It's me again. Last week I finally beat the Classic mode, with two survivors (and without a single scratch on them). Sacrificed two who had gotten badly hurt by lighting a bonfire in the other side of town just before the chopper arrived, so that zombies would leave my healthy members alone. But I digress...

Has anyone here beat Roadkill mode? Can you give me some advice on what I should do here? It's giving me a heck of a trouble...

First of all, it's very rare that I find more than half of the required auto parts; parts with no use pop up much more often. I have no real trouble getting my party relationships in order, but at some point either two things happen:
A) A random mob (or the super zombie) hurts my party too much in order for me to have any real chance to find the remaining parts. It's hard enough with five, but it seems no matter how many weapons or how secure my current building is, at least one of my guys dies. Usually more. And basically, it's game over after that if there's still lots of ground to cover. Or
B) The town becomes too overrun with zombies too fast. They are constantly at my door, and once I've cleared them and go explore, similar numbers have spawned near locations and it's not unusual that every house has like 15-20 zombies in them (not to mention bigger locations such as hospitals), plus some individuals outside the place. And fighting them just spawns more. Ammo eventually runs out and...then there's not a lot that can be done.

Here's what I usually do: I search a couple of houses thoroughly (including the one I start at), at the same time modifying whatever I can and send people to investigate in case they find the location with the vehicle. I search everything until they're at 100%, because I've seen car parts pop up in later searches as likely as during the first. After I've searched a couple of places and have gathered plenty of resources, I usually breach once more, somewhere near the center, and secure the whole place. This becomes my safe haven with all the food and stuff. After that I just go explore: mostly regular houses, because they're the easiest to breach, with the smallest number of zombies.

But there must be something I'm doing wrong here, right? Like I said, I get wiped out eventually either because of a bad encounter or because the zombie numbers become too massive. Is my initial setup taking too long? Should I breach more aggressively and multiple places at once? Are the warehouses and stores more likely to have auto parts, than houses?

FYI, I do use the bonfires in order to lure them away. But to me it only seems to work for a few rounds, after which there's again huge mobs gathering around my fort.

Hey DProject, I just finally beat the Road Kill scenario, and thought I'd share a few of my insights with you, even though you may very well have beaten it, yourself by now (if so, would love to know if you found similar strategies as mine worked). Anyway, here's the gist of my run:

Firstly, I have also beaten the Classic mode 2 or 3 times, same as you...also with just 2 survivors left, usually in decent shape, but starving. If like me, you used a lot of hit and run, that also ended being a similar strategy I used with RK...with some slight differences. From my starting house which I searched a couple good hours (but not quite 100%) I headed right to the closest OUTTER corner house, or factory, store ( just not one of the big buildings, like University, Police station, Hospital, ect., you get the idea, where you can easily get swamped, and killed in short order), and breached it with my whole group (for the most part, I ALWAYS traveled/assaulted with my whole group, with the exception of Assaulting larger buildings (where I might use 2 or 3) to either 1. See if a vehicle was present (an assault seemed to always turn up a reported vehicle, where an inspection didn't seem to, in other RK games I played), or 2. to take out some zeds a couple times, before breaching the building to take it (like because the vehicle was parked there, or a much needed car part).

Anyway, after the first corner house/store/ect., I proceeded in a clockwise direction (or counter-clockwise if you prefer), staying at each house/building long enough to thoroughly search it to either turn up a clue/note, or car part(s). I wouldn't take any parts with me yet (why haul precious extra weight for parts you may not even need?), but made a note of where they were (also finding notes telling of part locations are good for future searches). Anyway, sticking to the outside perimeter keeps the number of zeds at a minimum as they enter from the perimeter, and tend to wander inward. Continuing to move around the perimeter in one direction (I would certainly hit a house/store that might be in the second row inward without much trouble generally also), I tried to keep 1 or 2 cans of gasoline with me the whole time, for a future bonfire or 2, on the opposite side of the map from where I would need to collect my parts, and repair my car once I located everything. By sticking to the perimeter, I was able to keep everyone alive (some very close calls, and one amputation though), and by continually moving thusly, I never encounter the Super Zombie (even though I sent the stranger away at one house, and also never encountered the small girl's family, even though I sent her away as well)...in other words, moving steadily around the outside of the map was a good strategy.

Luckily for me, the car was sitting at the bank (fairly easily breached and secured after a couple of assaults) in the middle of the map. I lit a bonfire in a far corner of the map (opposite of where the majority of parts I needed were (with the exception of the nice light "air filter" I was carrying with me), then again skirted along the perimeter (to avoid throngs of zeds heading to the fire through the middle of the map), in sometimes longer trips to bypass buildings I didn't need anything from. Eventually I had all my parts, and the map (didn't even need to barter with another group of survivors for parts after my thorough search around the town). Got back to the Bank, had 3 of the group repair the car, and two of them on "patrol & kill zombies". Before I knew it, the car was up and running, and I got the hell outta Dodge!

Obviously, I had a good run...for as I am sure you know, just losing one person can be a real bite in the ass, and losing two is pretty much a death sentence early on and through mid-game. The one survivor of mine who who got the amputation, survived without infection, and ended up still being a very productive part of the group. Once I've sat back and savored my victory for a bit, I'll be sure to make another run at RK trying this strategy again...I KNOW it won't work every time, just too many variables come into play, but I think it's a good strategic approach anyway.

ps. Ohh, one other thing of note. Food/meals are not the issue they are in Classic. In RK you are moving pretty much all the time once you've located a note or found car parts, so I found meals weren't a big deal (or worrying too much if zombie bodies spoil them). I just made sure to keep hauling a few snacks along with me as I traveled around the map, and hunger/starvation was never an issue. (Sometimes having two survivors remove bodies/prepare meals was good for relationships though, if they weren't needed for other duties). Once you have everything you need, you fix the car and GET OUT...there is no prolonged siege and wait, where your survivors start to starve from lack of food, and in this Road Kill mode, that's a Good Thing :D

Thank you for your thorough explanation. Just a couple of questions:
Did you search every house you visited 100%?
Did you have the latest official patch installed?

It seems like we've played the game pretty much the same way; I too like to stick to the perimeter if at all possible, but I guess you were a little bit more luckier than me perhaps :) Also, I haven't tried the mode with the latest patch yet though so maybe they've tweaked it some and made it a bit easier - maybe then would I too be able to finish it some day. But anyway, thank you for sharing your tips! I will have to try the mode again in the near future.

Yes..I definitely installed the latest patch. I recently picked it up on a promo, so I installed everything. From what I've read here, and on Screwfly's forums, the latest patch definitely tweaked some gameplay and balance issues... grab it!

Regarding house/factory/store searches... No, I think I only searched one house 100%, because I wasn't getting any notes, or car parts showing up, and my gut feeling (which was wrong) was telling me something should be there, lol. For the most part, I would search 2 to 3 hours until I found parts, or a note, or hit 4 hours max, then move on. I found that sometimes a note I found during a search somewhere else, would often clue me back to a place I had already been, and a part that I might need, but hadn't found yet. That info just went into my notes, and if I discovered it was indeed a part I needed, I would revisit the place later during my final parts run, and search until I found it then. Generally speaking, I never feel comfortable sitting anywhere for more than 2 or 3 hours in either game (waiting for the chopper in Classic leaves you little choice though), because that seems to increase the chances of that fukin' lynch mob showing up, and ruining your whole day...and game. One thing I would like the devs to possibly address in a future patch, is allowing your group that is fully secured, and well armed in a spot, to be able to have a much better chance of surviving some of the horrible game busting/ending dilemmas. I do hate easy games, but sometimes, it can be very frustrating when you've done everything right...fully secured, well armed, and even most of all of your base trapped, and a lynch mob, giant zombie, or girl's relatives can wipe you out in one swoop, or leave just one survivor barely cling to life :(. Otherwise..for the most part..Love the game :D