Residents live in your Shelter and perform several functions.
- First of all, Residents allow you to build new facilities (Forge, Kitchen, etc.) and upgrade them.
- You can form a party with one of your Residents. He will follow you and help in combat. The higher the level of the Resident, the better weapons and armor he can equip. High-level Residents deal a lot of damage to mobs, so they are very useful, especially for players on mobile devices.
- Also, Residents provide you with extra resources when you assign them to Explorations.
- Starting Residents (e.g., Oliver Rance) give you daily quests (e.g., “Bielly Airfield”).
Video Guide
How to Get Residents
- Your first two Residents (Oliver Rance and Jimmi Hancock) you will get for free in the early stages of the game.
- More Residents can be bought in the Shop (F7) → Recruitment for Milla (golden) coins or Trinity Coins.
- Top Residents are available for donations. For example, by buying the Community Pass (Season 1), you can get Fake Champion Luna with a nice girl outfit, which is linked to the Resident.
How to Level Up Residents
There are two ways to level up Residents in Darkest Days.
- Combat Manuals. Go to Esc → Residents, select a Resident and press “Level Up.”
After that, use Combat Manuals to provide the Resident with XP. Every five levels, you have to perform a “Breakthrough” using various resources that can be found by searching crates or killing zombies (e.g., Zombie Fragment). - Exploration. Residents receive XP passively on their own when assigned to Exploration, but you will still have to perform a “Breakthrough” manually.
How to Get Combat Manuals
Combat Manuals have several grades of quality and can be obtained in various ways.
- Combat Manuals can be found in crates when clearing Unsafe Areas (houses on the map).
- You can buy 1 Normal Combat Manual (1000 XP) for 2000 Milla coins daily and 5 Normal Combat Manuals for 10,000 Milla coins weekly in the Shop (F7) → Consumables.
- In addition, Normal Combat Manuals are available in the Shop (F7) → Consumables tab for Red Diamonds (this is a donation currency, but it can be earned in a free-to-play way).
- Sometimes you can buy Combat Manuals from Merchants in the Communities. My observations show that the higher the Friendship level with the Community, the more often valuable items (including Combat Manuals) will show up at the Merchants.
Explorations
Exploration is available in the Shelter → Facility → Exploration Storage → Resident Exploration. You can assign any of your Residents to explore the Sand Creek regions, but each of the regions requires a certain level of the Resident. Exploration might take 4, 8, 12, or 20 hours, depending on your choice. After that, you can claim the rewards.
Every region has its own pool of resources that can be found, so your Residents will bring random items from the list. In addition, they will earn XP, so you can save your Combat Manuals for your best NPC companion.
When Residents are assigned to explorations, they are still available, and you can form a group with any of them. However, you won’t be able to use a vehicle that is assigned for exploration.
How to Form a Party
The most useful function of Residents is that you can take one of them with you in combat. To do this, talk to a Resident and choose “Form Party” in the dialog. After this, the NPC will follow you and help in combat.
Initially, your Residents are very weak because their level is low, and they can’t equip higher-level weapons. The difference in levels significantly affects your combat performance in Darkest Days. That’s why you should level up your Residents as much as possible and provide them with a good weapon of the corresponding level.
I recommend choosing an automatic weapon with a low reloading time for your Residents. With such guns, they will provide a continuous barrage of fire, which not only deals damage but also slows zombies down.
Also, don’t forget to supply your Resident companion with good equipment (Hat, Top, Pants, Bag), and always have a Defibrillator with you (better to store it in the trunk of a car). This item can be bought from Merchants, and it allows you to revive your companion when he’s in a coma.
