How to Survive

Just completed this in coop mode, so here are a few tips in no particular order:

1. Guns don't break! Therefore building a gun should always be your top priority.
2. This mode is extremely luck based. Sometimes you even run out of wooden sticks and have to start over.
3. Do not open a safe house on the 3rd island. On the 1st and 2nd island safe houses are hard but doable. On the 3rd island opening one is suicide.
4. Try to find guarana roots on the 2nd island. You can use these to craft "green beef sodas" (bottle of water, guarana root, manual compressor). In our winning game we even found 4 of them.
5. Try to get the best timing possible for your travel to the 3rd island. Try to sleep, wait for morning and have as many sodas as possible.
6. It is almost impossible to run out of gun ammo. So don't worry too much about it.
7. Zombie animals always come in pairs. Try to pull and kill them one by one. They can be quit deadly when combined with a few normal zombies on the 3rd island.
8. Zombies respawn every morning.
9. Take your time on the 3rd island. Trying to rush through will be your death sentence!
10. Completely clear the 1st and 2nd island and loot everything you can.

To add more info and tips to kent's guide.

The achievements stack with Dead easy trip and Eventful trip, if you unlock this one, you unlock those.

There is a save when you reach the 2nd and 3rd island but if you quit the game and continue, the game switches to Normal difficulty.

You need to do this run without quitting the game or you wont be able to get the ironman/Kovack's way achievements.

I chose Jack to go for this since he gas fast reload and has a 5% chance of finding unique drops like medkits and potions but Abby might have been better with her 50% more damage at night, up to you and your playstyle.

The hostile animals are the biggest threat, bears, crocodiles, zombie deers, learn how to fight them, dodge their charges and critical on their heads.

Listen for them, most make a sound when they are near and offscreen.

There are no hostile animals on the 1st island, but on the 2nd island you can find normal bears and dead deers, if you get lucky, you will be on Santa Barbara island on your first or second island and you will be able to get fertilizer so you can craft explosive arrows, these help tremendously against animals and the big guy you will need to fight on the 3rd island, so make sure you are stocked.

Fresh meat is a life saver, if you see a bear, a croc, a zombie deer or a bear, just toss one of these and run, switch to your explosive arrows or best weapons and go at it, the animals dont mess around and they will maul you to death!

Other tips:

I did this alone but I think it should be way easier in co-op, so get a friend to help maybe? 😃
In the early game, you can ignite a campfire to get unlimited fire stick weapons.
While holding a fire stick, night crawlers (the ones that come at night) wont get near you, you can swing and hit a dead campfire to lit one if you have a fire stick on hand, you can burn bushes on your way too.
You might not find a rusty machete, craft an axe with flint, a stick and a toolbox to substitute the machete as a tool.
The triple bone flint boomerang is awesome, it can kill bears and deers with two headshots, use fresh meat to distract them so you can line a shot.
You can bring your armor from the main story if the character you chose has it equipped.
You can also bring your skills.
When you level up, you completely heal.
There are no piranhas in this mode, a gift and a curse.
Be always at full health once you step on the 3rd island, you might get chased by zombies AND zombie animals, which will almost always take off around 60 to 70% health in seconds.emphasized text

You will need to kill a really big guy in the 3rd island to get a plane component, be prepared.

If you are unlucky, you might need to trigger a safe place alarm to get a component on the 3rd island,

there will me a massive horde, bring your best weapon and dont get cornered.

The run takes from 2 to 3 hours if you take it slow and safe.

Wish you all luck!

Just a small note that completing the DLC in this difficulty unlocks all the difficulty achievements, which Im always glad to see implemented in games.

The easiest challenge you can do for this achievement is Challenge 2 on Normal, the island is small and you can build a high capacity chainsaw early on.

If, you, like me, couldnt get anyone online to help you with this, here is a small guide on how to achieve this on your own.

Start the challenge on Local, 2 Players. I picked Nina for P1 since she has bonuses with chainsaws.

If you have a gamepad that works, great!

Just use your main to clear the zeds and then move the alt behind you, be patient and do it one screen at a time.

If not, you will have to do it the hard way, first, get the 2nd character killed so you can move freely.

Go ahead and clear the whole stage of zombies, dont be afraid of the big guy, chainsaw him to death.
Once you are near the plane, dont repair it and instead go back to where you left Player 2.
Save the explosive charge to create 10 explosive arrows, you will need a couple to clear walls between the plane and P2.
Now, revive player 2 and then go to options, change P1 controls to pad and P2 to keyboard/mouse.
Move P2 one screen closer to the plane.
Change mouse/keyboard controls back to P1
Repeat this until you reach the plane, remember that some zombies respawn, but they shouldnt be a problem, if you feel yourself in trouble, go to options, change controls back.

Achievement get!