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Into the Dead: Our Darkest Daysis a brutal game that pushes you to survive, craft, and fight your way through a world riddled by dangerous zombies. As you manage your roster of survivors and make the best of their abilities, you’ll be challenged to use your resources wisely and scavenge highly threatening areas.
The game’s eerie environments and punishing combat can make you restart several times, but keeping some essential tips and tricks in mind can help your journey. Once you’re aware of these, helping your survivors build a better life will come naturally.
Carry The Essentials Before Heading Out
Before heading out on a scavenging mission,you need to carry some essentials with you. Otherwise, you’ll have to look for these items during the mission, which can be extremely risky, regardless of the threat (zombies) in the area.
The first thing you need to carry is a weapon.Ideally, carry two weapons, in case one breaks. The best way to go about this is to simply carry a large weapon like a bat or electric guitar and a smaller one like a shiv or dagger.
The second item isa lockpick or bolt cutter (or both!). These are quite useful when you come across a place that requires you to break the lock. This is often the case with vehicles you find during your mission, especially trucks or larger vehicles that store a lot of useful stuff.
Assign at least one survivor to craft a lockpick if they have nothing else to do.
Stay Quiet
The game gives you access to many ways of dealing with zombies—killing them, running from them, hiding, and so on. But none of these will help when your survivor is struggling to fight, since weapons break easily andhordes can kill your survivor within secondsif you’re not careful.
On that note, you need to use stealth at all times. You can hide behind different objects, and these points are marked by a little circle on the floor. When it’s safe to do so,simply execute a zombie by sneaking up on it.
Remember thatknives are silent weapons you can use to take them out, while other weapons can make noise and attract other zombies. While scavenging, try to always crouch and search for resources when you aren’t in the line of sight of zombies.
Always Assign Your Survivors To Tasks
It’s easy to look over this part of the game if you’re new to the genre and trying your best to just… survive. Well, the truth is that your survivors need some purpose in life, and assigning them tasks not only keeps them occupied,it also benefits the base as a whole.
If you’ve made up your mind regarding who needs to go on a scavenging mission, the rest need to get some work done. you may divide these into two parts: wants and needs.Assign survivors to upgrades, crafting, or cookingbecause you want a better base.
On the other hand, you canask your survivors to sleep or spend some time in the recreational spaceto get their needs checked out. Remember, survival and happiness come first! So, keep those basic needs in check and assign every survivor to an activity that’s best suited to the situation.
Scavenge Effectively
As the mission starts, and you make your way through the place, you’ll start gathering resources to take back home. While it’s tempting to grab everything,your backpack can only hold so much space, and in case you find yourself in a dangerous situation, you need to grab the best items and leave.
During the early stages of the game,prioritize resources like fasteners, metal, water, and wiresover other things. These are fundamental items you need to craft and upgrade items and workspaces at your base. Overall, this opens up new opportunities for you to explore.
Even if you don’t get everything from a place in one attempt,it’s completely fine to come back and try again. There’s no point in pushing your survivors to their limit if they end up dead. So, get what you need, and if you have the luxury of strength and backspace, look for more items.
You can use consumable items to clear up some space in your backpack when on a mission.
Choose Your Survivors Wisely
While it’s tempting to recruit everyone you meet, that’s simply not the best way to go. You need to keep in mind thatevery base has a limited number of beds and resources, which means that the more survivors you’re managing, the more resources you need to find to keep everyone alive.
The sweet number is around two to three survivors per base, unless you manage to upgrade and improve your haven so much that everyone can live happily ever after. That’s simply unrealistic to aim for, especially during the early hours of the game.
When you do encounter someone during a scavenging mission,understand their background and what they’re good at. Will they be a good addition to the team? Are you sure you’ll be able to manage their needs and keep them occupied? Consider all of these things before recruiting them.
Some people you meet will happily kill your survivor! Be careful, and look for signs of hostility before engaging. Usually, if they’re not being too nice before you approach them, that’s pretty much a red flag.
Repair Barricades And Prepare Backups
When you’ve successfully occupied a base, you’ll notice how strong or weak the barricades are. After every night, there’s a chance that the undead will attack your base and the barricades will start to break.These can be repaired and will cost a few resources. It’s completely worth it, and you should make sure that your base is safe.
Alternatively, also start looking for backup options. When browsing the map in hopes of finding a new spot to loot, you will notice a few thatcan be used as a base if you clear all the threats (zombies) in that space. This is a great chance to make this your “next home” in case things go wrong, or the barricades start to wear out.
Also,look for a little telescope (or something similar) when scavenging a place, or simply choosing which spot deserves your attention. These are locations where you’re able to interact with the telescope and find new areas for your next mission. Some are quite essential to the narrative’s progression.
Improve Your Combat Skills
Direct combat in the game is not for the faint-hearted, especially when you’re fighting zombies face-to-face. Every time you try to land a hit, the zombie will attack you back.To dodge this, press Q. This will be a little tough to pull off every time, and your survivor will likely take some damage.
Sometimes, it’s tricky to avoid fights, and stealth is simply no longer an option. That’s when a strategy comes in handy—only fighting one zombie at a time. You see, when you fight a zombie, it’s likely that others are attracted and will start fighting you as a horde… which can be quite devastating.
So, start running away and attempt to vault over tables (or other objects), and let one zombie come to you. Then, try to take them out. Alternatively, you can alsouse doors and windows to your advantage!Zombies are usually slow when getting through these, and using environments against them can help you a lot during combat.
Don’t worry about running from a fight. Sometimes it’s best to return to your shelter instead of watching your survivor die.
Upgrade Your Kitchen
Out of all the upgrades you can assign your survivors to, getting the next best kitchen is the way to go.This allows you to cook up better recipes, which is an important aspect of the game since food matters a lot. Raw or junk food isn’t nice for them, and can even lead to stomach problems.
Upgrading your kitchen leads to a lovely recipe called Goulash, which efficiently uses your resources. This food item manages your survivors' hunger levels in an effective way, allowing them to replenish their hunger much better than inferior food items.
Some survivors (such as Aubrey) need good food. A trait like Refined Taste leads to a loss in morale if they eat something like junk food or uncooked meals. Keeping their happiness in mind, you may just need to cook up those tasty meals!
