The greatest form of defense is making sure your base is up to scratch towards the abuse it’s prepared to take on, specifically a lot of invading zombies. While the random nature of Project Zomboid makes this a tricky proposition to make any base bulletproof, certain skills makes it far better to adjust any building or structure to better safeguard you and everyone in your server through the means of player made barricades and barriers that are done using a skill in the game, Carpentry.

Carpentry makes up most of the woodworking and fortification of the game, making use of wood and metal resources to make fences, barricades, and any other obstacles you’d find in your crafting menu. This could make the most open of areas into a more secure area, and the more secure areas a safer, maybe even strategic point of attack and defense. While that is all good, it is not possible to do from the get go, and for that to really happen, you must level up the Carpentry skill, as with most other skills in the game, and this list aims to show ways you can be an effective base builder in no time.

For this list, the list is made at the time of the games’ latest version (ver. 41.78 Steam) and is based on my experience in a friend-hosted multiplayer server and items listed are from the vanilla version of the game, meaning no mod items are included. Methods shown are for in-game leveling and doesn’t include pre-made character customization boosts like traits. These are generalized walkthroughs that any character build can do. The list is also in no particular order.

5. Crafting Spears

Going back to medieval times doesn’t sound bad during the end of times

How Crafting Spears is Great?

Don’t let this entry fool you as the Spear is still wood-based, making for a Carpentry level up possible every time you make it. Because every bit of resource available is vital, now that the apocalypse has begun. Crafting Spears will not only raise up your Carpentry skills but also increase your life expectancy as they make great weapons in fending off those pesky zombies.

Be careful though as Crafted Spears’ durability scales off your Carpentry skill level as the higher your skills are, the better durability it possesses. While the Crafted Spears’ main job is to impale the heads of the undead that are eager to feast on your flesh, they can also be used for fishing in rivers or lakes as a tool to increase your fishing skills whilst finding fresh fish to be feasted upon by your group.

Once you have crafted one you have the option to add in either knives or screwdrivers but be wary however; this increases their damage output and durability but it does not raise your Carpentry level skills.

How it Works:

• Find tree branches through Foraging or cutting trees
• Have a plank in your inventory
• Have any kind of knife in your inventory
• Right-click the plank or tree branches and click create crafted spear
• (Optional) Have duct tape in your inventory
• (Optional) Have a screwdriver in your inventory
• (Optional) Right-click the crafted spear and click add knife to spear
• (Optional) Right-click the crafted spear and click add screwdriver to spear

4. Sawing Logs

An essential action tried and tested ever since carpentry was born.

How Sawing Logs is Great?

For starters you can’t build anything without the wood required to do so, chopping up a few trees and sawing the logs they provide will do wonders for raising your Carpentry skills since they turn into planks which you’ll need for construction plus there’s an endless supply of them scattered all across Kentucky, you don’t have to worry about running out of them since they sprout and grow over time.

Chopping up trees isn’t the only way for you to get logs however, if you’re feeling a little more daring and decide to find already cut logs just waiting to be severed by your saw there are lumbermills now abandoned and filled to the brim with all those log supplies you need. Might not be a safe trip getting to them but it does save more time and stamina versus cutting up trees yourself.

Now that the world has gone in shambles you and your friends are the last remnants of civilization left so cut to the chase; start levelling up your Carpentry skills and begin to build the new stage of humanity.

How it Works:

• Have a Saw in your inventory
• (Optional) Have an Axe in your inventory
• (Optional) Cut down trees with your axe by either right-clicking or manually attack it
• (Optional) Go to a lumbermill located in Muldraugh or Rosewood
• Saw the logs by right-clicking the logs and press Saw Logs to gain XP

3. Disassembling Furniture

Get ready for irony as you do the exact opposite of Carpentry for XP gain.

How Disassembling Furniture is Great?

Reverse engineering wooden furniture shows you how they were built in a sense hence why doing so raises your Carpentry skills level. Given that most of the population now are out and about in search for an unlucky survivor to turn into a meal, this gives you free reign to dismantle as much furniture as you want.

Not only does disassembling them give you Carpentry XP but also provides resources such as planks and nails making it a win-win situation for those players who chose to become carpenters. Although the chances you gain those resources depends on how high said skills are.

Fair warning that just because you dismantled the nearest furniture available to you means you get good XP gains right off the bat; the XP they give depends on how big the item you’re disassembling, so grab your saw and hammer and start venturing for your Carpentry skills.

How it Works:

• (Optional) Read a Carpentry book to increase XP gains
• (Optional) Watch a Woodcraft VHS while dismantling for more XP gains
• Have a saw in your inventory
• Have a hammer in your inventory
• Right-click the wooden furniture of your choice and click dismantle

2. Watching Life and Living TV Channel

Learning it day one will make you remember better later.

How Watching Life and Living TV Channel is Great?

The saying goes, the early bird gets the worm, and for leveling up the Carpentry skill easier, this should help do the trick. While the TV and stations will be dead and gone after some time, the moment you start the game and you’re in a secure area that has TV access, you can expect this one to be your entry level to having that skill as good as natural.

Like all TV shows, this has a schedule, with most of the other times being filler, non-important stuff in between, but eventually, you’ll find text and a sudden text of your Carpentry skill improving, for as long as you’re near the TV. The show specifically for Carpentry runs at 6-hour intervals in-game, starting from midnight, all the way to 6 in the evening. This doesn’t mean that the other times and shows are useless, but if you specifically want to level your woodworking skills, those are the hours that are worth the most.

Again, it should be stressed that this will only work for the first in-game week of the game from server inception, and missing out on this small window of opportunity will just end up like a good TV series, a distant memory.

How it Works:

• {Optional) Find a Digital Watch or Wristwatch to check the exact time for the show
• Find a secure area to watch TV
• Turn on the TV by left-clicking the TV and pressing ‘Turn On’
• On the lower part of the panel, click the dropdown menu and select ‘Life and Living TV’
• Press ‘Tune In’ to confirm selection and wait for the time it shows text
• Be around the TV’s radius when it’s showing dialogue to gain XP

1. VHS Tapes

Tune in to see how professional carpentry is done.

How VHS Tapes Great?

There’s no quick and dirtier way of finishing your Carpentry levels than popping in a VHS tape and watch your levels go up, no pun intended. For many of these skills, you can easily learn it through obtaining and watching these skill tapes, and it’s very easy to find out which one out the useful and (mostly) useless ones. Regardless of what level you are, or if you have a new or existing character, for as long as you have the boosts from the skill book, you are guaranteed to at least have a bar of level up, making this the best method to level the trait.

The only hard part about this method is just the search for one, as the VHS you get is random to your world seed. What that means is that, in one example, the necessary VHS being easily found in one server hosted by you or a friend, while another can be non-existent, making for the success rate of this method proven but variable.

If Carpentry is the skill you need to master, ignore every other recorded tape on the shelf and find the one named ‘Woodcraft’. There are 7 episodes to collect and bring home and having most, if not all, will be your ticket to leveling up the skill faster than you using it to fortify your base and creating whatever structure you need for easy survival.

How it Works:

• Go to a Hit Vids store to find VHS tapes
• Find any ‘Woodcraft’ VHS tapes
• (Optional) Read a Carpentry book to increase XP gains
• Turn on a functioning TV and put the VHS in by clicking and dragging
• Press play and wait for the dialogue to finish

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• Project Zomboid Best Weapons
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• Project Zomboid Best Armor
• Project Zomboid Best Axes