Game modes

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*Last update to construction: 26/04/2018*

Title Screen

There are a number of different games modes in Project Zomboid. The list of game modes below is correct as of version 32. In all modes, death is final. There is no reloading from a saved game.

Tutorial

This is a short introduction on a small map to introduce new players to the controls and user interface. This is a preset scenario with no settings or options to choose.
The tutorial covers the basics of:

• Zooming In and Out

• Health status

• Survival Skills

• Movement

• Looting

• Moodles

• Equipping

• World Interaction

• Attacking

Scenario

Each scenario will give the player a new starting challenge they must adapt to.

Initial Infection

Starting Date: 9th July 1993
This is a non-canon gamemode designed to act as a training scenario for new Survivors. This should be the next step for new players after completing the Tutorial. Zombies are recently infected with reduced senses and limited migration. Water and Electricity will shut off after 6-12 in-game months. Resources are in abundance. The player will get a hang of the game mechanics without being overrun or starved.

• Horde Size: Small

• Zombie Speed: Shamblers

• Zombie Senses: Poor

• Utility shut-off: 6-12 months

• Resources: Abundant

The First Week

Starting Date: 9th July 1993
Start from the first week of the infection. There is a moderate horde size, since the zombies have had some time to turn. They will quickly shamble towards anything that catches their attention, however with reduced senses. Water and Electricity will shut off after 2-6 in-game months. Houses are unlooted. The player will experience what it was like in Knox County from the early stages of the plague.

• Horde Size: Moderate

• Zombie Speed: Fast Shamblers

• Zombie Senses: Poor

• Utility shut-off: 2-6 months

• Resources: Common

Six Months Later

Starting Date: 9th December 1993
This is where the apocalypse ends. After 6 months there are very few survivors and a large horde of zombies, since nearly everyone in Knox County has turned. They've had a lot of time to develop their senses and will hear, see or smell anything that gets too close. The Water and Electricity has been shut off for a while and the cities are all overgrown. All the houses have been picked clean, making it very difficult to find anything of any use. It'll be a real struggle to get any kind of foundation set up this late into the apocalypse.

• Horde Size: Large

• Zombie Speed: Fast Shamblers

• Zombie Senses: Normal

• Utility shut-off: Instant

• Resources: Rare

Survival

Starting Date: 9th July 1993
Starting Conditions are locked on Hardcore. Doors are frequently locked and house alarms are common forcing hordes of zombies towards the player. Strong, tough and basic navigation make these zombies a serious threat, they're nothing like the previously encountered ones. Water and Electricity will shut off in under 30 days, requiring the player to quickly find some sustainability. This is the hardcore experience, survival is highly unlikely.

• Horde Size: Huge

• Zombie Speed: Fast Shamblers

• Zombie Senses: Normal

• Utility shut-off: 0-30 days

• Resources: Rare

Starting Conditions

Choosing the starting conditions will set a predefined player setting, designed to raise or lower the difficulty. Each of these settings goes into more detail in the custom sandbox section.

Easy

XP Multiplier: x2

Character Survival Needs: Very Low

Inventory: Baseball bat, Saw, School Bag, Hammer, Water and Food.

Normal

XP Multiplier: x1.5

Character Survival Needs: Low

Inventory: Baseball bat, School Bag, Hammer, Water and Food.

Hard

XP Multiplier: x1.2

Character Survival Needs: Normal

Inventory: Water and Food.

Hardcore

XP Multiplier: NONE

Character Survival Needs: Normal

Inventory: Nothing.

Custom Sandbox

The player is presented with 4 different spawn locations, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For more details on starting locations, see Knox County. Upon choosing a location, the player now choose their own options, or pick a preset to customise. In the Saved Presets box at the bottom, each default option is the same settings as the previously mentioned Scenarios.

*NOTE: the Character options have a set default 'difficulty' for each preset*

Population

Zombie Count: Changing this will adjust the "Population Multiplier" advanced option.

Count	Scenario
Insane	Six Months Later
High
Normal	The First Week Survival
Low	Initial Infection
None

Zombie Distribution: Determines whether zombie distribution will be balanced across the map, or focused in urban areas.

Distribution	Scenario
Urban Focused	Initial Infection First Week Six Months Later Survival
Uniform

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Time

Day length: How fast the player gets hungry or thirsty is based on the time of day in-game. Therefore, the longer the game day is, the longer it will take to get hungry or thirsty.

Length	Scenario
15 Minutes
30 Minutes
1 hour	Initial Infection The First Week Six Months Later Survival
2 hours
3 hours
4 hours
5 hours
6 hours
7 hours
8 hours
9 hours
10 hours
11 hours
12 hours
13 hours
14 hours
15 hours
16 hours
17 hours
18 hours
19 hours
20 hours
21 hours
22 hours
23 hours
Real-time

Start Month: The time of year will affect Foraging and Farming. July will have greater harvests, whereas December will have poorer.

Month	Scenario
January
February
March
April
May
June
July	Initial Infection The First Week Survival
August
September
October
November
December	Six Months Later

Start Day: How far into the month it is.

Day	Scenario
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9	Initial Infection The First Week Six Months Later Survival
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29*
30*
31*

Start Time: Changing this will determine how much daylight you have in your first day. Daylight gives a buff to your sight. Zombies are attracted to light sources during the night.

Month	Scenario
7 am
9 am	Initial Infection The First Week Six Months Later Survival
12 pm
2 pm
5 pm
9 pm
12 am
2 am
5 am

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World

Water Shutoff: The water will randomly stop working any day within this range. For example, selecting 2-6 months will give the player at least 2 months to prepare themselves before the water is shutoff. There will still be some left over water in sinks and toilets, however this is non-sustainable and will eventually run out.

Shutoff	Scenario
Instant	Six Months Later
0-30 days	Survival
0-2 months
0-6 months
0-1 year
0-5 years
2-6 months	The First Week
6-12 months	Initial Infection

Electricity Shutoff: The electricity will randomly stop working any day within this range. For example, selecting 2-6 months will give the player at least 2 months to prepare themselves before the electricity is shutoff. This is stop refrigerators and lights from functioning.

Shutoff	Scenario
Instant	Six Months Later
0-30 days	Survival
0-2 months
0-6 months
0-1 year
0-5 years
2-6 months	The First Week
6-12 months	Initial Infection

House Alarms Frequency: This is how often you will come across houses with an active Burglar Alarm, which once triggered will generate a loud noise attracting zombies. Currently (IWBUMS Build 39.51) this is not related to the Items; Home Alarm.

Frequency	Scenario
Never	Six Months Later
Extremely Rare	Initial Infection
Rare	The First Week
Sometimes	Survival
Often
Very Often

Locked Houses Frequency: This is how often houses will have their doors locked.

Frequency	Scenario
Never	Six Months Later
Extremely Rare	Initial Infection
Rare	The First Week
Sometimes
Often
Very Often	Survival

Food Spoilage: Defines how fast the food will spoil inside or outside fridge.

Rate	Scenario
Very Fast
Fast
Normal	The First Week Six Months Later Survival
Slow	Initial Infection
Very Slow

Refridgeration Effectiveness: Define how effective a [Refrigerator|fridge]] will be at slowing the rate of food spoilage.

Effectiveness	Scenario
Very Low
Low
Normal	The First Week Six Months Later Survival
High	Initial Infection
Very High

Rotten Food Removal: This value is an integer defining the number of in-game days before rotten food is removed from the map. -1 means rotten food will never be removed. [Default=-1]

Loot Respawn: Items will respawn in already-looted containers in towns and trailer parks. Items will not respawn in player-made containers.

Effectiveness	Scenario
None	Initial Infection The First Week Six Months Later Survival
Every day
Every week
Every month
Every 2 months

Loot Seen Prevent Hours: This value is an integer defining the number of hours. When >0, loot will not respawn in zones that have been visited within this number of hours. [Default=0]

Months Since The Apocalypse: This affect starting Erosion and Food Age.

Months	Scenario
0	Initial Infection The First Week Survival
1
2
3
4
5
6	Six Months Later
7
8
9
10
11
12

Darkness During Night: Defines how dark it is at night, affecting the player's visibility.

Months	Scenario
Pitch Black
Dark
Normal	Initial Infection The First Week Six Months Later Survival
Bright

Fire Spread: Can be turned On or Off.

Generator Working In Exterior:

Zombies Respawn Interval: This governs how often new zombies will appear, at midnight, in areas away from the player and with a lower than needed level of zombies present. Zombies Respawn Amount: This is how many of the starting number of zombies will respawn each interval

Nature

• Temperature: can be Very Cold, Cold, Normal (1,2,3), Hot or Very Hot. This will affect the Weather and therefore your temperature Moodles.
• Rain: can be Very Dry, Dry, Normal (1,2,3), Rainy or Very Rainy. This will affect how much rain there is and therefore your wet Moodles.
• Erosion Speed: can be Very Fast (3), Fast, Normal (1,2), Slow or Very Slow. Affects the speed of Erosion of roads and buildings
• Farming Speed: can be Very Fast, Fast (1), Normal (2,3), Slow, Very Slow. Affects how fast your crops grow in Farming
• Plant Reslience: can be Very High, High (1), Normal (2,3), Low or Very Low. Affects how often your plants will get diseased
• Farming's Abundance: can be Very Poor, Poor, Normal (2,3), Abundant (1) or Very Abundant. Affects how many of each crop will be produced from each tile you farm.
• Nature's Abundance: can be Very Poor, Poor, Normal (2), Abundant (1) or Very Abundant (3). Affects fishing and foraging

Loot Rarity

• Food: can be Extremely Rare (3), Rare (2), Normal (1), Common or Abundant
• Weapon: can be Extremely Rare (3), Rare (2), Normal (1), Common or Abundant
• Other: can be Extremely Rare (3), Rare (2), Normal (1), Common or Abundant

Character

• XP Multiplier: affects how much experience you get from various tasks. Defaults are 2.0 (1) and 1.0 (2,3)
• Stats Decrease: can be Very Fast, Fast, Normal (1,2,3), Slow or Very Slow. This affects how fast hunger, thirst and fatigue will increase.
• Endurance Regeneration: can be Very Fast, Fast, Normal (1,2,3), Slow or Very Slow. This affects how fast fatigue will decrease.
• Starter Kit: will give you a Hammer, Baseball Bat, School Bag, Water Bottle and some food.

Zombie Lore

• Speed:: Shamblers (1), Fast Shamblers (2,3), or Sprinters
• Strength:: Superhuman, Normal (2,3), Weak (1)
• Toughness:: Tough, Normal (2,3), Fragile (1)
• Transmission:: Blood + Saliva (1,2,3), Everyone's Infected, None (the player won't be infected)
• Infection Mortality:: Ranges from instant, seconds, minutes, hours, days (1,2,3), weeks, or never
• Reanimate Time:: Ranges from instant, seconds, minutes (1,2,3), hours, days, weeks
• Cognition:: Navigate + Use Doors, Navigate (1,2,3), Basic Navigation
• Memory:: Long, Normal (2,3), Short (1), None
• Decomposition:: Slows + Weakens (1,2,3), Slows, Weakens, No effect
• Sight:: Eagle, Normal (2,3), Poor (1)
• Hearing:: Pinpoint, Normal (2,3), Poor (1)
• Smell:: Bloodhound, Normal (2,3), Poor (1)

Challenges

There are currently 6 challenges, particularly hard encounters set in their own maps.

1. You Have One Day
2. Opening Hours
3. Winter Is Coming
4. House In The Woods - Last Stand
5. House In The Woods - Last Stand (Accumulator)
6. A Really CD DA