Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades – Guide to Return of the Rotwieners!

This guide doesn’t really go over everything there is in ROTR, mostly just the things I find very useful, mainly quests and how to complete them, but either way, hopefully you find it useful!

What Are Rotwieners?

All credit goes to jdhata112418 !

What are Rotwieners you say?

Well, Rotwieners are the most common enemy you’ll encounter in ROTR. They’re undead Sosigs infused with “Meat Cores” which may drop out of their bodies upon death. They carry rusted melee weapons and are typically a pale, yellowish-green color. Unlike normal Sosigs, they don’t bleed out as easily, and run with their heads flopped backward, making headshots difficult if they’re coming towards you. However, shooting them in the lower parts of their body is a reliable way to slow them down or stun them. They can’t see very well, meaning you can typically run past them with some classic stealth, although their hearing is extremely good, so if you’re too loud, prepare to run from a potential horde. The most common Rotwieners are fairly easy to kill, mostly being unarmored and being weak to virtually anything you can throw at them. However, there exist some variants that can give you some trouble:

• Floaters: Light blue Rotwieners dressed somewhat like fishermen. They carry rusty paddles and spears, which they’ll throw at you before closing the gap to attack. However, just like common Rotwieners, they’re pretty squishy and easy to kill with either a good swing of a sword or with a few good shots. Will drop Moldy Cores on death.
• Hamfisters and Beefkickers: Fast Rotwieners wearing Red and Green football gear respectively. They typically carry rusted hatchets and their armor may stop melee attacks, and occasionally their helmets might stop a bullet or two. However, their legs are open to attack, and underneath their armor, they’re still mostly squishy. They can drop Zippy Cores on death.
• Prick: A Sosig/Rotwiener that heavily resembles a cactus, with greens kin and covered with spines. Unlike most other Rotwieners, they’ll constantly try to keep their distance, using their special “Prick gun” to fire cactus spines at you. They’re also resistant to firearms, however, fire and melee are their weaknesses, meaning if you can close the gap with a fairly powerful melee weapon, chopping them up will be a breeze. They drop Spikey Cores on death.
• Driller: Probably one of the most dangerous Rotwieners in the early game, they’re heavily armored with Tier 3 armor and mining helmets featuring metal facemasks. They’re virtually immune to fire and explosive damage, although a weak spot is presented in the form of their neck, where you can shoot or chop them to take them out. They’re armed with Rusty Pickaxes and Rusty Jackhammers and will drop Tasty Cores on death.
• Lemonhead: A very dangerous Rotwiener with a glowing, yellow growth covering their heads. They’ll make screaming noises, and upon getting close to the player, will explode, which can deal heavy damage and set you on fire. If you can keep their distance, you can blow them up from a distance with gunfire, and they drop Tasty Cores on death.
• Spurter: Rotwieners dressed in a beer hat and a white tank top. They’re a dangerous enemy encountered in the Wienerton ruins area, in which their vomit attack can easily chip away at the player’s health, especially at point-blank ranges. Headshots might not work against them, but keep your distance and send them to hell with some well-placed shots. Drop Juicy Cores on death.
• Boner: Boners present a unique challenge. They’re only encountered in one place in the entire game, that being the catacombs beneath the church, Our Lady of Wienerton. Their armor makes them resistant to all attacks save for blunt damage, which means you’ll have to get into melee range to fight the undead gladiators. They drop Tasty Cores on death.
• Funguy: Funguys are purple, glowing mushrooms, easily identifiable from a distance. They’re very dangerous, especially if you don’t have the proper tools to fight them. Just like Pricks, they’ll keep their distance and fire projectile at you, although instead of spines, they’ll fire explosive chunks of fungus. Funguys are resistant or outright immune to most forms of damage save for the glowing pustules on their body, which can easily put them down if struck. They drop Heavy Cores on death.
• Pig: Pigs are Rotwieners wearing gas masks and Tier 1 armor. They carry rusty batons and shields, which can make them a hassle to kill frontally. However, under their shields they’re squishy, meaning if you can get around the shields or outright break them, they’re only as dangerous as ordinary Rotwieners. They drop Tasty Cores on death.
• The Hung: The Hung are enemies found throughout Old Wienerton, carrying a Rusty Hatchet or Torch, or both. They’re identifiable by the black cloth bag worn on their heads along with the nooses around their neck. They’re some of the most dangerous common enemies, as they’re very tanky, being outright immune to headshots, and having relatively high health. However, they’re still weak to leg shots, so better get to crippling them. They drop Tasty Cores on death.
• Ol’ Smokey: Ol’ Smokey is a black, burning enemy that can be found in Old Wienerton alongside The Hung. They’re resistant to melee and projectiles and immune to fire attacks. However, explosives are their bane, so something with explosive qualities like SWAG-12 shotgun shells is extremely effective against them. They attack by closing the distance before roasting the player with their Flamethrower weapon. They drop Burny Cores on death.
• The Red Lumberjack: The Red Lumberjack is a boss Rotwiener that can be encountered on the roads leading towards Wienerton. His appearance is that of a Lumberjack wearing red flannel, blue pants(?), and a red beanie. His most identifiable qualities are that he has a grilled texture and is glowing orange. Wielding a large hatchet(or axe) The Red Lumberjack is an extremely difficult enemy to dispose of due to his high health and resistance to virtually everything that can be thrown at him. While you can kill him, he can respawn. If you encounter him on the road towards the Deputy’s office, which has a number of bear traps, you can lure him into the traps to kill him, as they one-shot everything. If you can get your hands on some power tools, you can also stun him and then cut into his head until he dies. Otherwise, you can typically just run away, as he isn’t any faster than a normal Rotwiener. A tactic I once did was to lure him into one of the PAC Bases and then let the PAC Squad soldiers fight him. The Red Lumberjack drops a Tasty Core on death.

What About Ordinary Sosigs?

Most ordinary/uninfected Sosigs are friendly NPCs, who can give you quests to complete, rewarding you with various things, the most common being weaponry. However, some Sosigs are enemies as well:

• Skulkers: Skulkers are gun-toting Sosigs wearing camouflage, black hoods, and NVDs. Like other Sosig enemies, they will shoot on sight. Fortunately for you, the player, they’re typically found in places that have Rotwieners, so you can just let them kill each other. They’re mostly encountered in Wienerton and in Lakeside.
• Prospectors: Prospectors are Sosigs wearing desert camo, goggles, masks, and bandanas. In my experience, they’re mostly found in Old Wienerton, and just like the Skulkers, will fight with Rotwieners. In fact, I’d say they’re less of a threat than The Hung and Ol’ Smokeys are, since they’re only Sosigs with armor and guns.
• Cultist: Cultists are only found in the catacombs of Our Lady of Wienerton. They’re typically armed with rusty medieval weapons, wear black robes, and face masks. I’ve never fought them, but I imagine you can just pump some lead into them to grind them up.
• Pacification Squads: Out of all the Sosig enemies, Pacification Squads(or PAC for short) are the most dangerous. They’re black Sosigs covered with grey tactical armor, and they wield some of the best guns that you can find from Sosigs, those guns being MP5Ds, Glocks, M16s, and Scouts(the rifle). Their weapons are all suppressed and have laser sights, which might actually be a benefit to the player because you’ll most likely see the red lasers before you see or hear the soldiers themselves. PAC Squads are mostly found nearby their own bases, which are found near or at the various paths leading into or out of Wienerton. I’ll add some more on PAC Squad Bases later. While the Pacification Soldiers wear armor, their faces are still unshielded, so a well-placed shot to the face is enough to stop them. Their feet are covered up, by the way, so don’t bother.

What About Weaponry? Where Can I Get That?

You can find a good chunk of weaponry just by exploring the map. Sometimes you can find lockers and orange chests that contain various kinds of weapons. Some are good, some are bad. The weapon you get at the very start is a pistol chambered in .22, which is incredibly weak. Fortunately, it’s not too hard to get better ones right from the Honey Hamlet(the starting area), and I’ll go over some quests in a separate section later.

As mentioned before, weapons can be found all over the place. For example, the largely destroyed cabin near Lakeside has a chance of spawning with a weapon chest that may contain a fairly decent pistol, like an M1911. Lockers can also give you long arms(weapons that typically require two hands to effectively operate). Most lockers actually don’t have weaponry that good, but with some luck in the early ones you find, you might get something like an Uzi. Lockers in harder places of the map, such as Wienerton and Old Wienerton carry much more potent weaponry, like shotguns, semi-automatic rifles, etc.

The only place in the game where modern weaponry naturally spawns is the PAC Squad Bases, of which there are about 3, all of which are located on the paths/roads out of Wienerton. They’re all the same in nature, with various turrets to shoot at you, along with patrols of PAC soldiers, however, once you get to the very heart of the fort, you can find a deprecated building with many lockers within. These lockers contain modern weaponry, which can be incredibly helpful depending on your luck.

You can also buy weapons from the Guntopia gun store in Wienerton, from the NPC named Ralph Wienerton. He has a bunch of modern weapons he can sell you, and his quest gives you more for virtually nothing. Except for your hard effort. Anyways…you buy weapons with Meat Cores at the shops in Wienerton. It can be a bit expensive, but it’ll be worth it in the long run if you can grab a powerful gun early on, like a full-powered rifle(full-powered meaning it fires rifle caliber rounds, typically of the 7.62mm variety). So yeah, just look around for weapons, and you should get some!

There are Quests?

In ROTR, there are a number of NPCs that can give you quests, most of which require you to fetch something or to go put something in a certain place. There’s just a lot to complete in general. I’ll list off quest giving NPCs and what their quests are.

The Honey Hamlet:

Dr. Roarnart Wiener: A doctor in the Honey Hamlet, who tasks you with getting batteries to his teleportation system. This is the main quest and is required to complete the game. To make batteries, you need Meat Cores, which are dropped from Rotwieners upon their death(sometimes). Put them into the battery-making machine until all the bars are full, then press the “Science!” button to make a battery. The first teleporter is just outside the Honey Hamlet, which is the Fork in the Road Gas Station. It takes one battery. The second teleporter is at Bootlegger’s Lookout, which is a cliff area hidden away at Lakeside. This will require two batteries. Then, the Old Mine tucked away in the Southeast corner, you’ll need three batteries. Second to last, the Wienerton Ruins, this teleporter can be found near the Western Wall of the downtown area, in some ruins and behind a sign. This teleporter requires four batteries, so you better not die along the way, or else you’ll lose the batteries and your inventory and all those cores would go to waste. Finally, the last teleporter is located in Old Wienerton. It’s located West of the PAC base in the area and North of the radio tower, and this final teleporter takes five batteries. Once that’s done, talk to Roarnart, and he’ll explain that the PAC Squads have put up jammers at the bridge leading out of Wienerton, so you’ll have to go in and do some work. From there, completing the rest of the game should be fairly straight towards.

Sarah Wiener: One of the first Sosig NPCs you encounter(besides Roarnart and Tutorial Wiener), her quest is extremely easy. Go into her backyard, grab the sausage garden gnome from behind some crates, put it into the little bed, and she’ll give you garden tools to use as weapons. They’re not very good melee weapons, but they’re definitely better than nothing at all.

Dustin Wiener: Dustin is a scientist who wants to document the various herbs found in Wienerton. To do that, you’ll have to grab one of each and put them on a pedestal in his house/lab. In return, he’ll give you notes on what they do and how they can be used to make Power Up Sausages. The Ketchup Leaf, which is the most common kind of herb, is easily found in the Honey Hamlet itself. Mustard Willows are found at Lakeside and in Old Wienerton. Prickly Pickles is located in the Wienerton ruins. The Giant Blue Raspberry is found in the cemetery and outside the Southern PAC Base. And finally, the Deadly Eggplant, which is found in the Old Mines and near PAC bases.

Bobert Wiener: Bobert is one of my favorite quest NPCs as the rewards he gives you are immediate and very useful. To help him, you need to reset his Bear Traps, which are found in various areas throughout the areas of the game. The first set is just outside the Honey Hamlet, the second is near the Spork in the Road Gas Station. The third and fourth are found near the Silo Bar and next to the Deputy’s Station just outside the North Wienerton area. For every trap you reset, he’ll reward you with a bolt action rifle, all of which are pretty useful.

Sam Wiener: Sam is a conspiracy theorist and a hardcore survivalist, who lives in “Sammerica.” He’s stocked himself up for the apocalypse, which is great because he has an ammo refill machine at his place, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough Survivor’s Chow. To do his quest, get the Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry varieties for him, one of each. Vanilla can be found at the Gas Station, Chocolate can be found next to Harry Wiener at Lakeside, and Strawberry consistently spawns in the basement of the Church. For everyone that you give him, you unlock a specialty ammo machine, which can give you more specialized and powerful rounds like Hollow Point and SWAG-12.

Lori Wiener: Lori is an arsonist/fire enthusiast who lives in the Spork in the Road Gas Station. She’ll task you with taking gasoline cans to her fire traps, one of which is right outside the station. The other three are at the Western, Northern, and Eastern entrances to the Wienterton Survivor’s haven. For your troubles, she’ll give you a Flare Gun HP(High Powered, meaning it can fire the more powerful shotgun shells without exploding), Dragon’s Breath Shells, a Contender 45-70, Molotovs, and Bang Snaps(which are used to make Bangers).

Deputy Terrance Wiener: Deputy Terrance is the Deputy of the Honey Hamlet, and his quest is probably one of the longer ones in the game. It requires you to complete all of the above side quests in the Honey Hamlet(not Roarnart’s quest, that’s the main quest), and in return, he’ll give you a large caliber revolver, which can be very handy with the right ammo types.

The Crossroads:

Davee Wiener: Davee is a bartender, who lives in a place called the Silo Bar. He’ll quest you with destroying the four Rotwiener Nests found throughout the game, and for each one, he’ll give you a shotgun. The Nests are tricky to kill, especially if you don’t have strong enough equipment. To kill one, you need to destroy these large, glowing nodes, which have various resistances and immunities. Once all of them are destroyed, the Nest will open up, you destroy some more nodes, and you’re done! The 1st nest is just South of the Bar, the 2nd is at Lakeside, near Bootlegger’s Cliff, the 3rd is in the Western part of Wienerton, and the 4th and last is in the Northern portions of the place. He’ll reward you with a TOZ-106, a KS-23, a KWG-1, and finally, an AA-12, along with specialty ammo dispensers.

Harry Wiener: Harry is an extreme fishing enthusiast who lives at Lakeside, in a fenced-in area near the docks. Bring one of each pie from Myra Wiener’s place, and for each one he’ll reward you with a grenade, starting with an XM84 Stun Grenade, a No.69 Impact Grenade, a Stielhandgranate, a Mk.2 Hand Grenade, and an M18 Smoke Grenade. Needless to say, they’re very powerful and quite useful to have in case there’s a large group of Rotwieners that need clearing out.

Alistair Wiener: One of my favorite quest NPCs sheerly out of how easy the quest is, and what he gives you in return. Alistair is a cultist, a member of the Illemonati that worships Jerry the Lemon, who can be found in the cemetery. He’ll task you with retrieving a golden bone found in the basement of the Church, which is fairly easy to do if you’ve cleared it out already. Go down there, then, travel all the way until you find the ladders. Go all the way down, and in the very first chamber of the catacombs, you should be able to find a golden bone. Take it with you back to the cemetery, give him the bone, and in return, he’ll give you various Medieval weapons, typically of the bladed type. They’re very powerful, especially the larger swords as they can kill most Rotwieners in a few good swings.

George Wiener: George is the foreman of the Old Mines and the only person there who hasn’t become a Rotwiener yet. He’ll tell you about the Lemonhead zombies and how they’re coming out of the mine shafts, so he wants you to destroy them with explosives so Rotwieners don’t become kamikaze. To do this, you’ll need dynamite(although I’m pretty sure most explosives will do the job just fine), which can be easily found in the cardboard boxes littered around the mines. Alternatively, you could try killing the explosive Lemonheads while they’re in front of the entrance, at least according to the H3VR wiki. A potential strategy for this entire job is to go onto the roofs of the mineshaft entrances and drop lit dynamite into the holes in the roof. That way you can avoid the Lemonheads entirely. As a reward, George gives you the Four Letter Word, a quad barreled break action shotgun, which, by hitting a switch on the left side, can allow you to fire off all four shells. It’s quite powerful for something you can get in the early to mid-game, and can be easily used up until you complete Davee’s nest quests.

Lukas Wiener: Lukas is a transfer student(presumably from Germany based on his hat and accent)who lives in a small, fenced-in house behind the first Rotwiener Nest found down the road of the Silo Bar. He tells you that he’s set up various traps throughout the map, and he needs them to be fueled up. As a reward, he’ll give you power tools. The first trap is at Lakeside, in front of the large, decrepit cabin. I believe it’s in a sub-area called the Lumbermill. There, you’ll find a number of spinning blades, which, once fueled and turned on, will slice up everything in their reach, including you! So be careful around them, I learned that the hard way. For this, you get a drill. Not great, but it’s a start. The remaining two traps are at the roads leading out of Wienerton proper, them being a trap consisting of falling logs and a bunch of Tesla coils that will shock nearby enemies. For those two, you get a Chainsaw and Circular Saw, both of which are some of the most powerful weapons you can get in ROTR. The two saws are also quite handy for killing The Red Lumberjack since they do a ton of continuous damage.

Father Giacomo Wiener: Father Giacomo is the Father of the Church, Our Lady of Wienerton. He’ll ask you to clear out the Rotwieners found in the basement, which is fairly easy with the right weapons. Once that’s done, he’ll give you free, unlimited access to the “Holy Water Fountain” which is either a Water Fountain that’s Holy or a fountain of Holy Water. Either way, it’s very useful, because if you dip your head into it, you’ll be restored to full health instantly, making Our Lady of Wienerton a great place to stop by when health is getting a bit low.

Deputy Wyatt Wiener: Wyatt is a Deputy of Wienerton, and he’ll have a long list of quests next to him, those quests being the ones I listed above. For completing them, he’ll give you a Ballistic Shield, which, even though most enemies don’t wield guns, could be very useful. There are also a bunch of Bear Traps outside his outpost, which are required to complete Bobert’s quest.

Wienerton:

Ralph Wiener: Ralph is the owner of the Guntopia gun store, which is located in the survivor’s haven of Wienerton. He’ll ask you to get him one of each PAC Squad gun, those being the PAC Pistol, PAC SMG, PAC M16, and the PAC Scout. For every gun you give him, he’ll reward you with a gun of his own, along with Specialty Bullet dispensers. The weapons he gives you are a Desert Eagle chambered in .44 Magnum, a FiveSeven pistol, an AWM, a Tactical Melee weapon, and Hand Crank Frank, which is a portable version of the large Gatling gun emplacement found in some scenes such as Wurstworld. You can also buy a variety of modern weaponry from Ralph, such as a Full-Powered-Rifle for Meat Cores.

Josh Wiener: Josh is another store owner in Wienerton, and he’ll ask you to get him three golden figurines from the PAC Squad bases, of which there are three. For each one, he gives you a different weapon. The first is a Volcanic lever-action pistol, a Whizzbanger, and a Soseji-Kun Dakimakura. These weapons aren’t useful at all, but eh, 100% completion is 100% completion. Besides that, you can buy vintage firearms from Josh.

Mary Wiener: Mary is the owner of the General Store of Wienerton, where she sells various gun attachments. She’ll ask you to take five different batteries and put them in their respective radio towers, which are scattered across the map. Before you set out, make sure you take the backpack you can find in her shop, as it’s extremely useful for carrying the batteries and other whatnot. Also, make sure that the battery you bring to each tower is the correct one, otherwise, you’ll have wasted your time. The first is near the Wienerton Ruins, near the teleporter, two are located at opposite ends at Lakeside, one is near the defunct Post Office in North Wienerton, and the last one is located in Old Wienerton. The towers are fairly easy to see from afar due to their large size and glowing red lights, and they all have weapon lockers at the top, which might yield powerful weaponry. They’re also good safe zones in case you need a break from all the Rotwiener slaying, because only you, the player, can scale them.

Sheriff Bud Wiener: Bud is the Sheriff of Wienerton, and when you talk to him, he’ll ask you to complete the quests of the inhabitants of Wienerton, or else he might start asking the serious questions of what you plan on doing with your miniature armory of potentially illegal firearms. If you complete all the quests listed for Wienerton above, he’ll give you a WW2 era LMG, which can be an M1918 BAR, a Bren gun, a DP28, or the almighty MG-42. They’re all very powerful since they all do a good job of dispensing full-powered rifle caliber bullets.

The Secret Quest(s)

There are two secret quests in ROTR, but I’m only going to talk about one because I’m nowhere near doing the other one. Also, the first one is, in my opinion, the most useful one, the other one isn’t as useful in my opinion. The first quest involves The Red Lumberjack. To do this quest, you need three items that are found throughout the map. The first item you can find is a picture found in the basement of the Church. The picture you should be looking for is one of a Sosig dressed like The Red Lumberjack mascot, which is an in-world brand of Vienna Sausages. Take this picture with you.

The next is a receipt found in a Red Lumberjack store in Wienerton, which is easily found due to the numerous coolers inside. On the ground floor, you should find a receipt on top of a shelf. Finally, go to the Post Office and find a letter. Put all three of these items inside the mailbox outside, and wait for it to ding. Once it does, the three items should be replaced by a large box with Red Lumberjack logos printed on the front. Go back to the Wienerton Survivor Haven and locate the memorial, and place the box there. The ghost of The Red Lumberjack should appear, thanking you, before ascending to the afterlife. After that, you’ll no longer encounter The Red Lumberjack.

General Tips

Depending on what game mode you’re playing, having the right type of ammo is extremely important. While the effectiveness of bullets themselves don’t really change, I’m more referring to whether or not you can spawnlock magazines and whatnot. If you can, then it saves up a lot of room in your inventory. If you’re playing on limited ammo, you’ll have to be more conservative with how you carry around ammo.

You can get specialty ammo types from various NPCs in the game, whom I’ve mentioned above in the quests section. Full Metal Jacket(FMJ) is typically the standard round you get with most guns. It’s an all around bullet with no real drawbacks nor particular strengths. For Rotwiener killing purposes, Hollow Point and other anti-personal rounds are the best, as normal Armor Piercing bullets will overpenetrate and not deal a lot of damage. Those kinds of bullets are best reserved against PAC Squads and other heavily armored targets.

Make sure to explore each area you go into. There are cardboard boxes scattered all over the place, and they typically contain useful items, like weapon attachments, magazines for weapons you currently carry, and crafting materials. There’s also lockers and herbs/plants. The plants are required for Dustin’s quest, and are also needed for crafting power up sausages. Lockers, meanwhile, contain items of various quality. Ones found early game typically carry not so great melee weapons, and the occasional gun, but ones later on carry much better weapons. For example, the lockers found on Radio Towers in later areas like Wienerton ruins and Old Wienerton may yield things like shotguns and carbines. I once found an SVT-40 in Old Wienerton that way, so explore!