"At the very least, always have a medpack and a flare in the hot boxes. They can be used in a pinch, and having a medpack usable while being swarmed keeps you alive for valuable seconds that might save your life. Also, make sure that you save room in your pack for items to be picked up. Many times, some of the best items are at the end of sections, and leaving them behind can be extremely undesirable. Give yourself options to be flexible with your inventory. Don't be afraid to go out in the wild feeling a little bare, because there may be items out there to nab. Also, and again, never bring planks. Useless."
- The cricket bat can kill any zombie in the game, and without hassle. You can swing the bat faster than zombies can attack. Hitting a zombie against a wall or into a corner can leave you free to keep an eye on your radar as you bludgeon him to death.P
- Early in the game, ping your radar between every swing of the bat. You have time to do a quick check and make sure you aren't being surrounded.P
- Crawl N' Bash. If you can get to an area you have to crawl under during a fight, do so. Zombies on the ground are one-hit kills. Forcing them to follow you can turn a horde of 10+ into child's play. This is key to saving ammo in tight situations, and minimizing risk (useful in initial safehouse defense! many people have problems with that big fight)P
- Never assume an exit is guaranteed. Some doors in the game are game-loading gates and they take an exceptionally long time to load in certain scenarios. Never try to have one of these doors as a planned escape route if you have not yet opened it. It will need to load, you will wait there, and become a snack.P
- Playing Survival, never ever, ever stand anywhere close to something that goes boom. Ever. (Suppose this goes for Normal, but Survivor mode has a lot more riding on death)P
- Assume the worst approaching any door that takes time to open.P
Don't turn off the music.P
- Saving the game in a bed heals you. Do not use medpacks or food items if there is a safe path to a bed nearby, but instead save and heal.P
Only keep one of any type of weapon. Weapons level up in categories, and keeping all of them will take up a lot of space in the home stash. Free it up for more useful things.P
- When healing, use the food items first. You get many medpacks across the campaign, and things do get tougher. You don't want to be relying on candy bars while running through the tougher moments.P
- With crowds, use your flashlight and distance to try and pull one at a time. You can turn a horde into bat fodder with some clever trickery. [Note from Stephen: I wasn't sure what Eric meant and asked him to flesh it out. He did: "Zombies are attracted to noise and light. With a crowd nearby, it is sometimes advantageous to turn off the flashlight in an attempt to sneak by. However, I like to turn on the light and approach the closest zombie until I enter his range of noticing me, and then turn off the light in order to make sure the others don't spot me. I draw one or two at a time from the crowd, and whittle the horde down to nothing."]P
- Running is always an option. You can effectively dance around and between a zombie horde because it takes them time to swing at you. Don't stand still in a corner, panicked. Be mobile, and use your sprint to keep putting distance and obstacles between you and a group. If you can make it to a crawl space, you win.P
- With skill, you can single one zombie out from a group by closing him in a room with you during combat. You can execute door close commands while a zombie is attacking you. Get one inside the room you're in, close the door between swings, and put a barrier between you and whatever other zombies might be lurking.P
- Ranged zombies take priority. If you must ever make a choice who to kill first, they are the only ones who don't need to catch you to kill you. Destroy them.P
- Your radar does not pick up zombies playing dead. Enter all areas expecting an encounter.P
- Seriously. Never take planks. They're totally useless.P