The ULTIMATE OCCUPATION Tier List in Project Zomboid

Hello Survivor!
In this video we will be ranking all the Project Zomboid occupations based on how useful they are in a solo playthrough.
Bear in mind, that these are my opinion based on my experience in the game. Feel free to give your two-cents in the comments below. I am always keen on hearing your thoughts ;)
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[@Tuck213]

One thing you're overlooking about mechanic: you only need one level in electrical to hijack vehicles. Which makes you as powerful as a burglar plus a very nice bonus to mechanic leveling, which is a slow process.

[@sachimi_ggz]

It takes just one book and one Carzone vhs to hit lvl 2 mechanics 🫵🤪

[@Weatherman4Eva]

This isn't wrong but amateur mechanic hobby plus the availability of random car keys just doesn't make mechanic that great of an option since you're lacking a real offensive perk. Of course, if you're playing with a mod that has cool vehicles then mechanic is a lot more valuable

[@robertfaulkner1824]

Burglar gets a bonus to nimble too and that one level in electric is about the hardest one level to come by in all of crafting (probably even harder than tailoring).

[@churrasqueroxd3467]

​@@robertfaulkner1824 nah you just one screwdriver and some dead zombies, dismantle their watches and other eletronics, level 1 is easy to get, higher levels are indeed a pain

[@Dark_Plum]

@@churrasqueroxd3467 also instead of choosing mechanic profession you can take "amateur mechanic" trait. It's more cost effective and more versatile (allows to chose other profession that has some unique perks).

[@gamingmoth4542]

One more good thing about the Night Owl trait is the increased awareness while sleeping. It means that your character is quicker to wake up to danger.

[@peachesandcream22]

I think it's necessary when you're stupid enough to sleep on the 1st floor without curtains.

[@TheDefaultName]

Also Zeds dont eat you when you are sleeping

[@pyroparagon8945]

Also worth noting that since night owl requires you to set alarms and you need to hear to wake up, it does literally nothing if you're deaf because deaf people can't wake up to alarms.

[@S7i5edotoyddyo]

You also forgot to mention, it lets you see slightly better at night And it lets you sleep less, combinding it with cat's eye and wakefull You only have to sleep about 4 hours or so, and can do alot during night (most of the time, flashlight isnt required unless its deadly dark)

[@szpaklabs8893]

That is just stupid that a carpenter that has spent all their life to carpentry can barely make a wall or a chair.

[@ProjectTweak]

He’s trying his best😂

[@SheepSociety]

You get 8 levels from the tv with books 2/3/4. Three different times ya need to take out a couple doors and beds to cap a level almost done to proceed with the next book.

[@FumblsTheSniper]

From my experience that’s accurate. Carpenters buy their materials from the store, finished for installations, and most of the plans are done by someone else. A chair also is a finished craft and anything decent isn’t going to happen without practice.

[@07kilswitch]

I got a friend in carpentry who ended up with and allergy to wood dust after finishing her carpentry degree. Maybe the zomboid guy was also uit of practice for long time haha

[@doodlehates_uttp]

I bet your carpentry involved small items

[@FuryXDMGS]

"Unless you're a player that loves cooking, it isn't stri-" S tier.

[@Tuck213]

The thing about Farmer is, you don't need to level farming to be efficient with it. You put seeds in the ground, water them, and wait. It's great! Sure you might get larger harvests when you have a higher level, but to that I say: simply plant more!

[@t_gabiuel6058]

The farming skill should make plants grow faster and yield more vegetables significantly to make it actually worth grinding.

[@Tuck213]

@@t_gabiuel6058 if I plant just one packet of cabbage seeds and do nothing else, I get enough cabbages to eat for weeks. Doesn't get better than that

[@Cornnnflaek]

Maybe reduce the spoil time a bit for grown produce? Maybe at level 10 have it be 1.5 or 2x longer spoil times

[@SheepSociety]

You get 2.5 levels of farming just from the tv once.

[@fuchsmichael93]

Dont even have to water them. Plant your Garden when its raining and you´re good.

[@jessiehogue.]

I play as unemployed most of the time in single player, but in multiplayer, I'm having a lot of fun roleplaying as a doctor/scientist/team medic. Took the Doctor class and all the perks I could to boost my first aid (we play with at least one traits mod, so there's a few solid ones) and I started with 8 in First Aid, lol. I take care of medical supplies for the team, I always carry my doctor's bag on supplies/exploration runs, and I'm always there when one of my friends has to play with fire for whatever reason. D tier, sure. But it's a fun D tier if you do it right, lol.

[@SheepSociety]

Could save the points and just walk on glass while you pound out the tv shows.

[@jessiehogue.]

@@SheepSociety Which would be pretty much the exact opposite of roleplaying. :P

[@SheepSociety]

@@jessiehogue. Zero sense your comment made.

[@jessiehogue.]

@@SheepSociety Oh, okay, you're one of those. It's okay. I hope you had your fun. On that note, gonna start ignoring you now. Have a good day. ^_^

[@peachesandcream22]

@@SheepSociety Dude, you don't know what "roleplay" means? Not all players play only for grind.

[@ganga_banga]

in my opinion, lumberjack should be higher because 25% attack speed with axes is massive and you can start with 10 strength.

[@-the_lumberjack-]

I agree. He even listed off the entire occupation as if it didn’t have any downside, regardless of if it did you think by that standard it’d be an S :/

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

The extra axe swing is 25% vs trees; it's 5% against zombies. Still amazing of course, especially for the Wood Axe

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

The extra axe swing is 25% vs trees; it's 5% against zombies. Still amazing of course, especially for the Wood Axe

[@-the_lumberjack-]

@@quinnlee-miller9792 Nice spam..? I see 11 replies here.

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

@@-the_lumberjack- Jesus Christ I thought the button didn't work

[@Weatherman4Eva]

Something interesting to consider, a single point in a skill in character creation will make it so that you gain that skill at a permanent 4x faster rate, from what I see in the wiki. Maintenance is such a ridiculously important but tedious skill that i think you really need to make sure grab at least one point either in profession or traits. Repairman is the spear build more or less since you want to get to carpentry 3 for max health spears and you want as much and as fast leveling maintenance as possible due to spears being pretty flimsy. Great list overall, the professions i typically choose most are repairman, lumberjack, and veteran, in no particular order. It really comes down to whether i feel like trying a spear, ax, or gun build respectively. That said, there is a certain magic in beinga burglar to hotwire a vehicle and doing reverse donuts to wipe out a whole horde

[@giacomomeluzzi280]

Repairman is amazing for spear builds, and the Burger Flipper is amazing for knives builds. Maintenance is a pain to level up and is mandatory for both, and the starting level boost all your future xp gains, and spear builds NEED Maintenance, period. Knives builds are really good if you manage to survive a bit so that hunting knives start to appear on zombies, then you have a renewable source of weapons that have decent damage, but more importantly, use next to no stamina. They also get a nice boost from Maintenance because of their low baseline durability, and renewable or not, you can't go around breaking all of your weapons before you found a replacement. As you said, the fitness instructor really shines with sprinter.

[@giacomomeluzzi280]

Well if don't take brave you have six points you can spend for other stuff, such as wakeful which will help you not get tired as often

[@halcyonways1476]

You’re 💯 right. Spears/garden Forks are the fastest killing weapons. Then stone axes (axe man perk and a high maintenance lvl) followed by hunting knives. You can add spiked bats after hunting knives. Machetes and Katanas are not common weapons I’m not bringing those up. Fire/pick axes use up a lot stamina due to them being 3 kilos and make your sleep meter raise faster

[@giacomomeluzzi280]

@@halcyonways1476 on default apoc/six months later settings survivor houses filled with machetes are extremely plentiful in my experience, so it's not hard to get a long blade build if you really want to (you can also get machetes and katanas from zombies after months 2/immediately on six months later). Maintenace is amazing for that as well.

[@phoenixj1985]

Go burger flipper with handy is my alt to repairman man. The cooking skill can be useful in different game modes

[@danila_mops3193]

A repairman is at least A or even S, because it is thanks to this profession that an ordinary spear can become a formidable weapon in the fight against zombies and stands on a par with a machete.

[@seangallagher9435]

They could buff farmer by giving you a point in strength, or even something unique like an “early riser” perk than gives you some buffs during the morning. Either would fit the theme while giving you more than one stat increase, and not even a very important one at that.

[@ProjectTweak]

Lets hope that in build 42 they will tweak the occupations a bit to make some of them a bit better

[@beckgrit3688]

I really like the unique perks for certain occupations. Because at the end of the day every perk can be leveled in game but stuff unique to the occupation and cant be gained otherwise are super valuable. Like burglar getting a boost to not breaking window locks or lumberjack getting axeman. I think that if every occupation had special traits specific to them they each could be more useful. Like idk maybe electrician can do more specific stuff with electrical applications like wiring ceiling lighting or sum

[@TH3_N]

or a long blunt/sharp lv for farming tools

[@07kilswitch]

I agree that some occupations could use some fitting perks. They are never picked except for noobs who dont know what they do and think a doctor or a metal worker would be great in a apocalypse

[@Drie_Kleuren]

​@@07kilswitchI hope Metal worker gets a buff. I think it should be fair to give that trait every metalworking magazine already known. Its kind of weird that it doesnt. Maybe even some stronger abilities with metal. Idk its a weird occupation. But it can be decent if you play multiplayer/co-op and some other friend is mechanic. Being able to repair some car parts with metal skills is nice, for some mechanic things you need metalwork levels. But then again getting to lvl 4 metalwork is kind if easy and you dont need metalworker...

[@30fpsguy]

I often choose burger flipper occupation for role playing purposes. Imagine, everything went to sht when the Knox virus occur and you're just a freaking burger flipper. Then you survive and become a unstoppable killing machine.

[@Dat1ScrubLord]

One small note: you CANNOT become desensitized naturally, you have to have a mod to do this, however it definitely should be a base game feature.

[@giacomomeluzzi280]

You can sorta become it if you survive long enough. Panic reduction speed increases as time goes by. After four months your panic reduction speed maxes out and unless you're facing thousands of zombies, the panic moodle will disappear as soon as it pops up.

[@halcyonways1476]

@@giacomomeluzzi280if you take brave your panic reduction is really good where you may never need beta blockers again. After the 4 month If you don’t take brave you get a nice panic reduction but you loose that 70% reduction buff that brave gives you. Cowardly heavily nerf’s your 4 month reduction fyi 😢

[@giacomomeluzzi280]

@@halcyonways1476 imo there's no need to take brave, beta blockers are so common it's impossible to run out

[@halcyonways1476]

@@giacomomeluzzi280 you’re definitely right about that! I just find it to be a hassle to keep buffing my character during long zombie battles. You gotta rest and keep your exertion down. Which will keep that dreadful sleep meter from raising too fast.

[@KameradVonTurnip]

To be honest, if you're a melee build desensitized isn't an end all be all trait. Strong and investments into Traits to boost long blunt/axe are more valuable. You will be 1-2 smacking Zombies even in a panic state. 😅 I specifically stack traits that increase panic because getting one often means you will be heavily panicked regardless. I barely notice panic's negative effects in combat. Since I rarely use firearm. Cowardly and Fear of Blood are two I often get.

[@KCGMiyu]

I actually put Construction Worker on A tier mainly because it's a good choice for combat focus as someone who loves short blunt weapons. I just find melee more fun than shooting, unless of course you're playing against players.

[@Overload-u9t]

Thanks! Your video makes me smile every day even when I’m not feeling happy thx I what you to have a great day

[@Silly2smart]

If you can tweak Fire Officer with Strength + Fitness you become a melee killing machine.

[@ProjectTweak]

Axes go vroom

[@imanueljoseph672]

"Your Phd means nothing in the apocalypse" nice one 😂

[@ProjectTweak]

Hehe

[@heafoxy]

Only one thing: Burger Flipper should be higher for sure because of really cheap cost for such bonuses. It's S tier for players who want to main Short Blades.

[@frankperry2482]

I love these videos. Please keep them coming, really useful and interesting even to a player with a lot of hours.

[@ProjectTweak]

Thank you! I’m really happy you liked it

[@brunomanso9428]

An occupation is good as long as you *focus on doing the specific work.* I like to *fix cars* after missions and *scavenge metal* for them. I'd play as a *mechanic or metalworker.* Or, for *primarily handgun use,* I'd play a *police officer.*

[@Okeen12]

Rosewood + lumberjack Axe man is all I do

[@halcyonways1476]

Flexing on the zombies i see.

[@fuchsmichael93]

Rosewood is the best Spawn in General. Every House has a Garage so even if you tone down the Loot, you´ll still have every Tool and a Generator after 2-3 Days.

[@diamondjitterz]

I love how one of the best occupations in the game isn't even an occupation.

[@satten735]

Am i the only one in love with carpenter traits? I just LOVE building base, and not worring about shelter or water, because you can build them almost frome the start. Like kust watching TV can easily get you 8th level pf carpentery, that is more then enough for everything you want to build.

[@ProjectTweak]

Carpenter is definitely a solid choice if you enjoy building from early!

[@AM-tv2fs]

For me repairman should be A. Carpentry helps making full hp spears quicker, gets you to level 6 carp faster for water barrels. Maintenance allows your spears to ignore durability loss (spears break alot at rirst), plus maintenance helps with all weapons and having a starting point in it helps it level faster. Short blunt is not as bad as people make it sound, like ProjectTweak said, its a common weapon and having it level fast + its common rarity makes it ok. Pair repairman with gymnast for quick nimble leveling and you have a GREAT base for a spear build. Spears are SUPER easy to make, even if you cant find knives, just forage a flint (or whatever they are called in pz). Again great video my guy, keep up the great work.

[@ProjectTweak]

Some really good insights here!

[@KalasenZyphurus]

The combination of being the best at spears (a powerful but flimsy weapon) with the backup of being good at some of the most common, light, and durable weapons is great. Having enough skill at short blunt weapons makes them deal solid enough damage for clearing out areas with minimal replacement. Maintenance skill means that short blunt weapon should almost never break. Carrying around a spear with a backup police baton means you should never be caught having to use a wrong-skill or bad weapon. Plus, you can carry a bag in your off-hand, once you've cleared and looted enough for your spear to break and your inventory to be full. Carpentry is some great synergy as a useful utility skill, as you can break down a door or chair in the field and make a new spear easily. Later on, once your maintenance is high enough, you go all-in on spears and carry two around at all times.

[@SheepSociety]

Tv itself and 2/3/4 books gives ya carpentry 8

[@shaokhanwins1037]

one thing to keep in mind the list changes drastically in MP. With a group, focused occupations tend to be better than jack of all trades occupations since you will have teammates to cover things for you, and you cover things for them.

[@ProjectTweak]

Absolutely agree. This was aimed at solo players but I will look into releasing one soon for MP. Much easier to diversify your occupations if you’re playing with mates!

[@austinwest2735]

@@ProjectTweaki would also love a MP tier list! Good video

[@ProjectTweak]

@@austinwest2735 Can do! Although I would have to create some form of parameters otherwise it will be difficult to create a tierlist as they could all theoretically be A or S tier depending on the playstyle of the players hehe

[@pedrofromrio645]

Police officer gives bonuses to aiming, but the Veteran’s desensitized trait is just a better long term perk for when using guns. When you think about it, that perk is constant bonus to your aim. Constantly looking for beta blockers is annoying, so that trait is really good for leveling up firearms in the late early to mid game. Pistols are actually somewhat viable as a veteran in the late early game. The panicked state really does have a big impact on your aim, so without it, they’re more viable early on.

[@ilikespagett1514]

For all noobs: do not do what tweak did. Do not move when firing weapons (within reason ofc). You will be much more accurate.

[@ProjectTweak]

Listen to this man right here! 😃

[@ericknorskr8568]

dunno, im an avid min-maxer and in my humble opinion fire officer should definetely be on s+ purely by it's spawn locations and the bonus to fitness, not to mention how broken fire fighter+brawler is (giving you proficiency in the two best weapon categories, making you a killing machine just by findind an fire axe or an crownbar, the latter being a fairly common spawn) It's also not as perk-point hungry as the other "combat" occupations. Other than that, great video!

[@ProjectTweak]

Honestly, it was a tough choice on fire fighter! It’s definitely been one of my favourites to date and I’d definitely recommend players to give it a go Thank you! I’m really happy you enjoyed it!

[@yastreb.]

Agreed, also fire officer has the hidden perk of being able to spawn already wearing military boots, making stomping much more effective. Really useful in the very early game.

[@LogicFox]

Thank you KZbin for recommending this channel crazy underrated

[@DrSleeperAgent]

They really need to add more unique additions besides stat buffs, doctor and nurse need something to be worthwhile. Like doctor's are great at utilizing the minimal amount of equipment for medical situations, while nurses know how to dilute medical resources while still keeping them effective. Maybe even give them an ability for coop where they can heal a bite without a cure, but only if they can do so quickly (hard to but doable in grave situations) and they can only use this ability on teamates.

[@tendust1513]

the music just gave me serious nostalgia

[@yastreb.]

Good work! The only occupation I significantly disagree about is burger flipper. I would put them in the A tier because it is so cheap, giving you +2 trait points which means you are paying only 6 points (compared to unemployed) and it gives you maintenance. Maintenance is one of the most important combat skills and the only other ways to get a starting level on it are to take handy for -8 points or be a repairman which is significantly more expensive.

[@mummifiedd]

burger flipper would be S for me, short blade is extremely underrated

[@endlessvoid7519]

agreed, burger flipper is the cheapest maintenance boost in the game atm making it a/s tier for me

[@halcyonways1476]

And hunting knives start appearing on zombies after a few weeks. Which is good for those o fit o strength builds and getting a 4x boost for short blade/maintenance is s 💧

[@hideshisface1886]

A thing to note - each class also has hidden modifiers to things you can find in containers or through searching in the wilderness. For example - both carpenter and lumberjack have a greater chance to find wood lying around, policeman and veteran and burglar will be more likely to find ammo. Now, with that in mind: Park ranger - I think it deserves a bump - if you plan on moving through woods or foraging, this is THE job that is best suited to finding useful stuff out there. Faster move through woods is invaluable IF you are moving around infested areas, like Rosewood woodlands - it makes you far safer out there. Repairman deserve a bump too - simply because of how invaluable "maintenance" skill is. Weapon durability in PZ is weird - all weapons have the hidden "chance to be damaged on use" modifier. And maintenance massively cuts this down on top of the weapon skill. The thing is - maintenance is hard to train, so every point matters. The effects are most valuable on weapons with high chance to be damaged in the first place - these are your spears and katanas. Spears are amazing, because they are a solid weapon and infinite supply at that. BUT without maintenance they break VERY quickly. This profession is also one of only ways to get a boost to maintenance learning speed, which is invaluable. I would also bump the carpenter higher - yeah, the carpentry is not that great initially, BUT unless you are planning on going full on nomad style, you will establish some sort of base sooner or later - and carpentry is a very solid jumpstart. I'm also not sure about burglar being this high - sneaking gives a false sense of security, especially to new players. And you only need one level in Electrical to be able to hotwire cars - and you can easily obtain it by dismantling watches you find on corpses.

[@Naggstek]

Wasn't sure how this video would go but after that lettuce joke I knew things would work out fine.

[@Nahidasflowers]

Your so underrated! Keep up the great work, you'll definitely make it someday! ^^

[@ProjectTweak]

Thank you so much for the kind comment 😃I'm enjoying making videos for you guys!

[@itssmee1597]

only criticism is to hold the tier list for a couple of moments for us to look at the completed list. great vid!

[@Mahlatini23]

You're videos are so good!! Please keep releasing more

[@Drie_Kleuren]

One of my favorite occupations is Mechanic. Being able to upgrade cars is very handy. Also you dont need to look for the stupid 3 magazines. Often you find 2/3 and the 3rd one is never to be found. You will find the ones you already have like 6 times more... Its not the best offensive. The 1 short blunt is nice but its not the best. But with some good traits it doesnt really matter. Also you need just 1 level to be able to hotwire. I usually achieve this in like week 1 or 2 and then I am set. Its very handy to work on cars. I often upgrade my cars. I make sure to look for performence parts. The muffler makes a huge difference. So its pretty good if you can find these and put them in your car. I really like working on cars and its a fun side quest for me. I also like to strip cars and gather parts to replace/repair my car. I dont like grabbing a new car. I rather replace it. Also the mechanic skill is stupidly grindy to level up. Since you can only get xp once every 24ingame hour. The extra xp multiplier makes hitting lvl 10 super easy. When you are high level mechanic its super nice to work on cars. I once repaired/restored a "wrecked sports car" the total condition was like 11%. I replaced every part with new parts and everything performence. It was a fun project. It took some time but it was so satisfying looking for parts and gathering everything. Also in multiplayer/co-op mechanic is nice. Having a good reliable car can really help. Getting loot and escaping sticky situations can really save your life. You dont want your car to break down in a horde. Also getting a new car is often harder in multiplayer... Its also different from other people so you have more of a unique role...

[@nicolestanley5825]

I know someone's probably already said this, but Electrician immediately becomes S-tier on any ILLITERATE playthrough, as it's the ONLY WAY TO USE GENERATORS in such a build!

[@viniwizi]

If you take handy with repairmen you can grind a single level of carpentry and instantly be able to craft max condition crafted spears with +3 maintenance, that way you can become a zombie killing machine day 1.

[@Lampaluile]

Repairman is 100% my favorite occupation now! Lumberjack is pretty cool too because of the swing speed

[@bomjus1706]

i love fisherman in multiplayer. i fish at dawn/dusk, and then forage for insects during day/night and then store all the insects in crates for winter when fishing chance is lower. it's hard to feed multiple people if they are going on long loot runs cause the meals can go stale, but if someone needs to gain weight back at base, plenty of stir fries in the freezer. and with that bonus to insect foraging. you can stock up an immense amount of insects before winter. also lets you be the group's forager for things like chipped stones for your axe/spear player. Also i think burger flipper/repairman deserve a little more credit purely because the only way to get maintenance besides occupations is the handy trait which costs 8 points. So if you want a maintenance xp bonus, but dont want to spend 8 points, those two occupations are huge.

[@Ryse3108]

cracking work mate, useful information and well written and detailed video! exactly what ya need when discussing professions in Zomboid! Keep it up!

[@ProjectTweak]

Thank you so much for the kind words!

[@bigmanspook]

Security guard is my favorite in singleplayer. I pair it with the Wakeful trait, and I only sleep for like 2 hours every night. Super nice.

[@dustinherk8124]

electrician should be B tier cus you can still use generators even when taking the illiterate trait, which would normally prevent you from using generators once power cuts out. especially when illiterate grants 10 points. and alot of players hate sitting around and reading, even though it speeds up the process of grinding skills.

[@Accurize2]

For surviving in the wild to be “proper Bear Grylls style”, you’d need a car to get to a posh hotel each night. I think you meant “proper Les Stroud style”. But you’re British, so I understand the survival sun rises and sets on Bear Grylls with you lot. 😂

[@ProjectTweak]

I’m actually not British lol. I’m South African 😂but you make a good point with Bear

[@sweetfunkyloo1324]

Nice one man! Good video. Keep them coming. It's good stuff.

[@ProjectTweak]

Thanks bro!

[@madcat789]

During a Co-Op playthrough with some friends, we had a few pick Fitness Instructor so they could go out and scavenger/scout. Being fit, they traveled far and could come back mostly unscathed.

[@theshredguitarist25]

Liked and subscribed! Im new to this game, its a challenge but i love it! Thanks for making this vid im always looking at the pros and cons of each occupation.

[@StaminaLoss]

Fitness is the more better trait because it has so much utility + is slow to level up. You can keep fighting even after you escape the horde, keep running to escape for areas like Louisville or high density areas, etc. The extra strength makes Fire officer arguably one of the best because of how cheap and good it is out the gate. Guns are very easy to level up. You just find a shotgun... that's it. You just herd them and stand still, you can hit a lot and level up super quick. Basically unless you really really want to use guns, it is really not as useful as people say it is to go for Police officer or Veteran Hotwiring cars is funny. Car keys are everywhere. The only issue is gas, but it is super easy to find keys in or around car parks in areas and you wouldn't have to hotwire at all. Stealth is nice, although it is not as good as people say it is as it is pretty inconsistent with sound, but it also is not the be all end all as often you will attract a horde or will be blocked in a lot of areas if you only stealth. At least bring up every single counter to every skill instead of just sprinting lmao. At least the extra sprinting cuts down on mindless grinding. Funny enough, you can just use a molotov cocktail instead of explosives. It has pushback and damage, just that if the objective is to kill a horde, you have a cheap solution that any occupation can do.

[@Buffalo_Soldier]

Repairman is the best class to main spears. Spears are great. So repairman is great :D

[@Cookiepheonix]

Nice Video! This helped in the Start very much :D

[@odettenadinedutkiewicz]

Another great video 😁

[@ProjectTweak]

Thank you!

[@Hungrywolf218]

Battle Block Theater as background music, nice👍

[@Smiley0.1]

This sounds like skill issue talking but I wish they'd eventually let you have positive traits and occupations without the need for negatives to balance it out. Yes obviously its for balancing stuff, but PZ is also an experimenting and sandbox game. I feel like putting negatives should be a choice. Because irl I highly doubt they'd let an overweight or deaf guy be a fire officer. But I'm guessing you can already do that with debug.

[@billyd7628]

you can do that already by selecting in sandbox options the amount of starting points you get.

[@Smiley0.1]

@@billyd7628 ah thanks, I just checked. I do have the bad feeling it might be removed in Build 42 tho.

[@ghjkhb]

Gotta argue, Veteran only S tier. The god damn panic reduction is king.

[@samuelmoreira9606]

I think Chef should be at the very least B tier, after reaching the 7th level, you can cook with any igredient, even if it is rotten, so if you survive long enough, you can reuse all those rotten foods you find in the houses, which may be really good if you want to save some of your canned food stored

[@CommanderSlothUwU]

Imo, police is C tier, veteran is way better because it gives u desensetized trait

[@ProjectTweak]

True that, but you can gain a form of “desensitized” when you’ve killed enough zombies (I think it’s around 1500). By then you don’t have to worry about panic much. Veteran is really good but extremely expensive just for desensitized alone

[@schimpfmichael695]

Great comments! I have decided for repairman paired with gymnast and handy as a long run build focused on spears and fishing with spears.

[@Makakikus]

An occupation I pick 100% of the time is metalworker paired with Amateur mechanic trait. It is WILD the amount of metalworking experience you gain by salvaging burnt vehicles. Also, if you max metalwork and mechanics, you can repair vehicles very easy with less materials. Metalworker is awesome to fortify your base. If you like the metalworker and mechanic role, I highly reccommend the following mods: -Vehicle Repair Overhaul -Easy Lightbar Repair -Easy Heater Repair Good luck!

[@CyranofromBergerac]

Sounds like a great support character on multiplayer.

[@Austin-sw3mf]

I feel like fisherman should come with +1 to spear. It seems logical that if you're able to spear a fish, you'd be more adept at hitting zeds, as well.

[@NIVO1972]

great vid thx!

[@ProjectTweak]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@emeryweaver3796]

The thing about carpentry and cooking is you can learn that stuff quickly from the TV in just 2 days. Especially if you find them booster books. Just rush a school or library and you should get lucky finding a backpack along with all the basic skill books you could need.

[@LoudestMan]

I tend to go with lumberjack, brawler, and fast learner for easy axe leveling. I can usually get to axe 10 in the first or 2nd month (because I play far too aggressive).

[@aShadowWizard69]

Burglar actually has 2 hidden buffs not many know about that are involved in Foraging. You have a +5% ignore to weather and a +15% to darkness when foraging and you have a flat +10% to find ammo, weapons, junk, and trash when foraging.

[@sdgamer1860]

Depending on my chosen combat style and zombie settings (plus the horde night mod) I would go Policeman for range combat or put stout, fit and ball player on fireman for a melee build. Started to not opt for brave because if my survivor lives long enough (about 7 days or so) they gain resistance to panic make smaller zombie groups easier to deal with EDIT: Guns are really useful if you are trying to clear out certain areas such as the Muldraugh Police station which has a book store right across from it and the Muldraugh School which also has A LOT of books to grab so Police Officer REALLY helps with that kind of thing. Also Metalworker only get really useful with the Workshop mod along with it's 3 sub mods that does add scrap weapons, armor and guns along with the Scrap Warrior Trait which gives a plus one to metalworking and hands out early scrap weapon recipes (the scrap shivs can level that skill up FAST)

[@Lean_Dankr]

Fitness instructer gains regularity with exercises faster which is kinda cool

[@Metro33fan]

Such an underrated channel

[@Grav_0]

Construction worker in C tier is criminal, taking it with handy is ridiculous.

[@RustyKlowbi]

Security guard can be higher if you are playing single player. The single fact on sleeping less. Allow you do more stuff that you couldn't in normal playthrough. Required a little to none sleep with some energy food like vitamin and coffee. Allow players you scavenge longer without worrying need to sleep too often.

[@CoolKidCroc]

Police Officer, Burglar and Unemployed. The three pillars of real life society.

[@The_Custos]

Construction worker is A, because you can very easily get into high level in short blunt, your weapons are slow to break, and easily found. It is straightforward and works.

[@tibet751]

You cannot become desensitized. You have to pick veteran or you will not see it. Fisherman also has a foraging boost and it’s THE class for any indefinitely sustainable survivor

[@ProjectTweak]

You can become desensitized, in a sense. Your natural panic reduction rate increases as you kill zombies (I think it equalizes at around 1500). However, you won't get the Desensitized trait as that's exclusive to veteran

[@mat-e2x7g]

Lumberjack, Does the 25% increased axe swing speed stack or add to the axe level swing speed. This probably isn't the place to ask but i have asked now. At level 10 with any weapon swing is increased by 30%. If stacked this increases the swing speed by 62.5% swing speed. If its combined, then it becomes 55% increased swing speed. I really cant tell because the lumberjack perk is just that damn good. The only thing faster is level 10 spears but they break in like 30 wacks.

[@dreamer5234]

To see burger flipper in C instead of S where it actually belongs feels wrong. Burglar is a noob trap, a B at best, same as Police officer. Fire Officer can be an S built in a certain way, Veteran a C, too many points for little benefit most of the game, Lumberjack is fine as A. Repairman is a C because it costs 12 points, when it can be simply be replaced by the Handy trait for 8 points. The extra 4 points for Short Blunt might be worth it for some, that's why its not a D. Park Ranger okay as B, but Engineer is a clear A considering it gives unique recipes. As for why Burger Flipper is an S, its because it costs only 6 points while giving you Maintenance, which would otherwise cost 8 points with Handy. Its simply a better option than unemployed and as a bonus it also boosts cooking to help you use rotten food for cooking sooner, and short blade.

[@moisetiberiucosmin2059]

Lumberjack is easily the top S Tier, right under Officer. Lumberjack is even very good for vanilla, because after a month or two I think zombies will spawn with axes in them, and if you find a wood axe and make your maintenance lvl 4-5, breaking Axes will be less of a hassle. And after you get Axe skill to 7 at least you can literally 1 hit zombies and sometimes 2 hits.

[@ANormalOnion]

Burger Flippers and Construction Workers are B Tier at least in my opinion As strong as Axes, Long Blades, and Long Blunt weapons are out of the box, short weapons are numerous and have less strain on stamina and for anyone that wants to go full loot goblin but still be lethal there's an open hand to hold a second bag with. Also if we're speaking strictly vanilla, they also have the advantage of being able to hold a flashlight if they're caught out at night or in a dark building.

[@Zero-zo3fp]

I disagree about unemployed being S tier I've been unemployed for 6 months and it feel awful , F tier

[@AM-tv2fs]

Just a tip for every new player, there are no skill books for combat skills, picking an occupation or trait that starts with skill points in a combat skill, will make that skill have a permanent exp multiplier. So consider what weapon you would like to use mainly and get at least 1 point in that combat skill during the character creation screen.

[@eikementira1604]

for me veteran with brawler + fast learner is the best combo, my skills go sheeesh :DDD

[@jamesmccoy4793]

There is a mod that adds skill books for all skills though. It even includes all the combat skills. Having Archery is an excellent add on for the game. Note to new players, spears are very much OP, especially early in the game. If you suffer an arm injury that effects your strength/attack speed, spears are a life saver. If you time your attack right, that lunging thrust scored an insta-kill no matter how weak you are.

[@foxincrocs]

I think Carpenter has fallen off as a profession with the increased rate of garbage bag spawns. In early builds of the game you really didn't want to waste them on the smaller rain barrels since they were in such short supply. Also the stairs could be built to a couple of the completely impenetrable fenced in areas before those areas were updated and they added the ability to climb over them.

[@Frumpy113]

Liked for the battle block theater soundtrack, subbed for the video.

[@denisecastellanos4866]

PT: "Unless you are a player who LOOOOVES cooking...." Me: "Oh yeah, I LOOOOVES cooking!!" Still have not and will not do a Chef start for practical purposes. Because, with the amount of cooking I do, I level it up super fast anyway. Could see an RP value for it though. Nurse is also one with a primarily RP purpose, in vanilla. One of my mains is a nurse and I am RPing that she was working as a nurse in the clinic just North of the gated community in Muldraugh when the quarantine began. I keep in game journal entries, developing her story. Nurse can actually have a practical purpose if you use the mod First Aid Overhaul by Braven, on the Steam workshop. By default, the mod makes it so that treating a wound (e.g. applying a bandage) has a chance to fail until you reach level 4 in first aid. Nurse in this case start with the Medical Practitioner perk which means they will never fail. By the way, I have come super close to dying due to multiple consecutive failed bandaging attempts with other characters. The mod totally makes first aid viable and the pressure to level it, well... more pressing.

[@drnoaklistiir3067]

Creator of this list is definitely huge combat lover and does not consider much survival and crafting elements. Regarding combat, for the most part it's melee anyway. police officer is B at best thanks to aiming only. You can unload and reload one 9mm magazine a few times and have reloading leveled up easily. Veteran may waste a bit more ammo on the start but in the end thrives in combat. Easiest for beginners are Firefighter, Carpenter, Construction worker and Unemployed. My personal faves are Engineer , Mechanic and Electrician since it's too easy to learn hotwiring to be a burglar and tune vehicles which is so in depth that it's almost like a separate minigame on its own. On the combat perspective creating bombs is definitely useful and even it is not usually recommended you can use cars as weapons too if you know what you're doing and it is easy for you to repair them.

[@dcmcmother3531]

You forgot to mention that you can also level up carpentry via vhs tapes

[@ProjectTweak]

Good call!

[@justareguralcitizen9492]

I would consider the fact you can very fast gain the ability to hijack a car with the mechanic even on the first day.

[@sootierlamb3223]

I have always gone burglar and barely anything else burglar is just so good to breeze through the start and be able to immediately Hotwire cars and also the sneaking and agility bonuses are amazing for supply runs

[@Agent_Chieftain]

I personally think Carpenter is at least a B tier. The early game boost to your carpentry level/exp gain is crazy. I've been doing runs where I can build staircases by day 2 or 3, and the higher level rain catchers the day after. This let's you fortify locations to use as bases that no other occupations can in the early game. Suddenly, every building is a two-story, as far as you're concerned. See something with a nice, flat rooftop? Build some stairs, build a fence, hang a sheet rope, deconstruct stairs. Congrats, you now have a zombie-proof platform to build on. And with such a high carpentry level, you'll be able to move beds and any other furniture you want there quickly.

[@captprice2225]

for me veteran should be S tier, I always play him, its very good cuz of the aiming and cold blood skill - you simply dont panic which is useful

[@ProjectTweak]

The immunity to panic is bloody broken, I agree

[@thecognitiverambler8911]

My favorite profession that I pretty much always take, as well.

[@TypicalBoy0604]

Early game to upgrade your reloading skill just take the magazine your using and keep unloading and reloading it, it gives you the points you need. It’s a bit tedious of course, but it’s better than dying because you reloaded too slow.

[@synsol1008]

Axe man with strong, athletic and nimble is all u need, the rest of the skills are easily grinded out

[@Infiniti-Beau]

6:20 ☝🏼🤓 actkchually the killing allot of zombies and gaining it are from a mod we all use.

[@DaCouchWarrior]

Im played neraly 100 hours in SP and now playing with big group of friends, and i can say that its just different because you have more people and other foccuses. You do not think in long term while playing with friends (because we dont need it) so occupation like ranger is something like b or even c in MP while in SP its solid A/S (long term). For me honestly Lumberjack in MP is best choice, single player is depends on what i want from run, so burglar, ranger, policeman or firefighter (sometimes even fitness instructor).

[@OttosTheName]

Burger flipper is fantastic in runs like CDDA or 16 pop extremely rare loot runs. It's quite popular amongst the chadly players. Having that 4x XP for Maintenance AND short blade, the most plentiful weapon type is Goated. And it's so incredibly cheap. I'm pretty sure some of the best players would put it in A or S tier. Short blade weapons aren't 'okay at best' after spear they are by far the most useful tool for taking down big hordes while using essentially no stamina at all. (less stamina than spear, but also less DPS). There's a good reason they are quite popular amongst the more experienced players. Newer players find them scary though, which is fair.

[@TheTimbs_]

Lumberjacks can run through hordes with an axe and at least a level 5 skill in the weapon. It’s not too hard to achieve with brawler. Also construction worker is very good for a Tyreese Williams roleplay.

[@catfoodbob1]

A tailor where they can make internal patches on clothes and the patches give more bite chance reduction and ripping chance reduction would be good. also being able to just make clothes from components.

[@babygorilla4233]

One thing I recommend is playing with the game settings. Particularly the loot options. Personally I love immersive sim style games I want a game world that feels like an actual place people lived in. And this games default loot settings really want to tell me that of the 4 houses I just searched no one had a hammer kitchen knife or pen?!

[@deacon6221]

If they made the only cure mod baseline for vanilla first aid would jump up. Imagine if a higher first aid skill helped your success in amputation which would be essential for saving games.

[@DieselDrinker801]

t5he thing i love about this game is that there is no right or wrong way to play some people say guns suck others think theyre good some say strength and fitness are the most important traits some dont ect. thats why i love seeing peoples opinions

[@ProjectTweak]

I absolutely agree! There isn’t any real “meta” way to play this and it’s why I enjoy it. You can play it however you want to and still have a fun time

[@DieselDrinker801]

@@ProjectTweak Yeah in my opinion its not about graphics for good game design its about this sorta stuff

[@AM-tv2fs]

Yep, honestly just have fun with it. I used to hate guns because of how much they attract zombies. Now that I'm really good at surviving I just love playing at x4 population and swimming between zombies to shotgun their faces. I've died so many times doing this but it's super fun.

[@DieselDrinker801]

@@AM-tv2fs ill try that sounds fun

[@peachesandcream22]

I want to add my fly in the ointment of Bulglar occupation: once you hotwire your car, you won't be able to use AC anymore. The car driving will be UNFORGIVING for you when winter or summer starts. If you're reaaaaaally desperate to choose Burglar, then I recommend to hotwire only the car that you will use for scavenging loot, but please, don't hotwire the car that you will use for travelling. You DEFINITELY don't want to have a night in the car during winter and then wake up frozen.

[@MrNo-xl2dq]

I would introduce in next patch that Doctor got chance to clean infected wound with good bandage material! It would give him to be more usefull in the game!

[@YukiChanC]

i would only change the construction worker to S tier because i LOVE using hammers, they use less stamina,have a LOT of durability. you can have a second backpack or a flashlight if play with more darker nights and you find them EVERYWHERE.