Smallsasaurus's Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Newer Players

[Smallsasaurus]

I know Oni has been working on the ultimate guide to everything Zombie Escape, but until that's 100% done I made my own top 10 tips and tricks. This list is geared toward helping newer players to the Zombie Escape game, but it should also serve as a refresher course for veterans and they might even take a suggestion or two from it. I even offer a 200% money back guarantee if you follow all of these tips and see no improvement in your game play and the way people enjoy playing with you. Onto the list!

10. First and probably the most obvious one, always run with your pistol/knife/grenade. You'll hear it said over and over again, but if you don't do this you are just plain dumb. The whole point of escape servers is to move as quickly as a unit as possible and running with your primary weapon not only makes you slower, it slows down anyone behind you running with their pistol/knife/grenade out.

Some people claim that you run even faster with a scout out, but I’ve never tried to confirm this and even if it was true I’m not willing to give up my pump shotgun to try it out.

9. You’ll see it happen time and time again, the fail nade. Somebody throws a grenade that is completely unnecessary and it launches a zombie into a pack of humans. All I can say for this is don’t be stupid and save your grenades for relevant times in a map. As much fun as it might be to see a group of 10 zombies all in flames, if you have a group of 15 humans all shooting at them, you probably don’t need to throw it. Just be smart about it and at the very least always throw in front of the lead zombie.

8. Incase you are unaware, standing on other players head to get to the front of a line for a door makes it difficult/impossible for either person to move through the doorway. So don’t do it. People always forget, but this is a team game. By standing on others’ heads your being selfish, slowing down the team, and probably slowing down yourself as well. I know it can be stressful to be at the back of a pack with a door about to open and zombies closing in on you, but you’ll get through that door a lot faster and have a better chance of surviving if everyone just stays on the ground and goes through single file.

7. Now that I’ve told you never to stand on heads, I’m going to tell you to do it. One of the best weapons a zombie against humans is the ability to stack. The best way to go about doing this is for one player to get on another player’s head and then both players start jumping. If timed correctly you can give the top player a significant height boast, letting him get to previously unreachable places. This gives you the element of surprise, as you can get to people from angles and ways they normally don’t expect. If you see a fellow zombie standing by a wall underneath some humans and looking desperate, he probably wants to stack. Communicating about where you want to stack is a good idea if you have a mic or a few second to type it in. On the flip side of this, if you are a human, just be aware that zombies are tricky and that they might not always come the way you expect them to. Keep an eye out for stacks.

6. One of the toughest things for me to adjust to as a relatively newer person to Zombie Escape is the tricky jumps often needed. The one I still struggle with from time to time is the corner/turn jump. Unlike in reality, where once you jump you’re going to just keep going straight, in CS if done properly you can jump outward and then turn back inward to get around edges and other tricky spots. How to do this is to get a bit of a running start, jump, and then depending on the severity of the turn you need to flick your wrist appropriately to face where you want to land. This can be frustrating at first, but given a little practice, this can help you avoid some obstacles and survive some levels.

Another jumping trick I learned at my time here at Zombie Murder is if you hold down the jump button, you can skip along the top of the water. This is important, because in some maps anything beneath the very top layer of water is deadly. This can also come in handy if you jump forward off of a boat and can skip along faster then the boat for a few seconds. Anything to buy yourself a few seconds.

5. BOOM HEADSHOOT! People should probably just assume this, but I’m going to say it anyway, if you aren’t going for headshots, you are probably going to lose a lot of close rounds. The difference in how far the zombies flies backward is huge from a nice clean headshot compared to random shots to the chest. A clean pump shotgun to the face will knock a zombie back 30-40 feet, where the same shot to the chest might only get you 10 feet. This won’t make a huge difference if it’s 10 guys holding off 10 zombies, but if it’s just 2-3 humans holding back 10 zombies, you got to make every shot count. To summarize in 4 words, make headshots a habit.

4. Choose appropriate weapons. I probably don’t do this enough, but the map you are on should affect your decision on what weapon you buy. If it’s an open map with long fields, maybe a sniper rifle or famas is good choice. Playing a level that you know humans have to hold off zombies trying to get over a box? Opt for either a shotgun or machine gun. A sniper rifle probably won’t do you much good in that situation.

3. If you are having trouble crouch jumping or find yourself wondering how some players seem to buy everything so quickly, it might be because they are using scripts. To sum up scripts quickly, CS lets you assign certain in-game actions to different buttons. That’s a script. Just search Google and you’re bound to come upon a tutorial or two hundred on how to do this yourself. You can also download a script program, which simplifies the process by adding suggested scripts to your keyboard layout in-game, so you can assign the buttons as you see fit.

Scripts I recommend and have used are:
Crouch jump – Space bar or V
Quick switch to grenade – Q
Buy shotgun, grenade, sidearm, Kevlar, and ammo – N
Say “!ztele” – G

You can customize the buttons anyway you want to fit your playing style, these one just happen to work for me and are my favorites.

Alright, so these last two things are the most important to me personally. Any player who is willing to do both of these every time he plays is an elite Zombie Escapist in my book and understands what the game is really about.

2. Think Backward. This area is the one I’m probably the worst at. Most people who play the game just start running straight ahead at the beginning of every round and never look back. Granted, that may work some of the time, but to truly be great you have to consider what’s going on behind you just as much. I’ve lost plenty of rounds where I was just caught up in trying to get to the end as fast as possible and in hindsight if I had gone back to help others I would of had a much better chance of surviving the round. Falling back a little to shoot a zombie off a bridge or dock so other humans can catch up to you can save everyone’s life. Instead of that zombie getting ahead of the other humans, killing them, and 10 zombies now chasing you down, falling back to holding off that one gives you 10 extra humans to help you get to the end of the map. Just try to think ahead to what the end game situation is likely to be and whether or not you might be better off going back to help others out.

1. Teamwork. People say it all the time, but if you don’t do it, you really just don’t have a chance. It doesn’t take much; hold doors, communicate, don’t leave on a boat before everyone is there, just simple decent human things to do. Sure, you can be a dick, but if one person is, then somebody else decides they will be too, and before you know it nobody is willing to hold boats for anyone, and the game is an epic fail. Also, dick over enough people and the zombies start killing everyone, chances are you aren’t going to win anyway. Being a good teammate is contagious too, if other players see you holding doors and vehicles and waiting until 5-10 seconds are left before running to an escape vehicle, they be more likely to do the same. Everyone wins in that situation. Overall philosophy, try and put yourself in the same situation as the people behind you and if you would be pissed off if the person in front of you did that to you, then don’t do it to them.

[Smallsasaurus]

<reserved>

just in case.

This thing is really long. Don't tell anyone, but my boss isn't in today so I've pretty much just typed this up all morning.

[SATAN]

I got one.

When on any kind of vehicule, DO NOT JUMP OR CROUCH, because you will probably glitch/kill the person behind you. If possible, do not move at all.

[Shadowex3]

Sparknotes guide to trickjumping in Source

High jump: Unless you have a perfectly timed script running forward and then beginning to duck immediately before jumping (while stillholding duck) will net you some extra height, this is how to get over the fences of jurassic park without touching them or onto roof escape's ground level boxes.

Far jump: Run forward with a fast-running weapon out and jump, then once in midair duck and start turning your view sideways to get your clip box over on top of what you want to land on.

Circle Jump: A little trickier but easy once you get the hang of it. Make a far jump forward but instead of ducking you want to hold a strafe direction while somewhat slowly turning your view in that same direction, if done right it's possible to do a full 180 in the air, especially as a zombie. Turning too slow won't get you enough movement and turning too fast will stall your jump and make you fall straight down (just like tapping backwards in midair).

[Havok]

Cheers for those, really usefull. Would this thread not be better in the Newbie Section, though?

Anyway, thanks again. :thumbup:

[the lag]

Some great advice. Grats.

[LitKey]

Nice thread.. stickied

[VirDeBello]

I guess I'll add my own tidbits....

There are camping weapons and running weapons, some weapons are better running and shooting and others for the sole purpose of camping and some both.



Running: While running you always want to look around you, to make sure no zombies are trying to flank you or come from behind. When running away from zombies, you don't want to run and shoot at the same time unless absolutely needed. You are better off facing towards the zombie, crouch to increase your aim and aim for the head. That will push the zombie a good mile back and give you more breathing room for running. But if you can't stop running then make the effort to have every bullet land in the zombie. This will slow him down enough to make a better escape for you.

TMP- Its good for mostly running away from zombies. With the TMP's high rate of fire, you can put more lead into zombies effectively slowing them down or pushing them back. With its fast reload time, you don't have to worry about a long reload time. The TMP is also as light as a pistol or knife, it seems I run about the same speed as other humans with their knife or pistol out. Also great weapon for "the ledge" on ATIX. While you could camp with this weapon, if faced with more then a couple zombies you were better off being a shotty. So combined with high rate of fire, fast reload time and a light weapon its perfect for escape maps.

MAC-10- Another SMG that is perfect for running. Most people would regard this weapon as too inaccurate which is true but with controlled bursts it is deadly. When running away from zombies, the best thing to do with the MAC-10 is to stop, crouch and aim at the zombies head and do a quick 3 round burst to the head. This method is just as perfect as the TMP when used properly. The same from running and shooting, the .45 round will effectively slow the zombie down more, with proper aiming and making every bullet count. The two reasons why this SMG is viewed as a bad weapon is the long reload time compared to the TMP and the fact that most people spray with the weapon making it seem as a bad weapon. But if you can compensate for the reload time and use controlled bursts I guarantee you will love the MAC-10 and impress people when you use such an "inaccurate" weapon.

I will add more for pistols, shotguns, and rifles but Ima bit tired now sorry

[Shadowex3]

Weapon run speeds

Normal running speed
Scout (somewhat faster, slightly higher jumps)
Knife
All Pistols
All SMGs
Autoshotty (microscopically slower than pistol/smg/knife)
Grenade

Slow speed
All Rifles
Para Machinegun
Pump Shotgun

[Marquis Posa]

Weapon run speeds

Normal running speed
Scout (somewhat faster, slightly higher jumps)
Knife
All Pistols
All SMGs
Autoshotty (microscopically slower than pistol/smg/knife)
Grenade

Slow speed
All Rifles
Para Machinegun
Pump Shotgun