So I tried sprinting past a couple of zombies. Sometimes I slip and fall, then I die. I try simply running past them, same thing happens, and when I run into a zombie I stop for a sec to recover, then I die.

But I just walked through hundreds of zombies, all clumped up together... and they couldn't get me? I literally walked through the centre of a horde so tightly clumped that there was no space between them, effortlessly, no running or sprinting, a casual stroll, against Fast Shamblers. Their animation for biting is too slow, none of them can get a hit. Try it for yourself, just walk past zombies or right through them.

I even brushed up on some, and the edge of the horde always ends up colliding with me, this slows me down, and they still can't get me.

There's literally no way for zombies to get a hold of me, ever. I can walk through them.

Depending on your traits, fitness level and total encumbrance, running into zombies and low fences has a chance to knock you down. Your average walk speed (when not exhausted) is faster than fast shamblers.

Nah, I’m fine, I think I’ll keep my distance thx

This as far as I can tell; is intentional. Shamblers and Fast Shamblers are slower then the Player and while they can keep up when close to you; as long as you keep moving, they have no way to effectively hit you. At least, when it comes to the ones behind you.

For newer players, who will panic, and likely run away from the Zombies; they'll soon get exhausted, and become slow enough for the Zombies to catch them. But your average walk speed is just fast enough to get away; which enables you to actually just power walk your way to safety. You won't lose the Zombies like this; since they will keep up with you, but you don't have to fear a bite as long as you don't get cornered or caught off guard.

The tripping part is intentional design afaik. If your panic is high and you try to run through a horde with certain number of zombies, you have a chance to trip.

As for the walking and not getting grabbed, probably mods breaking the mechanic or just you being extremely lucky. Because if you are literally walking shoulder-to-shoulder in the middle of a horde, your back vulnerability will cause you to get the kiss of death from behind.

Yeah part intended and part not I'd say. Need to know if there are mods involved.

I think it's supposed to simulate tripping over the zombies or one of them grabbing your ankle, but it's definitely intended.

Originally posted by hardy_conrad:

Yeah part intended and part not I'd say. Need to know if there are mods involved.

There were some outfit mods I enabled, but I disabled all of them and verified my cache just to make sure nothing was wrong, for purity sake, and it's still possible. Granted, I use Athletic and Strong with level 5 sprinting. I don't know if it modifies walking speed, but I also have Lucky which I don't think makes a difference.

Fun fact too, I use Clumsy to get extra points, but since I'm not running nor sprinting, I can't actually trip.