Urban Dead - Dining Out In Malton : A Zombie Guide

[Dog Pants]

Life as a Zombie in Malton

The undead population of Malton are an often misunderstood minority, but can be more entertaining than their living counterparts. Whether you're a feral zombie looking for your next braaaains fix, or part of a Zambah horde intent on bringing down a mighty Mall, unlife can be as fulfilling as life.

Starting out:
Starting as a zombie is harder than as a human, with the possible exception of a Consumer. When you first stumble to your feet you'll have rudimentary bite and claw skills that can deal respectable damage but are difficult to hit with. Progress will be painfully slow as every step will take 2AP, humans will be thin on the ground, you will be constantly headshotted and standing up will sap much of your valuable APs. Fear not, after a couple of levels you will be on an even par and soon you will be feared by all but the most well equipped humans.

To begin with try and stick to the heavily zombie-infested areas around Ridleybank where there's safety in numbers, and end your turns either indoors or in large groups. This will reduce the risk of having to spend 15APs standing up after being headshotted by Zombie Hunter gangs such as Axes High.

Spend your time looking for targets of opportunity - there's more than you think around Ridleybank. You're not likely to kill anyone for a long time yet, so grab as many hits on passing humans as possible to get enough XP for your first few skills. At first the bite attack will do more damage per AP than Claw, even though it has a lower hit percentage. Listen out for recent moans when you logon, as these will indicate recent attacks on humans and possibly breaches in safehouses. A lesser amount of XP can be gained by attacking other zombies, and many don't mind letting their younger comrades nibble on them for a bit of a leg up.

Lurching up the food chain
Once you've got that first 100XP you're past the hardest part. Buy the Lurching Gait skill. This allows you to move for 1AP like a human and will effectively double the APs you have at your disposal. You should find it easier to gain XP now, but it is still slower progress than humans at this stage. Don't worry, by level three or four you'll have evened the odds.

Once you have your second 100XP you have a choice. Several skills will aid in your hunt for braaains and it's pretty much personal preference as to which order you advance them.

Ankle Grab: A useful skill that allows you to stand up in 1AP rather than 10. If you keep getting killed then this is a good one as it will save countless valuable APs.

Memories of life: This skill allows you to open the doors to buildings. By no means essential, but if you've just torn down a barricade it's very frustrating to find you can't open the door you've just uncovered.

Death Grip: Adds an extra 15% to your Claw skill. This will allow you to earn XP faster, assuming you can find a target.

Rend Flesh: Adds an extra point of damage to your claw skill. As with Death Grip, will earn you XP faster once you actually hit a target.

The better zombie
Once you have all the basic skills listed above you will be starting to earn XP faster. You now have the advantage over humans because you have damaging and accurate weapons without the need to forage for supplies. You can afford to use all your APs attacking because if you die you'll simply stand up again at the cost of a few AP. This is when being a zombie becomes fun. The hard work is done and you're a formidable brain-munching machine. At this stage you can go for pretty much any skills you fancy with no major advantage to any.

The Scent Fear skill tree will help you identify weak humans so you can get that extra 10XP from killing them.

Digestion will help you stay alive, and Infectious Bite will causes humans to die faster. Both of these are somewhat of a false economy though; dying is of little trouble for a zombie, so those extra HP gained are mostly wasted APs. The damage done by infectious bite is easily remedied by humans and the damage they take doesn't translate to XP for you.

Neck Lurch is obsolete with the Claw skills, as once you have them your hands will do more damage per AP than your bite.

Tangling Grasp is very useful as it will put your claw attack up to 60% should you gain grip. This, in practice, isn't as effective as it sounds but it's a skill worth having.

Death Rattle allows a zombie to communicate in a limited manner. This will be covered in more detail later, but is essential for maintaining the spirit and is great fun if used properly.

Feeding Groan is extremely useful to other zombies, but will be of little benefit to a feral.

Brain Rot will reduce the chance of a zombie being revivicated. This can be very useful, as there's nothing more irritating and embarrassing than standing up as a human and having to either commit suicide or find some friendly zombies to return you to your undead state. Of course fun can be had talking to the humans should you be revivved.

Zombie Culture
Whatever stage of zombie evolution you are at be aware that zombies have a strong sense of comeradarie and community. While humans can be abrasive and unpleasant, a zombie will always have friends. The zombie is an anonymous being which tends to lend to making short, unspoken alliances with other zombies as you team up to destroy a barricade or raid a safehouse. Zombies will communicate with Death Rattle and often attempt to raise the morale of their less vocal peers by singing and chatting.

The Feral Zombie
Feral zombies are not affiliated to any organised zombie group and although they are likely to be wandering alone through the suburbs, they also form a large protion of any horde as they prey on the humans who poke and worry at the undead mass. A feral zombie should attack any targets of opportunity in order to gain XP, regardless of their own safety. After all, the worst that can happen is you have to spend some AP standing up and the XP gained from your meal will outweigh this hardship.

The Zambah or Zmobie
Zombies organise themselves into groups as humans do. Large groups of zombies are called hordes, and are although many are feral there is often a core of organised zombies at the centre. Zombie hordes will arrange times and places to attack safehouses in order to maximise damage and so maximise XP gain. Despite zombies being outnumbered 3:1 by humans in Malton, zombie hordes have compromised and devoured every mall in Malton except the famous Caiger Mall. Check the UD forums for more information on the various groups.

Zombie speech
Once you have Death Rattle you can start talking to the other zombies and even humans. Your vocabulary will still be limited, but with creativity you can get the point across with all the charm zombese implies. Zombie speech is limited to the characters A, B, G, H, M, N, R, Z and !. Using these letters most words can be formed. Examples of zombie speech are:

Hambargah - human
Harmanz - humans
Ram! - attack barricades
Zambah - Zombie
Har har har - Ha ha ha
Grab mah manbah Harmanz! Har Har Har! - Touch my testicles human! Ha ha ha!

A more detailed explanation of zombie speech can be found here: http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Zamgrh

[Woo Elephant Yeah]

This is one of the best guides I've ever read. Thankyou

[spoodie]

Great review, I must get Death Rattle next.

[FatherJack]

My zombie alt has yet to earn his first 100XP, but Death Rattle is certainly first on the list.

Also: The change from losing all your XP to standing up costing 10AP after being headshotted makes it much better as a zombie, too.

[cashy]

i heard one say 'harmanz gangbang bananarama' once

[Dog Pants]

Added link to zombie speech Wiki page. It's quite good.