Z Dawn Stats
There are 5 stats that each survivor starts with. Stats cap at a base of 10.
- STR: Increased melee damage, +1 inventory capacity
- SPD: Chance to dodge zombie attacks
- FOC: Increased firearm damage
- END: +1 HP, Lower infection chance on damage
- INT: Crafting, Some events require INT, Construction(?)
So what stats are important? Well you might see what you gain and think as a beginner that each skill is useful but you would be wrong. To begin you want to think of what each survivor will be. Regardless you want them to have as high of a SPD rating as possible. 6~ SPD means your characters will dodge some attacks. They will still take damage but they have a good chance of avoiding it. 11~ SPD and they dodge most attacks, they can be surrounded by zombies by themselves and make it out alive in good health. 16-18~ SPD will allow characters to dodge almost all attacks but they are not invincible keep this in mind.
Once you get a base of 10 in SPD it will be a good idea to start specializing characters. STR will allow characters to carry more so once SPD is maxed if they do a lot of looting you will want to max STR next to carry as many items as possible. The increased melee damage is not high enough to warrant it for being used only for damage.
FOC Is a pretty useless skill. Guns already do tons of damage and with a decently sized group all armed with AK’s and M4’s you will destroy hordes or survivors with ease.
END is only good if you worry about infection as that can kill survivors if you are unlucky. The extra HP is not worth anything really since a high SPD means a survivor with 10~ HP can take 30-50 attacks and not even be at critical health if even at half HP.
INT is good for crafting and is important later in the game but as an early game skill this is worthless.
Z Dawn Perks
Perks can be gained by spending skill points you get when you level up. Some are very powerful while others are bad.
Savage I, II,III: A purely melee damage buff. I take this right after getting my SPD around 11~ or maxed out. It makes grinding on a character easier as 1 kill = 1 XP.
Sharpshooter I, II, III: Just like Savage but for guns. One of the most worthless perks in the game since guns already do insanely high damage by themselves.
Good Eyes: A good choice for characters that spend a lot of time looting. More items is never a bad thing since storage is infinite(as far as I know).
Evasion: Just a pure 5% chance to dodge. Goes well with SPD and can be useful itself but I rarely take this since high SPD already dodges a lot of attacks.
Uplifted Spirit: Perhaps the most worthless perk in the game. Currently my survivors are all at very high morale and none of them have this perk. Through not trying to manage morale at all I am able to keep it high by simply playing.
Small Belly: Might just be the best of the worst. I haven’t had any issues finding food(due note I play on max item and zombie spawns so your results may vary)so this perk hasn’t been high on my list. Worth getting if you have food issues especially if you have a lot of survivors.
Munitions Expert: Explains itself. Never used this perk since I find more then enough ammo at the military base. Though again I do play on max item spawns so your results can vary. Not a useless perk by any means but it is useless early in the game.
Butcher: I have never had a survivor die to infection. To failed amputations however…With a large amount of survivors I would recommend having 1 person in each group with this perk. Infections will happen eventually and losing survivors due to unlucky amputation rolls really suck.
Craftsmanship: Also explains itself. Haven’t crafted items yet but I can see myself using this perk possibly. Not good early in the game but it has it’s niche.
Adaptive: Okay maybe THIS is the worse perk in the game. +3 damage when you aren’t using a weapon. I find weapons literally everywhere so I imagine even on lower item spawnrates finding weapons isn’t impossible so this perk has literally no point in existing. Unless you wanna roleplay some unarmed monk character this perk should never be used.
Junkie: I would suggest taking this after Good Eyes. Early on HP is harder to get. Food only gives +1 HP and medical items can be a challenge to get. So having a chance to get a few extra painkillers here and there will really help you early in the game.
Light Foot: This perk has it’s niche but outside of maybe 1 or 2 events a high SPD stat will get your out of them. Useful but it isn’t all that great.
Gun Expert: Well…again the thing explains itself…
Chemist Expert: This perk falls into a weird niche. Early on you can’t use this perk and later when you could use it the odds are you are scavenging medical items faster then crafting would be worth. Can be used but I have to test it before I can give more info about it.
Virologist Expert: I haven’t gotten to use this perk yet (getting close to it) but I would imagine this is perhaps the most important perk in the game. More info to come.