Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven: Part Three Discussion Thread

[Christopher_Bull]

Yep the cop is least unique apart from your connection with Reilly in the old world. I wished for more as that job but it’s understandable

[ParrotWatcher]

Lyle can be saved if you follow him and Jillian in the morning. When the pair of them are confronted by Dillan’s group, you can try to talk them down (requires Persuasion, Leadership, or Intimidation, depending on the option chosen), or fire a warning shot (also Intimidation). If you try to attack them, however, Lyle will always be killed in the crossfire, and potentially Jillian too.

That said, even if you do succeed, Lyle will choose to leave you and Jillian in order to look for his daughter.

[fairlyfairfighter]

Yeah, the bug about Thelma thinking you lost when you won is a really simple one to fix, so hopefully that can be done soon, just flip arounf the if checks

Balance of supplies is near impossible to meet. In one playthrough I have enough food, sent as many people as wrothwhjle scavenging and scavenged myself igoring guns and it’s is still impossible to get a lot of items and so good morale*

*If you manually select when scavenging Lancelot you can actually make good headway, but thats extremely boring and monotonous. If there was the ability to take multiples of an item would help a lot.

Driver and Brody can build trenches by themselves.
Woody and Gina can do any improvement/ reinfocement that only rewuries 2 people by themselves, exceptfor some reason science lab (I think) where no kne provides a bonus.

Not even Parker, a scientist, or if our player is a scientist or Woody or Gina.

There’s way more to add in a guide, but in a feedback post I’d just say it’d be good if some of this were more explicit

The difference is big, becasue if you min-max you can get every reinforcement done in the first day (except trench level 2, obv) and all the improvements done before part 3 ends. If you just fill the entire things and use max peoppe for each task, if you want to scavenge, clear space, chores and watch duty you can build like 3 things maybe

[fairlyfairfighter]

Because some people wanted to know/were stuck and it’s not very clear, here is a
“Quick guide to group management”

Improvements:

Note 1: Adding these specific characters to an improvement/reinforcement means you can complete it with one less person.
Note 2: This only applies once. You cannot, say, get a farm plot done with Gina alone even if you have the gardening hobby too. Max reduction of 1 person.

Chicken coop:

(+60 food)

• Church
• Billie
• Gina
• Madison
• Woody

Computer lab:

(morale %+15, allegiance %+15, SurvNet servers +1)

• Gina
• Jaime
• Kelly
• Madison
• Parker
• Rachel
• Woody

Greenhouse:

2 of 3 picked:
(+40 marijuana cigarettes, +15 if gardening hobby)
(+40 bio-parts, +15 if gardening hobby)
(+150 food, +205 if gardening hobby)

• Hobby: Gardening
• Church
• Gina
• Billie
• Woody

Clear space/debris:

(Number of people clearing space * 150)

• Brody clears out an additional 50 space
• Driver clears out an additional 50 space
• Bailey clears out an additional 25 space
• Dante clears out an additional 25 space
• Jaime clears out an additional 25 space
• Lopez clears out an additional 25 space
• Lopez clears out an additional 25 space
• Tommy clears out an additional 25 space
• Nora clears out 25 less space

Farm plot:

(+400 food. +525 food if gardening hobby)

• Hobby: Gardening
• Church
• Gina
• Madison
• Woody

Workshop / Improved workshop:

(Workshop: Melee, Misc)
(Improved Workshop: Ranged Weapons, Ranged accessories and parts, Explosives)

• Church
• Gina
• Fred
• Woody

Infirmary:

(+30 first aid charges, +15 antiseptic ointments, +10 painkillers)

• Church
• Gina
• Woody

Recreation Room:

(Morale %+40) (!)

• Parker
• Gina
• Woody

Zombie-powered generator:

(Requires 3 zombies, you catch between 2-4 each time)
(+25 power, loss of morale = 2 * number of survivors)

• Gina
• Woody

For reference, a single solar panel gives 15 power wih no morale loss and does not take up a task. For big groups, seems much more preferable to simply scavenge a few solar panels and/or gas cans.

Imo for balance reasons the Zombie powered generator should either generate more energy relative to solar panels/gas cans, or not be as bad for morale. As it stands, I would not build it-- better off just taking the morale loss from low power supply

Reinforcements:

Reinforcements give a defense bonus every day, not just one off. Not sure if this is intentional but means that building defenses earlier is better. Watch Duty provides only a one off +1 to defense each time you assign 3 people to it

Alarm system:

(+1 defense)

• Gina
• Woody
• Jaime
• Kelly
• Madison
• Parker
• Rachel

Reinforce Gate:

(+2 defense)

• Gina
• Woody
• Church
• Madison

Secure Perimeter:

(+2 defense, +1 offense)

• Gina
• Woody
• Church
• Driver

Trench level 1 / 2:

(+2 defense total / +1 defense, +1 offense total)
(Yes it seems upgrading the trench reduces defense by 1)

• Gina
• Woody
• Driver
• Brody

Watchtowers:

Watchtower North
(+2 defense, +1 offense)

• Gina
• Woody
• Church
• Madison

Watchtower South:
Same as above

Other tasks:

Group fishing/foraging/hunting/scavenging/watch duty/chores

Fishing:

Food = (Number of people with improved fishing poles * 30) + (Number of people without improved fishing poles * 15) * (random number between 5 and 10)
Fishing is improved by having more fishing poles ad especially improved fishing poles. If you assign 3 people all with improved fishing poles you can get 450-900 food (this seems too high, could be wrong)
If you assign 3 people with 1 improved fishing poles you can get between 300-600 food.
If you assign 3 people with no improved fishing poles you can get between 225-450.

Seemingly only improved fishing poles matter, the rest do nothing.

• Billie nets an additional 20 food
• Church nets an additional 20 food
• Fred nets an additional 20 food
• Jude nets an additional 15 food

Foraging:

Food: (Number of people foraging * 7 * (Random number between 12 and 18))
Bio-pars: (Number of people foraging * (Random number between 12 and 18)/1.5)

e.g. 3 people foraging, 252 - 378 food, 24 - 36 bio-parts
Completely random, no skill nor equipment.

Hunting:

More people you send hunting the more on average each person brings (until you go above 3 people, where it scales lineraly)
If you bring 1 average person they bring
((random number between 0 and 2) * 150) food.
0 - 300 food

However if you assigned 3 people they bring
((random number between 1 and 4) * (3 people hunting) * 100)
300 - 1200 food

In addition to this your food is multiplied by (1 + (“ranged count” / 50))
Ranged count is usually 0, but increases with specific skilled hunters
If you assigned 3 most skilled hunters, ranged count = 14, you bring in
384 - 1536 food

• Jude increases “ranged_count” by 5
• Rachel increases “ranged_count” by 5
• Lopez increases “ranged_count” by 4
• Madison increases “ranged_count” by 4
• Church increases “ranged_count” by 3
• Gina increases “ranged_count” by 3
• Jaime increases “ranged_count” by 3
• Reilly icreases “ranged_count” by 3
• Rosie increases “ranged_count” by 3
• Woody increases “ranged_count” by 3
• Tommy increases “ranged_count” by 2
• Nora increases “ranged_count” by 2
• Driver increases “ranged_count” by 2

Scavenging:

Food, Water: (Random number between 10 and 20) * number of scavengers * (1+(scav_count/50))
Scavenge items dependent upon number of scavengers and their skills

Benefits at number of scavengers + scav count >=10, >=15, >=20, no advantages above 20 aside for extra food, water

• Rachel increases “scav count” by 4
• Dante increases “scav count” by 3
• Lopez increases “scav count” by 3
• Rosie increases “scav count” by 3
• Gina increases “scav count” by 2
• Woody increases “scav count” by 2
• Jaime increases “scav count” by 2
• Kelly increases “scav count” by 2
  Assign
  Rachel, Dante, Lopez, Rosie, one of (Gina/Woody/Jaime/Kelly) to get max benefits.
  Main advantage of scavenging imo is getting water.

Watch Duty:

Setting 3 people to Watch duty increases Junkyard Defense by 1
Any less gives no benefit, any more give no additional benefit. Either set 3 or 0.

Chores:

If (number of survivors / 7) rounded >= task_chores, increase morale by %+10
Any less gives no benefit, any more gives no additional benefit

This seems broken, as if you assign at least one person to chores you always get a morale boost, whereas if you assign 4 in a group of 21 (21/7) = 3 < 4, so you don’t get the morale boost
Should be changed to
If (number of survivors / 7) rounded <= task_chores, increase morale by %+10

Other tasks:

Socializing with other survivors to build morale increases morale by %+15, every individual character likes you more (%+ empathy / 25)

Water collector gives 75 units of water each

Training increases your skill level by 1 up to 7 (e.g. if you have 6 in ranged weapons and teach Kevin how to shoot, he gets trained and your ranged weapons goes to 7
If your skill is maxed, increases skill points pool by 7

Getting trained increases your level by 1.

There are some bugs. Upgrading trench reduces group defense, if I’m reading this correctly. Chores seem to benefit by assigning fewer people as opposed to more.

In short, at present I would do:

• Scavenge solar panels and install them. Maybe 10 or so idk,
• Avoid Zombie Generator
• Build a few of the reinforcements-- esp ones that only require 2 people and so can be done with only one skilled person. Provide a daily benefit so there’s an advantage to building them earlier
• Send a few skilled people scavenging, the water is even more important than supplies
• 3 people on watch duty, or none
• 1 person doing chores (when this bug is fixed it will be optimal to put either 0 or (survivors / 7) on chores)
• If you need more food, send 3-4 skilled people hunting.
• I usually instead focus on building things that generate food earlier, as it frees up people to work on improvements later over having to hunt/fish/forage as much every turn
• I avoid foraging as well as fishing. Hunting seems strictly better-- with 3 most skilled people average of 960, although if you have enough improved fishing poles and assigned skilled fishers then fishing is more stable-- average of 735, but higher minimum levels of foot.
• If morale is low, recreation room is easy to build and provides a big boost
• Building things like workshop/improved are useful especially if you’re good at crafting for scopes, suppressors and explosives. If you’re not good at crafting, focusing on a greenhouse/farm plot instead allows you focus less on assigning people to get food later
• Try and clear space > what you use. For example on the 1st day try to put 2 skilled people on clearing space duty, which leaves you with 300-400 extra space the next day for improvements
• Church is scripted to die but also provides a building bonus a lot of places, so use him whilst you have him.
• If you have nothing to do, avoid watch duty unless you can’t spare anyone else and doing so would put you to 3 assigned. Maintaining camp doesn’t actually assign you to chores, but increases morale by %+10. Manage Greenhouse, I usually select weed and herbs but that’s because I’m usually good on food.
• Finally, teach the group ranged, ranged again, athletics, close-combat, hand-to-hand, etc. if you can, and Converse with survivors when that option is available, can talk to everyone for one action and many opportunities to learn more about them as well as improve your relationship with em.

Also,
food_use = (num_group * (round((2 * meal_type) * (1-((cook skill - 30)/100)))))

So if Fred is the cook, with 3+ cookware and say around 20 people in your group and want to sustain food (roughly, I think)
Large Meal: 60 food
Medium Meal: 40 food
Small Meal: 20 food

These are super low tbh, like a single vegetable garden seems able to cover it, so my maths could be wrong.

(I don’t know what’s up because in the code for Part 3 idk if Rosie’s coded, but at least in part 2 and from just spending some time testing it myself in Part 3 seems like she is the best cook, with Fred 2nd)

If you’re cooking if >60 or 65 or something be cook yourself.

[Dannie]

@JimD I loved Part 3 (and 1, and 2, hahaha), it was very fun to play! The first ZE was good, but this one is 100000x better, bravo!! I’ve been obsessing over stats and inventory and characters for the past few weeks xd Good job in making the game live rent free in my head, especially Jaime. Jaime you bastard, if you pull a Tom on me I’m going to murder you

Now some things I’ve seen (Idk if I should call them bugs):

When planning reinforcements, some still appear after they are done/completed (Rachel gives confirmation, and they add defense/offense, but they don’t disappear from the PLAN/TO DO list.). I still have the option to do these three after they’ve been completed:

• Reinforce the gate around the junkyard.
• Secure the perimeter with a spiked barricade. (Requires Crafting 60+ or Survival 50+ or Woody or Gina in the group)
• Set up a perimeter alarm system. (Requires Crafting 50+ or Survival 45+ or Woody or Gina in the group, and either 6 rolls of duct tape, 3 ropes, or 3 sewing kits)

Same happens with some improvements (I’ve done them, and they work because they add food/items, but still remain in the PLAN/TO DO list):

• Chicken coop. (Requires 120 square feet)
• Farm plot. (Requires 225 square feet)
• Greenhouse. (Requires 200 square feet)

I find the morale balance kinda wonky, tbh xd Like, it starts outs super high (95) because I have high food, water and power supply, lots of medical supplies, tarps and whatnot, but then I don’t have enough binoculars, blankets, lighters, marijuana, sewing kits, sunscreen and whatever, and it drops to 87!!!

I get it, the Apocalypse is hard and you miss the little things, small comforts and all that, but… why do they keep needing BINOCULARS?? BLANKETS?? SEWING KITS??? Wth do they with them?? In one run had like 12 blankets in my inventory when Part 2 started, do you need MORE? No matter how many binoculars I scavenge (I legit took like 7 from the train yard) THEY ARE NEVER ENOUGH! I also had the recreation room that’s supposed to add a massive increase to morale, but it keeps dropping.

Other, smaller things:

• Binoculars and bleach sometimes appear with decimals in the inventory (like 1.75).
  • By the way, I think they can also end up negative, because sometimes I have no binoculars, pick up 1 or 2, and I still have 0 in my inventory.
• The allegiance stays the same, even though I literally ONLY have gains and no losses. Idk if that’s planned, though.
• I have 2 water collectors in the junkyard, but they don’t collect a lot of water (I gain about 250 and use 330, so I end up losing water despite my best efforts.
• Here I’m rambling but is there any way to make handmade/DIY soap/shampoo/toothpaste/cleaning products? Because I’m running low on some of them and they are hard to find and keep lowering my group’s morale!!! I think you can make soap from animal fat/ashes, so perhaps a small workshop to produce them would be cool; once built, it could be like the infirmary/lab, and it could give items.

And now I’m rambling more, but Jaime’s personality shift is kinda sudden to me. In chapter 12, when the Forest Rats come, he feels sorry for them and wants to help them and all of that, but then in the Silverthorne camp he’s like “I’m tired of people, they are selfish and useless and greedy, they can ” and rejects a child joining. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO JAIME???

I can understand him getting tired of people taking advantage of his kindness, but it feels it’s kind out of the blue?? Is it because of the Forest Rats?? Because after asking Allison and August about Jacob’s true intentions, Jaime doesn’t even react when they say that yeah, the rats were planning something bad. I would’ve been interested in his reaction because it could be the starting point of him losing faith in other survivors, and made his personality change seem less abrupt.

Sorry for raving, I just… LOVE Jaime I really like him, now if Lopez could get a hint… Idk if the issue keeps happening (I tried other ROs because THERE’S SO MUCH TO PLAY), but a solution for the Lopez problem could be that rather than making the check with friendships points, he could pop up and ask for a 3 way IF the MC flirted with him at some point?

Anyways, lots of love and keep up the good work, I love love love what you’re doing and take all the time you need because good things are worth the wait and ZE is AMAZING!! and sorry for the long post, I talk too much xd

[fairlyfairfighter]

I wish we were able to fight the Forest Rats tbh, I can’t see why we can’t.

In any case, whilst the other bugs are legit I think you are supposed to be able to add multiple chicken coops, farm plots and greenhouses-- if anything the bug could be the lack of ability to build multiple vegetable gardens due to the code not properly resetting some tasks

The consumption of things like binoculars seems odd, and literally impossible to meet. Morale seems swingy, and amounts can end up in decimals

Also,

*if (farm_plot = 1)
  *set temp_food +400
  *if hobby_gardening
    *set temp_food +125
    *if read_report
      *line_break
      Farm plot 1—525 units of food (+125 from gardening hobby)
  *if not(hobby_gardening) and read_report
    *line_break
    Farm plot 1—400 units of food
*if (farm_plot = 2)
  *set temp_food +400
  *if hobby_gardening
    *set temp_food +125
    *if read_report
      *line_break
      Farm plot 1—525 units of food (+125 from gardening hobby)
  *if not(hobby_gardening) and read_report
    *line_break
    Farm plot 1—400 units of food

Does mean that a secondary farm plot does literally nothing?

[Dannie]

@fairlyfairfighter

I think you are supposed to be able to add multiple chicken coops, farm plots and greenhouses–

Is that so? I didn’t know, I thought it was a bug xd

It would be good if it was stated somewhere that you can have several chicken coops/farm plots/greenhouses/whatever for dummies like me

[fairlyfairfighter]

It’s weird-- there are some bugs and some which aren’t bugs, so it’s hard to check

Going off the code, you have things like

*if vegetable_garden > 0
  *set temp_food +(100 * vegetable_garden)

Which make it seem like you can build multiple vegetable gardens, but then the way it is coded only allows you to build one

[gtd33]

I’ve seen comments from people saying you can fight the forest rats, but your junkyard defenses have to be poor for it to happen.

[Christopher_Bull]

I’ll rather give him a good ending and besides we might meet him again one day when we need help.

[Christopher_Bull]

There should be an option to fight regardless instead of letting them walk even if defence is high. I hope the author gives us the option to do this in an update

[fairlyfairfighter]

Yeah-- to be clear, to fight the Forest Rats simply do not build any improvements and dont do guard duty often.

The only issue is that getting defense low enough to be atttacked and so fight Forest Rats requires it to be so low Gina dies and other negative outcomes

Hence I think the option to kill them should lead to a fight

[Haruka]

@Dannie

Jaime’s personality shift is kinda sudden to me.

Summary

I think the stress of the outbreak is getting to Jaime right now. If you personally go meet with the River Dogs that Brody ran into in part 3, you’ll see a scene with Jaime talking to himself. You can actually talk to him about it later on too. He seems the type to bottle up most of his stress, and that kind of thing will eventually explode abruptly. He has his moments, and I can’t fault him for having mood swings. lol

It’s understandable that he doesn’t trust anyone from the Silverthorne camp, even if they have a child with them. There are people who use their kids to trick others even in real life, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if someone did that in a fictional apocalyptic situation. I don’t think he wanted to get involved with the Silverthornes in the first place though. Taking ‘deserters’ in could also potentially bring danger to our own group if the Silverthornes find out. Jaime seems to worry a lot, so it’s possible he’s considered these things beforehand. I’m sure the pressure of being inside their camp, and the zombie attack didn’t help his nerves at the time either. At least that’s the impression I got based on everything that’s happened so far. Maybe we’ll get a chance to talk to him about it later.

I let them join even though I don’t fully trust them because I believe in giving them a chance to prove they were telling the truth. I will be keeping a close eye on them though. xD

As for Jacob’s group, I’m pretty sure he only wanted to help them because he knows what it feels like to starve, and didn’t want to feel responsible for them starving to death when he was in a position to do something about it. Guilty conscious basically. And saying yes to the kids joining at the time was most likely for similar reasons. That and seeing them battered and bruised had to have played a role in it. Jaime’s a good person, but even he can have his off days. Even I regret caving and giving Jacob food because of Jaime. lol I couldn’t say no to him even though I knew Jacob was trouble.

[fairlyfairfighter]

Meh, I sympathize with Jaime completely even if I don’t always agree-- be kind, assume the best of people, avoid conflict, don’t scav civ stuff or shoot over their tents etc.-- up until the point where he doesn’t let Missy join…

Never picking Jaime as leader now, terrible assignments, less pragmatic decisions, etc. are manageable, but this is worse. Plus, Jaime will likely regret it later anyway, so having me be leader if better for him too

Plus my nephew needs friends

[JimD]

@fairlyfairfighter

Also, it seems odd that we can only fight and kill the Forest Rats if we’re weak enough for them to attack and not get caught, especially if we’re running an explicit raider group or something of the sort. It wouldn’t be significantly harder to add as a real option vs flavor text, since there’s already a firefight with them, so regardless there’ll have to be checks/test to see if they’re alive later. It’d be nice for the significantly more aggressive option to lead to a different outcome imo

I can definitely understand your point, but it would take significantly more work to code a confrontation if the Forest Rats failed to break into the junkyard. I would have to code a fight that occurs outside of the walls of the junkyard, which would be a new scene, most likely 5000 – 10,000 words. But I see your point that the game does not include an aggressive option unless you actually fail to protect your base.

@Haruka

I would greatly appreciate having the option to have a baby with literally anyone other than Jillian in the future. I feel like something as significant as having our own baby with our RO in the middle of a zombie apocalypse shouldn’t be limited to her character, or a male MC. Even gay/lesbian characters could potentially have a child through a surrogate/donor, if you wanted to make it fair for all preferences.

I am trying things out with Jillian, but this may be possible with others in the future. For Jillian, it just made sense right now as an element of her story. I’m also open to two women having a child.

@GhostScorch

Edit: I did some more playthroughs to find the source of the problem and I think I’ve found it. In chapter 1, when you’re setting up your dating profile, you’re asked about what kind of relationships (romantic or sexual or both). Picking romantic only leads to the event of picking your romantic interest after the battle not popping up.

Thank you for figuring that out. I can make that change.

@GhostofGrief

Is Jim working on the Safe Haven project mainly solo?

Yes, predominantly solo. I have had a few contributing writers, but the majority of the story and code is written by me on nights and weekends after my main job.

@GhostofGrief

So, TAKE YOUR TIME, JIM. Im sure I can speak for many of your fans and say we are willing to wait, if it helps a release seem more complete;

I really appreciate this. It’s tough though, because you would not believe the messages I receive all the time which are the exact opposite. Part 3 came out two weeks ago, and I’ve already gotten people asking for Part 4 (and I am pretty sure they are not trolling me). So, it is kind of a balance. I could have easily taken another full year for Part 3, but if I stretch the timeline out too long, I also risk losing interest from casual players.

@fairlyfairfighter

Am I being stupid/ missing another element that increases the stat or are the intimidation checks when interacting with the River Dogs literally impossoble to meet.

This is definitely a bug. I fixed this in other parts, but must have overlooked this. Thank you for pointing it out.

@fairlyfairfighter

@JimD

Thank you for pointing out these bugs. I’m hopefully going to upload the next version by the end of this week.

@fairlyfairfighter

Feedback, bugs, tips after multiple playthroughs:

Thank you for writing up all of this. I will work on all of these and review your feedback.

@fairlyfairfighter

Because some people wanted to know/were stuck and it’s not very clear, here is a
“Quick guide to group management”

Wow, this is amazing.

@Dannie

Anyways, lots of love and keep up the good work, I love love love what you’re doing and take all the time you need because good things are worth the wait and ZE is AMAZING!!

Thank you for your feedback and pointing out those bugs. As far as Jaime goes, I think things will get much more interesting with him in Part 4.

[fairlyfairfighter]

@JimD

I can definitely understand your point, but it would take significantly more work to code a confrontation if the Forest Rats failed to break into the junkyard. I would have to code a fight that occurs outside of the walls of the junkyard, which would be a new scene, most likely 5000 – 10,000 words. But I see your point that the game does not include an aggressive option unless you actually fail to protect your base.

That’s understandable-- maybe just increase the requirement to defend against them successfully? Right now it seems too easy (no one on watch duty at all, just build one reinforcement and you defend)

Most people dont even realize you can fight them/ actually be attacked by them at all given the low check (as group defense increases daily by any new reinforcements)

[Stone]

Can someone tell me if we can romance Brody/Madison as college student?

[Akky42]

No.

[Christopher_Bull]

It’s not possible right now but the author has considered it possible in the future

[fairlyfairfighter]

Guide to Lancelot mission:

Mission summary and prep:

You can be very successful in this mission without requiring good stats, as long as you have a good offensive skill (ideally ranged)-- even this is not necessary if you have good stealth, and even this is not necessary if you have good athletics.

Reading my own guide again, I’m pretty sure you achieve nearly everything you want even if you have no good stats, but at a cost of health/not being able to get guns… I’ll double check but it seems like this might be the case

This especially applies to the way I do the mission, which is to get everything possible even if it makes you run far over, because imo the benefits outweigh the cost significantly, and if you’re late you’re late, doesn’t matter past that how late you are.
If your leadership is low, though, you will lose allegiance. If your leadership is very high (80+) this is strictly good with no decrease to allegiance

If you do not want to be late, don’t follow this guide. Drive quickly, go around zombies, skip cottage, go back. Boost to allegiance and minimal info.

Electronics shines in this mission, although even this is not necessary, only beneficial and can make up for lacking in all other stats

Take SUV or any generic vehicle that has good space/storage

Pre-Lancelot:

I wouldn’t advise wearing military outlift. Makes Fern like you less.
If you’re a cop wear cop uniform, if you’re a doctor/nurse wear scrubs/uniform

If you can drive well, do whatever you want.
Else, this will always work:
#Wait at the top of the hill for the swarm to pass. It might take a while, but it’s the safest approach.
#Use my walkie-talkie to check in with Jaime and let him know my progress.
(Relationship boost with Jaime, big loss of time)

Scavenge cottage, be friendly to Fern

Seriously, you gain nothing from attacking Fern even with perfect stats.

#“I’m originally from Nightfall. Not long after the start of the outbreak, I teamed up with a few people and left that area. We’re now staying at a junkyard not far from here.”

#“Why do you say Kevin and Eli are a strange pair?”

(If medicine >= 45)

• #“Why is your arm bandaged?”

• #"Do you want me to look at your arm?

• (Not necessary but funny) #Why did you hesitate when you talked about your arm being injured?"

  #“Would you like to join my group?”

Then even if your medicine is below 45, if you pick the other options and have >=39 empathy, fern_faction >= 60 (starts at 40) and she will tell you about the depot

Time is irrelevant here, but at least this automatically gets you not just to the base faster but into the base. This bypasses the “getting in to the base” choices and check

Base exploration:

Door:

If you follow the guide and have good empathy or average-ish empathy and medicine, you should be able to bypass entry checks. However assuming you cannot, here is a short list:

You auto-pass on all of these if count = 3. Count starts at one, so this requires you to fail twice then try again.

• Pry open the door.
  Requires you to pass a check of 60 based on athletics, but increased with tools (e.g. crowbar increases mod by 20, kukri by 10, etc.) These do not stack.
  On a failure, however, you lose health.

• Inspect the door and camera
  (search >= 60) to succeed
  On a failure, nothing bad happens

• If Electronics >= 65: If the camera’s working, there must be power feeding it
  Succeed

• Search for another way inside.
  If search >=45, Succeed
  On a failure, nothing bad happens

• If you have 2 gunpowder: Pack the edge of the door with gunpowder and light it on fire.
  If science >= 45, succeed.
  This sets “blasted_door” true which is likely to later help New Army access base, hence I wouldn’t reccomend it if you later want to obstruct them
  On a failure, nothing bad happens

• Explosive charge and grenade auto-succeed, but set blasted_door true. Again, I avoid this

Do not enter Sublevel & Storage until everything else is done.

Everything Else:

Do everything in Security room first.
Converse with Sam about everything, they’re cute.
Do everything in Decon.
Do everything in Laboratory:
NOTE: Wear a hazmat suit if entering the greenhouse, or be 100% sure you’ve reset it in security. I do both to be safe

Again, just do everything possible here, even watching the long presentation on the virus and uh… “talking” to Julianne.

For Julianne, read and reply to Jason’s email first, then chat with her. For this guide, time is irrelevant so do everything you want, and you can do infinite things/spend as long as you like in these 3 rooms (and talking to Sam)

Radio back to Jaime / Woody where possible, it increases your relationship

Scavenge whatever you want, also take the microscope from the lab

Storage and Sublevel:

Sublevel / Storage Zombies:

Straightforward. If you have good ranged, shoot em. No reason not to try, if you fail nothing happens.

If you’ve got good electronics and already updated employment records, Sam will kill them for you.

If you have bad ranged and electronics, you should at least have good empathy. If it’s greater than or equal to 65, go back to Sam and pick
#“I want to discuss hiring me at this facility,” I say to Sam.

If you have bad ranged, empathy and electronics… you hopefully have good stealth.
Discuss being hired with Sam.
Stealth down to sub-level.
If >= 45, you succeed, update the employment record and Sam saves you.
If you fail you can still fight them with an easier check, and even if you miss here as long as your health is >= 40 you win.
The options are self explanatory here. If stealth, electronics, empathy and athletics are all bad… just leave, or if your health > 40 take the hit

Exploring storage:

Unlike earlier, storage is choice limited. 3 choices before forced to leave.

General note: tell everyone everything on the calls. Because I like Faulkner, and Goodman shows up or knows location regardless, this sets him to friendly and puts us on good terms

• If you want to be friendly with both, get supplies and deny New Army access:

1. Go to central computer, select everything except shutdown, activate security, take cultured virus, etc.
2. Get supplies / stuff
3. Call Faulkner and get assistance (requires good leadership, persuasion or intimidation, the higher your relationship with Faulkner the easier it becomes)

• If you do not care at all about the base or want to help the New Army, and only care about supplies and want guns:

1. Explore storage area
2. (If (scavenging >= 60) or ((scavenging >= 45) and (crafting >= 45)), pick the lock and open the weapons case. If athletics >= 60, pry case open. If electronics >= 50, search through the central computer to open the case remotely.
3. Gather supplies, take guns

• If you just want to explore the area and get new outfits

1. Explore storage
2. Explore Sublevels, do everything (no option limit in sublevels, only main storage loop)
3. Gather supplies (if you only care about getting supplies)
   or
4. Use central computer to activate security (if you don’t care about supplies, want to prevent NA getting in)

I didn’t mention Shutdown, but if you don’t care about ever getting access again or just want to say fuck em, you can pick this too

Escape:

Descend to Alpha and leave with loot in a cool SUV (allegiance gain from getting supplies offsets losses from taking ages)
This lets you take supplies gathered with you
I take the military SUV, but pick anything you want, really