1) Change your settings

Project Zomboid is one of the games where it’s extremely important to take a look at your settings before you even start the game. The custom sandbox world mode allows players to create a more tailored experience for beginners and experts alike. 

New players will most likely want to change a few settings before jumping into the gorey apocalypse. 

In the settings, you can lower the spawn rate of zombies, lower the likelihood of house alarms going off, and increase the rate of cars spawning with the keys in or around the car. New players will also want to turn on "Weapon Multi Hit," which will allow weapons to hit more than one zombie when you swing into a horde. 

2) Adding a "starter kit"

Another important setting that players can change is being able to add a starter kit upon spawning into their game. 

This starter kit includes a school backpack, a hammer, a baseball bat, a bottle of water, and a bag of chips.

3) Where should you spawn?

There are four different starting locations in the base game. These four towns are Muldraugh, Riverside, Rosewood, and West Point. All of these locations offer something different and vary in difficulty and availability of important resources. 

Rosewood is the best place to spawn for beginners, despite not having as much rare loot as other spots on the map. Rosewood does have a lower zombie count and good places to loot to get started in the game. 

4) Pick your traits wisely

Now that you’ve picked where you want to spawn, here comes the most important part of starting Project Zomboid: creating your character. There are twenty-one different occupations, forty positive traits, and thirty-five negative traits.

When it comes to picking your traits, it depends on how you want to play the game. Would you like to be a hermit and live in the middle of the forest and forage for food? Then you should pick the park ranger occupation and the hiker trait. Maybe you want to run through Louisville with guns ablaze! Then you should pick the veteran or police officer occupation and the athletic trait. 

When it comes to picking your negative traits, there are some basic ones that feel like free points, such as being a smoker, being prone to disease, and having a weak stomach. Some of the other traits take trial and error to determine if you can work around the issues that the traits cause, such as being deaf, where you won’t be able to hear zombies sneaking up behind you, which offers a whopping twelve points that can be used to pick more positive traits. 

5) Character creation (don’t get too attached)

Once you’ve picked your traits and occupation, now it’s time to customize your character! 

Based on what occupation you choose, you’ll get a starting outfit that can be changed. It’s recommended not to spend too much time fretting about your character's customization aside from traits. Project Zomboid is a game of trial and error, and sometimes you’ll have an unlucky spawn and die within minutes of spawning. So, it’s better not to get too attached to a new character, speaking from experience. 

6) It's time to crouch

As soon as you spawn into the game, the first thing you should do is crouch with the c-key. This will make it less likely for any zombie creeps outside your window to see you, and it gives you some time to equip a weapon if you opted to have a starter kit. 

7) Loot the kitchen

The first place you should loot in your spawn location is the kitchen. If you didn’t pick out the starter kit, then your first order of business is finding a weapon. A fine first weapon in a pinch is a rolling pin. If you can’t find a rolling pin, even a fork or knife is better than nothing. 

Aside from a weapon, you’ll also want to find a can opener and some food.

8) Starting weapons

While going through the rest of the house, you may find some even better weapons. Some great weapons at any point in Project Zomboid are axes, crowbars, guns, and machetes. Even if you don’t find another weapon, if you find nails, you can create a spiked baseball bat.

9) Walk, don’t run

Many players' first instinct when they run into a few zombies is to run. But you should avoid running in Project Zomboid. 

Running depletes a ton of energy, and unless you’re already exhausted in the game, your walking pace will be faster than zombies. So, don’t run unless you’re completely surrounded, or only run for very short bursts.  

10) Locked doors and windows

While looting houses, players will more than likely come upon houses that are completely locked. Early in the game, this will deter players, assuming they simply can’t get into those houses.

There’s a simple way to access these houses: first, ensure you have a weapon equipped, then right-click on a window. When you do this, there will be an option to smash the window. After smashing the window, make sure to remove any glass in the window frame; otherwise, you may get scratched while going inside.

11) Find a watch

Once you’ve started fighting zombies, one of the first items you should be looking for is a watch, ideally a digital watch. These watches will tell you the time, date, and temperature. 

This will help with deciding when to continue looting and when you should settle down in a house for the night. Knowing the temperature and date also gives you an idea of what clothes you should wear to avoid being overheated or cold. 

12) Securing a house for the night

As your first day in Project Zomboid comes to a close, you’ll need to fortify a house. even if it’s only temporary. 

Being outside at night has its drawbacks, with lowered visibility leaving you vulnerable to zombie attacks.

13) Close the curtains

When you pick a house to stay in for an extended period of time, the first thing you should do is close all the curtains. Closing the curtains makes it less likely to draw attention from the zombies lurking outside. 

14) Check out all the rooms

This tip applies to all houses you loot or sleep in. When you go into the house, check all the rooms for zombies. Zombies don’t always make a lot of noise, so if you don’t check all the rooms, they may bite or scratch you when you least expect it. 

15) Level up your traits by watching TV

One of the resources available early in the game is electricity. Since you don’t need a generator yet, it’s a good idea to take advantage of the television. 

There are various shows that you can watch at certain times on certain channels that will help you level up your skills a lot faster. So, it’s recommended to stop when possible to watch some TV before the electricity cuts off. 

16) Eat any fresh vegetables or fruits you find in the refrigerator

Another resource that’s only available easily in the early game is fresh food. This means vegetables, fruits, meat, and frozen foods should be consumed early in the game. because after a while they’ll rot, and any fresh food you want will need to be grown on your own. Therefore, in the early days of Project Zomboid, you should be eating mostly fresh foods to avoid using your canned goods too much. 

17) What skills should you focus on? (Carpentry, all weapon-based traits, mechanics)

Some of the most important skills to level up are carpentry, mechanics, electrical, fitness, and strength. 

While fitness and strength are traits that can be leveled up simply by fighting zombies or working out, the other traits aren’t so simple.The best way to level up in carpentry is to go into houses and take apart furniture. To level up electrically, you should take apart as many digital watches, headphones, and radios as you can. To level up as a mechanic, you should read as many mechanic magazines and books as you can, and as a last resort, start taking apart cars. 

18) Finding a car

Once you’re comfortable, you’ll want to find a car to travel further in less time. Unless you picked the burglar occupation, you’ll need level one electrical and level two mechanical skills in order to hotwire a car. 

Fear not; it’s still possible to get a car without these skills. Sometimes you’ll be able to find the keys to a car in the glovebox or on the outside of the car.

19) Driving 101

Once you’ve finally secured your first car and have gas in the tank, many players want to immediately drive as fast as possible to explore the map. Exploring the map is always fun, but be careful not to drive too fast. 

A single car crash can injure your character to the point of death. Pay close attention while driving and adjust your direction every few seconds since the cars naturally drift toward the side of the road.

20) Finding a good base

Any location can make a good base, but in the early game, you might want to stay away from large hordes, so either pick a house on the outskirts of town or a farm. These houses require less work when it comes to furniture and may even have a fence around the perimeter already.

When you finally choose your base, use planks and nails to board up the windows and find sheets to cover them as an extra precaution. 

21) Let there be light!

With a running car and a base established, you may have finally run into a big issue. The electricity has turned off, and if it hasn’t yet, it probably will soon. Whether you’re trying to get ahead of the problem or you're already faced with it, you need to find a generator.

Generators can be found in sheds, storage units, and garages. When you find a generator, make sure it’s in good condition before taking it. The only issue is that you now need to find the “How to Use Generators” magazine. These magazines can be found in any location that may have a book spawned in.

Once you have both of the items mentioned above, you can finally connect your generator to your house. Just make sure you place it outside of your house to avoid being poisoned. Also, don’t forget to turn off your generator when you don’t need it; otherwise, it will catch on fire. 

22) Gathering Water

Eventually, you will run out of running water in your base. To avoid this, there are a couple options. You can fill pots and buckets from other houses that do have water; you can use pots and buckets and fill them with rainwater; or you can build a water collector. 

The best option is to build a rainwater collector, which will fill with water whenever it rains. This requires level four carpentry, four planks, four nails, and four garbage bags to be crafted. Once you have a rainwater collector built, it can be connected to your base by using a pipe wrench to make plumbing.

23) Building a custom base

Carpentry is crucial to leveling up in Project Zomboid. since it will allow you to expand your house by building walls, floors, and stairs. It will also allow you to build fences and gates around your base to protect it from zombies. Another benefit of leveling up your carpentry skill is that it will allow you to move furniture and place it however you want. 

24) Guns

The weapons that should be avoided until later in the game are guns. Guns require loading and aiming skills to be used efficiently, and they create so much noise that using them early in the game may be a death sentence for many new players. The best guns for most players that are also relatively easy to obtain are shotguns.

25) Off to the big city

As you progress in Project Zomboid, you may continue to explore the map. After all, there’s only so much you can do in one town. So the final step is to go to the city of Louisville, an absolutely gigantic city with thousands and thousands of zombies waiting. There are plenty of places to explore, from a mall to a college campus.

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