Project Zomboid – Pro Tips and Tricks

Are you looking for an actual, serious PZ guide? Then give this guide a try and learn some clever tricks you can use in your Zomboid adventures.

Tips and Tricks

Introduction

Welcome to my guide! Only the first trick is beginner-friendly, so be careful if you want to actually pull these tricks off yourself.

The Tips

1. The bed trick

Sit in front of a bed, right-click on it and select “Rest.” This will recover your stamina faster than if you would select this option just standing in front of the bed (which already boosts stamina regen). It’s weird but works, enjoy your double stamina regen bonus. Works great for maximising exercise regime effectiveness (work out till exhaustion, rest, repeat; you know the drill).

2. Combat drinker

Use alcohol wisely. It has three combat-relevant uses: beta blocker, painkiller, and sleeping tablet. Alcohol can be used as a beta blocker if you don’t have the pills. Just drink 1/4 of, for instance: red wine, before or even mid combat to reduce panic. Beware, your character will quickly become drowsy (sleepy), so use this strategy with caution. You may want to have vitamins, coffee, tea bags or energy drinks (mod content) just in case to combat drowsiness. If you carry coffee or tea bags for this purpose, you may wish to have some drinks to quench that thirst.

3. Flaming Circle of Death

You need a molotov for this one. Draw a horde’s attention and lead it to a convenient/good spot. Throw the molotov (for instance, in front of the horde) and, this step is possibly optional, kill a few burning zombies to help spread the fire (it is safe as long as you keep your distance and back off before the killed zombie stops playing its animation of falling to ground because after the animation stops, the fire tends to appear on a nearby tile or where the zombie has just fallen). Run or walk away to lose the horde’s attention. Once they stop following you, they will “investigate” the ongoing inferno and should start forming a circle around the dying zombies and fires. If you play with Pinpoint hearing and Eagle sight and Long memory, the Flaming Circle of Death may attract the attention of nearby zombies as well. If you are critically successful, a single molotov (with your help) can take out more than 1700 individuals (this is what you can get if you play with both base and max population multipliers set to 4.0 and most sensitive senses, have fun).

4. Sacrificial car decoy

You need a vehicle for this one. Drive somewhere and honk the horn in the neighbourhood pretty hard (a few times at least). Exit the vehicle in a good spot (easily visible from afar with free space around it) and leave the engine running. Run or walk away to avoid drawing attention to yourself. Soon zombies will come to investigate the area and they will become “glued” to the noise the engine makes. After some time you can go back to the vehicle and kill the zombies you lured (you can use the Flaming Circle of Death strategy if there is a significant number of them and you have optimal conditions for it, you don’t have to burn your ride down though). Note: be sure to leave your vehicle on Neutral (“N” gear), else it will consume unnecessarily MUCH more fuel than it otherwise would (you can use the handbrake to stop the vehicle and don’t leave too early after stopping it).

5. Sledgehammer alternative

For this risky and dangerous trick you’ll need molotovs and a fire extinguisher. How to access a gun store without the mighty sledgehammer? Just throw a molotov in a spot which is placed the farthest from any loot container in the store (to reduce the risk of flames consuming your precious and coveted loot) and wait till one of the tiles: either a wall or metal bars, gets partially damaged/burned down by the flames (yes, for some reason these metal bars CAN get damaged in a fire). As soon as you see damage in the walls (or bars) standing between you and the loot, extinguish all the flames. You can “jump over/through” these partially damaged tiles just as if it was some regular low fence or an open window (hold “E” in front of the tile if you use default controls). Here’s an instruction on how to use the fire extinguisher: Equip the item as Primary. Right-click on a flame and select the option to put out fire. An UI will appear (your cursor will change) and you’ll see two circles. The smaller one is the position of your character and the larger one is the area of effect of your extinguisher. Left-click to use your item (a single use/click will consume some of its “charge,” don’t waste your charges as the item can only be used several times before it becomes depleted but it should be enough to put out small fires).