St. Mary's Church

**St. Mary's Church** is a possible scavenging location. There are two possible scenarios: Bandits and Faithful.

It is usually available after Day 4 for most starting variations. In some playthroughs it is possible to encounter the Faithful scenario initially and then later—around the mid- to late-game—for it to switch to the Bandits scenario.

## Overview

The area has a large amount of debris, and a small number of doors blocked by chain rails. Bringing saw blades is recommended, along with a shovel to dig through the numerous piles of debris in the area.

There are two buildings - a church with a basement and a three-story shelled building. The two buildings are linked via a tunnel, which is either clear or filled up with debris.

### Scenario: Bandits

In this variation, bandits have overtaken the church and killed all of its inhabitants - including Priest Olek. There will be one bandit in the Church while the rest are holed up in the shelled building. The bandits can carry pistols and shotguns though some of the bandits may be unarmed, but will alert the other bandits if they see the player.

The main door of the church is now barred and cannot be opened - instead, there will be a scaffolding that allows the character to climb into the church via ladders.

The first bandit will be scavenging with his back turned towards the church's entrance. This allows for an easy backstab kill. He carries a shotgun with some ammo.

The rest of the bandits will wander about, as far as reaching the open area between the church and the vestry behind the church. This makes it difficult for the player to take out all the bandits silently without luring them with sound.

An easy way to clear this area out is to equip a firearm on a combat-proficient character and pick the bandits off from a safe location. The two best locations to do this would be the covers in between the church and the vestry (preferably the first one if you're using an assault rifle or pistol), or at the base of stairs just as you enter the vestry (if you're using a shotgun).

With the church inhabitants dead, the church basement is open for scavenging. Items of varying value can be found here, with a handful of holes and debris to navigate through.

Directly under the church are a couple of cabinets blocked by bars and one rubble or, if you go down a level, you can get to them after clearing two rubble piles. Even if you use a saw blade to get through the bars fast, you'd still need a shovel to get through the rubble past it fast, too. Then there is more rubble to sneak through the tunnel to the vestry. All in all, this map can really use a shovel.

If you scavenge any items from the shelled building marked 'private property', the game will still think you've stolen from innocents (despite the fact killing all the bandits in the area is considered a 'good' deed) resulting in negative effects to your survivors' morale. This is probably due to a bug. This bug appeared in version 1.3. This bug also appears in Ruined Villa (Soldiers scenario), Hotel (Bandits scenario), and Warehouse.

In this variant, only one saw blade and a crowbar is needed to access a cabinet in the basement.

### Scenario: Faithful

 Inhabitants:

Priest Olek will be sitting at the back end of the church and will greet the player when approached. He will request for the character to not disturb his flock, after which he will be open for trading. He has a large amount of books, which he sells cheaply. Like most traders, he will trade in a lot for medical items.

Olek himself isn't particularly threatening, as he is unarmed. The scavenger however is armed with a pistol and poses a much more significant threat.

The rest of his flock will be in the basement of the Church, with the door that leads to the basement guarded by a man. Going past this door or being spotted anywhere by the woman in the basement (possibly a glitch) will render the entire church hostile to you.

In the shelled building, a scavenger will be looting the area - he will not be hostile and assures the player that he means no harm. This area is filled with resources.

There are four grated doors that require saw blades in this variant. Though two will require you to rob the church, one can simply be walked around, and the last blocks access to a medicine cabinet in the shelled building. Additionally there are more than a dozen pieces of furniture you can break down for wood and fuel with a hatchet, including Priest Olek's chair, which will not make him hostile.

## Notes:

When you select the spyglass icon behind the church, you will read a note that Misha left (one of the children in the Little Ones DLC). In his Character Story, he mentions that he had a dog named Roxy, but she had been killed.

> *There's a mark on the wall, and a few words:*
>
>

> *"Here lies Roxy, the best dog in the world."*
>
>