Besides the tempting lineup of first party games coming to the Nintendo Wii U at launch, Ubisoft’s ZombiU looks like it might be the most promising third-party title to hit Nintendo’s new console. We had a chance to play through the first few (horrifying) hours of the game’s campaign, and the brain-bashing, flesh-gnawing experience left us hungry for more.

Surviving ZombiU’s undead apocalypse isn’t as easy as you might think. Having precise aim and being able to swing a cricket bat accurately helps, but if you aren’t smart, you’ll end up on the lunch menu. That’s why we’ve put together this survival guide so you’ll know what to expect when the dead rise.

It should go without saying that in a survival situation, you should let your hoarding instincts run wild. In ZombiU, you’ll need every bullet, scrap of plywood, and bran muffin you can find. You’ll need to scan every room, check cabinets, and search (hopefully) dead bodies. All of your helpful items can be carried in your handy bug-out-bag (backpack), or stored in a chest back at home base. More importantly, don’t go wasting your precious supply of ammo and grenades on a lone zombie. If you do, you’re bound to hear the click of an empty chamber just when you’re about to have some teeth dig into your flesh.

Most of the single zombies can be dispatched easily. You can switch off your flashlight, sneak up from behind, and bash them in the head until their brains explode. But smashing a brain can take several wallops to the cranium. So, becoming surrounded by even a small group of zombies can end up being a death sentence, but luckily, brain-dead zombies aren’t very smart.

Barricading closed doors and bottlenecking undead hordes are strategies that will keep you alive. It takes zombies much longer to break down a door you’ve reinforced with your plywood scraps. Once they crowd up against the door and manage to break it down, a perfectly placed grenade can turn a whole group into rotten, meaty chunks.

Even the most careful survivor can end up in a tight spot. Supplies run out, health drops low, and your scavenging efforts don’t provide what you need. It doesn’t mean the end if you’ve prepared a way of escape. Spread throughout London are shortcuts that lead you back to your home base through the sewers. It’s all just a matter of exploring the environment and discovering their locations.

You are never safe when there are zombies about. Even when you are digging through your inventory, picking locks, or scanning rooms with your special sensor device, you can get attacked--leaving it up to the next survivor to find your undead corpse and cave its skull in. Check your surroundings and every dark corner. Once you are absolutely sure it’s safe, grab what you need as fast as you can, and get moving.

Everyone knows zombies don’t die unless you turn their brain into bloody pudding, but crushing a skull takes effort. If you want to survive you should crush every dead head you see. This goes for those corpses you find lying on the ground, too. Nothing’s worse than rolling over a body to take the candy bar out of some dead guy’s pocket, and he suddenly wakes up and bites a chunk out of your face. For the walkers, aim for the head, and keep shooting till those suckers go down. One bullet from a handgun doesn’t always stop a shambling corpse from making you its midnight snack. Administer deadly force until there’s nothing left but a headless body and a puddle of goo.

Are you looking forward to ZombiU? Do you think you would be able to survive a zombie apocalypse? Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming game or the upcoming apocalypse in the comments below.

For more on ZombiU be sure to check out our multiplayer preview video and keep an eye out for when the game hits stores alongside the Wii U on November 18.