All Skills and How to Grind Them | Project Zomboid

A quick guide explaining every skills function in Project Zomboid and the methods to level them quickly.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:24 Passives
1:16 Agility
2:31 Combat
3:07 Crafting
6:02 Firearm
6:44 Survivalist
Discord:
/ discord
#ProjectZomboid #Zomboid

[@Alex-Phillips]

I created a discord server (very barebones). See you there! Discord - discord.gg/jykRBPRd9V

[@Physicallyretard]

Using the mods Automechanics and Autotailoring speed up the skills tremendously it removes the tedious selecting each item to remove and add back on part so you can just fast forward till youre done gaining exp or run out of materials. 100% recommend

[@Alex-Phillips]

I've just downloaded a bunch of mods for a MP run with a mate and made sure to pick those up. Thanks for the tip!!

[@anthonyzullo]

Yeah, I love that mod. It doesn't take anything out of what's happening aside from the clicks. Which if you wanna actually play for like over 100 days, you need.

[@user-pm8je4fo7e]

Pfft. Why even play the game? Just install mod that will kill zombies for you.

[@slipknot355]

@@user-pm8je4fo7e Wait people enjoy the game in a different way? Shocking.

[@user-pm8je4fo7e]

@@slipknot355well, yeah. Are you one of those who think that participation rewards should be a thing?

[@Joobls]

One thing you didn't mention, nor does the wiki mention about first aid is that the higher your first aid the stronger bandages are at reducing the effect of your wounds. At level 10 first aid you can bandage a right arm wound and swiny as if nothing is wrong, same goes with a leg wound and walking. Always grab your first aid books, a pile of glass, and tweezers and grind it out during nights if you have nothing else to do, or if you survived a fracture! falling off your base while carrying 40 weight of planks hurts lmao.

[@1973Louis]

Or install a mod to help you leveling up without injuring yourself. 😊

[@time_keeper643]

​@@1973Louisdon't. You must pay the blood tribute to the glass god. If you gain the medicinal knowledge otherwise, the glass god will find a way to smite thee in retribution. Don't anger the glass god.

[@TsarIsBack]

thou* Thee probably means "your"

[@NowhereSam673]

They used it correctly​@@TsarIsBack

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

There's no fucking way First Aid has had an actual use this entire time

[@yesanameirequested1682]

You can just stand on broken glass, no need to walk on it. Also for electrical: go for extractor hoods, modern ovens and deep fryers in restaurants, you can also rip out radios from cars, and if you feel lucky at the crossroads, west point bridge, and the wreckages at north of dixie trailer park, keep a look out for news vans, they have cameras and other electrical stuff to disassemble for that electrical skill.

[@kensvideos1]

This video has the best delivery of a pun on KZbin. Other Creators take note.

[@nerfherder4284]

Good summary, here is an important thing that people sometimes don't realize: If you start with between lvl 1-3 in any skill you get an XP gain bonus (indicater by either bold or orange lettering,) This means taking skills that gives you one lvl will qllow you to grind it much faster.

[@time_keeper643]

Here's something else people don't realise: despite the bonus says 75%, 100% and 125% for 1, 2 and 3rd levels respectively, it's actually absolutely massive at 400%, 500% and 600%. I checked on many occasions. Do what you want with this knowledge.

[@Alex-Phillips]

I was gaining way too much nimble XP on a run and it reminded me of this comment, it's pretty busted so I made a video on it.

[@time_keeper643]

@@Alex-Phillips first time playing burglar huh

[@ShiroIsMyName]

That was a great explanation of the skills, easy to understand, straight to the point

[@drizzijay]

This was a good breakdown of all the skills! Great stuff!

[@TheChainsnare]

Also dont forget the VHS tapes in combination with the skill books.

[@thefairybug40]

Look, I'm genuinely glad that this video is getting tons of views. It's a great video that you clearly worked hard on, and it's very helpful to boot, and it deserves lots of views. But, at the same time, how did THIS crack double-digit thousands of views while your amazing Survivors of Louisville series remains in the single ones?!

[@Alex-Phillips]

Thanks for the encouragement! My current guess is title and thumbnail, but it could just be content type. I've burned through different variations for a while on Mathew Aguilar and they've culminated in this. I'll mix it up for the next one :)

[@mbos14]

extra tips for mechanic grinding: Tip 1 if you dont have a beater to train on just remove lights/radio/battery i have never had those take damage. Tip 2 There is a cooldown of xp gain from training mechanic(1 time per part per car). From the top of my head i think it resets every midnight.

[@yonblek4542]

Parking lots are just xp farms ( :

[@mbos14]

@@yonblek4542 depends on settings and on servers it might be harder to find cars.

[@time_keeper643]

Damaging parts gives you experience. At any time of day. Any number of times per day.

[@brunobrendhan2740]

The best way to grind metalworking is making metal sheet from 4 small metal sheet and vice versa. You should try it.

[@wesleybird880]

This was a really well put together video. Instant sub. I think it would be worth a follow up with QoL mods that help grinding each, like Auto-Sewing and that series of mods

[@regulus_leo621]

For Carpentry, if you happens to find Carpentry book on your day 1, just learn it as soon as possible. It will multiply the XP gains from TV for a first week. When not watching TV, just looting around to get all 5 books of carpentry and read it each days. By reading books and watching TV for the first week, i leveled up Carpentry to at least 9 without even touching the hammer or disassembling anything.

[@Findair]

The best i found for the metal working is to craft metal sheet and small metal sheet. The exp ratio / gaz consumption is better than dismantle cars and furnitures. Great video any way !

[@ShinnosukeTokuda1684]

The slight smile when you said "large fish....get you the most" was so funny, it was almost like you were saying an innuendo lol.

[@NapazTrix]

He was making a pun, since he said "net".

[@brentonherbert7775]

that was a fishing pun because he said net.

[@ClickAGame]

Awesome video! Your way of creating and presenting these videos made me subscribe!

[@time_keeper643]

It is generally considered you should always start with 9 fitness, since it is a pain to grind, and is also more useful stat among the two. Strength, however, you can go as low as 1. It's fine. You're not gonna die in combat because of it. In crits we trust. Exercise give your character a muscle fatigue some time after exercise. You should only exercise if you don't plan to go anywhere the following day, because you're not gonna. Only at maxed exercise regularity will you be able to use your limbs the day after exercise. Also exercise fatigue brings pain. You need sleep tablets, painkillers or alcohol to sleep with that. Painkillers might not be sufficient in my experience. There's is a somewhat obscured mechanic called "protein boost". If you eat enough proteins, you will start getting bonus exp for your strength stat and only strength. However, if you eat to much of it you will lose the bonus. Wiki says boost starts at 100 proteins and ends at 300, but your characters protein surplus can go up to a 1000. Be careful to not overeat, otherwise you'll have to get vegan for a couple weeks. You can't get bonuses to fitness exp. Don't try to grind it. The biggest differences are made at 7 and 9 fitness levels, due to dynamic traits given at them. (In shape and athletic). So just start with 9 fitness and don't bother trying to grind tenth.

[@yesanameirequested1682]

You can actually starve yourself just enough to not die from starvation to reduce weight. Great for if you still haven't started farming yet.

[@time_keeper643]

@@yesanameirequested1682 that's not a very good idea. Underweight and very underweight give crippling debuffs to both damage and fence climbing.

[@yesanameirequested1682]

@@time_keeper643 only do it, if you are already obese. Start as very underweight, as then you will get more freedom towards eating everything that you can get your hands on.

[@time_keeper643]

@@yesanameirequested1682 ONLY start as underweight if you're a fire officer. Having 9 fitness from the start is essential. The difference between 8 and 9 is so huge it's unreal

[@Curlyxtail]

Helpful Guide! Thanks

[@archmagemc3561]

Foraging if you optimize it can be really powerful. You'll never have a need for glass, nails, ammo, food, water, and all that stuff ever again. And you'll have an unlimited amount of spears which are one of the best melee weapons.

[@MarquisLeary34]

Much thanks, I've long been baffled on how to actually work on my metalworking without burning up all my propane tearing apart wrecked cars...

[@SeedlingNL]

You can level Mechanics on a single car by removing then reinstalling parts. This works once per day per part, so repeat it each day. As long as the part doesn't break outright, this will work.

[@time_keeper643]

You keep gaining the exp if you *fail* the task. So if you attempt to remove a car's break but instead damage it, you will gain the experience, and can continue to fail and gain exp. It's fine breaking a few cars in the process. You didn't care about those anyway.

[@yonblek4542]

Foraging or fishing alone are ample food. But combined are better. All the herbs and veggies from foraging plus fish make epic's soups..

[@JackEverfree]

To help with leveling fitness and strength, if you are on an all protein diet in game you will get an more XP for the same actions.

[@Roflmao3486]

Farmig while your house is burning is gold ! 😂😂😂

[@voyager14]

Nimble is king. So consider going burglar, gymnast, and fast learner, so you quickly become much safer in melee combat.

[@Marcinho76]

Great video!

[@retardeda]

I think the reason your nimble didnt gain enough xp was because of a recent change that made nimble more effective to grind when being around zombies. In before you can literally just do stance inside your base and afk for 2 hours and you'll manage to be level 10

[@luis4ever887]

Noticed that, too

[@christiandietz6341]

Yes, now you must traverse at least one whole tile to get the xp.

[@beppermint4092]

the main reason is that most agility skills are heavily based on random chance to get XP, so you can have a lot of variance in how long it takes to level them

[@theOuTLaW365]

I have several mods on and one of them has Nail guns with clips, these clips hold 25 nails each. Easy to find in a warehouse on my current MP server. I used them to grind my reload as I have like 10 clips lol.

[@ryuhanja3415]

I like how as you were farming the building was burning down

[@panther7584]

"This is fine."

[@Mudlumps]

optimal firemaking skill grinding

[@sxcorpy]

Destroying cars is the worst way to grind. For successful dismantling attempts, much more experience is obtained. So by doing only what we have enough level for, we save time, save cars, and get more progress from each car (even once a day).

[@BPHirsh]

Great video thanks. Would love for the chapter markings to be each skill instead of skill group, easier to jump to what I'm looking for.

[@TheWstawNazwe]

great video!

[@kaptainking3388]

You deserve more popularity bro

[@anthonyzullo]

Starting with most close to max strength, you can carry up to about 12-16 logs respectively. That is whay you absolitely want in this game. Carry weight plus the ability to move. Everything else can be skilled up as you play.

[@stephendenis3855]

wow how skillful 👏🏻

[@plebasusual6336]

This is so useful.

[@justdean8113]

thanks for the info bro, made a sub outta me. Good to see another AU/NZ voice too lol.

[@argenthellion]

As far as hotwiring goes, I've hotwired dozens of cars and needed multiple attempts to hotwire a few, but never triggered the car alarm even once. So I'm guessing the chance of doing this is negligible at best...

[@Sphendrana]

Not sure if it's due to my auto reload mod or it's a vanilla feature, but I'm power leveling reload skill via double shotty and skill books. Turned on x4 speed and went from 2 to 6 in about 15 IRL minutes.

[@Fabian-ym9fg]

Good vid

[@J.W.-is8oj]

How do I make the battery powered light?

[@sylthaya7571]

So for first aid. From what i can tell u get exp from removing And applying bandages. So to grind exp more naturally. Is it better to use adhesive bandages / ripped sheets? Because theyll need changing probably 2-4times before ur healed? Or do u get more exp from putting on a single sterilized bandage, thats gonna hold till ur fully healed?

[@gloaming4247]

7:04 underrated

[@user-glg20]

from my experience: the fastest to level up - foraging, carpentry the slowest to level up - mechanic, tailoring

[@Heipooo]

Agility, str, and fitness are the slowest

[@user-glg20]

I meant standard skills (like these from books)@@Heipooo

[@luis4ever887]

tailoring is faster than carpentry

[@muditsposition]

Mechanic is fast if you read skill book and watch carzone vhs

[@Gigachadxf88voodoo]

Can you still push doors to grind maintenance

[@kuroketsueki9059]

Fastest way for electric are: Fixing car battery and lights and fixing generator

[@emilmartinka5442]

You can lvl up streng and fitnes fast when you bug workout withl Alt-sprint when you start, its slow progres anyway but atleast you dont need to wait for recovery energy and also the pain will wont stop you.. i grind my gf character like this when she wasnt home on our server.. even trough this cheese it took me over 20hours real live time to take 5str and 5 fitnes to 10 / 10

[@VaeluX]

Custom Sandbox >> XP multiplier >> type 1000

[@benedictsmith9112]

When is ep 7 coming out for Matthew? I'm dying to see the progress on dividing the cdc

[@Alex-Phillips]

A tentative 2 weeks out. I've got the footage, but only some of the draft script done. Mix of life stuff, chewing on this and some streaming/future ideas. I'll crack on with it and try to get it out early for you.

[@theairacobra]

since i play with more traits burn ward, injured and broken leg give me like 30 points and since youll spend the first week tending to your injuries its free first aid

[@lukeobrien4681]

I don’t even play this game but I still like your bideos

[@oddoneout1835]

How do you put a video into a TV?? Trying to figure on deck.

[@oddoneout1835]

Unrelated to that ridiculous question, thqnks for the tips.

[@gamering149]

cool guide, cant wait to die before any of it would prove useful

[@fahrradmittelfranken8207]

cooking detects poison? and since when does first aid accelerate healing times?

[@Alex-Phillips]

Higher cooking lets you see if a food is poisonous (laced with bleach etc.), bit weird but I get it for multiplayer. First aid doesn't accelerate most healing (scratches and lacerations), but does speed up splinted fractures and stitched deep wounds.

[@bobjohnson1096]

Nice video! Does loading magazines give more exp than the double barrel shotgun? I like to load and reload just walking around. You left out some things about metal containers and car repair.

[@time_keeper643]

Reloading full M16 mag gives 15 exp on average. Reloading revolves and shotguns gives 1 exp per bullet. Only loading bullets IN counts, not OUT. It's not a great idea to carry a shotgun at all times. It's heavy and loud. If you intend to use it, you will need enough bullets: in my experience around 200, and carrying them at all times is even heavier. Also there's the issue of downtime between reload animations, and amount of clicking. In short, you should really use M16 mags to grind reload. M14, if you can't find M16. If you insist on carrying a firearm at your person, since you're not gonna use it anyway but it's cool to carry one, carry a six shot revolver. It's lighter, and reduces the amount of downtime between reloads, being overall more efficient for grinding reload. If you absolutely insist on carrying a shotgun that you're not gonna use, carry a pump. It's not lighter, but it reduces the downtime between reloads. Sidenote: as a weapon, dual barrel is massively better than pump. It deals more damage, is louder and doesn't need racking, so it is always ready to fire, as long as it's loaded. The pump can reach dual barrel's damage with a choke, but you can't put a choke on a sawed-off. Sawed off dual barrel has the same damage and is even louder, but has less range. And yes, "slightly louder" is an upside. Shotgun are tools of mass murder. You're gonna be loud anyway. If you have enough bullets to kill everyone (around 200 in my experience) you might as well kill everyone.

[@bobjohnson1096]

@@time_keeper643 I am very experienced at mass murder on PZ! I have all the bandoliers and all the guns currently. I have about 6 sawed off double barrels and something like 3 M16s. I am always fully loaded with about 300 shotgun shells. Are M14 reloads comparable to the M16 in reload exp?

[@time_keeper643]

@@bobjohnson1096 you don't care about the M14 or M16 itself, only their mags. I suggested M14 because I assumed it gives the same amount of experience per bullet loaded as M16. M16 , with 30 shots, has the biggest mags in the game, followed by not so rare M14 mags, which can house up to 20 bullets. Use M16 mags if you have them Also, no you don't have 300 shells at all times. That would weigh about 10 whole pounds.

[@bobjohnson1096]

@@time_keeper643 Very cool thank you! I assure you my military backpack is fully loaded! I have hit almost every gunshop/pawnshop in Louisville. :D I just lost my 2 month guy in the mall. On fire and infected. LOL!

[@time_keeper643]

@@bobjohnson1096 that's too bad! Don't use fire next time. By the way, M16 has a piercing effect like the sniper rifles, and can hit multiple targets per shot, making it a very effective vacuum cleaner, especially at higher aiming levelz

[@mohamedjear8917]

They need to up the xp gain on nimble and electrical, it is almost impossible to reach +5 skill in them.

[@Alex-Phillips]

I'll take that and a way to idle them properly. There's a mod that lets you grind sprinting on treadmills and I'm hoping it let's you do nimble as well.

[@VladiMrBabish]

@@Alex-Phillips I'm surprised many people don't know about this already, but there's a giant office building loaded with 45 or so computers right at the entrance of Louisville just past the checkpoint on the right side of the road (southeast) and right next to it on the same block, there's a Valutech manufacturing building with radios and a couple computers.

[@Shadower075]

Great video! Ever thinking of making a discord server?

[@Alex-Phillips]

Someone asked ages ago but I haven't put much thought into it. It's probably a good idea as I almost never use Twitter.

[@Alex-Phillips]

I created it, but I can't attest to the quality of it lol. discord.gg/jykRBPRd9V

[@gavinpowell4607]

Great video, you need a better camera though and the the extra work with you in shot with green screen and mic etc isn't necessary, so don't feel obligated to do it in all your videos!

[@Tijn-nd8ro]

just levelled up lightfooted in my base...

[@mateuszwielgosz4116]

Always get 10/10 Fitness and Strength than whatever. EZ build.

[@user-iu5kj5cs8i]

Great video, recommend to add sections for this video

[@Alex-Phillips]

I wrote a note so I wouldn't forget to add them in, only to forget to check my notes. I've put them in now, thanks for the reminder!

[@Heatx79]

Comment for the comment gawds!

[@JaCrispy3060]

POV electrical try to not be the most useless skill in the game challenge

[@Sun2Gway]

Quite litterly gotta grind it just to run lamps on batteries 😂

[@astrovian2713]

Choosing unfit was the worst decision of my career it is So So Slow

[@Veckoza]

Ha. "Net."

[@itsmeurboi]

fishing pun skill level = 10 lol

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

I'm sorry, but Nimble isn't the most tedious skill to grind in Zomboid That title goes to Electrical; with Nimble, all you have to do is walk back and forth near zombies or something, but with Electrical, you need to dismantle a whole fucking town. Each house only has like 3 pieces of electronics, and it gives a pittance of EXP.

[@anthonyzullo]

Wherever i am, i find a car that can tow/haul and i immediately use it to being 3 4 POS cars to my base and destroy them and auto train mechanics. You will drop every item to between broken and 15% for the firdt 3 4 lvls of mechanics. But after that, SAVE YOUR SKILL BOOKS! dont use them for sub lvl 6 unless need to. Try to get 8 in carp, metal, foraging, farmin, fish, before november. THEN find a cabin.

[@mbradley274]

After you've played the game for a couple of hundred hours, set your XP multiplier to 1000 (oh no, that's cheating!) Otherwise, you'll lose interest in the game. I mean, you spend a lot of time irl watching your survivors read books. When you feel like you've "earned it", you can skip the grind and just get to exploring the world.

[@murph3292]

it's so sad first aid is by far and away the most useless skill, in singleplayer atleast. grinding it is less than pointless. If you need to grind first aid then you are getting hit by zombies which means you'll die. if you aren't getting hit by zombies then you'll never need to grind first aid.