Greer

I have everything I realistically need by round 4 or 5, depending when the dog round comes

It's just a speed boost. Not very large a boost though, and the Masamune gives the same effect

18 hours ago, NaBrZHunter said:

Honestly, I have a deep dislike for both the Apothicon Servant and the bows, and prefer to never use them. Forced use of a wonder weapon on a low round like 15-20 has never been a thing in zombies before until now. I'm talking running a standard MG loadout. 

 

It's not that the shield hasn't helped me ever, it's that sometimes the problem isn't so much that protection is needed as you are completely unable to move. 

Bahaha! I gotta have a chuckle and say this is fair. I'm sorry. :) Have you shared your zombies story yet? What's really funny about this is the number of people (including my wife) who have zombie-phobia, but have eventually overcome it as they've become accustomed to CoD Zombies. So there you have it. Use ZNS to overcome your fear; 'cause honestly, they re as perfectly themed for the map as Fluffy was for Der Riese or Monkeys were for Ascension. If you haven't yet, though, share your story in the thread linked below:

 

Lol, it's all good, I totally get it. It is hilarious honestly, but also infuriating that it stops me from enjoying the map. I can actually watch people play it easily enough, I helped my friend through the easter egg as he streamed it on Steam yesterday xD. I actually haven't shared on that thread yet, despite being on this forum for years

I'd enjoy the map more if it weren't for the spiders. I think it works for the map, but my real life fear of them gets between me and enjoying it. It's a shame really, because I truly do enjoy everything else in the map like the plant system and the quests for the KT-4 and Masamune. I haven't got round to doing the easter egg myself yet, because I genuinely can't face the Spider queen boss xD

Since the map only just released for me, I can't say I find them extremely annoying. Before having the gas mask built, I find the spore effect they leave behind more annoying than the Thrasher itself. The fact that more often spawn when one dies is kinda annoying, I'll admit that

16 hours ago, mmm chocolate said:

try ducking and shooting them in the waist/stomach.

Doesn't the waist area do more damage than the legs?

13 hours ago, mmm chocolate said:

since we're talking about maximizing points,

e.g: if you line up two zombies, and shoot one bullet, you will get 10 points per zombie, when the bullet hits the second zombie, its only half as powerful as it was when it went through the first zombie. (meaning you can hit the second zombie with some more bullets)

just a quick tip.

I always assumed that'e how it worked, but I struggle to effectively line them up to do this

23 minutes ago, Koslans said:

Nice guide. It's also good to see that MrRoflWaffles gets some love for all the work he does. 

Thanks! Yeah, I find his videos to be extremely useful, they have exactly the information I need and I find his videos on how to decode ciphers really interesting

I'm currently in the process of uploading a video version of this guide to YouTube, will provide a link once it's up

1 minute ago, Koslans said:

I think he didn't notice the extra Panzer spawning in. The normal one comes around round 12. 

Ah, fair enough

I thought I'd make a post about the way that I play this map, as I have the first 7 or 8 rounds on this map down to a science pretty much. I can get the Storm Bow done by round 5/6 depending on the dog round, and I find it really helpful when doing the easter egg to start off with this strategy.

Round 1

Don't kill any zombies yet, take the tram fuse, turn on the landing pad and then prone in front of QR for that extra 100 points, but don't buy it

Wait for the tram to cool down and call it, best case scenario you'll get a double points, if it's an insta kill or nuke, don't bother with it

Maximise your points by killing 5 zombies (8 shots into the leg then knife)

Open the door that takes you to the lower courtyard, and if you had a double points you should have enough for the next door. If not, prone in front of Double Tap and shoot 8 rounds into its leg but don't kill it

Lead the zombie up to the first Dragon head and knife it underneath it to activate it. Also pick up the zombie shield part in this area

Round 2

At this point you may have no ammo, so just maximise as much as you can by knifing and making sure you let every zombie go into the Dragon's mouth (you should have 1 left by the time the Dragon is done)

If you got that double points at the beginning, you'll have enough to open into the living quarters and then the door after that into power. If not, continue to maximise points as much as you can until you have enough.

From this point, I'll continue the strategy assuming you got a double points at the beginning, as the only difference is that you'll be around 6 zombie kills behind

Round 3

Of course, turn on the power and then continue down to the Undercroft. On your way, get the zombie shield part in the upper courtyard. Don't do the anti gravity pads yet, it just makes your life harder for the Dragon head I believe

Get your 8 kills underneath the Dragon in the Undercroft, preferably with your knife. You should have 5 zombies left, and you should be able to put the anti gravity on easily enough. Get the zombie shield part and then go up to the lab area.

Build the zombie shield upstairs, and then kill the remaining 5 zombies under the Dragon there

Round 4

Kill the remaining 3 zombies required for the last Dragon head, and do not kill any more. Run downstairs and pick up the bow, then run to the gravity well to get back to the upper courtyard (saves running by all the zombies still alive in the lab area)

Shoot the weathervane and collect your arrow. Then shoot your 3 bonfires and do the antigravity step.

Come up to the urn above Double Tap and get your 5 kills here first. For an easier escape, clear the debris beside the Wundersphere. Try not to kill any more zombies than necessary here

Go to the clock tower and get your 5 kills here. You can shoot the bonfire for this and the Double Tap urn now if you want to, however you can leave it if it's too awkward for you with all the zombies

Open the door to the teleporter and teleport. Fill the urn and shoot the bonfire. This will most likely end the round. Don't forget to teleport PaP and activate the landing pad. At this point you can optionally stay at the Rocket Pad to do the Ragnarok part, however to continue with this guide you would have to train the zombies and avoid killing any, which can be difficult in that room without Juggernog. 

Round 5

Whether you have done the Ragnarok part or not, either teleport back up or use the wundersphere and shoot the final two bonfires. I appreciate that this can be difficult with so many zombies, but if you are able to master lining these up, you can run in and do these first time. I recommend watching MrRoflWaffles' video on it, I'll link it at the end of the post

Go up and put the arrow back into the weathervain, and then pick it up again. Then claim your max ammo and fill the soul box to get your bow. This can often take the whole round and a little more, so be patient with it

So this is my strategy for the first 5ish round on Der Eisendrache. I may end up extending this guide with my low round strategy for the boss fight, which can be done very easily by round 16/17.

Here's the MrRoflWaffles video I referred to for the bonfire shots:

I'm aware that I could've explained this myself, however I feel that a video is much better for this specifically than a text tutorial :)

On 20/04/2016 at 2:47 AM, skywhale0 said:

To save some time, walking, or eventual frustration on the KRM pile shot, you can hit the charge shot from the window next to the workbench. stand far left side of the window and look farthest right as you can. Aim the crosshair center at the spot on the smoke where the red/orange meets the gray. leaving a crawler or slow zombie is recommended because a running zombie can push you into a corner trap on the bench.

Also its completely unnecessary to do this, but in a solo game where you take your time, get a useful double points, the right step sequence, you can have the upgraded storm bow by the end of 6 if you get a round 7 dogs. takes quite a bit of luck and planning but it can be done. its helpful if trying to do ee or something, but rnd 12 is really the earliest before any true ee progress can be made anyways. 

How round 12? I began the Keeper Bow kills on round 11 yesterday, and completed the EE on round 17. Could've done it earlier if I didn't go through rounds for better weapons

I find even Teleporter C to be super tight on The Giant, so camping is honestly the way forward. 

Regarding cross map training, I really have to disagree. Zombies despawn the second you get slightly ahead of them in this map. I've had zombies despawn from the power switch trap when I was at the original Speed Cola spawn

35 minutes ago, Stop Mocking Me0 said:

Woops, well it's still waiting until july for xbox and PC.

Yeah, I'm waiting til then also, but I find release just as exciting as being able to play the map honestly

Next map is June, not July. Just saying :)

Also, I'm wondering where they went at the end of the cutscene

Blundell said he guarantees we'll see different types of human zombies. Also said he loves spiders. Thought I'd mention

I'm hardly an expert at this fight, completed it on my second attempt and never tried again, but I'll explain how I did it anyway. It was solo, by the way.

First off, my loadout:

Storm Bow

Pap'd Haymaker with Blast Furnace (really helpful with the Panzers)

All perks (had perkaholic, if you don't use Jugg, QR, Stamin Up and Speed Cola)

Monkey Bombs

Aftertaste

Considering I managed to not actually go down, I'd recommend Danger Closest or In Plain Sight for the Panzers

The key to this fight is to never stop running. Only kill skeletons when they get in front of you, and only attack Panzers when they come near you, never go to them. If necessary, throw a monkey bomb down and haymaker the Panzers in the face, and keep running. The amount of max ammos should keep you going to keep doing this

I have much more recent memory of the snow actually. Can't say exactly when, and I can't confirm it working now, but it's interesting that it isn't there for so many of you

I think that this "MPD" under the castle somehow links to the one on the moon. No evidence to back it up, just thoughts

Remember the references to "The Frozen One"? Just pointing that out :)

I feel that either Dempsey 1.0 is either special and they only need him, or that he's just the first of three maps where we need to get Nikolai and Takeo too. I'm leaning to it being the first, since he is referred to as " The Frozen One" and all three aren't called "The Frozen Ones"

Ah, I would have never thought of that route xD. I really need to get into the habit of calling it the Anvil, not the boxing gym xD. 

I don't know why, but I tend to never use the trams. Using them I may be able to get PaP open on round 2. I'll write up a refined guide once I have tried it out. After taking a break from SoE, I'm finding myself loving it, finding the best way to do solo runs mostly by myself

Thanks for the feedback! I'll be trying that Canal one soon, I take it you're extremely close to the end as you open the last stairs?

I'd be interested to hear your Waterfront method, I have an idea what it would be, starting at the workbench one, opening the gym, running back to get the belt, rift door, and then perk?

After playing a lot of solo, working out the best starting beast modes etc, I think I have it nailed to get easy PaP on round 3. Not for the fact I need it then, but so I can get to the swords done before the Servant is even available, so that those 2 tasks aren't getting in the way of each other. This is a guide highlighting my most commonly used beast mode routes, sorry I don't have any video, I would like to add them to make this guide clearer in the future 

Round 1

For the first ritual you'll want to start by opening Junction immediately and using the Stamin' Up Beast Mode spot. Usually I just don't turn Stamin' Up on, because it screws me up for the rest of this, but you can if you want. I begin by getting the pen, and then I grapple up to Nero's, get to the top of the stairs to open it up and jump over the wall and shoot the power. From here I jump down, melee the door to the power up, power Quick Revive and break the Summoning Key. If I have time, which I sometimes do, I run and open Stamin' Up

After doing your beast mode, you should be able to kill all the zombies and have enough to open 1 door. Open Canals up(1000). End the round. 

Round 2

At this point it would be wise to pick up a fumigator, although I'd recommend only opening one pod, which would hopefully drop an RK5 for the Margwa. It's still managable without it, but the RK5 makes it several times easier

You'll want to get as many points as you can here with the bloodhound, which can be frustrating because of its damage. Leave one and open the second door in Canals (1250). For this Beast Mode, I have 2 different routes you can take. One allows you to get the cop badge, rift door and the egg statue, with a risk of missing the Ruby Rabbit stairs, and the other avoids the egg statue and you have a much higher chance of getting the Ruby Rabbit open. I'd recommend the latter, since this is a guide on early PaP and not early swords, but I'll cover both. Let's start with the egg statue one

Both of these will start with the Beast Mode closest to the Junction. You will run up the left side of the Canals towards the Kuda and cut into the actual canal at the stairs here. You'll then break the Cop Badge box, Rift door, and power the bars in front of the Cop Badge. Then you'll go up the stairs at the Civil Protector and break the egg statue. From here you can jump up and power the Ruby Rabbit door, however it can be hard to hit. With some practice, you can nail it every time, but be prepared to miss the power switch

Onto the safer route. For this one, you will do all of the same route as you do until you power the Cop Badge area. Instead of running and breaking the egg statue open, you will grapple up, and run down through the Ruby Rabbit to open it. I find this much easier and I hardly ever fail it this way

After the ritual is done, you'll have a Margwa to deal with. He shouldn't be too hard to kill, even with a Bloodhound since it's round 2. If you must, buy an RK5 from Easy Street. Once the Margwa is down, kill the last zombie and start the next round

Round 3

Once you have again killed all but one zombie, you should have at least 2250 points. This is the minimum required to do the next ritual. You'll have a choice of where to go next, Footlight or Waterfront. I'd recommend Footlight as there is no Margwa on the 3rd ritual, and they are easier to deal with in Waterfront after the 4th ritual. I'll explain Footlight first since this is the way I prefer

You will want to first open both doors, and then use the Beast Mode spot beside the KN-44 chalk. When in Beast Mode, face the Burlesque and move right. Look up and grapple above the sign, turn on the power box, and grapple to the spot on your left. From here, work your way down the stairs and power the perk, stairs and then break the crate to drop the hairpiece. Try to drop directly down, as you can possibly break the egg statue if you have enough time, and even the Rift door if you are flawless. 

Perform the ritual next, and if you have enough points, you should be able to open all of Waterfront. This all depends on how well you can point whore on the previous rounds. If you do not have enough, simply kill the zombie and kill all but one again on round 4, maximising your points

For Waterfront I use the second Beast Mode spot, and I begin by facing back towards the Junction. You will want to look up on the building closest and grapple to the highest point. From here break the box to drop the championship belt, and then sprint jump off to clear the stairs, and run all the way down to the boxing gym. Open the door, and if you have enough time you can run back up to break the Rift door, but this is not a priority as you will have the Canal one open.

Collect the belt and perform the ritual. I find training the Margwa round the outside of the boxing gym building is a simple way to deal with it, so stick to that and there you have it, PaP on round 3.

I'm fully aware that this is not the most efficient way to open PaP early, however I find it to be the most reliable, and I don't have to do round 1 60 zombie glitches or whatever. I also appreciate that this guide is not thorough, and I intend to edit this guide and properly format it too for easier reading :)

My strat is usually to "Half Moon" in the C teleporter room, until they cut me off and I run up the stairs, let them pile up and then jump back down. I then lure them back towards power, and lay into them/Wunderwaffe them. Usually gets the whole wave this way, except it can sometimes screw up leading to some sketchy stuff around the original Speed Cola location. Ironically my highest round doing this is also 35, but I've only tried it once

Great thread! I've only played solo once so far, and had been planning out my own high round strat in my head, but I had no idea you got extra beast modes at the start, so that kind of throws everything out the window xD

My strat was effectively the same as yours, however for Footlight's beast mode I would wait to open the next area and start there, grapple to the burlesque, open it, grapple to (hopefully jug) and turn on everything there. This is super difficult to get all of it done, and there's a chance you'll miss the egg statue, but it's worth being able to do it all in one

Apart from that, great guide! Will be following this tomorrow when I aim for round ~40

I agree with you on the whole none of the dancy-jumpy-flying shit, and that we may still have the exo 'perks', but I'm not entirely sure about the whole human battery idea. It would be a great part of the story if it were true, but I'm not sure if it'll go down that route. Awesome theory by the way