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Surroundead is a pretty simple, low-poly zombie survival game, but it contains several mechanics that may confuse new players. In this rundown, I will try to explain the basics of Surroundead to give you a comfortable and easy start.
Difficulty settings
Before starting, you can adjust the game’s settings. Pay special attention to the “Loot Multiplayer” option. If you want to learn the basics, set this option to 5. Container refill can be enabled there as well. Thus, you will find much more supplies in the world (ammo, food, water, and so on), due to which your first survival experience in Surroundead will be easier.
The XP multiplier can be increased in the “General” tab. It affects character leveling speed. You’re recommended to maximize this setting for a better first impression.
Melee combat system
Once your character is spawned in the world, press TAB to open inventory and equip a knife. This is the simplest weapon in the game.
After that, you will see the knife on the quick-access panel. Press the 4 key to select it. To hit an enemy with the knife, you should hold the right mouse button and press the left mouse button at the same time.
Remember: the best melee weapons in Surroundead are one-handed axes, batons, and so on. One-handed weapons are much faster than two-handed weapons, and their frequent strikes prevent zombies from attacking you.
Find water, food and weapon
All these things can be found in houses. Food and water are generally found in refrigerators and house furniture.
Weapons can be found almost everywhere, including on dead zombies. If you maximize the «Loot Multiplier» setting, you will find some weapon very soon. If you find a backpack, equip it in the corresponding slot. It will significantly expand your inventory.
Tools
When opening the inventory, you may notice an additional toolbar.
- Throwable. A slot for throwable weapons like grenades. Equip and press “G” to throw.
- Binoculars. A slot for binoculars that can be found in the world. Press “B” to use.
- Flashlight. A slot for a flashlight that can be found in the world. Press “L” or use the radial menu by holding “Z” to enable.
- Compass. Just a compass.
- Tool. In this slot, you can equip either Wire Cutters or Bolt Cutters. These tools are required to crack certain container types.
- GPS. A slot for the most important tool that will allow you to use a map. You can’t use the map without it, so you should strive to find it as soon as possible.
Firearms
There are two types of firearms in the game: common and legendary. Legendary firearms are cool, but there is a big disadvantage: you can’t craft ammo for legendary guns. Such ammo can only be found in the world.
Each weapon in Surroundead uses its own ammo type and has its own magazines that must be loaded and equipped before shooting. If you have a few same type magazines, you can reload a gun by pressing “R“. But if you have only one magazine in the firearm, you should load it manually.
- Right-click on a firearm and select “Inspect“.
- Drag its magazine to the inventory.
- Make sure you have the right ammo.
- Drag ammo to the magazine to load it.
- Load the magazine back into the gun.
Now you can shoot. Hold the right mouse button to aim and shoot while pressing the left mouse button. Press the middle mouse button when aiming to use advanced sights.
Each firearm can be improved with additional modules: muzzles, sights, forends, and so on. All of these you can find in the world, especially in the radiation zones.
Money
You will find money from time to time. Collect it to use later to buy weapons and ammo from the traders. You will be able to find them after finding and equipping a GPS.
Find a car
Cars are one of the most important things in the game. Cars can be found on roads. Just run along roads, and at some point, you will find some kind of car.
- Use the Vehicle Repair Kit to repair the car. Go to the hood, press “F,” and wait for the repair. Vehicle repair kits can be found in various containers around the world. They can also be made with a crafting bench.
- Use the Gas Can to refuel the vehicle. Go to the gas tank, press “F“, and wait for refueling. Gas cans can be found all over the world, particularly in gas stations along roads.
Transport in Surroundead is very useful due to roomy item storage. Each car has a trunk where you can store your stuff. Go to the back of the car and press “F” to open it.
In addition, you can crush zombies with a car. Although the car will lose its durability from any impact, you will be able to crush a few dozen zombies until it breaks.
This is very useful when you have no good weapon to clear an area filled with zombies. Just crush them down! And then, you will be able to easily loot the crates.
Medications
Wandering around the world, you will find various pills and medications. They can be used to prevent the character from dying from radiation and restore their HP.
But the simplest way to regenerate HP is to craft bandages. Press TAB and go to the “Crafting” tab. Select “Bandage” and craft it. Resources for crafting bandages can be found everywhere in the world.
Then, you can drag bandages to the quick-access slot and use them by pressing the corresponding button.
Map and traders
Once you find GPS, you can open the map by pressing “M“. There are a few safe zones and traders in the world. Using the map, you will easily find them. At these points, you can buy equipment, tools, weapons, food, water, ammo, and so on.
But you shouldn’t rely on traders as sources of consumables. Most of the time, their offers are quite poor.
How to survive at night
Nights in Surroundead are not dangerous. Night lighting is just a bit darker, and that’s all. Despite this fact, it is recommended that you not raid points of interest at night, especially if you don’t have a flashlight.
Make a camp somewhere and wait for the morning. For example, you can wait out the night in a trader’s camp or a safe zone.
You can also create (or find in the world) a sleeping bag. This item will allow you to skip the night immediately. In order to craft a sleeping bag, you should first craft a crafting bench. I’ve already explained how to gather basic resources (scrap metal, wood, and stone) in Surroundead, so please read that post. As for the nails that are required for crafting as well, they can be found in crates around the world.
Pay attention to the fact that each trader’s camp and safe zone has a crafting bench that can be used for free. So all you need to do is find 2 cloth and 2 tape in the world, then go to any trader and craft a sleeping bag.
When you have a sleeping bag, right-click on it in the inventory and press “Place” to place it on the ground. Press “F” to interact, and then press “Sleep” to skip the night.
In the morning, hold “X” to pick up the sleeping bag and put it back in the inventory.
Infestation
The best way to quickly obtain good equipment in Surroundead is by destroying infestations. An infestation is a group of bones that emits red smoke, and they can be found throughout the world.
In most cases, there are many zombies around infestation points, so you need to kill them first. Once you have cleared the area, you can destroy the infestation by shooting, hitting, exploding, or burning it. After that, you can interact with the destroyed infestation point and find many useful things, including weapons, tools, and ammo.
Destroying infestation points is definitely the best way to get better equipment in the very beginning.
Skills and Perks
I’ve already written the guide to skills and perks in Surroundead, so you’re recommended to get acquainted with it. Each new level your character reaches will give you 1 extra skill point. Press “J” and go to “Skills” to spend it.
There are also perks in the game that can be leveled up by doing corresponding activities, such as running and jumping to improve the “Fitness” skill. You can learn how to level up all these perks by reading a separate guide at the link above.
Radiation
While exploring the map, you may notice radioactive zones.
To explore such zones as well as infestation points, you need to have a respirator, as shown in the picture below. There are a few types of respirators in the game, and they can be randomly found in the world. The difference between them lies in radiation protection. The best one gives 99% protection from radiation, but actually even 85% will be enough.
At the lower left corner of the screen, above the health bar, you can see the radiation indicator. When radiation affects the character, the indicator value decreases. After reaching 0, the character will suffer serious damage from radiation and, eventually, die.
Radiation pills, which can be found all over the world, are used to restore radiation protection.
So before raiding radioactive zones, you should find a respirator and a few packs of radiation pills.
Bandit Camps
If you want to obtain a lot of firearms and ammo quickly, you should raid bandit camps. Bandit camps are pretty easy to find because there are always campfires there. After climbing up any hill, you will immediately see pillars of smoke rising above the trees, indicating the location of the camp.
Before starting the raid, make sure you have enough ammo to take down 5-6 armed bandits. It is best to use a rifle with a sniper scope, especially if you have a silencer for it. Keep a long distance from the bandit camp and shoot the marauders with your rifle.
After killing enemies, you will be able to loot crates inside the camp. There, a lot of weapons (including legendary ones) and ammo can be found.
It may also be a helicopter. In this case, there won’t be any armed men, but a lot of zombies. After killing them, you will get access to a few crates with guns, medicines, and other supplies.
Raiding radioactive zones
Radioactive zones in Surroundead are late-game content. Having enough firearms and ammo, you can set out to one of them. There, you will find even more guns and supplies, but the main thing we’re hunting are keycards. Such cards will grant you access to closed zones like Creek Prison. You will find horrible bosses inside.
You can even meet bosses outside of these structures. For example, the bosses of the Airfield and FOB Bravo / Bunker are accessible without keycards. If you kill and loot them, you will almost always find keycards.
Having a keycard, find the corresponding building (bunker / prison / others) and open the door. Be ready to fight, because you will face a horde of undead and a few bosses.
The fight will be hard, but when you win, you will be able to find everything inside the crates: medicines, food, ammo, legendary weapons, tools, and much more.
If you want to build your own base, please read the guide to base building. As for this one, that’s almost all the content in the game. In Surroundead, you will survive, raid bandit camps and points of interest, build a base, and hunt for legendary weapons in radioactive zones. If you have extra information about the game, you can write a comment below. Thank you for reading, and happy survival!