Combat and weapons

Weapons behave like the real thing. Magazines, rates of fire, recoil and damage come from the real guns and calibers, and bullets lose their punch over distance.

Against the dead

Aim for the head. A head shot from anything that fires a bullet ends a stray or a bolter, while a body shot can take half a magazine. Shotguns are the close-range answer. Melee is quiet: an axe or a sledge to the skull usually finishes one, a knife sometimes does, and a bat mostly knocks it down. Every swing costs stamina, and heavy weapons tire you quickly.

Aiming

Hold RMB to aim. With your fists or a blade, aiming locks you on to the infected in front of you, and with a gun you get assisted aim onto them. Recoil and sway settle down as you get used to a class of weapon: every kill with it builds your mastery.

Magazines

Magazines are items. Load them from your rounds in the inventory, reload with R, and the magazine you take out keeps what was left in it. See Magazines and reloading.

Dirt, wear and jams

• Every round you fire leaves carbon and copper in the action. A rifle is heavily fouled after about 1,250 rounds and a pistol after about 850; a suppressor, subsonic rounds and handloads foul it faster. Going down in sand or mud with a gun in your hands puts grit in it, and swimming washes the oil out. Hover a gun in your inventory to see its Fouling (clean, light, moderate or heavy) and when you Last cleaned it.
• Every gun also wears as you fire it, and a neglected one wears faster: a heavily fouled, dry gun loses condition about twice as fast, and rain on an unoiled gun rusts it. A dirty gun, a worn gun and a dry, unoiled action all jam more, and they add up: a clean, oiled factory gun in good condition stops about once in 5,000 rounds, while a worn, filthy one can stop every hundred.
• Rain and wading make a gun wet, which doubles its jam chance for a few minutes. Bitter cold below about -10 °C makes it worse again.
• What you feed it matters: rough handloads feed badly, subsonic 7.62x39 often won't cycle an AK (a suppressor helps), and drums, long sticks and homemade magazines misfeed more than a good standard one.
• Homemade guns jam far more than factory ones. Melee weapons wear too, and one worn to nothing breaks in your hands.

Clearing a jam

• The HUD names the stoppage and how to clear it. A failure to feed: tap the magazine and rack it (R). A stovepipe, a spent case caught in the port: rack it and it's swept out (R), a little quicker.
• A double feed doesn't clear with a tap-rack. Hold R to lock the slide back, strip the magazine, rack it clear and reload. It takes four to seven seconds, and the round that was in the chamber goes on the ground. An experienced shooter sees a double feed for what it is; a new one wastes a tap-rack finding out.
• Revolvers don't jam, they misfire: pull again and the cylinder turns past the dud. A bolt action that fails to extract, a pump that short-strokes and a stuck shell in a break action all clear with R.

Keeping them running

A gun cleaning kit field-strips the gun in your hands and cleans it: the fouling comes out, the action is oiled, and a worn gun comes back to about 70%. It takes longer for a rifle than a pistol (12 to 26 seconds). A kit holds ten cleanings, shown as Patches left on it; a bag of gun cleaning supplies (patches and solvent, made from cloth and gun oil at a workbench) fills the emptiest kit you carry back up. Gun oil wets a dry action, drives the water out after rain and wipes a little fouling off. A weapon repair kit restores more condition, and a whetstone hones blades. Field work can only take a weapon so far, though. For a full service or overhaul, use the Gunsmith tab in crafting at an armory bench, which needs weapon parts salvaged from other guns and leaves the gun clean. A rare gun can be kept alive by stripping a common donor of the same kind.

Cleaning kits, supplies and gun oil turn up at gun stores, police stations and military kit, in toolboxes, trunks and camps, and at Haven's quartermasters.

Inspecting a gun

Right-click a gun in your inventory and choose Inspect, or press ; with it in your hands. You see its condition and what repairs can still bring back, its fouling and how long since it was cleaned, how likely it is to jam right now and what would help most, what's in it and in which order it fires, the spare magazines or speedloaders you carry and where, how it compares with other guns of its class, what armor stops it, what's fitted to it, its serial and provenance, and what a trader or the Exchange would give for it. From the panel you can clean it, oil it or repair it (if it isn't in your hands you draw it first, and it stays there), check the load with it in your hands, or take the magazine out.

Attachments

Scopes, grips and suppressors fit from your inventory: use one while the weapon is in your hands. A suppressor cuts a gun's report right down, which keeps a fight small. Most attachments are made at an armory bench.

Armor

Vests and plates have protection levels: soft armor stops handgun rounds, rifle plates stop rifle rounds, and a plate cracks where it is hit. A round the vest stops still bruises you; one that gets through wounds you as if you wore nothing. Nothing covers your head, arms or legs. See Body armor and plates.

The Firearms skill tree ends in Deadeye (C), a moment of perfect focus. See Skills and levels.