Dead Crisis Guide

Dead Crisis is a turn-based tactical survival game played on IRC.
Set during the outbreak of a virus that transforms people into zombies, players take on the role of survivors who are trapped in a city.

Where to play
Dead Crisis is played on the IRC server Colonslash at irc.colonslash.eu in the channel #deadcrisis
The game will be running whenever the bot Four is in the channel. Feel free to come along to the server any time.

Your account
In order to play Dead Crisis you need a Five Account, which will save your progress in Dead Crisis and any future games. Registering for a Five Account is quick and simple.

How to register
If Four is in the channel and the game is running, send him a message with @register and the bot will lead you through the process. As soon as you're registered you'll be able to log in which will automatically enter you into the game.

Roles
You start with four different roles to choose from. Your choice of role determines your starting equipment and skills.
Each time you die you'll get to choose a role again.

Cop
Equipment: Police revolver, 9 Revolver bullets, Nightstick
Skills: Handguns lvl 3, Melee lvl 1
The Cop is the starting role with the most firepower and is a wise choice for your first game.
His Handguns skill gives him a headstart over other roles when it comes to using Handguns and Revolvers.
The Cop is also equipped with a Nightstick and knows how to use it.

Handyman
Equipment: Civilian handgun, 1 Handgun clip, Crowbar
Skills: Tinkering lvl 2
The Handyman is just that, a handy person to have around.
With his Tinkering skill he can dismantle guns and use their spare parts to make homemade weapons.
The Handyman also comes equipped with a Crowbar which is useful for forcing open locks.

Doctor
Equipment: Civilian handgun, 1 Handgun clip and 3 Bandages
Skills: First Aid lvl 2
The Doctor's First Aid skill gives him the ability to heal other people better than they can heal themselves.
Doctors can also @fix up people without using a bandage, which will stop any bleeding as well as providing some pain relief.
Thus, Doctors are both useful to a group and a good choice for solo play.

Punk
Equipment: Baseball bat, 3 Beers and a Molotov Cocktail
Skills: Melee lvl 3
The Punk specialises in one thing, and that's hitting things.
He has plenty of beer on hand for when things get rough and he needs to boost his melee strength.
Punks also start with a molotov cocktail, perfect for causing death and destruction.

Soon after you've chosen your role you'll be in the game.

Turns
Dead Crisis is a turn-based game. This means you'll only be able to do significant actions while it's your turn. Moving, shooting, picking up items etc. all takes one turn and the strategy comes from making the best use possible of your turn.

The game uses a dynamic turn system that can adapt to people joining and leaving the game, and the idea is that you'll never have to wait too long for your next turn no matter how many people are playing.

You'll know when it's your turn when you receive your status and command list.
The green bar is your Health bar and the blue bar is your Experience Bar. More on healing and experience later.
Hopefully, the commands are self-explanatory, but let's go through the most important things you'll be doing.

Moving
It says in red at the end of your status line which rooms or streets you can get to from your current location.
You'll notice that each room has a number before it.
Move by typing @move to and then the name or the number of the room
E.g. @move to 1st Street or @move to 3
You can also type @mt in place of @move to, e.g. @mt 1st Street

Searching
You can search any furniture and dead bodies that are in the same area as you.
Just type @search and then the name of the object/body that you want to search.
E.g. @search trash can or @search businessman
(If you want to check which objects, players, or monsters are with you you can type @look around)

Taking
When you're searching something, you'll be given a list of the items inside it.
To take an item type @take then the item name or the item number.
E.g. @take revolver bullets or @take 2
If you don't want any of the items, just type @stop searching or @take 0
You can also grab items directly off the floor.

Shooting or Bashing
If you're equipped with a gun you can shoot monsters with @shoot and then the name of the monster
You can name the full name of the monster or just use the last part of its name.
E.g. @shoot Zombie Actor is the same as @shoot actor
If you have a melee weapon then you need to type @bash instead of @shoot
You can of course also attack survivors or other players if you think that's the right thing to do.

These are the main actions you'll be doing while playing Dead Crisis. All the other commands do exactly what you'd imagine. @reload reloads your weapon, @inventory shows your inventory (and what you can do with it) and @quit quits.
When you've picked up an item the game will tell you exactly how to use that item.
There are all sorts of other in-game tips that should help you play the game.

Let's talk a bit more about the gameplay.

Exploring the city
Welcome to the city of Molsville! It's the newest city in the United States, and it's been designed to be both beautiful and functional. Unfortunately it's also the centre of a viral outbreak and the citizens are transforming into zombies. To make matters worse, all the bridges out of town have been sealed off and there's no other way out of the city.

The people of Molsville aren't just going to lay down and die. They've already banded together to maintain safe houses in which to wait for rescue. Unfortunately supplies are limited and there is a constant danger of being attacked by monsters. It's up to a brave few to head out and look for supplies.

Molsville is divided into 9 regions. Each region has its own network of streets and buildings and travelling from one region to another is as easy as walking through the connecting streets.

You have a simple tool at your disposal to help you in your exploration. Look at the list of rooms you can move to from your location. If the number of a room is blue then you haven't been there recently.

Inside and Outside
If the name of the room is underlined, then it is indoors. There are many buildings to explore in Molsville and they are often good places to find supplies. Occasionally you will find a piece of furniture that is locked. Most locks are easy to force open with a crowbar: the Handyman starts with a crowbar but you can also find them on monsters and inside buildings. You can try to open locks just by searching the locked furniture or trying to move to the room with the locked door.

Sometimes you'll find locked doors that you can't force open. Look around for the key instead.

There are some dangerous places in the city, but also some high rewards. Weighing up the risk and the reward is always important. If in doubt you can always run away!

Survivors and Safe Houses
As you explore the city you'll find survivors who are helpless. You can @call over survivors and they'll start to follow you around. You now have two options:
1. Give them a weapon and they will toughen up and start to fight alongside you.
2. Bring them back to a safe house for a good amount of Experience and Reputation.
Reputation can be exchanged for favours from the survivors who are defending the safe house, that is assuming they haven't been wiped out by zombies. Don't worry, safe houses will slowly repopulate on their own.

Saving and Quitting
If you @quit while in a safe house, your stats and equipment will be saved for the next time you log in.
If you @quit outside a safe house your game will still end but you'll be starting a new role next time.

Experience and Experience Level
You gain experience from killing monsters and rescuing survivors. Each time you reach the next level your maximum health will increase slightly, but even a high level player isn't invincible.
There are however other benefits to increasing your experience level. You can find out these for yourself!

Rank
Your rank is a separate factor that you will increase the more you play the game.
You gain ranking points in a similar way to experience points, basically it is your successes in Dead Crisis that give you more ranking points.
Each time you die, or when you quit the game, your ranking points will be "banked" and you'll get an update on your progress.
Who knows what a higher rank will bring?

Skills
There are two kinds of skills.
-Weapon skills increase the more you use that kind of weapon. You can use any weapon even if you don't have the equivalent weapon skill, but the higher your skill with that weapon type the less you'll miss. You'll also increase your chances score headshots and to reload your weapon without it costing a turn.
-Technical skills like First Aid and Tinkering grant you special abilities like being able to heal other people or crafting items. You'll see the commands for these in your command list. The more you use these abilities the better you get at them.

Weapons and Ammunition
You won't get far without having a weapon to defend yourself with!

Guns are the safest way to deal with zombies: from a distance. The problem is that ammunition is scarce and it's important not to run out.
There are dozens of different guns to find in Dead Crisis, and each gun has it's own strengths and weaknesses.

Clips vs Bullets
Depending on type of gun, you'll be reloading them with Clips or Bullets.
-Clips reload your weapon in a single turn. Just one @reload and your weapon will be fully loaded.
-However, if you @reload a clip-based gun while it's still got ammunition left inside, you'll lose all of the shots that were left in it.
-Bullets don't have that problem, each @reload refills the empty slots in your gun with new bullets.
-However, there's a maximum number of bullets you can slot in with one turn. E.g. with a revolver, each @reload slots in three more bullets.

Obviously there is a lot of strategy in choosing the best time to reload.

Here's a quick overview of four of the types of guns in Dead Crisis

Handguns are very accurate weapons and have a large capacity as a rule. They're not very effective against tougher monsters although some handguns are more powerful than others. Handguns use Handgun clips as ammunition.

Revolvers are generally more powerful than handguns and only a little less accurate. As a rule, revolvers hold 6 shots and you can reload them with Revolver bullets.

Shotguns are very powerful guns at close range: every shotgun has an effective range which you can check by @examine -ing the weapon. Many monsters will be killed by a single shotgun blast if they are standing close enough. Outside that range shotguns don't deal the same amount of damage. Shotguns use Shotgun shells.

Rifles have the advantage of being equally accurate at any range. All other guns lose accuracy the further away the monster is, but rifles don't have this problem. They are also very powerful, but most rifles have limited capacity and Rifle Rounds can be hard to find.

There are of course another options:

Melee
Fighting at close range may sound suicidal when your enemies are just itching to tear you apart with teeth and claws, but the biggest advantage to using a melee weapon is never having to worry about running out of ammunition. Also, while equipped with a melee weapon you have a chance to block incoming attacks and push the monsters away from you.

Melee fighting is always risky, but a highly skilled fighter will be extremely effective at fighting up close and personal.

Explosives
The most effective weapons against multiple targets, explosives have a blast range which you can read in that item's description. Anything caught in that blast range will take damage, the amount depending on their distance from the centre.

Watch out! If you throw an explosive at a monster that is too close then it's going to hurt you as well!

The Punk starts with one Molotov Cocktail which is ideal for setting a group of monsters on fire. You can find molotov cocktails and pipe bombs scattered around the city, and with the right ingredients Handyman can make them themselves.

The infection
So what exactly is the infection? Nobody is sure where it came from, but it's effects are clear. Anyone who has been infected will start to rot where they stand, essentially becoming a living corpse within an hour. All memories and emotions will be gone, replaced with a hunger for living flesh. Zombies are entirely immune to pain and it seems that they are less reliant on their internal organs to survive.

Zombies can be found all over the city and it is up to you to defend yourself against them before they swarm around you and kill you. Animals have also fallen victim to the infection and you're likely to spot zombie dogs and crows that move almost as quickly as they did before the outbreak.

The infection and you
A single bite from a zombie or another creature transformed by the infection will be enough for you to catch it as well. There is no cure for the infection and once bitten it is inevitable that you will eventually become a member of the living dead, that is if they haven't eaten you first.

It is now very important that you find Antibiotics to inject yourself with. The survivors quickly discovered that antibiotics have a hindering effect on the infection and that each injection will set the infection back to an earlier stage.

You can find antibiotics in different places around the city such as Medicine cabinets, crashed ambulances, etc.