The Typing of the Dead

Welcome to the Typing of the Dead (TotD) SDA Strategy Wiki. It is designed to facilitate new runners who wish to gain the required level of understanding about the game mechanics and routes considered optimal without turning into a full-fledged game wiki. It is currently under heavy construction work and does NOT provide you with all the existing knowledge on the game. Some of the information is not fully confirmed. If you wish to edit the page, make sure to note if your additions are somewhat speculative, and possibly discuss them on the discussion page or bring it up on the forum thread. Also do this if you'd like to discuss the abbreviations and naming conventions.

Here are a few links to get you started.

General Information

Abbreviations and Naming Conventions (this list might evolve)

TotD - The Typing of the Dead
AM/OM - Arcade Mode/Original Mode
Ch. 1-6 - Chapter 1-6
ZR - Zombie Rank, i.e. which category of word length a particular zombie's word belongs to. Somewhat connected with zombie type.
WR - Word Rank, i.e. the "ranking" the player gets for each typed word, from A's to E's. Could also be called "Grade".
DL - Difficulty Level, manifests in zombie ranks and/or the time the player is given to type a word.
Life - One of the "braziers" that you have 3-5 of at the start.
Cont NOT USED? - A "continue", which is the same as in many arcade games.
Tranq NOT USED?- A zombie tranquilizer, an item that lowers DL.

The word "word" is used, for simplicity, for the zombie "typable", i.e. abbreviation, word, phrase or sentence regardless of how long or short it is.

[Possible] Run Categories

Any% - Finish the game as quick as possible
100% - Currently has no common definition, but may involve saving all the citizens and completing every mission among other things.
SS/IL - Ch. 6 is directly selectable in OM after acquiring enough coins from various challenges. This should be done for IL runs because of the dynamic difficulty level.

Game Mechanics

Dynamic Difficulty Level

There is an overarching difficulty level (DL) that adjusts according to the player's skill. It can be observed separately from each particular ZR, but because of the two being intermingled and because of MaxR's and MinR's, this is somewhat difficult. For most speed run categories, purposely lowering the DL should be used to speed up progress.

Lowers the DL

Losing a life?
Using a continue
Finding a tranquilizer in AM
Getting WR's below C? (likely, but not entirely understood)

Increases the DL

Effect of WR's on DL

Effect of Continues on the DL

Effect of Tranquilizers on the DL

Zombie Ranks

Speedrun-Relevant Items

Speed Running Strategies

Optimal Overall Route

Chapter 1

Wishlist

A bot/hack that allows automatic typing of words at a given pace. E.g. infinite "Golden Hands"-items would be useful. Also if the game can one day be emulated, though Hourglass currently does not support TotD.

To Do