Survive the zombie apocalypse

balderdash@lemmy.zip to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 312 points –
217

  1. Flashlight - to find my shotgun in the dark.

  2. Shotgun - Im going to cobain me out of this shit

Don’t forget the video camera to film it, then you can pick one item of your choice to be your loot drop for finding the set piece you just made in a left4dead level.

Katana - because katana

First aid kit - for accidental cuts from katana

Flashlight - to see how much I'm bleeding

Two-man tent - place to swing katana in a way that will end up cutting me

1 more...

LOL, imagine thinking a motorcycle or jeep would do you any damn good (especially after the gas you can siphon from abandoned cars has gone bad), when what you really need is a bicycle. Bikepackers and touring cyclists will be the kings of the apocalypse.

I'd still say the Jeep is better shelter than the tent, though not as portable.

There are diesel Kawasaki KLR motorcycles that will run on literally anything, not that they’re very fast but they would at least preserve your stamina for when you need it.

They’re also extremely robust and simple to repair.

Assuming best case scenario (a new jeep is shat into my driveway with a full tank of gas) I think the jeep is a MASSIVE boon. It increases movement ability and hauling capacity, and can be used to clear many obstacles you'd otherwise have to go around. Is its life finite? Yes, but it'll give you that leg up at the start of the situation that may very well set you up for success long term.

and can be used to clear many obstacles you'd otherwise have to go around.

I'm having trouble imagining any obstacle a Jeep could clear that a mountain bike couldn't, but no trouble at all imagining the opposite.

Anything blocking paths. Can't move broken vehicles, downed trees, etc with a bike. Sure a bike can go around, but with a jeep, I can go through, and have space to haul a bike back.

2 more...

Water purifier - clean water is essential

Fire Axe - for fire wood collection as well as wood based structures for shelter and defense. Also it is a decent weapon that takes relatively little skill to effectively wield.

German Shepard - loyal and lethal companionship, living thinking alarm bell, will instinctively assist in protection/attacking, could be trained to track game. Will gladly accept food scraps, the bones and flesh of my enemies, and pets as payment for services rendered.

Body armor - reduces risk of infection through scratches to body as well as mild protection against various weapons. Also an added insulative thermal layer for the cold. Body plate can be replaced with old thinkpads as needed

I'd argue that NVGs would be better than body armor, assuming that the batteries last. Being able to see at times when humans and zombies cant is extremely valuable. Nighttime is tough without working lights.

Modern nvgs aren't battery powered the way we think any more. They last a while

The problem with NVG and all the battery operated stuff is that once it runs out its useless unless you have a means to replace them through looting replacable batteries or recharging lithiums with an offgrid power system and the electrical knowledge to make sure you dont cook them in case of a jerry rigged system. It might be really useful for a good couple hours of operation but after that it becomes dead weight you spend calories or fuel hauling around with the faint hope of maybe being able to recharge it again sometime in the future

Realistically, everything is finite use if you can't maintain it. The more relevant approach is what kind of utility do you get during that thing's lifetime, and does it outweigh the other options. NVGs, while not my choice, do provide a lot of utility, and last a fairly long time. They also don't run the risk of full-on breaking, just running dry, meaning that they can be kept around if you think you may find batteries.

4 German shepards for having sex with (i am a white woman from the American south)

I was going to say 4 German shepherds for more innocent reasons, but now my answer would be overshadowed be yours

At least someone gets fucked before getting fucked

Almost nobody picks the katana. Even the people who pick it mocking the sword!

I can't really blame them because they didn't give you the option to pick the complete set for the katana to shine. If you use it with fedora you can teleport behind the zombies and kill them!

Nobody knows that the katana has this hidden skill bonus if you use it with fedora because this hidden mechanic only passed to the few chosen people in the secret society hidden under the house that people like to call "the basement"

Man, the katana would be a great pick if there wasn't two better melee options that'll outlast the katana and offer more utility.

I considered the katana since they're great for cutting exposed areas but honestly I'd rather just sharpen a long stick

If we're going on "brain damage to kill" rules you're going to need to clean sweep their head off or find a way to the brain. As cool as it is, that's a big ask for something designed for one swift body shot. I'd look for the spear since it's the most effective peasant weapon and be real, we're all about peasant skilled.

Gas will expire eventually and you could just hotwire one of the many abandoned cars anyways, if the roads aren't blocked by said cars. Bullets will run out unless you find a gun shop, in which case you get guns anyways. Water purifying is easy enough to do without a machine.

My picks would be German Shepherd, Axe, First Aid, and Radio.

There's a reason we domesticated dogs, they are useful in so many different ways like hunting, defense, and security (and companionship). Especially German Shepherds, you can see the damage they do when used by police.

Axes are survivalist 101 and some are practically multi tools despite being simple.

First Aid because infections, zombie or not, are the real killers throughout history.

The radio's more of a gamble, but it's your best chance to find a new settlement, monke strong together and all that. Also you can maybe stay informed on what's happening in other parts of the country. (And it lets me flex my Amateur Radio License).

I think I'd take the night vision goggles over the radio. You're much more likely to find a radio. Situational awareness at night will be a huge survival factor.

2 more...

Body armor, first aid kit, machete, water purifier.

If you choose anything that requires fuel or electricity/batteries you're fucked.

Good luck on foot, brah. I'll be taking the jeep and hose-sucking fuel where needed. Provides shelter, warmth, storage.

He's right, unless you study up on making biodiesel. Then you have the upper hand in the argument, as a diesel Jeep can be run on biodiesel. Rendering those fatty zombie corpses to fuel should be a functional disposal method.

That and after a while gasoline expires even in the tank of a car. After like a few months he would have to be making his own fuel anyway, because whatever gets siphoned can't be used.

Many gasoline cars can be retrofit to run on ethanol. In the Midwest you will find more corn than you can ever use to make said ethanol.

Not a terrible play, but it has a BIG downside you might not be considering.

99.99% of the corn grown first world, and a lot of other food crops, are sterile hybrid varieties that don’t readily reseed themselves (Monsanto and company HATE when farmers don’t have to buy seed every year).

Once there is no more harvesting or maintenance on stockpile equipment, that supply will dwindle faster than you might expect.

Their have been instances of gmo corn cross breeding with heirloom corn and Monsanto suing the farmers for patent infringement.

You can use the stores for ages and since you're not eating it you can use rotten corn. Then it's just a matter of time for a cross to form naturally.

Fuck corn. It is patently one of the worst feedstocks for ethanol. The only reason you hear so much of it is because there is so much money wrapped up in it already and it is a way to use up excess stock. No, switchgrass is the answer. Hearty, more biomass per km² than just about any other crop, has high cellulose content (which is what gets turned into ethanol), and can be cultivated just about anywhere on the continent with little maintenance or involvement. You could probably get away with planting a few fields in pockets around a stronghold which could be checked on a couple of times a week and harvested for an extended period, then you just have to process it as usual. It is even relatively short and dense, so zombies would struggle to hide in it and it would act as a natural barrier to slow the advance of both Zs and any nairdowells that would seek to assault you. Fuel source and defensive emplacement in one.

I'm swapping the first-aid kit for the crossbow, but spot on for the rest. Body armor is rare and definitely raises your odds of survival in the short term after the initial spread. A machete is the ultimate all-purpose blade, good for defense as well as butchering, breeching, and it is easily maintained. And the water purifier is a no-brainer. Waterborn diseases are a real problem in any situation where public utilities become inaccessible and clean drinking water grows scarce.

Assuming that I am obviously able to expand my kit as I survive, the ranged weapon that uses easily craftable ammo would be ideal. A first aid kit could be cobbled together over the course of a few days of persistent scavenging. No promises on the crossbow, they are far less common than bandaids, gauze, sterilization solutions, and splints. Really the thing that would likely be the hardest to source is the suture needle that you should have in there.

I always loved 10k in Z-Nation for using the wrist rocket slingshot because that is truly the king ranged weapon for a survival scenario. Lightweight, ammo that is infinite and easily accessible, and lethal out to ranges that matter. Not to mention that they are very easy to maintain and repair.

All that said, I would likely accumulate the aforementioned electricity/fuel items as I am familiar with the production of biofuels and can build some alternative generators (wind, methane, solar concentrators) for electricity once I have somewhere secure. Methane in particular has always been attractive to me for survival scenarios because anaerobic decomposition is a great way of dealing with biowaste and what is left over ends up making really good fertilizer. Just need a couple of propane tanks, some steel, and a car battery to rig as a welder and you can turn one into a digestor and the other into storage, then get a couple 2 cycle lawnmower engines and some AC motors and you can get a power supply running. At least enough to run some incandescent bulbs. Need a voltage regulator for more complex electronics to keep the line clean, but that is a different conversation.

I picked the same you did, but I don't know that I'd consider useable arrows easily craftable. Maybe if you had something pre-made for shafts?

Also, as I said, for usability and reliability in efficacy and ammo sourcing, nothing beats a wrist rocket slingshot. The weapon itself is lightweight and can use everything from ball bearings and buck shot to large bolts and nuts to gravel. There is virtually no terrestrial environment that you wouldn't be able to find something that can be used as absolutely lethal ammo.

They only have to be serviceable, which is manageable just like they were made in from antiquity to the modern era, wood. It might take some practice, but a hand-carved shaft that has the tip dipped into molten lead or pewter could make a rather effective bolt. You could use more modern materials as well; various types of piping, scavenged hardware like nails and dowels, etc. They may be less accurate and harder on the crossbow, but they don't need the longest range in this topic and the wear and tear on the crossbow may be justified if you know how to repair it and maintain it to ward off failure. Obviously, there would be trial and error, but it wouldn't take too long to become a competent Fletcher.

What’s the body armor for? Zombies will bite you on the neck.

I don't have a PhD in zombiology but zombies will bite you wherever they can. Depending on what kind of zombies we're talking about a bite alone might turn you or not. So body armor could be useful for some kinds of zombies and utterly useless for others.

It's good for general protection too. It can soften blows from other humans or just accidental injury while scavenging dilapidated buildings. What we consider to be minor bumps and scrapes now can be life threatening when you have inadequate medical supplies, malnutrition, sleep deprived, no sanitation, etc.

A motorcycle could get you out of the city/infected zone pretty fast though. Not a bad choice.

True and all the road will be blocked with traffic, so you can lane split with the motorcycle.

Problem is you’re sleeping in the open air unless you grab the tent. Also can’t really build a collection of supplies.

Eh, batteries aren't hard to charge as long as it's a small item like a flashlight.

  • Armor, provided it comes with a helmet & is bite-/scratch-resistant
  • Doggo, because sensing danger is important & loneliness would almost be a bigger killer than zombies,
  • Machete, as a tool & method of defense
  • Water purifier, provided it doesn't require an outlet of some kind

And then scavenge around a city, getting an axe, a flashlight, a first aid kit, a bicycle (not motorbike because fuel), a survival kit (matches/flint, compass, etc.) and some survival guidebooks such as general survival guide or foraging guide. Now you're all set for making a shelter in the woods and staying away from everything, making occasional trips to the city for supplies. Maybe you'll even manage to make a kinda comfy home up a tree or something.

Forgot about the first aid kit. Good point. In this new world, antibiotics and even basic sterilization supplies would be more valuable than gold.

Camera, motorcycle, ak-47, radio

I call this loadout "twitch streamer of the apocalypse"

My beloved crowbar didnt even make the list :(

Well, it's not called "unforseen cosequences: Gordon Freeman is working overtime."

I read Max Brook's "Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z". The choice is very clear for me. Armor, suppressed pistol, machete, purifier.

  • Water purifier because I need water!!!!!
  • first aid kit because not having a first aid kit is a very stupid idea
  • flashlight because I will need to find my way through the many empty building and shit
  • machete because it is quite useful as both a tool and weapon

Depends where you live. A lot of this stuff can be acquired afterwards.

As an Aussie, firearms are very hard to come across. Also, I've never fired a gun before, so I would pick the shotgun because I know my terrible aim would be mitigated somewhat.

Water purifier. Duh.

Fire axe. Utility + weapon.

Tent. I live close to nature, so my game plan is to stock up on nonperishables and go camp for as long as I can, and hope that the zombies have thinned out by the time I need to start scavaging

Bad luck, the shotgun is full of slugs :/

Damn, snails would have been better, since they have shells

Shotgun, ak-47, pistol, katana. I don't want to live long term in a zombie apocalypse, just need the firepower for a bit of fun before I go. After I run out of ammo for the shotgun and the AK, I use the pistol to kill myself - the katana is just in case I get caught short at close range

Dog, car, motorcycle, radio. Zombie apocalypses ain't shit, I live in America. One dude is gonna bite someone and get turned into pink mist by every nearby CCW dude. Those would all be cool to have when we start rebuilding in a week

You lot couldn't even handle wearing masks, some dipshit is gonna tout zombeism as a natural cure

The best way to survive a disaster is to have someone else deal with it

Why AK-47? 7.62 × 39 mm would be kinda hard to loot for this audience.

Curious what you mean, as 7.62x39 is about as common where I am as any other caliber.

I'm basing my assumption off of C:DDA, which plays in New England and there it apparently is fucking rare.

Flashlight, machete, first aid, water purifier.

Vehicles require fuel, and weapons require ammo. I dont know why I'd need a gas mask either.

I think it depends on the nature of the plague, is the zombie contagion airborne to some extent? If yes, I think I'd take the gas mask over the first aid kit.

If the zombie plague is airborne, fuck it. Give me a barrel of bourbon and and a couple pounds of weed. That's guaranteed to last me the rest of my life.

Could be a the Last of Us (the game) scenario where plague is airborne locally where the air is stale.

Was it different in the show?

It's not airborne. It's was spread through ingesting infested flour or something like that.

Oh, that's pretty different! I didn't see enough episodes to get to that, I guess.

Didn't enjoy the show?

The thing about how it spreads is "revealed" during episode 1 though. But you got to pay close attention to the details.

Oh, then I wasn't paying close enough attention! I just kinda stopped watching it. I didn't think it was bad or anything.

I’d take the Jeep, two man tent, German Shepard, and CB radio. Might as well go on a roadtrip and treat the zombie outbreak like one long vacation.

First Aid Kit - Zombies are dangerous but so are infections from minor cuts and lacerations. Gotta prep for the unexpected.

Machete - Most effective and common sense weapon as all the others require some level of skill or maintenance and only the machete would be good at making pointy sticks for improvised spears.

NVGs - Something people forget about is that when the power goes out you're going to be looting some dark ass buildings even during the daytime. Stock up some batteries or a charger and looting just got so much simpler. Plus, if you hear a bump in the night, you can go looking for it without letting the neighborhood know where you are, like with a flashlight.

Water purifier - You can go approximately 3 days without water and the pipes stop working when the electricity does. That river and lake isn't safe to drink, neither is the rainwater, and do you really want to whip out your firekit and draw attention just for sippy sips?

Boring picks but I think these are the biggest bang for your buck. Everything else will take so much just to maintain that it isn't worth it. Including doggo.

Why not the fire axe? I don't think it would be that difficult to swing. Granted, it would be much heavier than a machete, but long term the axe is gonna last longer and dull slower.

Also might come in handy as a tool in more ways than the machete. Open doors, smash windows, chop firewood and you'd probably still manage to sharpen some sticks with it. As a weapon I do not think that a machete is easier to use without any training.

Fire Axe requires you to be pretty dead on with every swing. You miss or misalign the edge coming down and it bounces off their skull. They feel nothing and now you've got to lift up that axe for another swing. You'll tire yourself out pretty quickly but if the edge lasts long enough I suppose it could be used to make spears as well. Spears, even just makeshift ones from sticks, are light and if you miss it's almost effortless to get another go at it.

See, light and water I can make/clean myself. I'd replace them with one of the firearms to counter other humans and maybe the dog for danger detection.

Ah but see, a firearm requires cleaning, oil, and ammunition. The suppressed sidearm will lure in your neighborhood while anything unsuppressed is going to call everything within 8 blocks right to you. Dog is a mouth to feed, mess to clean, and is also loud unless you've trained them very, very well. Making light isn't hard but everyone can see light - including zombies. NVGs are just for you. Water you can clean yourself but I assume you mean boiling which would need a fire.. and everyone can see the light and smoke.

You only use the firearm if you need it. If you need it, you really want it.

There's a lot of heating solutions in the world that do not involve fire and even so, plenty of ways to do light sanitation exist.

A lot of these are highly contextual in terms of the type of outbreak and individual skills but I think my options give more flexibility overall for me personally.

I suppose but for me I wouldn't want to waste a pick on something I'd use for extreme cases. Sure it'll help in a bind but I'd rather prep to not be in that bind to begin with.

Everything changes with context but I made my picks with "The Walking Dead" scenario in mind. They all walk, everyone's infected, it only takes effect if you die with your brain intact, they roam in hordes. But hey, we may never know and it's probably for the best.

On the other hand one supermarket probably has enougth packed water for years

Absolutely the last place you'd ever want to be. Everyone loots stores, it's safer to loot locally first. Best case scenario everything is cleaned out. Worst case, you find other people. Or other "people".

Which has a shelf life.

My partner worked at a water bottling station and they kept a "dead archive" of production for quality control: dark, cool room, away from machinery and chemicals.

Archived samples were cleared after 5 years. Out of curiosity, they decided to try the water before emptying the bottles and it was foul. Blamed on too long storage time.

When the plant shut down, the archive was fully cleared and samples older than 6 months were drinkable but not pleasant to, older than a year tasted bad.

Water does not stock well and even worse when exposed to sun light.

I would opt for the crossbow, machete and axe then use those to commendeer better equipment. Specifically that choice of weapons because axe is useful for chopping trees, machete is a weapon that doesn't require ammo and it's a lot easier to make crossbow arrows than bullets. Also take the night vision goggles in the off chance they're the super high tech kind and not the ir lighting based kind because you'll never just "find" one of those otherwise. Then use that stuff to basically steal everything on this list and more.

Jeep: unparalleled utility. It'll die eventually, fuel is finite, but it'll let me establish.

Shotgun: need a weapon, and while not the strategically beat weapon, I have an image to maintain.

Water purifier: water.

Machete: backup weapon, infinitely useful tool, more rugged than the katana.

I think this combination gives me a good shot at establishing a base of operations, securing the area, and settling for long-term. Between the jeep and the machete, most obstacles can be overcome, and scavenging is easier and quicker. Strategically, the crossbow is probably the best weapon just due to the reusability of the ammunition, but it's not infinite and what you gain in that, you lose in ease of use, which is paramount in a stressful situation. Opting purely for usefulness, the pistol (assuming subsonic rounds and as quiet as possible) probably offers the best balance between reliability and forgivingness, but I like shotguns.

Water purifier is a pretty easy one. Gotta have water, and while most of that will come from rain or scavenging, there will inevitably be periods of literal draught. Finally, the machete. A knife, a backup weapon, a crowbar. Good for clearing small-medium vegetation. Honestly, the uses are limitless, perhaps second only to the jeep.

Honorable mentions:

Dog. If it's pre-trained, top tier. If you have to train it, mid at best plus another mouth to feed.

Any other firearm: mostly preference, each has pros and cons

Body armor: depending on the zombies, top tier (walking dead style, feral gonna bite you zombies) or reeeally not useful (anything spread by spores, fumes, fluids, etc.)

Gas mask: invert the body armor.

Motorcycle: quicker, less utility than Jeep. I wouldn't say it's the worst pick

Everything else is either marginal utility at best (cb radio, NV goggles) or easy enough to scavenge (flashlight, first aid supplies, tent, honestly everything else on the list.)

Bro, it's a zombie apocalypse, you can just walk outside and steal any car you feel like

You will still need keys or a really old car that you can actually turn on with wires

I'll just search appartmenta with my body armour,my dog and an ax for a some keys. When I find them I go outside and do that thing we do when we forgot where we parked in a large parking lot

1 more...
1 more...

Since you can easily scavange most of these things you only need the hard to find stuff, and stuff that will help you scavange. So body armor and the ak to keep you alive. Axe to help get into places for supplies. Jeep to haul your shit. Drive down to dicks and load up on the rest.

Long term you need a spear and knife for weapons. A horse and cart for hauling shit. Dog for guard duty. And ways to get water and food.

So many questions like is the bullets in the gun and gasoline in jeep and batteries in flashlight? Also if yes are there any sources for more consumables?

I mean it's irl so whatever you think you can get

Purifier, Jeep, NVG's, magically silent pistol. If pistol is just realistically suppressed, I'll take the machete.

Water hard, gotta get around to loot, gotta see to loot, gotta be able to wack Z's without too much ruckus.

This post brought to you by too much dayz.

Project Zomboid players be like: where's the crowbar?

But if I had to choose, the body armor, machete, fire axe, and the mighty katana.

PS: in my current PZ playthrough, 3 months and 5k kills in, and just found my very first katana. (lowest loot setting, highest zombie pop).

Yeah I'll just take:

Fire axe, fire axe, duffel bag, lock pick

Body armor - protection against bites Crossbow - silent weapon, semi unlimited ammo, hunting Machete - good weapon/tool Fire axe - for looting abandoned buildings/emergency escapes.

Then I'd head off into the woods and start building a tree house.

Parachute cord should really be on the list, though.

I wanna know what kind of zombies I'll be dealing with. Slow shamblers? Fast runners? Intelligent undead?

I'm fine with three! Tent, Flashlight and Camera. That way I'll have the easiest way out by being the sidecharacter who gets murdered during the exposition before it all goes to shit.

Idk about you guys, but you are legally required to have a first aid kit in your car where live, so there are plenty to salvage same is for water, there are tons of water bottles, that don't go bad in the supermarket and your water purifier is gonna break at some point, so you'll have to move to alcohol anyway.

I live in Florida and I'm pretty sure they consider first aid part of the woke agenda.

I live in a small town in Florida, can confirm

Probably the handgun, body armor, jeep, and flashlight. On the first few days the jeep will offer mobility and storage, while the flashlight is necessary for maximizing the search for gear. Handgun and body armor to give you an advantage over your fellow survivors. Then acquire a boat, food, containers, and other resources and become a pirate. I might consider a fire axe or crow bar necessary if everything wasn't glass doors and easily breakable locks.

Uh. I already have all of this stuff except the dog. What do I win?

Is it a dog? I hope I win the dog.

Crossbow, respirator, fire axe, water purifier.

Crossbow can reuse ammunition as long as you can find your bolts, and improvising shitty bolts is simpler than anyvother ranged weapon.

If zombie plague is airborne, full mask respirator is gonna be essential.

Fire axe is a decent survival and breaching tool, not really considering it a weapon.

Water purifier essential so you don't die of dysentery, or if the zombie plague is waterborne.

If it's airborne you're toast, you gotta remove it eventually

It being airborne doesn't mean its in all air everywhere all the time.

Right but you don't know the patterns, incredibly variable. Taking the mask to win on that condition is a total dice roll

Its a contingency, but if you need it, you really need it. I think I'd otherwise be fine with the other 3. My next choices are probably tent, body armor, first aid kit, flashlight, then NVGs.

A tent would be useful, but tents are super common, I can probably loot one from somewhere. My current neck of the woods it wouldn't really be necessary though.

Body armor might help if I get surprised by one or two zombies and let me get away, but I reeeeally don't want to be in melee with zombies. Even with body armor that could easily be a loss, especially if its not just one or two.

First aid kit is useful, but unless a tourniquet can prevent zombification, its mostly gonna be for mundane stuff, blisters, scrapes, strains, and sprains. They are also commonly available and should be lootable. If not, most of its contents are probably improvise-able.

Flashlight, genuinely useful but probably lootable, reliant on electricity, probably draws unwanted attention.

NVGs, are cool and probably slightly useful. Going on the offensive against either zombies or other survivors is not in my game plan, I guess they could help hunt.

All these seem to be somewhat limited in their utility. Whereas the respirator is either vital, or a light encumberance.

Machete, Water Purifier (provided it does not need electricity to work), German Shepherd and the tent. If the water purifier requires electricity, I'd opt for the body armor.

Stuff that requires fuel, electricity or ammo will become obsolete after a certain amount of time, so the flashlight, crossbow, motorcycle, chainsaw etc. only have limited use and become dead weight eventually. The first aid kit might help with "regular" injuries, but is likely useless against zombie bites getting infected with whatever virus is responsible for their mutation. The respirator mask is only useful if there's something dangerous in the air, and will only stay useful until the filter gets too dirty / too old and needs to be replaced.

The reality is that every item is finite if you can't maintain it. Some are naturally longer lived than others (machete, fireaxe) but require sharpening and will eventually break. The better metric is what kind of utility it provides during its life, with a second metric for how easy it is to maintain. Something like the Jeep may only get you a week of functional time, but it's going to allow you to set up so much easier.

crossbow, axe, dog, ak47

The crossbow can be used indefinitely for hunting, the axe can be used for nearly everything, the dog is useful for hunting and protection, the ak47 is an emergency tool. There's going to be less zombies and gas in the wilderness. Why are binoculars, bicycles, and horses not on this list?

Two man tent,axe. and ideally a boy scouts guide and foraging books. Ideally getting myself far way from civilisation as the zombie population is probably just going grow over time

First aid kit would probably be quite useless you can't put a plaster on a deep gushing wound nor take glass out with a couple alcohol wipes

Katana, machete, axe, and body armor so I don't kill myself with all these implements of cutting and hacking.

First aid kit, water purifier, jeep, cb radio. I'm shit out of luck on my own so the radio is to find a survivor enclave, the jeep is to get there, the water purifier and medical supplies are to trade so they'll let me in.

Dog, first aid, axe, and water purifier.

The guns will depend entirely on ammo. Gasoline for the vehicles will go bad eventually, a diesel truck with 4 wheel drive would be better. The radio depends on other people also having radios. Everything else can either be easily found later or can be made given enough time.

Dog if trained, water purifier, fire axe, AK (if with bullets of around 250), otherwise a flashlight AK maybe priority since I know how to make my own ammo.

Someone who read the improvised munitions manual

Body armor, jeep, night vision goggles and silenced hand gun.

Each of those are the hardest to obtain of the options except the jeep.

Start with the jeep and put on body armor. If it's night travel with lights off and use night vision goggles.

Everything else is stuff you can find later easily with a few unimportant exceptions.

Yep. With those I can survive long enough to easily get the rest.

Flashlight, water purifier, respirator, and rifle (I assume with required things like ammo).

Nobody said how this plague spreads, for all we know it's in the water or Airborne. Flashlight for scavenging and because it's far more important to know if that's a pile of scrap or a Zombie than it is to stay super stealthy. And Rifle gets you everything else you need.

Fire axe, shotgun, tent, flashlight

I think a fire axe would be great to enter places and chop firewood. Shotgun just in case. If it has a couple of rounds as a deterrent. Tent to sleep in obviously. Flashlight cus dark

Body armour for bites Crossbow for hunting Machete for defense Water purifier for water

This is assuming its not airborn and if it was respirator presuming im not imune to it already

Jeep, water purifier, first aid kit, katana. Wish I could take flashlight, but it's a 5th option on the list.

No reason to take guns since rounds will be gone quickly and you'll end up with a worthless piece of metal. Chainsaw is clunky and fuel-dependent. Fire axe is also clunky and actually not that good at chopping wood - not to mention you'll make a lot of sounds while doing so. Machete is bad on both fronts. Crossbow - almost perfect, but bolts tend to break too.

Jeep adds to mobility, which is very handy. Fuel-dependent, but then again, with such mobility you can reach some gasoline. Doubles as a place to stay in extreme situations, without losing mobility, rendering it able to escape emergencies.

Water purifier will allow you to move on without acute diarrhea

First aid kit is a must in literally every survival situation. You should be able to prevent infections and restore mobility as quickly as possible

Katana is too difficult to maintain, crossbow bolts can be fashioned by hand from found materials, first aid kit can be scavenged pretty easily. If this is starting gear, go for the stuff that is either rare or likely to be scavenged first, and that is easy for you to maintain by hand. Jeeps aren't rare, real body armor is. The machete is the go-to blade for many parts of the world for a reason. It is heavy enough to cleave small brush and limbs alike, sturdy enough that it isn't likely to break on you, and you can get a utility or survival version that has a saw on the back and other useful tools included in it. Only take the Jeep if you are proficient in maintaining it and know how to make biodiesel. If you have those skills, go for it. Your assessment is correct. If not, it is prioritizing short-term benefits over even medium-term. Even on a full tank, you have less than a day's travel in it. Then it becomes a hard-walled tent or tiny home, take your pick of feel-good terminology. Depending on your starting location, that half-day of travel may not be enough to get you safely away from population centers. If you are in any major US East Coast city, you are fucked. You can barely make it into the Appalachians on one tank, and certainly not remote enough to be safe. As you move further and further west, that becomes less and less of an issue. If you are in the SW, a Jeep becomes top tier pick because it lets you navigate offroad to somewhere truly remote and provides adequate hauling capacity for scavenged materials for setting up a secure base of operations.

Now that's a good assessment

Tho, I am personally not in the US at all :D

Where are you, I'd love to analyze a different country?. Who knows, pigs may fly and I may be able to afford to be traveling abroad when Z-Day happens.

Russian northwest

Looking at this population density map of Russia and the satellite map on Google, I feel like the Jeep would only be a viable take if you are somewhere in the medium-density band like the area around Neya. Looking further North, and correct me if I'm wrong, the terrain looks like it takes on a generally rough aspect. Looks like a decent amount of steep hills and mountains which lack infrastructure, so while the jeep could offroad it, the time it would take to traverse would be onerous and diminish the already abysmal fuel efficiency.

Exploring this forestry map I am seeing a lot of dense tall forests as you move north through the western part of the country, which is also looking like pretty rough terrain, so I am thinking the list I would go for in that region would be the fire axe, wrist rocket, winterized body armor, and climbing gear or a backpack. Clean water should not be as much of an issue given the number of lakes and accompanying tributaries in the region, plentiful wood supply for small fires for purifying water, and I'm pretty sure a lot of it is coniferous (correct?) which would mean that there should be ample tinder in dry needles so most fire kits would be overkill.

The real difficult decision is in the climbing gear, as being able fo ascend a cliff or tall tree and safely secure yourself would be ideal for Z-poc survival. Just ascend the tree, drive a piton in and fashion a sleeping harness from the climbing rope. Make sure you have a good amount of ammo for the wrist rocket and in the morning you can obliterate any Zs that have gathered around the bottom of the tree. Long term, I would totally go Ewok/Forest Elf with it and build a canopy encampment. Lots of space and easy-to-control access points, and with each additional platform it becomes easier and safer to build the next. The real issue with that is the ability to safely fell trees and hewn lumber, which would be nearly impossible solo unless you could adequately secure a perimeter so you didn't have to focus on threat vigilance. Barring that, I would say a clifftop camp with a rapid descent escape route. Good sight lines, effective egress, and if it is tall enough, you could try to get them to chase you and have an effective way to clear the Zs without wasting ammo. You would just need to clear the corpses after using it.

The reason why the question is tough with the pack is because of the terrain traversal, you need to be able to appropriately distribute the weight if anything you carry into wilderness like that, and that is tough without a good pack, especially with the body armor. I contemplated swapping the armor for a pack, but I can't justify being able to avoid bites and other injuries for traversal ease. If I could have 5, those would be the 5.

How'd I do?

Very impressive!

One thing though; the area to the north is very swamped; it's not just lakes. So getting dry lumber any time of the year is near impossible, thereby fire kit is very advisable. Dry needles are not as dry as one would want. Cones that are often advised as an element of easy fire starters are extremely wet and useless for the task; they burn no better than wood thorougly soaked in water. Generally, making fire out of any lumber in the woods is a massive headache in there.

Also, high humidity means fog is a very regular occurrence, so a clifftop might be way less useful that one can imagine. It gets particularly bad the closer you move to Khibiny mountains.

That definitely changes things. Swamps would likely be the last place you would want to try to survive out the Z-poc. The mobility issues would be useful for impeding zombies and raiders, but you would suffer the same issues until you could get some sort of infrastructure in. And that is completely ignoring the fact that Zs can end up hiding under the muck and bog. Also, the drinking water would be a real issue, since, as you said, everything is wet. If you could locate a good pete bog you could harvest and dry it in a shelter for amazing fuel, but I don't know how prevalent those are in those particular swamps. Other than resource gathering though, I think it would be best to avoid until you had a foothold somewhere else.

Now the fog in the mountains is actually interesting. That level of humidity means that you can source drinking water directly from the air with little issue. Cut up some cotton shirts so they are broad and flat, then rig up a wind vein that will keep a small sail aligned with the prevailing winds so the fog flows over it and the cloth will be soaked with fresh clean water. If the vein is built right you can even channel drip water into a container, then wring out the cloth when the fog has lifted before the sun can evaporate it. Variations on this are actually viable in any humid region, especially if the temperature dips below the dew point at night.

I think I would still probably make for the foggy mountains if I were in that region if I could do so while bypassing swampy regions. The rough terrain could be trivialized with minimal infrastructure and resources could be plentiful if managed right. I am also of the minor assumption that in that region the cold is almost as much of a threat as the zombies, so I'm not positive what sorts of shelter the mountains would provide. If memory serves, most of that region is very old metamorphic rocks that aren't prone to cave formation. This would severely limit shelter from the elements without a good source of building materials or the means to produce them. I would amend the list to fire axe, body armor (winterized), fire kit, wrist rocket. In scavenging, I would prioritize a survival machete, a pack, the aforementioned claiming gear, and real medical supplies (suture needle, sterile gauze, strong thread or monofilament fishing line). Once I am able to secure somewhere to put a cache, that expands to a charged car battery or 3, jumper cables, basic carpenter tools, many many tarps, and as many fluid containers as I can get my hands on. Russian winters are no joke and without the tarps, drying enough wood to survive would be hell. The tarps would he enough to make a sealed drying environment until a kiln dryer could be constructed. Of course, all of this is predicated on being able to secure an area that has materials and is remote enough that the possibility of wandering Zs becomes slim. It would probably he worth finding a camp in one of the transitional zones between the swamps and mountains so the swamp can act as a natural trap/barrier to Z traversal so it only requires minimal fortification.

I'd say there's enough stuff that can be turned into fire starter should you have time to dry it (and under a good cover with relatively strong winds and relatively low humidity for the area it will take several days to dry thin starters and months to dry firewood, so tarp won't help you that much in the short run). Generally, if you're in the wild in winter in northwestern Russia without already stored dry firewood or other fuel, your chances of survival are fairly questionable to begin with.

Yes, there aren't many caves in there and terrain is very hard. Constructing a cover is not a trivial task. Normally in this environment survivalists resort to self-made tents or dig into the ground (latter being less popular in the winter, for obvious reasons), but both are fairly useless in a zombie apocalypse for the reasons you've already outlined. Mountain and treetop constructions will suffer severely from strong cold winds.

Realistically though, you cannot survive the wilderness of northwestern Russia (and a lot of wilderness for that matter) with just 4 objects. You'll strike a way better chance by finding a remote village. Yes, you might have to ward off zombies, but, as you mentioned, environment will be less of an issue, and environment here is certainly deadly.

Yeah, that is a really rough place to survive in a non-apocalyptic scenario. I think focused active scavenging on the way out of civilization would be the key to making it. Then finding/setting up a village would be the next key to long-term survival.

I'm glad that I was able to reevaluate with better accuracy. This was fun.

I honestly didn't expect you to, but that was fun to me too!

No reason to take guns since rounds will be gone quickly

Depends where you live, imo, no reason to take a sword because it's easy to find one in any hardware store.

  • Katana - quiet, and meant as a weapon against humans

  • Night vision goggles - can take advantage of the cover of night

  • Water purifier - greatly simplifies one human necessity

  • Body armor - will put it on whenever there's a risk

None of these are common household items, whereas some of the items on the list are, and thus, scavenged easily enough.

Radio for news and communication, gods gift to man the Jeep, transportation, housing, and protection, fire axe mostly as a tool and body armor, weapons will run out of ammo and I forgot the rest

Have you ever played zombie town? There's nothing here that can deal with mutant zombies, so we are screwed.

Machete

crossbow

body armour

night-vision.

Stealth, protection and silent defence.

Water purifer, AK-47, Machette, Jeep... I hope the Jeep has a CB and a first aid kit 😁.

Jeep, AK, Purifier, First Aid.

Well at least the AK is reliable because you’ll need it when the Jeep breaks down.

These are starter items right? All of my selected items are just expendable resources. The tough decision is where I should go for maximum resources and reliable companions.

Machete - versatile for protection, hunting, cooking

Water purifier - no explanation needed

Night vision goggles maybe? - more discrete than a flashlight

Jeep - but you know that thing will break down pretty quickly

Wtf are you going to hunt with a machete?

Trapping is probably better terminology. A machete can be used to easily enough make some simple traps, then execute whatever was caught. Hopefully food.

My chilean nationality will suffice, would be unacceptable for such kind of natural disaster to bring down normality... worse things can happen and tomorrow I have to go uni anyways.

The only correct answer here is:

  • Jeep (mobility, storage and sleeping). Also height for scouting/shooting
  • Machete - very useful for close combat and as a survival tool if you know how
  • Ak47 (assuming ammo also provided). Excellent weapon, great range, stopping power and reliability, decent accuracy.
  • Night vision - if you've used these you know they provide an immense tactical advantage and can act as a flashlight too.

All the rest are superfluous or easily buildable by yourself (eg water filter)

After 500km the Jeep is useless for mobility

Siphon petrol. Any tube will work for instance the wiper tube

Why not just take the vehicle you're siphoning from then if they're available?

For as much shit as they get, jeeps are designed to be more rugged than most cars. Probably trade it on once you find an actually rugged vehicle, but it'll be a better choice than most cars you'd find, i imagine.

Ok then, six months max if you always manage to find gas (you're not the only one around siphoning it)

If you are in a highly populated area, without a support group, a 500km drive may be just the ticket to get to a safer location.

You may also be shot up driving around, but we don't know the details

Why? There's effectively infinite cars and gas tanks are sealed.

I think an ev/solar setup would be better though. Use the jeep to find a house with solar and a battery then all you need is an ev and you're laughing

Gas doesn't keep, it turns to varnish, that's why starting a weed eater after winter is a pain, the carb is clogged from old gas turning to schmoo

Nothing lasts forever. The utility you get short term from having transportation able to haul more than just yourself is IMMENSE for getting established.

The only item here that will be remotely useful longterm is the machete. All the other items will run out of gas, ammo, and battery quickly.

An axe is more useful than a machete.

Sure. But they didn't pick an axe, they picked a machete.