Survival Guide
Welcome to Project Zomboid's Survival Guide article. This small guide will make a general wrap-up of the several topics covered in Project Zomboid which could aid the survival of newer player.
"Note: this guide is not the only way to play Project Zomboid, but is a generally preferred way by the PZ community. If you wish to have an original experience without the influence of a guide, then try a playthrough without a guide first, then try the guide if you are having trouble.
Note : This guide was written with version 2.0r RC2.9 0007 in mind.
Controls
First things first, new players should take a look at the Controls so you can learn how to play. The better you operate your controls, the more chances you have of making it through the day.
Map of RC2.9 and beyond
Project Zomboid's event takes place in the suburban town Muldraugh (based on real life Muldraugh, Kentucky). Currently, the main town is divided in 8 cells with vast lands of wilderness and rural areas around it. In the main town, the west is more populated than the east. There are more buildings and more enemies there but there is also more loot. The player almost always spawns in the east side, where zombies are fewer in number.
The full map as of the moment is 15 cells by 15 cells.
Pre RC2.9 Map
Project Zomboid's event takes place in Knox County. Currently, the main map is divided in 4 quadrants.
The Suburbs are located in the Northwestern quadrant. This is the very first map that was implemented in the game. This is where the game's tutorial 'Til Death Us Do Part takes place. With a huge park in the middle, it has 23 residential buildings, sheds, and commercial buildings surrounding it. The most important buildings a player should explore by mid-game is the General Store for food, the Hardware Store for important tools and the Storage Warehouse for additional canned food and supplies. The multiple sheds and cabins in the area usually have a good number of planks, and in particular, the garden shed, has 10 planks. However, this place is on the busy side, with a high zombie and NPC population density, so it isn't very suitable for a base.
The Villas are located in the Northeastern quadrant. A mostly peaceful sector containing 6 luxurious villas and a restaurant. It's also a good choice for setting up a safe-house fortress, especially the northeastern-most villa as very few zombies will follow you there, and it is easy to fortify. The villa itself contains very little zombie and NPC activity, unless you or a NPC directs the activity toward it. The restaurant should be considered a lost cause for a base, as it is WAY too close to the downtown district.
The Woods are located in the Southwestern quadrant. At the southwest part of this quadrant is a small house with a barn next to it. Setting up a safe-house here is unadvised because it is far away from food and water supplies. However, if you have a lot of supplies, feel free to settle in. The low number of zombies/NPCs and the amount of surrounding space will allow you to make a decent safe house that none of the other quadrants can support. At the northwest of this quadrant is a small woodcutter shack which happens to be close to the suburbs. It's perfect for wannabe-carpenters and woodcutters as a safe-house. Players will often find Sledgehammers and Saws in its storage crates.
The Downtown District is located in the Southeastern quadrant. Contains 2 restaurant, a warehouse, lots of shops, a gas station, a school and a number of office buildings in the middle. The downtown district is one of the busiest, bustling with zombie and NPC activity at almost all times. Because of the high amount of activity, broken windows, doors and littered corpses are common sight. Players are advised to be careful around the northwestern part of this quadrant near the city center, as there are more zombies here than in anywhere else. Because of this, it is unadvised to make a safe house here at all situations. However, the warehouse and the schools are essential for literature and tools.
The Northern Highway is an off-grid map cell which spans 3 different map cells. Following the dirt road can lead you to a large Farmhouse which contains a barn, a storage shack and a Well. Other than the barn and the two roads leading to the barns, in these different maps, it is not possible to go back into the city. Usually, walking back the way you came will just load up a new randomly generated map. Players are advised to be careful around the Villas' northern edge not to accidentally walk beyond the bounds.
Chronological Tutorial
The Initial Days
Within minutes after creating your character, you will be thrown into the world of Muldraugh.
The Very First Day/Establishing a safehouse
The very start of a play through is perhaps the toughest part of the game. Check your inventory if you are new to the game. You probably only have a few articles of clothing on you- if you got any clothing at all. Look around your surroundings. Have you spawned in a house? If you haven't break into a house nearby (note: Look at the breaking in section below) that doesn't have too many zombies around it. If you have, close any curtains that are in the house to ensure that you remain undetected. Now you have the privacy required to start looting while trying to avoid any windows that don't have curtains. Loot the house and look around for weapons, sheets, water containers, and food- at that order, other things come last if you have the inventory space. After scavenging every nook and cranny of the house, evaluate what you have. Depending on where you spawned and how lucky you are, you may have a powerful melee weapon like an axe or a baseball bat, a mediocre stabbing weapon like a kitchen knife, or simply no weapon at all.
The next thing you should do is check if you have any sheets on your character. If you do, improvise curtains on as many uncovered windows as possible- especially those around the bedroom and the kitchen and in other important areas. If you manage to get all the windows covered and the area around your house is secure, consider making that house your safehouse or at least consider resting for the night. If you at least have all the bedroom windows covered, stay in the house for just that day and continue scavenging for sheets the next day. If none of the bedrooms have all of the windows covered, consider searching the next house for a sheet and consider staying there instead.
Once you have a house with all the windows covered, proceed to the next three steps.
Taking Care of Yourself
Your character is essentially an average everyday man. That means that he needs to eat to survive and needs to drink water to survive. If you are in a safe location and your character is thirsty, drink some water. Feed your character every time he or she gets "peckish" or "hungry" and always eat perishable food first. Sleep at about 9 or 10 PM and aim to wake up at about 7 or 8 AM when there is light outside. Organize your containers so that each container only has a specific type of item in it. The fridge should always contain cookable and perishable food. It saves a LOT of time if you are organized. If you can, save some weaker/extra weapons just in case your primary weapon loses durability.
Every now and then, your character will either get hot or cold. Take off/put on clothes on when you see this.The last thing you need is your character suffering from hypothermia/hyperthermia in a zombie apocalypse.
Leaving your safehouse is never a safe thing to do. You never know when you get a chance to get back into the safehouse. Always take some rations of food and water when leaving as well as your primary weapon. If you have a backpack, always put your less-needed items in the backpack and essentials in the primary inventory- in moments where every second is important, having to unpack something could be your undoing.
Getting Armed
Now that you have a safehouse, the next priority is a weapon. Do you have a weapon? If so, what is it? Your primary weapon should be a swinging weapon- firearms make too much noise and stabbing weapons are too risky. Look at the items section in the wiki to find an optimal weapon that suits your playing style. A secondary weapon is another weapon you should have on either yourself or in your safehouse that you can use in case your primary weapon breaks. Furthermore, you can carry a firearm with you but take care not to use it as a primary or a secondary. The firearm should only be used in special circumstances or should be a last resort weapon. Understand that using a firearm will attract zombies towards your location and understand that your firearm can fire only a limited amount of rounds before reloading. If you decide to keep a firearm, try to limit your ammo's weight to about 1-6 units (depending on your carrying capacity).
Until you have a strong primary weapon and a few reliable secondary weapons, look out for weapons when scavenging. Some weapons like the hammer can be used for other purposes as well and shouldn't be ignored even if you have a strong primary weapon.
Gathering Supplies
Depending on how much in the way of supplies you managed to pull from your first few houses (supplies including food and personal reserves of water), you may have either a week's worth of rations or, if you're unlucky, nothing. Regardless of your situation, you will inevitably run out of supplies if you decide to live off what you have. You must continually gather supplies. Things to look out for in the first few days are water containers, food, weapons, and tools. Bags are important as well, since they let you carry more items.
Look at the scavenging section for tips.
Improving the Safehouse
If you have a 2-floor safehouse, create 2 sheet ropes and attach them to an upstairs window. This will provide you a safe path to the ground floor. If you can, barricade all your windows with as many planks as possible. Windows are extremely fragile and create noise when they shatter. A plank added in front of a window will add some time before the window shatters to a million pieces. Once you have done that, look at the "safe house" section to see how you can improve your safehouse to make it the ultimate anti-zombie fortress you need.
Late Game
Weeks have passed after you started. Zombies blood and corpses litter the streets only to reflect your exceptionally effective survival methods. Unlike most people, you managed to survive this far into the game (this is quite a feat). However, this is where the game truly starts. This phase is your transition from a "survivor" to a "rebuilder"- you will have to start building a self-sufficient one-person society.
Farming
See: Farming
Wells
Within months or weeks, water will be down as well. You'll have some stockpiled water but that won't be nearly enough for you to live off of in the long term. You'll want to find a well, which will you give you an endless source of water. The only known well is in a farm well out of the city. If you get to the well, consider living in the farm, which is far away from zombies.
Scavenging/Looting Buildings
You'll never have enough supplies to last you the long term, luckily, there are various places you can loot. If you're careful, scavenging expeditions can be only slightly risky and very rewarding.
Picking a Location
Know the type of item that you are trying to find. If you are in need of crafting supplies, find a warehouse or hardware store. If you need food, houses and stores will probably be the best bet. Before entering the building, plan your exit strategy. Make sure that there are at least two entry points on different sides of the building, be it windows or doors. You want to be able to escape easily if zombies become aware of your presence.
Breaking In
Always try to break in as stealthily as possible by going through the side of the building with the least zombies around it. IF possible, try entering through a door. If it is locked, check the windows. If all of them are locked, try forcing a window to open (NEVER smash it unless you are in immediate danger). After some time, the window will eventually open. At the moment, it seems that some windows are easier to open than others (a standard window takes less time to open than a human-sized pane of glass).
When entering any building, there is a chance that a burglar alarm will ring. This will quickly attract large amounts of zombies to your immediate area. Run away from the area and try to take shelter elsewhere until the burglar alarm dies down- but only do this if there is no immediate danger. If that isn't possible, just run away. Try running towards the east, where there are less zombies (factor the map's tilt).
Clearing
Unless you have explored the building before, never assume it is safe- whether it is the inside or the outside. Whenever you enter a building, start out by killing any zombies that are inside (if you can). It can be dangerous to fight zombies in cramped, small spaces; if you must face them it's best you lure them outside to a quiet area and kill them there. Once the entrance is cleared, close all the curtains on the windows and (if you want) add sheets on the windows without curtains. In the other rooms, open the door but step back immediately. Pay careful attention to banging sounds just in case someone may be banging on doors. Take them out if possible, but never overestimate your abilities. Then, close curtains/add sheets. Never run in a building unless you are in danger, because zombies outside may discover you.
Encounters
When heading out for a supply run, always be prepared. Only go outside during daylight, as zombies tend to grow in numbers at night. Start your day by eating something, refilling your Water Bottle at your nearest Faucet (if the water works exists) and making sure you're not carrying too much before going out. Grab any weapon you can find in your base.
When outside, try to walk as often as possible. If you ever stumble upon a horde, you'll be able to run and dodge them without being exhausted. Aside from being more quiet, walking will also save up some energy for fighting without getting exhausted too fast. Every now and then, keep your eyes over your shoulder, as you never know which zombies will follow you. Holding CTRL and circling the mouse around the character will make the player look in the mouse cursor's direction, giving you the ability to spot your enemy before they even see you.
If you ever encounter a horde of zombies (let's say more than 6), then you are definitely in danger. If you encounter such a large group of enemies, turn the other way. If you can't, try to sneak past them. But if the vast majority spotted you, RUN to your safe house (if it is safe and faraway) or just to another direction. Try to run 3-10 corners so you can effectively lose the majority and make it very possible to fend off those who are still following you.
Medium sized groups (about 3-6) and small groups (1-2) can effectively be dispatched by a baseball bat or an axe, if fought one by one and carefully. When fighting groups, you should use hit-and-run tactics, as zombies do not have much of an attack range, and you can keep exhaustion at bay every 1-3 zombies you kill. Try to spread them out as much as possible by killing the faster ones first.
You are free to go anywhere you want, however, always try to plan where you're headed, what you'll be taking as loot and where you'll be settling in to make a safe-house.
Moodles
Throughout your adventure, not only does your character gets hungry and thirsty but can also suffer from other conditions such as anxiety or depression. These status effects, called Moodles, can be treated with varying methods from the use of consumables to just letting a wound heal depending on the character's need. In example, a Bored character can be healed by reading a Book or a Magazine. The Moodles will also display signs of injuries, which requires first aid.
For a complete list of each Moodles, their effects and how they can be treated/countered, please see the main Moodle article.
Injuries & First Aid
It's inevitable. One of these days, you'll fall down a window by accident or a zombie will bite you. Depending on which Injury you have, a certain treatment comes with it. Having Bandages and Painkillers on hand can be useful if something ever happens to you. Leaving an Injury untreated can lead to health loss and even death.
To treat a Scratch, a Bite or a Bleeding injury, apply a bandage to the wounded area. To see if you have any injuries, click the heart button and open the "health" tab, this will open the character status window. Sleeping, as well as being well fed will speed up the healing process.
For a complete list of all known injuries and how to treat them, please see the Injuries article.
Leveling Up
To see a character's skill, open the Skill tab after clicking the heart in the UI. The "skills" screen will appear and will show you how much skill points you have, which skills you have unlocked, and how far you are from unlocking a skill if you haven't. If you have a spare skill point and an unlocked skill, there will be a "+", clicking it allows you to distribute one skill point.
It is your choice what skills you need to upgrade, but do so wisely. But the lightfooted and sneaking skills are perhaps the most valuable as it is a fatal to be spotted by a zombie while trying to move stealthily.
For a complete list of each Skill, what they do and how to level them, please see the Skills article.
Crafting
With the right resources, players can mix items together to create new or better equipment. With the crafting menu, players can create food recipes, enhanced weapons and barricades to reinforce their safe-houses.
For a complete list of all crafting recipes, please see the Crafting article.
Safe-house
In a zombie apocalypse, nowhere is safe. However, that can't stop you from fortifying a safe-house of your interest. Some buildings are safer than other. The selection of a safe-house is up to you, but a 2 story house with multiple DOORS and few windows are recommended. In case of an home invasion, you can always escape through a window using a Sheet Rope. For maximum protection and stealth, board up every windows with wooden planks and bed sheets. Make sure you barricade your front door, as NPCs can steal your stuff if you don't.
Carpenters equipped with a Sledgehammer can destroy walls, door & window frames, so if you want, you can harvest walls for extra planks. You can also make/repair structures with walls, door pieces, and window pieces.
If you run out of Wooden planks, use an Axe to chop down doors. Chopped down doors will yield 1 or 2 wooden planks, along with door hinges and knobs. Another alternative is to chop down trees. Taking down a tree will yield 1-5 Logs. Combining 1 Log with 1 Saw in the crafting menu will yield 1 Wooden plank.
Later in the game, once you have the tools and resources for larger constructions, you should think about the use of wall pieces. A perimeter wall will prevent zombies from seeing you in your house and will muffle sounds further. Furthermore, you will have more time to escape should your safehouse be invaded. A perimeter fence (any material) can be used to slow down zombies during an invasion. If you have the time and resources, you can make makeshift structures.
Please take note that constructing a safe-house will make a lot of noise, which will draw any stragglers nearby. Any carpentry jobs should be done during the day and when the outside is relatively quiet.
Events
Between 0 days and 2 months after world creation, the water works will fail.
The player will no longer be able to drink out of taps and the player won't be able to fill up water bottles. It is up to the player to deal with his own water situation from this point on.
Between 0 days and 2 months after world creation, the power will fail.
Refrigerators will no longer preserve food and lights will no longer turn on. You cannot cook food either. Pretty soon, all perishable foods will go bad and you will have to survive off of your non perishable foods.
Death
A Zombie has bitten you. You've patched yourself up, but as the night sets in, you start feeling feverish, knowing all too well that the end is nigh... You'll be joining them soon...
Or maybe you've been very careful for months, all holed up in a barricaded coffin with your dwindling food and water supply. And you promised yourself to never ever take off these wooden planks off the front door... A slow death by starvation awaits you...
Whatever the case, no matter how long or how hard you try, death seems inevitable in Project Zomboid. When your character dies, the game will scroll a message from bottom to top stating how long the player survived.
Good luck out there. And remember! Aim for the head!