Alright, start up everything, go through the beginning stuff (note that if you have unlocked the Mega-Buster you can grab it before the zombies even break into the mall). You cannot save any of the people during the first part of the game when the zombies first break into the mall, so don't even worry about them. I say grab some 2x4's, maybe some baseball bats if you like them, and head for the stairs. In the security room grab the 2 Coffee Creamers just for good measure and head out through the air duct.
🕐 12:30 On the roof you'll find Jeff and Natalie. Run to the left and grab Natalie, then come back around and she'll have a little reunion with Jeff — grab a nice photo while they are doing so and get them back in the security room.
🕐 12:45 "Mall Rundown" call. Leave the security room, and when you enter the warehouse you'll get a Mall Rundown from Otis. When you are about to exit the Warehouse into Paradise Plaza, case 1-1 will complete and 1-2 will engage.
🕐 1:00 Enter Paradise Plaza, grab some Orange Juice from Columbian Roasters, some Hunting Knives if you want, and enter "Bachman's Bookporium" (P108) to get the "Engineering" and "Entertainment" books. Then head to Leisure Park.
🕐 1:15 Leisure Park — head to the Food Court to complete "Backup For Brad."
When fighting Carlito there are 2 really easy strategies. If you grabbed the Katana you can get up right next to him and slash him 2 times and he'll go down — don't worry about taking hits, you'll survive, just go head on and slash him till he drops. Of course, if you have the Mega Buster you can just launch shots at him from a distance and you'll have him down even quicker.
End of case 1-2. 1-3 engages.
🕐 1:30 Head into Al Fresco Plaza with Brad. Kill as few zombies as you can to get through, because it costs you time to kill them. Right when you enter there is a great hardware store to the left (you probably know about) where you can grab some weapons — Lead Pipes work great. Stay just barely ahead of Brad all the way across Al Fresco to keep him moving; you need him at the door at the end with you when you go through, or else he won't be in the Entrance Plaza with you.
🕐 1:50 Entrance Plaza. Just head past the escalators for a scene to complete case 1-3. 1-4 engages.
You will get the Entrance Plaza intro call after the scene.
🕐 2:00 "Cut From The Same Cloth" call.
Go upstairs to the store "In The Closet" (E214), and in the back room bust down some boxes to find Bill. Take his photo and talk to him for a bit — eventually he'll start to leave, and once he gets near the hallway he'll realize there's something fishy going on here and then you can get him to join you. Now that you have him, take him down by the escalators on the lower level — there won't be any zombies there because of the case having been there. Note that you can give Bill a weapon.
At this point you have to just hang out until a little after 4, at which time you'll have 2 calls about people in Al Fresco Plaza. The gate between the Entrance Plaza and Paradise Plaza won't be open until after this next scoop, so you won't want to trek all the way back just to come back to Al Fresco. So just sit tight with Bill on the lower level where there is no threat to him.
🕐 4:00 Call for "Barricade Pair," don't leave yet.
🕐 5:00 "A Mother's Lament" call.
Now it's finally time to head into Al Fresco Plaza. You'll come across Leah first on the left side in "Riverfield Jewelry" (A103). She'll take some convincing to get her to join, but just be persistent and make sure Bill makes it with you all the way.
After you get her, make a waypoint pretty much right across the street where there aren't too many zombies, and clear out the path into "Webbers Garments" (A106) where Burt and Aaron are at. When you enter, Burt will try and fight you — punch him a few times with your fist (not a Katana or something) and he'll back off. Soon after they'll join your party. Now head back into the Food Court.
🕐 6:15 "Food Court Welcome" call. If any of your survivors are hurt it'd be a good idea to grab some wine for them (or yourself, if you gave them your OJ), since there is a large supply right here.
Now head out into Leisure Park. The Convicts will be out here chasing Sophie around, and you will have to kill them and save Sophie. If you have the Mega-Buster you're set; if you don't, you're probably already sick of hearing about it, but you'll either have to get up close and chainsaw them or find some firepower to use on them.
Right when you leave the Food Court there is a little circle pond outside — I put my waypoint right in the middle of it and went after the Convicts. There are no zombies in it and my survivors fare very well in there. Make sure Sophie does not get killed and you save her. Oh, and remember to take a photo of her.
Set a marker for Paradise Plaza once you are ready and pick up Leah to get her over there. Chances are while you're doing this all it'll turn to 7:00 and all the zombies will become their more aggressive night versions — just move quickly so you have to deal with this as little as possible. Also, if you're thinking about not killing the Convicts, when it changes to 7:00 a scene will happen and the area will reload, which will likely put the Convicts right next to all your survivors and you, so just get them out of the way.
🕐 7:30 Back in Paradise Plaza you may have noticed we are running dangerously close on time to complete "Cut From The Same Cloth," but we made it, so that's okay. Set a marker for the top of the stairs — there won't be any zombies up there because that's where Kent is. Once you see Kent, his stuff will engage, and you get the joys of doing it. Complete it, and he'll tell you that you have to top his photos, and he'll meet you tomorrow at noon. There's a real easy way to get this photo, so don't worry about it — we'll do it when the time comes.
Note that after any scenes where anything reloads, you'll need to reset your waypoint or else your wanderers will be running around trying to find you.
With that completed, grab some OJ if you need it and get these survivors back to the security room. If you didn't photograph any of them, when you get in or out of the elevator is a good time to get them all. Do not go into the Security Office — stop where the survivors say something to you and head back out the air duct.
🕐 9:00 "Out of Control" call. The next thing you need to do occurs at 9 and is the "Out of Control" scoop. If you've gotten everything done up to this point before 9, start to make your way back to the Food Court and hang out there. As long as you are not in Wonderland Plaza at 9, you'll get the call for the scoop.
🕐 9:15 "Wonderland Plaza Intro" call.
Go up the left side stairs and over to the Space Ride. If you don't have the Mega-Buster, continue past the Space Ride and grab some handguns from the police. If you have the Buster don't even worry. If you have to use the handguns, the best strategy I find is to stay a decent distance from him and wait till he blows up a balloon. Right when he throws it, unload some shots around his knees to destroy the balloon and damage him greatly and make him cough. While he's coughing, unload more shots into him. Rinse and repeat. If you have the Mega-Buster just go nuts on him and he'll die quickly enough.
Make sure you get a photograph of him if you are going for that achievement.
With him dead you can grab his Mini Chainsaw, stop the ride, grab another Mini Chainsaw — you're set for quite a while now. Talk to Greg to get him to join and head back towards the bathrooms with him. On your way back, before going down the stairs, enter "Sir Book-a-lot" (W204) on the left and pick up the Criminology book in the back to complete your Mini Chainsaw book trio, and the Japanese Tourists book by the counter, because you'll be saving them in a few moments.
Now follow Greg down the stairs and into the bathrooms. You now have the Wonderland/Paradise Plaza shortcut! Yay! Now things get easier... right?
🕐 10:00 Use the shortcut to get over to Paradise Plaza and just hang out for a second. "Japanese Tourists" call.
🕐 10:10 Back to Wonderland — these guys are in that bookstore you just came from. Set a waypoint in the bathroom to keep Greg in there and head up and get the tourists. You must have the Japanese book in your possession to get them to join you. Once they join they'll head for the waypoint in the bathroom, which is actually a bad thing in this case — they'll try and go down the far stairs, and you want them to go down the same stairs Greg did. So just tell them to follow you, which will make Greg also start to follow you and lead them down, getting them all in the bathroom.
Quick note: the Mirror shortcut, or any reloading of Wonderland, will reload the Mini-Chainsaw if you ever want more or want to give one to a survivor, but heed my warnings above if you do decide to give one to a survivor.
Make sure you get photos of all these survivors and get them all back to the security room.
🕐 11:00 "Shadow of the North Plaza" call. This may occur while you are getting the 3 guys back — make sure you answer it.
After they are all safely back in the security room, head back to Wonderland via the shortcut and take one of the hallways up into the North Plaza.