Dead Rising: Perfect Run

[Wholly Schmidt]

This is hard yo. I'm trying to get all the case files, all the survivors, and kill all the psychos in the same run. I've got the guide laying it all out for me, and I'm already level 50, but this still isn't easy. Anyone else pulled this off?

Side question: I've still never cleared all the cases, so if I manage this, it will also be the first time I get the true/good ending or whatever. Are there any surivors tied into the story? That is, If I end up having to start over, is it possible to get all the survivors without getting all the case files completed?


Time is just incredibly tight through so much of this, and it also sort of removes the saftey net of saving. I've got to read ahead and make sure I'm at a point with plenty of time before my next set of obligations before I dare save, because I'm very likely to save without enough time to continue if I'm not careful. That means redoing lots of work every time I screw something up, or more often, when my survivors do. Man, I really started to hate a few of them.

Any tips are welcome, but I'm really just looking for some commiseration. I've got 3 chainsaws, a whole library of books, and the Real Mega Buster, so I'm pretty much armed to the teeth. I find the basic strategy for survivors seems to be to grab one of them by the hand or on your back when you enter a new zone, run where you're trying to get, set them down and set a waypoint next to them, then go back with a baseball bat or something a little less dangerous than a chainsaw and smack around the crowds where your other guys got stuck trailing you. With certain groups, it fails as often as it works, but I haven't found a better strategy yet. Right now I'm trying to kill the movie theater cult leader and get his survivors back in time for the next case file with whatsername; I just about had it till one of the five (FIVE!) people I had to bring back caught my chainsaw to the head on a backswing. It didn't kill him, but he was easy pickings for the zombies while I was trying to crowd everyone else around the warehouse exit.

[Shmtur]

Side question: I've still never cleared all the cases, so if I manage this, it will also be the first time I get the true/good ending or whatever. Are there any surivors tied into the story? That is, If I end up having to start over, is it possible to get all the survivors without getting all the case files completed?

If you clear all the cases, not everyone survives. And if you complete the case files up to a certain point, one of the main story mode characters dies (seeing as this is a game with freaking zombies in it, I really can't call that generic line a spoiler.) So to get ending A, you're going to lose at least...3 people, maybe 4 off the top of my head. If you complete the case files up to a certain point, where this certain person dies, well, there's a survivor that will join you that wouldn't otherwise. Spoileriffic details after the break, since most people don't have a 360. Y'know, just to be nice.

*SPOILER BELOW, YE GODS*



















After Barnaby dies (but before Brad and...Jessie? the Uncanny Valley blonde agent - before they die) there is a survivor named Simone that will join you, because Frank tells her they have someone that can help her even though she's been bitten. If you don't get up to that point in the case files, she won't join you. And if you play farther into the case files, of course, you lose the other two people. Either way, it's guaranteed that at least one of the 54 people will die - either Barnaby or Simone. And if you don't do the case files at all, you lose both, in addition to Isabella at the very least. It's 4 am...my memory's a little hazy.

[Guido Jones]

What shmtur posts is correct - you lose 4 people by completeing the casefiles, so the most you can do is 50/54, even if you're perfect otherwise. The most survivors you can get out is 53/54, and that's if you quit doing case files after a certain point.

I ended up doing a saint run and got 52/54 people as I lost the case files a little earlier then I wanted.

My tips: keep shotguns and machine pistols stocked up to give to survivors. Your survivors are way more survivable with these weapons (In fact, I rarely had to go back and help them). Also, instead of grabbing the "slow survivor" (there's one in every group) and running to a waypoint, it's better to set the waypoint, then clear the path with the mini chainsaw, then run back for any slow people/people under diress. Much Much faster.

[BDGE]

So the only reason to attempt this is for the '50 survivor' achievement right? That and pride I suppose...

I'd really like to work on the 50,000 genocide achievement for the Megabuster, but I dunno how best to approach that without slitting my wrists driving endlessly in the tunnel.

[curst]

I swear I ran into Simone twice when I got the True Ending. I got the tip from Otis early on, and I couldn't help her because I hadn't yet found out that Isabela is a medical technician or whatever. But after I'd completed more of the story, I got the same tip from Otis about her, and this time I was able to convince her to join because I could tell her that Isabela could help.

And Guido's so right when it comes to guiding survivors around, but I always prefer machine guns to shotguns because I find that my pals will get all Fallout on my ass, happily gunning me down by accident in the process of trying to take out one zombie. I've never had one hit me if they're using machine guns. You can easily get one machine gun in Paradise Plaza (I think the only time it won't respawn is if you already have it in inventory), and if you rescue the three people holed up in the gun shop of the North Plaza, one of them carries a machine gun, so trade him another weapon to get it. That way you'll have two machine guns on hand at all times to give to survivors. Just be sure to trade them with something that infinitely respawns, like a baseball bat, before you bring them into the security room, so that you get your guns back.

[Thomas Wilde]

There's also another SMG in the fountain in Al Fresca Plaza, and I've heard there's another one on the roof of the kids' play hut in Wonderland, which you can only get to by jumping off the Space Rider.

This is hard yo. I'm trying to get all the case files, all the survivors, and kill all the psychos in the same run. I've got the guide laying it all out for me, and I'm already level 50, but this still isn't easy. Anyone else pulled this off?

I have. There's a certain luck factor involved, and I was occasionally racing the clock to such an extent that I had to leave a group of survivors on the roof long enough to run in and trigger a cutscene in the security room, but I managed to pull it off. Medicine Run is the biggest boondoggle of them all, but it's easy enough to do if you simply do not save Tanya and Ross until you've gone back to give Brad the first-aid kit.

The key, I found, was arming my survivors with at least handguns whenever possible. My big problem before was wanting to go back to the security room as often as possible, which is a big time sink. Having a big retinue of gun-wielding survivors actually does make things easier from time to time.

One thing I should note is that on a "perfect run," you won't get Saint right away. You'll be listed as having saved 49 people on the final ranking screen at the end of 72 Hour Mode. If you then go on to clear Overtime Mode, you'll get two more survivors (not that there's anyone left to rescue in the mall, though) and be pushed over the edge into Sainthood.

[forgeforsaken]

There is one in the tunnels room with the maintenance key too I believe.

[Lunch of Kong]

I give my survivors hunting knives

[Guido Jones]

And Guido's so right when it comes to guiding survivors around, but I always prefer machine guns to shotguns because I find that my pals will get all Fallout on my ass, happily gunning me down by accident in the process of trying to take out one zombie. I've never had one hit me if they're using machine guns. You can easily get one machine gun in Paradise Plaza (I think the only time it won't respawn is if you already have it in inventory), and if you rescue the three people holed up in the gun shop of the North Plaza, one of them carries a machine gun, so trade him another weapon to get it. That way you'll have two machine guns on hand at all times to give to survivors. Just be sure to trade them with something that infinitely respawns, like a baseball bat, before you bring them into the security room, so that you get your guns back.

Oh, getting shot by your survivors is always a danger, even with machineguns and pistols. Yuu (or shinji) shot me a few times with the SMG when I was towing them around. The shotgun is nice to have on them, even though they'll hit you, because they'll take out multiple zombies in one shot with it.

Anyway, the reason I said shotguns and SMG is:

A. it's easy to get shotguns, since there's a bunch at the gun shop
B. it's easy to get one SMG in Paradise plaza.

Going around hunting for the other ones might be possible, but I was already in so much of a hurry, I went with what was easy. Plus the machinegun that you get from the guy in the gunstone is so late in the game (at least the way I did it), you'll only be able to pass it on to one other survivor.

[Guido Jones]

I'd really like to work on the 50,000 genocide achievement for the Megabuster, but I dunno how best to approach that without slitting my wrists driving endlessly in the tunnel.

Megabuster is a must if you want to try for Saint. Nothing like 1-4 shotting every boss in the game.

And yeah, unfortunately the only real way to do it is in the maintenance tunnels running people over. Fortunately, it only takes 2 full in game days.

[Thomas Wilde]

Megabuster is a must if you want to try for Saint. Nothing like 1-4 shotting every boss in the game.

The small chainsaws will work just as well.

If you have the three-book chainsaws, the only bosses that pose any kind of threat to you at all are the second appearance of Carlito, Isabela, and Cliff. Everyone else dies in seconds.

[ElGuapo]

Yeah, I just got Frank the Pimp and Tour Guide (at the same time) this weekend. On this run through I got Adam's chainsaws. which I hadn't gotten before. Add the 3 books to it, and you've got pretty much God Mode right there. I mean they last forever and they kill everything in one hit. I am even accurate enough with them to take out a zombie from behind while he is attacking a survivor.

Another thing I did was use "Lift Up" a lot. If a survivor was surrounded, I'd lift a zombie and throw him into the crowd, knocking everyone down. Then I'd start snapping necks, doing a 360 leg thing, or chainsawing them as they got back up.

I gave any survivor who could carry it a guitar. This way I could hear who was in trouble by the sound it made hitting people. In all I rescued about 30 people, I missed 3 at the beginning and all the Hachetman's people (that seemed like a lot, went I went in there later . . . I assume all those people hanging by the ceiling were hostages). Some people I never saw, such as the pyro's hostages (it just said they died, I think even before his mission), the people hanging off the rabbit, the one guy with the shotgun who appears at North Plaza, and I missed the coward's scoop too. I'm sure there are others.

Seeing 8 women following me around, bumping into each other and getting into cat fights was fun as hell.

[Lunch of Kong]

which were the 8 gals you rescued? I escorted 7 people at onc eon the first day, but i guess i need 8 at once for tour guide.

[Thomas Wilde]

I've been meaning to go back and get Frank the Pimp. The easiest way to do it seems to be to kill Ronald and Nick, then rescue Pamela, Heather, Kay, Janet, Lilly, the other chick Jo has captive, Sally, and Jennifer.

[Guido Jones]

The small chainsaws will work just as well.

If you have the three-book chainsaws, the only bosses that pose any kind of threat to you at all are the second appearance of Carlito, Isabela, and Cliff. Everyone else dies in seconds.

You still have to get close. Megabuster is death at range.

[ElGuapo]

Ok, I'm gonna lay it out as best as I know, because I'm not sure how the triggers for survivors showing up are.

First I let the two guys in the women's clothing store and the woman who lost her baby die (time ran out). Then I went and got, I think, the Japanese tourists, then the black couple in the shoe store. Then I went and killed Adam and opened up the shortcut and led the security guard back (and my God, what did I do before that shortcut). Let the Hachet Man and Coward scoops expire. Or maybe that happened later, I forget. Ok, so then I got the two twins ("Juicy" and her sister), who randomly appeared. I missed their dialogue by the way, what were they apologizing for? I think then I took a pic of Ronald but then killed him. Went and killed Jo and got her 4 hostages. That's 6. Went back to Paradise and got the girl in the box from the cultists. That's 7. Now I heard there was a couple dangling from the bunny in Wonderland, but they never seemed to appear. So I ran around a bit and waited for another scoop, but nothing ever came. At this point I hadn't been outside, so I wondered if I could get the woman from the convicts. Went outside and made the group run against the wall towards Paradise while I chased down the woman, Sophie I think. Got her, then I got the achievement right away. You don't have to rescue them to get it. But I did anyway, got them all back and rescued them. Now THAT part was like herding cats.

Most of the time I just set a waypoint in the back of the women's room when I took the shortcut. If I had to move them around I cleared a wide, wide path the with chainsaw before setting intermediate waypoints. I also kept wine with me to give 'em a bit of the old sauce to keep 'em healthy. Pimps roll that way.

It was actually really fun, and not all that crazy hard. The only dicey part was wondering how I was going to get the eighth as I ran around a bit with them. I took lots of group photos.

[Lunch of Kong]

oh. you used sophie as your 8th.

[Thomas Wilde]

Wow, Sophie stays alive longer than I thought she would've.

You still have to get close. Megabuster is death at range.

True enough.

I think my larger point, such as it was, is that I got Saint without the Megabuster, and it's mostly because of the chainsaws.

[Guido Jones]

Yeah - but I was mostly thinking of the earlier boss fights where the Chainsaws wouldn't be available (Carlito #1 and Adam). Adam is probably the toughest boss in the game since he can deflect gun fire (including the mega buster) only taking minimal damage. Still much easier to kill him with the mega buster then without.

[Lunch of Kong]

Killed adam by jumping at him and pummelling him mercilessly with a hunting knife.

[Wholly Schmidt]

The Mega Buster is really nice against the raincoat cultists. The chainsaws can slice right through them, but in a big enough crowd, you've still got a chance of getting gassed.

[Demon G Sides]

Killed adam by jumping at him and pummelling him mercilessly with a hunting knife.

I went for an irony kill, and grabbed a large chainsaw from the Infinate Respawning Chain Saw place in Al Fresco (?) Plaza, near where you rescue the two dudes and the lady whos baby was turned into Zombie Chow.

He died quite quickly, but you've got to remember to actually run and cut, not the twirling PP Gaining cut that you can do if standing still. Otherwise, he runs away, and it takes longer.

Carlito 2, with the sniper rifle, was a BREEZE! Uzi, people, Uzi! Hit him from behind a pillar. I never took a shot, and neither did Brad, up until the cutscene.

And the Grocery store guy: Adam's Chainsaw wrecked his face hardcore.

Now, off to the Gun-nut *Smiles*

[Thomas Wilde]

Yeah - but I was mostly thinking of the earlier boss fights where the Chainsaws wouldn't be available (Carlito #1 and Adam). Adam is probably the toughest boss in the game since he can deflect gun fire (including the mega buster) only taking minimal damage. Still much easier to kill him with the mega buster then without.

Well, really, he gets owned by basic patterns. Stay away from him and he can't do much to you, then turn around and use a shotgun when he blows up the balloons. Once he's stunned, use a katana.

I'm of the opinion that, assuming you don't just chainsaw somebody to pieces in three seconds, Larry might be the toughest boss in the game, based upon fighting him in Infinity Mode when I can't cheese him to death with the chainsaws.

[Thrag]

I mentioned this in the other thread, but to kill Adam easily, avoid him until he starts to blow up a balloon and then shoot the balloon before or just after he releases it. It will blow up and he'll take serious damage.

[Guido Jones]

All those suggestions take time - which if you are doing a saint run, or a perfect run, you don't have time for.

[Thomas Wilde]

Hey, I did a perfect run without the Real Megabuster. It's possible, but I'd imagine the Real Megabuster gives you some more wiggle room... and on a perfect run, seconds count.

[RobotPants]

I gotta be honest, a perfect run doesn't sound at all fun to me judging by how much of a pain in the ass it is to escort anyone, much less 50 different people.

[Thomas Wilde]

It's mostly fun for the "I did it, bitches" factor. A perfect run means you own the game on every level.

I'll also admit that there are a few survivors who are actually good to have around, like Kindall. I wanted to keep Kindall for the rest of the game.

[Guido Jones]

Kendall, Yu, and Shinji are by far the best survivors.

[Deadbuffalo]

Just finished my saint run. No megabuster, mostly chainsaws with the entertainment book and engineering book in paradise plaza. Your in wonderland enough that getting extras is easy.
Adam takes about all of 3 cash registers. The shoe store nearby has a bunch.
Carlito in the food court takes 2 katana swipes. I defeated every other psycho with mini chain saws.
I stopped the case files right before barnaby dies. Doing so means you can't get simone. I also missed one other survivor somehow. But for now i'll be happy with 52/54. A "perfect" A ending with 50 or 51 out of 54 survivors sounds absolutely insane to me. Are you going to get all the pp stickers in that run too? Might as well go for transmissionary for kicks then as well.

[Guido Jones]

Isabella is the other survivor you missed.

[Thomas Wilde]

I got 51 survivors, and it really was insane.

[RepoMan]

What was the most insane moment, Thomas?

I will never ever ever have the time to play the game enough to get good enough to get 51 survivors, so your war stories are the only glimpse I'll ever get of what the madness must be like.

[Demon G Sides]

Jesus Christ!

How do you get the real Megabuster?

Also, how do you get to fight the cultist leader? I went to the movies right after I rescued that girl, and there wasn't anyone there. I continued to cut up Cultists, and eventually, they stopped spawning.

Any help?

[forgeforsaken]

You get a call from Otis at some time after you rescue that girl. You need to not be in the security room or the theater to get it. It's around midnight I think.

You get the Megabuster when you get genocider. It's really easy though somewhat time consuming (I'm at 40 something k right now, probably get the rest tonight). What you do is go into the tunnels and just drive around, grab the truck, grab the sedan, go into the meatpacking room to reset the vehicles , repeat. I get about 1000 zombies per cycle.

[Thomas Wilde]

You only seem to get the "A Strange Group" call from Otis if you're at a certain point in the story, too. I've seen people online say that you can get all the sidequests, and thus all the cases, if you've followed the main plot through to 7-1, "Last Resort."

What was the most insane moment, Thomas?

I wound up leaving large groups of survivors on the rooftop a couple of times so I could run in and trigger a case file in the security room, then pop back out and shepherd all the survivors into the ductwork.

The most insane moment in a good way was on the final night, running across Leisure Park to get Jonathan, Alyssa, and Brett, then bringing them with me to take Sean on and rescue Ray, Beth, Michelle, Nathan, and Cheryl. You get the Brainwashing Tips book from Sean, which makes survivors combative and fearless, and this is an eight-person group where everyone can be armed except Cheryl. Taking this crew back through Paradise Plaza, with Jonathan holding a shotgun, Brett's machinegun, Ray holding an SMG, and everyone else equipped with pistols, was like a scene from a World War II movie.

The most insane moment in a bad way was the final big survivor run. The way the timing breaks down, you'll wind up going into Wonderland Plaza to fight Paul and rescue Mindy and Debbie, around the same time Gil appears in the food court, Leroy shows up in the cosmetics store in Wonderland, and Susan appears in the Wonderland play area. You end up with a six-person group of survivors where only three can be armed, two of whom are pretty worthless even when they are armed; one is slow as hell most of the time; and one has to be helped to get anywhere. I wound up running this long series of relay races to the safe zones in Wonderland, Paradise, and the warehouse: one to set a waypoint and drop Gil off there, one to make sure Susan got where she needed to go.

The bit I couldn't believe I actually pulled off was the eight-person group on Day Two, a bit after Medicine Run. I went to fight Cliff, took him down with the chainsaws, and got Josh, Rich, and Barbara out of the office next door. I was tempted to leave Gordon for the zombies, but I took my three survivors across Leisure Park to get him, then cut back across the food court to Wonderland Plaza to rescue Sally and Nick, the two survivors who're dangling from the big bunny statue. I took the secret passage to Paradise Plaza in time to rescue Jennifer, and right after I killed all the cultists, I scooped Ronald up out of Jill's Sandwiches and gave him a jug of OJ I'd been carrying around for precisely such a purpose. That gave me an eight-man crew to get back to the security room, with minutes to go before the next case expired.

This whole thing wound up being harder than it has to be, because of the lot, Nick is the only okay fighter. The others can be armed, but won't do much with the weapons aside sit there and bitch.

[jim crawford]

Awesome. Now do it again, with the VCR on, to send in to the Speed Demos Archive.

[Thomas Wilde]

Okay, so...

I'm writing a perfect run walkthrough for OXM 360 UK. To that end, I'm going back through the game in my spare time and recording footage of my various misadventures.

Just for the hell of it, I'm going to put them up on Youtube. Here are the first three:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=stolisomancer

[Thomas Wilde]

I've put up a few more movies, including a battle against the convicts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KSESoCTtIs

[delirium]

If/when I attempt this, I want to try and get it on my own without the aid of a guide... how frustrating would you say it is to get this down without help? I'm mostly concerned about those random survivors who seem to just appear without any phone call to indicate that they are there. If I screw up and am forced to start over for saving in a bad spot once or twice, I can deal with that. I just don't want to work my ass off, get near the end, and find out I'm screwed.

[Thomas Wilde]

I would recommend making at least one dry run to get an idea of when people appear, what obstacles present themselves, and what you need to do to get certain cases to materialize. Go for Ending A, if you can; fulfilling the case files takes you all over the mall and gives you a fairly good idea of where you need to go at any given time.

[delirium]

Yeah, with my first game I gave up on the Case lines halfway through and just spent the rest of the 72 hours exploring, getting achievments and saving who I happened to come across.

I'm playing through a second time now to finish the storyline and figure out who needs to be saved and when. I just finished Day 1 about to start the Medicine Run and saved everyone on my first try at level 30. I have a feeling it gets much harder from here.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I can't imagine doing a perfect run without a guide unless you basically make one yourself. Write down the times everything happens as you go, save when you fail and start over. Your biggest obstacle won't be getting things done, it will be not even knowing about things. With Otis refusing to tell you about something going on in the same zone as you, I can't imagine how many play throughs of trial and error it will take to even be aware of all the people, much less manage to get your timing down for saving them all. But hey, good luck!

[Thomas Wilde]

Well, solving all the case files expediently is half the battle.

The other half is knowing things like how Jo will kill off her survivors unless you attend to her directly, or what triggers Gil's appearance.

[Demon G Sides]

Gragh.

I haven't even gotten the Cultist Head Psycho to show... I'm getting kinda sick with treying to ure EVERYTHg, although, I did kill Hatchetman. That was...........

Annoying.

[Shmtur]

You get a phone call about him, if I remember correctly.

[Demon G Sides]

I didn't. I came in, saw them almost stab the lady, killed the cultists, and then returned her to the Security Room. Didn't hear anything else about it. I even got caught by them, and it didn't do anything besides pit me against them using only a stepladder...

[Shmtur]

Er, if I remember right, the phone call is the next day. So there's a good wait in between.

[Thomas Wilde]

Yeah, you don't get the call about the cult's leader until something like 3 AM on Day Three.

[Guido Jones]

It's midnight on the 21st for "A Strange Group" - you may not have gotten it if you skipped the case files.

[Rasputin]

Also, about slow movers, something I discovered is that you can throw them (the irish whip for you wrasslin' fans) just like a zombie and they move at full speed. So if you want to get them moving, just stand next to them and wind them up at the point you want them to go to and let 'em rip. They'll knock over any zombies in the way.

Also, as JeffD pointed out to me, the fact that you can disembowel the survivors and they don't die makes the first part of the game on the roof hilariously sick.

[Demon G Sides]

Got the Cultist leader.... And then picked up his book. Made getting survivors quite easy. But I quit the case files after beating the snot outta Isabella. And those two twins died... I got 31 Survivors, on a quick shot to get Ending B... and I did. Kinda crappy ending, but whatever. I stopped Kindell (That awesome bastard) from mutinying, and got the old guy liquored up. But by the end... the people were bitchslapping the hell out of each other, and Ray and some fat guy ina green sweater were duking it out! And the old guy was fighting with some chick about nothing. It was funny to watch.