Project Zomboid is a constantly updating realistic zombie apocalypse game, where players must survive as long as they can, with incredibly detailed gameplay. As the game assures you at the very start, this is the story of how your characters died.
There are lots of small details that make big impacts on your experiences in Project Zomboid such as traits, getting bitten, the mysterious helicopter event, and much more. We’re here to dive into those traits and give you some tips on how to survive much longer in your new life.
With newest updates turning Project Zomboid into a flourishing multiplayer game, there are a lot of new things to be aware of. The safety of having a friend by your side is immeasurable, but the fear of meeting other players who are less friendly may be overwhelming. Shockbyte is here for all your Project Zomboid server hosting needs, so you can have a cooperative online experience against hordes of the undead.
Here are our biggest Project Zomboid Tips:
- Choose good long term Positive Traits, and easy Negative Traits
- Books are your best friends
- Your parents were wrong about watching television
- Ripped sheets can be disinfected easy and made even better
- Stay low and avoid large crowds
- Stay away from guns early on
- Working cars aren’t too hard to come by
- Understanding in-game sounds and the Project Zomboid helicopter
- The more you do something, the better you get at it
- Gather allies to help
Best Traits for Project Zomboid
Project Zomboid is about survival and roleplay, so if being a world class chef creating amazing meals for your party is your style, you should absolutely choose that occupation. Otherwise if you are looking for the most helpful traits overall; Dextrous is important because you constantly are gathering items, Lucky is important for increased loot quality, and Fast Learner allows you to get your skills trained as fast as possible.
The negative traits such as Sunday Driver, Smoker, and Underweight most definitely impact your playthrough, but each of them are so easy to deal with that they are the best choices. You should be driving cars slowly anyway, cigarettes are very easy to find around the map, and as long as you keep yourself fed often at the start, you will quickly lose your Underweight trait either way.
Books Are Your Best Friends
In Project Zomboid, a lot of your capabilities as a human are based on your level. What level you are in a skill decides what sort of actions you can do. Higher levels of carpentry allow you to build more useful creations. Just like real life though, it's very difficult to know how to build things without advice or the internet. Books hold such information, and after you read them, you will massively increase experience gains in that skill. Collect as many as you can find around the map!
Your Parents Were Wrong About Watching Television
One way to learn skills both in real life and in Project Zomboid, is by watching them be performed. Fortunately, for the first 9 days in Project Zomboid, televisions around the state will continuously play shows at 12am, 6am, 12pm, and 6pm that significantly boost your skills. If you have read the respective book for the same skill, you could grow up to 2 whole levels in a skill from a single show! How’s that for slacking off?
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With Boiling Water, Turn Ripped Sheets Into Sterilised
While tearing through zombies as your party survives, make sure everyone is ripping apart clothing as they go. Every time a character gains a thread from ripping clothes they gain experience in tailoring, and ripped sheets provide a great alternative to bleeding to death! Disinfect your party’s ripped sheets and turn them into sterilised rags, so that when someone inevitably gets hurt, they won’t have to change dirty sheets so often to avoid infection.
Stay Low and Avoid Large Crowds
This one may seem obvious but there are many ways to attract zombies in this game, with many of them being potentially unexpected. Pressing ‘C’ to crouch will keep your footsteps light and lower the zombie's vision of you. Turning off lights in homes, covering windows with blankets, and keeping the television volume low are all great ways to not attract the horde.
Stay Away From Guns Early On
Most zombie survival games have players blasting away at hordes of the undead with a wide variety of guns. Project Zomboid is much more realistic though, showing off exactly how gunfire will attract much more harm than it had dealt. Shooting guns at low levels is extremely inaccurate as well, drastically making guns much more dangerous for yourself than for zombies. Wait until you have a base of your own, and plenty of practice before trying out ranged weaponry.
Finding A Car in Project Zomboid
Cars are incredible modes of transportation, storage, and safety. Sadly our characters have misplaced their keys, leaving it up to us to find a new ride or hotwire an available one. Many cars have their keys in the glove compartment or inside the house they are parked outside. If you lure zombies close to cars, they also have a chance of dropping the corresponding key. Make sure to drive carefully once you get one though, car crashes are lethal!
Game Sounds and The Project Zomboid Helicopter Event
At random intervals while playing Project Zomboid players will hear screams, gunshots, and many other ambient noises. Unlike Minecraft, these sounds actually attract zombies towards their sources, and that usually also means towards you. Around the 9th day, a Helicopter will fly overhead searching for survivors but instead of helping you, they will follow you and constantly attract zombies for several hours straight. You and your party will need to seek shelter and avoid being caught in the open once you hear the helicopter flying around.
The More You Do Something The Better You Get
Just like many other games, training skills can be a grinding process that provides you strong benefits as you reach benchmarks. To train skills in Project Zomboid, you must perform the same actions many many times, but if you have read the appropriate skill book you will level up significantly faster. For First Aid, you will need to heal allies or yourself; for Carpentry, you will need to disassemble furniture and appliances around you. You get the drill.
Gathering Allies to Help Survive
This is by far the most important tip of the list: grab your friends and take on Project Zomboid multiplayer. A single person can only hold so much equipment, and learning every skill in the game on your own can take a lot of real life time. Divvying up duties to other survivors will make you all survive longer, and give you a much needed morale boost when things go wrong. Hosting a Project Zomboid private server is super easy, and even easier with Shockbyte.
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About Shockbyte
Shockbyte is a game server host for Project Zomboid, Minecraft, CSGO, and more.
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