How To Beat Dead Rising's "7 Day Survivor" Achievement

Every time I come across a list of the "hardest achievements EVAR", the "7 Day Survivor" achievement from Dead Rising always seems to be present. But why is that weird? Because I have it. I've managed to do the challenge TWICE, actually, just to prove that the first time I did it wasn't just a fluke.

At first glance, yes, the achievement is quite intimidating and does SOUND quite difficult - but it's not difficult, it's just time consuming.

Before I delve into the guide, I'll drop the bombshell - if you want this achievement, you will need to play Dead Rising's infinity mode for a total of FOURTEEN consecutive real-time hours, with no saves, no pauses, no breaks, no anything.

This might sound intimidating, but not as bad as it sounds. If you follow this guide, you will spend the vast majority of your time standing around in a safe area, simply keeping an eye on Frank's health. You will have time to eat, drink and take the occasional piss. If you are a responsible adult and have commitments like work, college, university etc. - you will need to get up early or go to bed late - find yourself a free fourteen hours somewhere.

Frank's health slowly depletes over time - thus, you need to constantly feed him. He will lose one block of health every 1 minute and 40 seconds - from a full health bar of 12 blocks, it will take approximately 18 minutes for Frank to be down to 1 block of health, and approximately 20 minutes to die. So I would say it is safe to leave him unattended for 15 minutes (in a safe area, of course) - giving you chance to eat, drink and piss.

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This probably goes without saying, but before you attempt this challenge - get Frank to level 50. This won't be hard, as you need to complete the original game and the overtime mode before you even unlock infinity mode - and you can grind levels while you're going for the...

Real Mega Buster - obviously. Attempt this challenge without this, and your balls are too big for your own good. Food items do not respawn once you've eaten them - so the only way to collect more is by killing psychopaths and survivors - most of which will die with two or three hits from the Real Mega Buster.

Find the magazines - you will need the three magazines that affect food and health, these are:

• One is located in the empty room next to Crislip's in North Plaza, where three survivors are locked up in story mode
• One is located in the bookshop The Sinister Read in the Entrance Plaza
• One is located in Sir Book-A-Lot in the Wonderland Plaza, where you found the "Japanese tourists" in story mode

Collect food - Food is obtained in two ways - found lying around the mall (which will NOT respawn), and dropped from survivors/psychopaths that randomly spawn and will continue to do so for as long as you play, even if you've previously defeated them. The boxes that people drop contain a mix of weapons and food - and these will disappear upon leaving an area - any food you leave behind will be lost. Thus, it is a better idea to pick up food from these boxes before you scavenge the food that's dotted around the mall - as long as you don't pick these up, they will stay there.

Find a safe spot - The safe spots I remember using the most are standing on top of the gazebo in the outdoor park area, locking myself in the back room of the cinema and hiding on top of the cardboard boxes in North Plaza - anywhere that's quiet, where the zombies cannot climb up to get you. You'll spend a lot of time hiding out and keeping Frank fed - you don't need to be dealing with zombies too.

Cook all of your food - you don't want your food to spoil, considering how bloody scarce it is; find a pizza or a steak? COOK IT. They don't spoil if they're cooked (of course they don't...), and thus will provide you with the maximum amount of healing potential.

WARNING - Do not ENTER or LEAVE the Food Court on DAY FOUR. The game will freeze, ruining EVERYTHING. I avoided the Food Court at all costs because of this - using alternative routes, such as the short-cut in the toilets.

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My strategy was this:

• Collect the books, Real Mega Buster, the katana and a combat knife or two
• Mooch around the mall, being careful not to get grabbed or attacked - finding psychos/survivors and filling my inventory with food
• Wait in a safe area, healing until I run of food
• Lather, rinse and repeat

There are many detailed guides on how much each food item heals and when and where the psychos/survivors spawn - but not to blow my own trumpet, I managed to complete this achievement the first time without any internet - my internet had gone down and I decided to have a crack at some achievements I didn't need an online guide for.

If I can do it, so can you. Go on, I believe in you. :)