Traits and penalties
There’s a lot to keep in mind about these features as they can really make or break your game:
Traits like Agoraphobia and Claustrophobia disappear over time, while you can get rid of others like obesity with adequate nutrition.
In your first games, the Lucky trait will come in handy (gives you more luck in any scenarios you face).
Weigh up whether it’s worth getting soft penalties (as a smoker) to get more points.
Experience
Experience—both knowing how to get it and how to take advantage of it—is key in Project Zomboid:
Be sure to tune in to the Life and Living shows during your first 9 days playing the game. There are 3 programmes in total (06:00–11:59, 12:00–17:59 and 18:00–24:00). From the 10th day, they stop being available.
Level up to Mechanics 2 and Electricity 1 to build bridges for cars. The burglar profession is most useful for this. For maximum safety, break the passenger side window and climb in through there—zombies won’t be able to bite you if you’re in the driver’s seat.
Until you improve your stamina, try not to face groups of more than 3 zombies. Ideally, you should try to kill them one or two at a time.
Food and water
When deciding where to erect your definitive base, pick a site near a water source, like a river. Grab a few rubbish bags to fashion a rainwater collector.
For food, it’s important to know that calorie requirements and hunger are two different things. The best thing you can do is to keep your character between 75 and 85 kilos to avoid weight penalties and keep it in the best range.
Cooking food increases the happiness it brings. If you have something that isn’t fresh (but isn’t rotten), make a soup with it.
Combat
Stay away from firearms. While they’re obviously effective, they make a lot of noise and attract hordes of zombies. The only one really worth having is the shotgun, which deals monster damage and will attract a million zombies.
Your best bet for the first levels is to gather stones and sticks to create makeshift spears. They’ll only hold out for 2–3 zombies, but they get the job done—and fast. Remember, you catch a zombie’s aggro whenever it sees you, so keep that in mind when escaping from its vision.
The most effective strategy for solitary zombies is to push them to the ground and smash their heads open. If you plan to take their clothes and equipment, use blunt weapons; otherwise, your sharp blades will destroy them.
Last tips
Finally, here’s a quick round-up of life-saving tips:
Look through the window before you enter a room. This will avoid any nasty surprises.
Climb fences to escape zombies.
Try to sleep and stay rested. To fight tiredness, you can take coffee or vitamins.
Use Z to change your position in car seats. If you need to rest and there aren’t many zombies nearby, park the car against a wall and sleep on the side that’s against the wall.
Your electricity and water will eventually switch off automatically, so be sure to have generators and water sources at hand (be careful with carbon dioxide from the generators).
If you jump through a broken window, it’s very likely that you’ll cut yourself, causing a wound that will become a long-standing issue.
