101 Beginner Tips and Tricks for Project Zomboid

[@kudorelo]

102 tip: When you're driving through the forest and have an axe on you you can click on cut down option to see on which tiles are trees and easily avoid crashes. Just hover your mouse over a tree and you will see green dots in some area near your mouse indicating trees.

[@toastercleaner531]

Dam that's actually smart af

[@sonicartzldesignerclan5763]

real 102 tip : You can just click " walk to " and he will do that automatically.

[@otterfan65]

@@sonicartzldesignerclan5763 'driving'

[@mafubaa]

I realized this yesterday, after +1000 hs in game lol

[@bringbackdislikes3195]

@@sonicartzldesignerclan5763 Tip n°103 : Don't act like a smartass when you're a dumbass

[@GamerWolvenna]

Another tip: pressing Q while sneaking will whisper-shout. It has a much smaller range than a normal shout and can be useful for pulling one zombie at a time away from a group so you can deal with them more easily.

[@Abkarino.]

hmmmmmmmmm

[@johnwinter2252]

Press Q to heal fast.

[@juansnyders7323]

This is true, I just suck at dealing with anything bigger than 3 at a time T.T

[@greatrj]

@@juansnyders7323 oh reaaally.. well now i feel better about myself

[@Kidnamedfinger564]

Average dark souls message

[@thecypher7607]

A tip I learned the hard way but made me love the game more. The combat system shares the same "Common sense realism" as everything else. You can potentially dodge/duck zombie attacks as well as bullets if your character is getting shot at. A well timed panic slam of the crouch button has saved my neck several times from a sneaky zombie that attacked from behind.

[@ZeroRedz]

That's really a good damn tip, on my first run with the paid game, i did survived to a fucking neck wound the unluck wants that i was without a jar cutter and i couldn't eat that food stucked in the jar, i was so stupid to go out of the city and running on highway without cars so i couldn't find nothing if not for miracle and i had a bit of bandages remaining at the end and i did find a fucked Electric Station but nothing to eat Lol, then i was so near to another city just needed a bit of patience then a miracle i did find some buildings like fashion store etc.. shit like that, but zombies was everyfuckinghere like a MORON i was running on one of these buildings with zombies near me and i did locked myself to a door of one of these buildings but it was a closet 😂😂😂😂😂🤣 so i was thinking to escape fast but they did regroup like a bee fucked swarm and raped me inside the closet never the time to open it i was brutally violated and i was zombified, but i had alot of stuff in that run god damn ;(

[@ZeroRedz]

Also the neck was infected, lacerated and alot of other things but somehow i managed to stop bleeding like a chicken i was low on HP mb 20-30% of health, also was fatigued and tired of running literally i did used the pants as bandages too bcs i did go around trees and a tree did hurt me, and also some zombies was in the trees at night despite that i was yet "alive" and could run alot even after all that like WTF xD..

[@SomeUsernameSomeoneElseTookIt]

@@ZeroRedz i tried to read this, and i failed

[@ZeroRedz]

@@SomeUsernameSomeoneElseTookIt aw brudda am sorry..

[@dddmemaybe]

@@ZeroRedz Randomly replace half of your commas(,) with periods(.) and it's nearly fine.

[@Dragewarrior]

For the Police Station/Armory doors: if you dont have the key, if you have a screwdriver/hammer, you can dissasemble it instead of breaking it down. Probably faster too.

[@AtrociousAK47]

you used to not able to do that unless on the inside of the door, so your only options were bashing the door down, abusing the "fence hop" exploit to phase through the door or walls, or find the key. to bash the door down tho, you dont need a sledge or axe, and you can get thru in a couple minutes with just a regular claw hammer, since all doors in zomboid are made of wet tissue paper unless barricaded shut with planks or metal plates.

[@penisinlargementpills2511]

@@AtrociousAK47 accurate

[@Nigelainthere]

@@AtrociousAK47 you can also lure a random zombie and kill it in the building you should get the key

[@AtrociousAK47]

@@Nigelainthere yeah, you could do that, I find it a bit unreliable tho, so I dont really use it. just keep in mind that will be changing in b42, with only zombies that initially spawned inside a specific building having a chance to have keys for it, luring random zombies from outside wont spawn any.

[@gaminggamer9698]

It's actually pretty slow compared to smashing it in my experience

[@xanatar3009]

Tip #71: The trait "Brave" is a good substitute for Desensitised as you will only ever panic in hordes of 30+ zombies. It's cheaper on points and allows you to pick a better occupation.

[@AtrociousAK47]

i would argue brave is unecessary too, because on sp atleast, your panic reduction will go up over time according to world time, maxing out at around 150 days, so by that point panic will go away faster than it builds up, meaning you barely get panicked even with coward. also picking brave or desensitized will prevent you from picking adrenaline junky, which makes you run faster when panicked, something that many experiemced players rely on for playing with sprinters.

[@xanatar3009]

​@@AtrociousAK47 Yep. Agreed with everything you said. I usually only ever grab brave in MP servers, if I do bother.

[@AtrociousAK47]

@@xanatar3009 even tho sources say the panic reduction is sp only, i do feel like it does work for mp, as someone who's played mp exclusively since b41 went to the stable branch, but i cant say for certain. In any case, I always pick coward and havent found it to be much of a hinderance in combat, and I use a mod called "become desensitized" which gives a chance (influenced by panic traits) to gain the trait, replacing all other panic traits, after a predetermined number of kills, which by default I think is 500, and automatically gained after another predetermined amount, default I think is 1000. this mod makes veteran redundant, as desensitized is the sole reason to pick it, especially given it has the highest point cost out any occupation in the game; if you want to use guns pick police officer, as you get higher skill bonuses and it's significantly cheaper.

[@frazza5503]

Veteran is a terrible occupation because you don’t lose boredom from fighting zombies so unless you have stacks of books to read you will get bored and eventually depressed quickly.

[@xanatar3009]

@@frazza5503 you lose boredom from being outside though. It's manageable for people who want to use guns a lot I guess. But certainly the lack of instant boredom loss is noticeable. Brave is weird - it doesn't stop you getting the panic moodle for like a split second - then it removes all the panic, so you still get the benefit of the boredom reduction

[@oIPsychotixIo]

A note/extra tip when finding Annotated Maps: Certain symbols mean certain things. Most of the they will point to a survivor house or a cache of very good loot, a note saying "Tools stored here" is usually crowbars, hammers, screwdrivers and sledgehammers etc etc. BE CAREFUL When you find an annotated map that has something like "Old paranoid veteran used to live here" and the location is marked with a Skull & Crossbones, this will generate a house with very good loot but the house in TRAPPED with explosives.

[@imashadow699]

Soo... How Can We Avoid That Explosive, To Explode 😅?

[@ZeroRedz]

Yep how we avoid that shit? 👀

[@Mtx336]

​@@imashadow699You can take horde with you to blow up them. That's how I unmined such house

[@imashadow699]

@@Mtx336 I See... Thanks For The Trick Edit : Soo... The Explosive Will Be Visible, Right? So Baiting Zombie Into That Trap Will Be Easier, Because We Can See Those Traps?

[@Mtx336]

@@imashadow699 depends on your skill of seeing and range of view

[@xanatar3009]

Tip #2: Drinking water DIRECTLY from a lake/river won't kill you. If you put the water in a bottle and try to drink from that, it will kill you.

[@AtrociousAK47]

they've since patched that, now drinking directly from natural water source is the same as drinking from a tainted bottle, so it is very likely to kill you if dont immediately down lemongrass afterward, especially if you have the "weak stomach" trait. pretty sure this was was same patch that made fresh caught fish unsafe to eat unless cooked.

[@xanatar3009]

@@AtrociousAK47 Just tested it in a new solo game. You get sick and lose about 20% health before recovering (no weakstomach/iron gut, no lemongrass eating)

[@hamburgerhamburgerv2]

Why

[@RenegadeShepTheSpacer]

@@hamburgerhamburgerv2 It was a glitch, obviously.

[@Ozblivion-Official]

plastene poisoning

[@xanatar3009]

Tip #55: Outdoorsman is still extremely good value - but the chance of catching a cold/getting sick from the weather has been changed to 10% instead of 0%. This basically means you'd have to be running around naked like a lunatic in -20C to get sick, but it is possible now. (Makes sense as it was completely busted before)

[@mtdewramen]

I pretty much agree with all of it, except vitamins. They are easily taken while sneaking around, and if you intend on maxing out every little bit of the day, they are actually extremely handy if you have any last minute combat to finish up. Being tired also affects your stamina regeneration too. Then again, this was titled "beginner tips". Many people have difficulty surviving even the first day starting out. Keep up the great work, love the content!

[@Ricksteady8]

I use them to "fix" my sleep schedule, sometimes I seem to get tired like 10-30 minutes earlier every day and I have used vitamins to mitigate this.

[@Night_Hawk_475]

@@Ricksteady8 just curious - is there an actual penalty to letting your characters sleep schedule slowly slip/rotate around the clock over time? As long as they sleep when tired I don't think there's an issue with this, no?

[@McAwesomePants69]

@@Night_Hawk_475 I don't play, however after watching a half decent amount of videos I would just say it affects when you're up 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@scyfrix]

@@Night_Hawk_475 It's just annoying and dangerous trying to navigate around or fight at night, especially indoors once the power goes out. Even Cat Eyes doesn't completely mitigate that. So if possible its better to be active during the day.

[@Night_Hawk_475]

​ @scyfrix2785 I guess that makes sense, yeah - thank you :)

[@GreenieBoi9]

couple good tips I'd like to add to this are: Wall durability: Its been proven that if you build walls from lvl 1 and upgrade them by each increment, it Increases the durability by 50 or so points. Pair it with the handy trait and constructed walls will have more hp than building a base lvl 3 wall at the go. Plus I believe you can increases the durability a bit by making metal frames and constructing wood walls to get even more durability. Fyi, I always run with this in my sandbox games but there's a option in the character selection on the sandbox settings that gives you the option to increase the "Player built construction" health and setting it to max will also make walls and stuff alot more durable. Traits: My usual go too for negative traits is: slow healer: only sucks more if you got a broken leg or a severe laceration which takes days to heal slow reader: In sp, you have the speed up button, and is more noticeable with the higher skilled books that can take a whole day to read. Weak stomach: Its rlly simple, don't eat rotten/burnt food and boil your water. But be careful with foragable mushrooms and berries as this will kill you real fast. Prone to illness: To me it means how fast you turn when infected. Don't get bit and you'll be okay. Free points. Also correct me if I'm wrong btw. Pacifist: I think it just lowers the weapon exp you gain when using a weapon type against zombies and there's plenty of zombies out there to farm kills when your at that point In the game. Lemme know also if it affects damage but personally I didn't see any difference. For positives: Organized: I feel this is a trait alot of people don't pick as it increases every container and bag encumbrance by I think 15 or 30 percent, and it's rlly useful for long loot runs where you want to get everything you can get and it's useful for larger bags like the military bags where it's normally 28 or 29 encumbrance and with organized it goes to 35 or 36. Plus it makes storing stuff in your base alot more efficient and you need to build less crates for storage purposes. Handy: Gives +1 to carpentry and maintenence and boost experience while leveling those skills. Plus it gives a bonus hp to construction. Dexterous: Increases transfer speed and is good when bored and depressed but even still it still slows you down. plus it's good to have when you need to bring out that Shotgun and shells from ur bag to quickly clear a horde. outdoorsman: Same reasons as you said in the video. speed demon: it makes cars faster but can be a double edge sword. I'll let you find out why XD. wakeful: You sleep less and have more time through the day to do stuff. Just be prepared to be sleepy around 1 am in game and wake up mere 4 hours later. And I usually go with the burglar occupation just for the easy hotwire upon start up bonus. Crowbars may have decent damage but they can last a long ass time cuz it has a high durability making it a great early to late game weapon to have. When a couple months pass in game you can begin to see some interesting weapons stabbed in zombies chest like spears and katanas. Download the automechanics mod to make mechanics grinds alot easier as there's a option to automatically Uninstall and reinstall everything until the mod realizes you have done it to all parts and makes ur character go at a standstill. knifes and spears can hit zombies behind metal fences as they are used to stab zombies. The car that looks like a corvette in game is the fastest car in vanilla but has very little storage space and have a problem with finding parts to replace. A truck has more storage space in the trunk but isn't as fast as the sports cars but emergency vehicles are probably the go too cars as they have a alarm, they're pretty quick and the parts are pretty easy to aquire. you can reclaim spears to get back the weapon used to make a weponised spear and they come back with the durability used to make them. Only the spear itself breaks after use. The katana one of the best weapons in the game and is of two long blade weapons. It can almost one shot zombies with no skill but suffers from low durability. If your gonna use one, have some maintenance levels first. Baseball bats can be upgraded into spiked bats for more damage but comes at a durability cost. I think that's all for now...

[@Z0RR0NINJA]

Adding to this I usually take conspicuous as well for more points., you'll attract a few more zombies by line of sight but tbh if you're half decent at kiting or maneuvering around buidings to break LOS it's really not that noticeable.

[@holomatic1549]

Prone to illness is pretty much the opposite of outdoorsman, where you get more heavily influenced by everything in general (weather, food poisoning, etc); as someone who can't help but hate the "getting wet" mechanic overall, I can't recommend slotting PtI to anyone.

[@GreenieBoi9]

@@holomatic1549 Usually I don't have that issue running with that trait but good to know. I know it's easy to say "don't go out while it's raining" and sbit but sometimes u gotta

[@holomatic1549]

@@GreenieBoi9 There was one time when I tried a mod that added the pluviophobia trait and, well, lets say it rained pretty much everyday for the entire first month of that playthrough. It usually isn't all that bad because you don't consider it all that much, most of the rains in the game end up being just slight nuasances or last an hour or something, but rain isn't scarce at all.

[@Clearwater_WT]

Upgrading baseball bats to spiked bats also changes the damage, spiked bats can rip clothing so you might not want to use them if you are eyeing that fancy fireman jacket.

[@CatChat240p]

Tip 102: Always carry a screwdriver and hammer to disassemble any door that may be locked

[@geniul555]

This! Way lighter than an axe or sledgehammer.

[@Gead_Hiver]

Shatter the windows

[@CatChat240p]

@@Gead_Hiver can't shatter the windows on the locked doors inside a police department

[@Gead_Hiver]

@@CatChat240p oh yeah mb. I meant like houses

[@SasiwatD]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="193">3:13</a> i like how the zombie politely waits for you to craft a spear to kill it

[@Wolvenmoth]

Story Time; back in time, when the models were still 2d and not even the mall had been added yet the lonely farm house that is refer too at around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="410">6:50</a> used to be the most distant and isolated place in the map, and in the project Zomboidm ap project is still refer to as "The Farm to the West". Yes that place that now stands as close to the center of the map as it can be without mods used to be the most distant place.

[@AtrociousAK47]

pretty sure that refers to the old "knox county" map, which was the entire town of muldraug in one cell, and setting of the old "till death do us part" tutorial with bob and kate. the map now is called "knox country" and is entirely seperate from the old one, which can now only be played in the "you have one day" challenge mode.

[@fyretnt]

@@AtrociousAK47 the map is still called Knox county, as it’s not a country, it’s a county.

[@ihateyankees3655]

If you can find a hammer and screwdriver it's always quicker to disassemble a locked door than to smash through. The exception is when there's a zombie on the other side. If you can't find the hammer and screwdriver, axes and meat cleavers are the best choices for brute forcing your way through.

[@timsebring7188]

I love this list! Thanks so much! I wanted to add one possible one too -- Water dispensers can be picked up and brought back to your base for some small clean water storage. They can be refilled too with boiled water. You can also refill them from a sink that's been plumbed with an above rain barrel, so your rain barrel can refill again. I've done this during rain storms to collect the most water possible.

[@suicidalbanananana]

This is a great one that more people should be aware of, but for whatever reason a lot of tips & tricks guides/videos still say this thing only weights 5kg, but that's what it was in older versions of the game, now-a-days its 30kg, so bring a big bag or a vehicle to be able to move it.

[@toyfreaks]

Even after 1000+ hours in PZ, I still picked up 7 things I did NOT know. Thank you!

[@CanadianYellow]

Regarding Tip No.5 You can actually check when you will perform the instant-kill or when it will be a regular attack by looking at your character's offhand. When you're in range and eligible for an instant-kill, your character will raise his/her offhand to about chest level in karate chop pose, instead of having it down by his/her thigh and curled. Its a very minor cue, and I don't recommend trying to look for it while fighting zombies because the window to see can be the gap between perfect health and being scratched/lacerated/bit. Take a closer look when he goes to shove the chestnut afro zombie with the purple shirt in the video, and watch how his character's off hand immediately raises before it switches to the shove animation. That little distinct hand raise is the cue to left click and kill the zombie. Hope this helps!

[@Tera_GX]

As a new player appreciating knives, thanks! Now I'm gonna go trying to look for it while fighting zombies!

[@Canaris3]

Another tip : When you have zombies on "basic navigation" LOCK THE DOORS BEHIND YOU. At worst it buys you a few seconds to bandage/reload/requip something, at best it can allow you to completely cut the LOS and get away.

[@theshredguitarist25]

Completely cut the LOS??? What is that.

[@jaceconger799]

@@theshredguitarist25LOS means Line of Sight, so they mean completely leave their cone of vision/hearing

[@Hadryn]

One tip i dont see around often. Q does have a good use and can avoid jumpscares. if you sneak and head inside to a door. your character whispers. anything on the other side will hear you and you can wait a few seconds to see if they bang on the door. nice for playthroughs with tough zeds

[@Millsinato]

I feel like 89 is one the most important tips. Ive lost 6-7 characters to it and I think something important to note is that you can still get sick from the bodies OUTSIDE of your base/home too if they are close enough.

[@richardparker3273]

Another tip about car keys. Car keys not only spawn in gloveboxes of vehicles sometimes and inside buildings, and on the ground, but they also sometimes spawn in the inventories of zombies. So if you didn't find a key anywhere else, check the pockets of any nearby zombies too. Also, on rare occasions you will quietly find the key to the vehicle in the door or trunk. I say "quietly" because the key just suddenly appears in your inventory with no notice, and it's easy to miss if you're not paying attention and don't notice the key icon over the character's head while walking away, thinking there was no key

[@Ian-vu4ij]

I think that is because the key can sometimes spawn already in the ignition

[@glory3948]

If you wanna remove hedges, dig furrows instead of floors, saves on resources and you don't need to lug around a bunch of planks. If you don't like the look of furrows you can remove them right after

[@FrenchLightningJohn]

with the mod that make traits more clear in what they do, outdoorsman is really underrated as it also reduce the chance to get a cold by 90% and reduce the chance to get a scratch from trees bushes and other flora stuff by 99% that's really good secondly marshridge is a good place if you need a book as the postal office backroom as a shit ton of books, you are nearly guaranteed to find the books you want, even in insanely rare settings it still has a lot of books

[@zorthecruel6558]

Riverside has a Post office (not far from the book store) that has a metric crap-ton of books in the backroom as well.

[@joshuabeatty7371]

Smoker can be free points, I'd recommend the mod that lets you use stoves and car lighters for times when you can't find lighters or matches.

[@brianzhang349]

I think that’s only if you have the “I don’t need a light mod” but else wise yeah, smoker is pretty much free points.

[@zigfaust]

It's also great because smoking lowers your boredom, depression and anxiety by far more than the agitated/anxious debuff smoker gives you. So it becomes an ironicaly good habit as you will just have lower negative moodles by getting into the habit of smoking 1-2 a day.

[@McAwesomePants69]

Supposedly they're adding the feature to use open flames and cig lighters in cars and all that shit, so that's huge

[@platt_mallar]

@@McAwesomePants69 I just started playing this game, and I was surprised there weren't cig lighters in cars already. I grew up in the 80's and every. single. car. had a lighter. It was standard.

[@McAwesomePants69]

@@platt_mallar Yeah it's a small detail but having them in cars would reeeeally tie together smoking a bit more

[@magic-or-whatever]

Press q to take the antidote

[@marxizalias3193]

My guide to project Zomboid is simple: Muldrough starting location. On the first run, the first character is a Veteran with Athletics, Organised and Fast Learner bonused, but a tonne of negative effects including conspicuous to make up for it.. The conspicuous stat is broken, as you kite zombies yelling and then lure them to you, you have enough stamina for running and sprinting. Unlike all other characters, the veteran comes with anti-panic, which is HUGE, as it is one negative stat permanently gone, and that stat can really mess you up in a war with the zeds. In Muldrough, the Book Store, VHS Store, Police Station and Gas Station are clustered to the south, so the main objective is to find a car, drive to the police station car park, and then yell until you have a hoard of zombies, and then simple walk them into the tree line, circle back, and now you can empty all four key locations and you got yourself one of the strongest starts in the game. I am not kidding, this is such a strong start, I managed to get that character to 2 months and a half with level 7 aiming and had a car and managed to loot two towns. I died escaping the second town. My current playthrough has a generator outside my main base, 4 cans full of gas, and another 4 cans waiting to be filled.

[@vicki4849]

I have NEVER found a gun in the schools....which is as it should be.

[@johnwinter2252]

Back in the day a lot of rural Kentucky schools had target shooting as a sport. No one ever went crazy and attacked the school. It was normal to see a kid ride to school on a horse with a rifle on his back.

[@johnwinter2252]

@Peniley Majorey You can't just make up facts lol. The first school shooting wasn't in the 1960s and was more like the 1760s. It also was never a common occurrence pre-1990 in Kentucky.

[@youtubewatcher4955]

You obviously never looked at the book bags.

[@beaupeterson188]

@Peniley Majorey yeah, also the US doesn’t average 1.5 school shootings a day. “There were 35 school shootings in 2021 that resulted in injuries or death” and 46 this year (Education Week). Where are you getting your information from?

[@Ryanoceros06]

@@johnwinter2252 True dat. I took a gun safety course in high school, rural West Virginia. A lot of people might be thinking this was 50 years ago but it was ~2006-07.

[@nmmeswey3584]

One thing about hot wiring cars: Hot wired cars tend to have more a lot more trouble starting up than cars with the keys, so while a hot wired car is better than nothing, a keyed car is much better than a hot wired one

[@hazsoulspring2121]

Another little tip, the security guard occupation also has its own trait called night owl, this trait works very well with cats eyes and basically makes it so you don’t have to sleep and when you do, you can immediately snap out of it. It’s very nice to have tbh both early and late game.

[@crulas]

Bonus tips: *1* When playing solo, tick the box in the settings labelled: leave key in ignition, so your which after the first time you put the key in a car ignition he will not pick it back, skipping an animation and resulting in thecharacter turning the car on faster. *2* Never, i repeat, *never,* pick the slow driver trait, it will not only make your cars noisier since now you need to hold the pedal to get to that stunning top speed of 30mph, but it will make towing almost impossible, since your char will have hella less acceleration.

[@chitan1362]

Tip 3: press Q to die

[@quigglebert]

I've spent nearly 1k hours on PZ and you still taught me atleast 3 things Metal pipes, the foraging settings and something else that's escaped me, hope that wasn't the important one Edit- Holding R for gun menu, yeah, thats a real life saver

[@SuperKrisco]

Nice video, thanks! My tip is to keep the basic carpentry tools on you (saw, hammer and screwdriver). You can use them for a bunch of things, like dismantling doors, emergency barricades and so on.

[@andrewx8888]

Shocked that you didn't bring up watches at all, as a new player, that was one of the most useful things i learned about early on.

[@tyrhcplayers]

Nearly 80 hours played and I still need all the advice I can get. Thank you! 👍

[@jimi3138]

80 hours is next to nothing.. this game only started getting easier for me after around at least 500 hours... I'm now over 2200 hours... you don't wanna see how much harder I set the sandbox settings on now

[@tyrhcplayers]

@@jimi3138 That's encouraging! It's too much fun to stop, even when the runs are short, and it definitely feels like I've only scratched the surface.

[@mafubaa]

@@jimi3138 +1000 hs and in the same vibe as you, after 400-500 hs the game becomes easy. Now I play in zombicide with superhuman zombies with highest awareness of their surrondings. It never stops getting fun lol

[@Okeen12]

@@jimi3138bro I have 100hrs and reduce difficulty a lot and still die within a week 😂😂

[@terablast]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="437">7:17</a> instead of the extremely rare sledgehammer, you can also use an axe :) Even a hand axe will be much faster than a pipe.

[@Celsius_03]

same can be said for axes effective? yes. rarer than pipes? also yes want something even more effective and reliable? bring zeds into one of the open slot, kill it inside, aquire the key

[@MonstaTrapz]

I found a sledgehammer on my very first run, I didn't know its rarity or usefulness at that point 🤦‍♂️

[@UserNameTaken111]

If you want to get rid of hedges (or move them to create a slowing barrier through a funnel area) you can pick hedges up like furniture, but the skill associated is farming vice carpentry for chance of success. You don't need to build floor on hedges to get rid of them.

[@TheBrohomie]

My best chariecter looted every home in rosewood for canned goods, march ridge was the closest town to my base so i made the mission to stay in march ridge for a few weeks and gather food. I parked a few miles out of town on the power cable path and hiked in forging along the way, when i got there i snuck into the first two story i could and set up. There are apartments on the westernmost part of march ridge, i managed to fill many cubards up with canned food very cool, my character is still going strong. Recently i cleared the small pump and movie theater south of rosewood just beside my base. I have food water and gas and a ton of ammo and its almost winter!

[@TheBrohomie]

10,000 CALORIES THE FUCK HOLY SHIT

[@doarner]

Extra tip: If you want to learn skills faster: - Find one or all books of one skill (carpentry, for example). - Find all vhs tapes related to woodcraft, including Exposure survival 8. - Find a place where you can rest for a long time to read the books and watch the vhs. - Read Carpentry 1, then watch any vhs. - When you reach level 2, stop the tape, turn off the tv if needed. - Read carpentry 2. - Play the tape. - Repeat and continue until you ran out of tapes. That way you can learn skills faster and use all tapes wisely. Without Fast Learner you can get Carpentry to level 6 easy.

[@Borkomora]

march ridge is a gold mine on multiplayer servers if you join late. everyone is fighting over scraps in LV, the freshies keep the spawn towns empty, so march ridge is just a zombie infested hell hole with tons of guns potentially locked up in the houses, food for as long as you can maintain weight on canned goods, and cars aplenty. My favorite place to go, and the extremely high density of zombies means it's never a dull day in March Ridge :D

[@kinggimped]

This is a great video for beginners, wish I'd had this when I started playing! I have hundreds of hours in the game and didn't know a few of these things, so potentially helpful for all players. DEFINITELY taking outdoorsman on my next toon, can't believe I'd never tried that before, and it's only a +2 trait! I'd also add that high thirst and smoker are both great negative traits to take - high thirst is negated by simply carrying two water bottles around instead of one. Cigarettes are plentiful - check glove boxes, desks in offices, and behind the counter in convenience stores/gas stations. I throw all my smoking gear into a fanny pack and make sure to loot lighters or matches whenever I see them. All you need to do is smoke a cigarette when you see the "anxious" moodlet pop up. Those two traits are basically free points.

[@green_taken]

another one: pressing Q gives you a one time boost to stamina, basically an adrenaline button

[@TheJesseWylde]

If you like guns you will find this useful, the police station reinforced armory doors can be quickly dismantled with a screwdriver and a hammer. No need to bust them down. That is if the key didnt spawn.

[@sgtjohnson49]

Man your first 5 seconds of this video made me feel so much better about myself lol. 200+ nearing 300 hours in Zomboid and while I've gotten to like day 27 I've never gotten past a month and that's always my goal and I always die to my own poor decisions. I appreciate the tips and tricks to help my own gameplay

[@suicidalbanananana]

Keep at it! after playing this for several years (in the real world) i've recently managed a year of survival in-game ^^ If you're comfortable with possibly coming across big groups of zombies (read: you know when to thin out the herd and when to move on) i can very much recommend valley station around the mall for people that know how to play and just want to survive for as long as they can, you can find LOTS of good loot in and around the mall, lots of vehicles at the mall, axes and guns at the nearby gunstore, food at the nearby gas station (on main highway, not the one next to mall) & there are plenty of great places to set up base in the woods or houses around the mall. Some of the houses in valley station are also the biggest plots you can claim in MP servers so that's nice too.

[@kronykaal3824]

I found a military checkpoint early, as I just started driving away from the city, and while the video made it seem like it's a late game thing, I haven't seen a single zombie there for some reason. I was there for days, choosing what to take and what not to, as my trunk and my backpack were already full on ammo and guns

[@Eipiczumby]

Heads up for intermediate players that might wanna play multiplayer servers. Rosewood is the best starting city IN SINGLE PLAYER. In multiplayer, because everyone goes to Rosewood, there is a lot less loot to find since you would share it with a lot of players. Unless you spawned within the first hour of the server opening, do not bother going to the firestation or the Police station. Riverside is still ok since it is not as POI centric, loot is more spread around and the houses are rich people's houses which mean more loot per house and it can sustain a bigger player population. Muldraugh would have to be the best. West Point is a bit too dangerous if you go alone and Maldraugh's verticality and plenty of walls and cover makes it easier to survive, specially if you find someone.

[@suicidalbanananana]

I always like to recommend valley station as its underrated and has a massive mall full of great loot, but to be fair this isn't a good starting point for beginners as there's like a ~40% chance that the mall will have 100's of zombies 😂

[@richardparker3273]

Muldraugh is my favorite starting town, I always start there

[@GrimReaper415]

There's a couple things in these that I didn't know about even after 500 hours. Though I would like to add 2 things.. 1)Picnic tables give a ton of xp when disassembled. Coupled with skill book xp boost, they're OP to fly past carpentry levels. Easy places to find them are backyards, parks and school cafeterias. Rosewood has a bunch, dixie has a lot and Muldraugh park has some easily accessible to new players starting around those areas. 2)Pacifist is free skill points when coupled with Fast Learner. The xp reduction by pacifist is negated by fast learner entirely, and since you're not going to use every single style of weapon at once, its worth taking to make Fast learner only cost 2 points instead of 6.

[@thezombiesatemyhomework7412]

Almost free! One painful little loss is the fact that fast learner doesn't affect maintenance... which is actually affected by the pacifist skill. Not the end of the world, but certainly worth noting!

[@Otgel]

@@thezombiesatemyhomework7412 I would avoid pacifist if you value you don't rely on life skills, and care a lot about combat skills though, due to the maths of the game, pacifist + fast learner actually nets you -2% xp to combat.

[@Celsius_03]

@@Otgel 30% increase on movement related skills helps much more in combat at a cost of -2% weapon skills and 2 points by taking pacifist? not to mention all the other skills, it's infinately worth 1/3 of your time grinding skills can be spent to level up weapon skills or anything else too if you think about it

[@crazyskitzo]

I wouldn't take pacifist if you're looking to be effective with guns beyond the shotgun. Aiming XP is difficult to come by.

[@0skaremil]

@@smiffy5075 Said up in the corner, it's a mod

[@den_cheesecake757]

Setting zombies to RANDOM absolutely transforms the game. As you can always be chased by sprinter and all usual strategies to avoid zombies no longer work. I absolutely recommend this to everyone to spice up the gameplay a little

[@alexanderrahl7034]

Two bases i found to be extremely useful are the junk car lot on the northwest outskirts of riverside (i think thats the name?) And the lumber yard between Rosewood and Muldragh. The car lot is great with a chain link fence all around except the entrance, meaning you can jump in and out and only worry about defending one spot. And theres a trailer for shelter along with plenty of cars you can sleep or store things in. One major downside is there seems to be a _lot_ of zombies who spawn in the surrounding area. The lumber yard is great for the same reasons. Only one way in for zombies, but high fences mean endless points of egress and ingress for you. It also has a low fence inside for tripping zombies over, and two trailers in the corner for shelter. One downside is travel time to other POIs, with the other being possibly roaming hordes. But it has tons of open space for farming or building, some lumber to start with, and if you have a shotgun, you can lure surrounding zombies in and take them out in the big open lot away from where you live

[@Tango_Mango00]

For tip number 18, if you don't find a key for the police station, lure zombies Into the station and kill them in it , it gives them a chance to drop keys in whatever building there killed in! Hope this helps someone!

[@theicebutcher1314]

Something I find really useful is soawning with boots, firefighter pants and coat, and hard hat. Hard hat and boots give 100% protection to bites and scratches, and the firefighter stuff will keep you warm, dry and well protected with 30-50 bite and 50-70 scratch protection.

[@GetAssista]

Firefighter stuff slows you down a lot, is hot like hell and cannot be repaired. Good for the new players learning the ropes of combat, bad as a long term option

[@MrSteve4726]

Tip 103 : Scratches trickle, cuts bleed, deep cuts flow. Scratches and cuts are fixed by bandages, deep cuts are fixed by stitches. If you get an infection, find a pharmacy and raid it for anti-biotics, THEN bandage it when the infection leaves

[@deuslra3088]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="286">04:46</a> you dont have to break the door. You will damage your weapon and it takes a lot of time. You can just disassemble the door. It just takes a hammer and a screwdriver. Right click on the door and disassemble it. (You dont need keys to disassemble a door.)

[@xFallenRagex]

Being a fan of military history, my first spawn selection was west point! good times.

[@sterlingarcher241]

Go Navy, Beat Army.

[@thatoneguyc8312]

Big oversight when you talked about river water, you can drink it without getting hurt how ever you can't store it in a bottle or it will become tainted and kill you. Very stupid but it's how the game works. Thin skin is not negated by wearing a jacket and wearing a jacket Also slows your attack speed and hinder new players especially.

[@Sharkaiju]

sprinting isn't too big of a concern when you've cleared a little bit of a neighborhood to where zombies are too far away to even follow you all the way back home. Pair this with wakeful and all you'd have to do is rest right before you meet up with the zombies you still have to clear out. Thus allowing you to reach places faster early on and increasing your sprint level by 50 to 100 point a day depending on a couple things but nothing out of your way as a player

[@mr.nazareth4501]

Yeah I think he overstates how damaging sprinting is. At the worst I've only gotten to Moderate Exertion and that was from vaulting repeatedly and carrying a heavy load. Only time I got extreme exertion is when i was carrying a super heavy load, vaulting AND sprinting away from zombies til I ran out of sprint

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

#92 you can even doubleclick every item you want and it goes into the highlighted inventory after you unpause. Great for looting libraries, only nedd to search through all those bookcases once

[@pickleman40]

I'm sure somebody already mentioned it, but march ridge is meant to be military housing

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

#96 vitamins are useful when you are clearing a place with melee and just when you pull a horde, you get the drowsy noodle, reducing your damage. Take a few vitamins and keep swinging. Needing double the amount of hits will get you exhausted before the fight is over and it doubles the wear on your weapon as well

[@172satoshi]

I always carry a hammer and screwdriver when raiding police stations. Dismantling doors gives some carpentry exp and in my experience, it doesn't attract zeds compared to bashing doors open.

[@richardparker3273]

I always carry a hammer and screwdriver in my vehicle, so I always have them handy

[@ayoitssteve869]

As someone who lives in Louisville, its pretty cool seeing it in a game, also 8.5/10 pronunciation on the name. Also fun fact: the baseball bat factory is based off of Louisville Slugger, in the real world lol, worldwide famous bats

[@flordelizhawk358]

I find it funny that I never preformed any rookie mistakes and ended up dying the first few times because of holding to much crap instead.

[@flordelizhawk358]

Though this is because I watched videos before purchasing the game.

[@surakorrokarus3613]

isnt holding to much stuff a classical rookie thing?

[@flordelizhawk358]

@@surakorrokarus3613 No, it is called being a dumb ass and not checking my health.

[@MoikHorst]

#5 spears have an animation too. you can 1 hit every single zombie with a spear-weapon. the animation is blocked if there are more than 1 zombie around you so you dont get stuck in the animation

[@SATELLITEDOWN7735]

*Theoretically you won't get stuck in the animation.*

[@MoikHorst]

@@SATELLITEDOWN7735 yeah but its many times even close to death if you timed it badly

[@fellowgamers5417]

I was overwhelmed when I 1st tried this game. But after a few try, man I am addicted. There are so much to do in this game

[@jinz4246]

Tip 14, Generator has around 20 tiles of distance... I always build mine and never atrack zombies unless they come really close. Another Tip is to lure zombies inside a property to get the keys of that property, works wonders for storage places with a door open.

[@Celsius_03]

vitamins not worth? non-sense (nothing's worth dying for, there's that too) your combat ability halves at first level of tiredness if you can't sleep at the moment or doing long looting session, you'll need them if you have night terror and it F-ed up your sleep pattern, you don't wanna walk around all saggy, and want to sleep at favored time, gobble those pills up like you're a cookie monster early game Life and Living show's skill boost can be multiplied when you've read skill books. but when do you read when you're busy setting up? night time, not sleeping. it's at least 3 times more effective, and it's on limited time that hedge thing was nice though. good vid

[@woodben1846]

A great tip if you want practice, make a sandbox save with your normal settings but set guns and ammo to high. That way you can practice levelling aiming without any real risk. After over two hundred hours of playing, I have done everything I could to not use guns. The first time I tried with the sandbox settings, I had cleared out rose wood in less than a day.

[@jonharrison3114]

Here’s another tip. When foraging there is a chance to find mushrooms that will feed you for the rest of your life.

[@jigglypuxx2985]

Sure sure. If that means few seconds after you eat it. lol

[@wolfrex2721]

Found this out the hard way

[@kudorelo]

mushrooms won't get you calories so still best to get a fishing rod/spear and fish that 100cm fish and restore calories instantly

[@skbj6782]

@@kudorelo no, if you find the right kind of mushroom it can sustain your character until the end of your playthrough.

[@gamertardguardian1299]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1120">18:40</a> Crouching and shouting will attract nearby zombies, i find this very effective at making sure a house is okay to jump through a window early on

[@thomastheisman1751]

Totoally spawned into Muldraugh on my first run.

[@ownagenoobs1]

Best place to spawn lmao. My first spawn was Muldraugh and it's my favorite town.

[@OpoOnTheGo]

I stanned riverside but muldraugh is my home now. Can't imagine settling anywhere that ain't the sunstar motel these days

[@SvendleBerries]

My first time playing I spawned in Muldraugh, but thats mostly because when I got the game the only places that existed were Muldraugh and West Point. Still though, Muldraugh is my favorite town next to Rosewood.

[@RJRSharp]

Unless this was changed recently, cabbages are 178 calories and potatoes are 70. These are the two most reliable crops (can't overwater them, good calories and hunger) for two different purposes: cabbages for satisfying hunger on your base or short treks to the surroundings for the 24 hunger reduction, and potatoes for longer treks because they stay fresh a long, long time. If your character doesn't have decent trapping or fishing, you can use cabbages in a pinch for sustainable weight gain. Cabbages will last 2 days on the road and 50 days in the freezer. Potatoes last 14 days on the road and 350 days in the freezer. Fridge slows food spoilage by a factor of 5, and freezers by 25.

[@tobyv2017]

For me (and hopefully for someone else?) the deaf trait isn’t that bad and can be helpful for taking on other more important traits

[@suicidalbanananana]

It depends on your play style and how good you are at keeping an eye on your surroundings. Audio is used to 'show' you zombies that are outside of your vision cone, if you pick Deaf you will pretty much be unaware if a zombie sneaks up behind you, while on the opposite end if you pick Keen Hearing you will never be sneaked up on again (as you will hear them far enough behind you to never let them even get close)

[@rapter1x1x]

I agree, close to half my time played is with the deaf trait. I think at the very least you should take hard of hearing, still gives you an idea when an event happens and you can hear zombies at your door. but you still get points.

[@WeAre1Legion]

im fairly certain you cant hear the helicopter event then but im not 100% sure because ive never gone deaf in a playthrough, but it would be funny to not hear it and just see hordes coming at you and you dont know why

[@richardparker3273]

@@WeAre1Legion Realistically, though, since audio is the only telltale of a helicopter event in the game, it is appropriate to still play the sound since a deaf person would be able to see the helicopter overhead in real life

[@richardparker3273]

@@rapter1x1x Definitely. I pretty much thought it wouldn't be that great to be deaf, so I always go with hard of hearing when I want extra points. Also, hard of hearing as very appropriate for a veteran character, who might have suffered some hearing loss from the loud gunshots and explosions in military service. My dad was deaf in one ear because of that, from Vietnam

[@gundir7504]

Here are some (melee) combat tips that are probably not for beginners #1, Insta Door Open Attack Close: You can open a door as your melee attack lands and close it (a process that needs to be faster than a fifth of a second) to attack zombies through doors. If there are too many zombies one or two may leak through the doorway but that's always better than however many zombies were behind it if you needed to use this technique. #2, Controlled Zombie Bumping: You can bump into two zombies while running (not sprinting) and the stun a zombie has from being bumped lasts a bit longer than the stun of an attack. You can actually run (not sprint) directly through sprinter zombies, bumping them while avoiding their grabs, and then keep going. #3, Target Swap: The stun of a hit is long enough to use a manual ground attack on a grounded zombie, and then to hit the standing zombie again. I don't think this makes a melee engagement any shorter but it looks cool, I guess. #4, Continuous Attacks: You can hold Space and Left Mouse Button to repeatedly shove and attack. I wouldn't advise getting careless with your shoves! #5, Sprinting Stunlock Escape: If you're being stunlocked by zombies (for some reason maybe if drag down is off) you can hold your sprint key for a much better chance at escaping the stunlock than shoving them off. Would you rather trip and scrape a knee or get bit several times?

[@matthewbrantner798]

actually drinking rain water in a container killing you makes a lot of sense. it's not flowing water, making it much easier for bacteria and parasites, like mosquito larva, to grow in it. of course if you drank it rite as you collect it, it would be safe. that would mean attaching a timer to water to make it contaminated after so long. rivers, and even ponds are a bit better though, as they get natural filtering and seep into the ground and are much larger bodies of water. they still have contaminates but a smaller concentration of them, which in turn would make you a bit sick but not kill you if you don't drink too much. so zomboid for the win in realism again.

[@Birkenstocked]

Actually pretty cool cause I think river beds act like natural filters for water and the various fish help clean from bacteria but don’t quote me just a guess

[@trashpanda850]

Common sense is also a very good mod, as it allows you to pry open doors with a crowbar as well as many other additions

[@rapidpigz8238]

March Ridge is good for finding pistols and shotguns as they tend to spawn in closets and end tables which have good odds of spawning them

[@kindlyace7980]

Thank you very much!!! You just got a new discord member. Keep it up!!

[@uhhyeacoolman2786]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="276">4:36</a> a better option is just to bring a hammer and a screwdriver to disassemble the doors, and if in single-player, just fast forward and boom, got some toys

[@xanatar3009]

Tip #70: The XP bonus is 300%, not 100%. This is due to PZ's weird way of showing base XP%. The default level is 25%. so having 2 starting points in a skill (100%) makes it 4x faster than a character with 0 starting points.

[@diricattia]

Wh40k tip: if youre being stealthy or running away from hordes you could be executed for cowardice by your local commissar so alway remember that Y O U are the emperor's angel and ypu shall know no fear

[@bobiboulon]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="282">4:42</a> There's an exploit consisting in attracting zombies inside the police station, so when you kill them inside, if they have a key, it will be the key of the police station (that unlocks all its doors).

[@FiftyStates5]

This has now been patched apparently (allegedly)

[@xodus088]

extra tip: pressing Q when sneaking up on a zombie will silently kill them

[@mrchewtoy]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="75">1:15</a> "This is a very underrated gay mechanic"

[@alphabee8171]

coffee, keep some as a backup for a loot day when you get stuck in the middle of nowhere or you gotta fight a herd but you're character is feeling sleepy, trust me you don't wanna fight like that. Coffee is hard to comeby so keep it only for rare occurences. Just eat it straight outta box, that's keeps you up for quite a while.

[@roberttate9302]

So, you make combat look easy. I always have issues with combat and tend to get killed for stupid reasons. Could you put together a tips/tricks video on dealing with zombies? Something like: I recommend these weapons and this is what you should expect on a day 1 vs day 10. Also, what NOT to do and how to deal with fatigue? Thank you

[@WeAre1Legion]

real quick since im new to the game but haven't really struggled with combat. I wont fight if there are more than 2 or 3 zombies, ill either flee or try and break em up by hiding then whisper shouting, if you're struggling with fatigue go with perks that will up your fitness( I think) or use short blade weapons, if u need fatigue to go away sit on the ground for a little bit and itll go away with time, for combat again, push zombies to break em up or knock em over along with giving yourself room to breathe and fight, if a zombie goes down leave it if there are more and keep fighting, or just stomp on their head to basically execute them, avoid long blunt weapons if possible because they eat up stamina quicker unless u have the multi hit on then its good to power swing into multiple zombies

[@sterlingarcher241]

Short blunt uses far less stamina than LB. If you have multi-hit on, the nightstick and metal bars/pipes are your best bet. Sneak backwards and swing weapons at large groups. Check your six often. Unless you have multiple points in a particular weapon style, avoid groups. Don’t fight groups hungry, stressed, or depressed. Alleviate all problems first. Roll down the window and shoot out of the car. Vehicles with red condition engines are only good for running over random individual Z. Do donuts in cars backwards to multi-kill groups and get longer life out of engine/tires. T. I have almost 1900 hours in.

[@awuza7045]

good to know... I didn't realise that barreling down the highyway in a van whilst almost flipping it everytime i had to take a corner was ACTUALLY optional, appreciate it!

[@jackmarston2746]

I CAN ONLY RECCOMMEND THIS GAMNE

[@Austin-sw3mf]

Tip #104: You can melt the ice walls at the edge of the earth to make clean water.

[@mark63366]

Beginner tips? I've got over 500 hours and learned a lot. Great vid.

[@stonysheep4364]

What I do for the locked armory in police stations is disassemble the door using the screwdriver and hammer. Just make sure to watch your back from time to time as the door will be completely gone and any zombie can just wander in.

[@MonoEhMono97]

I have over 500 hours currently and my biggest tip to people I’ve invited to the game is don’t be afraid to use controller. I had over 300 hours before I switched to controller and honestly it’s so much easier.

[@Woody-q3j]

I have my controller hooked to my PC by USB why isn't it working mouse and keyboard is so dang hard

[@MonoEhMono97]

@@Woody-q3j so when you launch into the game and it says ‘this is how you died’ followed by ‘click to continue’ make sure you use your controllers “A” button or “Start button”. The game doesn’t allow you to change inputs mid game so you have to start with controller.

[@MonoEhMono97]

@@Woody-q3j if you use your mouse or keyboard to continue you’ll lose the ability to use your controller until you reset the game.

[@Woody-q3j]

@@MonoEhMono97 appreciate it I figured it out 👍

[@zenny8877]

i only started PZ recently, but to me it really is 3d CDDA. I was actually surprised how much of my knowledge of that game carried over to this one (especially in the vehicles department).

[@arithmechick]

Tip #2 is incorrect. Drinking pond/river water can absolutely kill you, albeit unlikely. The weak stomach trait increases this chance as expected. Tested on the latest patch with no traits and apocalypse settings, and my character died about 10% of the time.

[@zachjackel]

That aim outline tip is gold. Had no idea, i thought guessing range was part of the learning curve😂

[@paganarh]

awesome, thanks for the tips! but please, can you turn down the music on next vid? Dont know if it's a problem of my headphones, but your speech and background music are mixing together too much, so I had to really strain through all the video.

[@andrewwillard5625]

Been playing for over 2 years never knew about that driving camera setting that just saved all my broken leg problems 😂

[@nerfherder4284]

I never noticed the animation change while walking near a fence. I wonder if it actually makes you less conspicuous or it's just an animation??

[@GamerWolvenna]

The new tutorial even explains this mechanic and says you're less visible

[@repcac3199]

Can't wait to instantly forget these and panic the next time I play!

[@Jackson-wu1wd]

In the 80s and 90s in Kentuckiana (IN and KY) it wasnt uncommon for people to bring their hunting stuff with them to school. Especially in the early 90s where it was considered normal and even teachers would bring their stuff too.

[@jmnero4447]

So, I know this is a late comment for this video. But this extra tip would have helped a lot. #??? tip: Using Rope to craft Log Stacks reduces the Encumbrance per Log from 9 per to 3 per while equipped in the Primary or Secondary slot. In a nutshell, making 3 logs weigh the same as a single Log. This makes moving logs to build at the build location much easier, more efficient, and faster. Rope is reusable as you get it back, but Sheep Rope is consumed. Just ensure you put away your Rope before building anything that can consume it! I've watched many Tips and Tricks videos for PZ, and none of them mentioned this. The only reason why I know about it is from just sitting down and going through the entire PZ wiki. So, if you are new to PZ and find something new to you in-game, pause the game, and find it on the wiki so you will know of its potential uses!