10 BEST Last Of Us Part 1 Combat Tips

eXputer's take on The Last of Us Part 1 combat tips guide entails the best strategies players should use to dominate encounters with infected.

The Last of Us part 1 is an updated version of a video game that was released not too long ago. There is a fair probability that a certain percentage of new players will already be well versed with the ins and outs of the gameplay style & mechanism for The Last of Us. This is because the game has been out for quite some time.

We’ve put up a list of some useful Last of Us Part 1 combat tips for you to keep in mind while you play the game. Keep these guidelines in mind whenever you engage in the fight.

Key Highlights
  • Despite having an amazing story, the gameplay is entirely opposite. Harsh and disturbing playstyle that challenges the player and requires full attention to win.
  • Guns make noise and use a lot of ammunition, which is, of course, limited in the game. Preferring melee over guns is the first thing a player should do, it saves the bullets for something more important.
  • Upgrading your weapons/melee as you play is really important, a baseball bat with nails will do way more damage than a normal one. Same for other equipment.
  • Bricks and broken glass bottles can be collected and used to knock people down and distract the enemy so the player can easily continue with his sneaky moves.
  • Shivs are important as they not only help in killing the enemies, they can be used to open door locks. It is certainly one of the most important weapons of the game
  • A bow has high precision as well as stealth, it is recommended to use a bow over a gun in a situation, the bow masters even in long range kills.
  • Infected Crowds can be stopped by using a molotov, throwing a molotov onto the crowd stops them from coming towards you as they die in the fire caused.
  • Keeping your arsenal reloaded is one of the most crucial things one should do, even a half filled magazine should be reloaded to make sure you use all the bullets possible in one go.
  • Scavenging for supplies is important to keep you alive, at any point don’t forget to collect extra resources that might help you on the go.
  • When being attacked by infected people, knowing their type certainly helps in choosing the right weapon to kill. Some die by a bow, while others need a few headshots of a hunting rifle.
  • Crafting various guns and equipment can help you in difficult situations. You can craft a weapon and holster it to keep it safe for future use. You can enable Joel to hold more guns as you play through the game. 

However, if you are not a part of such a group, you should know that there is no such thing as a good or bad playstyle trick. 

Save Ammo & Master Melee Combat

melee combat tips Last of Us Part 1

Because there is a limited supply of ammo in The Last of Us Part 1, you cannot approach confrontations with the intention of spraying shots in all directions and killing all of your foes. It is understandable that firing your weapons may be the most effective tactic and, in many cases, the only one, but if you have the option, you should choose close-quarters combat. Consider this as one of the best Last of Us Part 1 combat tips.

Find methods to get near to your foes so that you may deliver significant damage to them without having to spend any bullets by using any melee armaments you have collected or even just your fists.

In The Last of Us, there is a strong focus placed on survival; hence ammo is very difficult to come by. Because there is a limited supply of ammunition, the game does not allow for “running and gunning” or “blind fire.” As a result, the player is required to take careful aim before shooting each round.

Once the player is discovered, the best choice is to use weapons, although, in most combat scenarios, the player has the option to employ stealth, which is the greatest strategy and is most advised to utilize stealth. After being discovered, the player has two choices available to them: either they may break the line of sight and then take out adversaries one at a time using stealth, or they can sit behind some cover and shoot enemies until the area is clean.

If you choose with the first choice, you need to ensure that you shoot each bullet with the head as your target before you may proceed. Bear in mind that The Last of Us does not feature a genuine cover system (one that is triggered by pressing a button).

Instead, Joel, the protagonist, takes an automatic cover position if he is crouched behind a wall or an object. When in this pose, pressing the aiming button (L1) causes Joel to jump up, and when the button is released, Joel pops back down.

Upgrade Guns & Melee Weapons

Upgrade Guns and melee weapons combat tips Last of Us Part 1

In relation to melee weapons, The Last of Us Part 1 does provide players the opportunity to make small modifications to certain weapons, even though doing so is not always the most efficient use of available resources.

Everything that can be crafted in the game draws from the same few groupings of materials, and most of the time, there are other items that can be crafted that are far more beneficial to the player than the melee weapon enhancements that would otherwise be necessary.

It is true that a baseball bat that has had nails punched through it would cause more damage, but taking into account the fact that it would only last for a few swings before shattering, it may be more prudent to save those materials for something that would be of more service.

It is best practice to ensure that you have enough components to construct one health kit or molotov cocktail as well as one shiv or melee upgrade. However, if you find that you have an excessive amount of a certain crafting object, you should check to see whether you are carrying the maximum number of things, and if you aren’t, you should create an additional item and then collect the extra component.

Make every effort to ensure that you do not leave any resources for lying about. It would not be beneficial to enhance your melee armaments by making use of a whole set of blades. Shivs need blades, so set some aside.

It is not worth it to sacrifice a blade so that your melee weapon can get an additional one or two hits because there are so many melee weapons around that you will nearly always find another one when yours cracks.

Utilize Bottles & Bricks Frequently

combat tips TLOU Part 1

In The Last of Us Part 1, you have the option of picking up things from the surroundings, such as bricks or empty bottles, in conjunction with your wrists and the breakable combat weapons you discover strewn about. These melee weapons may be used in conjunction with your wrists. Never ignoring throwables is the best Last of Us Part 1 combat tip that we can give you right now.

These objects are utilized mostly as throwables, although they may also be smashed into foes and used as one-time weapons in skirmishes. Because of the potential use of these items, which are often abundant in the areas you explore, you should make it a habit to carry at least one of them at all times.

Players who are skilled at sneak will want to have an empty bottle with them at all times since it provides a useful diversion during stealth sequences. On the other hand, charging at a guy and slamming his skull in with a brick is also an effective method to end an encounter.

The brick is the weapon that is most likely to go unused, despite the fact that it is one of the most effective. In part, this is due to the fact that it has the potential to knock down an unknowing clicker or an infected enemy, and in part, this is due to the fact that there are so many breakable objects laying about that you will never “run out” of them in the same way that you would run out of various items.

Use the brick anytime you can, and only pull out the lead pipe in the direst of circumstances, such as when you’re surrounded by a crowd.

It is a good idea to hurl a brick or a bottle at an adversary before attacking him in physical combat since it has the potential to shock the opponent and make him more susceptible to being grabbed. Melee may be employed to fight runners and stalkers, but not bloaters or clickers. Runners and stalkers have an advantage in this fight type.

Mastering Shiv

In The Last of Us Part 1, shivs are another important resource, and we strongly advise you to have at least one of them in your possession at all times. Shivs not only allow you to execute stealth kills more quickly than you would be able to do so by choking an opponent with your bare hands, but they are also the only means to execute stealth kills on Clickers.

In addition to this, you may often come across locked doors that can only be unlocked with shivs. These doors may conceal valuable resources and objects on the other side. All of this comes down to the fact that as soon as one of your shivs is used up, you should quickly create another one if you have the materials necessary to do so.

Shivs are very certainly the item that is going to come in handy the most during the whole of the game. You have the ability to rapidly and secretly take out foes with them, but you should never do that. Instead, put the shivs away for use on clickers who are unconscious of their presence.

This is due in part to the fact that even when the durability of your shivs increases, there are still certain places that need you to give up an entire shiv in order to access them. It is in your best interest to do so at all times since such rooms will always contain sufficient tools and components to make it worthwhile.

On the other hand, you should never find yourself without a shiv. Because shivs may play such a vital role in The Last of Us Part 1, it is crucial to keep an eye on any potential improvements that might make them more useful and effective.

Because it enables you to avoid death from an assault that would normally be fatal on contact with a Clicker by stabbing it with a shiv, the Shiv Master improvement is one that may be very helpful and is an objective that you should set for yourself as soon as possible.

In the meanwhile, you should also strive towards the improvement that renders your shivs more resilient. You may do this by working towards it. Silent, quick, deadly, and one-shot; using a shiv is probably the top five best Last of Us Part 1 combat tips we have for players.

Use Bow & Avoid Trouble

stealth takedown combat tips Last of Us Part 1

After playing The Last of Us Part 1 for a few hours, you’ll be able to obtain a bow, which, as you would expect, is a really effective weapon. It is, obviously, the most useful ranged weapon in your arsenal when it comes to possibilities for stealth. Still, we would encourage employing it even in some scenarios when you may normally use a gun.

It is arguably the most convenient ranged weapon of your choice when it comes to evasive alternatives. When you only have a few seconds to spare, however, it is preferable to use up an arrow than a bullet since arrows can be reclaimed; however, bullets cannot.

This is because the time it takes to shoot an arrow is far longer than the time it requires to fire a shot. Using a Bow to kill a Clicker, for example, will often need two shots to the chest or only one arrow to the head. We do not provide a precise damage model for you to study, but if you give heed when you play, you will start developing a feel for which weapons may overwhelm certain opponents.

When you first get the Bow in Chapter 4: Bill’s Town, it immediately becomes a fairly fantastic choice for you to use. It enables you to eliminate foes at medium to long-range distances without making a disturbance or running the danger of being discovered while you are out in the open.

Before you improve it, it may be a little annoying, so don’t be reluctant to spend some of those important Parts on improving it. Doing so will make it easier to use. This weapon will bring you as much delight as anything else the undead world has to deliver after you have finally obtained all of the upgrades for it.

Use Molotov For Crowd Control

use Molotov combat tips Last of Us Part 1

Molotov cocktails serve much the same purpose of killing Clickers and infected crowds in The Last of Us Part 1 as they do in Part II. Molotov cocktails are the most stealthy and effective technique to eliminate Clickers at a distance without attracting attention to oneself.

Clickers are visually impaired and rely on echolocation to find their way around. If you find one and know that others are around, strike the first one with the Molotov cocktail. This will, in the majority of cases, cause the others to lose their bearings and walk into the flames, where they will perish.

Think about using this strategy in the tunnel found in Chapter 10: Bus Depot as well as the subway found in Chapter 3: The Outskirts. It ought to even be effective against Runners and Bloaters as well.

It is possible for players to weaken a Bloater with two Molotov cocktails to the point that it just only one shot from a bolt action rifle to murder it, even on the toughest difficulty setting brutally.

The use of Molotov cocktails versus infected individuals is most successful when they are initially gathered together by tossing an object such as a bottle or a brick. After that, when they are in close proximity to one another, serve them a drink.

Crowd control is never easy, but Molotov turns the tables in the blink of an eye. That is why we can’t put enough emphasis on this Last of Us Part 1 combat tip to be a valuable strategy.

Molotov cocktails are the most effective weapon for this strategy since their flames are designed to stay and kill any infected person who walks over them. Because people preserve their distance from one another and avoid walking in flames, this tactic is ineffective when used against them.

Don’t Forget To Reload

reload whenever you can combat tips. Last of Us Part 1

Reloading our firearms when there is still half a magazine’s worth of ammo is a behavior that may be useful at times but is more often than not counterproductive. It is quite likely that doing so will keep you alive. We are not proposing that you switch magazines in the midst of a fist battle with a Bloater, but after everyone else has been eliminated, you should take the time to reload each and every one of the weapons that you own.

If you prepare yourself in this manner, the next time you find yourself facing death in the face, you will at least be able to go out fighting.

It is prudent to place more of an emphasis on clip capacity than reload speed, and one should not be too concerned about fire rate or range. Any firearm that can only contain one bullet needs to have its capacity increased to at least two as soon as possible.

These are formidable weapons, so you should always have spare ammunition handy in case one of your shots misses its target. There are a lot of other choices there as well that may improve things like power rate and reload speed as well as recoil and other things, and although they are all helpful upgrades in their own right, the one that we would recommend opting for above all the others is ammunition capacity.

The more guns you have in your arsenal that has the potential to hold upgraded ammunition, the more bullets you will be able to bring along with you, which is an extremely valuable resource in this game. Each subsequent update to the ammunition capacity raises that total by a little more, and when taken as a whole, the additional capacity afforded by these upgrades may prove to be rather useful.

Scavenge Heavily

The Last of Us is not a survival horror game in the strictest sense of the term, but it does prominently use many of the genre’s components, with resource planning being one of the most important of those themes. It is also essential to the gameplay cycle that you search each new place you enter thoroughly in order to ensure that you have found all of the necessary crafting materials, bullets, bandages, or other items.

There isn’t nearly as much potential to explore in The Last of Us Part 1’s settings because they aren’t as large as the surroundings that frequently appeared in Part 2; however, there is still a reasonable amount of room, so ensure you scavenge as extensively as possible, particularly if you’re going to play on higher difficulties.

If you are diligent enough in your search for supplies during the second campaign, you should be able to completely upgrade your armament by the time you are halfway through the mission. The advantage of this is that after some weapons have been completely improved, such as the El Diablo or the Hunting Rifle, you may be certain that they will provide you with one-shot kills.

As the conflict becomes more fierce, this will make it much simpler to engage in a fight. The degree of challenge also is an important consideration in this regard.

Knowing All Infected Types

In The Last of Us Part I, various weapons inflict varying degrees of damage on enemies, and each foe is able to withstand a certain amount of harm before succumbing to it. As you would anticipate, this is the case. It is vitally essential to know how many rounds it requires to bring someone down, as well as where their weak places are, in order to save your bullets and arrows.

The following is a list of distinct opponent kinds, along with the number of rounds required to kill them:

If a handgun is being used on Clickers, a single shot to the head will not be enough to put them down. On the other hand, if you shoot them in the head with your hunting rifle, it will only take one shot to kill them. They may be killed by a single arrow if they are unaware or many arrows if they are aware.

The Runners infected enemy type may be brought down with a single shot to the head from either the pistol or the hunting rifle. If they are aware of their surroundings, it will take between five and six bullets to the body to bring them down.

Bloaters may be eliminated with a small number of headshots with a hunting rifle or with a small number of close-range blasts from a shotgun. The use of a pistol is not recommended in this scenario.

If the hunter is careless or distracted, it just takes one arrow to bring him down. They may be eliminated with a single shot to the head from any kind of weapon.

When engaging in combat with infected, the Flamethrower proves to be a useful weapon. Clickers will enter a dazed condition as a result of the flames, during which they will be unable to harm Joel. The most effective application is to direct infected people towards areas where you can kill them all at once.

When you are teamed up with an AI companion such as Tess or Bill, it is best to stay hidden and direct your ally to eliminate the foes so that you may save your ammunition. Because your AI companion has an infinite supply of ammunition but does very little damage, it will take a long for foes to succumb to their wounds.

Craft Various Weapons & Holsters

craft weapons combat tips Last of Us Part 1

When you are cornered by both infected and human foes, these are the things that will be of the greatest use to you. Because of this, it is a good idea to keep your raw materials stored away until you are in a circumstance that calls for that specific thing.

Because the raw ingredients that are required for the production of each individual item are the same, it is thus up to you to determine whether you want to construct a weapon that is intended for offense or defense.

To make a Molotov cocktail or a Medkit, as well as a Nail Bomb or Smoke Bomb, you will need a whole bomb. In the same manner, you will need alcohol to make a Molotov cocktail or a Nail Bomb.

Always remain aware that if you engage in crafting in the midst of a fight, you leave yourself vulnerable to the other side’s attacks; thus, take advantage of times when they are unaware of your presence in order to arm yourself.

If you use two Molotov cocktails or nail bombs on a Bloater, it will become so weakened that even on the toughest difficulty setting, it will only take one shot from a hunting rifle to murder it brutally. Bloaters may still kill you with a single hit even if they are engulfed in flames if they are near enough to you.

Throwing a bottle or a brick at the infected first to draw them together before deploying a molotov cocktail or nail bomb against them is an efficient technique to use these weapons. After that, when they are in close proximity to one another, you should toss a cocktail or a nail bomb at them.

Molotov cocktails are the most effective weapon for this strategy since their flames are designed to stay and kill any infected person who walks over them. Because people preserve their distance from one another and avoid walking on the flames, this tactic is ineffective when used against them.

Smoke Bombs have the ability to temporarily stun human foes, giving you the opportunity to capture them for cover or to finish them off with close combat. As a result of the fog, human foes are unable to fire their weapons at you, and they will instead burrow down, allowing you the opportunity to heal or make an item.

Simply tapping the R1 button is all that is required to drop a nail bomb. Put it to use as a mine when you want to force your foes to go in a certain direction or when you don’t want them to flank you.

Even while hurling bombs in The Last of Us Part 1 is a lot of fun and may be somewhat successful, the bombs are more useful for calming your nerves than they are for performing the functions of grenades. Yes, you should toss them when the circumstance calls for it; nevertheless, if you have one in your hand and want to drop it at your feet, all you have to do is hit the R2 button.

You won’t set it off, and if it doesn’t blow up, you may pick it up and put it back in Joel’s soiled bag if it doesn’t go off. You may use them as trip mines indoors or flank routes to ensure that no one can sneak up behind you. This will enable you to concentrate your attention in one direction as you beat up on your opponents.

When it comes to weaponry, Joel begins the game with the ability to carry a pistol and a rifle, but, The Last of Us Part 1 does, of course, provide you the option to increase that capacity. You may create additional holsters by using weapon components and equipment that you discover while exploring the different landscapes.

These holsters will allow you to carry an additional handgun in addition to an additional long gun. Having the latter in particular is a tremendous advantage, but in all honesty, having both is very necessary, particularly as you go farther into the game.

It is recommended that you put aside enough items in your inventory so that you can open both holsters as quickly as possible.

Summary

The Last of Us Part I is a recreation of the PlayStation 3 blockbuster that was first released by Naughty Dog. This version of the game has a range of aesthetic and accessibility enhancements that could only be accomplished on the PlayStation 5.

Because it features numerous difficulties in accommodating players of varying levels of expertise, you should be able to locate an option that corresponds to the manner in which you would want to engage in this cherished activity.

However, even with the settings turned down, things may still become rather ugly at times. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a die-hard fan replaying an old favorite on Sony‘s latest hardware or if you’re diving headfirst into this post-apocalyptic tale for the very first time; our Last of Us Part 1 combat tips are guaranteed to be of use to you in any case.

The Last of Us has a narrative that is incredibly fantastic, but the gameplay may be quite disturbing and harsh at times. The violent confrontations may put a player’s resilience to the test, regardless of whether they use the close-quarters destruction of the Shotgun or the cunning and long-range accuracy of the Bow.

The outstanding action-adventure and horror video game The Last of Us, which was developed by Naughty Dog, has a simple objective: go through as much as possible while avoiding death. However, due to the many different upgrade branches, the open-ended fighting, and the crafting mechanism, we decided that it would be beneficial to provide some useful combat tips for the new players.

Also, consider reading our following tips guides:

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Moiz Banoori.


Having worked at various Video Game sites, coupled with 7 years of Content Writing Experience. I presently monitor teams, create strategies, and publish qualified pieces through my aptitude.

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