<<<This guide is under construction>>>
(12-30-21)

This is an iin-progress guide. I started this guide during build 32 and was unable to complete it at the time due to life getting busy. I am now slowly updating/finishing it as I re-learn the game and all the new mechanics and skills it has to offer.

Welcome to my guide. I hope you find whatever help you need within it's pages. When I started this guide I was fairly new to PZ(Project Zomboid) but when I started playing I was frustrated by the lack of steam guides. Now that I'm more familiar with the game I want to help other newbs by giving them something I didn't have: a detailed guide. This guide is currently under construction, and is being updated from it's original build 32 content, to the current build 41.

On the main screen you'll find the tutorial. I recommend everyone play it at least once. It wasn't implemented yet when I started playing and will help you learn the controls and game mechanics.

Next, you'll find a choice of solo, host, or join. Later, after you've played the game solo, the option to continue will appear. Clicking on it will automatically load your last played single player save file.
























Apocalypse is basically the "hard" mode. It is the most challenging of pre-configured "playstyles." Zombies are more of a challenge and survival conditions are harsher, compared to the other playstyles.


Survivor is the "normal" game mode. All you have is the clothes on your back and your key ring. Zombies are of course stronger and more common than the "builder" playstyle, and the world in general, goes to hell in a hand basket fairly quickly.


Builder is your "easy" playstyle. Zombies are easier to deal with, and survival conditions are more ideal. Good loot, and safer building, can be found in this playstyle.


Custom Sandbox is exactly what it sounds like. When starting a new custom sandbox save you can select the settings and tweak various things. This is my most used mode. You can change the turn off date for water and electricity(separately), how abundant or scarce loot is, how strong zombies are and several other things. There will be a section devoted to explaining the settings further on in this guide.



The Challenges are a group of pre-set games, most of the themed. They give a short description of what to expect. They are not meant to be a long term game mode but rather most of them are in a last stand kind of set up, where the odds are against you and the challenge is whether you die right off, or manage to live long enough to be killed from hunger or other non-zombie conditions. My favorite is the second house in the woods. I haven't played them all yet, but when I do I will add a more in depth description of each challenge further on in the guide.

The last modes are Join and Host. This mode has it's own devoted section due to how much there is to say about it.

The first part of Character Creation is pretty straight forward. You can pick your gender, change your first and last name, and change your looks. Guys have a few more options than girls due to beards and such, girls however have a couple more clothing option, so I feel it balances out. You can click on the little colored blocks next to top and bottom clothing to open a decent size color pallet where you can select the shade you want. Unfortunately you can't change the color of your shoes, only whether or not you start out wearing shoes. And yes, you can start out with absolutely no clothes on. Men will be wearing boxers and women will be wearing a plain white bra and underwear. At the moment your name only carries over to your key ring so it's not very important unless you roleplay or prefer to consistently name your character the same thing. I'm assuming when npcs are implemented(yes they will be added) your name will be used more.


The second half of character creation is your job and traits. You start out with 8 points. These points are spent by selecting an occupation and traits.

Each occupation has benefits. You can only have one per character. They come in the form of skill bonuses and a couple have unique traits that you can't get otherwise. If you choose to be unemployed you will have 8 points to spend on traits. If you select an occupation it will use up some or all of your points, and some occupations will even leave you with negative points.

There are 2 kinds of traits, Good Traits(Green), and Bad Traits(Red). Good traits are beneficial to your character and give you different bonuses, where as Bad traits will give your character shortcomings and disabilities, BUT will give you more points to spend on an Occupation and Good Traits. You can have as many traits as you want, as long as you don't have negative points when you try to continue. I suggest you take your time to look at all the traits and occupations. There's a lot of different kinds of character builds, and everyone has their own preference. It's important to note that some traits will cancel your ability to get others. For example: you can't have both Hearty Appetite and Light Eater, because they would cancel each other out you can only have one or the other. Also, Traits that do the same thing but at different levels won't stack, such as Illiterate and Slow Reader. Again you can't have one if you have the other, if you are a slow reader, you are (at least to some extent) literate, and thus cannot be illiterate, and vice versa. However, Traits that do similar things can sometimes stack. For instance you can have Baseball Player(+1 Blunt Accuracy) and Brawler(+1Blunt Accuracy, +1 Blade Accuracy).

You can view your selected traits, and the effected skills in the Chosen Traits and Major Skills boxes. Keep in mind that not all traits affect skills. Some traits will influence other things such as your infection rate and your perception of the world. At the bottom of the Character Building page, you will notice a save button and a drop down menu. Here you can save and load your favorite or frequently used builds. All you have to do to add a build to the drop down list, is to select the occupation and traits you want, and then hit save, it will pop up with a text box where you can name that build. Once it's been saved you can find it anytime you are starting a new character (in single OR multiplayer) in the drop down menu.

This is your skill panel. At the top you will find your info and health tabs.

You gain skill experience by using that skill. You have to cook to gain cooking skill and run to gain sprinting, etc. Other than the Occupation/Trait selection at the beginning, there is no way to get instant skill points. There are skill books in the game, but these skill books increase how quickly you gain your skill by giving it a multiplier. The more of the skill book you read, the bigger the multiplier. At the first skill level a fully read book will give you a multiplier of 3, which means you will gain skill experience for that skill 3 times faster. If you only read part of a book you will get a smaller multiplier. A multiplier of 1.25 will mean you gain that skill experience one fourth faster than normal, where a multiplier of 2 would mean you gain it twice as fast. When you read a book flashing white arrows will show up next to it's name.



Hovering over your lowest unfilled skill point for that skill will tell you the current experience level and multiplier.



Now that we know how to build skills and use skill points lets talk about the skills themselves.

The agility skill set has no books to help you learn it, the only way to learn it is by using it.

You sprint by holding SHIFT while moving. A higher sprinting skill will allow you to run faster. Be careful though, sprinting makes a fair amount of noise and running down a zed-filled neighborhood and get a horde on your tail fairly quickly.

This skill allows you to walk or run more quietly. You gain experience for it by running or walking within a zombie's perception range without being discovered. This is gained fairly well when sneaking.

The nimble skill allows you to move more quickly when climbing fences and sheet ropes as well as gives you a larger range of vision when aiming. You can gain experience for it by climbing things.

You sneak by holding the CTRL or Z key while moving. Sneaking makes you less noticeable to zombies….er... when sneaking. This is skill is pretty straight-forward. Gain it by sneaking.

For all combat skills, a higher skill results in stronger, more accurate blows. The combat skills are pretty straight forward, so this section will be brief.

The axe skill is all Axe and nothing but the Axe. Use an axe while fighting to use and level it.

The Blade skill sets are, you guessed it, all about sharp weapons. Knives and any other sharp objects build and use these skills.

The Blunt skills are for non-sharp, melee weapons. Bats, hammers, and crowbars all fit under this category. The blunt fighting style has more of a knockback when fighting. Use corresponding blunt weapons to gain and utilize these skills.

The spear skill is for spears. Take a pole, and strap something sharp to it, and you've got a good spear for stabby-stabbing. Use spears to use and improve this skill.

The higher your maintenance level, the slower your weapons degrade when being used.

The various crafting skills are each important in their own way. Each one is fairly unique to the others, and half of them actually don't involve a lot of crafting.

Arguably one of the most important skills to learn in single or multiplayer. Building rain collector barrels is one of the few ways to get water after the electric and plumbing get turned off. It also allows you to build a multitude of other useful things such as walls and furniture. This skill is gained by sawing logs into planks, and planks into sticks and by building anything in the right click( Build>) menu. The higher your carpentry skill, the larger variety of things you can build. Things built with a higher level that require a lower level can take more hits before being damaged or destroyed and are also more aesthetically pleasing.



Cooking is a fairly useful skill, but for many players, not a priority. A higher cooking skill gives the food you make better stats. Later on, when you run out of books and chocolate bars, a good meal can be one of the few ways to get rid of depression. At level 4 you can also make soup and stew using rotten ingredients. This is very useful if you have a garden that over-produces or the power's been shut off and you can't find anything but fridges full of rotten vegetables. It is gained by cooking food on a heat source(campfire/stove/microwave/grill) or by prepping and cutting food.



The value of farming varies wildly from person to person. It will be up to you to decide if the effort of farming is worth the output. Some players endeavor to have large, well-tended farms, others won't even pick up a seed packet. The farming skill is not about tending or planting your crops, but rather, the higher your farming skill, the more info you can see about a plants status when right clicking on it. Knowing the specifics about your plants can allow you to tend them better which will in turn produce a larger harvest. Farming can only be increased by harvesting fully-grown crops.


This is another one of those skills that varies in preference from person to person. I personally prefer to have it, especially on multiplayer. But as ZoeyTheZany aptly explained, if you don't break your limbs, you have no need to fix them. A higher First Aid skill allows you to see more info on your health panel and makes your first aid faster and more effective. To use first aid right click on your health panel and it will give you the options to use whatever first aid items you have in your inventory or within reach. It's important to treat all wounds a s soon as possible, and always disinfect or use a sterile bandage if you have the supplies available. You gain experience in this skill by performing first aid on yourself and others. To do first aid on another player, right click them and it will allow you to do a medical check, then their health panel will pop up for you to see and you can interact with it just like your own.



The electrical skill is centered around appliances and hand-held electronics. At the moment it is used to dismantle small electronics and then create useful items from their components. Most of the items are ranged items that can be used as weapons or distractions. You can gain experience for this skill by dismantling electrical items and building items using the electrical skill. A screwdriver is required to dismantle items.



This skill works similar to the carpentry skill. Using a Welding Mask, Propane Torch, and Welding Rods, you can take materials (metal sheets) and turn them into walls, doors, containers, and a few other useful things. Items made with metal are stronger than their wood counterparts, and for good reason. Not only are more metalworking tools required to be able to use the skill, but the items can be harder to come by, especially if you don't know where to look. Metalworking can also be used to weld metal barricades onto windows, for strong and clean-looking defenses. You can only build your metalworking skill by using it to make things.

The Firearm skillset is your aptitude and effectiveness with guns.

To put it simply, the Aiming skill is your ability to aim and control your gun. Recoil, accuracy, and range are all effected by your aiming skill. Experience for is gained by killing zombies with guns.

Yet another straight-forward skill, reloading is how fast you can you can reload your gun with ammo. You gain experience for it by….reloading.

The survivalist skillset has skills that are provide you food in the post-apocalyptic wilderness. To be useful, you have to be out in the forest or somewhere similar.

This skill is a good food source once the power has been shut off. Using fishing supplies you find water, and fish. Casting your line gives you experience but catching a fish will give you more experience, and the bigger the fish, the more experience. A higher fishing skill will give you better chances of success and allow you to catch bigger fish.

Trapping is good for players who don't want to remain in the middle of town, as traps don't work well in urban areas. You can craft traps in the B key menu, and then set them. Pulling animals from traps gives you trapping experience and a higher skill level will give you a larger variety of craftable traps, as well as increase your chance of trapping something.



Foraging has gone through a few changes. To forage you have to select the magnifying glass at the left of your game screen, and then click "search" on the box that pops up. After clicking it your screen should go hazy except for a circle surrounding your character. This circle will move with you, and if you wander close to anything an eye will pop up on the screen. Once you character has finished spotting the item, an arrow will appear, pointing to the item in question, and the item can now be seen lying on the ground. Right click on it and then select forging and it will allow you to collect what you've found.

You normally have to be in a pre-established forest or near the edges of the wilderness to find anything. Foraging can give you twigs and branches, stone and chipped-stone, and various flowers and berries that can be eaten. Hovering over the search window will tell you what the likelihood of finding different types of items are. Beware the white berries, they are poisonous. If you don't do well in an urban setting this skill is a must as it will become a steady source of food for you, as well as providing the things you need to build a makeshift axe and hammer if you can't find them in town.

In no particular order, here are some helpful controls to make playing the game a little easier:

B: Opens crafting menu.
Z: When in a vehicle, it allows you to switch seats.
E: hop fences, open doors and windows
Q: shouts, attracts nearby zombies

You will die.

Embrace it. Accept it. Make peace with it.

You will lose items, skills, and all other character progress.



Over time you will die less often, but it will happen. But fret not. If you continue on the same save file, your items can be retrieved and your base reclaimed. The world stays as it is when you die. This means that your base will still be there, and your zombie too, if that's how you went out.

While most players will succumb to death outside of their control(fire, injury, starvation, zombification) some choose to go out on their own terms. The two main ways to do this are to drink bleach(yes, really) and walk into a crowd of zombies and don't fight. My preferred is too go down by voluntary zombie. Usually I'll stash my stuff in my base, strip down to my undies, and run off into a crowd of zed, using my inevitable demise to lure crowds away from places that will be beneficial in my next life. No base? No problem. By always starting your character with the same look every time, you will be able to easily spot your previous self in a crowd, or wandering down an alley.Just leave your original clothes on or dress as eye-popping as possible. Then, once you find yourself, you can reminisce on old times with a few whacks on the noggin, and reclaim your old goodies.

The important thing to remember, is that death, and loss, are a big part of the game. Don't be ashamed or angry. Learn from how you died, and do better the next time!

There are a LOT of items in PZ. It can be difficult to figure out what is useful and what isn't, and what does what. This list will not be in depth. I will try and list the items I think are best for each of my chosen categories. Some categories that caontain a lot of options will be fairly short (such as food). With the recent update some useless items have become usable, and I expect more will with subsequent updates, when that happens I will try to remember to keep the guide updated. As of Build 32:

Baseball bat

Crowbar

Spiked bat (crafted)

Rolling pin ( also used for cooking)

Frying Pan (also used for cooking)

Golf Club


Big Hiking Bag

Hiking Bag

Duffel Bag

School Bag

Purse

Tote Bag

Plastic Bag


Anything Canned

Cereal

Chips

Pop

Ham

Carrot

Apple


Water Bottle

Bowl

Cup

Cooking Pot (also used for cooking)


Hammer

Stone Hammer (craftable)

Axe

Stone Axe (craftable)

Saw

Screwdriver

Sledgehammer


Nails

Box of Nails

Sheet

Logs

Planks

Wire

Twine

Garbage Bag (also usable Bag)


Bottle of Disinfectant

Adhesive bandages

Painkillers

Splint (can be crafted)

Tweezers


Earbuds

CD Player

Digital Watch


Book

Magazine

Lighter

Newspaper

Paintbrush

Kitchen knife (used as weapon or cooking)

Empty Jar/Jar Lid (used to make jars of preserved food)

Clothes

Seeds

Mouse Trap


(not a complete list)
Belt

Brick Toys

Playing Cards

Razor

Socks

Wallet

Locket

Doll

All of the information below this section is outdated, but may be useful to those playing older builds of the game.

The initial start up for PZ can be very frustrating. I was one of many people that had a very hard time getting the game to work for me. It can be frustrating and disheartening, but in most, if not all, cases, it can be fixed.

I found the solution to my problem here: http://steamproxy.net/app/108600/discussions/0/540734168258340718/

In my case I had to update my video driver(which was seriously out of date), disable my steam overlay, and change a couple graphics settings in-game. I haven't had a problem with it since. My boyfriend had to do a similar fix.

If you are debating about getting the game, or worried about whether it will work on your machine, try the demo, if the demo won't run for you, troubleshoot it and try changing some settings. If it works, the full version will too, if not then it may take some more tinkering to get it to work on your system.