Your First Hour in HELL

So you're new to this horrible game and need a helping hand at kicking off your string of bad decisions? You've come to the right place. The first thing you should do is pick what weapon type you should use. The wiki has some up to date guides (and some very OLD guides) you can use to get a sense of what your options are. I suggest Fists, Whips or Spears as your first weapon build. Fists are very strong, easy to acquire and works well with Zombie which is a SUPER noobie friendly mutation. Whips is simple and gives you ridiculously high dodge which is arguably the best stat in the game. It's also the basic build to go if you want to do brains stuff. My current build is Endurance whips and I can manage to do most basic brainy things despite sitting at 11 brains unbuffed. Whips are also pretty easy to get your grubby hands on. Spears is quite tanky, works well with Zombie and are pretty damn powerful. Most endgame spears are hard as balls to get though. Currently Rifles and Pistols are VERY powerful (and probably will be forever) but are expensive and a bit "difficult" for noobies (ammo and odd weapon scaling). The main drawback is how expensive they are though. Mods and ammo add up over time and can be a pain when you first start out. Guns also work a tad differently. Unlike all other weapons, Rifles/Pistols scale their speed off of BRAWN instead of Reflexes.

Once you know what weapon you want, tagging and gymming up your stats in the bunker is your next choice. Look up "Character Creation" on the wiki and pick on your "tags" (You pick 4 which gives you 1 free stat point in that skill and makes learning that skill cheaper). You'll always tag your weapon of choice, so getting the Indy Bullwhip if your whips or the BB gun if you're rifles, as well as 3 other skills you'll want to buy a lot of. Medic, Scav and Craft are generally solid tags. Medic is good if you sit around 6-10 brains on your build so you can buy some stats and defib your friends. 30+ Scav allows for very fast and profitable material scavaging for your corpmates (or yourself) and Craft will be needed if you plan on crafting your exp at high amounts of total exp. Other solid tags are Torture (if your build is whips/blades), Wrestle (If your build is a brawny/endy build like fists or spears) or Locksmith and Hack (if you plan on going brainy and picking scrubs). Asking in chatnet what you should tag for your specific build is also a good option.

HOT TIP: Don't try and spread yourself across multiple things. Just because you want to be a brainy blades user with a pistol sidearm doesn't mean you should. It's doable, but pretty bad. Pick 1 weapon. 1 or 2 things to do besides killing shit. Then go for it.

Once your tags are done and you have woken up from the dream you'll be placed in a bunker. Any melee build will want you to get 14 Reflexes and then 14 in whatever your secondary skill is for your weapon. 14 for Senses if you're whips, 14 for Endurance if you're spears etc. This can sometimes vary, but generally it follows this rule. Your third skill can be put up to 10. This third skill will be whatever your build direction is. As an example: You can be Endurance Blades, Senses Blades OR Brawn Blades. Senses Blades will have high dodge and decent focus, Brawn Blades will use specific Blades what scale damage with Brawn and Endurance Blades will have better drug usage, knockout resistance and decent focus. Example 2: Brainy Whips and Endurance Whips are the options for whips. Endurance Whips will have INSANE focus and be able to use drugs well while Brainy Whips will be able to craft high end stuff but be more vulnerable to combat (Feint is also an option in combat for Brains users. This can stun people with low Brains.).

HOT TIP: Once you have gymmed and try to leave the bunker you will get an option to play PEACEFUL or PVP. I advise you to TRY TO PLAY PVP. Even if you don't want to kill players, trying the game how it was originally built is a great experience. It's a lot easier to go from a PVP character to a PEACEFUL (Carebear) character. Once you get comfy holding 500k in items on you, it's hard to shake that comfort. Try PVP. If you don't like it you can always make a new character to play as a Carebear or even just reroll your current one. Once you choose one you can't swap to the other without rerolling. Generally Purple = Carebear and Yellow = PVP.

Here is an example build: I have decided I want to go Endurance Whips. In dreams of before I tagged Whips, Medic (I would like to be able to support my corpies), Scav (Hunting down your own materials can be very rewarding) and Torture (Mainly because this will be bought to 15 for sure and I don't have another tag I really need). In the bunker I gym my Reflexes and Senses to 14 and my Endurance to 10.

Example build 2: I have decided I want to go Brawn Spears. In dreams of before I tagged Spears, Wrestle (To help guarantee grabs on nerds), Scav (Same as above) and Craft (While my brains will be dumpster tier because of Zombie, late game I'd like to craft for some exp and will need to buy some craft levels.). In the bunker I gym Reflexes and Endurance to 14 and my Brawn to 10.

These aren't IDEAL PERFECT BUILDS, but they show reasoning behind choices. Taking 1 bad tag out of 4 won't destroy your build.

You have now FINALLY started your character. Pat yourself on the back and start to play the game!
BUT WAIT! What the fuck are you supposed to do now? Here are some suggestions and tips for new players.

1. Grinding
I enjoy grinding. I like watching my stats go up over the course of 5 hours of typing the same thing over and over again. Runescape is a helluva drug. But for the love of god DO NOT. GRIND. ON. YOUR. FIRST. CHARACTER. Hell, don't even grind on your second character. Seriously. 99% of the time you'll realize you fucked up your build or even just grow bored of it and reroll. All the hours of grinding now wasted. Gone. Grinding will quicken how fast you grow bored of your build and you'll more than likely quit the fuckin' game before you reach something notable. Don't grind. Just PLAY. Once you understand the game and want to give a new character a go, fine. Grind if you want.

2. Carebears and PVPers
I talked about this already, but I want to emphasize this point: TRY PVP. If you really want to do Carebear from the beginning, don't be an unlikable cunt. You're already not liked by a chunk of the player base and being a little faggot makes it worse. Don't fuck with PVP players and their things. Don't sit in a store buying important items for hours at a time and if you DO decide to do this, if a PvP player pops up offer to sell them the item at cost, it's a nice thing to do and makes sure players who experience risk aren't being fucked over. Don't be a cocky shithead. Be able to laugh at yourself and keep from shitting up chatnet. Unlike other players you can't be killed for being a shithead. So try not to be.

3. Unforgiving
Hellmoo can be unforgiving as fuck. Zombies wander low level areas and can fuck a noobie up hard. If they don't kill you, they'll infect you with zombie rot and slowly turn you into a zombie. Poltergeists spawn around and getting attacked by one without the proper gear is a near 100% death sentence. Always look where you're going. Expect to die 10 times before you hit 10k exp if you're new to the game. Buy a cocoon from EO in south eastern Freedom City. Ask for help if needed and don't be a baby.

4. Corporations
Try and join one ASAP. If you're a Carebear you won't be able to join the noobie corp (ENEMA) to start yourself off. Even if you're a PVP player you should try and join a corp other than ENEMA ASAP. The help of high level players in invaluable and making friends quickly will save your ass. Most corps will have an HQ with resources for new people and many players will offer to lend you a hand.