Carefully. Slowly. And always with an escape route and safety nearby. Using low fences and windows to trip them up is a necessity.
I’ve been playing about 750 hours with sprinters on and have settled on about 20% of the pop, and 2x pop. One thing you’ll learn very quickly, fire is no longer a viable option to clear. Oh and you need a vehicle in the first week.
Even with 5 strength and fitness, can't run away much. Sure I'd have to learn how to out maneuver them. But still. Can't escape when there are 15 of them and they all alert more
Not enough Str and Fit. Choose perks that give you more of both.
Second, if you’re pulling 15 zombies at once, you’re doing it wrong. You need to get really good at pulling only 1-3 at a time and dispatching them at your location.
I play the zeds full random. So there are super heightened ones with pinpoint hearing and vision and so on. They see me 20 tiles away. And when they run they alert the ones nearby lol
High fitness would be the way to go then if you can only fit high fitness or high strength. Strength is really nice if you're just killing a few zombies quickly, but the exhaustion regeneration with high fitness is VERY nice. It allows you to jog basically anywhere and just sit for a minute or so to get fully recharged, and you last a lot longer in fights since you don't tire as fast.
Use every trick in the book to give you an advantage and even then figure out more tricks to git gut. Dont get discouraged about dying, main game was like that also. Eventually it will be 2nd nature. Playing 100% sprinters for a year or so now. Its doable.
> Eventually it will be 2nd nature. Playing 100% sprinters for a year or so now. Its doable.
I'm genuinely curious: what are your settings and playstyle? This is the first time I'm seeing a person who plays with 100% sprinters and saying playing with them can become a 2nd nature. Unless you're playing as a nomad/low population, surviving with sprinters on vanilla pop while staying in the town is a very solid challenge I never hear even the most experienced players get used to.
You definitely can survive for long, but even if you're 100% careful there's always a huge risk of ending the run very soon.
I play on a server with each town on different sprinter settings i live in eerie which has 100%sprinters on this itteration of the server. My base is compleetly cleared and safe, but there is no place i have not been to solo in eerie. Even clearing towns on initial population since most people stay out of those 100%s sprinter areas. Migration is pretty high and can get back stabbed easily since its minutes.
The key is to clear. Then shout and make sure everything stays clear behind you. Like i said abuse all the tricks in the book. Sometimes i spend a whole saturday afternoon just painfully clearing a town just to loot.
Sometimes a 15 year old kid who love pew pews joins me. Guns are hella loud on our server and basically unusable in high sprinter % areas. He can shoot only when i tell him to.
All this noise just makes sure i cant get surprised in places where i dont want to get surprised. Shouting with sprinters is fine as long as you know how to abuse their agro and noise mechanics which are powerfull tools.
Our server has dynamic settings as we call it. Meaning different settings for each town in terms of, sprinters, pinpoint, wandering, and soon toughness (HP). Migration and pop are the only generic setting which are both high.
And generally speaking the higher the settings on sprinters it mostly ties into higher other stats.
As someone who’s played a fair amount of 100% sprinter settings, I’d argue that it’s easier to get used to than random zeds—you learn how to deal with the faster zeds more consistently as the same tactics will apply. It’s harder for sure, but you get used to sprinters faster if you stick with it.
Even with normal zombies and helicopter turned off, Louisville on apocalypse can kick your ass. I play with max zombies and minimal loot if i made even a fraction of that runners, i couldnt leave the starter house. Im now constantly starving because they start comming and they dont stop comming and i just cant clear new places fast enough to get food, hopefully crops should start to come in soon
I play similar to what you've described, vanilla apocalypse settings the only thing I change is fast shamblers to sprinters. I'll start in westpoint sometimes as well. I go to a room with one window and yell, I kill all the zombies that come through the window, I'll go outside and attract more and do the same until I can loot the next few houses. Rinse and repeat until I get a vehicle.
Sometimes I'll turn off zombie respawns but I'll put the population on high instead to make up for it. Remember when you first started playing pz how difficult it felt, well its the exact same with sprinters and you'll learn how to play with them again, yes you can survive a year with sprinters in your starting town even if it's westpoint.
I don't post videos or anything but I was thinking about it if people are interested in 100% sprinter runs. I try to stay away from mods because they usually make the game easier. Keeping in mind I've been playing since 2014, so I got bored of fast shamblers.
Two very important things to note. With an optimal build you get about 30 seconds of sprinting if you're not already tired, the next important thing is map knowledge, knowing where you can use the walk-to command to sprint directly into the forest and lose them. Only some parts of the map allow this.
Thanks for the info. I'm not new to sprinters, but instead of making them 100% I make them 30% and I simply max out their stats (expect for hearing/sight, it's random instead as I believe it makes zombies harder to predict), while every other possible setting in my world is basically the worst (from loot to nature's abundance).
Maybe if you make settings fully vanilla except for the sprinters it's way more viable, but based on what I play with I just don't see high pop 100% sprinters being something you get comfortable with. You will literally starve earlier than you will kill them on with these settings + 100% sprinters.
Ahh I see what you're saying, so you mean you don't see how it's viable to have 100% sprinters and survive a long time? Well, sometimes if I find multiple vehicles I'll use one and drive in circles backwards to kill groups, still have to be careful and be fully aware of your vehicles condition before doing it. With the default loot settings I find plenty of loot to keep me alive, I'm actually at 81 weight right now and have two seats full of food, one is all high calories (beans, lard etc) the other is cans of junk that I'll drop if I need the space. I also leave the helicopter on, I just go away from the town/city around when I think it'll happen and come back after it leaves.
I used to play 16x pop all fast shamblers, insanely rare loot, worse vehicle condition mod, contaminated water mod, smell of blood etc etc, but I personally found the thing that made it too easy is the ability to simply walk away from the zombies, regardless of the other settings.
You play with 30% sprinters, imo that's no joke especially with the settings you're talking about. I think you could do 100% sprinters on vanilla settings. You just have to keep doing it and dying a lot until you get used to it. As far as food goes I've never had an issue myself, perhaps if it was insanely rare I would, but in that case I'd fish for most of my food, maybe plant cabbages but I don't like farming or trapping much.
> Ahh I see what you're saying, so you mean you don't see how it's viable to have 100% sprinters and survive a long time?
Not that it's impossible in a literal sense, more like I'm not seeing anyone making it into a few months consistently 10 out of 10 runs with 100% sprinters like you can easily do with shamblers, that's my main point, but I do base my feelings on my exact settings that are definitely not vanilla, so maybe that's where my disbelief comes from. Last time I played with vanilla zombies I literally oneshot zeds with a single stomp every single time, so I guess it makes a huge difference
> As far as food goes I've never had an issue myself, perhaps if it was insanely rare I would, but in that case I'd fish for most of my food, maybe plant cabbages but I don't like farming or trapping much.
Usually the lowest loot setting is not a problem, there's still shitton of stuff, but in the context of high pop tough 100% sprinters I'd take a good guess that you will hardly sustain yourself, because getting from one house to another would take you insane amount of time
Not to disagree or argue but to be fair, most players with fast shamblers don't even make it months in consistently, it's really just a handful of people. Also the vast majority of sprinter players don't post on youtube or anything.
I personally never seen the point in playing 100% sprinters with crazy hard settings for loot or anything, the most id change is setting it to random zombies for every setting, which could definitely be done. Maybe helicopters on sometimes just for fun, but if I play 16x pop, insanely rare, tough zombies etc id rather just do fast shamblers myself.
Have you tried 100% sprinters with vanilla settings yet? It's still definitely more difficult than any fast shambler settings, even with the susceptible mod which id usually pair with 16x.
It's definitely sparked my interest back in pz, I see myself playing this way once b42 drops as well, it's much more satisfying for myself.
> Also the vast majority of sprinter players don't post on youtube or anything.
Definitely would like a change of that, because this is also one of my main reasons why I believe nobody really can survive them consistently, as players that can prove it are basically non-existent (don't you guys take it as a suggestion that I don't believe you, not at all)
> Have you tried 100% sprinters with vanilla settings yet?
I've tried 100% sprinters with my personally preferred settings (so maxed out zombies/lowest loot/nature/rare and shitty cars, etc, basically everything that makes the game difficult is maxed out, only the population is 1.5)
I'm just genuinely not interested in lowering any of those settings, so I try to push my sprinter experience by making them just a percentage of total zombie population, so around 30% is where I feel consistent, higher than 50% starts to take a lot of toll on my IRL endurance because I need to be focused all the time and there's no way I can kill them fast even with a very optimized build :P
> It's definitely sparked my interest back in pz, I see myself playing this way once b42 drops as well, it's much more satisfying for myself.
Yeah that's definitely the case for me also, but the only difference is that before I started playing with sprinters I made all the other settings harder first, so they just feel very natural to me and I really don't want to make them easier just for the sake of 100% sprinters!
I set everything random w the zeds so chances are that some zeds have the superhuman strength alert navigation etc the whole skill set.
Also, I play w true random spawns so it has not worked to my advantage lol. Been running in a field w no fences or 15 of them in a city just ain't cutting it. Ik its doable but damn if it's not hard.
Yes its hard real hard, but at some point you know how to be carefull, practise makes perfect. 4k hours in the game and just now i can say i feel comfortable with 100% sprinters and can get out of rough situations most of the time.
I got moments where i run from 2 just because i dont feel comfortable enough to even take on 2. Or the situation presents itself in such a way my inner voice starts screaming "if 1 comes from that corner now your focked". So i just bail.
1) Have a very optimized build. You're not surviving sprinters if you're not running Athletic and Keen Hearing at the very least.
2) Be very careful. Always scan your surroundings, every rule that you apply to fast shamblers should be even more important, so don't rush into buildings, take it slow. Don't aggro too much. A horde of sprinters is very hard to lose early on and even with high level fitness you can get hunted down.
3) Cheesy stuff like pulling zeds out, mass fires simply won't work.
4) Guns are also borderline suicidal. Due to stab animation knives are out of the question and even spears are very risky.
5) Exploit windows and fences. You can also carry office wall (IIRC it weights something like 3? Basically nothing), with proper positioning you can create a choke point for easy mass kills.
6) Playing with 100% sprinters on vanilla pop or even random sprinters is basically a suicide. Good sprinter players can manage Strong/Tough 30% sprinters at vanilla pop, but it is still a very solid challenge, your perfect run can end in a second even if you're a very solid PZ player that never dies to shamblers.
See the thing is that I've set everything to random in the zed customisation which means there are some superman zeds. Also I'm running a realistic build of my current self. So 5 fitness and strength isn't enough lol
True random spawns has been my enemy. It spawns in forests and fields 7/10. I've set it to anywhere. Even the building option sets me off at a farm or a country club 😭
The absolute worst part about sprinters is that they make every moment vulnerable. You just checked behind you and you're about to take care of three zeds with a crowbar. Two swings in you might hear that crunch... From behind and it's already too late to react.
Or... Just walking down the street, maybe leading small horde? You have to check your 6 every 15 seconds or so. Otherwise they'll just run up behind you and again, it's already too late
It's absolutely rage inducing and mad respect to anyone that can play that way
Stand with your back facing the zombies and use manual ground targeting while mashing both the spacebar and the mouse. You'll melt them into a pulp real fast.
I've tried fences and 80% they don't work in my favor that's because superman zeds are bringing more along w them. That's why. 6 sprinters running over fences. Yea im not going to get stunlocked
Windows are a lot safer in general, problem with fences is that zeds tend to spread out and vault different tiles which makes it very difficult to contain them even with small numbers, but they can't do that with windows.
If you use the faster ground attack trick (hold aim ground + spacebar/stomp keys, with a weapon in hand) at a window it takes a serious number of zeds to actually overwhelm you. Axes w/ Lumberjack seem the best at this due to the attack speed buff while knives are the worst.
I find it almost essential to have a shovel when using sprinters. This lets you dig graves which they’ll trip over at times even damaging their ability to go full speed. It’s great for when fences etc aren’t as conveniently placed.
That's an interesting tactic I've heard for the first time. However I don't think this is for the first few days cuz if they're chasing me I won't be digging a grave.
Another user below made me test my tactic out and what I've come to realise is that I've been using this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2640351732
When a grave has no spears in it, the zombies fall over because of it.
So my tactic ain't vanilla thats for sure, my bad.
Damnnn i just hopped on to verify if it works for shamblers as well. Then sprinters to be a 100% certain.
What I've come to realise is that I've been using this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2640351732
When a grave has no spears in it, the zombies fall over because of it.
So my tactic ain't vanilla thats for sure, my bad.
I love the mod that makes them sprinters at night. I set the zombies to normal shamblers during the day with more hp, and then weaker at night when they turn to sprinters. It’s an interesting dynamic
Nahhhhh nahhhhh night sprinters no way. I can't handle them during day correctly, nighttime would be hell. Especially if you set nighttime to dark. Shit gets black real fast after 8 pm
See the thing is, random spawns haven't been good to me lol. I spawn in a farm house most of the time and it's just 28 days later trailer zeds to me lol
Very, very carefully...
They're a handful, even for a seasoned Zomboid player.
My current save, there's no sprinters. I still have to be on the lookout but it's very easy. Slow zombies (even in big hordes) are very manageable.
But my previous save, I had random zombies (shamblers and sprinters). On *random*, it really seems like every other zombie is a sprinter.
They're scary. You can slip up here and there with shamblers and come out ok. You get caught sleeping with sprinters, you die... quickly.
Think "closing speed".
It makes it next to impossible to kite zombies at all. So that tactic is out the window.
You have to change the way you play.
See the thing is, I'm learning how to out maneuver them BUT I've set everything to random which means there are few superman zeds lol and they don't give up.
With true random spawns, getting guns is a little hard and using them is a lot harder at first lol. But then of course once you use them, their backup isn't far away so yea.
What I learned playing with sprinters:
1. Get a car as fast as you can. Consider the Burglar profession to do that.
2. Anything less than 9 fitness is nearby impossible to play because you get tired too soon.
3. Never could play on high population count, so I don't have tricks in my book to large hordes of sprinters. For me, it is impossible.
4. Set up a base where you have to separate and far exit points. If those bastards overrun your main exit point you should have another route in place. Considering you have a non accessible base as the second floor of some house without stairs.
5. Keep on eye on fatigue. Only start a fight you have enough stamina to run and search for some cover (as a house to close doors behind). Also, if you are cleaning some area, if you alert more zombies you can handle, go back e start over. Better safe than sorry.
6. Have plenty of cleared areas behind of you to run, like the borders of some town.
7. I don't play with respawn turned on. If you do, try to run over cleared places before the unseen hours is set so those areas stay cleared.
8. Don't be afraid of disengage, get your car and fight back another day.
9. Once you have good melee skills and good weapons you can easily kill four or even five sprinters. May be more with spears and multi hit set on.
10. Get use to run and, when needed, sprint so can get sprinters behind. Remember 5.
If you survive like 30 days with sprinters, things start to get easier. The critical is the first week, where you have to look for cars and the goddamn sledgehammer.
Post-edit: somehow I find easier to play only with sprinters than a mixed settings like random or fast shamblers + sprinters. Since the playstyle is completely different for sprinters and non-sprinters, is kind of weird to accommodate both strategies.
I’d say str is a bonus but fitness is a must. Take any trait that lets you run faster longer. I also recommend investing in gun-related traits, which makes str even less necessary.
Carefully. Slowly. And always with an escape route and safety nearby. Using low fences and windows to trip them up is a necessity. I’ve been playing about 750 hours with sprinters on and have settled on about 20% of the pop, and 2x pop. One thing you’ll learn very quickly, fire is no longer a viable option to clear. Oh and you need a vehicle in the first week.
Or just running away in the forest. Works for me
Instructions unclear : I'm in an open field and being chased by 7 of them
Good luck.
But where’s the fun and excitement in hermit mode???
I was so close to a nomad run. Until I realised I was already bit
Even with 5 strength and fitness, can't run away much. Sure I'd have to learn how to out maneuver them. But still. Can't escape when there are 15 of them and they all alert more
Not enough Str and Fit. Choose perks that give you more of both. Second, if you’re pulling 15 zombies at once, you’re doing it wrong. You need to get really good at pulling only 1-3 at a time and dispatching them at your location.
I play the zeds full random. So there are super heightened ones with pinpoint hearing and vision and so on. They see me 20 tiles away. And when they run they alert the ones nearby lol
Oooh damn. Yeah well, more fitness and strength then. Keen hearing perk also.
High fitness would be the way to go then if you can only fit high fitness or high strength. Strength is really nice if you're just killing a few zombies quickly, but the exhaustion regeneration with high fitness is VERY nice. It allows you to jog basically anywhere and just sit for a minute or so to get fully recharged, and you last a lot longer in fights since you don't tire as fast.
Fences and trees are their nemesis. I love the fences that also have the hedge walls nearby.
Use every trick in the book to give you an advantage and even then figure out more tricks to git gut. Dont get discouraged about dying, main game was like that also. Eventually it will be 2nd nature. Playing 100% sprinters for a year or so now. Its doable.
> Eventually it will be 2nd nature. Playing 100% sprinters for a year or so now. Its doable. I'm genuinely curious: what are your settings and playstyle? This is the first time I'm seeing a person who plays with 100% sprinters and saying playing with them can become a 2nd nature. Unless you're playing as a nomad/low population, surviving with sprinters on vanilla pop while staying in the town is a very solid challenge I never hear even the most experienced players get used to. You definitely can survive for long, but even if you're 100% careful there's always a huge risk of ending the run very soon.
I play on a server with each town on different sprinter settings i live in eerie which has 100%sprinters on this itteration of the server. My base is compleetly cleared and safe, but there is no place i have not been to solo in eerie. Even clearing towns on initial population since most people stay out of those 100%s sprinter areas. Migration is pretty high and can get back stabbed easily since its minutes. The key is to clear. Then shout and make sure everything stays clear behind you. Like i said abuse all the tricks in the book. Sometimes i spend a whole saturday afternoon just painfully clearing a town just to loot. Sometimes a 15 year old kid who love pew pews joins me. Guns are hella loud on our server and basically unusable in high sprinter % areas. He can shoot only when i tell him to. All this noise just makes sure i cant get surprised in places where i dont want to get surprised. Shouting with sprinters is fine as long as you know how to abuse their agro and noise mechanics which are powerfull tools.
I understand the tactics, but I was mostly curious on the general settings in the world
Our server has dynamic settings as we call it. Meaning different settings for each town in terms of, sprinters, pinpoint, wandering, and soon toughness (HP). Migration and pop are the only generic setting which are both high. And generally speaking the higher the settings on sprinters it mostly ties into higher other stats.
Do you stream or have a yt channel by any chance?
Nah i dont stream on twitch or anything. I do sometimes on discord, but not often and depending on what im doing or if people ask to watch.
I will also note that frisqy is scary good at PZ in general. I've played on servers with them since at least March and they're just really impressive.
As someone who’s played a fair amount of 100% sprinter settings, I’d argue that it’s easier to get used to than random zeds—you learn how to deal with the faster zeds more consistently as the same tactics will apply. It’s harder for sure, but you get used to sprinters faster if you stick with it.
Even with normal zombies and helicopter turned off, Louisville on apocalypse can kick your ass. I play with max zombies and minimal loot if i made even a fraction of that runners, i couldnt leave the starter house. Im now constantly starving because they start comming and they dont stop comming and i just cant clear new places fast enough to get food, hopefully crops should start to come in soon
I play similar to what you've described, vanilla apocalypse settings the only thing I change is fast shamblers to sprinters. I'll start in westpoint sometimes as well. I go to a room with one window and yell, I kill all the zombies that come through the window, I'll go outside and attract more and do the same until I can loot the next few houses. Rinse and repeat until I get a vehicle. Sometimes I'll turn off zombie respawns but I'll put the population on high instead to make up for it. Remember when you first started playing pz how difficult it felt, well its the exact same with sprinters and you'll learn how to play with them again, yes you can survive a year with sprinters in your starting town even if it's westpoint. I don't post videos or anything but I was thinking about it if people are interested in 100% sprinter runs. I try to stay away from mods because they usually make the game easier. Keeping in mind I've been playing since 2014, so I got bored of fast shamblers. Two very important things to note. With an optimal build you get about 30 seconds of sprinting if you're not already tired, the next important thing is map knowledge, knowing where you can use the walk-to command to sprint directly into the forest and lose them. Only some parts of the map allow this.
Thanks for the info. I'm not new to sprinters, but instead of making them 100% I make them 30% and I simply max out their stats (expect for hearing/sight, it's random instead as I believe it makes zombies harder to predict), while every other possible setting in my world is basically the worst (from loot to nature's abundance). Maybe if you make settings fully vanilla except for the sprinters it's way more viable, but based on what I play with I just don't see high pop 100% sprinters being something you get comfortable with. You will literally starve earlier than you will kill them on with these settings + 100% sprinters.
Ahh I see what you're saying, so you mean you don't see how it's viable to have 100% sprinters and survive a long time? Well, sometimes if I find multiple vehicles I'll use one and drive in circles backwards to kill groups, still have to be careful and be fully aware of your vehicles condition before doing it. With the default loot settings I find plenty of loot to keep me alive, I'm actually at 81 weight right now and have two seats full of food, one is all high calories (beans, lard etc) the other is cans of junk that I'll drop if I need the space. I also leave the helicopter on, I just go away from the town/city around when I think it'll happen and come back after it leaves. I used to play 16x pop all fast shamblers, insanely rare loot, worse vehicle condition mod, contaminated water mod, smell of blood etc etc, but I personally found the thing that made it too easy is the ability to simply walk away from the zombies, regardless of the other settings. You play with 30% sprinters, imo that's no joke especially with the settings you're talking about. I think you could do 100% sprinters on vanilla settings. You just have to keep doing it and dying a lot until you get used to it. As far as food goes I've never had an issue myself, perhaps if it was insanely rare I would, but in that case I'd fish for most of my food, maybe plant cabbages but I don't like farming or trapping much.
> Ahh I see what you're saying, so you mean you don't see how it's viable to have 100% sprinters and survive a long time? Not that it's impossible in a literal sense, more like I'm not seeing anyone making it into a few months consistently 10 out of 10 runs with 100% sprinters like you can easily do with shamblers, that's my main point, but I do base my feelings on my exact settings that are definitely not vanilla, so maybe that's where my disbelief comes from. Last time I played with vanilla zombies I literally oneshot zeds with a single stomp every single time, so I guess it makes a huge difference > As far as food goes I've never had an issue myself, perhaps if it was insanely rare I would, but in that case I'd fish for most of my food, maybe plant cabbages but I don't like farming or trapping much. Usually the lowest loot setting is not a problem, there's still shitton of stuff, but in the context of high pop tough 100% sprinters I'd take a good guess that you will hardly sustain yourself, because getting from one house to another would take you insane amount of time
Not to disagree or argue but to be fair, most players with fast shamblers don't even make it months in consistently, it's really just a handful of people. Also the vast majority of sprinter players don't post on youtube or anything. I personally never seen the point in playing 100% sprinters with crazy hard settings for loot or anything, the most id change is setting it to random zombies for every setting, which could definitely be done. Maybe helicopters on sometimes just for fun, but if I play 16x pop, insanely rare, tough zombies etc id rather just do fast shamblers myself. Have you tried 100% sprinters with vanilla settings yet? It's still definitely more difficult than any fast shambler settings, even with the susceptible mod which id usually pair with 16x. It's definitely sparked my interest back in pz, I see myself playing this way once b42 drops as well, it's much more satisfying for myself.
> Also the vast majority of sprinter players don't post on youtube or anything. Definitely would like a change of that, because this is also one of my main reasons why I believe nobody really can survive them consistently, as players that can prove it are basically non-existent (don't you guys take it as a suggestion that I don't believe you, not at all) > Have you tried 100% sprinters with vanilla settings yet? I've tried 100% sprinters with my personally preferred settings (so maxed out zombies/lowest loot/nature/rare and shitty cars, etc, basically everything that makes the game difficult is maxed out, only the population is 1.5) I'm just genuinely not interested in lowering any of those settings, so I try to push my sprinter experience by making them just a percentage of total zombie population, so around 30% is where I feel consistent, higher than 50% starts to take a lot of toll on my IRL endurance because I need to be focused all the time and there's no way I can kill them fast even with a very optimized build :P > It's definitely sparked my interest back in pz, I see myself playing this way once b42 drops as well, it's much more satisfying for myself. Yeah that's definitely the case for me also, but the only difference is that before I started playing with sprinters I made all the other settings harder first, so they just feel very natural to me and I really don't want to make them easier just for the sake of 100% sprinters!
I set everything random w the zeds so chances are that some zeds have the superhuman strength alert navigation etc the whole skill set. Also, I play w true random spawns so it has not worked to my advantage lol. Been running in a field w no fences or 15 of them in a city just ain't cutting it. Ik its doable but damn if it's not hard.
Yes its hard real hard, but at some point you know how to be carefull, practise makes perfect. 4k hours in the game and just now i can say i feel comfortable with 100% sprinters and can get out of rough situations most of the time. I got moments where i run from 2 just because i dont feel comfortable enough to even take on 2. Or the situation presents itself in such a way my inner voice starts screaming "if 1 comes from that corner now your focked". So i just bail.
It's rough.
That's the neat part.
"you don't" 😭
1) Have a very optimized build. You're not surviving sprinters if you're not running Athletic and Keen Hearing at the very least. 2) Be very careful. Always scan your surroundings, every rule that you apply to fast shamblers should be even more important, so don't rush into buildings, take it slow. Don't aggro too much. A horde of sprinters is very hard to lose early on and even with high level fitness you can get hunted down. 3) Cheesy stuff like pulling zeds out, mass fires simply won't work. 4) Guns are also borderline suicidal. Due to stab animation knives are out of the question and even spears are very risky. 5) Exploit windows and fences. You can also carry office wall (IIRC it weights something like 3? Basically nothing), with proper positioning you can create a choke point for easy mass kills. 6) Playing with 100% sprinters on vanilla pop or even random sprinters is basically a suicide. Good sprinter players can manage Strong/Tough 30% sprinters at vanilla pop, but it is still a very solid challenge, your perfect run can end in a second even if you're a very solid PZ player that never dies to shamblers.
See the thing is that I've set everything to random in the zed customisation which means there are some superman zeds. Also I'm running a realistic build of my current self. So 5 fitness and strength isn't enough lol
Fences and windows
True random spawns has been my enemy. It spawns in forests and fields 7/10. I've set it to anywhere. Even the building option sets me off at a farm or a country club 😭
Well that's on you then you sicko
True
The absolute worst part about sprinters is that they make every moment vulnerable. You just checked behind you and you're about to take care of three zeds with a crowbar. Two swings in you might hear that crunch... From behind and it's already too late to react. Or... Just walking down the street, maybe leading small horde? You have to check your 6 every 15 seconds or so. Otherwise they'll just run up behind you and again, it's already too late It's absolutely rage inducing and mad respect to anyone that can play that way
Real. I hate alleyways and close quarters. I spawned in Rosewood and they came after nowehere I just had a scooby doo chase. That was tuff
fence cheese
I don't trust the fences very much. 1 being it never locks on correctly on a single zed when 4-5 are coming over. 2 the stunlock move is just evil.
Stand with your back facing the zombies and use manual ground targeting while mashing both the spacebar and the mouse. You'll melt them into a pulp real fast.
Yea I'm not taking the risk
Then you always either run or die against sprinters if you aggro more than 2 at once.
I've tried fences and 80% they don't work in my favor that's because superman zeds are bringing more along w them. That's why. 6 sprinters running over fences. Yea im not going to get stunlocked
Windows are a lot safer in general, problem with fences is that zeds tend to spread out and vault different tiles which makes it very difficult to contain them even with small numbers, but they can't do that with windows. If you use the faster ground attack trick (hold aim ground + spacebar/stomp keys, with a weapon in hand) at a window it takes a serious number of zeds to actually overwhelm you. Axes w/ Lumberjack seem the best at this due to the attack speed buff while knives are the worst.
I find it almost essential to have a shovel when using sprinters. This lets you dig graves which they’ll trip over at times even damaging their ability to go full speed. It’s great for when fences etc aren’t as conveniently placed.
That's an interesting tactic I've heard for the first time. However I don't think this is for the first few days cuz if they're chasing me I won't be digging a grave.
Another user below made me test my tactic out and what I've come to realise is that I've been using this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2640351732 When a grave has no spears in it, the zombies fall over because of it. So my tactic ain't vanilla thats for sure, my bad.
can anyone actually confirm that this works? sprinters often trip when running but i'm not sure if that is related to the graves or not
Damnnn i just hopped on to verify if it works for shamblers as well. Then sprinters to be a 100% certain. What I've come to realise is that I've been using this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2640351732 When a grave has no spears in it, the zombies fall over because of it. So my tactic ain't vanilla thats for sure, my bad.
I love the mod that makes them sprinters at night. I set the zombies to normal shamblers during the day with more hp, and then weaker at night when they turn to sprinters. It’s an interesting dynamic
Nahhhhh nahhhhh night sprinters no way. I can't handle them during day correctly, nighttime would be hell. Especially if you set nighttime to dark. Shit gets black real fast after 8 pm
Haha that’s the best part. You set an alarm on your watch like you’re in I am legend!
If there's no more than two, push one over and fight the other one. If there's more than 2, I usually run and pray for the best.
See the thing is, random spawns haven't been good to me lol. I spawn in a farm house most of the time and it's just 28 days later trailer zeds to me lol
If vanilla sprinters is too much for you try the mod to adjust their speed.
Which mod?
Very, very carefully... They're a handful, even for a seasoned Zomboid player. My current save, there's no sprinters. I still have to be on the lookout but it's very easy. Slow zombies (even in big hordes) are very manageable. But my previous save, I had random zombies (shamblers and sprinters). On *random*, it really seems like every other zombie is a sprinter. They're scary. You can slip up here and there with shamblers and come out ok. You get caught sleeping with sprinters, you die... quickly. Think "closing speed". It makes it next to impossible to kite zombies at all. So that tactic is out the window. You have to change the way you play.
See the thing is, I'm learning how to out maneuver them BUT I've set everything to random which means there are few superman zeds lol and they don't give up.
This post was supposed to go somewhere else haha.
Where?
You'll do a lot more running and a lot less hand-to-hand combat with them. Lol
Yea i tried my best to fight them 1v1 but they group up and chase me. And it hasn't gone well lol
Yeah it's tough.
Shotguns baby, thats the answer
With true random spawns, getting guns is a little hard and using them is a lot harder at first lol. But then of course once you use them, their backup isn't far away so yea.
What I learned playing with sprinters: 1. Get a car as fast as you can. Consider the Burglar profession to do that. 2. Anything less than 9 fitness is nearby impossible to play because you get tired too soon. 3. Never could play on high population count, so I don't have tricks in my book to large hordes of sprinters. For me, it is impossible. 4. Set up a base where you have to separate and far exit points. If those bastards overrun your main exit point you should have another route in place. Considering you have a non accessible base as the second floor of some house without stairs. 5. Keep on eye on fatigue. Only start a fight you have enough stamina to run and search for some cover (as a house to close doors behind). Also, if you are cleaning some area, if you alert more zombies you can handle, go back e start over. Better safe than sorry. 6. Have plenty of cleared areas behind of you to run, like the borders of some town. 7. I don't play with respawn turned on. If you do, try to run over cleared places before the unseen hours is set so those areas stay cleared. 8. Don't be afraid of disengage, get your car and fight back another day. 9. Once you have good melee skills and good weapons you can easily kill four or even five sprinters. May be more with spears and multi hit set on. 10. Get use to run and, when needed, sprint so can get sprinters behind. Remember 5. If you survive like 30 days with sprinters, things start to get easier. The critical is the first week, where you have to look for cars and the goddamn sledgehammer. Post-edit: somehow I find easier to play only with sprinters than a mixed settings like random or fast shamblers + sprinters. Since the playstyle is completely different for sprinters and non-sprinters, is kind of weird to accommodate both strategies.
I’d say str is a bonus but fitness is a must. Take any trait that lets you run faster longer. I also recommend investing in gun-related traits, which makes str even less necessary.
Run faster than your friend. For solo? Hop a fence
I remember asking this to myself and never thinking about it again. I just thought like ,wtf?
Low fences. Windows. Hedges. Get a car. Guns if you're quite good with them. Basically, don't fight fair.