7 Essential Project Zomboid Tips to Survive Longer (if you can't survive a month, watch this)

project zomboid players fall roughly into two camps those who can survive beyond a week and those who can't if you fall into the camp that struggles to survive longer than a few hours then pay careful attention as i'm about to give out some tips that will help you understand project zomboid better and make you a better player at what is perhaps the best zombie survival game in existence but first if you don't know who i am my name is drunk on life and i have over 500 project zomboid videos chronicling my successes and failures on this channel and have channeled my inner rick grimes to the tune of three thousand plus in-game hours to put assembly saying i love this game is a clear understatement it all begins with understanding traits and occupations now i'm not gonna get into the best character builds because i feel that is quite personal to based on play style but i will say this if you are brand new to the game you should focus on the traits and occupations that will help you not get killed early on what i mean by this is skills such as carpentry metalworking farming fishing etc etc can all be worked on easily with skill books later and it's my opinion that these occupations don't matter as much in the first couple of weeks anyway also as tempting as a burglar may be the fact that you can easily hot-wire cars if you can survive a week or two makes the initial convenience of hot wiring cars not worth the cost of the occupation all this said the better occupations for a beginner are going to be the ones with a weapon skill attached to their occupation for example you can get a level 3 short blunt skill with the construction worker coming out of the gate which means as long as you use short blunt weapons which incidentally are probably the most common weapon out there you will quickly level up your skill proficiency also most short blunt weapons are one-handed which means you can carry a second item in your other hand while fighting additionally with traits you want to choose either traits that are hard to skill up or traits that will aid you with combat or in the very least won't hurt you in combat probably the hardest traits to level up will be fitness and strength as the xp scales significantly from one level to the next two traits that will significantly improve your survival chances are gymnasts because the nimble skill will make you more slippery and keen hearing keen hearing will literally let you see a couple spaces behind you making a zombie less likely to be able to sneak up on you probably one of the best traits to take as you may or may not know a rear attack by a zombie is almost always fatal there are also negative traits so you can balance out your character that currently don't have consequences that are too severe before i list them just know that project zomboid is still a work in progress and they could change any of these traits to make the cost outweigh the benefits these traits my current go-to negative traits are slow reader weak stomach prone to illness smoker high thirst and slow healer slow reader because we can speed up time weak stomach and prone to illness because as long as i am careful with elements and don't eat anything rotten or poisonous i should be okay smoker effects can be mitigated with antidepressants chocolate alcohol and books and finally slow healer because well because frankly we won't get injured often [Music] as an aside short-sighted isn't a bad negative trait as long as you pair it with keen hearing and i've heard whispers on my discord that glasses actually help fix that trait although that is just speculation at this point just like traits and occupations different towns will give a different experience and difficulty if you're having trouble with dying in your first couple days both riverside and rosewood are good places to spawn into because both have less populated areas around their edges between the two i would recommend riverside as you can shack up close enough to the town without actually being in the town plus rosewood doesn't have a hardware store mojave and west point are more densely populated and therefore less beginner friendly mold rail because there aren't a lot of places around the edges of the city and west point because the best loot is the most heavily populated area downtown west point between the two i'd probably choose west point but only if i could make my way to the western edges of the city so you spawned in now what it's kind of weird to think that my first tips video in 2019 suggested that you pick up almost everything that you find since then my ambition has been tempered by frugalness and i will say that most items aren't that important in early game things that are important though a hammer a saw and a screwdriver what i call the holy trinity of construction of course food and water as well and a weapon or two preferably the weapon type in which you're most proficient in according to your occupation or traits if you're a smoker things like red books alcohol and antidepressants will blunt smoke or withdrawal until you find cigarettes obviously matches or lighters and a pen or two if you find one for marking the map if you started on apocalypse settings the power will still be on so food wise that frozen steak will pack more of a punch than canned food and it will go bad quicker so frozen food is always better than canned food plus you can always mark it on the map for later looting a can opener and cook cooking pot or skillet are two really good items as well if you run across any beginner skill level books and can afford the weight take them as you can read them during downtime once you establish a safe house any magazines that you find such as a how-to generator book or herbalist can be read on the spot if you spawned in riverside head west towards the edge of town or east of the bedroom community on the eastern edge of town toward the west outside the town you'll have a ton of farmhouses to loot as well and you'll stay relatively close to the river should you want to fish or forage to the east the bedroom community has a ton of big houses but more importantly big fences that will keep the zombie migration from the riverside town center down to a minimum the reason why you want to move to the edges is because starting out you're less proficient with a weapon more easily panicked which affects accuracy and damage done and are more likely to get overwhelmed by the city's population more quickly by moving to the edges you can start the process of building up your weapon skill and as the days pass be less likely to panic when you see a zombie once you're out of town you can choose a house which will become your base of operations and where you can store your loot a lot of players immediately start the process of securing the windows with planks although i will say that if you do any zombies who pass by your house will be more likely to be attracted to the planks zombies are more likely to attack player built structures by default so most of the time i don't even bother with securing the house initially what's more important is to cover the windows and doors with sheets or curtains so a passing zombie can't see you if they can't see you they're not likely to break in at this point you have a couple choices to make life and living comes on at 6 00 am 12 noon and 6 pm and offers a buff in various skills such as carpentry foraging fishing trapping and cooking for like eight days or so you could hang close to the house and increase your skills by simply watching tv honestly these shows can be found on vhs tapes later so ultimately they aren't that important at this point i used to find value in doing this because it made me feel like i was moving in the right direction for long-term survival the other choice is to work your way back towards town looting houses and killing zombies personally i suggest this choice as the initial population is low and if you focus on killing zombies you can drive up your weapon proficiency quickly while taking advantage of the possibility of not getting overwhelmed i can't overstate how important leveling up your weapon skill is which is why you want to use the weapons that you have a proficiency in you level up quickly and the higher your skill level the less stamina you'll use to kill a zombie and the more zombies you can take on at one time your weapon's skill level is a better determining factor for long-term survival than build building things early game actions have consequences and make no bones about it project zomboid wants to kill you the game punishes you for complacency and making the wrong choices in most cases your death will be the result of poor decision making let's fix this by understanding the most likely ways you will die every time you enter a house you are taking a chance every time you jump blindly through a window there's a chance that there being a zombie in a blind spot next to that window you can lower the chance of this by peering through various windows of the house to get a different vantage point a more cautious player may even hit a door with a weapon first and wait to see if there is a reaction from within the house you can also shout quietly by crouching by pressing q near a window this will alert a nearby zombie but not be so loud as to alert a zombie or group of zombies a couple of houses down every time you open a door you are taking a chance just like windows there are blind spots if you walk past a zombie hidden next to a door they will get you a good way to lower the chance of this is to run through the door not walk into a room that way if a zombie is there you may brush by them but they won't be able to react by grabbing you if you hug a corner you are taking a chance just like windows and just like doors hugging a corner too close could result in getting a hug from a zombie lower your chances by simply taking a wider angle around a building if you're fighting next to trees you're taking a chance trees obscure your vision and if you aren't careful a zombie could be lurking in the tree line which brings us to the final most likely thing that will get you killed moodles there are three moodles that you should pay extra attention to and probably call it a day when you are out fighting zombies the sleepy moodle the exhausted moodle and the overburden moodle the sleepy noodle and exhausted moodle will decrease weapon damage done the overburdened moodle will decrease stamina over time you can mitigate the effects through drugs like vitamins which will decrease tiredness or forageable such as ginseng which will give a boost in stamina or offset some weight by placing something in your non-primary hand or backpack if you have one if you're only affected by stamina debuffs you can go somewhere to rest you can sit on the ground but one tip i learned here recently is if you rest by a chair or bed or couch you can actually see the stamina meter and can rest until fully rested pay very close attention to your moodles because they can stack if you aren't careful get tired enough and overburdened and your stamina will never improve if you are fighting a group of zombies while exhausted it will take you longer to kill each zombie which will reduce your stamina further if you're tired and exhausted you're putting yourself in peril your best bet is if one of these moodles appear is to either take care of them or head back to your safe house and call it a day handling groups of zombies when you're first starting out you probably shouldn't be messing with groups of more than three anything larger and you risk a longer fight and the longer a fight drags on the more likely you'll get new zombies attracted to your fight if you need to engage your best bet is to break line of sight around a house or building and backtrack around by doing this you will have some zombies that will find a window to stick to while others will separate from the group making it easier to pick them off one by one as your weapon skill levels up you'll be able to take on larger groups because it will take less time to kill each one larger groups are best tackled in wide open spaces where you are aware of your surroundings and can't get ambushed from behind there's not really much more i can say other than if you stick to a certain weapon class group you'll start to get a feel for how close you need to be and will be able to handle groups better moving from a long blunt to a short blunt will cause more whiffs and could increase the likelihood of getting grabbed so let's recap if you want to survive longer here are the keys number one choose occupations and traits that will give you combat bops and focus on your strengths combat wise number two riverside is the most beginner friendly town in knox county if you're really struggling choose this town until you get a better feel for the gameplay number three find a safe house along the edges of a town rather than living in the city number four your primary focus should be improving your combat skills early on by using a weapon in the weapon class you are experienced in number five approach any and every house with caution pay careful attention to blind spots such as close angles around buildings going through windows and casually walking through doors trees and bushes also yield blind spots number six pay special attention to your moodles if you're overencumbered tired or exhausted consider calling it a day and heading back to your safe house if you have two of those moodles don't risk it and finally number seven when you see a larger group consider ways to separate the group into smaller packs before tackling them especially if you're just starting out as you get stronger larger groups are best handled in wide open spaces such as yards and roads well that does it for this video if you enjoyed this video consider giving it a thumbs up on your way out and if you haven't subscribed to this channel why not my name is drunk on life and until next time stay safe y'all

Channel: Drunkonlife

Views: 258,825

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Id: 990f5GfVGwI

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 06 2022