@@iguanac6466 eh swordsplay is better imo, powerhouse and close combat drags the zombie to the ground before the kill, swordsplay just grabs and kills. About half a second or more difference which is very critical especially in thick mobs. Or maybe its just me but i think there is a delay.
I think since last updates we get more and more close combat survivors (before it was a rare skill) and as I always loved it I mainly takt it when I can. I also like the blade one for the standing zombie kill.
I think the key to getting the most out of the various weapon types is to build your loadouts in such a way that weaknesses are compensated for. If you're going Swordplay on a character, get Sharpshooter and bring a shotgun. Use the blade for miscellaneous zombies and the shotgun for hordes and hairy moments. If you're going Striking, get Gunslinger and bring a pistol, SMG, or assault rifle. Use the bonk device for groups and the gun for priority targets. It's also worth pointing out that the weight values of the various weapon types complement each other when paired like this. Shotguns are pretty heavy, but blades are usually light, and blunt weapons are heavy as well, but pistols and automatics are usually light.
bladed, all day, every day! i'd rather kill something in 1 shot, than spend time and stamina on the target. get good enough with your sworddancing, horde are not a problem. as long as you got enough stamina
A lot of people likes blades, but they're very inconsistent. The level of the player's skill (and I play every day on Nightmare Zone) is not going to help you against big zombie attacks where as striking will plow through any number of zombies. Blades are great when they're hitting their lethal strike in 1-2 hits, but then they're terrible when you aren't getting them. This will happen even when you are using the highest quality blades in the game like the Bastard of Belleau Woods or the CLEO heavy blade.
@@GitGudFox it kills rly quickly tho and I always run out of stamina on striking btw I've watched this before just returning Edit idk if this is a massive effect but I'm on pc so it's prob a bit less sluggish and more pc is more monuveralble so doge more effective
@@teddyfield2164 No one is denying that it kills quickly. you are missing Git Gud Fox's point completely. When going against a horde, being able to kills a single target in a few shots won't be as efficient as being able to make 1 swing that hits multiple targets in one go.
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior you get it... Literally just ran into that situation earlier today... had a blade weapon amd a shit load of zombies... had to rely too often on dodging... with striking i got into the same huge horde problem but not even maxed out managed to spam the knock down swing and stun or knock down multiple zeds...
Powerhouse allows to dropkick with CQC (and other weapons as long as it's not a Heavy one). Biggest thing? Dropkicks open up Ferals to execution. And Powerhouse also gives you a general stamina cost reduction on attacks which stacks with CQC innate reduction. Pair these reductions with Dodge into Execution and you will be able to easily deal with larger hordes of non-Blood Plague zeds.
This is one of those games I never thought would have so many details in its mechanics and alterations in gameplay. There really is a depth below the surface of "kill the zombies this way or this way"
Been playing since Christmas and never knew about the feral stun with the blunt weapons. I mainly use the Cleo long blade but after you showed that, I might have a new favorite weapon category lol thanks
I was initially doubtful of whether or not this would be a good video subject, but I've found that there's always a few little details here and there that people didn't know about.
Tbh I Ferals were the worst enemies in the game for me, for so long, till I got gunplay. That snapshot made them an absolute joke, so I never even knew about stunning them, or melee takedown, for so long. My only three options were run away, 3v1 smack down, or headshot.
I just dash away after they lung and miss before popping them in the head. Lot easier, since they dodged like Ninjas in the first game (course the strafe ground finish combo was what i did there). Man, I played this way to much back when.
I used one originally, but I switched to the grasscutter for the better ease of use. The stamina usage is noticeably better on it while only having a bit worse durability.
I always use either a shovel for durability or the Red Talon sword since it's light and average plus pair it with discipline and it won't break easily.
Something to point out about the zombie dexterity over obstacles:. On dreadzone difficulty and above they rarely trip and fall after climbing, I have used the same tactic on normal mode to regain stamina and get some cheap executions, doesn't work so well on harder difficulties. This game makes some pretty subtle changes to the mechanics
"Especially when you get them on the ground, and you just start stabbing their face!" Umm... you okay, bro? Need a hug? We're here, if you need to talk... and if we can't help, I know these peeps in white coats. They'll take the best care of you. :D :P
The stealth build. Marathon/Backpacking (Your choice either free stamina or more stamina) Stealth. (Or you could switch out for something else if you're capable of stealth) Close combat. (Because no need to carry a melee that adds weight) Gunslinger (For the aimbot) 5th skill whatever.
Driving for the ultimate stealth build. It makes your car quieter which means you can disemark at a location, and fewer, possibly none, zombies will be chasing after your car.
On lethal zone Marathon Stealth Close combat And Gunslinging. Although you lose 2 slots an Ultralight backpack And a light crossbow. Most threats are easy to deal with. I generally only shoot ferrals and boaters in lethal. Ferrals are worse than juggernauts in lethal. The stealth run with marathon is a really good combo. Run in stealth killing hordes.... If it goes wrong run out... As you run your stamina will replenish. Hide...rinse repeat. Knowing that your weapon won't break in a fight and having limited parts to repair anything... The only other threat I shoot is Hostile enclaves but then I tend to attract a whole horde of Zombies to them and watch the show from afar....
@@miketovey7815 ferals are worse then any zombie lol. In sod1 they would kill u so fast. And they are annoying asf because of their armor plate on their head
The good news about the melee skills is that they're pretty similar in value. The closer you get to Lethal Zone, the better close combat becomes, but the skills are all fairly balanced in the fighting category.
You forgot the jumping knee attack from cqc and combining it with powerhouse let you grab execute from any angle close quarters has a running jumping knee attack most people dont know about you can use on hordes if there's no fences
Also, Ironicly I'd say Swordplay Masters, are actually Terrible for those quests where someone wants you to hack off limbs. A sword master could go into a horse, n only take 3 arms, with the rest being instant decapitations. But swordplay Is good for marathon players, since low weight is good for them (but clearly CQC is even better for marathon runners then)
Figured I'd get 1 last video out for 2018 and continue addressing the new changes in State of Decay 2 brought about by Zedhunter and update 6.0. What is your preferred weapon skill? I tend to use Striking, but I prefer Close Combat.
Holly crap dude , I've been playing SOD2 since launch and only specialized swordplay. Always. In my head I thought the leg sweep was the best, little did I know that specializing blunts makes them op, plus you get some new animations. Wow this video litteraly opened my eyes. And close combat looks brutal , gonna try all that tomorrow. Happy New Year eh!
@@LordAlmightyIAm Same with me except for striking. Just make sure you bring some strong painkillers and some firecrackers while you mess around because it can take a moment to unwire the swords mentality a bit to get the hang of blunt and knives.
@@LordAlmightyIAm Also, I'm using pretty top notch weapons. A lesser blunt weapon may not floor a zombie in a single blow, but I imagine you have some solid options having played from launch.
@@GitGudFox lol my group is unstoppable. Rick's group from TWD got nothing on me. I got very power riffles, machine guns, bloody shotguns, all sorts of blades and lots of cans of whoop ass, after seeing your video I'm going for some blunt weapon hunting .
I finally got to try the Close combat and I love it,it looks super cool shanking zombies and ferals,if it wasn't for this video never would've given it a chance,I think at least one character should have this skills, thanks also Gitgoodfox,these videos are making my SOD2 experience 10x better,I also finally got to move to the Bridge fort I love it but eventually had to move to L&k storage and it going great only complaint is Bridge fort has the best location
Unlike one-handed weapons, unlockable skills for heavy weapons will not be unlocked from the Fighting core skills, but rather from the Cardio core skills. So you can have these skills and some moves for heavy weapons at the same time. To get it, your cardio specialization has to be Powerhouse. It's nothing too fancy. The skill allows you to execute standing enemies while you have a heavy weapon equipped... it will pull the enemy onto the floor and stomp on their face. That's pretty much it. There is also a "power hit" by holding the melee weapon, it will charge up your weapon and hit an enemy (it is actually weak, with very poor accuracy, while being slow)... very underwhelming.
Wow! What a wealth here! I use the apocalypse bat. But, when I level, I try to go with any health bump. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your testing. Great video. And a happy New year to you and yours!
Happy New Year to you! I mainly used melee in SoD1, so it sort of carried over into SoD2. There are actually several executions from SoD1 I really miss including the "Mario Stomp." We'll get to see it when I get around to the SoD1 playthrough.
i find the swordplay to be pretty good if youre in a choke point like a doorway since you can just keep on executing without interruptions unless a zombie attacks behind you but you can still dodge so youre pretty safe
I suppose this was made before powerhouse and heavy weapons were a thing. Heavy weapons+powerhouse beat striking with a mace any day. Though my personal fav is powerhouse+close combat. Pretty op really.
The redesign on striking makes it a lot better than powerhouse with any other weapon unless you're specifically killing plague hearts. The grand slam always knocks zombies down, with a single skill, and now the new smart execution system ensures you will get the extremely fast blunt golfclub swing on every execution as long as 2+ zombies are near eachother. It basically obsoleted the old meta of powerhouse/closecombat. You can also do standing execution spam with swordplay because of smart executions as well.
I play on nightmare and only really use endurance or swords. Striking let's me down too much when I need them dead. It might be good against a feral but a bullet is better. And when there's 3 of them you ain't got time for trying to stun them.
Fighting 2 Ferals with a knive and survive... im very happy that i started playing this after they added higher difficulties. :) A survival game without a real threat sounds boring to me.
It was standard zone, so they're not hitting as hard as they could be, and I'm also less injury prone on standard zone. It can also be done on Nightmare Zone, but I'd have to do a lot more dodging.
Striking is really useful in lethal zone where you can easily get surroundend by many zombies, in fact you can't start a fight with a single zee without him shouting and causing an uproar that attracts 20 more of them.
CQC is definitely my favorite one to use against zombies. Sadly in online play it suffers really badly during lag, making it almost useless. Like the grabs and throws stop working properly, and zombies start dealing damage to you simply because you're close.
12:19 my gameplay lol. You can also use curbs by the road for killing Jugg while he is climbing across it. Also CLEO Greathammer is the only one melee weapon you can kill blood plague juggernaut with 10-15 hits...
Blunt weapons with moderate lethality are superb. You don't need to bother with executions and they'll just lawnmower regular zombies. And they knock helmets off armored zombies well enough. Eg apocalypse bat is probably the best blunt weapon
Swordplay and Discipline combo. Blades last longer and one shot more often (plus the standing Y execution is great). I really like Close Combat with Gunslinger, equip a rifle, BUT Close Combats execution is super boring. The sneak attacks on both standing and prone zombies can be neat, but one yank and stomp execution is weak. Plus that's all I get with heavy weapons, the yank and stomp. Striking to knock down and execute really. Better for groups personally. That little twirl in Swordplay almost always gets me hit, but still preferred. Marathon, Discipline, Swordplay, Gunslinging is my favorite build. All my best have this. If I have Close Quarters, I don't care about Wits as much. Scout with Gunslinging, but Resources is preferred because of extra pocket. Now that I've rambled...😗😐😒😐😉✋
Yes bro, swordplay really is one of the best skills, or else the best! you can play calmly and annihilate a horde with it, this is very good and efficient especially for those who like blades, but honestly I still prefer striking, it is more my style of play, but I do not deny that swordplay is a bit too op .
I'm a Striking guy myself, but I try to avoid CLEO weapons b/c I don't want to play Daybreak. that said, the CLEO mace was the only CLEO weapon, melee or ranged, that I ever spent Prestige points on for my base game. my favorite blunt weapons are currently the Metal Bat, the Halligan Tool, and the Crow's Beak. Metal Bat has really high Ease of Use and surprisingly high Lethality for a blunt weapon, Halligan Tool has high Ease of Use and good Durability, and Crow's Beak (along with the Deck Destroyer, which I also like) is the blunt weapon with the highest Lethality I am aware of.
I use a lot of the DLC blunt weapons like apocalypse bat and CLEO mace. The crow's beak is also one I like. It's sort of a hybrid between a blunt and a blade.
For blunt/edged weapons, once you get the Striking/Swordplay skill, the only stat that really matters is weight. The same for goes for edged weapons. The reason for that is, you're very rarely going to need to do the basic attack anymore. That CLEO Mace or whatever... you give that to the NOOBS in your colony... the experts get Noodlers and Metal Bats. For Heavy weapons, the other stats matter.
Weight only matters if your character has marathon. It plays little role anywhere else. Blunt weapons make extensive use of knockdown and ease of use which allows for 1-hit knockdowns on regular attacks and reduced consumption of stamina for executions. Bladed weapons make use of lethality and ease of use.
I like the karambit myself. It has a nice wicked curve like an eagle's talon. I've notice a few Undertale fans sifting in periodically. There's someone with a Sans avatar, a Asriel account, and someone with a Chara avatar too.
Love your vids! Honestly i thought i was the only person who used knives as a primary melee weapon. Once you have the eternal guard big groups are easy or you can trim down zombies to a manageable number
Yes, the advisory about CQC's limitations about crowds of enemies will mainly be useful to brand new players... and as well as to experienced players who are trying it for the first time, so that their expectations aren't misplaced.
I recommend Echo-2 Mamba because it’s silent, good ease of use, and light and since it’s silent it can stealth kill juggernauts by slicing its back and crouching
It also has the best Impact of all bladed weapons (its impact even outperform most blunt weapons), making it great for taking down a feral 1v1 or even juggernaut 1v1, while still maintaining very good Lethal stat.
You can just stomp their head if you don't want to risk getting the head squishing execution. Just knock them down and press the jump button near their head.
I love the close combat skill but i got a problem every time i want survivor to learn close combat skill it doesn’t show like it just shows striking skill and endruance skill i always use close combat fighting type for this survivor and it always doesn’t show close combat skill in the skills list pls i need help with this how can i let my survivor learn close combat skill do i have like when every time i see i zombie do i have like to do some move to show close combat skill or what?
Not every character will have access to every skill. It's based on their traits. For example, someone who has the "used to dance" trait is going to be able to learn acrobatics. The only way to assure that a character will have all the skills is to use a retraining manual from the Mysterious Wandering Trader, but they cost 1500 influence.
Swordplay is probably the weakest overall. Slicing zombies legs off is a weaker strategy that just killing them in 1 hit which the other styles can do, or can down and kill multiple zombies at once. It's not something you will see the very high skill players do much.
Pick swordplay and use the bastard sword of balleau wood. Pretty much one hits anything it touches or at the least cleaves off a limb. Just make sure you always repair it when you get the opportunity.
you get hit up by one guy, and he's like: "this crazy ex talon chick took control of my group, can u kill her without killing my friends? so you shoot her in the head from a distance with a gun, then on her corpsy worpsy there's a karambit and a mamba, as well as an mp5K spec ops with a red talon hiking pack.
as of update 26 i’d say swordplay is much easier to use against hordes as you do fast executions all the time when it’s maxed, strikings still kind of the same becos you’d usually knocked them down before executing
The key to melee combat is getting the zombies on the ground. The best thing about swordplay is the zombies cannot get back up. Blunt weapons and close combat have some quicker executions. But if you want to simplify fighting, you pick the endurance skill. Throw the zombies on the floor, and stomp them to death/crouch and stab.
You can do that a lot quicker with striking. 1 special attack from endurance knocks down 1 zomibe. 1 special attack from striking knocks down all of the zombies in front of you.
You also don't get the bonus lethality from swordplay, the standing execution from close combat, or the enhanced impact from striking. You do get more health and injury resistance with endurance, but it's overkill on Standard Zone, and offense is more important than defense in Nightmare Zone.
Helpful vid. Cleared up what ease of use is for me (thought it was speed). I hate striking because its so slow but now I know it stuns ferals thats a game changer. In NM I wonder how it will do against feral packs. Im constantly dying to those given im low on ammo.
I always find the heavy weapons to just never bring enough value for their weight. There are so many lighter weapons that have deadlier stats like the Grasscutter.
I always go with blunt and when I’m one on one I dodge behind the zombie and execute it using the knife as you don’t have to unequip your main weapon to do this. I hardly ever use blades but they are fun as shit so I usually have one survivor trained in blades
Zombies are just zombies. There isn't a difference between the standard zombie and a blood plague zombie besides their ability to infect you with blood plague. Whether they are more or less grouped together is coincidence.
@@likeablekiwi6265 Knockdown rates are just flat percentage chance based on the knockdown stat. Using a spin attack guarantees knockdown regardless of the weapon. The more zombies, the more effective the blunt spin attack is as it knocks zombies down like dominoes where the first group knocks down the zombies directly behind them.
Personally I use blade and a ar/shotgun because that gives me a good way of killing singles, hordes, ferals and juggernauts but when I use blunt weapons I use the echo-3 repeating crossbow because I can quickly kill singles, hordes, ferals but not juggernauts
@@GitGudFox well damn... I've paid for the fancy ones before. U got me interested in trying CQC. I've been always doing swordplay. How do you level up chemistry?
My favorite stat combo is marathon stealth and close combat So when you stealth run at light encumbrance, it is free and fast to kill and the dash and grab works quickly. Also no weapon durability! And stun locking ferals makes this pretty effective
man, for me striking for sure, i just love playing with a baseball bat and pushing my enemies like kids, i can play with a horde if i want, i end up with a feral in just a few quick hits, the juggernaut doesn't even touch me hehe, this is amazing!
Git Gud Fox i have 8 full skill red talon operators all with RTX extermination blades and whenever the base gets attacked we don’t even get close to getting overran
RT guys are ridiculously OP compared to regular survivors. They have ridiculous amounts of stamina and basically have a combination of every cardio, wits, fighting, and shooting you can get. The only thing they really suck at is killing juggs because of their acrobatics (since it replaces the dodge with that silly roll that is easy to break the animation on)...plague juggs are especially punishing. This video was about comparing the different fighting abilities...since the RT operatives do it all, it's not really in the scope of this video.
powerhouse and close combat is so strong imo. cause you can just grapple and throw a zombie into the rest of the horde and it knocks down a ton of them. then you use close combat's extremely quick execution animations to clean house. you also get the benefit of not having to carry a melee weapon which has three benefits: 1. lighter load to stay in light carry capacity 2. don't need to spend parts on repairing and 3. you can use the empty melee slot to carry a weapon for looting. idk why people don't praise the powerhouse grapple more. 1 zombie thrown into a group can stun several zombies for 5+ seconds. it's crazy.
I usually choose close quarters, then run with no primary melee weapon equipped. When you do this and you set the characters skills up just right, running will not take stamina and dodging will barely take anything too. This allows you to mulch your way through a horde using the quick button kills and come out at the end with no damaged weapons and barely any damage taken. It takes a while to get used to the tactic for doing it, but it's my primary tactic that I've used and I'm currently on a Nightmare world with 0 survivor deaths in day 22.
Close combat for me it saves weight for other things which can help keep you in the light weight bracket meaning you can get infinite stamina out of marathon but tbh all these skills depend on what I’m pairing it with striking if you want a tank esc character etc
One thing though great video, but you didn't mix matched the other skills that makes it even better for example powerhouse, discipline and close combat is god like that's my favorite combo.
Yeah, I'll probably do synergistic ability combos since they're worth talking about, but I'll probably do them in terms of builds rather than cover them all simultaneously. I also need more retraining manuals to tinker with the skills a bit too.
i'm not sure why you had trouble with sword play against a horde... had one of my chicks quite literally dancing through a horde, killing a zombie with each movement... honestly rely shocked me lmao... i expected to have to run for my vehicle and loss the person i was protecting... but, apparently a horde is no match for a decent blade and a still leveling swordplay! i must say however, i had NO idea close combat was for knives/screwdrivers; i just thought it was the traditional close combat, thanks for that! oh and if you dodge or bolt out of combat... it interupts you swordplay combos. just need to be fast enough to anticipate incoming damage (kill that target first!) as a blade fighter, word of advice! Carry more than 1 blade on you, and possibly 1 in your vehicle (usually not necessary)
Because it's luck based. Swordplay relies heavily on percentage effects from lethality. You can get lucky and swipe a zombie's head off in 1-2 hits, or you can get extremely unlucky and take 4-5 hits on every zombie. It happens all the time if you use the weapon consistently enough. I use high durability blades such as the High Angle Rescue Hatchet or the Grasscutter to compensate for durability. I prefer having 1 more inventory slot than carrying multiple blades.
Blunt weapons and close combat are not luck based. Once you have the correct blunt weapon, and the striking skill, they 100% of the time knock down a zombie. They're also objectively better against a larger variety of threats like ferals.
@@GitGudFox when talking about hordes... the percentage no longer counts, its no longer so much about instant kills, its about countering the next incoming attack; since that first character i mentioned; i've watched many of my characters (designed the same way), dance through hordes, focusing on the next incoming attack. seems the only real downside, is stamina... really need to keep those energy drinks on hand lol. dodging with swordplay, should really only be used as a last resort, cause if you watch the character, its not a single or couple of strikes, its a series of strikes making a combo, which is when you start getting 1-2 shots. kinda seems as though the longer you continuously attack, the higher your 1shot percentage becomes... just a theory though. ease of use, speed and lethality for bladed are definitely key for these builds... though your forced to sacrifice durability (which sucks, but the decapitations make up for that haha)
It's just percentage based. You can sword 3 times in a row and get 3 instant kills, or you can swing 4 times on the same zombie before it goes down. Sometimes, you can clear a horde in a series of instant kills. Othertimes, you're swilling energy drinks just keep swinging. It can go really well. It can go really poorly. Striking always goes really well. There's no need to dance around because you knock all the zombies down in 1 hit. The striking special sweep can knock down whole groups of them in 1 sweep. The horde spends all its time trying to stand back up while you kill them. I've used all 3 styles quite a bit through my now over 100 episodes of the Nightmare Zone series, and it still is the same. Swordplay is great against small numbers of zombies, but it quickly loses reliability against larger groups of zombies.
The only thing that is bad about striking is that one of its execution animations is long; otherwise, it's going to be a more reliable weapon than swordplay in all situations except convenience situations like quickly killing straggler zombies which isn't very important to begin with.
Acrobatocs + Cqc = a lot of fun, well for me. Flying strike is a guaranteed knocked without a melee weapon. You can be stabby mc. stabberson or quick kill mc. quickerson. It's just fun as hell! I wouldn't recommend it on anything above dread zone though...
That one bad ass survivor that you bring with you everywhere, even through legacy talking to baby survivor. "I once killed a blood feral and Juggernaut....with JUST a screwdriver tough guy"
What these skills mean to me, Close combat: 1v1 against zombies are faster, as you can now dodge behind them and press Y, but with close combat skill, it goes much faster, bonus, no weapon durability is wasted, Striking: hordes of zombies become easier to ko, as blunt weapons hit multiple zombies instead of 1 Swordplay: insane attack speed! Especially useful against juggernauts when you don’t have A gun/your gun broke
Just now getting into this game and love it so far. Not a complaint against it or anything but it would make more sense if bladed weapons swept throught crowds and blunt attacked singularly but did more stun and knockback damage to make up for it. I'd still want a sweep through upgrade for blunt though.
Always like the blunt weapons best. Especially at the start when you make a new community with no stats. They knock down groups much faster than trying to go in bladed. Even if it doesn’t kill them the knocking down buys time. Always best choice imo.
Thanks again for a great video. My question would be when selecting a skill from say cardio or wits and the choices are one with white lettering and one in yellow, does anyone know what this means? also, one of my characters had a choice of all cardio groups. Has anyone encountered the same thing?
Yeah, when you use the training manual they all turn yellow except for the universal skill. I think it means that the skill is specially available because of some kind of condition. Like, one of my characters has dancer as a background, so she was able to learn acrobatics which wouldn't have been available otherwise, and it wasn't a white or grey skill.
Honestly I've seen alot of threads that are religious to swordplay. I've kinda taken the opinion that everything is contextual so I like diversifying my survivors skill sets and matching them to the situation. I've had a use for all the skills. Asking which is best is the wrong question. It's about what's best at what. Plus. You can often compensate what a character lacks with their gun skill.
I personally prefer swordplay because its leg sweep can make an entire horde not a threat very quickly. It makes clearing buildings with a few zombies very easy. I also really like close combat for characters I design for stealth. It just makes sense for that build.
All of the weapons can be good. Swordplay's weakness is that swords are very fragile with few exceptions, and they're probability based with their kills except when using executions. They're also the worst of the melee weapons again ferals. Even with the leg sweep, swordplay is still not as effective as blunt when dealing with huge quantities of zomies nor will it clear through zombies in an emergency such as trying to save an NPC covered in zombies like blunt weapons can.
@@GitGudFox I agree that bladed are fragile, though I try to avoid melee with ferals. I prefer to just get the headshot off on them. My play style also typically has me avoiding hordes of more than about 8, or using the crossbow repeater from a distance.
That's also how I play. Sometimes, especially in Nightmare Zone, the game decides to dump a heap of stuff on you. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." As they say.
Discipline helps the sword last longer for the wits specialization and some people hero traits help out(difficult to find) but it's still breaks fast or may e I'm just killing so much zombies.
hordes and ferals lack damage so not really much of a risk if you decide swordplay. Juggernaunts are a risk so you should probably pick swordplay. Bloodplague generally is not a risk as you can have them sit at base to heal up if they get infected and you'll probably have enough cures if you let it naturally heal and it's probably more effective to have as many combat efficient settlers to defend your base so switching up when your characters are tired or sick can be useful anyway. CQC is pointless. It has unlimited durabilty but lacks damage and is short range. In regards for durability all you really need is a workshop and traders and when you need materials you can also use the radio anyway. so I feel like for fighting Swordplay then striking then Endurance then CQC. CQC is the skill that'll most likely land you with the most damage done to you overall. You also forget damage isn't the only usefulness with blades dismemberment is also useful. It was kind of the same thing for State of Decay 1 also.
the one problem that plagues all these skills, (pun intended) is the random executions, you know what i mean, one second you are getting the coveted sweep instant kill on a downed zombie, and the next you are getting the dreaded press down hard for 2 - 3 seconds execution. tho i do prefer striking and bladed, so i tend to mix it up with my group. that being said i can't stand cqc, it has way to much dodging mechanics to make it fun. maybe if they gave the knives there own stats. maybe even put brass knuckles in the game, that would be awesome. punching a zombie to death would be so satisfying.
I love swordplay cause of the standing executions , looks amazing!
Standing Execution is pretty handy.
Even better with powerhouse. On PC I just tap Z and it grabs and executes the nearest zombie without even having to face them.
u get it with close combat, too
@@iguanac6466 eh swordsplay is better imo, powerhouse and close combat drags the zombie to the ground before the kill, swordsplay just grabs and kills. About half a second or more difference which is very critical especially in thick mobs. Or maybe its just me but i think there is a delay.
@@a.syching678 Agree...about the only thing I like about CC are the fast ground executions.
I guess I'm the only person who only uses the best wepon in the game.
The "rusty screwdriver"
It is useful when you need to screw zombies over.
I think since last updates we get more and more close combat survivors (before it was a rare skill) and as I always loved it I mainly takt it when I can. I also like the blade one for the standing zombie kill.
I still prefer close combat.
@@GitGudFox *Ba-dum-Tchh*
SCREW YOU 😂😂😂
I think the key to getting the most out of the various weapon types is to build your loadouts in such a way that weaknesses are compensated for. If you're going Swordplay on a character, get Sharpshooter and bring a shotgun. Use the blade for miscellaneous zombies and the shotgun for hordes and hairy moments. If you're going Striking, get Gunslinger and bring a pistol, SMG, or assault rifle. Use the bonk device for groups and the gun for priority targets.
It's also worth pointing out that the weight values of the various weapon types complement each other when paired like this. Shotguns are pretty heavy, but blades are usually light, and blunt weapons are heavy as well, but pistols and automatics are usually light.
Agreed but I go for highest magazines and on sidearms too
bladed, all day, every day! i'd rather kill something in 1 shot, than spend time and stamina on the target.
get good enough with your sworddancing, horde are not a problem. as long as you got enough stamina
A lot of people likes blades, but they're very inconsistent. The level of the player's skill (and I play every day on Nightmare Zone) is not going to help you against big zombie attacks where as striking will plow through any number of zombies.
Blades are great when they're hitting their lethal strike in 1-2 hits, but then they're terrible when you aren't getting them. This will happen even when you are using the highest quality blades in the game like the Bastard of Belleau Woods or the CLEO heavy blade.
@@GitGudFox it kills rly quickly tho and I always run out of stamina on striking btw I've watched this before just returning
Edit idk if this is a massive effect but I'm on pc so it's prob a bit less sluggish and more pc is more monuveralble so doge more effective
@@teddyfield2164 No one is denying that it kills quickly. you are missing Git Gud Fox's point completely.
When going against a horde, being able to kills a single target in a few shots won't be as efficient as being able to make 1 swing that hits multiple targets in one go.
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior you get it... Literally just ran into that situation earlier today... had a blade weapon amd a shit load of zombies... had to rely too often on dodging...
with striking i got into the same huge horde problem but not even maxed out managed to spam the knock down swing and stun or knock down multiple zeds...
I choose bladed cause usually I slim the herd down then attack
It's all about the combinations. Swordplay and powerhouse cranks out one hit kills. Acrobatics and close combat (my fav) let's you jump kick.
I tend to combine close combat with powerhouse.
@@GitGudFox I feel like close combat and powerhouse are two complete opposites.
TonyNite OPPOSITES i tell ya
@@joshualewis8145 remember Powerhouse can drop kick so Maybe it’s good with cqc?
Powerhouse allows to dropkick with CQC (and other weapons as long as it's not a Heavy one). Biggest thing? Dropkicks open up Ferals to execution. And Powerhouse also gives you a general stamina cost reduction on attacks which stacks with CQC innate reduction. Pair these reductions with Dodge into Execution and you will be able to easily deal with larger hordes of non-Blood Plague zeds.
I miss heavy weapons :( running in to a horde with a shovel was great!
2H weapons were my favorite in SoD1. I'm not happy that they weren't included in SoD2.
And the two handed axe! ☹️
can you not get a shovel in sod2? or is it just not the same as the first game
jared not the same as the first game. The only two handed weapons are blunt based, and the shovel, while dope, is bladed, so it’s one handed.
Well this aged well
This is one of those games I never thought would have so many details in its mechanics and alterations in gameplay. There really is a depth below the surface of "kill the zombies this way or this way"
Been playing since Christmas and never knew about the feral stun with the blunt weapons. I mainly use the Cleo long blade but after you showed that, I might have a new favorite weapon category lol thanks
I was initially doubtful of whether or not this would be a good video subject, but I've found that there's always a few little details here and there that people didn't know about.
Tbh I Ferals were the worst enemies in the game for me, for so long, till I got gunplay. That snapshot made them an absolute joke, so I never even knew about stunning them, or melee takedown, for so long. My only three options were run away, 3v1 smack down, or headshot.
I just dash away after they lung and miss before popping them in the head. Lot easier, since they dodged like Ninjas in the first game (course the strafe ground finish combo was what i did there).
Man, I played this way to much back when.
You should try the rebar blade best sword overall. Really durable
I used one originally, but I switched to the grasscutter for the better ease of use. The stamina usage is noticeably better on it while only having a bit worse durability.
I always use either a shovel for durability or the Red Talon sword since it's light and average plus pair it with discipline and it won't break easily.
@@edrodriguez3215 a shovel for swordplay??? I will try it but I like the daybreak long blade the best. Most it takes is three hits to kill
rocklakebarber that is not what I remember
aaron Ramirez He means the trench tool
Something to point out about the zombie dexterity over obstacles:. On dreadzone difficulty and above they rarely trip and fall after climbing, I have used the same tactic on normal mode to regain stamina and get some cheap executions, doesn't work so well on harder difficulties. This game makes some pretty subtle changes to the mechanics
It should still work. It just depends on the height they fall from. There are certain heights they can fall from without tripping.
"Especially when you get them on the ground, and you just start stabbing their face!"
Umm... you okay, bro? Need a hug? We're here, if you need to talk... and if we can't help, I know these peeps in white coats. They'll take the best care of you.
:D :P
Lol
LMAOOOOOO!
It's called being human.
Violence is in human nature. After all, this is literally a game about killing stuff.
The stealth build.
Marathon/Backpacking (Your choice either free stamina or more stamina)
Stealth. (Or you could switch out for something else if you're capable of stealth)
Close combat. (Because no need to carry a melee that adds weight)
Gunslinger (For the aimbot)
5th skill whatever.
Driving for the ultimate stealth build. It makes your car quieter which means you can disemark at a location, and fewer, possibly none, zombies will be chasing after your car.
Why no acrobatics ? Those others are terrible perks.
@@I3arett Acrobatics sucks
On lethal zone
Marathon
Stealth
Close combat
And Gunslinging.
Although you lose 2 slots an Ultralight backpack
And a light crossbow.
Most threats are easy to deal with.
I generally only shoot ferrals and boaters in lethal.
Ferrals are worse than juggernauts in lethal.
The stealth run with marathon is a really good combo.
Run in stealth killing hordes.... If it goes wrong run out... As you run your stamina will replenish.
Hide...rinse repeat.
Knowing that your weapon won't break in a fight and having limited parts to repair anything...
The only other threat I shoot is Hostile enclaves but then I tend to attract a whole horde of Zombies to them and watch the show from afar....
@@miketovey7815 ferals are worse then any zombie lol. In sod1 they would kill u so fast. And they are annoying asf because of their armor plate on their head
Swordplay, if you know the moves. you can be very lethal.
The good news about the melee skills is that they're pretty similar in value. The closer you get to Lethal Zone, the better close combat becomes, but the skills are all fairly balanced in the fighting category.
You forgot the jumping knee attack from cqc and combining it with powerhouse let you grab execute from any angle close quarters has a running jumping knee attack most people dont know about you can use on hordes if there's no fences
I didn't know about the flying knee at the time of the video's creation.
Flying strike is not from CQC. It's from Acrobatics, a cardio skill.
But indeed there are benefits from combining various core skills together.
These videos are so amazingly helpful I wish I found this channel when I first got the game lol but keep up the great work!
Wish the RUclips algorithm would throw me a bone and recommend my guides to people more.
@@GitGudFox it just did. I picked up this game recently and I had no idea close combat is so different when it comes to the weapon type.
Also, Ironicly I'd say Swordplay Masters, are actually Terrible for those quests where someone wants you to hack off limbs. A sword master could go into a horse, n only take 3 arms, with the rest being instant decapitations.
But swordplay Is good for marathon players, since low weight is good for them (but clearly CQC is even better for marathon runners then)
You might be able to adjust that by focusing on using bladed weapons with a low lethality stat and a high dismemberment stat.
"I just really enjoy stabbing the shit out of zombies" - Amen brother
Figured I'd get 1 last video out for 2018 and continue addressing the new changes in State of Decay 2 brought about by Zedhunter and update 6.0. What is your preferred weapon skill? I tend to use Striking, but I prefer Close Combat.
Holly crap dude , I've been playing SOD2 since launch and only specialized swordplay. Always. In my head I thought the leg sweep was the best, little did I know that specializing blunts makes them op, plus you get some new animations. Wow this video litteraly opened my eyes. And close combat looks brutal , gonna try all that tomorrow. Happy New Year eh!
@@LordAlmightyIAm Same with me except for striking. Just make sure you bring some strong painkillers and some firecrackers while you mess around because it can take a moment to unwire the swords mentality a bit to get the hang of blunt and knives.
@@LordAlmightyIAm Also, I'm using pretty top notch weapons. A lesser blunt weapon may not floor a zombie in a single blow, but I imagine you have some solid options having played from launch.
@@GitGudFox lol my group is unstoppable. Rick's group from TWD got nothing on me. I got very power riffles, machine guns, bloody shotguns, all sorts of blades and lots of cans of whoop ass, after seeing your video I'm going for some blunt weapon hunting .
Oh and I hate coming face to face with a freak, now I know a blunt to the head will do the job.
I finally got to try the Close combat and I love it,it looks super cool shanking zombies and ferals,if it wasn't for this video never would've given it a chance,I think at least one character should have this skills, thanks also Gitgoodfox,these videos are making my SOD2 experience 10x better,I also finally got to move to the Bridge fort I love it but eventually had to move to L&k storage and it going great only complaint is Bridge fort has the best location
It's a lot of fun to use. It isn't super great against crowds of zombies, but every weapon has to have a weakness.
Will you do a updated video on Heavy weapons? I haven't seen the skill yet but you see anything?
same question
Unlike one-handed weapons, unlockable skills for heavy weapons will not be unlocked from the Fighting core skills, but rather from the Cardio core skills. So you can have these skills and some moves for heavy weapons at the same time.
To get it, your cardio specialization has to be Powerhouse. It's nothing too fancy. The skill allows you to execute standing enemies while you have a heavy weapon equipped... it will pull the enemy onto the floor and stomp on their face. That's pretty much it.
There is also a "power hit" by holding the melee weapon, it will charge up your weapon and hit an enemy (it is actually weak, with very poor accuracy, while being slow)... very underwhelming.
Fox: awman look at all these unique mele weapons!
Me: g u n
Wow! What a wealth here! I use the apocalypse bat. But, when I level, I try to go with any health bump. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your testing. Great video. And a happy New year to you and yours!
Happy New Year to you! I mainly used melee in SoD1, so it sort of carried over into SoD2. There are actually several executions from SoD1 I really miss including the "Mario Stomp." We'll get to see it when I get around to the SoD1 playthrough.
i find the swordplay to be pretty good if youre in a choke point like a doorway since you can just keep on executing without interruptions unless a zombie attacks behind you but you can still dodge so youre pretty safe
I suppose this was made before powerhouse and heavy weapons were a thing. Heavy weapons+powerhouse beat striking with a mace any day. Though my personal fav is powerhouse+close combat. Pretty op really.
The redesign on striking makes it a lot better than powerhouse with any other weapon unless you're specifically killing plague hearts. The grand slam always knocks zombies down, with a single skill, and now the new smart execution system ensures you will get the extremely fast blunt golfclub swing on every execution as long as 2+ zombies are near eachother.
It basically obsoleted the old meta of powerhouse/closecombat.
You can also do standing execution spam with swordplay because of smart executions as well.
I think striking is the worst of the three personally. I play on standard difficulty so that's probably why.
It isn't very good 1v1. Striking is for fighting large quantities of enemies.
I play on nightmare and only really use endurance or swords. Striking let's me down too much when I need them dead. It might be good against a feral but a bullet is better. And when there's 3 of them you ain't got time for trying to stun them.
Fighting 2 Ferals with a knive and survive... im very happy that i started playing this after they added higher difficulties. :) A survival game without a real threat sounds boring to me.
It was standard zone, so they're not hitting as hard as they could be, and I'm also less injury prone on standard zone. It can also be done on Nightmare Zone, but I'd have to do a lot more dodging.
Black Coffee Ferals are weak tho
@@ic4192 maybe alone yes but in pack i cant say they are weak
@@ic4192 ever fought blood ferals
Now try to fight a pack Of ferals con lethal with knife :P
Striking is really useful in lethal zone where you can easily get surroundend by many zombies, in fact you can't start a fight with a single zee without him shouting and causing an uproar that attracts 20 more of them.
This was incredibly helpful! Especially the CQC info. OMG! That curb-stomp move at 11:40
I was hesitant to try CQC until I made this video, so I wind up learning as much as I teach.
pff why use a melee when you have AR's in the game?
Jk great vid man, i needed this when the game first launched lol
That used to be the mainstay weapon of the community. I collected a bunch of ARs and kept everyone armed with them on guard duty.
Git Gud Fox ikr but now I just have them armed with saigas cause they look and sound cool lol
israel carrillo I
Mean it’s pretty true one bullet to the face with a pistol to the feral good to go lmao
israel carrillo just arm everyone with b50fgs and firewhirls lolol
Plus CQC you save weight/inventory slot! There for getting those benefits too
That is another perk!
Survivor: I’m really surprised on how good we’re doing
Fox getting mauled by ferals: OH YEAH?
CQC is definitely my favorite one to use against zombies.
Sadly in online play it suffers really badly during lag, making it almost useless.
Like the grabs and throws stop working properly, and zombies start dealing damage to you simply because you're close.
Co-op is one of the most disappointing faults of SoD2 unfortunately.
12:19 my gameplay lol. You can also use curbs by the road for killing Jugg while he is climbing across it. Also CLEO Greathammer is the only one melee weapon you can kill blood plague juggernaut with 10-15 hits...
I have never tried it against jugs outside of the Daybreak mode.
Blunt weapons with moderate lethality are superb. You don't need to bother with executions and they'll just lawnmower regular zombies. And they knock helmets off armored zombies well enough. Eg apocalypse bat is probably the best blunt weapon
I wouldn't go that far. I have used the apocalypse bat since day 1, and while it is effective, it most definitely will not mow zombies down.
Close Combat is by far my favorite the grab executions are OP!
Been playing state of decay 2 since 2015!! It's amazing x
That's a pretty long time!
Thank you for explaining the respec books, I couldn't find a single vid on it, I mainly try to go endurance on all characters
The can sometimes be a pain to get. I'm trying to get more of them this weekend.
Swordplay and Discipline combo. Blades last longer and one shot more often (plus the standing Y execution is great).
I really like Close Combat with Gunslinger, equip a rifle, BUT Close Combats execution is super boring. The sneak attacks on both standing and prone zombies can be neat, but one yank and stomp execution is weak. Plus that's all I get with heavy weapons, the yank and stomp.
Striking to knock down and execute really. Better for groups personally. That little twirl in Swordplay almost always gets me hit, but still preferred.
Marathon, Discipline, Swordplay, Gunslinging is my favorite build. All my best have this. If I have Close Quarters, I don't care about Wits as much. Scout with Gunslinging, but Resources is preferred because of extra pocket.
Now that I've rambled...😗😐😒😐😉✋
Yes bro, swordplay really is one of the best skills, or else the best! you can play calmly and annihilate a horde with it, this is very good and efficient especially for those who like blades, but honestly I still prefer striking, it is more my style of play, but I do not deny that swordplay is a bit too op .
i love how he jus said shut up i’m busy when he hit day 100 😂
I'm a Striking guy myself, but I try to avoid CLEO weapons b/c I don't want to play Daybreak. that said, the CLEO mace was the only CLEO weapon, melee or ranged, that I ever spent Prestige points on for my base game. my favorite blunt weapons are currently the Metal Bat, the Halligan Tool, and the Crow's Beak. Metal Bat has really high Ease of Use and surprisingly high Lethality for a blunt weapon, Halligan Tool has high Ease of Use and good Durability, and Crow's Beak (along with the Deck Destroyer, which I also like) is the blunt weapon with the highest Lethality I am aware of.
I use a lot of the DLC blunt weapons like apocalypse bat and CLEO mace. The crow's beak is also one I like. It's sort of a hybrid between a blunt and a blade.
For blunt/edged weapons, once you get the Striking/Swordplay skill, the only stat that really matters is weight. The same for goes for edged weapons. The reason for that is, you're very rarely going to need to do the basic attack anymore. That CLEO Mace or whatever... you give that to the NOOBS in your colony... the experts get Noodlers and Metal Bats. For Heavy weapons, the other stats matter.
Weight only matters if your character has marathon. It plays little role anywhere else.
Blunt weapons make extensive use of knockdown and ease of use which allows for 1-hit knockdowns on regular attacks and reduced consumption of stamina for executions.
Bladed weapons make use of lethality and ease of use.
I got a CQC person and I found a karambit, never looked back.
I like the karambit myself. It has a nice wicked curve like an eagle's talon. I've notice a few Undertale fans sifting in periodically. There's someone with a Sans avatar, a Asriel account, and someone with a Chara avatar too.
Love your vids! Honestly i thought i was the only person who used knives as a primary melee weapon. Once you have the eternal guard big groups are easy or you can trim down zombies to a manageable number
Yes, the advisory about CQC's limitations about crowds of enemies will mainly be useful to brand new players... and as well as to experienced players who are trying it for the first time, so that their expectations aren't misplaced.
Endurance x Apocalypse bat.
I recommend Echo-2 Mamba because it’s silent, good ease of use, and light and since it’s silent it can stealth kill juggernauts by slicing its back and crouching
It also has the best Impact of all bladed weapons (its impact even outperform most blunt weapons), making it great for taking down a feral 1v1 or even juggernaut 1v1, while still maintaining very good Lethal stat.
@@tungnse Yup
I don't like blunt weapons because of the Worst Execute Animation in Gaming history feels like your stuck in it for Hours.
You can just stomp their head if you don't want to risk getting the head squishing execution. Just knock them down and press the jump button near their head.
"Close Combat" to "CQC" for short...
Both are just three syllables! :P
I tend to emphasize the "t" in combat, so the abbreviation rolls off the tongue better than saying close combat.
Because the Q stands for Quarters... it's Close Quarters Combat. Which is 5 syllables.
Can you update a lot of your skill videos as almost all of them are out of date
Appreciate your thorough analysis…you break this game down to a science 😯
I love the close combat skill but i got a problem every time i want survivor to learn close combat skill it doesn’t show like it just shows striking skill and endruance skill i always use close combat fighting type for this survivor and it always doesn’t show close combat skill in the skills list pls i need help with this how can i let my survivor learn close combat skill do i have like when every time i see i zombie do i have like to do some move to show close combat skill or what?
Not every character will have access to every skill. It's based on their traits. For example, someone who has the "used to dance" trait is going to be able to learn acrobatics.
The only way to assure that a character will have all the skills is to use a retraining manual from the Mysterious Wandering Trader, but they cost 1500 influence.
@@GitGudFox alright thank you for letting me know ☺️🙏😊
Good second to cleo mace is the transmission mace. It also has dismember.
I love this channel and this game
Swordplay is the best hands down for lethal.
A zombie without legs is neutralized, which is one less zombie the game can respawn.
Swordplay is probably the weakest overall. Slicing zombies legs off is a weaker strategy that just killing them in 1 hit which the other styles can do, or can down and kill multiple zombies at once.
It's not something you will see the very high skill players do much.
No .Dodge. Shove. ScrewDriver Execute is the best.
No stamina needed.
Pick swordplay and use the bastard sword of balleau wood. Pretty much one hits anything it touches or at the least cleaves off a limb. Just make sure you always repair it when you get the opportunity.
If you can get one, it is fairly rare.
@@GitGudFox
I'm on day 177 got a bunch lol
Endurance? Did we forget this skill?
Endurance isn't a weapon skill. It's just a stat buff. It's why the video isn't thumbnailed as "Fighting Skills."
What are the best melee weapons in the Game right now?
Hard to say. The high angle rescue hatchet is a great bladed weapon, and I like the CLEO mace quite a bit for blunt.
going to main a close combat bunny rabbit now
It's pretty fun if you can get the hang of the weapon's pacing.
How'd you get the Karambit??? That's like my favorite knife! I even have one irl lol
There's a chance to get it from Mysterious quests if they involve looting humans or opening up supply chests.
Red talon operators you have to kill from mysterious quests carry them.
you get hit up by one guy, and he's like: "this crazy ex talon chick took control of my group, can u kill her without killing my friends? so you shoot her in the head from a distance with a gun, then on her corpsy worpsy there's a karambit and a mamba, as well as an mp5K spec ops with a red talon hiking pack.
as of update 26 i’d say swordplay is much easier to use against hordes as you do fast executions all the time when it’s maxed, strikings still kind of the same becos you’d usually knocked them down before executing
CQC also has a unique sweeping kick from behind that instantly knocks a zed down and you can curb stomp them.
True, you could also have grabbed them and stabbed their head though.
Or you could get heroism which does everything...
That means playing awful Daybreak game mode though.
The key to melee combat is getting the zombies on the ground. The best thing about swordplay is the zombies cannot get back up. Blunt weapons and close combat have some quicker executions. But if you want to simplify fighting, you pick the endurance skill. Throw the zombies on the floor, and stomp them to death/crouch and stab.
You can do that a lot quicker with striking. 1 special attack from endurance knocks down 1 zomibe. 1 special attack from striking knocks down all of the zombies in front of you.
You also don't get the bonus lethality from swordplay, the standing execution from close combat, or the enhanced impact from striking. You do get more health and injury resistance with endurance, but it's overkill on Standard Zone, and offense is more important than defense in Nightmare Zone.
Swordplay only! Just for the execution and the cool zombie part flying while in combat
Swordplay is good overall
Striking is the worst for me but great vid watched it before but revisiting
One of the few skill trees I would not change if I re-analyzed it for Nightmare Zone. The order would be Striking > Swordplay > CC > Endurance.
Helpful vid. Cleared up what ease of use is for me (thought it was speed).
I hate striking because its so slow but now I know it stuns ferals thats a game changer. In NM I wonder how it will do against feral packs. Im constantly dying to those given im low on ammo.
The real question is the difference between impact and knockdown? Without descriptions, they sound like the same thing.
Thank you for these videos. You are one of my favorite channels.
I'm honored you'd say that! I try to make content worth watching from a viewer's perspective.
I basically just save the heavier weapons for the survivors with the most stamina. The rest tends to work itself out.
I always find the heavy weapons to just never bring enough value for their weight. There are so many lighter weapons that have deadlier stats like the Grasscutter.
I always go with blunt and when I’m one on one I dodge behind the zombie and execute it using the knife as you don’t have to unequip your main weapon to do this. I hardly ever use blades but they are fun as shit so I usually have one survivor trained in blades
I prefer blunt primarily, myself. Swords a pretty good for moderate combat since they are very fast, but they break down easily in heavy combat.
knockdown weapons is harder to use against blood plague zombies since they tend to be faster and more spread out than regular zombies.
Zombies are just zombies. There isn't a difference between the standard zombie and a blood plague zombie besides their ability to infect you with blood plague. Whether they are more or less grouped together is coincidence.
@@GitGudFox Really? I find the zombies charge more and fall less on lethal compared to lower difficulties...
@@likeablekiwi6265 Knockdown rates are just flat percentage chance based on the knockdown stat. Using a spin attack guarantees knockdown regardless of the weapon.
The more zombies, the more effective the blunt spin attack is as it knocks zombies down like dominoes where the first group knocks down the zombies directly behind them.
Personally I use blade and a ar/shotgun because that gives me a good way of killing singles, hordes, ferals and juggernauts but when I use blunt weapons I use the echo-3 repeating crossbow because I can quickly kill singles, hordes, ferals but not juggernauts
CQC is REALLY helpful in early Nightmare Mode when you're stuggling for parts.
Transmission mace and rebar sword.. crows break not sure its class
Crow is a blunt, but its stats make it sort of a hybrid mace/axe. It has a lot more lethality and dismember than other maces.
So.... There's zero difference in CQC weapons? At all?! Besides asthetics?
Yeah, screwdriver or military issued combat knife, they're the same.
@@GitGudFox well damn... I've paid for the fancy ones before. U got me interested in trying CQC. I've been always doing swordplay. How do you level up chemistry?
Make painkillers.
13:40 how many new buttholes did that feral get?
More than 1!
My favorite stat combo is marathon stealth and close combat
So when you stealth run at light encumbrance, it is free and fast to kill and the dash and grab works quickly. Also no weapon durability! And stun locking ferals makes this pretty effective
man, for me striking for sure, i just love playing with a baseball bat and pushing my enemies like kids, i can play with a horde if i want, i end up with a feral in just a few quick hits, the juggernaut doesn't even touch me hehe, this is amazing!
Play as a red talon operator with a RTX extermination blade, they absolutely wreck everything
I try to avoid playing Daybreak as much as I can typically.
Git Gud Fox i have 8 full skill red talon operators all with RTX extermination blades and whenever the base gets attacked we don’t even get close to getting overran
Git Gud Fox and they all have unique voices, faces and skills!
Git Gud Fox and they’re all in the operator uniform
RT guys are ridiculously OP compared to regular survivors. They have ridiculous amounts of stamina and basically have a combination of every cardio, wits, fighting, and shooting you can get. The only thing they really suck at is killing juggs because of their acrobatics (since it replaces the dodge with that silly roll that is easy to break the animation on)...plague juggs are especially punishing. This video was about comparing the different fighting abilities...since the RT operatives do it all, it's not really in the scope of this video.
powerhouse and close combat is so strong imo. cause you can just grapple and throw a zombie into the rest of the horde and it knocks down a ton of them. then you use close combat's extremely quick execution animations to clean house. you also get the benefit of not having to carry a melee weapon which has three benefits: 1. lighter load to stay in light carry capacity 2. don't need to spend parts on repairing and 3. you can use the empty melee slot to carry a weapon for looting.
idk why people don't praise the powerhouse grapple more. 1 zombie thrown into a group can stun several zombies for 5+ seconds. it's crazy.
I usually choose close quarters, then run with no primary melee weapon equipped. When you do this and you set the characters skills up just right, running will not take stamina and dodging will barely take anything too. This allows you to mulch your way through a horde using the quick button kills and come out at the end with no damaged weapons and barely any damage taken. It takes a while to get used to the tactic for doing it, but it's my primary tactic that I've used and I'm currently on a Nightmare world with 0 survivor deaths in day 22.
Close combat for me it saves weight for other things which can help keep you in the light weight bracket meaning you can get infinite stamina out of marathon but tbh all these skills depend on what I’m pairing it with striking if you want a tank esc character etc
The enigmatic axe has the best all around stats for any weapon in the game. Good for Amy specialization
One thing though great video, but you didn't mix matched the other skills that makes it even better for example powerhouse, discipline and close combat is god like that's my favorite combo.
Yeah, I'll probably do synergistic ability combos since they're worth talking about, but I'll probably do them in terms of builds rather than cover them all simultaneously. I also need more retraining manuals to tinker with the skills a bit too.
Sweet deal bro keep up the great work :)
i'm not sure why you had trouble with sword play against a horde... had one of my chicks quite literally dancing through a horde, killing a zombie with each movement... honestly rely shocked me lmao... i expected to have to run for my vehicle and loss the person i was protecting... but, apparently a horde is no match for a decent blade and a still leveling swordplay!
i must say however, i had NO idea close combat was for knives/screwdrivers; i just thought it was the traditional close combat, thanks for that!
oh and if you dodge or bolt out of combat... it interupts you swordplay combos. just need to be fast enough to anticipate incoming damage (kill that target first!)
as a blade fighter, word of advice! Carry more than 1 blade on you, and possibly 1 in your vehicle (usually not necessary)
Because it's luck based. Swordplay relies heavily on percentage effects from lethality. You can get lucky and swipe a zombie's head off in 1-2 hits, or you can get extremely unlucky and take 4-5 hits on every zombie. It happens all the time if you use the weapon consistently enough.
I use high durability blades such as the High Angle Rescue Hatchet or the Grasscutter to compensate for durability. I prefer having 1 more inventory slot than carrying multiple blades.
Blunt weapons and close combat are not luck based. Once you have the correct blunt weapon, and the striking skill, they 100% of the time knock down a zombie. They're also objectively better against a larger variety of threats like ferals.
@@GitGudFox when talking about hordes... the percentage no longer counts, its no longer so much about instant kills, its about countering the next incoming attack; since that first character i mentioned; i've watched many of my characters (designed the same way), dance through hordes, focusing on the next incoming attack.
seems the only real downside, is stamina... really need to keep those energy drinks on hand lol.
dodging with swordplay, should really only be used as a last resort, cause if you watch the character, its not a single or couple of strikes, its a series of strikes making a combo, which is when you start getting 1-2 shots.
kinda seems as though the longer you continuously attack, the higher your 1shot percentage becomes... just a theory though.
ease of use, speed and lethality for bladed are definitely key for these builds... though your forced to sacrifice durability (which sucks, but the decapitations make up for that haha)
It's just percentage based. You can sword 3 times in a row and get 3 instant kills, or you can swing 4 times on the same zombie before it goes down. Sometimes, you can clear a horde in a series of instant kills. Othertimes, you're swilling energy drinks just keep swinging.
It can go really well. It can go really poorly. Striking always goes really well. There's no need to dance around because you knock all the zombies down in 1 hit. The striking special sweep can knock down whole groups of them in 1 sweep. The horde spends all its time trying to stand back up while you kill them.
I've used all 3 styles quite a bit through my now over 100 episodes of the Nightmare Zone series, and it still is the same. Swordplay is great against small numbers of zombies, but it quickly loses reliability against larger groups of zombies.
The only thing that is bad about striking is that one of its execution animations is long; otherwise, it's going to be a more reliable weapon than swordplay in all situations except convenience situations like quickly killing straggler zombies which isn't very important to begin with.
Uo i was a blade guy but now ima need to change to cqc
Don't respec all your sword guys. It's still worth having some of them.
Acrobatocs + Cqc = a lot of fun, well for me. Flying strike is a guaranteed knocked without a melee weapon. You can be stabby mc. stabberson or quick kill mc. quickerson. It's just fun as hell! I wouldn't recommend it on anything above dread zone though...
That one bad ass survivor that you bring with you everywhere, even through legacy talking to baby survivor.
"I once killed a blood feral and Juggernaut....with JUST a screwdriver tough guy"
Remake one for Heavy weapon!
What these skills mean to me,
Close combat: 1v1 against zombies are faster, as you can now dodge behind them and press Y, but with close combat skill, it goes much faster, bonus, no weapon durability is wasted,
Striking: hordes of zombies become easier to ko, as blunt weapons hit multiple zombies instead of 1
Swordplay: insane attack speed! Especially useful against juggernauts when you don’t have A gun/your gun broke
Just now getting into this game and love it so far. Not a complaint against it or anything but it would make more sense if bladed weapons swept throught crowds and blunt attacked singularly but did more stun and knockback damage to make up for it. I'd still want a sweep through upgrade for blunt though.
Deffo might try blunts now :)
Slow paced in small numbers but plows through large numbers of zombies. I feel safe using it even in Nightmare Zone.
Always like the blunt weapons best. Especially at the start when you make a new community with no stats. They knock down groups much faster than trying to go in bladed. Even if it doesn’t kill them the knocking down buys time. Always best choice imo.
Thanks again for a great video. My question would be when selecting a skill from say cardio or wits and the choices are one with white lettering and one in yellow, does anyone know what this means? also, one of my characters had a choice of all cardio groups. Has anyone encountered the same thing?
Yeah, when you use the training manual they all turn yellow except for the universal skill. I think it means that the skill is specially available because of some kind of condition. Like, one of my characters has dancer as a background, so she was able to learn acrobatics which wouldn't have been available otherwise, and it wasn't a white or grey skill.
@@GitGudFox Thanks that sounds logical. Kind of like hero bonus plays from character background traits.
Honestly I've seen alot of threads that are religious to swordplay.
I've kinda taken the opinion that everything is contextual so I like diversifying my survivors skill sets and matching them to the situation. I've had a use for all the skills. Asking which is best is the wrong question. It's about what's best at what.
Plus. You can often compensate what a character lacks with their gun skill.
LOL "Stabbing the shit out of zombies."
I personally prefer swordplay because its leg sweep can make an entire horde not a threat very quickly. It makes clearing buildings with a few zombies very easy. I also really like close combat for characters I design for stealth. It just makes sense for that build.
All of the weapons can be good. Swordplay's weakness is that swords are very fragile with few exceptions, and they're probability based with their kills except when using executions. They're also the worst of the melee weapons again ferals. Even with the leg sweep, swordplay is still not as effective as blunt when dealing with huge quantities of zomies nor will it clear through zombies in an emergency such as trying to save an NPC covered in zombies like blunt weapons can.
@@GitGudFox I agree that bladed are fragile, though I try to avoid melee with ferals. I prefer to just get the headshot off on them. My play style also typically has me avoiding hordes of more than about 8, or using the crossbow repeater from a distance.
That's also how I play. Sometimes, especially in Nightmare Zone, the game decides to dump a heap of stuff on you. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." As they say.
Discipline helps the sword last longer for the wits specialization and some people hero traits help out(difficult to find) but it's still breaks fast or may e I'm just killing so much zombies.
hordes and ferals lack damage so not really much of a risk if you decide swordplay. Juggernaunts are a risk so you should probably pick swordplay. Bloodplague generally is not a risk as you can have them sit at base to heal up if they get infected and you'll probably have enough cures if you let it naturally heal and it's probably more effective to have as many combat efficient settlers to defend your base so switching up when your characters are tired or sick can be useful anyway. CQC is pointless. It has unlimited durabilty but lacks damage and is short range. In regards for durability all you really need is a workshop and traders and when you need materials you can also use the radio anyway. so I feel like for fighting Swordplay then striking then Endurance then CQC. CQC is the skill that'll most likely land you with the most damage done to you overall. You also forget damage isn't the only usefulness with blades dismemberment is also useful. It was kind of the same thing for State of Decay 1 also.
I miss my hockey from State of decay 1
The hockey stick?
@@GitGudFox on the first state of decay, they have a hockey stick as a heavy
I’ve got a guy who has the strong skill plus swordplay. He basically cuts through Zeds like a hot knife through butter.
the one problem that plagues all these skills, (pun intended) is the random executions, you know what i mean, one second you are getting the coveted sweep instant kill on a downed zombie, and the next you are getting the dreaded press down hard for 2 - 3 seconds execution.
tho i do prefer striking and bladed, so i tend to mix it up with my group. that being said i can't stand cqc, it has way to much dodging mechanics to make it fun. maybe if they gave the knives there own stats. maybe even put brass knuckles in the game, that would be awesome. punching a zombie to death would be so satisfying.