Extra Lives Strategy Guide: 10 Advanced Survival Tips & Tricks to Remember

MDickie’s Extra Lives is the latest iOS and Android game from the guy who brought us titles such as Wrestling Revolution, Hard Time, Popscene, and many others. As we’ve previously mentioned, Mat Dickie has quite the cult following in the mobile gaming scene, and with Halloween approaching not too long ago, he released this new title, retaining many of the familiar mechanics longtime players of his games are familiar with, but adding several new twists, such as the obvious ability to have a second chance at life as a zombie, and the subsequent ability to become human again. You can also align yourself with any one of eight different factions in the game, or choose to operate by your lonesome, trying to survive in a town that’s slowly but surely getting overrun by zombies. Can you make it out alive once everything’s been said and done?

Our first Extra Lives strategy guide had focused on the basics of the game, the very fundamental aspects of this new title that you have to remember while surviving MDickie’s version of the zombie apocalypse. For this second guide, we’re going to be going into greater depths and looking at some intermediate and advanced tips you should have in mind once you’ve memorized the basics and gone through a few play-throughs or so. Read on if you’re looking to survive longer in the game, even if it means having to live in zombie form for some time!

1. Stay Away From Big Fights

Just as is often the case in MDickie games, big fights can break out in Extra Lives. With so many characters that could fit in one screen, most of whom may be in a fighting mood, this could lead to some chaotic brawls where everyone is literally trying to kill each other. You want to stay away from these altercations, as you could easily get caught up and hit by a random weapon, fighting a battle you had actually wanted to avoid! That’s an easy way to lose energy points in the game, so if you want to stay alive for longer, try sticking to one-on-one battles. And that actually leads us to our second and third tips in this list.

2. Know Your Factions

Although allegiances could change as you proceed through the course of the game, those who know their pop culture may have an idea of who’s on the same side. The Fighters faction is generally made up of characters who are based on popular pro wrestlers, NFL players, and UFC fighters, the Soldiers are those who wear military, police, or even Ghostbuster uniforms, the Rogues are based on characters from comic books (i.e. Harley Quinn), literature (i.e. the Frankenstein monster), or television shows (i.e. Negan from The Walking Dead), and the Masters are mostly based on religious figures. Those are just a few examples of the themes MDickie used when creating the factions of Extra Lives, so pay close attention to the factions of the people you interact with in the game.

As a bonus tip, you can play as anyone from any faction if you’ve got the paid version; otherwise, you can only play as a Loner, where your allies are typically MDickie’s own created characters and mainstays from his previous titles, including the likeness of Mat Dickie himself.

3. Avoid Fights If Two Allies Are Nearby

You may want to defend yourself from trouble, and that would mean putting up your dukes (or using or firing your weapon) when someone tries to mess with you. There’s normally nothing wrong with that, but one type of fight you don’t want to be involved in is one where you’re ganged up on by two, or maybe more allies from the same faction. For example, you’re better off avoiding Jay Enrico (the character based on WWE’s Chris Jericho) when Night Shift (based on The Undertaker) is nearby, and you wouldn’t want to fight one of the Native American-like characters when someone dressed like an islander-type is nearby, as both hail from the Natives faction. Those allies will invariably gang up on you and use their strength in numbers, as they see you as a common enemy. Better to run away and live another day, as they say!

4. There Is (Almost) No Sleep In The Zombie Apocalypse

Some MDickie games, such as Hard Time, will allow you to regain your energy by sleeping, and would have more than enough places for you to catch some shut-eye, with a handy “Sleep” function that allows you to get some rest. That’s not the case in Extra Lives, where the option to sleep is unavailable in just about every part of the town you may roam. The mechanics have also changed when it comes to the bars that appear on the top left of the screen, below your character name. No longer do they refer to health and sanity — this time, it’s energy and hunger, and if you want to replenish your energy big-time and make your attacks more powerful, the only way to do this is to get some sleep. But where?

The answer would be in the Bedroom, which is in the central part of town. That’s the only area we know that has a bed in it, but don’t expect to climb up on that bed and get some rest without a fight! There’s a solid chance you may enter the bedroom, only to find a zombie or another unfriendly character in there. Make sure you get rid of those characters, while also having something to eat before sleeping! After all, you may be roused from your sleep if you go hungry.

5. Other Sources Of Food

The Store and the Cafe are the two best places to get something to eat, and you will oftentimes need something to eat in order to stay alive, and in order to replenish yourself after a rough fight with an enemy character. But there are other places where you can get something to eat, and we’re not just referring to random parts of the map where you may see some fruit or meat lying around.

As the game includes some animals that add to the human or zombie characters, you can kill some of those animals — these include chickens, rabbits, deer, and fish — and get some meat out of their carcasses once you’ve done away with them. But since you’re essentially attacking an innocent animal in order to satisfy your hunger, don’t expect your actions to go down well with everyone! You just might encounter someone who wants to call you out for animal cruelty, and when we say “call you out,” we also mean “attack you.”

Additionally, it would seem as if making out with other characters satisfies your hunger too, and strangely enough, we’re talking about the one in your stomach. That’s why it’s important to say “yes” to anyone who asks you if you want to “repopulate” the world with humans — somehow, that’s the way characters flirt with you in Extra Lives.

6. The Game Will Not Have You ‘Caught Short’

If you remember how things worked in previous MDickie titles, you knew how important it was to run to the bathroom in the event your character needs to relieve themselves. This is just a quick tip, but the good news here is that you can eat or drink as much as you could without having to worry about needing a trip to the bathroom.

7. Guns Do Not Have Unlimited Ammo

One good thing about firing guns in Hard Time and other MDickie games with firearms in them is that they came with unlimited ammo. That’s what made it so easy to launch ranged attacks in those games. But we’re figuring that MDickie wanted to make things more realistic in Extra Lives by limiting the number of times you can use the machine guns, rocket launchers, freeze rays, and other fireable weapons in the game. The game won’t tell you when your ammo is about to run out, but when you’re out of ammo, you’ll only be able to use your gun by hitting other characters with it, which, as you can guess, is not always effective, and completely counterintuitive to the main reason you’d want to use a gun or a similar weapon — the ability to attack from a distance.

8. Rage-Quit

Now rage-quitting is something you definitely want to avoid doing when you’re playing a multiplayer game. But in Extra Lives, which doesn’t come with any PvP mechanic of any kind, rage-quitting is actually encouraged, especially when your energy and/or hunger is hanging by a thread, with both bars completely in red. In these cases, if you enter a part of the town where there’s a lot of trouble, and you do end up getting in trouble, you can force-quit the game and restart it, allowing you to start right where you were when you entered the area. That should allow you to avoid the dangers, or possibly run to another part of town where you may hopefully find some food to restore your hunger and energy levels a bit.

9. The Ins And Outs Of Becoming A Zombie

It would seem that the game allows you to shift forms from human to zombie and back until your character dies once and for all. How does it all work in Extra Lives?

For starters, you can die once your character’s hunger and energy reaches zero, or if another character attacks you with the purple antidote. For a few seconds, the screen will appear as if it’s darkening, only for your character to get reborn as a zombie. As a zombie, you’re essentially on your last chance at life; while you may be stronger in battle, you will also move around slower, you won’t be able to run, and each time you get attacked, you’ll end up losing parts of your body, with the loss of your head resulting in death. On the other hand, there is a way for you to become human again, and that’s the aforementioned purple antidote.

You can find this antidote in random places around the in-game map, and it will usually come in the form of a syringe or a flask. Using the item on yourself while in zombie form will restore you immediately to human form, upon which the cycle begins again. You can also use the antidote on another character, though the catch here is that by attacking that character with the antidote, you’ll end up turning into a zombie while the other character becomes human!

10. You Can Become An Instant Parent In The Game

Remember what we told you about making out with other characters in the game? Well, let’s just say that even if the characters just kiss each other passionately for a few seconds, Extra Lives is pretty much rated PG. And that happens to have some consequences, namely, once you see your “partner” again, they will inform you that you did indeed help with the “repopulation” of the town, and that you’ve got a new son or daughter who will tag along with you going forward.

We haven’t gotten to the point where we see them grow into adulthood, but these “kids” of yours essentially act as “pets,” fighting alongside you throughout the course of the game.

You can even end up having separate children with separate partners, though there will be some consequences! First, your former partner will call you out on your “affair,” leaving you effectively and becoming your enemy. Secondly, while both of your kids will tag along with you wherever you go, they will ALWAYS be fighting. Also, expect things to get really weird on occasion — there was one instance where my older in-game offspring asked me if they could date the mother of the second child. Kids these days!