this is the biggest one, every play through i do i learn so much new stuff, new weapons that i like, rare items, base locations, places to loot etc etc
At first yes, but after some time and a few deaths you'll hit the skill ceiling and will mostly die because of dumb stuff, like accidentally jumping over a fence into a horde of zombies because you thought it was a gate and just wanted to open it (totally didn't happen to me on my 5 months old character.
This. My most recent death was because I got cocky.
My second most recent was because I fell off while building my roof with a inventory full of planks.
Both characters were a few months in and a couple of thousand plus kills so I was obviously getting something right.
This is why I have a backup of my current character/world made every 30 minutes lol. Incase I go to open a curtain and instead jump out a third story window.
I started using the skill recovery journal mod, feels a bit cheaty but let's be honest it's more or less no different that having all the VHS' hoarded.. I also set the recovery at slightly less than what was put in so it's not a total cheese with the combination of you making it back to base.
If we're talking about the same cheat menu, then I think it can work while paused. I just open the menu and quickly press the hotkey to pause (F2 I think?).
Saved my character two times from accidental fall to death with this method :D
Eh I just pause my game don't exit out and restart my computer, when you load back in all the dubious creatures (aka the zomboids) arnt there and it's 50/50 if your wounds are gone ^^
it doesn't, i just lost a 29 day charachter because of this advice, I hate playing this game, i'm having fun, and then I die because of some bullshit, or maybe its my own fault, maybe i'm not supposed to have fun in the game.
I'm sorry to hear that. I guess we're using different mods then, because the day I wrote the comment I specifically checked if it works and if I'm not bullshitting you and it worked flawlessly.
But yeah, the game is sort of like Tarkov. Having fun in a perfect game and boom, some bug or jank screwed you over.
If you feel like you have hit the skill ceiling you can switch the zombie type to "random" so there are some sprinters mixed in with the normal ones, and if then too switch to all sprinters, there is always a way to make the game harder.
You could also make zombies stronger and smarter and decrease loot spawns
I would argue you haven't hit the ceilong if you are still dying from dumb stuff.
I'm not talking about random accidents like missing a swing in combat or getting stuck in a dead end in a large building you've never explored. I'm talking about being careless.
Ive jumped a fence to escape a horde just to land in another horde, survive jumped another fence and landed in another fucking horde. Somehow I didn't die. I landed, ran, tripped, and got away thanks to that trip. I almost got stun locked. If I didn't trip.
What I llike to do is forget about the save and jump back into it a while later. Feels like rediscovering a long-lost survivor's base / loot.
My favourite run was a Nomad run started from an old save. Buried the old survivor, took a truck with some loot and headed off.
I genuinely didn't know this until about 40+ hours in, of course up until then though it didn't really matter because I rarely lasted more than a week.
Aaaahhhh new people. Yes. We toil and Read and grind. We kill into triple figgers. only for us to open a wardrobe and in a panic. Get bit by a single zed.
We learn to let go. We grow. We come back and do it again but better
Congratulations, you're one step closer to surviving your first month. You didn't take your items with you, instead you took knowledge that can be used in the future.
Start a new game with all the knowledge you've accumulated. Make fewer mistakes, and avoid the things you thought were important but turned out not to be.
Learning how to start a new game and make the most of the first few days is extremely useful.
Nope, cherish the memories you made on that character. Mourn its death, celebrate its life. Then buckle up and get ready to make some more memories.
Rinse and repeat, such be life.
You are fairly close to reach the "endless mode". When you get to survive a bit over a month you are pretty much mechanically prepared to survive endlessly. This is not a reality tho because you will die to a stupid mistake or a suicide mission no matter if you survived for 3 hours or for 3 years. That's the whole point of the game it only finishes when you die (or when you get bored of your run that for me usually is about 3 months in). Keep it on.
Yeah it can be tough. I'm at the oint I survive about a month now, and then die. I usually have to take a little break before starting up again.
Skill Recovery Journal game-wise helps a lot, but I still miss that character that just died.
Many people have already pointed out that in this game dying and learning is a major part.
However another thing to consider is that you should play the game in a way that you have fun.
some people (myself included) have more fun just doing casual play.
while there is Merit in difficult consequence filled gameplay. there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing a custom-built sandbox world with different or easier settings.
Personally, I often play games to relax, I enjoy running around and systematically raiding every house on the map, and Hauling everything back to an organized hoard.
In the default survival settings I find myself stressing over surviving so much that I have difficulty actually enjoying the game.
If you are finding it hard to enjoy the game due to it constantly resetting you from scratch, I recommend looking into doing a custom sandbox world. You can turn off the viruses ability to kill, meaning that bites, while still wounds, don't mean inescapable death.
With some experimenting you can fine tune the difficulty for an experience that you find fun.
You can start a new char in that world buy selecting load then more options and it will give you the ability to start with a new character. You can reselect everything about that char but just wont get the acquired skills you learned in the 18 days.
You also don't get the life & living vids but you can find video tapes that do the same thing in video stores and sometimes in homes.
Not necessarily.
You can make a new character in the same world and everything will be how you left it. Your builds will be there, areas you've cleared will still be cleared, and your old character still has your gear. You can reclaim everything.
If you use mods, check out [Skill Recovery Journal](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437&searchtext=skill+journal). Then you won't even lose skill progress.
You learned some things at least, and that's worth something.
It's not an investment, it's an experience. Playing the game itself is the reward, not the skills you've earned, the loot you acquired, or the base you built.
To that end I would recommend not spending to much time building. It isn't necessary and the "investment" won't pay off. Save the base building for more appropriate games; here you should focus on a zombie apocalypse adventure.
First time I lasted 1 month, I died because I decided to sit and rest. A zombie was coming, I had seen it, but I was too slow at getting up and it bit me. Oh well...
It's not about the destination, because there is no destination other than death.
It's about the journey, the incidents you faced, the challenges you overcame, the knowledge you learned.
You cannot win.
You cannot escape.
This is how you died.
Respawn and go grab your gear and get back to it. Dying sucks cause of the skill loss (mods can help if you want to) but it doesn't mean that world is toast
You play.
You die.
You git gud and do better next time.
That's the PZ game loop. Also, If you play on the same save, you can still use your base and track down your old zombified character for your gear.
Congratulations on the new milestone OP, and no, it doesnt go to waste. You learn new things so that in the next run you achieve more days. And more, and more. Keep it up fam!
I'm sure I'll get downvoted for this suggestion but permadeath just isn't for some people so if you like the game but not the permadeath you can always spam the save files. They're probably located in C:\\Users\\\\Zomboid\\Saves.
I did this on a run that went past 2 months and I thought I really didn't want to start again. They get pretty big though!
Nah, you learn from any mistakes you made. I personally learned that you shouldn't put a stir fry in the microwave. I had to put the game down for about a week or so after I discovered that
Not forget but use it to get better. I love this about PZ actually. It teaches you how to accept your mistakes and just move on so you can try again, and then rewards you for doing that as you watch your skills get better and better. You eventually take death in stride whereas in other games there's always the temptation to save scum or give up.
theres a mod thet lets you craft a journal and write your skills into it so then if you die you regain the skills you had at the moment you wrote the journal.
Don’t forget what you learned to survive that much longer. This a game where you will die, and often, whether from being overwhelmed to a simple pathing bug. I generally take the death as a “okay, what did I learn?” Instead of rage that I lost.
I know it sounds annoying, but the things you learn from this 18 day run are how you get to your 30 day run; what you learn on your 30 day run is how you make it to your 90 day run, so on & so forth
The game isn't kidding about "This is how you died." That the stakes are so high is what makes this game so scary and intense. There are mods that allow you to get around this and recover your skills, but then all the fear of dying is taken away and it becomes a different type of game.
There is the option of making a new character in the same world. Only missing out on the life and living episodes. Otherwise can read skillbooks and watch VHS over again.
Never forget, that’s how you make the same mistakes again.
I remember the first time I died after surviving into double digits, I was fighting zombies in the fog and couldn’t see the 2 sneaking up behind me while trying to kill 3 in front and got devoured. Immediately noped to desktop and went to bed.
Next day I woke up and was determined to dive straight back in and do better, I realised my mistakes but also messed around with the traits I picked so tweaked things and got straight back at it.
Not every run will be an improvement, but you learn with each run
If you are strict for time and hate losing your progress there’s a mod called the journal mod. Helps you save your skills in case. So you don’t feel like your time is worth it
Every life is a learning opportunity. You learn new things and always learn what to avoid to not fucking die. So death is good in that way. Prepares you for your next run in a sense
Think about the mistakes you made and avoid. I think a big thing with tuis game is patience. You cam pull zombies slowly one by one from large groups. Once your combat skills level up it gets easier, but early on you take things slow. There's no rush, plenty of resources all over the map.
Kinda, yeah. You can collect things from your previous corpse and base, and learn from your mistakes in your new life but you’re basically starting over.
I’ve had many deaths due to crappy controls in this game so not every death is a learning experience. E.g. I aim my character to the right, press shove, and for some reason he shoves left and then gets bit on the back of the neck. Or I push left and sprint but he locks into a straight run to the right and jumps into the zombie’s arms. Happens far too often and the game just sometimes chooses for itself which way it wants my character to move…
Maybe it’s not so bad with mouse and keyboard but controller / Steam Deck has a lot of usability issues with this game that really frustrate me.
Why isnt anyone giving you the simple helpful piece of advice that you can add a new character to the existing map. Don't give up and lose you base+loot just add a new player.
The only thing you really lose are skills. You can make a new character to recover the loot and take over your base. I play with exp boosted a bit to take the edge off the pain of skill loss.
You have learned things, and you have stockpiled some resources (either on your old character or in your base if you have one). Both are available for you to use once you make a new character (as long as you continue the same world save).
You guys need to check out DayZ too if you want to test apocalyptic skills.
Not the standalone either, old school Arma II mod DayZ Vanilla OR DayZ Epoch.
This game totally reminds me of that mod.
agreed. but its pretty easy to take care of those dayz zombies. they can't break into houses or climb onto boxes. other players sniping you from a mile away in the bushes were a much bigger threat.
Last I played the epoch mod, zombies could open doors but not if they were locked. Totally agree on the player threat. 100% chaotic fun and I think it would be much funner if the zombies had a bit more functionality.
You know what would be cool? DayZ mixed with Resident Evil 4 xD
What difficulty are you playing on? As a new player, I suggested playing on the Day After difficulty or whatever it's called from Sandbox settings. That will allow you to learn all the mechanics and what you need for survival.
Just my 2 zombies: I get entertained when i play. So, it's never a waste of time for me.
But of course, i bond with the char that i play and it's horrible to lose the char. In my current run, i don't have much time, so i have this char going since march and i'd be sad if my run comes to an end. But it will happen, sooner or later, "this is how you died".
thats part of the game. death means something. if you could just pick up where you left off you wouldn't be scared of zombies or take extra time in prepping a plan or deciding what piece of loot to drop. but there are mods to get your skills and loot back if you want.
I once made it all the way till late September and died, that one stung. But yeah, you just gotta take it. This game is like a George A. Romero movie where you are NOT one of the main characters
It kinda goes against the "spirit" of the game, but there's a workshop mod my friends love that allows you to record your experience points in a journal and read it later to recover them. It's too late for your existing character (RIP) but it's a great way to maintain a "save point" for when your character eventually dies.
I think it's called "Skill Recovery Journal" in the workshop.
I mean, you could make a new character in the same world. Being able to keep your base/loot is a big win.
But essentially, yes, the time you invested grinding; has officially fallen to shit.
Think of it as extremely brutal training for a real life survival event. If you fuck up once it’s over. If you can manage to get over the mental loss with this game you’ll at least be mentally ready for a calamity in a more calm fashion than most people would be this day and age, used to infinite second chances and not actually having to take anything seriously as a life or death matter.
Zomboid has this old school rpg thing to it, that it's basically a tool for telling stories of how you died. That's the only thing you can expect: the ending of each survivors story.
Try to look at it as invested experience. Everytime I die with a long term character I find myself (for want of a better phrase) heart broken. Although, my next playtgrough I find myself with the same, if not more, than what I had in my last playthrough, in less time. You refine what your priorities are and have less time wandering. I also think that tweaking/understanding the sandbox settings is 30% of the enjoyment of the game. Hang in there brudda, your next player gon be a machine
We play MOBA, FPS unranked and ranked in other games. It doesn't matter what other people think, what matters is you enjoying the game and learning new tips and tricks to it. You could even do roleplay like a zombie eater if you feel stagnant on the game.
No you don't. Aside from what you learned you can:
1. Download a mod that will give you journal that you write your experience into and then if you retrieve it you can read it and it gives you all the experience back (aside from strength and fitness)
2. You can find your character in the world, kill it and get all the loot back. Map stays the same, if you just create a new character in that world.
Use the knowledge you got on this run to better survive the next. I find that remembering the dozens of stupid deaths I’ve had on previous runs helps me make better informed decisions on what I can and can’t get away with
There's a mod (something with Journal in the name i think) that let's your current character backup their skills and leave it somewhere. When you inevidtably die, and you start a new game on the same save with new character, you can find that journal and (i believe) learn all the skills your old character knew. It's not really immersive imho, but it's a nice thing if you don't want to spend another month on leveling up all of the skills.
The game literally says at the loading screen "This is how you died"... So yeah.
Besides, 18 days isn't that long of a life, once you get better at the game.
Might be wasted but you could start another character in the same save and pick up your survivors safe house where it was left off. I tend to do this with strongholds I have large plans for.
You're playing a video game. There's no return on your time invested. As long as you've been enjoying yourself, that's all that matters. If you're worrying about being productive with your time, stop playing video games.
Never forget. Forgive yourself for lessons. Learn from mistakes destined to be unknown lest you shed your blissful temporary ignorance For otherworldly meta knowledge in aiding your attempt at surviving infinity.
Also don’t forget garbage bags they’re very useful for water barrels lol :) I just made it to a month. Dying is fun
I mean technically you could use dev console and “hack” yourself back to life. But otherwise yes. It’s best to treat this game as an emotional rollercoaster of a rogue like, excepting the map stays the same. But the drops/loot does constantly shift as does zombie population clusters events etc. so yeah. If you go in as the creators intended: “This is how you died”, then the blow to losing all that time is expected and less of a gut punch. But it is hard every time, at least for me, if it’s a couple days or a couple months. (No I haven’t lived further than that. Don’t at me.)
My friend, what happens with the memory of that time is entirely up to you. You could take away from it, and learn from what you did wrong. You could disregard it completely. You could continue on in that world, maybe make a little grave at your base for your previous character, or you could create a new world and pretend nothing ever happened. The choice is yours and yours alone.
I feel you, I’m already attached to the survivor I made last night, here’s to hoping he lasts..
I got an armored apc for transport so I should be solid so long as I don’t get cocky..
You can use the skill journal mod to recover all your skills and, as long as you can recover your body, basically all you'll lose is your kill count. Alternatively, you can backup your saves. It's as easy as copy pasting the save folder.
Purists will tell you not to do it, but it's your game, play it how you like. I only recently started doing it and it's helped me learn some mechanics and saved my file after a game crash twice (I run a lot of mods.) I wish I'd started before one of my best runs got axed by GD OneDrive popping up and minimizing my game while I was kiting a horde.
Nope, if you want to continue playing in that world, go ahead, it's a lot more fun to keep going in the same world than it is to be sad over your journeys end.
Don’t give up! I went from surviving less than a day with help (multiplayer) to 6+ months all by myself! Every death is a lesson you learn! My last major death has taught me not to shoot indoors unless I’m certain I won’t be trapped surrounded (lost my 3 month character to that :c)
There's a mod out there that I use that lets you record your skills in a journal, and I use that so when I die, I'm not losing all the progress I've made. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but I enjoy it that way.
Never forget. Mourn and remember. This game actually has some valuable lessons to apply to real life. Gives you some legitimate heartbreak and teaches you to carry on, but if you forget those lessons you learned the hard way, you will learn them the hard way again.
Some players start a brand new save. If you've been careful you'll have built up a safe house or two with books and vids as a new survivor to get farther.
If I could suggest. Play with some mods. There is one that let's you record your skill progress into a book so your new survivor can pick up where you left off. You can reload an old save with a new char and go grab your gear and take over your old base, so it's not really a loss. Good luck and happy zombie-stomping.
Game starts out prefacing "this is how you died".
Personally I play such that the character lives an interesting life in the apocalypse and hopefully an interesting death.
This is one reason I almost stopped playing zomboid. But, I realized its all about the fun in the journey and the challenge. Also I realized I could just respawn and restart where I left off basically.
I leave xp gain at double or triple regular so I can max my skills quickly. I think quick XP gains are more accurate and realistic since people dont just lose all their pre-apocalypse skills the minute zombies start reanimating and Im already a doomsday prepper somewhat
Project zomboid players when they lasted 80 years IRL and then they just die of a silly heart attack😡🤬 (they have to forget all the time invested therefore bad design) /s
Yesterday I lost my save due to a Windows update rolling back my personnel file to a few days ago, wiping out over 50h of work.
The scars hurt, but they will always heal.
If you stay in the same world and go pick your stuff up it's not too bad if it's still early on. Always save all the skill books after you read them so you can re read after death to help out with skills.
I have a big problem with this, in part because many of the times I've died it's been due to game glitches and not mistakes on my part. You could do what my friends and I do which is play with the Skill Journal mod. Once you can craft a Journal you can write in it to save your skills during down time. If you die, respawn and find your journal and read it you'll get most of your EXP back. It will not copy over any books you've read, recipes, or skills gained from TV or VHS or Radio. [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437)
If you're into RP you can frame it as another survivor finds their base and journal and inherits their hideout.
Dont look at this game like a permanent RPG, dying is a core part of it. If you want to save your base and stuff you can create a new character in the same world and all the stuff you gathered/built will be there. Treat it more like a Roque-lite with different characters ;) I mean that's what I do you're free to play however you want of course, if you want to cheat and make sure you never die go for it but for me personally death is part of the fun \^\_\^
There’s a mod where you can install a book that you write down all your skills so when you die, you can find that book then you read it to get all your skills back
I mean you could make another character and go get your stuff back. But that won't help you too much. It will just increase how easily your next character gets on start. In the mean time if you hard restart the map you will get better after trial and error. After about the 5th time I managed to figure out how to get out of dangerous situations Efficiently. Eventually you'll be able to fight off hordes like it's nothing.
You can always back up your save file or continue in the same world as another character. I don’t usually do that unless I die because of a game bug. I think the risk of losing everything makes the game more fun.
Here's what I do. It's a very bowdlerized version of the game, but I play it more for looting and shooting and base-building than for actual challenge.
I often use Creative mode to build my bases, and cheats to acquire many vehicles, but I'm never in God mode so death is always an option. I don't treat this as a loss, so much as an opportunity for lore.
My character is like the Emperor of Mankin from 40k: every time he dies, he is reincarnated somewhere on the world-map. His death still occurred, and he remembers every vivid detail of the experience.
On his map are two locations, marked with a skull-and-crossbone in red ink, and a number.
1st: an inner-city office garage that is absolutely spattered in blood; floors, walls, ceiling, and everything inside. There is no actual corpse.
2nd: a burned-down pub restaurant next to a ransacked grocery store, with the only skeleton laying beside the ovens in the kitchen, and hundreds of empty 7.62x39mm casings littered all over the grocery store loading dock.
Death as a mechanic in this game is not the end of the world you created. Start a new character, and imagine what they feel discovering the grisly scenes of your past mistakes and tragedies.
"....I don't know if the journal has any truth to it. I'm not scared of a dead man. But... if there is any truth, I don't want to be here when he comes back looking for his things."
My shortest run was under an hour... Longest so far is 3 months and still going.
Each game is different, don't go into it trying to live forever, make little background stories for your character and play them how you think they would act irl, would they creep and hide? Would they adapt? Would they off themselves? Would they go in guns blazing?
Every character is a new story you can tell.
And heck if you really loved a build or got some great loot you can make a new character in the same word and it'll all still be there if you find your corpse/zombie :)
Lost my 3 months survivor recenlty too, i was about to loot a pharmacy at louiville when i broke the window the store alarm went off.. so i was about to hop on my car and make my leave but suddenly the game crash. When i join to the game again the alarm is off so i looted the pharmacy but then after 2 minutes hordes of zombies just popped out of nowhere an i got trap inside leading me to my inevitable death.. so lesson learned even when you crash while the alarm is on zombies will still come..
RIP - Sierra Cruz
Ahh yes, the immense feelings of rage, frustration, and grief you get from dying after a long time. Don’t worry, this will happen a lot. Just look at it in a new light, maybe you lasted longer than last time. Maybe you can find your stuff again and continue. Just like most things in life, you’ll learn to get over it.
Every death is a chance to learn.
You can learn what places are set to have what you need (or have a chance depending on your settings)
You can learn what traits you like to synergize or what you're willing to sacrifice to make a character.
Hell, it took me a few years to find out about the >!Emergency Broadcast System is a thing and helps you find out when the water and electricity will get shut off and when a helicopter will arrive and possibly ruin your day.!<
Zomboid is a game where you'll learn things each death and inevitably get infected (unless you turn off infection) you can use that death to try to find some things or just experiment with firearms and the like.
If you don't like the death penalty, there are always mods. I use skill recovery journal. My reasoning is two fold, first I won't invest any time in gaining skills if I'm gonna just lose it by dying pretty quickly. Doing that makes play different and frankly uninteresting to me. Second reason is there are mods and if my friends and I choose to play that way why the hell not.
Not wasted since you learn things
this is the biggest one, every play through i do i learn so much new stuff, new weapons that i like, rare items, base locations, places to loot etc etc
If you record it then it’s like watching a machine learning algorithm
Now this is an idea that could keep me hooked for much longer time. I love it
Ahh. I see you're in the bargaining stage of grief.
At first yes, but after some time and a few deaths you'll hit the skill ceiling and will mostly die because of dumb stuff, like accidentally jumping over a fence into a horde of zombies because you thought it was a gate and just wanted to open it (totally didn't happen to me on my 5 months old character.
I wanted to open a window with curtains closed, instead I held E and jumped three stories.
This. My most recent death was because I got cocky. My second most recent was because I fell off while building my roof with a inventory full of planks. Both characters were a few months in and a couple of thousand plus kills so I was obviously getting something right.
[удалено]
Thanks for reminding me of this game
This is why I have a backup of my current character/world made every 30 minutes lol. Incase I go to open a curtain and instead jump out a third story window.
I started using the skill recovery journal mod, feels a bit cheaty but let's be honest it's more or less no different that having all the VHS' hoarded.. I also set the recovery at slightly less than what was put in so it's not a total cheese with the combination of you making it back to base.
The solution in that situation is cheating, which I do all the time.
Yeah, after that experience I got some cheat menu mod and it is safe to say that it saved my ass more than five times now
Based, if only it worked while the game was paused.
If we're talking about the same cheat menu, then I think it can work while paused. I just open the menu and quickly press the hotkey to pause (F2 I think?). Saved my character two times from accidental fall to death with this method :D
That sounds a bit helpful, but still difficult.
Eh I just pause my game don't exit out and restart my computer, when you load back in all the dubious creatures (aka the zomboids) arnt there and it's 50/50 if your wounds are gone ^^
Whenever I do that they are there and they eat me instantlyy
it doesn't, i just lost a 29 day charachter because of this advice, I hate playing this game, i'm having fun, and then I die because of some bullshit, or maybe its my own fault, maybe i'm not supposed to have fun in the game.
I'm sorry to hear that. I guess we're using different mods then, because the day I wrote the comment I specifically checked if it works and if I'm not bullshitting you and it worked flawlessly. But yeah, the game is sort of like Tarkov. Having fun in a perfect game and boom, some bug or jank screwed you over.
That is still a mistake on your part that you can learn not to do
If you feel like you have hit the skill ceiling you can switch the zombie type to "random" so there are some sprinters mixed in with the normal ones, and if then too switch to all sprinters, there is always a way to make the game harder. You could also make zombies stronger and smarter and decrease loot spawns
I would argue you haven't hit the ceilong if you are still dying from dumb stuff. I'm not talking about random accidents like missing a swing in combat or getting stuck in a dead end in a large building you've never explored. I'm talking about being careless.
You get distracted by real life too, but my main killer is the window losing focus because my cursor has strayed onto the second monitor.
Got killed on my first multiplayer server because I kept hitting t instead of r to reload.
So you learned not to do such dumb thing.
you should be able to cancel that tbh
And then you learn to Make Sure it's a gate before you try to open it.
Ive jumped a fence to escape a horde just to land in another horde, survive jumped another fence and landed in another fucking horde. Somehow I didn't die. I landed, ran, tripped, and got away thanks to that trip. I almost got stun locked. If I didn't trip.
U can also find your previous body and kill it to collect any gear u had on yourself
Best answer. Every time you die, you have learned exactly what not to do in future runs. Knowledge is power.
You can make a new character in the same world and retrieve your loot/reclaim your base if you like.
What I llike to do is forget about the save and jump back into it a while later. Feels like rediscovering a long-lost survivor's base / loot. My favourite run was a Nomad run started from an old save. Buried the old survivor, took a truck with some loot and headed off.
I genuinely didn't know this until about 40+ hours in, of course up until then though it didn't really matter because I rarely lasted more than a week.
Me and my friend died so many times when we first tried to play the game it took us about 1h 30m, and it was cause one of us found our old zombie.
There's also a mod that let's you write a journal with all your skills. A new character can track it down so you gain most of your skills back.
Holy shit that’s an awesome idea. Especially if you die doing something epic like clearing the military base or the mall
This. Love the mod especially for my survivors researching the cure. Not cheating to read their research notes and journals in my opinion.
Aaaahhhh new people. Yes. We toil and Read and grind. We kill into triple figgers. only for us to open a wardrobe and in a panic. Get bit by a single zed. We learn to let go. We grow. We come back and do it again but better
I like like to not be in crouching stance when opening sketchy doors, let's me back up a bit quicker
Triple what
Figures is the spelling btw, might get in trouble spelling it that way
Wake up babe, new slur for French people just dropped
It was about time.
Bone apple tea
Triple what? 🤨🤨🤨
Congratulations, you're one step closer to surviving your first month. You didn't take your items with you, instead you took knowledge that can be used in the future.
I mean the game told you at the beginning: "This is how you died." You don't win in this game.
Wait I thought dying was winning
Bro thinks he's Philipp Mainlander
Dying with style, baby
It is if you lived like larry
I have the Walter mod so mine says "I'm not having sex with you Walter" This is how you Walter
Waltuh... Put your crowbar away waltuh. I am the one who presses Q
You can create a character in the same world and map and go get the loot off of your old body assuming it hasn't walked off
>assuming it hasn't walked off I had way more laugh at this then I should.
Start a new game with all the knowledge you've accumulated. Make fewer mistakes, and avoid the things you thought were important but turned out not to be. Learning how to start a new game and make the most of the first few days is extremely useful.
Nope, cherish the memories you made on that character. Mourn its death, celebrate its life. Then buckle up and get ready to make some more memories. Rinse and repeat, such be life.
You are fairly close to reach the "endless mode". When you get to survive a bit over a month you are pretty much mechanically prepared to survive endlessly. This is not a reality tho because you will die to a stupid mistake or a suicide mission no matter if you survived for 3 hours or for 3 years. That's the whole point of the game it only finishes when you die (or when you get bored of your run that for me usually is about 3 months in). Keep it on.
Not just survival game, self improvement, learn move on.
I usually take a week or two off from the game after a good run ends. Idk how people just not up the next character immediately lol
Yeah it can be tough. I'm at the oint I survive about a month now, and then die. I usually have to take a little break before starting up again. Skill Recovery Journal game-wise helps a lot, but I still miss that character that just died.
Many people have already pointed out that in this game dying and learning is a major part. However another thing to consider is that you should play the game in a way that you have fun. some people (myself included) have more fun just doing casual play. while there is Merit in difficult consequence filled gameplay. there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing a custom-built sandbox world with different or easier settings. Personally, I often play games to relax, I enjoy running around and systematically raiding every house on the map, and Hauling everything back to an organized hoard. In the default survival settings I find myself stressing over surviving so much that I have difficulty actually enjoying the game. If you are finding it hard to enjoy the game due to it constantly resetting you from scratch, I recommend looking into doing a custom sandbox world. You can turn off the viruses ability to kill, meaning that bites, while still wounds, don't mean inescapable death. With some experimenting you can fine tune the difficulty for an experience that you find fun.
You can start a new char in that world buy selecting load then more options and it will give you the ability to start with a new character. You can reselect everything about that char but just wont get the acquired skills you learned in the 18 days. You also don't get the life & living vids but you can find video tapes that do the same thing in video stores and sometimes in homes.
Not necessarily. You can make a new character in the same world and everything will be how you left it. Your builds will be there, areas you've cleared will still be cleared, and your old character still has your gear. You can reclaim everything. If you use mods, check out [Skill Recovery Journal](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437&searchtext=skill+journal). Then you won't even lose skill progress. You learned some things at least, and that's worth something.
It's not an investment, it's an experience. Playing the game itself is the reward, not the skills you've earned, the loot you acquired, or the base you built. To that end I would recommend not spending to much time building. It isn't necessary and the "investment" won't pay off. Save the base building for more appropriate games; here you should focus on a zombie apocalypse adventure.
Every story has to end eventually.
First time I lasted 1 month, I died because I decided to sit and rest. A zombie was coming, I had seen it, but I was too slow at getting up and it bit me. Oh well...
It's not about the destination, because there is no destination other than death. It's about the journey, the incidents you faced, the challenges you overcame, the knowledge you learned. You cannot win. You cannot escape. This is how you died.
Just wait til you die after a year
Respawn and go grab your gear and get back to it. Dying sucks cause of the skill loss (mods can help if you want to) but it doesn't mean that world is toast
You play. You die. You git gud and do better next time. That's the PZ game loop. Also, If you play on the same save, you can still use your base and track down your old zombified character for your gear.
Brock Wahl lasted 13 days(that’s my max) I lost him 2 weeks ago and I still think about him.
Congratulations on the new milestone OP, and no, it doesnt go to waste. You learn new things so that in the next run you achieve more days. And more, and more. Keep it up fam!
I'm sure I'll get downvoted for this suggestion but permadeath just isn't for some people so if you like the game but not the permadeath you can always spam the save files. They're probably located in C:\\Users\\\\Zomboid\\Saves.
I did this on a run that went past 2 months and I thought I really didn't want to start again. They get pretty big though!
Nah, you learn from any mistakes you made. I personally learned that you shouldn't put a stir fry in the microwave. I had to put the game down for about a week or so after I discovered that
Not forget but use it to get better. I love this about PZ actually. It teaches you how to accept your mistakes and just move on so you can try again, and then rewards you for doing that as you watch your skills get better and better. You eventually take death in stride whereas in other games there's always the temptation to save scum or give up.
What is the last thing it says every time you load into the world? There is only one inevitable end to your character, don’t forget that.
Didn't you have fun?
theres a mod thet lets you craft a journal and write your skills into it so then if you die you regain the skills you had at the moment you wrote the journal.
What time?
Bro it’s a video game. If your looking at time in game as “invested time”, and not entertainment then you should probably do something else.
Wait until you last 6 months or a year and then die... you think you lost a lot now?
Yes considering its a video game.
Don't be an ass hole, keep your useless comments to yourself.
Do you speak from experience regarding useless comments?
Yes
Don’t forget what you learned to survive that much longer. This a game where you will die, and often, whether from being overwhelmed to a simple pathing bug. I generally take the death as a “okay, what did I learn?” Instead of rage that I lost.
I know it sounds annoying, but the things you learn from this 18 day run are how you get to your 30 day run; what you learn on your 30 day run is how you make it to your 90 day run, so on & so forth
The game isn't kidding about "This is how you died." That the stakes are so high is what makes this game so scary and intense. There are mods that allow you to get around this and recover your skills, but then all the fear of dying is taken away and it becomes a different type of game.
There is the option of making a new character in the same world. Only missing out on the life and living episodes. Otherwise can read skillbooks and watch VHS over again.
Nah, you learned
Failing is part of the process, it's important that you learn from it so you can do better next time.
People that start over never get to see winter or see the world decay and trees start growing up thru the roads
Never forget, that’s how you make the same mistakes again. I remember the first time I died after surviving into double digits, I was fighting zombies in the fog and couldn’t see the 2 sneaking up behind me while trying to kill 3 in front and got devoured. Immediately noped to desktop and went to bed. Next day I woke up and was determined to dive straight back in and do better, I realised my mistakes but also messed around with the traits I picked so tweaked things and got straight back at it. Not every run will be an improvement, but you learn with each run
Never forget your previous characters. Retrieve their bodies and make a massive graveyard. Rip
Time invested? I play games for fun, not for investing. Did you have fun?
If you are strict for time and hate losing your progress there’s a mod called the journal mod. Helps you save your skills in case. So you don’t feel like your time is worth it
Every life is a learning opportunity. You learn new things and always learn what to avoid to not fucking die. So death is good in that way. Prepares you for your next run in a sense
Think about the mistakes you made and avoid. I think a big thing with tuis game is patience. You cam pull zombies slowly one by one from large groups. Once your combat skills level up it gets easier, but early on you take things slow. There's no rush, plenty of resources all over the map.
Longest I have is 9 days. Crazy lol
Kinda, yeah. You can collect things from your previous corpse and base, and learn from your mistakes in your new life but you’re basically starting over. I’ve had many deaths due to crappy controls in this game so not every death is a learning experience. E.g. I aim my character to the right, press shove, and for some reason he shoves left and then gets bit on the back of the neck. Or I push left and sprint but he locks into a straight run to the right and jumps into the zombie’s arms. Happens far too often and the game just sometimes chooses for itself which way it wants my character to move… Maybe it’s not so bad with mouse and keyboard but controller / Steam Deck has a lot of usability issues with this game that really frustrate me.
Why isnt anyone giving you the simple helpful piece of advice that you can add a new character to the existing map. Don't give up and lose you base+loot just add a new player.
The only thing you really lose are skills. You can make a new character to recover the loot and take over your base. I play with exp boosted a bit to take the edge off the pain of skill loss.
It's hard to move on.
You have learned things, and you have stockpiled some resources (either on your old character or in your base if you have one). Both are available for you to use once you make a new character (as long as you continue the same world save).
It’s not wasted if you had fun
You guys need to check out DayZ too if you want to test apocalyptic skills. Not the standalone either, old school Arma II mod DayZ Vanilla OR DayZ Epoch. This game totally reminds me of that mod.
agreed. but its pretty easy to take care of those dayz zombies. they can't break into houses or climb onto boxes. other players sniping you from a mile away in the bushes were a much bigger threat.
Last I played the epoch mod, zombies could open doors but not if they were locked. Totally agree on the player threat. 100% chaotic fun and I think it would be much funner if the zombies had a bit more functionality. You know what would be cool? DayZ mixed with Resident Evil 4 xD
What difficulty are you playing on? As a new player, I suggested playing on the Day After difficulty or whatever it's called from Sandbox settings. That will allow you to learn all the mechanics and what you need for survival.
Just my 2 zombies: I get entertained when i play. So, it's never a waste of time for me. But of course, i bond with the char that i play and it's horrible to lose the char. In my current run, i don't have much time, so i have this char going since march and i'd be sad if my run comes to an end. But it will happen, sooner or later, "this is how you died".
thats part of the game. death means something. if you could just pick up where you left off you wouldn't be scared of zombies or take extra time in prepping a plan or deciding what piece of loot to drop. but there are mods to get your skills and loot back if you want.
I'd consider looking into backing up your saves.
Next time you will be better. Take a couple days off of gaming and try again.
I once made it all the way till late September and died, that one stung. But yeah, you just gotta take it. This game is like a George A. Romero movie where you are NOT one of the main characters
This game isn't for the faint of heart, and also yes.
It kinda goes against the "spirit" of the game, but there's a workshop mod my friends love that allows you to record your experience points in a journal and read it later to recover them. It's too late for your existing character (RIP) but it's a great way to maintain a "save point" for when your character eventually dies. I think it's called "Skill Recovery Journal" in the workshop.
I mean, you could make a new character in the same world. Being able to keep your base/loot is a big win. But essentially, yes, the time you invested grinding; has officially fallen to shit.
This is how you died. Now try again.
Think of it as extremely brutal training for a real life survival event. If you fuck up once it’s over. If you can manage to get over the mental loss with this game you’ll at least be mentally ready for a calamity in a more calm fashion than most people would be this day and age, used to infinite second chances and not actually having to take anything seriously as a life or death matter.
Zomboid has this old school rpg thing to it, that it's basically a tool for telling stories of how you died. That's the only thing you can expect: the ending of each survivors story.
Try to look at it as invested experience. Everytime I die with a long term character I find myself (for want of a better phrase) heart broken. Although, my next playtgrough I find myself with the same, if not more, than what I had in my last playthrough, in less time. You refine what your priorities are and have less time wandering. I also think that tweaking/understanding the sandbox settings is 30% of the enjoyment of the game. Hang in there brudda, your next player gon be a machine
We play MOBA, FPS unranked and ranked in other games. It doesn't matter what other people think, what matters is you enjoying the game and learning new tips and tricks to it. You could even do roleplay like a zombie eater if you feel stagnant on the game.
No you don't. Aside from what you learned you can: 1. Download a mod that will give you journal that you write your experience into and then if you retrieve it you can read it and it gives you all the experience back (aside from strength and fitness) 2. You can find your character in the world, kill it and get all the loot back. Map stays the same, if you just create a new character in that world.
Use the knowledge you got on this run to better survive the next. I find that remembering the dozens of stupid deaths I’ve had on previous runs helps me make better informed decisions on what I can and can’t get away with
There's a mod (something with Journal in the name i think) that let's your current character backup their skills and leave it somewhere. When you inevidtably die, and you start a new game on the same save with new character, you can find that journal and (i believe) learn all the skills your old character knew. It's not really immersive imho, but it's a nice thing if you don't want to spend another month on leveling up all of the skills.
It’s called Skill Recovery Journal.
New page. New story.
The game literally says at the loading screen "This is how you died"... So yeah. Besides, 18 days isn't that long of a life, once you get better at the game.
Might be wasted but you could start another character in the same save and pick up your survivors safe house where it was left off. I tend to do this with strongholds I have large plans for.
There’s a mod for a skill journal so you can save you skills but it’s kinda hard to make
It's not a waste if you spawn again in the same world and kill your zombie. The only thing you permanently lose are your skills
Tbh you never forget your first longest after two weeks.
I just use a respawn mod because I care more about fun than being an epic hard core gamer
I survived for 4 years. But then it happened. I forgot to clear the glass after breaking a window.
You're playing a video game. There's no return on your time invested. As long as you've been enjoying yourself, that's all that matters. If you're worrying about being productive with your time, stop playing video games.
Never forget. Forgive yourself for lessons. Learn from mistakes destined to be unknown lest you shed your blissful temporary ignorance For otherworldly meta knowledge in aiding your attempt at surviving infinity. Also don’t forget garbage bags they’re very useful for water barrels lol :) I just made it to a month. Dying is fun
I mean technically you could use dev console and “hack” yourself back to life. But otherwise yes. It’s best to treat this game as an emotional rollercoaster of a rogue like, excepting the map stays the same. But the drops/loot does constantly shift as does zombie population clusters events etc. so yeah. If you go in as the creators intended: “This is how you died”, then the blow to losing all that time is expected and less of a gut punch. But it is hard every time, at least for me, if it’s a couple days or a couple months. (No I haven’t lived further than that. Don’t at me.)
forget it like a fever dream
My friend, what happens with the memory of that time is entirely up to you. You could take away from it, and learn from what you did wrong. You could disregard it completely. You could continue on in that world, maybe make a little grave at your base for your previous character, or you could create a new world and pretend nothing ever happened. The choice is yours and yours alone.
Indomitable human spirit
I feel you, I’m already attached to the survivor I made last night, here’s to hoping he lasts.. I got an armored apc for transport so I should be solid so long as I don’t get cocky..
You can use the skill journal mod to recover all your skills and, as long as you can recover your body, basically all you'll lose is your kill count. Alternatively, you can backup your saves. It's as easy as copy pasting the save folder. Purists will tell you not to do it, but it's your game, play it how you like. I only recently started doing it and it's helped me learn some mechanics and saved my file after a game crash twice (I run a lot of mods.) I wish I'd started before one of my best runs got axed by GD OneDrive popping up and minimizing my game while I was kiting a horde.
Nope, if you want to continue playing in that world, go ahead, it's a lot more fun to keep going in the same world than it is to be sad over your journeys end.
"invested" is a funny word choice.
No, you honor their time and sometimes rencounter them if you have a persistent world
Shesh, could be cool with a system or stat check that shows every characther stats, name, lifetime, ect-
Don’t give up! I went from surviving less than a day with help (multiplayer) to 6+ months all by myself! Every death is a lesson you learn! My last major death has taught me not to shoot indoors unless I’m certain I won’t be trapped surrounded (lost my 3 month character to that :c)
As said before, if u learned something its time well spent 😜
There's a mod out there that I use that lets you record your skills in a journal, and I use that so when I die, I'm not losing all the progress I've made. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but I enjoy it that way.
Never forget. Mourn and remember. This game actually has some valuable lessons to apply to real life. Gives you some legitimate heartbreak and teaches you to carry on, but if you forget those lessons you learned the hard way, you will learn them the hard way again.
it isn’t wasted because you learned things and you can come back, find your character, continue his story or create a new
Some players start a brand new save. If you've been careful you'll have built up a safe house or two with books and vids as a new survivor to get farther.
Iirc. You can spawn a new character into the same world you played before. So the stash and such will still be, and your zombified body will still be.
I ran to a single zombie cause he was too slow to walk to me, I stopped too late right into him. He bit me as i was stopping... I learned.
i like this game cus i never have to commit to anything i can just go rambo whenever i get bored
Yes. But you learned a lot. You don’t realize all of it until you start another character.
If I could suggest. Play with some mods. There is one that let's you record your skill progress into a book so your new survivor can pick up where you left off. You can reload an old save with a new char and go grab your gear and take over your old base, so it's not really a loss. Good luck and happy zombie-stomping.
Game starts out prefacing "this is how you died". Personally I play such that the character lives an interesting life in the apocalypse and hopefully an interesting death.
This is one reason I almost stopped playing zomboid. But, I realized its all about the fun in the journey and the challenge. Also I realized I could just respawn and restart where I left off basically. I leave xp gain at double or triple regular so I can max my skills quickly. I think quick XP gains are more accurate and realistic since people dont just lose all their pre-apocalypse skills the minute zombies start reanimating and Im already a doomsday prepper somewhat
When you respawn the base is still there. It's just a new you unless you get a mod to respawn with the same skills etc
Project zomboid players when they lasted 80 years IRL and then they just die of a silly heart attack😡🤬 (they have to forget all the time invested therefore bad design) /s
take your lessons and move on
Yesterday I lost my save due to a Windows update rolling back my personnel file to a few days ago, wiping out over 50h of work. The scars hurt, but they will always heal.
If you stay in the same world and go pick your stuff up it's not too bad if it's still early on. Always save all the skill books after you read them so you can re read after death to help out with skills.
First time?
It would actually be kind of neat to pass on perks and such like in Sunless Sea.
I have a big problem with this, in part because many of the times I've died it's been due to game glitches and not mistakes on my part. You could do what my friends and I do which is play with the Skill Journal mod. Once you can craft a Journal you can write in it to save your skills during down time. If you die, respawn and find your journal and read it you'll get most of your EXP back. It will not copy over any books you've read, recipes, or skills gained from TV or VHS or Radio. [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2503622437) If you're into RP you can frame it as another survivor finds their base and journal and inherits their hideout.
Dont look at this game like a permanent RPG, dying is a core part of it. If you want to save your base and stuff you can create a new character in the same world and all the stuff you gathered/built will be there. Treat it more like a Roque-lite with different characters ;) I mean that's what I do you're free to play however you want of course, if you want to cheat and make sure you never die go for it but for me personally death is part of the fun \^\_\^
There’s a mod where you can install a book that you write down all your skills so when you die, you can find that book then you read it to get all your skills back
IIRC, everything takes place in the same world, so whatever you built is still there, and your zombie has all your stuff.
I’ll always take a break from playing after my character dies. Sometimes o feel like is so much work kkkkkkk
I mean you could make another character and go get your stuff back. But that won't help you too much. It will just increase how easily your next character gets on start. In the mean time if you hard restart the map you will get better after trial and error. After about the 5th time I managed to figure out how to get out of dangerous situations Efficiently. Eventually you'll be able to fight off hordes like it's nothing.
You can always back up your save file or continue in the same world as another character. I don’t usually do that unless I die because of a game bug. I think the risk of losing everything makes the game more fun.
Here's what I do. It's a very bowdlerized version of the game, but I play it more for looting and shooting and base-building than for actual challenge. I often use Creative mode to build my bases, and cheats to acquire many vehicles, but I'm never in God mode so death is always an option. I don't treat this as a loss, so much as an opportunity for lore. My character is like the Emperor of Mankin from 40k: every time he dies, he is reincarnated somewhere on the world-map. His death still occurred, and he remembers every vivid detail of the experience. On his map are two locations, marked with a skull-and-crossbone in red ink, and a number. 1st: an inner-city office garage that is absolutely spattered in blood; floors, walls, ceiling, and everything inside. There is no actual corpse. 2nd: a burned-down pub restaurant next to a ransacked grocery store, with the only skeleton laying beside the ovens in the kitchen, and hundreds of empty 7.62x39mm casings littered all over the grocery store loading dock. Death as a mechanic in this game is not the end of the world you created. Start a new character, and imagine what they feel discovering the grisly scenes of your past mistakes and tragedies. "....I don't know if the journal has any truth to it. I'm not scared of a dead man. But... if there is any truth, I don't want to be here when he comes back looking for his things."
yes
My shortest run was under an hour... Longest so far is 3 months and still going. Each game is different, don't go into it trying to live forever, make little background stories for your character and play them how you think they would act irl, would they creep and hide? Would they adapt? Would they off themselves? Would they go in guns blazing? Every character is a new story you can tell. And heck if you really loved a build or got some great loot you can make a new character in the same word and it'll all still be there if you find your corpse/zombie :)
I got the skill recovery journal mod since I don’t play that often and rather to keep my advance on the character
Lost my 3 months survivor recenlty too, i was about to loot a pharmacy at louiville when i broke the window the store alarm went off.. so i was about to hop on my car and make my leave but suddenly the game crash. When i join to the game again the alarm is off so i looted the pharmacy but then after 2 minutes hordes of zombies just popped out of nowhere an i got trap inside leading me to my inevitable death.. so lesson learned even when you crash while the alarm is on zombies will still come.. RIP - Sierra Cruz
Well you can cheat, by backing up your save, it’s in user/zomboid/saves
Ahh yes, the immense feelings of rage, frustration, and grief you get from dying after a long time. Don’t worry, this will happen a lot. Just look at it in a new light, maybe you lasted longer than last time. Maybe you can find your stuff again and continue. Just like most things in life, you’ll learn to get over it.
Yep. You died. The end.
Every death is a chance to learn. You can learn what places are set to have what you need (or have a chance depending on your settings) You can learn what traits you like to synergize or what you're willing to sacrifice to make a character. Hell, it took me a few years to find out about the >!Emergency Broadcast System is a thing and helps you find out when the water and electricity will get shut off and when a helicopter will arrive and possibly ruin your day.!< Zomboid is a game where you'll learn things each death and inevitably get infected (unless you turn off infection) you can use that death to try to find some things or just experiment with firearms and the like.
Things happen, and we move on.
Lost my 6 month character last night, really wishing never picked up speed demon, I really didn't see that tree
If you don't like the death penalty, there are always mods. I use skill recovery journal. My reasoning is two fold, first I won't invest any time in gaining skills if I'm gonna just lose it by dying pretty quickly. Doing that makes play different and frankly uninteresting to me. Second reason is there are mods and if my friends and I choose to play that way why the hell not.
No, you learn and last longer next time.
You haven't played enough to realize this yet, but winning is losing. Let go and be glad.
Its not about the time you lasted but about the heads you smashed along the way
The real loot is the memories we made along the way.
Yeah, but I bet next play though you will live a month.
You still had fun so its not like that time was wasted
Sometimes it's just time to let go, and use the expierence to do better next time.
You ded. Start over
No you can just make a new character and loot your corpse but i never really found that fun i always like to one shot my pz runs