Death Road to Canada is a randomly generated road trip simulator in the same vein as The Oregon Trail. Unlike The Oregon Trail, you control your character's 2D sprite in a top-down environment reminiscent of arcade beat-em-ups about half the time. These events are called missions. Expect massive amounts of RNG outside of missions when the story is narrated and you have to make decisions regarding things like wild bear encounters or whether or not to collect berries overnight. The game is mostly single player (with plenty of input from AI party members) but offers two player local co-op.
Death Road is built for replay value. Everything is randomized: locations, events, character appearances and personalities, combat and support perks - you name it. You can create your own playable characters who'll show up at random (or play as them from the very start) in a world that's bursting with personality. Depending on which gamemode you select and other factors, you could have a relatively serious playthrough with a cast of familiar characters you made yourself, a silly campaign filled with supernatural events and unique characters such as aliens and Santa Claus, or something in-between.
The second guide claims that their "monk" build is the easiest known build in the game, but I've gotta disagree. Sure, he's fantastic in the early game, but by the time you get to mid-game, you've been bogged down by 5-10 bad RNG events and only 0-1 good RNG event, and you're dealing with much larger swarms of zombies that are far more aggressive and alert, he can't hold his own anymore. I can't imagine how much worse he is in the late game since he can't even use guns, which are apparently absolutely necessary to beat the game's last few massive battles.
Andrew King
Uploading a character creation webm as soon as it finishes processing
Tip: the moment you see an AI teammate shooting at enemies instead of using melee when they're not worn out and the crowd is thin enough that it doesn't pose a threat, immediately pause, go to the Swap Meet tab, and take their gun from them to force them to use a melee weapon and conserve ammo
Logan Green
Tip: holding furniture drains stamina. Throw it as soon as you possibly can
Carson Williams
Tip: whenever possible, fight smaller groups of enemies by only hitting them once or twice, then immediately running past them in such a way that your teammates get close enough to start mopping them up behind you. This lets you increase your team's DPS if they're hiding behind you instead of attacking zombies, while also giving your character's stamina time to recharge
Wyatt Bennett
Tip: never accept someone into your group if they have the bandit trait. The same could arguably be said for the civilized trait. Both of them are ticking time bombs that could tear apart your supplies or group members respectively without warning. In the case of the latter, their morale can never go above neutral. Characters whose morale is too low run the risk of activating an event where they demand that either someone else leaves the group or they will, taking whatever supplies they're carrying with them. This is why, in my opinion, morale is the most important trait (when it comes to non-combat ones like composure and attitude) and should be raised immediately whenever it's too low
Carter Carter
Tip: the paranoid trait is a godsend with no drawbacks if you use it correctly. If you have a paranoid character in your party, almost every bandit encounter will change from a terrible, unavoidable RNG situation into one where your group comes out completely unscathed, and with a morale boost to boot. (If you haven't played the game yet, or only for a short time: bandit encounters are very common, and if handled poorly due to RNG, will result in the loss of 67-100% of your supplies, team members getting hurt, team members getting killed, or a combination of any of the above)
The only exception to this is the bandit encounters where the only option you're given is to send one of your team members out to talk with the bandits, and it says you need to pick someone who's trustworthy. Because of the very high chance of the team member you pick turning on you, leaving the group, and the rest of your team getting hurt or even killed as they flee, you absolutely need to keep track of who has the highest loyalty stat in the group and send that character out during those specific bandit events
Jason Davis
Tip: the zombie watch RNG event is one of the most common ones. From what I've seen in both my own gameplay and other peoples' videos, it seems like it's one of the ones that can only have a negative outcome no matter what you choose. That being said, the penalty can either be mild or genuinely end your run. If you have two or more characters in your party, you can choose to make one of them stay awake and watch out for zombies while the other sleeps, or they can take it in shifts. (Never do the latter since, from what I've seen, that will make both characters tired instead of only one of them tired)
Ideally you'd choose one character who'll stay awake all night, that character would be tired the next day, and that character would take temporary stat penalties for being tired. (Also keep in mind that if their loyalty level isn't high enough, they might fall asleep in the middle of the night, so choose the character accordingly.) However, if you only have one character then it seems like your run is guaranteed to end with this event. If you choose to make your sole character stay awake, the only outcome I've seen to this is "Your character tries to stay awake but quickly falls asleep. Your character wakes up in the middle of being eaten by a group of zombies. With no one to help him, he dies." The other option is to "Sleep anyway." If you choose that, the same thing happens. In other words, no matter what you choose, your run will always end due to circumstances beyond your control
Well, almost beyond your control. The only way to counter this common run killer is to try to always have at least two characters in your party whenever possible
Jordan Morris
Tip: if your run's going well and it seems like you have a realistic shot of winning, consider writing down your characters' known stats or using a program like puush or gyazo to quickly save pictures of them. Take loyalty for example. It can affect gameplay in the ways mentioned above, but another reason why you need to know your characters' loyalty levels is to know how it will affect their other stats. Whenever you choose to steal from characters at trading camps, characters with low loyalty will receive a morale boost while characters with high loyalty will receive a morale penalty. As mentioned above, if a character's morale is too low, they can activate an event where you're forced to either make them or another character leave, which can easily end a run if you're forced to choose between two characters who both have good traits/perks/stats. Another morale-related event: that character will simply steal some of your supplies and leave on their own without giving you a choice to choose them or a different character
Other stats can have the same kinds of effects on events, such as the attitude stat and its correlation with diplomacy events, so always try to keep your characters' stats in mind as best you can
David Reyes
I forgot, there's one other circumstance where there isn't an option for the paranoid character in your group to speak up. That being said, this option presented itself and worked out nicely
Easton Roberts
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Logan Gutierrez
Random character recruitment screen. This was taken in the Familiar Faces gamemode, where at least half (feels like around 2/3rds or 3/4ths) of the characters you encounter will be ones you made in the character creator
Gavin Wood
A very common example of your group's paranoid character having the option to save the day. Consider the other two options for a second, as if your group didn't have a paranoid character. Losing all of your weapons is terrible for obvious reasons, but in every single case (from what I've seen), "Fight the bandits!" is bad too. Your characters will either be significantly hurt or outright killed. However, the option for the paranoid character not only gets you through without any negative consequences: it also nets you morale boosts for a minimum of 1 character (often 2) every time. In other words: the non-paranoid options during bandit encounters are always bad (with the exception of rare dialogue as in ), never neutral, and the paranoid option during bandit encounters is always good, never neutral
Liam Sullivan
Even when your paranoid character has the lowest or second lowest loyalty stat in the game, despite what the flavor text says, I've never seen a paranoid character betray the group and take off with the car when you choose this option. I think it's not even possible, unless someone can prove otherwise
Asher Edwards
This is another rare case of an event where you always have the choice to pick a positive option (as stated above, most RNG events force you into a negative situation whether you like it or not). Through trial and error or reading this post, you can learn that picking the paranoid option in this case is always bad (or neutral in the case of there only being one character: the paranoid one). Even if you take into consideration that one character - the paranoid one - gains morale, all characters involved are hit with the tired debuff, giving them stat penalties until they sleep, and all non-paranoid characters lose morale as well. The only correct choice here is to click Eat and Rest. The only exception to this is if you're in a rare circumstance where your only character is the paranoid one, you desperately need to increase their morale, and you wouldn't mind receiving the tired debuff
Sebastian Wright
It'd be nice if there was a wiki for this game. Imagine people working together to compile a list of all the events in the game, all of the options for each one, and which ones have the possibility of a positive outcome under the right circumstances, such as having a paranoid character in your group
Chase Ward
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Aaron Thompson
I just remembered that something similar to these two pictures happened to me once, but this isn't my personal blog and there's no one here to read it anyway
Daniel Howard
This is one of many forced negative RNG events, and a somewhat common one at that, but at least you get to choose what negative impact it has. If you choose to sleep in the smelly area, your characters will lose morale but they won't be tired the next day. If you choose not to sleep there, your characters won't lose morale but they will be tired. (The morale loss in this screenshot was due to not having enough food to eat)
