After reading, see video below for an example.

While it might seem like fun to just throw your people in, having each one work for a specific purpose can help the overall outcome. Shotguns might be useful, but without that range, are waiting for everyone to bunch up on them. That's why rifles help clear the easy ones first. I'm going to explain my basic set-up for a team of four.

1.) Leader - Syd

I usually start Syd out as my leader. This is someone flexible who you use to fill in what the others needs. Someone well-rounded, preferably fast and good with a gun. I set her up with a sniper rifle and have her search. Why? Her speed lets her get into good positions quickly, such as rushing up to get the attention of strong zed, but fast enough to run away before they get too close. Plus she can search quickly between rushes. Avoid putting her where she can be hit. Give her a MG with cover, or a sniper rifle where she's away. Life, guns, and speed should be her focus, in that order.

2.) Gunner - Cop

This is the guy who may not have the best health, but is super-strong with a gun. Can be near the front, but usually not the one who is targeted to be the first hit. This is where you want your strongest MG, such as the SAW or other objects that focus on rapid damage with range. Life, and guns, and guns should be his focus. Put him right behind the...

3.) Frontman - Worker

This is the guy who either has melee skills or gun skills with a shotgun. More importantly, he should have alot of life. Life, life, life. Improving his speed or combat skills will matter little given he uses those skills rare in his range. If you put him in front and the gunner a step behind him, you have a strong line-up.

4.) Auxilary - Scientist

This is the flexible guy, and usually not in the front line. Or maybe he is? Use this guy to his default strengths to fill in space. When starting, you have a scientist who is not meant for combat due to his low health. But he is real good at searching. Put your Leader behind some cover to help the gunner and frontman and have this guy search. Or, if you have another person of frontman skills and a spare shotgun/axe, then put this person next to your Frontman and have the leader search. On occasion, you will need to search in opposite directions between rounds. Choose the guy with better speed to do that in one direction while your leader searches in the other direction, while your frontman and gunner stay in position and reload. Or if you have someone quick, he can step in front of horde and start firing while walking backwards (takes alittle practice). But this way some zeds are weak before the rest of the team gets their shot in, and not everyone is reloading at the same time. Skills are to play to the characters default.


What weapons do you give each?

Leader - Sniper rifle/MG
Gunner - MG with best DPS/range to attract them.
Frontman - melee/shotgun depending on their skill.
Auxilary - MG best DPS, but favor range over DPS as you'll be farther away than the Gunner.


How are they split?

Keep them together, or use a type of buddy system.

Bottleneck - If the map bottlenecks into a single square, you want guys who the zeds cannot get to behind cover firing on the squares before that. You want your frontman to block or stand next to that square. Your gunner (DPS) needs to cover the square(s) in front of that. Your Leader (range) will try to cover as many squares as possible due to already being behind cover. Have your Aux either the same as your Frontman or Leader depending on their style.

Spearhead - When the map gives you double-cover, such as a backwards C shape, the best spot is to dig your Gunner and Aux. inside there to hit the zeds from behind the cover and attract them to come in. Have your frontman ready.

Divide - When there are two paths, it can become tricky. The important part is to keep your team together so if one side clears, the other can support. Aux/Leader moving can help this. A leader can move to the side expected to have more zeds, or the Aux. can run in front and damage on side while pulling back. More importantly make sure your team stays together so those who move have a safe spot to move back to: behind the Frontman and Gunner!

Gauntlet - Similar to the bottleneck, except they seem to pass in a zig-zag instead of a single point, or perhaps in an L-like path. The point is, especially as your weapons gain better range, you may want to avoid covering the same squares in front of the Frontman. This can be a tough call if you have to move your Leader/Aux to different sides behind cover. A fast character can help in these situations, or help alleviate the Frontman/Gunner from being used too heavily.

Keep each of these in mind. Once you can identify paths and map types, you can more quickly apply these. As your team grows, you can keep in mind each of these positions so any crew operates the same way.

See the previous section on team member positions and how they each work. These are to help you cover how to pick weapons.

Gunner - You want range and damage, mostly damage. Calculate the DPS, or Damage-Per-Second, by multiplying the damage by the RPS (rounds per second). The highest DPS is the best. Range is important too, then ammo, in that order.

DPS = Damage x RPS

Frontman (Shotgun) - the same as Gunner, but multiply Damage by the shell amount, by the RPS. Each shot may give off 5 or 10 in spray.

DPS = Damage x Shell x RPS.

Here, however, you may also want to know the clip quality. That is, what is the most damage you can give per clip. This is important as any time the frontman has to reload, the enemies are straight against them within a square or two, and likely to take some heavy hits. How to fix this?

CQ = Damage x Shell x Ammo.

That tells you the full amount of damage he can do between reloading. Sawoff might be good, but once you count CQ (on only two shots), it isn't any good for a frontman once those two shots have been given.

Frontman (Melee) - Damage is all that matters. Well, not all, but is essentially the most important. Use either the Axe or Lightsaber. Damage and rate are all that matters, but once they are that close, taking them down in fewer hits rather than quick hits is what counts as enemies progressively get stronger.

For lack of a wiki, this will tell you the basics of what tier a weapon is and how it is best used. This guide DOES NOT HAVE WEAPON STATS. I am not going to copy and paste all the information for all of the weapons. This is to help you pick the right weapon for the right person.

--- Tier 0 - The Basics ---

The Pistols

The basic is the Glock. 15 rounds, not much damage. A good starter that is well-rounded. Ammo and range make it decent for those that can't aim. If they can aim, switch out for at least the Phyton or Desert Eagle, if not MG or shotgun.


The MGs

The MP5 is the standard backbone for starting out weapons. The rapid fire, improved damage, and 30-round clip means it can handle large groups, fast groups, and a few heavy zeds. The 30-round clip and rapid fire is best for those that can't aim, if no better shots can be found. Tec-9 is the little brother, but less useful than the shotgun.


The Shotgun & Saw-Off

The shotgun is essential for Frontman. The saw-off's I never use for one reason: 2-ammo clip. The shotgun's 8-round clip will help kill off bigger zeds when they get close, so choose more ammo over damage, and it will pay off with your own health.


--- Tier 1 ---

The MGs

You have a 5th or 6th memeber. What do you do?

First, be very cautious any time you use less than a team of four. Let me say that again for the sake of permadeath. Be very cautious any time you use less than a team of four. If the place has a money sign, it means there is a merchant. The fourth to run the searches is unnecessary as your goal is to make it to the merchant more than look for excessive supplies. If the place is a rescue mission or boss, you definitely need it. If you're doing well and have some great weapons and are just trying to find the exit, then maybe, maybe you can run it with three. But be cautious.

The team layout given earlier shows how to fight to find resources/supplies by searching and to be well-balanced to handle a boss or rescuing someone running around.

When your team moves on to 7 people, you can either A.) run a team of 3 and 4 or B.) have 3 in the workshop. You should do A when you have strong weapons for the team of 3, and can rotate those strong weapons between your teams. Also, make sure your teams are equally strong and you are not missing any particular person on either team, particularly a strong Gunner and Frontman. This will help you run more missions when using alot of supplies, thus keeping a balance. You should do B when you have ANY concerns a team won't make it back completely from a run, or if someone is hurt and needs to heal. Use this time in the workshop, especially on improving weapons, as the higher tier weapons are almost always going to be used somewhere.

When using the team to move to another town, be very careful with your set-up. You do not know what your team will comprise when it ends, so give everyone a weapon they are best suited for. This can be difficult if you rotate weapons. Give your strongest gun to your strongest gunner and your strongest melee to your best Frontman using melee. It is better to have some strong members carry the weight of a poor combination than to have someone use a weapon that limits their potential. Do not be afraid to abort the missions between towns. They are not pre-planned and can lead to costly mistakes.

Also important when your team hits a high level and your new recruits are on lower levels, try to run missions which your team is overqualified with less numbers. If you have four members with 100 aim each, equipped with SAWs and AA12s going into a place ranked "beware," they can handle it on their own with the help of a turret or two. Split the team into 2 groups of 2 instead of a single group of 4, run it twice, and each will have double the experience. Weaker teams can do similiar runs on easier runs with multiple turrets to offset the difficulty.

When you have a MERCHANT, always buy supplies. When you are out, you will wish you did. Even when you do, you may still run out a day or two down the road. Better to be prepared. If you are out of supplies but have money, use your money to patch your team when they do runs. This will offset the dangers of low supplies. Those that don't go on runs can continue to starve, so always assume you won't find any and plan accordingly so you can hopefully patch everyone without losing anyone to supplies.

The good and the bad start with two survivors: SWAT and Thug. They look like the first team, but have traded two members for better weapons. Here is a short PRO vs. CON (pun not intended) to help you understand what has changed.

PROs
-Uses only 2 supplies per day starting out.
-Shotgun and MP5 are great starting weapons.
-Straightforward skills avoid the poor aim/health of the worker/scientist.

CONs
-Starting with 2 survivors makes it harder to search each area.
-Less people means more paths have to be covered by the same two, increasing position importance.
-No specialized workshop skills makes research slower.
-When survivors gain a level, there are less survivors. Therefore, when a team of 4 lvls, you improve 4 people's aim by 1. However, when a team of 2 lvls, you only improve 2 people's aim by 1. The value of progressing a level is reduced given the team size.

Let's start with how to use each of these to our advantage.

If you read the previous post about the team, you'd know the two most important positions for taking down zeds are the Gunner and the Frontman. As the Thug has the shotgun and better health, he is the Frontman. As the SWAT has better aim, he is the Gunner. Keep them together.

What? You say. I have only two people, why keep them together?

This is where positioning coming in. You need to find a path where your guys will always been within two squares of either direction the zeds are coming in. This should make most of them come towards you, where your Frontman can mow them down and your Gunner spray them. Between hordes, have the Frontman reload while the Gunner does a quick search. Remember, fewer team members, it is not as important to search every possible spot as you 1) only need two supplies per day, and 2) already have the best non-research weapons. If possible and your zeds will come to a single path by your Frontman, have the Gunner run ahead, fire, and then walk backwards while firing. By doing this, he can then alternate with the Frontman on firing. The sequence goes like this....

1.) Pre-horde, Gunner moves ahead of Frontman.
2.) Horde comes, zeds move into range, Gunner shoots.
3.) As zeds are within close combat range, Gunner walks backwards to end behind Frontman.
4.) Frontman fires as Gunner reloads.
5.) Gunner is reloaded as Frontman is low on ammo.

This shows how you can attack over multiple squares rather than the few immediately in front of the team. You use 3 clips to the horde rather than 2. By alternating reloading, you're less likely to take a hit by simple numbers alone. Some weaker enemies may be taken out by the Gunner, allowing your Frontman to save precious ammo for heavier zeds.

Now that the basics are out of the way, here are some long-term goals to help you get out of the town.

1.) RESCUE OTHERS! A lack of research will catch up to you very quickly. Alternatively, there is another advantage. The farm can substain your entire team! Your 3rd or 4th members are needed if you're going to workshop, and you won't stand up against any bosses with only two people. So search that map for rescue opportunities.

2.) Once you have people, WORKSHOP! So, if you find a 3rd and are still strong in your original two (watch that danger meter!), have that 3rd research. Once you have the farm upgraded or abundant supplies, have your full team in the workshop rather than running missions. The logic here is something often missed. You do not have 4 people with glocks. You have 2 or 3 people and a shotgun and mp5. If you unlock a new weapon, it will be used, and another good weapon will be passed to another person. So, this is not slight upgrades to an already broad team. In short, you have less people to pass weapons around to, so quality will matter more than quantity, and research for a new weapon is more important than looking around missions for more weapons (such as to sell).

3.) Merchants aren't as important.

You need fewer supplies, especially given the farms can substain you. Researching better weapons is more important than finding more. There is not much to buy from the merchants.

4.) If you don't find people to rescue, just workshop.

If you're at the end of the first town, and the exit is more dangerous than Frantic, it may be time you just sit in the workshop with your original two survivors, research the farms to give you 2 supplies per day, and use those supplies to research weapons instead of running missions. I have done this. I have pulled it off where my survivors stayed in the workshop for 5 days straight, and managed to upgrade the first two tiers of weapons. Instead of going through Frantic with only a mp5 and a shotgun, they ran with an AK-47 and a SPAS. It went much smoother and was worth the time.

5.) Death of one is death of the team.

Don't get killed. With 4 people, it is easy to lose one and find a replacement. With two, if one goes, it might as well be game over. This is why you don't split up the team for the hordes.

Good luck!

An index of videos. All of these I assume ownership rights of and should not be used, in part or in whole, without permission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEMdkjfqwRs -- I play Team 1 on Days 1 and 2. Shows the basic start-out strategies and goals.

Part 2 of the same game. Focuses on running a 3-man team with MP5's without a Frontman and researching weapons.

Part 3 of the same game. Focuses on running a 4-man team for a rescue mission.

Part 4 of the Team 1 campaign. Nothing new, feel free to skip to part 5.