as 50, but with a little experience and playtime you’ll be accustomed to weighing up how much a zombie is worth, and whether it is a worthy investment of SP. The strategy is simply to systematically search streets and look for more powerful zombies – as powerful as you can comfortably take on – to kill. Scavenging, you’ll find, takes up a huge amount of experience. You’ll also find that the amount of zombies you kill should be more or less perfect in giving you enough cash to restock your ammo at the end of the day and have a bit left over.

Well folks, that’s all from me for now. I plan to update this alot, if possible. As I’m posting this now, I’m praying it doesn’t break something (this is over 5000 words long).

This has been a zombie survival guide from Rhys, clan member of Myth. Thanks alot to the game developers for giving us such an excellent and enjoyable game.

Hope you liked the guide, more to come.
-Rhys

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1 Response

  1. Oddly enough, I kind of disagree with you on an initial weapon of choice. At the beginning of the game you're armed with a 9mm revolver but you can very quickly be given an overland shotgun from the college campus on mission. By racking up some quick cash taking missions and scavenging, you can in a short time afford something with more fire power.

    Because of the massive amounts of9mm ammo you'll find you might be tempted to choose a 9 mm submachine gun like an Uzi. However I found that you also find a good bit of shotgun shells and 5.56 rounds. The best value I've found is the RP90 SG. It gives you distance out to about 70 yards but is still useable at close quarters, and the 5.56 seems to have a lot more knock down than the 9mm. The RP90 will let you scavenge more effectively allowing you to affort a pump shotgun soon. This gives you the RP90 for range, and the shotgun for shorter range firepower, and doesn't cost you alot in weight to carry. I usually keep about 250 rounds for the RP90 and 50 rounds for the shotgun. It works well. Then all you need is a melee. I a weapon. I actually have two charters on separate accounts I use. Each has an RP90 and a pump shotgun. But one also has a fire axe which is very effective, and the other has a Samurai sword I got from the Blades of Glory shop near the stadium. The sword is lighter but is very effective as is the axe at 0 range combat. I've found that you just have to have a 0 range melee weapon to survive even if you're not a melee player.

    Using this combination I went from level 3 to level 32 in about 3 5 days, and that's without a premium account. 480 SP doesn't last that long.

    My last advice is to hord two types of items that can get you out of a jam. One is items that increase your SP. They are hard to come by. Caffine pills, Kazoom Bars and Buzz drinks are available, but you have to hunt them down. I've found several Buzz drinks (they add 25 sp) on school buses. The Kazoom bars are semi rare but are usually located in cars at least in my experience. There are 100 sp caffine pills in the came but I've only found one bottle and honestly I don't remember where I found it. Buzz drinks often are found in pairs as are Kazoom bars. Not always but often.

    The other essential is things that increase HP after you've just taken a beating in combat. Bandages, stimulant pills, and a couple other things are musts and you should always try to have them in inventory just for emergencies.

    Don't get caught up doing dumb things with your SP. If you're getting low, find a safe place and log out until you can regenerate. Never waste SP enhancers just to go scavenging. They are hard to come by, and you may need them to get your butt to a safe place if you happen to exhaust your SP in a particularly brutal combat. If you're low on SP and in a corner with no choice but to face off a large hord of zeds, use them then to bump up your sp for survival. Otherwise, save them (and even though you can get a lot for them, don't sell them, they are hard to come by).

    ArcticBear/GaryReno

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