Project Zomboid

About Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid is made by The Indie Stone, a British and Canadian studio, and has been in early access since November 2013, growing with every build. It is sold on Steam and GOG for Windows, Mac and Linux, with a single-player sandbox, online servers and local split-screen co-op. Build 42, the current stable version, rebuilt crafting around workstations and older hand skills, added basements and multi-level buildings, brought in animals to raise and widened the map.

You create a survivor in the towns of the Knox Event exclusion zone, a map loosely based on real Kentucky. From the first morning you search houses for food, water and tools, learn skills like carpentry, cooking, farming, fishing and mechanics by using them, and barricade a home. Days turn into weeks: the power fails, the water stops, hordes move across the map, winter comes in, and nature starts to take the towns back.

The horror is slow and constant. Zombies see and hear you; a gunshot or a breaking window can bring a crowd, and a group of them at a door can turn a safe house into a trap. Wounds can get infected and a bite can kill you days later. Hunger, boredom and depression wear you down between the fights. Every character dies eventually, and the game is open about it: its question is not whether you survive but how you will die.

By default the dead shamble rather than run, though the sandbox settings let you change that, along with how many there are and how fast the world falls apart. Ready-made modes range from a gentler start to a much harder one, and there are challenge scenarios with their own rules.

It is a demanding sandbox rather than a story game, with a lot to learn in its menus and its pace, and new players often die many times before a run lasts. Large towns can also slow the game down on weaker computers. It suits patient players who like planning, scavenging and building, and friends who want to run a group of survivors on a long-running server.

How to play Project Zomboid

1. Pick a mode and a starting town, then build a survivor from an occupation and traits.
2. Search nearby houses quietly for food, water, tools and a bag to carry them in.
3. Choose a base, board up its windows and store water before the taps stop running.
4. Level skills by doing things: carpentry by building, cooking by cooking, aiming by shooting.
5. Treat wounds at once, avoid crowds and watch your hunger, thirst, fatigue and mood.

Tips

• Sneak and walk instead of running: noise and sight bring zombies.
• Fill bottles and pots with water early; the water and power are cut within the first month.
• Never fight a crowd in the open; lead it away or break line of sight.
• Avoid firearms early on unless you are ready for what the noise brings.
• Try the sandbox settings to adjust zombie speed and numbers while you learn.

Questions