Ok. After some more gaming on Survival mode, some themes emerge.
1. Maximum $value from contracts
2. Minimum expenditure on armouries
Maximum $value from contracts
Just like Zombies, Survival is about cashing up early and using it later.
In zombies, cashing up meant getting the maximum points per zombie in the early rounds, via M1911 bullets and slashes, and in later rounds you just empty all your ammo at the zombies.
In Survival, what counts are streaks within a round, either streaks of kills without being hit yourself, or rampages, knife streaks, headshot streaks, flashbang streaks and quadkills. This is a challenge in two-player co-op, as it would be in the best interests of both players to let one guy get all the kills each round in order to maximize the bonus points available.
Note that players can really co-operate via sharing $500 cash in-game.
Maybe in Co-op, players should take it in turns each round, but that depends on who has what 'contracts' each round. I think that the easiest contract is 'rampage' as all you need to do is round up the enemies like in zombies, then take them all out as fast as possible (e.g. with an MP9 as mentioned previously).
Early rounds
In the early rounds of zombies, you get more points from slashes and the zombies are easier.
In the early rounds of Survival, the enemies are relatively weak, carrying either a Model 1885 shotguns (Tier 1 and 2 maps) or MP5 (Tier 4 maps), and later you get suicide bombers. This makes it easier to score slash kills - as in higher rounds it takes more than one slash to kill - and similar contracts. Having any gun better than an MP5 or AK47 is the way to get points here, as well as having armour to protect your killstreak.
Middle rounds
Before and after the enemies start to carry the ACR weapon, and the chemical warfare guys start to arrive. This is where air support Delta teams and Sentry Guns help you get heaps of points via the 'killstreak' contract - just be sure to have some ARMOUR on you to protect your killstreak.
Later rounds
When the enemies are carrying the FAD gun, this is the later rounds and the enemies are more heavily armoured and take more bullets (and time) to finish.
Minimum expenditure on armouries.
It looks like a good idea to pick up enemy weapons and collect all the ammo that they drop; but instead, if you really want to use these dropped weapons, you should pick up just one weapon as soon as possible then head straight for the Weapons Armoury to buy an ammo refill for $750. This means that you get full ammo without having to buy the gun from the Weapons Armoury, and you'll have spares lying around the place to collect later.
I don't recommend this strategy as I doubt you can get ahead with it. First, it means that your weapons are 'behind' rather than more advanced than the enemies, which slows you down in-game. Second, the Model 1885 and MP5 reload is not a good thing, same the AK47, when trying to get a rampage or killstreak. Better to invest in good stuff early on, or at least cheap stuff for a round or two.
So, I recommend that you save $500 and buy a handgun at the end of Round 1, either as a second gun or to replace your existing pistol.
If you are carrying anything but the Five Seven or P99, I recommend buying and using either for just $250 as soon as the Weapons Armoury is available, which will come with full ammo. And if you are carrying one of these handguns, I recommend buying the other as your second weapon. The Five Seven has 20 rounds per clip and the P99 is just brilliant, both with quick reload time and good impact on the enemies, and remember: switching to your side arm is always faster than reloading. So, basically, I save cash by using two pistols in the first few rounds.
Also, with two pistols, it is cheaper to replace each empty handgun with a new pistol than to buy a refill - but by that point in time you probably have enough cash for something else anyway.
If at all possible, your next gun purchase should be an LMG, then perhaps get the grip and some sights on it. This will put you ahead of the enemies up to the later rounds, where you will probably be on 'equal' footing weapons-wise. The cost is $7k but is worth it: you get 100 ammo per clip with three spare clips, which really helps with the killstreaks and rampages, and full ammo for $750 is always a better bargain for 400 bullets than 200, right?
As mentioned, the MP9 has an awesome effect for rampages; well worth the $1500 but if buying a pistol helps me get an LMG, I prefer that first.
The other good gun seems to be the Type 95 - the last assault rifle unlocked in Survival mode. You can take out one Juggernaut with 1.3 clips from this gun, so get some scope to help you focus all the bullets from a distance. Then again, most assault rifles have a good impact on the juggernaut - somewhere between 1 and 2 clips does the trick, so go with what you prefer I guess.
I had thought that getting a sniper rifle early on is a good investment - and it still is, so long as you have a Killstreak contract and can maintain a long distance from the enemies, and in the early to middle rounds. Then again, a Delta team is about as good for getting the killstreak contracts on most maps.
This should minimise the costs per effective bullet - and by effective I mean effect on the enemies.
Sentry Guns: if you place them in a corner, face them at the 45 degree angle. You should switch to Sentry Guns (rather than Delta teams) at some point and try to place two sentry guns not far from each other - even facing the same general direction. Move your sentry guns out of the way of the AH6 minibird choppers (which shoot through windows to take out your sentry guns) and don't get too far from them if possible - the enemy will shoot at them.
Armour: buying armour protects your Killstreak contract. avoiding damage also protects your killstreak contract, but the armour is your 'insurance' on keeping the killstreak contract.
Self-Revive: not initial equipment in Tier 4 maps, maybe not helpful in the later Tier4map rounds either unless you can find a dog to shoot. Best thing to do with it is to learn how to avoid having to use it, so that you can save yourself and your teammate about $4000 points and the effort of trying to revive you in the later rounds.
2011/11/28
2011/11/21
MW3 Survival mode
About time I write something on MW3 Spec Ops Survival Mode.
It is kinda similar to zombies, as follows:
And then again, it is different altogether:
and most unfortunately, NO Pack-a-Punch machine...
My gameplay so far - reached level 45 in a week or so - shows that you can make round 30 or so in less than an hour, which is better than in zombies that just goes on and on for several hours to make round 30 in, say, KDT. This is much more manageable for gaming time, the number of enemies each round is more moderate and they are also relatively tougher earlier on. The fact that they can hit you at range is also tougher than zombies you could, more or less, easily flee via circuit.
There are four tiers of Survival Mode. The first tier gives you more startup bonuses like a better handgun, Self-revive (shoot an enemy dead then stand back up), body armour and some grenades. In the top tier you don't start out with Self-Revive, body armour or grenades, and you get a six-shooter handgun (with built-in 'slow reloading' feature).
And the AI routines are somewhat smarter but still amounts to the enemies closing in on you wherever you are, just like in zombiez, rather than tougher tactics like having some guys sniping at you from a distance in support of shock-troopers out in front, or teams harrassing you to run into an ambush.
Still, it is enjoyable and here are my first tips on how to get ahead.
1. Know how to get points.
You get more points for killstreaks and other 'contracts' on the lower left of the screen.
Both players and enemies wear body armour, so it takes a few hits to make a kill. In game terms though, this means that a killstreak/contract slows down when the player takes any hits.
And contracts pay better and better if you can extend them.
So rule 1a: don't take hits if you can avoid it.
Rampage is a kinda like a killstreak except you need to score lots of kills in a short amount of time. Even if you take a few hits, that knocks back your Rampage a little (look at the bar while you try this out) but you can still score a Rampage with taking a few hits on you. I like to use the MP9 machine-pistol to score these in the early rounds because it is like a fast SMG and quick to reload, so in a stairwell or similar space, I shoot - take a step back/reload - step in and shoot again. Works wonders.
Quad-kill has two main ways to get it, but you need to run some circles to round up the enemies first. Either use a Predator drone strike or try C4, cooked grenades or destroying a vehicle. It all works but it needs to work simultaneously.
Knife-kills - all I can say is I notice that if I hit an enemy with any bullet, even a pistol shot, the enemy is slowed down and ready for a stab, but in higher rounds the enemies are armoured and require multiple slashes to kill.
Extra points available for finishing a round fast, finishing flawlessly (i.e. no hits on you whatsoever) and some other points. Basically the bestest players get rewarded for a bestest performance.
2. Sentry Guns
In addition to getting more points/cash, one great way to extend the killstreak is to set up Sentry Guns in strategic locations.
Make sure that you do not get in the way of the Sentry Gun: it will not fire if you are in the firing line / arc.
The best locations to place Sentry Guns are open spaces with a long wall on either side of the sentry gun, preferably both sides but I don't find many, and perhaps a barrier of some kind to protect the sentry gun.
And if it helps you finish the round faster, you get a higher end-of-round bonus.
In multiplayer Survival, both players can move any Sentry Guns, not just their own. It looks like there is just one Sentry Gun per player in Multiplayer, but in Solo I can buy one, place it, buy another, place that, at least in some maps.
In DOME, the space between the dome and the bunker - alternatively, between the Weapons Armory and the Equipment Armory, is an excellent space for just this. I place an SG beside the barrier near the far corner, so that the SG faces the other barrier near the door to the Equipment Armory. Similarly, if I can, I put another SG behind that barrier and facing the door to the Weapons Armory /dome. These guns can then protect each other, but a few Claymores help too. So long as I'm not taking hits, my Sentry Gun helps deliver the Killstreak and the Rampage in the middle rounds, and some support for the tougher enemies in the higher rounds.
Note that attack choppers will shoot your sentry guns, and your sentry guns will shoot the attack choppers as well; but don't rely on the Sentry Gun to do the work. In the lower-tiered Survival maps, you could temporarily move the Sentry gun to undercover; however in higher-tiered maps, the attack choppers usually accompany heavy troops like Juggernauts, so it might not make a difference.
3. Handling the Attack Choppers
These start from round 4 or so. You can take them out with an MP5 - typically there are enough of these dropped by enemies in the first 5 rounds or so - but any ammo will do the trick and tougher ammo will work faster. $600 points each chopper.
4. Juggernaut
Around the same time as the choppers arrive. You'll see a transport chopper drop them off. The move slower but they don't stop for much. Stun grenades work on them, any gun works on them (I've finished one off with an MP9) and even stabbing works on them - you get some achievement for it :)
Then again, any Predator strike will take one out, actually it can take out three at once if you bunch them up in the open first, unless....
4b. Riot Shield Juggernaut.
This guy crawls around behind a riot shield, so if you use a Predator strike, make sure you hit behind the riot shield and not in front. After the shield is destroyed, it looks like the regular Juggernaut.
5. Air support.
There is a variety of air support available but by far the most reliably useful is the Predator strike.
You can always use it to scan the area, then cancel out rather than fire. And the damage it does is excellent - takes out Juggernauts in one good hit.
Delta team and Riot Shield team: these drop 3 guys to help you out. Not bad for gaining Killstreaks in the early to middle-rounds, but they only have the M16 gun at best, can't be upgraded, so they become less useful from round 12 or so.
Airstrike: not bad in the early rounds but there is a delay between marking the target and the actual strike. Doesn't take down a Juggernaut so I prefer to rely on Predator Drones and Sentry Guns.
Air support occupies the same 'slot' as Sentry Gun and Sentry Gun (bomb), but once you deploy a sentry gun you can get the other air support. Always remember this order:
First: Buy and call in a squad
Second: Buy and place a sentry gun
Last: Buy and hold onto a Predator strike or Airstrike.
6. C4
I love the C4 in multiplayer and now in Spec Ops Survival. Actually I have used it several times, throwing it over walls when I have no ammo, and it has delivered me the Quad Kill, Rampage and Killstreak contracts several times so that I can buy more ammo.
7. Buying and using weapons, and Refill your ammo
You can do reasonably well by collecting whatever weapons are currently dropped by the latest enemies.
Basically, as the rounds go up, the enemies are tougher and they are using better weapons and more heavily armoured.
Refilling all of you ammo - both loaded and spare ammo (unlike Zombies) - costs just $750. You can also scavenge about 12-15 rounds per same-weapon from the ground, so if you are expecting the attack chopper and want to save cash, pick up an MP5 or AK47 or anything but a shotgun, buy ammo for $750, use it, then scavenge off of the weapons on the ground: if you scavenge first, you will probably have to buy the ammo later. Sometimes just 2 or 3 clips of MP5 ammo do the job per each helicopter.
Now, to get more cash early on, you will need to buy better weapons.
For example, though I haven't unlocked it yet, the Barrett is the last sniper rifle to unlock. In MW2, the Barrett was recommended for taking down Juggernauts (Desert Eagle too, but in MW3 the Desert Eagle is not that good vs Juggernaut). So (presumably) if you had the Barrett early on and at the first opportunity on a Juggernaut, you can take out a Juggernaut at a distance for the $2000 or $3000 cost of the gun, rather than spending $2500 on a Predator strike or using heaps of bullets.
Using a Sniper rifle vs guys with Model 1885 shotties will ensure you get the Killstreak reward since you will shoot them from afar and never get hit yourself. Look out for good 'sniping funnels' in each map.
Using a better Assault Rifle will take down the enemies faster, in early rounds.
But as I said before, get the MP9 for just $1500 and use it in tighter spaces. It is faster than some SMGs, quick to reload and comes with heaps of ammo. Just keep aiming, take cover, reload, then go again. I've done reasonably well with it, even took out a chopper with it too.
I think by the middle rounds, it is good to have an LMG with grip and sight.
8. Armour and Perks
There is a shield at the bottom of the screen: it changes from gold to red, depending on how many hits you have taken. When the shield isn't there, you are out of armour. Replenish the armour costs $2000 for a full 'refill'.
Self-revive is a new perk, available from the start on lower-tiered Survival maps and for $4000 at any time from the Equipment Armory. Basically it is like Final Stand from MW2 or Second Chance from Black Ops, except that the enemy might still aim at you and your killing them gets you back on your feet. All you get is the starting pistol (not sure if you get your own sidearm if you buy and are carrying a pistol at the time), so in the higher rounds it is tougher for you to get back up by shooting some enemy dead. If you don't shoot someone, then you get back up after a number of seconds anyway.
Other Perks are available from the Airsupport Armory. Basically you call in a care package with the nominated perk. Note that if you do not take up the perk, it can be damaged/destroyed and therefore lost, but if you do take the perk, it replaces any that you already have, including Self-revive.
9. End game
The Survival Game ends when any one player dies without being revived. It looks like there is less time available to revive your teammate in the higher rounds, but I'm not sure if that depends (at least partially) on how many times they have been revived by teammates previously.
Unlike zombies, there is no easy way to get enough points to restock ammo and keep on going. It seems like this game mode will be a bit more about using skills to accumulate points, rather than simply herding zombies to milk points.
Anyhow, that's all for now, and probably anything on this topic, but as I find good setups for bunkering down, I'll add more details to this blog.
It is kinda similar to zombies, as follows:
- Survival round after round
- Enemies get tougher each round
- You earn points to buy weapons, equipment, perks and ammo
And then again, it is different altogether:
- The enemies can shoot at you, take cover behind objects, toss grenades, lay claymores and other traps
- You get access to air support and equipment like C4 (YES!)
- You can only have one perk at a time
- You can level up from one game to the next, unlocking new weapons from the Armories.
- No Power Switch
- No Perks-a-Cola
- No Traps
- No 'flinger'
and most unfortunately, NO Pack-a-Punch machine...
My gameplay so far - reached level 45 in a week or so - shows that you can make round 30 or so in less than an hour, which is better than in zombies that just goes on and on for several hours to make round 30 in, say, KDT. This is much more manageable for gaming time, the number of enemies each round is more moderate and they are also relatively tougher earlier on. The fact that they can hit you at range is also tougher than zombies you could, more or less, easily flee via circuit.
There are four tiers of Survival Mode. The first tier gives you more startup bonuses like a better handgun, Self-revive (shoot an enemy dead then stand back up), body armour and some grenades. In the top tier you don't start out with Self-Revive, body armour or grenades, and you get a six-shooter handgun (with built-in 'slow reloading' feature).
And the AI routines are somewhat smarter but still amounts to the enemies closing in on you wherever you are, just like in zombiez, rather than tougher tactics like having some guys sniping at you from a distance in support of shock-troopers out in front, or teams harrassing you to run into an ambush.
Still, it is enjoyable and here are my first tips on how to get ahead.
1. Know how to get points.
You get more points for killstreaks and other 'contracts' on the lower left of the screen.
Both players and enemies wear body armour, so it takes a few hits to make a kill. In game terms though, this means that a killstreak/contract slows down when the player takes any hits.
And contracts pay better and better if you can extend them.
So rule 1a: don't take hits if you can avoid it.
And rule 1b. take notice of the contracts available.
Note that Headshots are worth more points than regular kills, and there are no bullet-hit-points.
Killstreak as a contract means that you get a killstreak of, say, 5 kills in a row without a hit - and you get $500 in-game cash for it. If you extend that to 10 kills you get an EXTRA $1000 in-game cash for it, therefore you scored an extra $1500 as well as whatever you get for each kill. Done carefully in Round 1, you can score more than $3000 in-game cash before Round 2.
Rampage is a kinda like a killstreak except you need to score lots of kills in a short amount of time. Even if you take a few hits, that knocks back your Rampage a little (look at the bar while you try this out) but you can still score a Rampage with taking a few hits on you. I like to use the MP9 machine-pistol to score these in the early rounds because it is like a fast SMG and quick to reload, so in a stairwell or similar space, I shoot - take a step back/reload - step in and shoot again. Works wonders.
Quad-kill has two main ways to get it, but you need to run some circles to round up the enemies first. Either use a Predator drone strike or try C4, cooked grenades or destroying a vehicle. It all works but it needs to work simultaneously.
Knife-kills - all I can say is I notice that if I hit an enemy with any bullet, even a pistol shot, the enemy is slowed down and ready for a stab, but in higher rounds the enemies are armoured and require multiple slashes to kill.
Extra points available for finishing a round fast, finishing flawlessly (i.e. no hits on you whatsoever) and some other points. Basically the bestest players get rewarded for a bestest performance.
2. Sentry Guns
In addition to getting more points/cash, one great way to extend the killstreak is to set up Sentry Guns in strategic locations.
Make sure that you do not get in the way of the Sentry Gun: it will not fire if you are in the firing line / arc.
The best locations to place Sentry Guns are open spaces with a long wall on either side of the sentry gun, preferably both sides but I don't find many, and perhaps a barrier of some kind to protect the sentry gun.
And if it helps you finish the round faster, you get a higher end-of-round bonus.
In multiplayer Survival, both players can move any Sentry Guns, not just their own. It looks like there is just one Sentry Gun per player in Multiplayer, but in Solo I can buy one, place it, buy another, place that, at least in some maps.
In DOME, the space between the dome and the bunker - alternatively, between the Weapons Armory and the Equipment Armory, is an excellent space for just this. I place an SG beside the barrier near the far corner, so that the SG faces the other barrier near the door to the Equipment Armory. Similarly, if I can, I put another SG behind that barrier and facing the door to the Weapons Armory /dome. These guns can then protect each other, but a few Claymores help too. So long as I'm not taking hits, my Sentry Gun helps deliver the Killstreak and the Rampage in the middle rounds, and some support for the tougher enemies in the higher rounds.
Note that attack choppers will shoot your sentry guns, and your sentry guns will shoot the attack choppers as well; but don't rely on the Sentry Gun to do the work. In the lower-tiered Survival maps, you could temporarily move the Sentry gun to undercover; however in higher-tiered maps, the attack choppers usually accompany heavy troops like Juggernauts, so it might not make a difference.
3. Handling the Attack Choppers
These start from round 4 or so. You can take them out with an MP5 - typically there are enough of these dropped by enemies in the first 5 rounds or so - but any ammo will do the trick and tougher ammo will work faster. $600 points each chopper.
4. Juggernaut
Around the same time as the choppers arrive. You'll see a transport chopper drop them off. The move slower but they don't stop for much. Stun grenades work on them, any gun works on them (I've finished one off with an MP9) and even stabbing works on them - you get some achievement for it :)
Then again, any Predator strike will take one out, actually it can take out three at once if you bunch them up in the open first, unless....
4b. Riot Shield Juggernaut.
This guy crawls around behind a riot shield, so if you use a Predator strike, make sure you hit behind the riot shield and not in front. After the shield is destroyed, it looks like the regular Juggernaut.
5. Air support.
There is a variety of air support available but by far the most reliably useful is the Predator strike.
You can always use it to scan the area, then cancel out rather than fire. And the damage it does is excellent - takes out Juggernauts in one good hit.
Delta team and Riot Shield team: these drop 3 guys to help you out. Not bad for gaining Killstreaks in the early to middle-rounds, but they only have the M16 gun at best, can't be upgraded, so they become less useful from round 12 or so.
Airstrike: not bad in the early rounds but there is a delay between marking the target and the actual strike. Doesn't take down a Juggernaut so I prefer to rely on Predator Drones and Sentry Guns.
Air support occupies the same 'slot' as Sentry Gun and Sentry Gun (bomb), but once you deploy a sentry gun you can get the other air support. Always remember this order:
First: Buy and call in a squad
Second: Buy and place a sentry gun
Last: Buy and hold onto a Predator strike or Airstrike.
6. C4
I love the C4 in multiplayer and now in Spec Ops Survival. Actually I have used it several times, throwing it over walls when I have no ammo, and it has delivered me the Quad Kill, Rampage and Killstreak contracts several times so that I can buy more ammo.
7. Buying and using weapons, and Refill your ammo
You can do reasonably well by collecting whatever weapons are currently dropped by the latest enemies.
Basically, as the rounds go up, the enemies are tougher and they are using better weapons and more heavily armoured.
Refilling all of you ammo - both loaded and spare ammo (unlike Zombies) - costs just $750. You can also scavenge about 12-15 rounds per same-weapon from the ground, so if you are expecting the attack chopper and want to save cash, pick up an MP5 or AK47 or anything but a shotgun, buy ammo for $750, use it, then scavenge off of the weapons on the ground: if you scavenge first, you will probably have to buy the ammo later. Sometimes just 2 or 3 clips of MP5 ammo do the job per each helicopter.
Now, to get more cash early on, you will need to buy better weapons.
For example, though I haven't unlocked it yet, the Barrett is the last sniper rifle to unlock. In MW2, the Barrett was recommended for taking down Juggernauts (Desert Eagle too, but in MW3 the Desert Eagle is not that good vs Juggernaut). So (presumably) if you had the Barrett early on and at the first opportunity on a Juggernaut, you can take out a Juggernaut at a distance for the $2000 or $3000 cost of the gun, rather than spending $2500 on a Predator strike or using heaps of bullets.
Using a Sniper rifle vs guys with Model 1885 shotties will ensure you get the Killstreak reward since you will shoot them from afar and never get hit yourself. Look out for good 'sniping funnels' in each map.
Using a better Assault Rifle will take down the enemies faster, in early rounds.
But as I said before, get the MP9 for just $1500 and use it in tighter spaces. It is faster than some SMGs, quick to reload and comes with heaps of ammo. Just keep aiming, take cover, reload, then go again. I've done reasonably well with it, even took out a chopper with it too.
I think by the middle rounds, it is good to have an LMG with grip and sight.
8. Armour and Perks
There is a shield at the bottom of the screen: it changes from gold to red, depending on how many hits you have taken. When the shield isn't there, you are out of armour. Replenish the armour costs $2000 for a full 'refill'.
Self-revive is a new perk, available from the start on lower-tiered Survival maps and for $4000 at any time from the Equipment Armory. Basically it is like Final Stand from MW2 or Second Chance from Black Ops, except that the enemy might still aim at you and your killing them gets you back on your feet. All you get is the starting pistol (not sure if you get your own sidearm if you buy and are carrying a pistol at the time), so in the higher rounds it is tougher for you to get back up by shooting some enemy dead. If you don't shoot someone, then you get back up after a number of seconds anyway.
Other Perks are available from the Airsupport Armory. Basically you call in a care package with the nominated perk. Note that if you do not take up the perk, it can be damaged/destroyed and therefore lost, but if you do take the perk, it replaces any that you already have, including Self-revive.
9. End game
The Survival Game ends when any one player dies without being revived. It looks like there is less time available to revive your teammate in the higher rounds, but I'm not sure if that depends (at least partially) on how many times they have been revived by teammates previously.
Unlike zombies, there is no easy way to get enough points to restock ammo and keep on going. It seems like this game mode will be a bit more about using skills to accumulate points, rather than simply herding zombies to milk points.
Anyhow, that's all for now, and probably anything on this topic, but as I find good setups for bunkering down, I'll add more details to this blog.
2011/09/29
Getting ahead in No Man's Land
The Area 51 starting area of the zombies map 'Moon' is called "No Man's Land", according to the Leaderboard (which says I'm in the top 10000 ranked players).
As mentioned in my previous entry, "No Man's Land" (Area 51) is the key to unlocking heaps of points, so long as you have a good, preferably automatic gun with lots of spare ammo, or a Bowie Knife plus Ballistic Knife combo (if before round 10/14).
In No Man's Land, the zombies don't drop Max Ammo or anything, so you only have what you take in with you.
At the start of the game, you only have 40 bullets in your M1911, and a knife; before the 1st 'nuke' siren, the zombies are a one-hit slash, then afterwards a 5-bullets plus slash to kill, then progressively tougher with each nuke siren. Incidentally, the 1st and 2nd dogs are one-slash kills also, but not so the next one, so two dogs is my cue to get out, or at least keep away from zombies...
Anyhow, here's how to get a good start.
Bear in mind that after you reach the Receiving Hall at the Moon, you need 6,500 points to unlock all the doors, via Tunnel 6, to reach the teleporter and get back to No Man's Land for more points. So you'll also need 950-1200 points for a decent gun and maybe 500 points for Quick Revive (if playing Solo).
I figure it is best to aim for 3,500 points in solo, or 4,000 points total between two players, before starting round 1. This way, you might have enough points to get back to No Man's Land as early as Round 2 (leave a crawler).
Solo: I first slash (slash-only) as many zombies that spawn in the two mud puddles. An unlucky start is less than 9 zombies giving a total less than 1,800 points before the 1st nuke siren. A really good start is 14 zombies for more than 2,000 points on 1st nuke siren. No matter, the next step is to work the horde into a tight bunch - just running around the large central puddle works reasonably well; slash the 1st/2nd dogs if it gets to that.
By the third siren, zombie crawlers and armless runners can be killed with a slash, so making this happen is what you want to do. Here's how: get a medium-lead on the herd and take them up the stairs to the teleporter. [At this location, any kills will be replaced by new spawns in No Man's Land, so you have room to finish off the zombies.] Immediately at the top of the stairs, before the zombies catch up, you hang a left and stand next to the drink machine & pull the pin on a grenade, cook it a second or two and slam it on the ground, straight down-ish but pointing almost towards the adjacent corner on the other side of the stairs, or to the middle of the stairs; then walk sideways in a half-circle around the grenade; this should land the grenade right in the middle of the herd, and your walking should keep them trained on the grenade. The explosion should leave you with dead zombies, a few crawlers and maybe some armless runners. Slash what remains and you should have 3,500+ points and new spawns breaking in.
At this point, you probably still have one grenade and some bullets. Maybe throw another grenade or shoot bullets for more points because you really don't need either once Round 1 starts (they're all one-slash kills again, then 2-slashes in round 2). You could make another herd and finish off your grenades and ammo for extra points - maybe even rack up enough to Pack-a-Punch the M1911 to Mustang and Sally, although you are very vulnerable to the explosive splash (believe me, I did just that). Just be sure to get out of No Man's Land before you die, and don't buy the drink - even if it is Juggernog.
Instead, save the points to get back to No Man's Land as soon as possible. You should have 32 or so zombies to kill in rounds 1, 2 and 3, for an extra 3,000 to 5,000 points, depending how you go with the zombies and the timing of any Max Ammo and/or X2 points; Here's what I suggest you do next, assuming you haven't left the Receiving Area (adjust depending on how many doors/guns you have bought):
6,500 points + a Max Ammo replenishing your M1911 & grenades, if by round 2, just go to NML and work it for a few extra points as safely as possible.
7,000 points + a Max Ammo replenishing your M1911 & grenades, if by round 2, get Quick Revive and go to NML - be safe.
7,500 points - get all the doors but before going to NML, check the two Mystery Box spots on the way too and either have a go, or get a wall gun SMG, M16 or Stakeout on the way, then go to NML
8,000 points - as before, but get Quick Revive before going to NML as well.
10,000 points - you must be in Round 4+ already; so get to NML for points soon, and maybe get Juggs while you're there.
Now, the teleporter has an entrace 'gateway' with four lights that are green or red; after teleporting, they all alight red. I think that the first light (leftmost) doesn't change to green until after you kill some number of zombies, but maybe the last one is on a timer after the 3rd light changes... so it is not unlimited: I can't get 200k points before round 5 by rerunning to NML again and again, but here's what you can get by using...
So, don't worry about about the Bowie Knife or flicking the power so quickly; get back to No Man's Land as soon as possible to get more points, then go for Juggs, Bowie Knife, other drinks or work the box.
Also, No Man's Land changes the dynamics of what guns work best. Gaming in Solo, any shotgun is great to give you some safety while waiting for the teleporter from start to go. Gaming in multiplayer, the zombie-herding thing works best with just one guy running around as the bait in No Man's Land, so all the other players should camp at the Teleporter station - perhaps with Sniper Rifles to take down zombies from the herd just one at a time, and shotguns in case the herd goes to the Teleporter instead of the bait. This would be a very interesting strategy with four players, 3 on the sniping and myself with the Ballistic+Bowie combo.
And, the Biodome has the Claymores on some pile of crates. In solo or in multiplayer, these are also good for providing a little safety prior to teleport. I recommend planting them a few steps away from the teleporter, back to back, although some hellhound dog usually spawns on the teleporter platform and may destroy a claymore as it runs past; maybe equip and place them just before leaving?
From what I read about the Quantum Entanglement Device, it can cause a total loss of all points on all players; I guess that NML balances this out by giving an option to get more points without affecting the round number you are in.
No Man's Land really will change the meaning of how many kills and points and to what round you survive; then again, it has it's own leaderboard for Solo.
As mentioned in my previous entry, "No Man's Land" (Area 51) is the key to unlocking heaps of points, so long as you have a good, preferably automatic gun with lots of spare ammo, or a Bowie Knife plus Ballistic Knife combo (if before round 10/14).
In No Man's Land, the zombies don't drop Max Ammo or anything, so you only have what you take in with you.
At the start of the game, you only have 40 bullets in your M1911, and a knife; before the 1st 'nuke' siren, the zombies are a one-hit slash, then afterwards a 5-bullets plus slash to kill, then progressively tougher with each nuke siren. Incidentally, the 1st and 2nd dogs are one-slash kills also, but not so the next one, so two dogs is my cue to get out, or at least keep away from zombies...
Anyhow, here's how to get a good start.
Bear in mind that after you reach the Receiving Hall at the Moon, you need 6,500 points to unlock all the doors, via Tunnel 6, to reach the teleporter and get back to No Man's Land for more points. So you'll also need 950-1200 points for a decent gun and maybe 500 points for Quick Revive (if playing Solo).
I figure it is best to aim for 3,500 points in solo, or 4,000 points total between two players, before starting round 1. This way, you might have enough points to get back to No Man's Land as early as Round 2 (leave a crawler).
Solo: I first slash (slash-only) as many zombies that spawn in the two mud puddles. An unlucky start is less than 9 zombies giving a total less than 1,800 points before the 1st nuke siren. A really good start is 14 zombies for more than 2,000 points on 1st nuke siren. No matter, the next step is to work the horde into a tight bunch - just running around the large central puddle works reasonably well; slash the 1st/2nd dogs if it gets to that.
By the third siren, zombie crawlers and armless runners can be killed with a slash, so making this happen is what you want to do. Here's how: get a medium-lead on the herd and take them up the stairs to the teleporter. [At this location, any kills will be replaced by new spawns in No Man's Land, so you have room to finish off the zombies.] Immediately at the top of the stairs, before the zombies catch up, you hang a left and stand next to the drink machine & pull the pin on a grenade, cook it a second or two and slam it on the ground, straight down-ish but pointing almost towards the adjacent corner on the other side of the stairs, or to the middle of the stairs; then walk sideways in a half-circle around the grenade; this should land the grenade right in the middle of the herd, and your walking should keep them trained on the grenade. The explosion should leave you with dead zombies, a few crawlers and maybe some armless runners. Slash what remains and you should have 3,500+ points and new spawns breaking in.
At this point, you probably still have one grenade and some bullets. Maybe throw another grenade or shoot bullets for more points because you really don't need either once Round 1 starts (they're all one-slash kills again, then 2-slashes in round 2). You could make another herd and finish off your grenades and ammo for extra points - maybe even rack up enough to Pack-a-Punch the M1911 to Mustang and Sally, although you are very vulnerable to the explosive splash (believe me, I did just that). Just be sure to get out of No Man's Land before you die, and don't buy the drink - even if it is Juggernog.
Instead, save the points to get back to No Man's Land as soon as possible. You should have 32 or so zombies to kill in rounds 1, 2 and 3, for an extra 3,000 to 5,000 points, depending how you go with the zombies and the timing of any Max Ammo and/or X2 points; Here's what I suggest you do next, assuming you haven't left the Receiving Area (adjust depending on how many doors/guns you have bought):
6,500 points + a Max Ammo replenishing your M1911 & grenades, if by round 2, just go to NML and work it for a few extra points as safely as possible.
7,000 points + a Max Ammo replenishing your M1911 & grenades, if by round 2, get Quick Revive and go to NML - be safe.
7,500 points - get all the doors but before going to NML, check the two Mystery Box spots on the way too and either have a go, or get a wall gun SMG, M16 or Stakeout on the way, then go to NML
8,000 points - as before, but get Quick Revive before going to NML as well.
10,000 points - you must be in Round 4+ already; so get to NML for points soon, and maybe get Juggs while you're there.
Now, the teleporter has an entrace 'gateway' with four lights that are green or red; after teleporting, they all alight red. I think that the first light (leftmost) doesn't change to green until after you kill some number of zombies, but maybe the last one is on a timer after the 3rd light changes... so it is not unlimited: I can't get 200k points before round 5 by rerunning to NML again and again, but here's what you can get by using...
- M1911 + 2 grenades = 3,000 points
- AUG/Commando/Galil, full ammo = 7,500 points
- AK74u/MP5k/MPL, full ammo = 5,000 points
- RPK/HK21 = you can probably guess.
- Ballistic Knife + Gersch Device = accumulate zombies, throw the Gersch, equip Ballistic knife = 130 points per zombie sucked into the black hole. If also holding the Bowie Knife before Round 10, or it is before Round 14 and already Pack-a-Punched the Ballistic Knife, then slash what you can for 130 points per kill.
So, don't worry about about the Bowie Knife or flicking the power so quickly; get back to No Man's Land as soon as possible to get more points, then go for Juggs, Bowie Knife, other drinks or work the box.
Also, No Man's Land changes the dynamics of what guns work best. Gaming in Solo, any shotgun is great to give you some safety while waiting for the teleporter from start to go. Gaming in multiplayer, the zombie-herding thing works best with just one guy running around as the bait in No Man's Land, so all the other players should camp at the Teleporter station - perhaps with Sniper Rifles to take down zombies from the herd just one at a time, and shotguns in case the herd goes to the Teleporter instead of the bait. This would be a very interesting strategy with four players, 3 on the sniping and myself with the Ballistic+Bowie combo.
And, the Biodome has the Claymores on some pile of crates. In solo or in multiplayer, these are also good for providing a little safety prior to teleport. I recommend planting them a few steps away from the teleporter, back to back, although some hellhound dog usually spawns on the teleporter platform and may destroy a claymore as it runs past; maybe equip and place them just before leaving?
From what I read about the Quantum Entanglement Device, it can cause a total loss of all points on all players; I guess that NML balances this out by giving an option to get more points without affecting the round number you are in.
No Man's Land really will change the meaning of how many kills and points and to what round you survive; then again, it has it's own leaderboard for Solo.
2011/09/25
Moon - getting started
Moon; just out on PS3 since a few days ago and...whoa - big map, different setup from the start and seems to have a lot more variables to consider.
First, you start outside Hangar 18 in Area 51, with Pack-a-Punch and either SpeedCola/Juggernog available, and the power is on! There is a teleporter that works when all players (alive or downed) are waiting on top of it.
Also, there are two shallow pools of water where zombies crawl out of the ground (like Call of the Dead) for quick, 1-slash kills. And other zombies will get to you from the 'platforms' on either side, 4x entry ways , so watch out. I recommend slashing every zombie you can before teleporting to the Moon.
Upon spawning the new game, a siren goes off, and about 20s later another siren is your 'warning'. Then at ~30s you hear a sound from MW2 for 'tactical nuke inbound'; immediately the zombies are now a 4x shots of M1911 pistol + slash to kill, and the zombies 'run' rather than walk; they are not as fast as after the George effect (Call of the Dead). You can possibly lead them in a circle around the big puddle, sort-of, as long as you play solo, and if you empty your ammo at the horde (as per my previous notes), then doing so may net you more than 2500 points so you can get Juggernog just before you teleport out.
Moon: straight away on arrival, it is Round 1 and you need to get the PES equipment (space helmet) and then equip it. There is one right in front of you upon arrival; alternatively, there are heaps of airlocks, one on either side of this room, and throughout the rest of the map, so just look for an identical locker in every airlock.
The map is a bit like a circle with a 'Y' on top, and you start at the bottom of the circle. Either you take Tunnel 6 or Tunnel 11 to get to the top of the circle, where is the power switch and a Pyramid, and stairs to the laboratories (the bottom of the Y) and at the top of the lab are two doors that go to the PaPmachine teleporter (left) and the biodome (right).
Space man - astronaut suit with any red name. A bit like George, you can basically stay away from him. You can't run past him up/down a stairs, nor an airlock; he will get you every time.
Anyhow, my recommendation for a good start is:
1. don't put your team in danger at Area51; just kill what you can and get out. If solo, practice until you can get 2500 points + Juggernog.
2. as soon as you have ~2000 points for doors and 1000 points per player for a wall gun, open two doors and buy the wall gun, either MPL or PM63, depending which doors you open. I recommend MPL because it has a bigger clip. Then camp around in the open space between Tunnel 6 and Tunnel 11, on the surface of the moon until you have about 4000 points for doors and 3000 points each for the Bowie Knife.
3. Play a round until you can 'leave a crawler', then open doors on one side all the way to the Pyramid and DO NOT TURN ON THE POWER YET. Instead, head up to the laboratories and figure out how to buy the Bowie Knife; this requires buying a few more doors, but not the door at the top of a stairwell after walking through the laboratories.
*Basically, from the top of the stairs within the laboratories, look back and high up the wall, there is the Bowie Knife for 3000 points. To reach it you need to use the low-gravity setup to jump sideways rather than up (hence, don't turn on the power just yet) and from close to the top, run/jump towards the inner corner of the stairwell; this should bounce you off the wall and give you a moment that, holding the square button, should get you the Bowie Knife.
4. Now, with the Bowie Knife, do not hang out in the laboratories; it's a tight space that fills with teleporting gas zombies; instead, head back to the open surface to camp for more points, or proceed through the doors to either teleporter or biodome. If you have 2500 points (or nearly as much) and Juggernog is downstairs, then i recommend teleporter, just go stand on it a moment and head to Area 51 again, maybe go one at a time...
5. The biodome looks like an open space suitable for running circles with a horde of zombies behind you. The only weapon here is the Claymore, and the gravity lift things don't exactly throw you to land on the next platform, so you need to watch + adjust where you land very carefully. Apparently there is some sort of perpetual power up available that changes like the monkeys do in Shangri-La, but you need to work out how to get to it via the gravity lifts.
A new POINTS strategy?
You can use the usual Bowie Knife and/or a Bullets-for-points strategy, but on this map the Area 51/Hangar 18 creates a new situation.
In Area 51, the zombies count for points and kills, but they don't count towards zombie spawns for the the round, at least before round 1 they don't. They serve as the time limit for the Pack a punch machine. So, if players left a crawler then go to the Pack a Punch machine, and I think it is necessary that everyone do this at once (not sure yet), it is possible to rack up more kills and points by hitting Area 51 for some bonus zombies. For this I recommend getting an Assault Rifle or LMG, but any SMG or anything else will do.
It looks like this, when you get to Area 51, the zombies are as tough to start as the zombies on the Moon (depends on which Round you are playing), but they get tougher with each sound of the nuke siren. These zombies never seem to drop any bonuses, so you will only be there as long as you survive and have ammo, although I wonder whether you can get an Instakill or DeathMachine just before teleporting, and use it while you are there? Anyhow, when you teleport back, you finish the round where you left it, except that there is a fence around the teleporter that stays up until...I'm not sure: it doesn't seem to fall down at the start of the next round, so maybe it is time limited - in which case you just need to leave the last crawler for long enough to go back to Area 51 again.
In Area 51, you have ample time to PaP a gun and get Juggs or SpeedCola, but you can hang around and shoot zombies in Area 51 and new spawns just keep on coming. If you got good at the zombie concentrator manouvre in KDT or similarly in Ascension, you can keep a horde behind you until you empty all of your ammo and grenades on them, just for extra points. So long as you have ammo, you can get more points in Area 51, but be warned that the teleporter takes a little while between your standing on it to initiate and the actual teleportation, so you need to keep well clear of them as you run to the teleporter, and/or you need to have some way to fight back while the teleporter does its thing: maybe Claymores, RayGun, DG-2 or Wave Gun.
So, my thinking is: put all your points into one set of doors to get the teleporter as a priority; I managed this before the end of Round 3 by scoring ~3000 points before Round 1 and buying only the M14 at first (1 bullet per Round Number to kill a zombie) and a little luck with the Max Ammo and x2 points; then if you have any points to spare, try to get an SMG off the wall, or the M16 or something similar via the Mystery Box, then get 3000+ points back at Area 51 to put towards something like Juggs or save it for later...
Using this, I got ~7000 points from a Galil in Area 51, Round 6; and similarly using RPK - even upgraded it next time. Having a Ray Gun or Wave Gun helped when the ammo was low / Pack-a-Punching...
There are obvious circuits:
A. Open Tunnel 6 and Tunnel 11, walk slowly around them as a circle
B. Open either Tunnel, the Laboratories and teleporter and/or teleporter-via-Biodome, use the teleporter to complete the circuit.
Then again, there are wide spaces in the tunnels, around the biodome, around the pyramid, between the two tunnel entrances, which can be used effectively as mini-circles. Mr Space Man may make it difficult, if present.
First, you start outside Hangar 18 in Area 51, with Pack-a-Punch and either SpeedCola/Juggernog available, and the power is on! There is a teleporter that works when all players (alive or downed) are waiting on top of it.
Also, there are two shallow pools of water where zombies crawl out of the ground (like Call of the Dead) for quick, 1-slash kills. And other zombies will get to you from the 'platforms' on either side, 4x entry ways , so watch out. I recommend slashing every zombie you can before teleporting to the Moon.
Upon spawning the new game, a siren goes off, and about 20s later another siren is your 'warning'. Then at ~30s you hear a sound from MW2 for 'tactical nuke inbound'; immediately the zombies are now a 4x shots of M1911 pistol + slash to kill, and the zombies 'run' rather than walk; they are not as fast as after the George effect (Call of the Dead). You can possibly lead them in a circle around the big puddle, sort-of, as long as you play solo, and if you empty your ammo at the horde (as per my previous notes), then doing so may net you more than 2500 points so you can get Juggernog just before you teleport out.
Moon: straight away on arrival, it is Round 1 and you need to get the PES equipment (space helmet) and then equip it. There is one right in front of you upon arrival; alternatively, there are heaps of airlocks, one on either side of this room, and throughout the rest of the map, so just look for an identical locker in every airlock.
The map is a bit like a circle with a 'Y' on top, and you start at the bottom of the circle. Either you take Tunnel 6 or Tunnel 11 to get to the top of the circle, where is the power switch and a Pyramid, and stairs to the laboratories (the bottom of the Y) and at the top of the lab are two doors that go to the PaPmachine teleporter (left) and the biodome (right).
Space man - astronaut suit with any red name. A bit like George, you can basically stay away from him. You can't run past him up/down a stairs, nor an airlock; he will get you every time.
Anyhow, my recommendation for a good start is:
1. don't put your team in danger at Area51; just kill what you can and get out. If solo, practice until you can get 2500 points + Juggernog.
2. as soon as you have ~2000 points for doors and 1000 points per player for a wall gun, open two doors and buy the wall gun, either MPL or PM63, depending which doors you open. I recommend MPL because it has a bigger clip. Then camp around in the open space between Tunnel 6 and Tunnel 11, on the surface of the moon until you have about 4000 points for doors and 3000 points each for the Bowie Knife.
3. Play a round until you can 'leave a crawler', then open doors on one side all the way to the Pyramid and DO NOT TURN ON THE POWER YET. Instead, head up to the laboratories and figure out how to buy the Bowie Knife; this requires buying a few more doors, but not the door at the top of a stairwell after walking through the laboratories.
*Basically, from the top of the stairs within the laboratories, look back and high up the wall, there is the Bowie Knife for 3000 points. To reach it you need to use the low-gravity setup to jump sideways rather than up (hence, don't turn on the power just yet) and from close to the top, run/jump towards the inner corner of the stairwell; this should bounce you off the wall and give you a moment that, holding the square button, should get you the Bowie Knife.
4. Now, with the Bowie Knife, do not hang out in the laboratories; it's a tight space that fills with teleporting gas zombies; instead, head back to the open surface to camp for more points, or proceed through the doors to either teleporter or biodome. If you have 2500 points (or nearly as much) and Juggernog is downstairs, then i recommend teleporter, just go stand on it a moment and head to Area 51 again, maybe go one at a time...
5. The biodome looks like an open space suitable for running circles with a horde of zombies behind you. The only weapon here is the Claymore, and the gravity lift things don't exactly throw you to land on the next platform, so you need to watch + adjust where you land very carefully. Apparently there is some sort of perpetual power up available that changes like the monkeys do in Shangri-La, but you need to work out how to get to it via the gravity lifts.
A new POINTS strategy?
You can use the usual Bowie Knife and/or a Bullets-for-points strategy, but on this map the Area 51/Hangar 18 creates a new situation.
In Area 51, the zombies count for points and kills, but they don't count towards zombie spawns for the the round, at least before round 1 they don't. They serve as the time limit for the Pack a punch machine. So, if players left a crawler then go to the Pack a Punch machine, and I think it is necessary that everyone do this at once (not sure yet), it is possible to rack up more kills and points by hitting Area 51 for some bonus zombies. For this I recommend getting an Assault Rifle or LMG, but any SMG or anything else will do.
It looks like this, when you get to Area 51, the zombies are as tough to start as the zombies on the Moon (depends on which Round you are playing), but they get tougher with each sound of the nuke siren. These zombies never seem to drop any bonuses, so you will only be there as long as you survive and have ammo, although I wonder whether you can get an Instakill or DeathMachine just before teleporting, and use it while you are there? Anyhow, when you teleport back, you finish the round where you left it, except that there is a fence around the teleporter that stays up until...I'm not sure: it doesn't seem to fall down at the start of the next round, so maybe it is time limited - in which case you just need to leave the last crawler for long enough to go back to Area 51 again.
In Area 51, you have ample time to PaP a gun and get Juggs or SpeedCola, but you can hang around and shoot zombies in Area 51 and new spawns just keep on coming. If you got good at the zombie concentrator manouvre in KDT or similarly in Ascension, you can keep a horde behind you until you empty all of your ammo and grenades on them, just for extra points. So long as you have ammo, you can get more points in Area 51, but be warned that the teleporter takes a little while between your standing on it to initiate and the actual teleportation, so you need to keep well clear of them as you run to the teleporter, and/or you need to have some way to fight back while the teleporter does its thing: maybe Claymores, RayGun, DG-2 or Wave Gun.
So, my thinking is: put all your points into one set of doors to get the teleporter as a priority; I managed this before the end of Round 3 by scoring ~3000 points before Round 1 and buying only the M14 at first (1 bullet per Round Number to kill a zombie) and a little luck with the Max Ammo and x2 points; then if you have any points to spare, try to get an SMG off the wall, or the M16 or something similar via the Mystery Box, then get 3000+ points back at Area 51 to put towards something like Juggs or save it for later...
Using this, I got ~7000 points from a Galil in Area 51, Round 6; and similarly using RPK - even upgraded it next time. Having a Ray Gun or Wave Gun helped when the ammo was low / Pack-a-Punching...
There are obvious circuits:
A. Open Tunnel 6 and Tunnel 11, walk slowly around them as a circle
B. Open either Tunnel, the Laboratories and teleporter and/or teleporter-via-Biodome, use the teleporter to complete the circuit.
Then again, there are wide spaces in the tunnels, around the biodome, around the pyramid, between the two tunnel entrances, which can be used effectively as mini-circles. Mr Space Man may make it difficult, if present.
2011/08/18
Circuit in ShangriLa
Ok, so this is the circuit setup that sort-of works.
1. Do not open the 'door' near the Olympia gun in the starting area, but freely open all other doors.
By doing this, when you camp at the top of the water slide, you force all spawned zombies on the map to walk to you via the downstairs tunnels, then they must pass the waterfall, go through the waterfall-to-bridge tunnel, then either run through bridge/mud-temple, or the 'other way' toward the start of the water slide.
2. From whatever round you can, camp at the top of the water slide after you have all doors but the one mentioned at point 1. Players need to split themselves between shooting zombies at (a) the window near the water slide entrance, (b) the mud temple and (c) the hole and the ledge towards the tunnel.
Setting up any Spikemores around here is a good idea. I recommend pointing the front towards the encampment, so that the spikemore wont' detonate until the zombies are closing in on you, to give you a break and an audible warning to move.
3. When this camp is overrun with zombies, everyone take the water slide; when you get to the bottom, avoid temptation to buy anything run straight to and use the geyser, then pile onto the mine cart. Hold this position by ensuring someone is each pointing a gun at (a) the nearest window, (b) the edge of the deck overlooking the drink machine, (c) the way towards the geyser landing spot, and (d) maybe someone pointing to the farther window or facing the front of the mine cart in order to start the ride when the other players need to reload their weapons.
4. If everyone is on the mine cart when it goes, that's good; if someone is down, there is some kind of glitch at work that they will seem to 'stay' at the start of the ride until everyone lands by the waterfall, then they instantly 'teleport' to the waterfall where they can be revived.
5. After the mine cart ride, go through the tunnel towards the bridge, cross the bridge and walk through the mud to get back to the top of the waterslide; then fix up the camp for another circuit.
By keeping the debris near the Olympia, this ensures that the zombies must take the long way to get to you: from the waterslide to the mine cart, they must go through the lower map (the mines) and in reverse, the long way again.
I guess that the alternative is to not clear the debris between the waterfall and the downstairs room with the Stakeout shotgun, but it is not quite as good.
Addendum 1: I posted earlier about keeping the debris near the M14 might be the way to go, or the debris in the waterfall location. I guess though that it doesn't matter too much, only how soon you might get swamped from either direction. In hindsight, I think the debris at the waterfall or the tunnel at the bridge/waterfall is better to save it closed, although having it open is part of the Eclipse secret. This way, more zombies will funnel through the mud temple and have to slow down as they run through the mud, which is advantageous for a team with LMGs/ARs (to rack up points) or other good guns to mow down zombies from the camping spot.
Addendum 2: I did this circuit with three, relatively-nooby players and we all got to Round 22 before getting stuck down near the Juggernog machine, minecart side. Seems to be effective.
1. Do not open the 'door' near the Olympia gun in the starting area, but freely open all other doors.
By doing this, when you camp at the top of the water slide, you force all spawned zombies on the map to walk to you via the downstairs tunnels, then they must pass the waterfall, go through the waterfall-to-bridge tunnel, then either run through bridge/mud-temple, or the 'other way' toward the start of the water slide.
2. From whatever round you can, camp at the top of the water slide after you have all doors but the one mentioned at point 1. Players need to split themselves between shooting zombies at (a) the window near the water slide entrance, (b) the mud temple and (c) the hole and the ledge towards the tunnel.
Setting up any Spikemores around here is a good idea. I recommend pointing the front towards the encampment, so that the spikemore wont' detonate until the zombies are closing in on you, to give you a break and an audible warning to move.
3. When this camp is overrun with zombies, everyone take the water slide; when you get to the bottom, avoid temptation to buy anything run straight to and use the geyser, then pile onto the mine cart. Hold this position by ensuring someone is each pointing a gun at (a) the nearest window, (b) the edge of the deck overlooking the drink machine, (c) the way towards the geyser landing spot, and (d) maybe someone pointing to the farther window or facing the front of the mine cart in order to start the ride when the other players need to reload their weapons.
4. If everyone is on the mine cart when it goes, that's good; if someone is down, there is some kind of glitch at work that they will seem to 'stay' at the start of the ride until everyone lands by the waterfall, then they instantly 'teleport' to the waterfall where they can be revived.
5. After the mine cart ride, go through the tunnel towards the bridge, cross the bridge and walk through the mud to get back to the top of the waterslide; then fix up the camp for another circuit.
By keeping the debris near the Olympia, this ensures that the zombies must take the long way to get to you: from the waterslide to the mine cart, they must go through the lower map (the mines) and in reverse, the long way again.
I guess that the alternative is to not clear the debris between the waterfall and the downstairs room with the Stakeout shotgun, but it is not quite as good.
Addendum 1: I posted earlier about keeping the debris near the M14 might be the way to go, or the debris in the waterfall location. I guess though that it doesn't matter too much, only how soon you might get swamped from either direction. In hindsight, I think the debris at the waterfall or the tunnel at the bridge/waterfall is better to save it closed, although having it open is part of the Eclipse secret. This way, more zombies will funnel through the mud temple and have to slow down as they run through the mud, which is advantageous for a team with LMGs/ARs (to rack up points) or other good guns to mow down zombies from the camping spot.
Addendum 2: I did this circuit with three, relatively-nooby players and we all got to Round 22 before getting stuck down near the Juggernog machine, minecart side. Seems to be effective.
2011/08/03
Shangri-La Shangri-La .
Shangri-La is a challenging map. I think it works well as a challenge to all players because it adapts the map to best fit the zombie's simple AI routines.
What I mean is this: each zombie will switch targets to the closest player, regardless of vertical direction, and the map makes it easy for a bunch of zombies, after felling a player, to quickly jump up/down a level in order to swarm, surprise and corner the next player.
This makes it advantageous for players to try to hold a single location and travel as a group, but there are a few things that slow the players from travelling as a group, like the mud temple with shifting walls, and the spike traps.
Alternatively, by splitting up it is possible to throw the zombies sort-of off-balance: i.e. divide and conquer, but - as just mentioned - when one player falls the tide can more quickly turn against the remaining players. This is the opposite of KDT where all a player had to do was do a circuit, lead the zombies away from the fallen for a while, then rush over to quick-revive them.
Overall, there are some solid challenges to working a circuit, but a few things that seem to help, like the water slide, the mining cart ride and the waterfall 'trap'.
Not to mention, this map puts a bigger emphasis on teamwork to get to the Pack-a-Punch machine, and for unlocking the Eclipse achievement cannot be done without four players working cooperatively (which seems definitely worthwhile, then redoing it for all players).
A few notes first:
The Mystery Box weapons now include different wonder weapons in addition to the usual guns:
Strategy tips, based on my previous strategies; this now depends on your goals.
If possible, I think I like to stick with the Bowie Knife strategy and aim for a Fire Sale powerup by killing a zombie monkey thief at the right moment, as early on as possible to ensure survival.
What I mean is this: each zombie will switch targets to the closest player, regardless of vertical direction, and the map makes it easy for a bunch of zombies, after felling a player, to quickly jump up/down a level in order to swarm, surprise and corner the next player.
This makes it advantageous for players to try to hold a single location and travel as a group, but there are a few things that slow the players from travelling as a group, like the mud temple with shifting walls, and the spike traps.
Alternatively, by splitting up it is possible to throw the zombies sort-of off-balance: i.e. divide and conquer, but - as just mentioned - when one player falls the tide can more quickly turn against the remaining players. This is the opposite of KDT where all a player had to do was do a circuit, lead the zombies away from the fallen for a while, then rush over to quick-revive them.
Overall, there are some solid challenges to working a circuit, but a few things that seem to help, like the water slide, the mining cart ride and the waterfall 'trap'.
Not to mention, this map puts a bigger emphasis on teamwork to get to the Pack-a-Punch machine, and for unlocking the Eclipse achievement cannot be done without four players working cooperatively (which seems definitely worthwhile, then redoing it for all players).
A few notes first:
- Pack-a-Punch machine: is located at the top of the stairs in front of you when you start. In order to reach it you need to have, for just one moment, the power on and one player standing on each of the 4 floor plates located (a) in front of the Quick Revive machine behind your starting spot, (b) one level below, which is exactly between the two water wheels of the power switches room, (c) near the base of the bridge, and (d) at the middle of the mineshaft bend, on the opposite side of the map from the mud temple & bridge /past the door after the MPL. While standing on a floor plate, from some angle, you can observe a monkey statue spinning in 4 parts; a part stops spinning when a player is on the floor plate (or if they choof off). When the whole statue has stopped spinning, that is it - done - each player can run to the Pack a Punch machine and probably upgrade both weapons (points permitting) before the next player arrives. Eventually some rolling wheels reach the top and it is time to leave the machine, so you just cannot camp at the Pack-a-Punch machine; the stairs become a slide and the floor catapults you to the bottom.
- Perks-a-Cola: apart from Quick Revive, these are not always located in the same place each time you play. Basically the Speed Cola and Juggernog are located past each of the first doors that are available to open, and the other drinks machines are all downstairs. Their location seems random each time you play, but they are not on the move during play.
- Zombie Monkeys - like the space monkeys, they like to steal things. On Shangri-La, they steal unclaimed powerups and run towards the Pack-a-Punch machine ziggurat. While a powerup is stolen, other monkeys are screaming hysterically and the powerup on the monkey thief is cycling through all the other powerups, and making some monkey-hooch-hooch noise (which helps you locate it if you have the right headphones on). This gives you an opportunity to kill the monkey thief when the powerup changes to what you want it to be, but to do that, you need to crouch and slash, or try shooting with a quick explosive weapon like Ray Gun, China Lake or upgraded M16's grenade launcher, or a maybe even a shot gun. You can use this to get a Max Ammo regardless of what is dropped, so long as you are far from the starting area and you follow the monkey and hit it when it flashes to Max Ammo. I recommend aiming for a Fire Sale as early as possible, then later aiming for instakill, nukes or Max Ammo.
- Another point on the zombie monkeys - one of them will try to attack a player that picks up a dropper powerup. They just run, hit the player, then run back to the ziggurat. I think that they are worth 500 points if you kill them before they hit, and that they don't seem to make an attack if (a) the powerup was a Nuke, or (b) the player slashed-to-kill the zombie that dropped the powerup, since in this case the powerup never hit the floor. One zombie monkey hit is not a strong slap, but it might make the difference versus surviving a close encounter with a horde of zombies and falling down.
- Mystery Box: where is it? look to the sky for a blue beam of light, just like in Call of the Dead. Note also that you can get the Fire Sale by carefully timing an attack on a Monkey thief.
- Zombie Screamers: these come out of the ground, run at you very quickly (like in Call of the Dead) and upon reaching you, they stop momentarily and let out a big scream. If caught in the scream, it is a bit like being hit by a concussion grenade or coming out of frozen water. They are basically a little tougher than regular zombies but die the same way as any other.
- Napalm Zombie: these come out of the ground and approach you slowly, like George in Call of the Dead. When they are close and within eye-sight, your HUD goes a bit 'fire-y'; and when they are very close to you, or you run past them, they scream for a moment then self-combust as a napalm bomb, causing zombies running past the napalm to burn/die much like the fire trap in KDT. You can shoot them until they get enrage and run a bit, and/or until they die, but it is possible to run up & retreat, or run past them, in order to cause them to combust. You need one of these guys to be alive at some stage in the Eclipse easter egg.
The Mystery Box weapons now include different wonder weapons in addition to the usual guns:
- Ray Gun as usual
- Monkey Bomb - my favourite and very helpful here.
- 'the Shrink Ray gun' which actually has some other title I can't remember, but it does shrink zombies momentarily. You automatically kick any shrunken zombie that get too close to you. It is also part of the Eclipse secret to hold onto and use this gun at some point. I read somewhere that the Mystery Box contains 2 of these guns, but I've never seen it myself.
Strategy tips, based on my previous strategies; this now depends on your goals.
- Survival and spare points: The Bowie Knife + Ballistic Knife/Krauss Refibrillator is a very good strategy (as per my KDT notes) because it is a very quick kill and ready-to-kill-next-zombie for the first 9 to 13 rounds of play; you might also be able to double-slash to kill in rounds 10 to 18, and it could be faster than shooting. If so, it will cost 750+1000+1000+1250 points to open doors and clear debris, plus 3000 for the Bowie Knife, just like KDT, and the path you choose to get to it won't much matter per se.
- Survival and spare points: Bullets-for-Points strategy is also very good. i.e. Get ANY kind of automatic gun with lots of spare ammo, or any wall-gun SMG (note that the MP40 is not on this map), and use that to rack up the non-fatal bullet hits for points. Be sure to get the Double Tap and Speed Cola drinks. *I suspect that, team permitting, getting the M16 and upgrading it is also a good part of this strategy, because upgraded ammo costs 4500 points and it saves you from scrounging around, plus adds a grenade launcher for killing any thieving monkeys.
- Eclipse Easter Egg strategy, you may want to do this either of two ways: (1) Bowie-Knife method until Round 13 or so, then get a Ray Gun and go for the Eclipse steps. Basically, by Round 14 or so, the Ray-Gun is a sure-fire and easy way to make a few crawlers (just shoot the Ray Gun at the ground in front of a zombie), or (2) Don't buy the Bowie Knife, instead use a Bullets-for-Points strategy and the 3000 points you spared from not buying the Bowie Knife in order to try the Mystery Box for the Shrink Ray gun as soon as possible, then use a grenade or semtex to make a few crawlers, and get on with the Eclipse easter egg.
If possible, I think I like to stick with the Bowie Knife strategy and aim for a Fire Sale powerup by killing a zombie monkey thief at the right moment, as early on as possible to ensure survival.
Lastly, is there a circuit or ideal path to use? I have a few points on this.
(a) if you do not remove the debris between the starting area and the area 'to the right' / with the MPL / with the Mine Cart ride, then this will force zombies to move underground in order to reach players near the bridge and/or mud temple.
(b) similarly, if you do not remove the debris underground on one side of the Power switches room, the debris nearer to the Spikemore I think, then you force the zombies to travel above ground.
Either (a) or (b) can help reduce the intensity of a horde of zombies assuming that the players split up, or it could keep a travelling group of players a more focused horde of zombies.
A possible circuit involves the following:
- Start at the entrance to the Water Slide; hold this position until you feel that the zombies start to crowd.
- Take the water slide; reload guns and/or shoot any zombies or lay Spikemores as you slide down.
- At the bottom of the slide, go straight to the nearest Geyser that will jump you to the base of the Mine Cart ride.
- Everyone pile into the Mine Cart and go when the zombies start to crowd; alternatively, one MVP should run down the hill a little bit, to draw zombies away when the Mine Cart goes with the rest of the crew; either way, do not kill any zombies until completing the next step.
- The mine cart ride ends at the waterfall space; immediately run up the and over the bridge, through the temple and regroup at the entrance to the Water Slide.
Remember always that:
- Spare points is your best way to recover from a fall; Bowie Knife or Bullets - your choice
- The Mystery Box serves as a lure to trap nooby players in one spot; best to use it during the 'zombie end game' of a round.
- If one player sort-of camps or guards the base of the stairs to the Pack-a-Punch machine, they can probably get the Monkey Thief and any powerups that come with it. Personally, I try leaving spikemores pointed to the stairs from the base, but I'm not sure that this gets the monkey thief all that often.
2011/07/17
The Call of Dead Easter Egg...DG2
As Richtofen says in KDT, when you get the Thundergun, "Could this be the DG3? the DG3 that's just for ME?!"
Well, now that he is trapped like the guy in Ascension, he ends up giving you a DG2. Apparently he invented it.
Easter Egg
Coop instructions:
*Solo is a shorter version of this set, just no Vodka bottle and no foghorns I think...
After the Power Switch is on, the four guys from KDT and Ascension teleport into a room behind a door (hereafter the Door) underneath the PHD Flopper room.
Slash at the door where the guys are calling out; Nikolai calls out that he is blind, Richtofen pulls on 'un lever. Perhaps this will turn on the light', Dempsey points out that it is not *ar* lever
When Richtofen mentions a fuse, and "it's dark in here", wait a moment until he stops talking then head upstairs
Collect the fuse on one or the other table; if it is not on either table upstairs (near the PHD Flopper or near the batteries) then some glitch is preventing you from completing this secret. I heard that it might be on the green cabinet in the same space, but never seen it there myself.
Go downstairs to the Door
Install fuse in the fusebox next to the Door
Slash at the Door again
Listen until Richtofen asks 'the handsome one' to destroy the four generators that look 'kinda like a ... forget it'...
Destroy the four generators: you need to make an explosion near to each generator, but not actually on the generator; I cook frags, but it is possible to destroy these with crossbow bolts, semtex and bolts from that Scavenger gun, the China Lake works rather well, but I haven't had success with the rocket launcher. Look at these spots:
With all four generators destroyed, return to the Door,
Slash the Door
Nikolai wants a vodka, go find him one!
Return to the Door
Player with the vodka must install it into the vacuum tube pipe on the left of the Door
Slash the Door
Listen to Richtofen's rant about his special errand to find for him 'a long, stiff, hard golden rod...oh... with fingers on the end...oh the fingers...'
Then do the following:
Correctly set the Lighthouse dials: You can actually do this at any time
On each floor of the Lighthouse is a dial; when you hold the square button it turns the dial counter-clockwise, and up from 0 to 9 then resets to 0.
Each dial has a colour on it to help you identify which is which.
Also, when you turn one dial, it also turns some of the other dials on other floors, so you need to follow this sequence to get the right result as follows.
Setting the dials requires some calculation and/or teamwork and the final result is
Top level = Yellow = 2
Orange = 7
Blue = 4
Bottom level = Purple = 6
Here's how:
Activate the radios in order:
These radios look like the original radio in the Mystery Box room of the World at War game, as well as the radios in Ascension and distantly shootable in KDT
Activate a radio by looking at it and holding the square button until you hear a transmission sound
*if you mess up the order, or double activate the same radio, some funny sound resets the sequence*
Apparently the Morse code message describes the next part, which - like setting the dials in the Lighthouse tower - can actually be done at any time, e.g. when flicking the Power Switch:
The Submarine emits a foghorn sound that you can sometimes hear from the end of the Lighthouse zipline.
If you copy the Submarine's foghorn code using the foghorns near the lighthouse, the Submarine emits a green light towards the Lighthouse spotlight, which comes down through the middle of the Lighthouse's internal stairwell. I suspect that this is why you need the Lighthouse switch dials in the right order.
The correct order for sounding the four foghorns is:
1. Near the pool of water by the Killing Fields
2. From the bottom of the Slide, past the Speed Cola, on the mini-beach to the right
3. On the opposite side of the Killing Fields as #1
4. On the opposite side of the rock from #2
*Note: I did this in multiplayer on my own - so it does not matter the timing of the foghorns, just get them all in the right order.
It is possible with just two dedicated players who have no significant zombie distractions (i.e. have a crawler somewhere on the map). One player can do #2 and #4 relatively easily, another guy on #1 and #3.
If you fail, the submarine disappears until the next round, yeah - it actually sinks below the water and then resurfaces next round - so only then you can try again!
*not sure if it is possible to to resurface the submarine from the Power Switch room / control tower, but I might check next time by flicking the Steering Wheel full circle.
Penultimate steps (i.e. second last)
Preparations: you need a player with the VR11 special weapon from the Mystery Box, and another player with a good, tough gun like an HK21, RPK or Ray Gun - even Scavenger.
When you have these things, you need a bit of time so, if at all possible, make several slow crawlers and get one of them, or a walking zombie, to follow the player with the VR11 into the room at the bottom of the Lighthouse stairs.
Last steps once you have the rod with fingers on the end oh the fingers...
Be sure you have a fair bit of time on your hands, because this will take a while; for instance, lead George and any slow slow crawlers all the way to the front of the ship first, and hopefully you never opened either door between the lighthouse and the ship (the one near the Door or near the AK74u gun).
Also, try to have purchased as many perks as you can/want - at least Juggernog, because when you get the secret gun, you can slash but you cannot buy anything or revive anyone, that is - until you run out of ammo and lose the secret gun, or fall down - either way you won't have the secret gun until you 'kill George'.
Now, if a big bunch of zombies doesn't break in and crowd you while doing this, it should go completely like this:
1. player installs the golden rod in the vacuum tube, just like the vodka
2. listen to the guys ramble and TRY to teleport away
3. slash the fuse in the fusebox, this will help them make a getaway
4. some player will comment like 'are you guys going to help us now?'
5. a little while will pass
6. if not already, you'll score the Stand In achievement
7. A 'Death Machine' powerup will be available to take from in front of the Door; except this isn't the Death Machine...
Now confirmed, this is the DG2 Wunderwaffe gun that Richtofen developed and it fires a strange bolt of energy that causes multiple zombies' heads to cinder.
It does run out and requires Max Ammo to refill it, and if the player using it falls, uses all its ammo or switches to another weapon, then that is it - gone, finished, finito! that's all you get...
so ideally, you get Max Ammo while the DG2 is still in your hands, and on and on.
*It cannot be Pack-a-Punched.
But it is a wonderful weapon to use; the zombies shake hysterically then their head "goes poop"[like Richtofen says in KDT]
But also, if you manage to kill George after this whole thing, he'll drop another DG2 instead of a Death Machine...
Well, now that he is trapped like the guy in Ascension, he ends up giving you a DG2. Apparently he invented it.
Easter Egg
Coop instructions:
*Solo is a shorter version of this set, just no Vodka bottle and no foghorns I think...
After the Power Switch is on, the four guys from KDT and Ascension teleport into a room behind a door (hereafter the Door) underneath the PHD Flopper room.
Slash at the door where the guys are calling out; Nikolai calls out that he is blind, Richtofen pulls on 'un lever. Perhaps this will turn on the light', Dempsey points out that it is not *ar* lever
When Richtofen mentions a fuse, and "it's dark in here", wait a moment until he stops talking then head upstairs
Collect the fuse on one or the other table; if it is not on either table upstairs (near the PHD Flopper or near the batteries) then some glitch is preventing you from completing this secret. I heard that it might be on the green cabinet in the same space, but never seen it there myself.
Go downstairs to the Door
Install fuse in the fusebox next to the Door
Slash at the Door again
Listen until Richtofen asks 'the handsome one' to destroy the four generators that look 'kinda like a ... forget it'...
Destroy the four generators: you need to make an explosion near to each generator, but not actually on the generator; I cook frags, but it is possible to destroy these with crossbow bolts, semtex and bolts from that Scavenger gun, the China Lake works rather well, but I haven't had success with the rocket launcher. Look at these spots:
- 1st and closest generator is in front of the Door
- 2nd/ Next is at the 'boathouse'; (a) get to the bottom of the lighthouse, near the slide, instead, head outside, down the stairs, over the water, past the Staminup to the left, cook a grenade (3seconds) and toss out the window; check that the red light is out on the generator. alternatively (b) try a crossbow bolt from the same window, or from the top of the lighthouse
- 3rd Next closest is between the two halves of the ship; cook a grenade and bounce it off the wall behind the generator, or use a crossbow bolt or semtex
- 4th and final (usually) is at the back back of the ship, look low and towards the water on the starboard side of the ship.
With all four generators destroyed, return to the Door,
Slash the Door
Nikolai wants a vodka, go find him one!
- The vodka will be on a ledge in a block of ice at one of four locations, two near the PHD Flopper machine or two on the back half of the ship;
- One player must wait underneath the vodka,
- Another player must slash the vodka,
- The player underneath the vodka must 'catch' it - usually they will say something like 'I got it'; otherwise go look elsewhere for another go
Return to the Door
Player with the vodka must install it into the vacuum tube pipe on the left of the Door
Slash the Door
Listen to Richtofen's rant about his special errand to find for him 'a long, stiff, hard golden rod...oh... with fingers on the end...oh the fingers...'
Then do the following:
Correctly set the Lighthouse dials: You can actually do this at any time
On each floor of the Lighthouse is a dial; when you hold the square button it turns the dial counter-clockwise, and up from 0 to 9 then resets to 0.
Each dial has a colour on it to help you identify which is which.
Also, when you turn one dial, it also turns some of the other dials on other floors, so you need to follow this sequence to get the right result as follows.
Setting the dials requires some calculation and/or teamwork and the final result is
Top level = Yellow = 2
Orange = 7
Blue = 4
Bottom level = Purple = 6
Here's how:
- Check or adjust Yellow to 2.
- Check the Orange number, calculate how many steps it will take to move to 7 - or have someone watching and talking to you as you go
- Turn the Blue as many steps until Orange is 7
- Set the Purple to 6
- Check the Blue number, calculate how many steps it will take to move to 4
- Turn the Orange as many steps until Blue is 4
- Adjust the Yellow to 2
- Recheck from the top 2 - 7 - 4 - 6
Activate the radios in order:
These radios look like the original radio in the Mystery Box room of the World at War game, as well as the radios in Ascension and distantly shootable in KDT
Activate a radio by looking at it and holding the square button until you hear a transmission sound
*if you mess up the order, or double activate the same radio, some funny sound resets the sequence*
- First radio: one floor below the Power Switch, look above the cabinet on the wall
- Second radio: in the Boathouse room where Staminup is - the radio on the barrel, not the radio on the floor past the slightly ajar gate...
- Third radio: take the Lighthouse to Front-of-Ship zipline, head to the right past the zombie window and look for a radio on its side, in the middle of the tramcar
- Fourth radio: near the Door, on the cabinet below the stairs
Apparently the Morse code message describes the next part, which - like setting the dials in the Lighthouse tower - can actually be done at any time, e.g. when flicking the Power Switch:
- Go to the Power Switch room and adjust the following:
- Set the Steering wheel so that the brown handle is in the 5-o'clock position (basically, flick it to the right, twice)
- To the right of the Steering wheel, near the door, are three levers,
- Adjust the Left one once
- Adjust the Right-most one three times
- Do not adjust the middle one.
The Submarine emits a foghorn sound that you can sometimes hear from the end of the Lighthouse zipline.
If you copy the Submarine's foghorn code using the foghorns near the lighthouse, the Submarine emits a green light towards the Lighthouse spotlight, which comes down through the middle of the Lighthouse's internal stairwell. I suspect that this is why you need the Lighthouse switch dials in the right order.
The correct order for sounding the four foghorns is:
1. Near the pool of water by the Killing Fields
2. From the bottom of the Slide, past the Speed Cola, on the mini-beach to the right
3. On the opposite side of the Killing Fields as #1
4. On the opposite side of the rock from #2
*Note: I did this in multiplayer on my own - so it does not matter the timing of the foghorns, just get them all in the right order.
It is possible with just two dedicated players who have no significant zombie distractions (i.e. have a crawler somewhere on the map). One player can do #2 and #4 relatively easily, another guy on #1 and #3.
If you fail, the submarine disappears until the next round, yeah - it actually sinks below the water and then resurfaces next round - so only then you can try again!
*not sure if it is possible to to resurface the submarine from the Power Switch room / control tower, but I might check next time by flicking the Steering Wheel full circle.
Penultimate steps (i.e. second last)
Preparations: you need a player with the VR11 special weapon from the Mystery Box, and another player with a good, tough gun like an HK21, RPK or Ray Gun - even Scavenger.
When you have these things, you need a bit of time so, if at all possible, make several slow crawlers and get one of them, or a walking zombie, to follow the player with the VR11 into the room at the bottom of the Lighthouse stairs.
- Shoot the zombie with the VR11; this turns the zombie into a guy with sunglasses and, instead of running to water, he is sucked into the green beam of light
- Kill the guy with the sunglasses as fast as you can; when he stops moving or making noises, and looks like a guy in Second Chance / Last Stand pose, but floating upwards, then all you have to do is wait.
- Eventually, the dead guy reaches the top and the long, stiff, hard golden rod with fingers on the end *oh the fingers* floats to the bottom of the stairs *oh the bottom*
- Some player needs to collect the long, stiff, hard, golden rod with fingers on the end
- *oh the fingers*
- Yeah - Richtofen has the funniest lines
Last steps once you have the rod with fingers on the end oh the fingers...
Be sure you have a fair bit of time on your hands, because this will take a while; for instance, lead George and any slow slow crawlers all the way to the front of the ship first, and hopefully you never opened either door between the lighthouse and the ship (the one near the Door or near the AK74u gun).
Also, try to have purchased as many perks as you can/want - at least Juggernog, because when you get the secret gun, you can slash but you cannot buy anything or revive anyone, that is - until you run out of ammo and lose the secret gun, or fall down - either way you won't have the secret gun until you 'kill George'.
Now, if a big bunch of zombies doesn't break in and crowd you while doing this, it should go completely like this:
1. player installs the golden rod in the vacuum tube, just like the vodka
2. listen to the guys ramble and TRY to teleport away
3. slash the fuse in the fusebox, this will help them make a getaway
4. some player will comment like 'are you guys going to help us now?'
5. a little while will pass
6. if not already, you'll score the Stand In achievement
7. A 'Death Machine' powerup will be available to take from in front of the Door; except this isn't the Death Machine...
Now confirmed, this is the DG2 Wunderwaffe gun that Richtofen developed and it fires a strange bolt of energy that causes multiple zombies' heads to cinder.
It does run out and requires Max Ammo to refill it, and if the player using it falls, uses all its ammo or switches to another weapon, then that is it - gone, finished, finito! that's all you get...
so ideally, you get Max Ammo while the DG2 is still in your hands, and on and on.
*It cannot be Pack-a-Punched.
But it is a wonderful weapon to use; the zombies shake hysterically then their head "goes poop"[like Richtofen says in KDT]
But also, if you manage to kill George after this whole thing, he'll drop another DG2 instead of a Death Machine...
2011/07/15
Call of Dead notes
Ok, finally I put some notes on Call of the Dead.
Call of the Dead features a stand-in cast of American actors from horror films: Sarah, Danny, Ray and Michael.
It also features George A Romero as some kind of replacement for the 'Hellhounds', 'Pentagon Thief', and 'Space Monkeys'.
The combination of George, a weird map, strange environmental effects and a migrating Pack-a-Punch Machine, all make for the toughest map to crack yet.
First some notes about the map and gameplay features:
0. There are no traps to purchase, but there are plenty of spaces and opportunities for you to get trapped.
1. George is out to get you.
He starts in a sedate state. In this state, he slowly pounds towards the nearest player, or whoever he is focussing his attention. If a zombie walks close to him, he lets out a scream and the player characters say something about the zombies running faster. Basically, any zombie that is near him when he lets out this kind of scream becomes a fast mover.
If you anger him by hitting him, or if a stray bullet or explosion hits him, he enters an enraged state.
In an enraged state, George first bangs his makeshift lightprop cudgel on the ground, then chases after you. The cudgel will electrify any nearby zombies, which means that when you slash them with your knife/sickle, you get stung for a little damage.
Enraged George runs almost as fast as you do, probably equal, but he stops when he is close to you (much like when in his sedate state) and takes a swing at you with his makeshift lightprop cudgel.
George can only go from his enraged state to his sedate state by either: shooting him with the new VR11 weapon (read this elsewhere, haven't tried it myself yet), or if a player leads him to one of the cold water pools around the map.
2. Cold water pools are placed around the map, so basically if you run to one of them with an enraged George behind, you'll calm him down. It also slows down most zombies, and sometimes causes weak zombies to freeze into an icecube. Walking or standing in it causes your HUD to ice up like a wet windscreen going into a blizzard. Some players keep jumping as they go through the water, but basically, when you get out it slowly unfreezes.
3. Fast moving zombies are created when a normal zombie brushes close to a sedate George. These zombies seem to run as fast as you can run, maybe more so.
4. Zombies seem to have different life expectancies and other features. First, crawlers can be faster moving than in KDT, and they can last almost forever now - which is great for trying to work out the special achievement. Also, if a zombie crawler dies, or a zombie becomes an icecube in a pool of water without actually be hit to death, it seems that the zombie will spawn closer to the players rather than die and end the round, but the respawn will be weaker. Lastly, when a zombie dies, it frequently emits a sound after you kill it - definitely not like KDT - so as to confuse you about where the zombies are coming from (in case you are using a stereo headset for gaming, like I do)
5. The map has 6 mystery box locations. There is no lightbulb map or tv screens showing where the box is, just look skyward for a blueish beam of light from the Mystery Box location.
6. The map has 3 Pack-a-Punch machine locations and the characters say references to the weather getting foggy or clearing up. When foggy, the PaPmachine is unavailable. When the skies clear up, the PaPmachine comes out of the water, replacing an iceberg, at one of the 3 locations. You can identify where it is by looking at the lighthouse, its lightbeam is trained on the box.
7. The map has two ziplines that you can use by just jumping up towards it. You cannot use the zipline unless its destination is also opened up, so basically, if you get to the top of the light house, but didn't open up the front half of the ship, then you can't zipline down. 'Closed set'
8. The map also has a number of ledges that are one-way-for-players, but two-ways-for-zombies-n-George. When you drop from each of these, you will be hurt a little, and vulnerable as if already half-weakened with Juggernog, so don't delay dropping down if the coast is clear.
9. The map has a big circuit to it, and it will cost a lot of points to open up the Power Switch, Juggernot and Sickle separately. My plan is to get the Sickle first for 2750 points worth of doors + 3000 points for sickle itself, then use it to rev up the points for the Power switch (2750 points of doors) and Juggernog (another 1750 points for doors, after Power only).
10. The MP 40 is on this map; yay - now you can buy a gun with 192 spare ammo. You can't buy frag grenades but semtex is available for 250 points/4pieces.
11. Location: the coast. this is where you start. it has two land spaces with a boat 'door' on either side for 750 points. The door on the 'left' leads upwards and on to the Lighthouse. The door on the 'right' leads to the 'back half of the ship' and the Power switch. You can buy the Olympia, M14 and/or Quick Revive here, as well as the PaPmachine/iceberg, a Mystery Box location and/or find a piece of the meteor on a barrel.
12. Location: the back half of the ship. Best to run up the stairs on the side of the ship - the space is too narrow to survive getting caught in it. immediately on the top of these stairs is a boat door (1000 points) to the very rear of the ship for Double Tap, or a small room with Claymores on the wall. Buying this door will open up a new window for zombies to break in when you run up the stairs, so can increase the danger factor.
Also immediately near the top of these stairs is an MPL on the wall, and another stairs going up the ship, and then to their right, a door to the cafeteria (and a piece of the meteor) and/or stairs to another boat-door to the front of the ship. Personally I suggest avoiding opening up this door in a hurry.
If you buy the crates debris to access the upper part - the command tower, you have the 'flipper' on the left of the stairs, or upstairs is a good choke point, zipline and doors to the control room + Power switch. Before opening up the doors to the power switch, on the top level the zombies can only get you via the stairs coming up, or via the window just left of the stairs (left when looking down the stairs), which is easy to manage. After flicking on the Power, zombies can attack you from behind as there is a window next to the Power switch.
Zipline out of here to the starting coast - which is safer than Flipping/flying out of here by dropping to the next level down, because the drop to the flipper is a kind of one-way ledge, and sometimes teh zombies are down there to slap you between flipper initiation and activation.
13. Location: front half of the ship. After you buy a boat to get to it, there are two sections being the front-front part, and the middle-part. The middle-part (the first part you'll reach) has two main levels in a hollow-square arrangement. Unfortunately, you'll hear zombies from both the upper and lower levels, which can confuse you. On the upper level is the MP40, the stairs between the levels, and a train cart door for you to open (1000points), which will enable the zipline from the top of the Lighthouse. On the lower level is a door to Juggernog / PaPmachine-or-iceberg, and above it / upstairs of the Juggernog, is another door to the front-front of the Ship - with Semtex just outside of it. A Mystery Box location is at the very front of the ship.
14. Location: Lighthouse. If you take the 'left' boat from the coast, you open up the path to the lighthouse. you can pick up the MP5k on the way to the external lighthouse stairs, which is a Mystery Box location. The external stairs takes you to level 3 of the lighthouse's 4 levels, but I prefer to go downstairs to the PHD Flopper room and open that door for 1000 points. This room also has a piece of the meteor under a clock.
Downstairs of the PHD Flopper room is a door to the 'killing fields' (as NephryteJaded calls it) which is the base of the lighthouse facing the front of the ship. Personally, I avoid opening this door.
Going through the PHD Flopper room and its door, you can either buy debris-doors to go up, or run downstairs to two doors. One leads out the back, the other out the front - killing fields way. I prefer to go out the back - which causes a longer circuit for the zombies and makes the rest of gameplay a little easier. The back door leads to a space with a door to the 'boathouse' / Staminup / Mystery Box, or take the ice Slide / Sickle / SpeedCola / a circular space around a rock, and a one-way drop to the killing fields.
My circuit preference and game plan:
The concept of 'stop killing them while you make your getaway' applies just as well here, if not more so.
And as mentioned earlier, leave a crawler at the end of the round to get to a weapon, Mystery Box, PaPmachine, Perks-a-cola or work on the Stand-in Achievement.
Call of the Dead features a stand-in cast of American actors from horror films: Sarah, Danny, Ray and Michael.
It also features George A Romero as some kind of replacement for the 'Hellhounds', 'Pentagon Thief', and 'Space Monkeys'.
The combination of George, a weird map, strange environmental effects and a migrating Pack-a-Punch Machine, all make for the toughest map to crack yet.
First some notes about the map and gameplay features:
0. There are no traps to purchase, but there are plenty of spaces and opportunities for you to get trapped.
1. George is out to get you.
He starts in a sedate state. In this state, he slowly pounds towards the nearest player, or whoever he is focussing his attention. If a zombie walks close to him, he lets out a scream and the player characters say something about the zombies running faster. Basically, any zombie that is near him when he lets out this kind of scream becomes a fast mover.
If you anger him by hitting him, or if a stray bullet or explosion hits him, he enters an enraged state.
In an enraged state, George first bangs his makeshift lightprop cudgel on the ground, then chases after you. The cudgel will electrify any nearby zombies, which means that when you slash them with your knife/sickle, you get stung for a little damage.
Enraged George runs almost as fast as you do, probably equal, but he stops when he is close to you (much like when in his sedate state) and takes a swing at you with his makeshift lightprop cudgel.
George can only go from his enraged state to his sedate state by either: shooting him with the new VR11 weapon (read this elsewhere, haven't tried it myself yet), or if a player leads him to one of the cold water pools around the map.
2. Cold water pools are placed around the map, so basically if you run to one of them with an enraged George behind, you'll calm him down. It also slows down most zombies, and sometimes causes weak zombies to freeze into an icecube. Walking or standing in it causes your HUD to ice up like a wet windscreen going into a blizzard. Some players keep jumping as they go through the water, but basically, when you get out it slowly unfreezes.
3. Fast moving zombies are created when a normal zombie brushes close to a sedate George. These zombies seem to run as fast as you can run, maybe more so.
4. Zombies seem to have different life expectancies and other features. First, crawlers can be faster moving than in KDT, and they can last almost forever now - which is great for trying to work out the special achievement. Also, if a zombie crawler dies, or a zombie becomes an icecube in a pool of water without actually be hit to death, it seems that the zombie will spawn closer to the players rather than die and end the round, but the respawn will be weaker. Lastly, when a zombie dies, it frequently emits a sound after you kill it - definitely not like KDT - so as to confuse you about where the zombies are coming from (in case you are using a stereo headset for gaming, like I do)
5. The map has 6 mystery box locations. There is no lightbulb map or tv screens showing where the box is, just look skyward for a blueish beam of light from the Mystery Box location.
6. The map has 3 Pack-a-Punch machine locations and the characters say references to the weather getting foggy or clearing up. When foggy, the PaPmachine is unavailable. When the skies clear up, the PaPmachine comes out of the water, replacing an iceberg, at one of the 3 locations. You can identify where it is by looking at the lighthouse, its lightbeam is trained on the box.
7. The map has two ziplines that you can use by just jumping up towards it. You cannot use the zipline unless its destination is also opened up, so basically, if you get to the top of the light house, but didn't open up the front half of the ship, then you can't zipline down. 'Closed set'
8. The map also has a number of ledges that are one-way-for-players, but two-ways-for-zombies-n-George. When you drop from each of these, you will be hurt a little, and vulnerable as if already half-weakened with Juggernog, so don't delay dropping down if the coast is clear.
9. The map has a big circuit to it, and it will cost a lot of points to open up the Power Switch, Juggernot and Sickle separately. My plan is to get the Sickle first for 2750 points worth of doors + 3000 points for sickle itself, then use it to rev up the points for the Power switch (2750 points of doors) and Juggernog (another 1750 points for doors, after Power only).
10. The MP 40 is on this map; yay - now you can buy a gun with 192 spare ammo. You can't buy frag grenades but semtex is available for 250 points/4pieces.
11. Location: the coast. this is where you start. it has two land spaces with a boat 'door' on either side for 750 points. The door on the 'left' leads upwards and on to the Lighthouse. The door on the 'right' leads to the 'back half of the ship' and the Power switch. You can buy the Olympia, M14 and/or Quick Revive here, as well as the PaPmachine/iceberg, a Mystery Box location and/or find a piece of the meteor on a barrel.
12. Location: the back half of the ship. Best to run up the stairs on the side of the ship - the space is too narrow to survive getting caught in it. immediately on the top of these stairs is a boat door (1000 points) to the very rear of the ship for Double Tap, or a small room with Claymores on the wall. Buying this door will open up a new window for zombies to break in when you run up the stairs, so can increase the danger factor.
Also immediately near the top of these stairs is an MPL on the wall, and another stairs going up the ship, and then to their right, a door to the cafeteria (and a piece of the meteor) and/or stairs to another boat-door to the front of the ship. Personally I suggest avoiding opening up this door in a hurry.
If you buy the crates debris to access the upper part - the command tower, you have the 'flipper' on the left of the stairs, or upstairs is a good choke point, zipline and doors to the control room + Power switch. Before opening up the doors to the power switch, on the top level the zombies can only get you via the stairs coming up, or via the window just left of the stairs (left when looking down the stairs), which is easy to manage. After flicking on the Power, zombies can attack you from behind as there is a window next to the Power switch.
Zipline out of here to the starting coast - which is safer than Flipping/flying out of here by dropping to the next level down, because the drop to the flipper is a kind of one-way ledge, and sometimes teh zombies are down there to slap you between flipper initiation and activation.
13. Location: front half of the ship. After you buy a boat to get to it, there are two sections being the front-front part, and the middle-part. The middle-part (the first part you'll reach) has two main levels in a hollow-square arrangement. Unfortunately, you'll hear zombies from both the upper and lower levels, which can confuse you. On the upper level is the MP40, the stairs between the levels, and a train cart door for you to open (1000points), which will enable the zipline from the top of the Lighthouse. On the lower level is a door to Juggernog / PaPmachine-or-iceberg, and above it / upstairs of the Juggernog, is another door to the front-front of the Ship - with Semtex just outside of it. A Mystery Box location is at the very front of the ship.
14. Location: Lighthouse. If you take the 'left' boat from the coast, you open up the path to the lighthouse. you can pick up the MP5k on the way to the external lighthouse stairs, which is a Mystery Box location. The external stairs takes you to level 3 of the lighthouse's 4 levels, but I prefer to go downstairs to the PHD Flopper room and open that door for 1000 points. This room also has a piece of the meteor under a clock.
Downstairs of the PHD Flopper room is a door to the 'killing fields' (as NephryteJaded calls it) which is the base of the lighthouse facing the front of the ship. Personally, I avoid opening this door.
Going through the PHD Flopper room and its door, you can either buy debris-doors to go up, or run downstairs to two doors. One leads out the back, the other out the front - killing fields way. I prefer to go out the back - which causes a longer circuit for the zombies and makes the rest of gameplay a little easier. The back door leads to a space with a door to the 'boathouse' / Staminup / Mystery Box, or take the ice Slide / Sickle / SpeedCola / a circular space around a rock, and a one-way drop to the killing fields.
My circuit preference and game plan:
- You start at 'the Coast'. Hang around here until at least round 4 and really get into lining up 3 zombies for every M1911 bullet you shoot. This really maximises your points from bullets, but don't hesitate to slash zombies still climbing out of the ground. Five bullets plus slash in Round 1, 8 bullets+slash in Round 2 or 1xM14 bullet+slash, 12 bullets M1911 or 2 bullets M14 in Round 3 plus Slash. If lining up 3 zombies, shoot as follows: Round 1: 5 bullets slash 3 bullets slash slash; Round 2: 8 bullets slash 4 bullets slash 2 bullets slash, Round 3: 12 bullets slash 6 bullets slash 6 bullets slash... afterwards, let's hope you have a Sickle by then...
- Buy the M14 if you want, or hold out for a Max Ammo or the MP5k in a few rounds time. You and another player need points between you like 3750/5000 or 4000/4750 or whatever, then go get the Sickle as follows buy opening doors so that both players end up with 3000 points for the Sickle.
- Open the boat-door on the 'left'.
- Ignore the MP5k and/or Mystery Box unless you have surplus points to get the next two doors easily.
- Go to the Lighthouse external stairs, then head 'downstairs' from that platform to PHD FLopper room.
- Open the door at the PHD Flopper room, then take the circular stairs to the base of the Lighthouse.
- Open the back door and take the slide.
- Buy the Sickle on your way past it.
- Hang out around the circular thing, or drop down together to the Killing Fields and get some more points.
- Open the boat-door to the front-half of the ship, proceed to upstairs and the MP40 area; buy the MP40 if you want;
- Hang out for enough slash-kills to get the tramcar door to the front-front of the ship, then run towards the back of the ship and carefully use the one-way drop, then go to the coast - maybe hang out at the next one-way drop before doing so.
- Hang out at the coast for more points - at least 2000 points to get the boat-door on the right, then the crates-debris on the stairs at the Back-half of the Ship, and proceed immediately to the very top of the ship.
- Camp at the top by slashing as many zombies as you can, or shooting down the stairs, without buying the doors to the Power Switch until you have at least 75- points for the door to the Power Switch and an extra 1000 points for the door to Juggernog between you and your buddies, and 2500 points each for Juggernog itself, preferably more.
- If things get tight, take the zipline - it is safer, then run the whole circuit again; pick up cheap spare ammo on your way for whatever guns you might have.
- Later, open up the debris to the top of the stairs by either (a) (my usual) from the PHD Flopper room, get two pieces of debris upwards, or (b) from the external stairs, go up the stairs, open the door then get the debris on the way up
- It may help to have Claymores while camping at the top of the ship or top of the lighthouse; Using the Flipper to get to the external lighthouse stairs, while the zombies take the zipline to somewhere else.
The concept of 'stop killing them while you make your getaway' applies just as well here, if not more so.
And as mentioned earlier, leave a crawler at the end of the round to get to a weapon, Mystery Box, PaPmachine, Perks-a-cola or work on the Stand-in Achievement.
2011/06/17
Call of the Dead
Okay; here is my first notes on latest Zombies map: Call of the Dead.
*This thing took a while to download, and I had to make some space on my PS3-fat (the original model I think, not the newer, slim one).
I just had a go on CotD in solo mode. All I had read about it was that the heroes and heroine from horror flicks feature as the cast, and that the four guys from KDT are somehow trapped and need to be freed. There is some kind of fuse wire to find in order to start the power...
And that George Romero is some kind of boss; the director of the original zombies in shopping malls film.
Having had a first go - about 30 mins - I had to look up this George boss - see here for future reference http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/George_A._Romero
Some notes on handling George: he is calm until you hit at him - straight or collaterally - in which case he chases at you and a few hits of his electric-thing will take you down.
He is walks more slowly while wading in water.
Anyhow, I did notice that the Quick Revive drink machine is a little past the frigid water. You can reach it by wading into the water. This seems to slow George down, and - like homage to the PS2 Prince of Persia titles - the water has a calming effect, on George in this instance.
Actually the frigid water also causes injured zombies to freeze up like a popsicle, just like two shots of the Winter's Howl gun from the zombie map Five.
It also causes your HUD to frost up from the sides, so I am guessing that it weakens the players in it, as well as slowing movement.
The map itself is big, and seems to have a few circles to it, and it looks a bit confusing; so this is going to take some time to work out. The frigid water features in different parts of the circuits, so I think that the intention is for you to run away from George and rely on the water to calm him. The doors and debris seem to be all either 750 points or 1000 points, so I have no clue as to how to find the fuse wire or the Mystery Box.
Also, I didn't immediately find either an active Mystery Box, or the fuse wire and power switch. Anyhow, there are map components to be activated by the trap, including a flying fox / zipline, and a daiquiri drink machine. hmmmm wonder what perk that gives you.
Getting started seems to follow the usual formula. The zombies spawn from the ground and a few walls and windows in the first area.Round 1 - just slash all the zombies and save your M1911 bullets until round 2 or 3, then line up multiple zombies to get 20-30 points per bullet - it seems that the Max Ammo doesn't drop that readily; we may want to see if the original glitch still works.
For the first few rounds, I found some success (100 kills and died at round 7 after 2 revives) by doing this:
a. running in partial circles around the 'iceberg tip' to your right from when you start; basically going from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock, then back again.
b. the first zombies break through the ground after George has enough time to walk up to you, so run 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock a few times; be sure that George is basically wading and wading through the frigid water.
c. buy the M14. I recommend getting the M14 since you can get more points using it than the Olympia, and the tight spaces and slow reload make the Olympia less useful. M14 is one shot per round to kill a zombie, so in round 3 use two shots then slash for maximum points.
d. buy as many doors as you can.
I'm still working this thing out, but I managed to accumulate 11000 points in 6 or so rounds buying just one 'door' = the debris on the 'right' of the start, then managed to open up a lot more doors, found a slide that took me to a high ledge that I couldn't reach from the bottom.
Also, I managed to get George very angry and, literally, in flames by using the Mustang&Sally each time I fell down, and a combination of death machine+Insta-kill (picked them up at the same time!); this didn't actually kill him though, but I'm guessing it got him part-way to 'solved'.
:-)
*This thing took a while to download, and I had to make some space on my PS3-fat (the original model I think, not the newer, slim one).
I just had a go on CotD in solo mode. All I had read about it was that the heroes and heroine from horror flicks feature as the cast, and that the four guys from KDT are somehow trapped and need to be freed. There is some kind of fuse wire to find in order to start the power...
And that George Romero is some kind of boss; the director of the original zombies in shopping malls film.
Having had a first go - about 30 mins - I had to look up this George boss - see here for future reference http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/George_A._Romero
Some notes on handling George: he is calm until you hit at him - straight or collaterally - in which case he chases at you and a few hits of his electric-thing will take you down.
He is walks more slowly while wading in water.
Anyhow, I did notice that the Quick Revive drink machine is a little past the frigid water. You can reach it by wading into the water. This seems to slow George down, and - like homage to the PS2 Prince of Persia titles - the water has a calming effect, on George in this instance.
Actually the frigid water also causes injured zombies to freeze up like a popsicle, just like two shots of the Winter's Howl gun from the zombie map Five.
It also causes your HUD to frost up from the sides, so I am guessing that it weakens the players in it, as well as slowing movement.
The map itself is big, and seems to have a few circles to it, and it looks a bit confusing; so this is going to take some time to work out. The frigid water features in different parts of the circuits, so I think that the intention is for you to run away from George and rely on the water to calm him. The doors and debris seem to be all either 750 points or 1000 points, so I have no clue as to how to find the fuse wire or the Mystery Box.
Also, I didn't immediately find either an active Mystery Box, or the fuse wire and power switch. Anyhow, there are map components to be activated by the trap, including a flying fox / zipline, and a daiquiri drink machine. hmmmm wonder what perk that gives you.
Getting started seems to follow the usual formula. The zombies spawn from the ground and a few walls and windows in the first area.Round 1 - just slash all the zombies and save your M1911 bullets until round 2 or 3, then line up multiple zombies to get 20-30 points per bullet - it seems that the Max Ammo doesn't drop that readily; we may want to see if the original glitch still works.
For the first few rounds, I found some success (100 kills and died at round 7 after 2 revives) by doing this:
a. running in partial circles around the 'iceberg tip' to your right from when you start; basically going from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock, then back again.
b. the first zombies break through the ground after George has enough time to walk up to you, so run 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock a few times; be sure that George is basically wading and wading through the frigid water.
c. buy the M14. I recommend getting the M14 since you can get more points using it than the Olympia, and the tight spaces and slow reload make the Olympia less useful. M14 is one shot per round to kill a zombie, so in round 3 use two shots then slash for maximum points.
d. buy as many doors as you can.
I'm still working this thing out, but I managed to accumulate 11000 points in 6 or so rounds buying just one 'door' = the debris on the 'right' of the start, then managed to open up a lot more doors, found a slide that took me to a high ledge that I couldn't reach from the bottom.
Also, I managed to get George very angry and, literally, in flames by using the Mustang&Sally each time I fell down, and a combination of death machine+Insta-kill (picked them up at the same time!); this didn't actually kill him though, but I'm guessing it got him part-way to 'solved'.
:-)
2011/06/15
How to annoy noobs
Sometimes, when I don't have a lot of time to game in KDT, I don't mind joining a lobby full of noobs.
Some noobs can be annoying, especially when they do all the things that shorten their game, and expect l33t players like us to make up for their slack, and their flawed tactics.
Actually, it is kinda funny to game with noobs, because they are either in awe of gaming with someone who has reached Round 30+, or they get annoyed at how cool they are not and being reminded of it when you:
Some noobs can be annoying, especially when they do all the things that shorten their game, and expect l33t players like us to make up for their slack, and their flawed tactics.
Actually, it is kinda funny to game with noobs, because they are either in awe of gaming with someone who has reached Round 30+, or they get annoyed at how cool they are not and being reminded of it when you:
- are getting more points per kill than them;
- are getting more kills than them;
- repeatedly keep reviving them, rather than them reviving you;
- get revived as a priority, even though someone else is closer to the brink;
- flick the power switch ASAP, instead of waiting to Round 8 like some older internet tips suggest;
- get these really cool 'pistols that shoot grenades';
- have 5-digit (10,000+) points and repeatedly buy things from the Mystery Box, especially while they looking for windows to fix just to get the points for one more go at the Mystery Box;
- kill the zombie that they are shooting by slashing it with your Bowie Knife, then the smarter noobs wonder why their knife is not as good;
- play a game of chicken for buying the next door;
- are not spamming grenades from the projector room like everyone else;
- not bothering to always try to make a crawler every single time...;
- when everyone is at the teleporter, you start the teleporter rather than wait for more zombies to crowd around so that you 'kill more zombies with the teleporter';
- have spare ammo while they are waiting for a Max Ammo for their upgraded guns;
- open two Mystery Boxes during the Fire Sale;
- don't buy traps when they ask you to;
- do buy traps after they suggest it, but not hang around to help (read DIE) for when the zombies close in on that trap's position;
- put a big stack of claymores in one spot; [sometimes they think there is something significant about this, other than to bank some claymores in Round 10 for use in Round 20+];
- are close to them and obviously trying to revive them when you finish killing all the zombies around them, but because there are so many, you may never get a chance to help them and it is obviously not your fault... because there are so many zombies around, and it is not like you could probably lead the zombies away on a circuit and then sprinted to revive the noob just in time;
- survive to be the last man alive;
2011/05/26
Weapons re-viewed
Recently I found that the Spectre (950 points from the Mystery Box; 30+120 bullets) has another property: you can run almost as fast as when holding the Ballistic Knife. Very helpful for the getaway. I wonder how tough the bullets are compared to other guns, including the upgraded Spectre. Usually though, I find it easy to just empty all the bullets for much more than 950 points, then go get another gun.
Anyhow, I am going to ramble some more about the weapons available.
RPK: is a relatively soft gun compared to the HK21, Galil, AUG and Commando. I heard someone say that, at ROUND 50, even 180 RPK bullets will not drop a single zombie, which means that, in Round 50, you would get 1860 points from killing just one zombie if you emptied 181 RPK bullets at it; I guess you might kill 2-5 zombies that way before running low on ammo, and maybe a few more after upgrading it. Still, great for racking up points.
M16: upgrades to have 270 spare ammo = 5200+ points if used correctly, so is better than the MP40 in terms of 'getting your points back from upgraded ammo'; but the upgraded ammo is fairly soft among other upgrades.
upgraded M1911 - Mustang & Sally: I am not sure when these things appear to be weaker vs zombies, but if you can super-concentrate the zombies, taking one shot at a time will go a long way to getting you through the higher rounds.
Thundergun: it is said that this is a great tactical weapon, but unfortunately people tend to use this on less than 30 zombies in a shot. That's right - using a Thundergun shot on less than 30 zombies is a waste. The Thundergun fires some kind of 'cylinder' blast, and in this centralized '100% kill' blast zone, every zombie will die regardless of how many other zombies are in the blast zone; however, zombies further away or on the periphery of the blast zone may get back up (and if they are about to, don't try to slash them: something in the game causes them to be completely 'awake' and start attacking you). Best not to waste it on a few zombies when you should keep moving on the circuit to avoid getting surrounded. So super-concentrate the zombies before firing a single shot; you may want to play only with one or two teammates who can wait in the lobby while you do circles on the stage to concentrate the zombies, but in theory you will have enough ammo to get through the rounds between dogs rounds, and it will be the fastest way to complete rounds 31+.
Ray Gun: even upgraded, it only has 200 shots and only the damage multiplier improves; The Ray Gun is great (read: better than using frag grenades) for making crawlers from round 18-30 - just shoot at the grounds near the walking zombies and that tends to blow off their legs.
Olympia: the Olympia is one of them weakling guns found in the first room! But yeah, basically it upgrades to a 'Dragonbreath' shotgun and fairly entertaining. If you play as Tank Dempsey (white coloured numbers on the score tally; the American), get the Olympia, put it in the Pack a Punch machine, and pick it up, he usually says this, "Ok, now let me get this straight. First it blows a hole in their guts, and then it burns the hell outta them? Genius!". That is exactly what it does, and the burning prevents the gas zombies from exploding. It may take a few shots as soon as Round 14 or so; this seems to depend on how direct a hit you make - so aim straight and maybe towards the head. Upgraded or not, this thing has a slow reload sequence of unfold/open, add bullet 1, add bullet 2, close up and ready; so remember that 'Speed Cola speeds up your life'.
***I wonder if Richtofen has something special to say when collecting the Pack a punched MP40, or if the other characters have unique lines for upgrading guns.***
M14: not bad for use before Round 10; basically it is one bullet per round to kill a zombie, so in round 2 you can kill a zombie either by shooting twice with the M14, or shooting once then slashing (Guess what I do?). Has a bit of a reload time though.
Claymores: fantastic, just put them facing a wall near any vending machine and add two more each round/MaxAmmo; I like to put them a few steps away from the Juggernog machine, one facing the machine, the other facing away, so that when I need to get a Juggernog with a zombie not far behind me, I have a little time to finish the drink and ready my gun.
CZ75 is actually a fairly tough bullet gun with fairly quick bullet-to-bullet firing; just a few quick shots kills a zombie in Round 12!
Sniper rifles: even upgraded, these things take several shots from round 20 or so; again, best avoided, but it can be fun to use (and upgrade) before round 20 or so - especially to get three in one shot.
Best weapons to get points are, in order, assuming round 16+: HK21 (lots of spare ammo, more when upgraded), RPK (lots of softer ammo), Galil (most ammo among Assault Rifles, especially upgraded), AUG (next-best spare ammo upgraded, equal Commando not upgraded), Commando, M16 (upgrades to 270 spare ammo, which equals the Commando, AUG), MP40 (upgraded or not), FN-FAL, any other SMG.
Best tactical devices, in order: Monkey Bomb, Thundergun, upgraded Ballistic Knife (instant revive),Ray Gun (makes crawlers), Claymores (a little safety to revive someone or get a drink).
Best weapons to kill zombies, in order: Fire-trap or Electric traps (instantaneous and always kills), Insta-Kill with anything (knife or automatic guns), Thundergun (put them right in the centre of the blast), Mustang & Sally, Ray Gun, Turrets, Grenades, Upgraded Ballistic Knife+Bowie Knife, tougher guns like Galil, Aug, Commando, HK21 or upgraded counterparts, Shotguns/upgraded, anything else.
Try this- when Insta-Kill is on, throw a grenade so that it bounces off a zombie. The bounce will kill!
Anyhow, I am going to ramble some more about the weapons available.
RPK: is a relatively soft gun compared to the HK21, Galil, AUG and Commando. I heard someone say that, at ROUND 50, even 180 RPK bullets will not drop a single zombie, which means that, in Round 50, you would get 1860 points from killing just one zombie if you emptied 181 RPK bullets at it; I guess you might kill 2-5 zombies that way before running low on ammo, and maybe a few more after upgrading it. Still, great for racking up points.
M16: upgrades to have 270 spare ammo = 5200+ points if used correctly, so is better than the MP40 in terms of 'getting your points back from upgraded ammo'; but the upgraded ammo is fairly soft among other upgrades.
upgraded M1911 - Mustang & Sally: I am not sure when these things appear to be weaker vs zombies, but if you can super-concentrate the zombies, taking one shot at a time will go a long way to getting you through the higher rounds.
Thundergun: it is said that this is a great tactical weapon, but unfortunately people tend to use this on less than 30 zombies in a shot. That's right - using a Thundergun shot on less than 30 zombies is a waste. The Thundergun fires some kind of 'cylinder' blast, and in this centralized '100% kill' blast zone, every zombie will die regardless of how many other zombies are in the blast zone; however, zombies further away or on the periphery of the blast zone may get back up (and if they are about to, don't try to slash them: something in the game causes them to be completely 'awake' and start attacking you). Best not to waste it on a few zombies when you should keep moving on the circuit to avoid getting surrounded. So super-concentrate the zombies before firing a single shot; you may want to play only with one or two teammates who can wait in the lobby while you do circles on the stage to concentrate the zombies, but in theory you will have enough ammo to get through the rounds between dogs rounds, and it will be the fastest way to complete rounds 31+.
Ray Gun: even upgraded, it only has 200 shots and only the damage multiplier improves; The Ray Gun is great (read: better than using frag grenades) for making crawlers from round 18-30 - just shoot at the grounds near the walking zombies and that tends to blow off their legs.
Olympia: the Olympia is one of them weakling guns found in the first room! But yeah, basically it upgrades to a 'Dragonbreath' shotgun and fairly entertaining. If you play as Tank Dempsey (white coloured numbers on the score tally; the American), get the Olympia, put it in the Pack a Punch machine, and pick it up, he usually says this, "Ok, now let me get this straight. First it blows a hole in their guts, and then it burns the hell outta them? Genius!". That is exactly what it does, and the burning prevents the gas zombies from exploding. It may take a few shots as soon as Round 14 or so; this seems to depend on how direct a hit you make - so aim straight and maybe towards the head. Upgraded or not, this thing has a slow reload sequence of unfold/open, add bullet 1, add bullet 2, close up and ready; so remember that 'Speed Cola speeds up your life'.
***I wonder if Richtofen has something special to say when collecting the Pack a punched MP40, or if the other characters have unique lines for upgrading guns.***
M14: not bad for use before Round 10; basically it is one bullet per round to kill a zombie, so in round 2 you can kill a zombie either by shooting twice with the M14, or shooting once then slashing (Guess what I do?). Has a bit of a reload time though.
Claymores: fantastic, just put them facing a wall near any vending machine and add two more each round/MaxAmmo; I like to put them a few steps away from the Juggernog machine, one facing the machine, the other facing away, so that when I need to get a Juggernog with a zombie not far behind me, I have a little time to finish the drink and ready my gun.
CZ75 is actually a fairly tough bullet gun with fairly quick bullet-to-bullet firing; just a few quick shots kills a zombie in Round 12!
Sniper rifles: even upgraded, these things take several shots from round 20 or so; again, best avoided, but it can be fun to use (and upgrade) before round 20 or so - especially to get three in one shot.
Best weapons to get points are, in order, assuming round 16+: HK21 (lots of spare ammo, more when upgraded), RPK (lots of softer ammo), Galil (most ammo among Assault Rifles, especially upgraded), AUG (next-best spare ammo upgraded, equal Commando not upgraded), Commando, M16 (upgrades to 270 spare ammo, which equals the Commando, AUG), MP40 (upgraded or not), FN-FAL, any other SMG.
Best tactical devices, in order: Monkey Bomb, Thundergun, upgraded Ballistic Knife (instant revive),Ray Gun (makes crawlers), Claymores (a little safety to revive someone or get a drink).
Best weapons to kill zombies, in order: Fire-trap or Electric traps (instantaneous and always kills), Insta-Kill with anything (knife or automatic guns), Thundergun (put them right in the centre of the blast), Mustang & Sally, Ray Gun, Turrets, Grenades, Upgraded Ballistic Knife+Bowie Knife, tougher guns like Galil, Aug, Commando, HK21 or upgraded counterparts, Shotguns/upgraded, anything else.
Try this- when Insta-Kill is on, throw a grenade so that it bounces off a zombie. The bounce will kill!
Still, the main thing to remember is not to hold any gun as too precious. hehe "my precious" [Gollum grin]. If you are out of ammo, just get another gun from the Mystery Box, or the MP40 off the wall for 1000 points, then rack up some more points and buy another Mystery Box gun, or more MP40 ammo for 500 points. You may end up getting the same gun back after taking something else in-between.
2011/05/05
Maximum kills per shot / super concentration of zombies
With PSN down, I just had to game solo and developed this method of super-concentrating zombies. Some game ago, I had a Thundergun in Round 20+, it was MotR and I managed to knock down every spawned zombie because they were all in the main blast radius of the Thundergun.
So this adds an additional or an alternative objective to sustainable gameplay - KO the most zombies with the least ammo, assuming that points are no longer an issue.
Dang - I had a video that I uploaded to YouTube but the upload ended up all green pixellated. I'll look into it and update this post later. But here is what I had written into the video description
Running out of ammo in your Zeus Cannon?
Not hitting enough zombies with each shot?
You need 'Zombie Concentrator: the manouevre that makes your cannon last longer'.
...
:-) lol
I suspect this is more important in the higher-order rounds when upgraded ammo is a lot weaker vs tougher zombies, so you need to push every Thundergun bolt to the max.
Shown here is a line of zombies following me into the theatre. I did a 'reverse-circuit' and headed to the stage. By the time I got to the stage, there was a long line of zombies, but by running a 'figure-8' using the stairs on either side of the podium, I can get all the zombies into one blast from your Thundergun, or in this case - a cooked grenade. I finished these guys off with the Bowie Knife as part of my points strategy.
Afterwards, you may need to run more 'reverse-circuits' to complete each round, or to get started on the new one.
*I put the claymores in the common spot that I do, facing toward the wall so that I can pick them up in a later round, presumably when I am low on ammo, but with this new strategy maybe I don't need these any more.
I believe you can complete each of rounds 4-18 with just two Thundergun shots, which means that you will not run out of Thundergun ammo because you use so little each round.
Using the upgraded M1911 (Mustang & Sally) also works instead of a grenade, but concentrating zombies like this delivers the most punch from a Thundergun.
So this adds an additional or an alternative objective to sustainable gameplay - KO the most zombies with the least ammo, assuming that points are no longer an issue.
Dang - I had a video that I uploaded to YouTube but the upload ended up all green pixellated. I'll look into it and update this post later. But here is what I had written into the video description
Running out of ammo in your Zeus Cannon?
Not hitting enough zombies with each shot?
You need 'Zombie Concentrator: the manouevre that makes your cannon last longer'.
...
:-) lol
I suspect this is more important in the higher-order rounds when upgraded ammo is a lot weaker vs tougher zombies, so you need to push every Thundergun bolt to the max.
Shown here is a line of zombies following me into the theatre. I did a 'reverse-circuit' and headed to the stage. By the time I got to the stage, there was a long line of zombies, but by running a 'figure-8' using the stairs on either side of the podium, I can get all the zombies into one blast from your Thundergun, or in this case - a cooked grenade. I finished these guys off with the Bowie Knife as part of my points strategy.
Afterwards, you may need to run more 'reverse-circuits' to complete each round, or to get started on the new one.
*I put the claymores in the common spot that I do, facing toward the wall so that I can pick them up in a later round, presumably when I am low on ammo, but with this new strategy maybe I don't need these any more.
I believe you can complete each of rounds 4-18 with just two Thundergun shots, which means that you will not run out of Thundergun ammo because you use so little each round.
Using the upgraded M1911 (Mustang & Sally) also works instead of a grenade, but concentrating zombies like this delivers the most punch from a Thundergun.
2011/04/26
PSN is down; why can't we game multiplayer zombies regardless?
PSN is down. Technically it is undergoing maintenance, not subject to some cyber attack by the hacker group Anonymous. Euhh. And it wasn't working since one day before this 5-day long weekend holiday started.
Now, Black Ops on the Xbox has an 'Xbox Live' menu option exactly where the 'Playstation Network' option is on the Playstation version.
I take it that just like Facebook or other major websites, Playstation Network is a 'portal' site and presumably there is some value in keeping it that way.
In future though, I hope that other games will let me connect directly to another computer for gaming, and not only servers that are, have been and most definitely will be subject to outages. I mean, if it doesn't contribute to server traffic, surely that will reduce costs and let me enjoy gaming when the server is not responding; and for something like multiplayer zombies among friends, that is entirely appropriate.
Then again, why would a company operating a network server want to allow users to do it on their own?
I guess it will need to be some sort of homebrew game that does that as a standard feature.
Now, Black Ops on the Xbox has an 'Xbox Live' menu option exactly where the 'Playstation Network' option is on the Playstation version.
I take it that just like Facebook or other major websites, Playstation Network is a 'portal' site and presumably there is some value in keeping it that way.
In future though, I hope that other games will let me connect directly to another computer for gaming, and not only servers that are, have been and most definitely will be subject to outages. I mean, if it doesn't contribute to server traffic, surely that will reduce costs and let me enjoy gaming when the server is not responding; and for something like multiplayer zombies among friends, that is entirely appropriate.
Then again, why would a company operating a network server want to allow users to do it on their own?
I guess it will need to be some sort of homebrew game that does that as a standard feature.
2011/04/01
Ideal team size
Is there an ideal team size for KDT?
The top of the leaderboards are dominated by gamers who played in pairs; that means they played in pairs from Round 1, rather than starting as a team (or just a group) of four that had two guys drop out at some stage.
Looks like evidence for pairs being the best, but why? My guess is a few reasons.
1. Less zombies to kill each round: round 1 has 6 zombies in solo, 8 for two players, 10 for four players. I suspect that the increments are lower per round too.
2. Less confusion: since the zombies only ever have two targets (assuming no monkey bombs or Awful Lawton bolts on the map) each player finds it is easier to predict the zombies, they are heading for you, or the other guy.
3. More coordination: it's easier to coordinate talking with one guy rather than 3.
4. More likely to be revived: the stakes are a lot higher for not reviving the other guy, compared to 3-4 player games where each player thinks that another player might get the guy who went down, or that there are more guys in play, so more likely that someone will make it to the next round.
5. More likely to be gaming with an established buddy.
But then again, in each round, maybe there are less zombies per player when playing in larger teams. This means less possible points (although with my strategy, the surplus you get might not matter after round 15 or so) and possibly an easier distribution of zombies for each player to manage.
The top of the leaderboards are dominated by gamers who played in pairs; that means they played in pairs from Round 1, rather than starting as a team (or just a group) of four that had two guys drop out at some stage.
Looks like evidence for pairs being the best, but why? My guess is a few reasons.
1. Less zombies to kill each round: round 1 has 6 zombies in solo, 8 for two players, 10 for four players. I suspect that the increments are lower per round too.
2. Less confusion: since the zombies only ever have two targets (assuming no monkey bombs or Awful Lawton bolts on the map) each player finds it is easier to predict the zombies, they are heading for you, or the other guy.
3. More coordination: it's easier to coordinate talking with one guy rather than 3.
4. More likely to be revived: the stakes are a lot higher for not reviving the other guy, compared to 3-4 player games where each player thinks that another player might get the guy who went down, or that there are more guys in play, so more likely that someone will make it to the next round.
5. More likely to be gaming with an established buddy.
But then again, in each round, maybe there are less zombies per player when playing in larger teams. This means less possible points (although with my strategy, the surplus you get might not matter after round 15 or so) and possibly an easier distribution of zombies for each player to manage.
2011/03/30
How to recover with just 1500 points
I saw a noob who didn't realise that you lose your Perks-a-Cola drinks when you fall down !!! He fell, got some points later (by fixing walls... in Round 12?) and went straight to the Mystery Box, hoping that a great gun would save him. Of course, he had a hard time bouncing back.
I pose this question: how would I get a lot of points if I were resurrected in Round 15 or so, with just 1500 points (which is the default minimum)?
How would you do it?
Kino der Toten:
i. start in the Theatre, near the Mystery Box spots
ii. as soon as a zombie sounds like it is breaking in the Lobby, run through the lobby
iii. walk to the MP40 room - maybe buy an MP40 on the way through, or the PM63 or MP5 on another wall
iv. continue the circuit - stay well clear of zombies and take the short circuit a few times before trying the long circuit
v. empty ammo at the big bunch of zombies that accumulates
vi. recover a few thousand points then go for Juggernog
vii. keep it up with the MP40;
It is possible to net 7000 points (i.e. get ahead by 7000 points) after buying a few rounds of ammo by completing a few circuits, without the round coming to an end; the main focus is to keep yourself from getting trapped by zombies and/or tapped by zombies, before and after getting Juggernog.
other maps - check back for updates
I pose this question: how would I get a lot of points if I were resurrected in Round 15 or so, with just 1500 points (which is the default minimum)?
How would you do it?
Kino der Toten:
i. start in the Theatre, near the Mystery Box spots
ii. as soon as a zombie sounds like it is breaking in the Lobby, run through the lobby
iii. walk to the MP40 room - maybe buy an MP40 on the way through, or the PM63 or MP5 on another wall
iv. continue the circuit - stay well clear of zombies and take the short circuit a few times before trying the long circuit
v. empty ammo at the big bunch of zombies that accumulates
vi. recover a few thousand points then go for Juggernog
vii. keep it up with the MP40;
It is possible to net 7000 points (i.e. get ahead by 7000 points) after buying a few rounds of ammo by completing a few circuits, without the round coming to an end; the main focus is to keep yourself from getting trapped by zombies and/or tapped by zombies, before and after getting Juggernog.
other maps - check back for updates
2011/03/24
Kino Der Toten: mini-circles, faster zombie decimation and quicker rounds
Running the long circuit (as per my previous note) can be difficult with more than one person, especially when trying to walk in the same spot at around the same time, especially if anyone is a bit laggy. Of course, one person can be the decoy, and the rest can be the forward scouts, but it gets a bit boring, not to mention time consuming - a round can easily last 20 minutes!
Not to worry - there is a way to decimate the zombies in a way that is still manageable and gets the job done faster.
Other than the long circuit and the short circuit, you can run a 'mini-circle'.
*In Ascension, there are a number of mini-circles you could do - or rather, need to do because you don't have an easy circuit to run.
In Kino Der Toten, there are a few mini-circles.
(a) The Stage: on the stage there is a screen that drops down when you flick the switch; there are also two constructs, 'stage props' or similar, just behind the projector screen.
Up to round 20, in solo, you can easily run around this and pick off one or two zombies at a time until you reach zombie end game then finish off everything.
(b) The Lobby: go up one staircase and down the other, slowly but just two steps from the lead zombie; take out the lead zombie if the rest of the group is a few steps behind him, or take out the zombies in front of you only.
(c) The MP40 room: like the lobby, it features two staircases, just go up one staircase, wait in the corner behind the table until the zombies catch up to you, then run down the other staircase, wait behind behind the table near the Speed Cola drink machine, and so on;
Is there another circle? I think that the Alley, or the two rooms attached to it, are a suicide region unless it is before round 10, or zombie end game.
Anyhow, you can manage the zombie herd with two+ players by having one play as the 'decoy' who distracts the zombies on The Stage, from zombie accumulation until MotR, and have everyone else camp somewhere else (either together or split) and kill whatever zombie comes their way. Keep doing this until you reach zombie end game, then follow the usual strategy.
Alternatively, the team splits up and each has their own little mini-circle to run; if you have four players, I guess the fourth player can do the circuit or help out the players in the Lobby and MP40 room, or be the revivalist.
Of course, this strategy won't work unless all the players are committed to it; and good communication (microphones!) are very helpful.
While you're at it, if you kill one or two zombies at a time while doing a mini-circle, if any zombie drops a bonus, you'll have time to warn everyone else (over mic) to be ready for a bonus.
Lastly: sniper rifles. It might now be viable to take and use a sniper rifle. I haven't tried this with the decoy-killer strategy, but it is possible to shoot at the stage by camping in the ?room (upstairs, right door from the Lobby) and aiming at the zombie herd on the stage. A sniper should have someone else covering their back, or a fresh claymore to make a warning.
2011/03/07
Ascension notes
Ascension is an interesting map; I think it's difficulty is part-way between KDT and Five, but some pointers after I've been through it a few times, and bear in mind what I have already written about KDT.
0. In the starting room, there are two floor-levels and the zombies can jump up from the lower level to the upper level, at predetermined locations. The centrifuge in the room takes a spin occasionally, which kills zombies at no points award to you.
1. There is no MP40 on the Ascension map, which means most wall guns will give you ~150 bullets at first, then 120 bullets each time you buy ammo when you have none sparet. Also, the tight spaces may mean that you don't get to concentrate the zombies, so you would be lucky to win back 10 points per bullet, unlike getting a higher average in KDT.
*So far, I see a strategy in taking ~2750 points by round 3, then opening the downstairs door and buying both the MPL and PM63 in the next room; these guns are on different levels, and ditching the pistol will mean 284 bullets from two small SMGs, at the end of the round you can spend 500 points to refill 120 bullets for one gun or 1000 points for both guns; sounds like a bargain in a relatively tight contest.
It is then possible to camp at the top floor of the tower, with one or two players covering the two zombie entrances near the mystery box, and two players covering the stairs up to that room. If everyone has both SMGs, that should work for a few rounds until you get enough points for the Sickle or a few goes at the Mystery Box.
2. The Sickle replaces the Bowie Knife, but works just as well and combines with the Ballistic Knife. Because of the likely average points-per-bullet in Ascension, getting the Sickle+BallisticKnife combo is much more preferable to a Thundergun or any explosives (except the M1911 upgraded). Unfortunately, because of the tight gameplay, it might be hard to get to it early enough to profit from it, unless you have a really dedicated teammate, or get the Ballistic Knife and rocket launched before Round 13.
3. You need to launch the Lunar Lander from each of the three launchpads to fuel the rocket, which you then initiate/launch - and shoot down if you can. Once the rocket is launched, the launchpad is opened up which gets you to the Pack-a-Punch machine.
*I think that this delay to getting at the PaPmachine balances out the game a bit more; too often in KDT the noobs rush to the Mystery Box, then rush to Pack a Punch as soon as they get 5000 points (then complain when you can't revive them safely). Anyhow, when I launched the rocket, I shot it down with a RayGun and ran to the the launchpad, and there I found an X2 bonus under the launchpad. Awesome.
4. Ascension has a lot of open spaces with a number of circuits/circles to walk around; it also has a few tight passageways, mostly the stairs behind the door from the bottom floor of the starting room, heading up to Juggernog, and eventually to the Power Switch.
5. It is nice that the Mystery Box always starts in the Power Switch Room.
6. Unfortunately, you need to flick the power before taking Juggernog, and there are two more doors to open before getting the Sickle. So I think my points spending plan is going to go along these lines:
Door 750 - take the downstairs door because this will open the space to the Juggernog on your way up to the power switch.
MPL 1000
PM63 1000
Door 1000
Door 1250
*Power Switch*
Door 1250
??? Sickle 3000
7. Somehow I think everyone else on the team is going to go straight for the Mystery Box; the doors from the starting room, lower level, lead to the staircase. It is a tight space, but each level has a wall-gun SMG. That means 120 to 150 bullets, which may net you 10 points per bullet in the fairly confined space, so you may get a surplus of 200-500 from bullets and the remainder from kills.
8. In solo, I used the M14. Basically it is one bullet per round after round 1 (i.e. 2 bullets in round 3) plus melee to finish, with a nasty reload time. Less bullet-hit-points than the M1911, but ammo is cheaply available off the wall.
9. I played an online multiplayer and reached round 23, without anyone doing the glitch in some corner.
10. The Space Monkeys - they attack the drinks machines, which causes you to lose your perks. I reckon this really balances the game, because in KDT it was just 9000 points to recover after being revived, while someone distracts the zombie herd for you; and the dogs rounds were typically fairly easy to manage.
11. Apparently there is a sequence of things to do to reconstruct the Cassimir mechanism (zero-point energy devices??? The integral of the electron is nonzero, which means that there is energy in a vacuum, which may be an explanation for dark energy in the cosmos). Someone posted it online somewhere, but all I remember is that it involves a number of Mystery Box items and you will need a reliable team to make an attempt at this.
0. In the starting room, there are two floor-levels and the zombies can jump up from the lower level to the upper level, at predetermined locations. The centrifuge in the room takes a spin occasionally, which kills zombies at no points award to you.
1. There is no MP40 on the Ascension map, which means most wall guns will give you ~150 bullets at first, then 120 bullets each time you buy ammo when you have none sparet. Also, the tight spaces may mean that you don't get to concentrate the zombies, so you would be lucky to win back 10 points per bullet, unlike getting a higher average in KDT.
*So far, I see a strategy in taking ~2750 points by round 3, then opening the downstairs door and buying both the MPL and PM63 in the next room; these guns are on different levels, and ditching the pistol will mean 284 bullets from two small SMGs, at the end of the round you can spend 500 points to refill 120 bullets for one gun or 1000 points for both guns; sounds like a bargain in a relatively tight contest.
It is then possible to camp at the top floor of the tower, with one or two players covering the two zombie entrances near the mystery box, and two players covering the stairs up to that room. If everyone has both SMGs, that should work for a few rounds until you get enough points for the Sickle or a few goes at the Mystery Box.
2. The Sickle replaces the Bowie Knife, but works just as well and combines with the Ballistic Knife. Because of the likely average points-per-bullet in Ascension, getting the Sickle+BallisticKnife combo is much more preferable to a Thundergun or any explosives (except the M1911 upgraded). Unfortunately, because of the tight gameplay, it might be hard to get to it early enough to profit from it, unless you have a really dedicated teammate, or get the Ballistic Knife and rocket launched before Round 13.
3. You need to launch the Lunar Lander from each of the three launchpads to fuel the rocket, which you then initiate/launch - and shoot down if you can. Once the rocket is launched, the launchpad is opened up which gets you to the Pack-a-Punch machine.
*I think that this delay to getting at the PaPmachine balances out the game a bit more; too often in KDT the noobs rush to the Mystery Box, then rush to Pack a Punch as soon as they get 5000 points (then complain when you can't revive them safely). Anyhow, when I launched the rocket, I shot it down with a RayGun and ran to the the launchpad, and there I found an X2 bonus under the launchpad. Awesome.
4. Ascension has a lot of open spaces with a number of circuits/circles to walk around; it also has a few tight passageways, mostly the stairs behind the door from the bottom floor of the starting room, heading up to Juggernog, and eventually to the Power Switch.
5. It is nice that the Mystery Box always starts in the Power Switch Room.
6. Unfortunately, you need to flick the power before taking Juggernog, and there are two more doors to open before getting the Sickle. So I think my points spending plan is going to go along these lines:
Door 750 - take the downstairs door because this will open the space to the Juggernog on your way up to the power switch.
MPL 1000
PM63 1000
Door 1000
Door 1250
*Power Switch*
??? Juggernog 2500
Door 1250Door 1250
??? Sickle 3000
7. Somehow I think everyone else on the team is going to go straight for the Mystery Box; the doors from the starting room, lower level, lead to the staircase. It is a tight space, but each level has a wall-gun SMG. That means 120 to 150 bullets, which may net you 10 points per bullet in the fairly confined space, so you may get a surplus of 200-500 from bullets and the remainder from kills.
8. In solo, I used the M14. Basically it is one bullet per round after round 1 (i.e. 2 bullets in round 3) plus melee to finish, with a nasty reload time. Less bullet-hit-points than the M1911, but ammo is cheaply available off the wall.
9. I played an online multiplayer and reached round 23, without anyone doing the glitch in some corner.
10. The Space Monkeys - they attack the drinks machines, which causes you to lose your perks. I reckon this really balances the game, because in KDT it was just 9000 points to recover after being revived, while someone distracts the zombie herd for you; and the dogs rounds were typically fairly easy to manage.
11. Apparently there is a sequence of things to do to reconstruct the Cassimir mechanism (zero-point energy devices??? The integral of the electron is nonzero, which means that there is energy in a vacuum, which may be an explanation for dark energy in the cosmos). Someone posted it online somewhere, but all I remember is that it involves a number of Mystery Box items and you will need a reliable team to make an attempt at this.
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