General Tips

Dead Rising Guide

General Tips

Arrow be my Compass: If you're having trouble finding your way around the mall, you can designate an active mission to have a guiding arrow appear at the top of the screen. Then, you can simply follow this arrow to reach the target destination. To select a case or scoop, first press left on the D-Pad to look at Frank's watch. Next, if there is currently more than one ongoing mission, select the one you are in the progress of completing and press the A button to set it.

The Sledgehammer: This powerful and durable weapon can be obtained each time you leave the Security Room. Instead of taking the elevator down to the warehouse from the Rooftop, always go through the door off to the left of the Air Duct. Once in the warehouse via this door, hop down off of the walkway, move to the end of the shelf and then jump over to the shelf that has the Sledgehammer on it. This weapon is great for crowd control. To perform the weapon's secondary attack, simply hold the X button and Frank will swing the Sledgehammer to the side, knocking down any zombies it connects with. Make a habit of grabbing this weapon whenever you leave the Security Room.

Colombian Roastmasters: This restaurant is on the second floor of the Paradise Plaza. It contains an unlimited supply of Orange Juice, a food item that replenishes Frank's health by three squares when consumed. A Katana can also be found on the orange awning to the right of the fridge that holds the juice. Just hop through the window, land on the awning, grab the Katana, and then jump down to the area below. Make a habit of visiting the Colombian Roastmasters restaurant when in Paradise Plaza so you can restore your supply of health items. Optionally, you can take two Orange Juice containers and combine them using the blender in the restaurant to acquire a special "Nectar" drink.

Cam's Camera: A single camera battery only has enough power to take thirty pictures. If you've taken thirty pictures and find yourself with a dead camera battery, you can acquire a new one from a camera store, of which there are several in the mall. Cam's Camera, located in Paradise Plaza, is right next to the door that leads into the warehouse. Approach the battery rack near the service desk and press the B button when the prompt appears to swap the dead battery for a brand new one. Philo's Photos, which is on the second floor of Wonderland Plaza, and Pearly White's Photos, which is outside of Crislip's Home Saloon in the North Plaza, are other options.

Look out below: If you ever find yourself being forced to jump down from a high place, you can use the Knee Drop skill (provided Frank is at a high enough level (26) to have unlocked it) to avoid having Frank stagger upon landing. Jumping down from a high enough place without performing the Knee Drop skill will cause Frank to stagger about, giving the zombies below a clear shot at grabbing hold of him. While in the air, press X and push downwards on the Left Thumbstick to perform the skill.

One man's garbage: If you ever find yourself surrounded by zombies and in desperate need of a weapon, you might be able to find one by picking up and throwing a trashcan at a wall. When the trashcan breaks, its contents will be revealed. Most often you can find a Hunting Knife, a Handgun, or a Baseball Bat inside of a trashcan, which are all great weapons to get you out of a bind.

To serve and protect: The police uniformed zombie models tend to carry either a Nightstick or a Handgun. So, if you are in need of a weapon, keep an eye out for zombies dressed as police officers, then either knock them over or kill them and pick up their dropped weapon. Furthermore, zombies dressed in yellow Hawaiian shirts are always carrying a Hunting Knife.

Who turned out the lights?: It gets dark in the mall at around 12:00AM. To combat this, you can grab a Toy Laser Sword from one of the toy stores in the Paradise Plaza. With this item in your inventory, Frank will emit a healthy, red glow. Or is that healthy...? Might want to get that checked out.

To save, or not to save: Dead Rising's saving system can be a difficult to adjust to. You are given a single save slot, so you may end up inadvertently saving yourself into a corner. To avoid this, you have to save smart. If you are in the middle of a case and notice that you probably do not have enough time left to finish, do not save the game! If you save your game at the wrong time, you may leave yourself with an insufficient amount of time to finish your current mission. You can still continue playing once the "Truth has vanished" message appears on screen by selecting the "Return to Game" option. Though by doing this, you will not be able to unlock the true ending and will never learn the truth about the mysterious zombie outbreak.

You do want to know the whole story, right? Here's what you'll have to do if you find yourself in this unfortunate situation:

Try to complete the current case as quickly as possible. If it is impossible to complete the case with the amount of time that remains, there is no other option but to restart your game. Just be sure to select the "Save Status and Quit" option from the menu when the trail goes cold. Select this option and Frank's level will carry over from your current game when you start a new one. Be warned, as selecting this option will delete your current save game. With Frank's buffed stats, you should be able to repeat your progress much more easily and quickly than you did prior. Don't be afraid to restart the game if that is the only option. It may sting a bit, but unless you don't mind just failing the cases and getting a less impressive ending, you have no other choice.

Achievement-oriented: Dead Rising features a variety of achievements, 50 in all. It is impossible to earn all of these achievements in one playthrough due to the sheer variety of conditions that must be met. As such, try not to focus too much on unlocking achievements during your first run through the game. Certain achievements, such as Indoorsman, Outdoorsmen, Zombie Genocider, Frank the Pimp, Tour Guide, and perhaps PP Collector, require an awful lot of planning, time, and consequently a separate playthrough dedicated almost exclusively to the unlocking of that specific achievement.

The best time to look through the achievement list and try to tackle some of the less-time consuming ones is during the unfilled time between cases.

Shortcut to Paradise: Be sure to complete the “Out of Control” scoop on the night of the first day, as doing so makes the shortcut from Wonderland Plaza to Paradise Plaza or vice versa accessible, as well as cause a powerful melee weapon to spawn on the Space Rider platform in Wonderland Plaza.

Zombies keeping you down: At the start of Dead Rising, Frank's stats are quite pitiful. The game is much harder when Frank is at a very low level, such as levels 1-15. If you are finding it difficult to progress, you can select the "Save Status and Quit" option from the menu when Frank dies. If you select this option, you will have to restart the game, but Frank's stats will carry over. It is easy acquire a good amount of points near the beginning of the game. For example, rescuing the rooftop survivors and snapping their PP photograph yields a significant amount of points.

Save the Queen: If you spot a zombie that's standing on the spot with its arms flailing up in the air looking like it's in agony, apparently this is not normal zombie behaviour. Kill zombies that fit this description and a Queen will appear. If you catch this Queen and set it loose, the zombies nearest to you will fall down dead. Evidently this is a very useful item. Try to save any Queens that you obtain for dire situations, as well as for use in zombie-heavy zones such as Al Fresca Plaza. Queens are an asset during escort missions as well, because you can use one to clear a small path for the survivors you're trying to rescue.

A mannequin torso? Is that right?: If you ever find yourself at a loss for what to bring to a psychopath showdown, grab a Mannequin Torso. Seriously, it's surprisingly effective.