Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead @lemmy.ml JayEchoRay @lemmy.world 1y ago

General Tips and Tricks Post

Making a post to display general hints and tips, feel free to add

Disassembling ovens and its components is a great way to get some useful material like heating elements and fiber insulation batts
Subway maintenence rooms, usually past the subway entrance gateways, usually have maintenence maps which you easily find labs by the "subway station?" pin on the map
Extension cords + Outdoor extensiom cords are useful to wire a building with power without having to worry about building wiring in case you wish to place a electronic device away from a wall or have a building without wiring
Playing or listening to any musical instrument makes your character happy ( flutes, pianos, mp3 players, stereos, harmonicas, etc)
If infected by fungus, fungicide can be used as a treatment, just beware of your health
Wasps can't dodge sprayable insecticide ( goes for dermatiks too)
Reading memory cards can provide mood boosting items such as pictures to look at, music to listen to or recipes
Mounted workshops and Kitchens are a great place to store a lot of useful electronics and when connected to an electrical grid removes the need to replace batteries
NPC camps with a functioning blacksmith can make weapons and armour that you don't have the recipe for such as halberds, broadswords, rapiers, zweihander, cuirass, fire axe, war hammer, Awl Pike etc.
Npcs can be fed anything as long as it has enjoyability greater than or equal to -6
Npcs can meet all your food requirements when you've got a good food ration storage system in place
Npc faction camps can help with streamlining a lot of game functions and depending on type of camp can provide a lot of associated utility ( military outpost and fire house are structurally sound and have limited entry, firewatch towers main section is elevated, pottery cottage last I have seen usually have a below ground basement section)
Ctrl+ y and Ctrl + o can save you a lot of time in micromanaging tedious tasks and with a camp system have camp npcs do tasks for you
Shift + 8 has a lot of convience tools and actions such a placing appliances, things such as Stationary Scutcher (which cuts down crafting time on plant fiber work considerably), parkour bars, wall, door and window construction and modification and pit construction to name the more commonly used stuff I use
Aphids will eat your crops, but produce a useful sugar substitute
You can ride tame cows, if you are a small mutant such as a mouse you can ride dogs
Manuals can be saved and stored on a device such as a smart phone and that information can have a back up made with a memory card
Your character leaves a scent trail and zombies and other creatures can use that to track you, so you can be attacked if you decide to sleep in a city/town basement
Taking photos of any entity you see can provide you with knowledge of estimated danger, what senses that entity has , their weighted size, what type of creature is it and any notable abilities when viewed through the Shift + 3, Creatures tab. I think the closer the creature is the more information is provide however cannot confirm
Armour layering is important and sometimes you can reduce encumbrance by changing layering priority, Shift + =
I always take wallets, they sometimes hold stuff such as scientist cards or visitor passes and you can use an ATM to be the deposit all money into your account and make a really fancy all-you-can-buy cashcard, especially useful for the fancier not-vandalised gunshops which have ammo dispencers where you can buy ammo without making a scene.
A Grappling hook can be a great tool for escape and exploration, have escaped many a zombie gank by activating it near a building and climbing to safety just beware of climbing/flying creatures and possibility of the roof also being dangerous too... and also of the larger creatures demolishing the building too
Shift + x to peek and peeking allows you to throw things from relative safety
Shift + X and Shift + . Or Shift + , allows you to peek up and down stairs respectively
% armour coverage can be just as or more important that big armour numbers as attacks have a chance to hit areas of armour that isn't well protected and certain enemies seem to have a higher changer to hit generally less armoured parts I have noticed

There is probably so much more but it is not coming to me or I don't know and please note this information is more from experience and reading here and there so if there is any mistakes or inconsistencies or even changes feel free to correct them or contribute to the knowledge

Hope the great wall text is helpful

13 comments

It's helpful! I'm going to add some bricks to your wall.

This is all from experimental, I don't play stable.

In early game before you have a working vehicle with recharger, I tend to look for and use e-ink readers instead of smartphones when I want to save books to something, simply because I can renew the battery easier. I usually keep my e-ink reader on me, and periodically back up my books to my smartphone.

You have to take your smartphone out of its case for it to recharge in a vehicle recharger.

In early game, a mace makes a damn good weapon and is easy to craft. You need 1 or 2 pipe fittings, and a pipe. You can get these often by smashing fences and sinks. Other things, too.

Melee weapons early game can sometimes be safer than guns because they don't make noise that pulls packs of zombies to you, and they don't have bullets so you don't run out of zombie-hurtie mid-fight. You can attract the attention of one zombie, run off, and kill it in a secluded spot. That said, because it is melee, find a source of antiseptic to treat wounds. (Bathrooms.)

Electric blankets give a lot of heating elements when dissassembled. I was going around snagging hair dryers and taking apart stoves when I should have been hunting for blankets all along.

A hacksaw can quitely remove bars over the goodies area of hunting lodges, or of gun stores. I often find this easier and less risky than lockpicking early game (esp. before I've had a chance to raise lockpicking)

Hacksaws are a bit harder to find in experimental than they used to be, but the battery-powered saws (there's a few different types) can do the same task. (I tend to run into a block with vehicle construction if I don't have something with fine metal sawing)

A few different buildings have solar panels on the roof. The evac shelter reliably has one, but in experimental I've noticed a few other buildings have started to have solar panels up top too. So check the roofs of buildings if you want more panels and aren't finding solar cars.

Roofs also sometimes have large water purifiers...but I have not yet verified if you can actually set one of these up on the grid of a house or a vehicle. If you can though, it'll make clean water trivial to get.
- Can confirm on large water purifier, use it in my base, placed it and plugged it in and have instant ( no sure if intentional) water purification. Have all the tools on an electric grid is incredibly convienent.
  
  for stationary bases, large wind turbines are great to supplement solar power on a roof, makes sure there is electric generation all the time, useful until you set up a large enough battery bank for things like freezers if you want to keep it on all the time.
  
  Thanks for the confirmation.
  
  Re: Wind turbines...do you know if it's possible to hook into the big ones that are auto-generated on the map? Or are they basically decorative? And is the only way to get base turbines by constructing them yourself, or do they exist somewhere to grab?
  
  Wanted to clarify about the large water purifier, I use the basecamp water pump to fill a 60 l tank with water, go to the water purifier, select it and then purify water and that process takes probably a few in game seconds to purify the tank and left with clean water
Wanted to add a few more

if you have an evac center nearby, try and get to it. It acts as a central hub and can give you the locations to factions that can make your life easier.

evac center also has a good rotating supply of basic ammo like shotgun shells and 9mm, tools, welding rods and general material fairly cheaply and pays good rates for preserved food

the other factions ( don't wish to spoil) can help with a lot of aspects of the game and provide some really good gear or knowledge with trade and quests - although some of them can be quite difficult if you are not well geared and don't have enough skill levels in specific skill.

most zombies and quite a lot of other nasties are not very smart and will happily fall into pits trying to get to you, bonus if you fill it with traps or flammable material

be careful when carrying glass or have glass around you when near screeching enemies as the sound they make will shatter the glass

molotovs are great for bunched enemies, especially in a building you don't mind losing as the sound of the building collapsing will draw more enemies into the fire, just remember to pulp the dead after the fires have died down

normal hulks are fast but not very bright and can have their strength utilized as an impromtu weapon by using vehicles between you and it. It will push the cars trying to get to you and in doing so create noise and possibly roadkilling zombies in the way of the vehicle

you can find a lot of useful stuff at a recycling center same goes for dumps and trash dumpsters

I have found a fencing book at a tea house before and recycling center can have a wing chun martial arts book

don't ignore weaker, small, low stamina melee weapons, its usually lightweight, can fit in quick to use pockets and can still be used fairly effectively when injured or disarmed especially if your stats are reduced from pain that you can't use your primary weapon. They are generally weak versus armour and need either high skill level or a martial art for quick killing though

13 comments