Need some tips on how to survive in Project Zomboid? Look no further, we’ve got you covered.
Project Zomboid Survival Guide – Essential Tips and Tricks
Project Zomboid is a very unforgiving zombie survival game that won’t hold your hand. You have to figure out everything yourself, which can be quite overwhelming. For that reason, we’ve prepared some useful Project Zomboid tips that should help you out. There’s a lot more to learn than the guide covers, but it’s a great place to start.
Here’s how to survive Project Zomboid apocalypse – Build 41 edition.
Project Zomboid
Release Date: November 08, 2013
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Indie
Start with High Strength and Fitness
Before the game starts, you can create your own character. Your choices of traits and occupation will greatly affect your early-game gameplay and the general experience. Thus, if you’re new or still learning the ropes, it’s highly recommended to pick the things that will increase your chances of surviving the first days and weeks. As you keep playing, your character will grow stronger and everything will become easier over time; it’s the early game stage that’s the most difficult – your skills are low, resources are limited, you don’t have a vehicle to make an emergency escape, and no base to return to and rest.
Having high Strength and Fitness will greatly improve your survivability, so try to get them as high as possible when making a new character. Not only will you be able to deal more damage and recover stamina faster, you’ll also be able to carry more items with you, as Strength increases the encumbrance limit.
You can train both of these skills naturally by exercising and some other means, but they grow painfully slowly. They are, by far, the most difficult skills to grind; it would take in-game years to take them to level 9 or 10. Once you know how to play, you can challenge yourself and start with 0 in both to see how far you can get, but when you’re just starting out, aim for at least 9 in both; the reason being, level 9 has some extra added value on top of regular stat increases.
If you’re not sure what traits to pick to balance your build, you can use the one described below.
Use a Beginner-Friendly Character Build
If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly Project Zomboid build, try this:
- Occupation: Fire Officer
- Positive Traits: Dextrous, Outdoorsman, Fast Learner, Organized, Athletic, Strong
- Negative Traits: Thin-skinned, High Thirst, Slow Healer, Conspicuous, Prone to Illness, Smoker, Weak Stomach, Short Sighted
This build starts with maximum Strength and Fitness (10/10). Your weapon of choice is an axe, so always use one when possible to train your Axe skill.
With the Smoker trait, your character will have to smoke cigarettes regularly; you’ll often find cigarettes at gas stations in large quantities. They also occasionally drop from defeated zombies. You will need matches or a lighter, too.
Avoid eating rotten food, wear clothes when moving in the woods to avoid scratches, and avoid contact with zombies. Thin-skinned makes you more prone to scratches and lacerations, and the ones made by zombies can kill your character.
Finally, carry two or three bottles of water with you at all times – with High Thirst, your character will need to drink more often.
Keep Your Guard Up – Zombies are Dangerous and Death is Permanent
In Project Zomboid, characters die for a variety of reasons, but the main source of deaths is, by far, zombie bites. If you get into a fight with zombies and then you notice that it says “bitten” on your character status screen, there’s no way around it; your character will die soon. In the vanilla version of the game, there is no cure for the zombie sickness. If you get bitten, it’s basically game over. You will live for a little while longer, maybe a day or a few, and then you’ll turn into a zombie yourself.
That’s why it’s super important to remain cautious when fighting zombies, no matter what stage you’re at. Even if you survive for several in-game years, one bite is all it takes to bring any character down. So, if you’re outnumbered, don’t act tough and just run.
Scratches and lacerations caused by zombies are less dangerous but can still turn out deadly. If a zombie scratches you, you’ll have to pray to RNGesus that there’s no zombie sickness attached.
If it says a wound is “Infected” on the status screen, it’s not to be confused with zombie sickness. “Infected” refers to a common bacterial infection, and it will go away on its own. Any wound can become infected; all it does is increase the time needed to fully heal. To prevent infections from occurring, use sterile bandages or ripped clothing to cover the wound and change the dressing regularly.
You can sterilize bandages and clothing by boiling them in a cooking pot.
Read Skill Books to Speed Up the Learning Process
Each skill in Project Zomboid can be trained up to level 10. Training is done by performing actions related to the skill. For example, to increase the Carpentry skill, you’ll have to craft or disassemble furniture.
To speed up the learning process, you’ll have to read skill books that can usually be found in houses and libraries. For each skill, there are 5 volumes of skill books. For every two levels of skill, you’ll need a skill book of one volume higher. For example, Cooking I will only work on Cooking levels 1 and 2. If you want to enjoy a faster learning process at levels 3 and 4, you’ll have to read Cooking II.
It goes like this:
- Volume I: Skill levels 1-2
- Volume II: Skill levels 3-4
- Volume III: Skill levels 5-6
- Volume IV: Skill levels 7-8
- Volume V: Skill levels 9-10
Also, note that you can only read skill books that are directly beneficial to you at your current skill level. For example, when you’re at Cooking level 3, you won’t be able to read Cooking III, as it’s related to levels 5 and 6.
There are no skill books for skills outside the Crafting, Firearm, and Survivalist categories.
Watch TV Shows and VHS Tapes
For the first 9 days, you’ll be able to watch a variety of TV programs if you catch them at the right hours, and it’s worth doing so, as they will quickly boost some of your core survival skills.
A general, rule-of-thumb schedule goes more or less like this:
- 6:00 AM: Cooking
- 12:00 PM: Carpentry
- 6:00 PM: Fishing, Farming, Foraging, or Trapping
The experience you’ll get is affected by the skill book bonus, so try to read the correct books before watching TV for maximum gains.
If you miss some of the shows, don’t worry, you can still watch them if you find a corresponding VHS tape.
Maintain Healthy Weight – A Word on Calorie Intake
Most survival games introduce hunger and thirst mechanics, forcing players to eat and drink to stay alive, and it’s the same in Project Zomboid, but there’s a catch. Here, you have to worry not only about eating enough to feel satiated but also about your calorie intake. If you stick to food like fruit and vegetable salads, your character will feel full but will lose weight anyway, eventually leading to a weakened state and even death. That’s why it’s super important to keep your character’s weight in mind when choosing your next meal. If you notice it goes down, you should eat some high-calorie food, like peanut butter or ice cream. You can even gobble down a whole stick of butter – it’s not the most pleasant experience, but it will help with calories.
The weight range you should aim for is 76 to 84 kg. Go below 35 and you’ll start taking damage.
Prepare for Power and Water Cut Off
Once you manage to survive for a few days or weeks, a major surprise will hit you; both water and electricity networks will completely shut down. No more unlimited water from sinks, and no fridges to keep the food fresh.
Water will be easy to come by; you can safely drink river water and rainwater after you boil it in a cooking pot, and you can store it in bottles and carry it around with you. You should also look for water dispensers, often found in office buildings – they can hold 250 units of water and can be refilled with water you boiled for more convenience.
Electricity is trickier. You’ll need to find a power generator – often found in garages – and place it near your base. It must be placed outside; placing it inside will fill your base with fumes and eventually kill you.
Power generators need fuel to operate and must be repaired regularly using scrap electronics found by disassembling watches and such. Make sure you know where are nearby gas stations are and bring a generator there, too – after electricity is shut down, gas stations will stop working and you’ll need a generator to get more gas from them. Turn it off once you’re done taking gas; if you leave it turned on, its noise will attract zombies.
There’s also a catch: you’ll need to find and read “How to use Generators” magazine. Without it, you won’t be able to use power generators at all, so keep it in mind during exploration.
Walk the Horde and Use Explosives
As the game progresses, you’ll find yourself surrounded by more and more zombies. There’s no use fighting them one by one; there are simply too many. Instead, learn to bait them and lure them away from the places you want to explore. Gather them all in one place and use a Molotov Cocktail to burn them all in one go.
For baiting, you can use a vehicle with a siren, such as a police car or an ambulance – it will draw the attention of most zombies in a large radius. Once you get enough on your tail, lead them where you want them to be and keep honking. Eventually, you can leave the car and walk in circles as they are coming in.
To craft the cocktail, you’ll need an empty bottle of wine and fill it with gas or find a full bottle of bourbon. Attach ripped sheets or a dirty rag to it, and it’s done. To use it, you’ll need to hold it in one hand and matches or a lighter in the other. Hold the mouse button to prepare to throw and then release to throw it. Make sure to not throw it under yourself and don’t touch the burning zombies. Aim into the middle of the horde to ensure zombies will be set on fire. Also, avoid throwing it in places that can burn down easily, such as towns or forests – the fire will spread rapidly and unpredictably.
It will take some time to kill the zombies this way; just walk around patiently and don’t panic, zombies are not fast enough to catch you at walking speed.
Manage Your Panic and Pain Levels
Panic is a negative status that affects your combat abilities. You get panicked for a variety of reasons; usually, it’s when you’re surrounded by zombies, but it will also trigger if you’re inside a building while having the trait “claustrophobia”, for example. Panic can be a death sentence, but it’s easy to manage, as long as you have the required items.
To reduce your panic level, just take some beta blockers or drink some alcohol. The former is preferable; the latter will make you sleepy, so it shouldn’t be used when you’re in danger.
Pain is similar to Panic, but it’s caused by receiving damage or overdoing exercises and can be temporarily reduced by drinking booze or taking Painkillers.
Both panic and pain prevent sleep; shotgun a beer and you’ll nap like a baby.
Never Mix Alcohol with Sleeping Pills
Mixing them can kill your character. Overdosing on Sleeping Pills will do that as well.