WhiskeySix

How do you conserve ammo?


Last night I played and realized just how much lead zombies can absorb. It happens all the time - you've got 3-4 teammates all bunched together in a corner/closet/whatever and they're all unloading into the same zombies. What I did last night saved a bunch of ammo - I just held fire and waited until there were gaps in fire while teammates reloaded. It's totally contrary to your instincts to NOT shoot into the horde as it rushes your position, but at the same time it's a really cool feeling to trust completely in your teammates.

Another thing is to always aim for the head - even during rushes... zombies are conveniently all the same height Related to that, use bursts with AR or UZI rather than mashing the trigger. A quick succession of head-high brrrt brrrt brrrt brrrt with the AR is deadly and saves ammo by not using 7 rounds to do the job 3 can do.

other ideas?

__________________




Reflexes are for mistakes only. Reaction implies surprise. Be surprised less.

Tonk

rotate supressing fire in the closet, zoey unload a clip, then bill, then one, then the other, in a span of a minute each person only eats a clip up

__________________
powered by Windows 7

Potshot

I've become the melee man in the teams that I play in. I get an average of 40 kills per act where others get 180, but it saves the ammo, and it's really useful for the team in the long run. At least that's what I tell myself.

__________________

Lorax74

Headshots as much as possible.

I generally hold fire until there's an lull, at which point I'll open fire if needed. I also switch to pistols and attempt headshots before reverting back to the shotgun for the close quarters splatter fest.

__________________

Aruncado

I agree with the short bursts theory. I played around with it in single player a little and even on expert it really only take 4 or 5 shots from the UZI/M16 (my primary two weapons) to kill a zombie. However, the graphics have him stumble forward a little further before he falls or has some other dramatic death. So I find that firing in bursts and waiting for the body to fall and then shooting the zombie behind is far better on your magazine than holding down the trigger for your zombie to bullet ration. You don't have to kill them all before they get to you either. Waiting for them to get to you is even better on your ammo! Because at that point you can burst, burst, melee, burst, burst, melee, rinse, lather, repeat. You are killing them and knocking their body forcibly out of the line of fire and then shooting the next, etc.

Another fun fact that I stumbled on is that depending on what you are doing it isn't always best to crouch before you fire. If you are trying to stay on the move pushing the button to walk has the same effect on your aiming reticle without slowing you down as much and I believe it comes into effect a little quicker as well. However, crouch is still king when you are staying in one spot for a little while.

__________________

Superfast

I do the crouch and melee thing. And also communicate who has point, is healing and is reloading. And sit really close together in the corner or closet when it's horde time!

And always be on the move if possible! You can run away or past some of the hordes/witch/zombies if you rush certain areas.

__________________

Avs

I see that most people pick the shotgun. Why do they do that? They usually say some stuff about killing zombies, and then mention it also conserves or has longer lasting ammo.

Why don't they choose the Uzi? Is it just because of poor conservation issues?

Everyone (probably not everyone) knows the Uzi is the better weapon if not for this, but nobody goes out of their way to try to change the way they play.

When you see some zombies 30 feet away? Just shoot it with your pistol. When you see zombies attacking your closet with your buddies? Just shoot with your pistol. The key is your pistol.

Pistol!!!! Use it like you need it. Don't think for a second its a secondary weapon, it can kill just as many as your shotgun or uzi will. Combine with melee to realize that you dont need to deal with slow reload times from a shotgun. Just mow everything down!

Uzi/Assault Rifle/Auto Shottie all have the same ammo issues. This is because you can really blast a ton of zombies without even thinking. It only takes 1 shell to kill a zombie however, not 2-3. It only takes 1 bullet in the head to kill a zombie from the other two guns.

Now I dont want to derail this thread with a weapons conversation, but remember: Bullets go through things, headshots kill things in one hit. Those 10 bullets you just wasted into a zombie could have been just 3-5, and those bullets go through that zombie and kill the one behind it.

Also you have to understand how the ragdoll works. I hate analyzing games to such details, but once you recognize how zombies die after getting hit in a number of places, you know whether they need another bullet or not.

Remember the zombies that kind of get shot once, stand around, then fall to their knees after like 5 seconds? Its those zombies that people are wasting bullets on because most of the time they go down quickly with a direct barrage. All these things add up to whether you are actually doing damage or wasting bullets. Same for not using your pistols at all.

sparhawkxx

Pistol long range and shotty close is what I do. I usally like point and will melee shotty to the face as much as possible. If a temate goes down in a long ranged position im on the pistol as fast as possible for the range kill. I rarely run out of ammo for shotty but I cant seem to fire the uzi well so I leave it along. I'm a messy Zombie killer

__________________
FUN FUN

Morganan

I choose my weapon based on the map, but typically I conserv ammo by using the pistol on targets at range and saving my main weapon for when targets get to medium to short range and of course using melee spam whenever possible. (obviously I'm not talking about when I have the hunting rifle) I tend to use the uzi or m16 on maps where I have long corridors to shoot down or the infected can get above me regularly, and use one of the shotties for more open areas or when there is only limited places for infected to use a height advantage on me.

Skylark

My views:
a) Uzi and M16 use up ammo like mad. You tend to use a lot of ammo on a single zombie and tend to blow through complete magazines quickly.
b) the shotgun goes much slower, even the auto shotty due to the time it takes to reload. Personal opinion, anyway.
c) I use the sniper rifle most of the time. It will shoot THROUGH the zombie in front and hit (who knows) how many behind it. You can control the rate of fire easier and such

d) I also usually use the dual pistols as much as possible, only switching to main weapon when needed. Unlimited ammo and they are pretty accurate. I can also unload all 30 bullets pretty down quick and cut down a charging mob pretty well, then switch to main weapon to finish off.

__________________

Skylark

add-on: the only weapon I've ever run out of ammo is the uzi.

__________________

Avs

Some more tidbit information you might not already know:

Every zombie spawns with 1-50 hp. Pistols do like 10 damage. This means a zombie could take anywhere from 1 to 5 shots. For those who suck at math, this means the average is 3 bullets for a 25hp zombie. This applies to normal. Easy doesnt count.

As you raise the difficulty level, zombies "health" average is raised, but maximum stays the same. But you deal % less damage, thats why they take more damage. Your piercing ability of every weapon drops as well. But at the minimum, bullets usually pass through zombie A, and into zombie B. Hunting rifles are an exception (hence why theres that debate on why its better than the assault rifle).

Here is another tip: Whenever you see zombies climbing up something to get you, use your pistol.

The hole in the apartment building on No Mercy 1.
The hole in the warehouse building.
Holes in general. Just whip out the pistol whenever you see a hole so you can shoot.

Also applies to ladders, through doors, long distance, headshots, etc. In other words, use your pistol anytime you do not expect a horde, or large amounts of zombies running towards you (this means 4 or more zombies). Just following the utilization of your sidearm, you'll rarely run out of your uzi/assault rifle/ whatever ammo.

As for weapon preference, I choose the hunting rifle on upgraded weapons. The reason only being that it is superior in all except killing tanks, and smokers who are dragging you.

Hunter

I personally love the hunting rifle the most. For some reason I seem to be more calm when I use it and I kill a zombie in almost every shot.

__________________
"Video games develop hand-eye coordination, and make kids into better human beings!" - Prof. Membrane

Skylark

I didn't know it was random, but I figured out to shoot each zombie 4-5 times to make sure it went down, if there was enough time to do that.

I assume the health depends on the level, too. Zombies in expert take more pistol shots, or even shotgun shots.

__________________

† Disciple †

I use the hunting rifle and you can kill a zombie in one hit in the chest in expert that means you have 15 zombies per hit. Now I useraly go for the head just for the fun and the fact I love the last score on the stats page at the end of the campaign (head shot accuracy never lost it) however when there is a rush I can kill 15 zombies before switching to pistal and each i will place in their chests just point click and the next one, the other guns do not compete in my books.

__________________