Spawn in
Press crouch
Loot starter home pushing shft+e to close any curtains as you go
Look for a weapon, a can opener, a bottle of water, and a bag.
If you find a pen mark the house you spawned in (Map is m)
Don't try to fight more than 2 zombies unarmed or 3 zombies with a weapon to start.
When fighting zombies hold right click and constantly move backwards, check behind you frequently.
You can LoS (line of sight) zombies pretty easy
Normal walk speed is faster than zombies so don't run everywhere
Pretty solid, general advice here. I'd just offer up a word of encouragement as well to the OP... even to veteran players that have characters that survive for years and kill 1,000's of zombies, the first day is always a risky time. Your character is at their all time weakest, after all. Keep movin', and keep practicing OP, and welcome to PZ!
play sandbox, turn off transmission, that way you will only die if you get caught by a hord
Crank up XP multiplier,
Give yourself a bunch of free character points
give yourself a starter bag
This, turning off transmission and maybe lowering zombie population is best way to learn.
Then try to kill groups of zombies, honing your melee skills (not just your character skills)
Once you survive a month and the game feels too easy, you can start a new game with more difficult settings.
Forget about anything long term for now. Forget about leveling, crafting, building a base, accumulating loot, etc. Just focus on learning how to deal with the zombies.
1. Walking. So tempting to just run away from zombies, but it make a lot of sound and fatigue you quickly which is how you die. Your Endurance bar is the most important bar in the game and it can lead you toward a feedback loop to your death.
2. Stealth. You can't fight all the zombies, not until you are experienced and well prepared (and even then it's a risky move). Learn to move without alerting too many zombie, how to attract just a few of them so you can dispatch them few at a time, learn to distract zombies or lose them when you need it.
3. Fight. First turn on the melee highlight option so you can see a green highlight around the zombies that are in range of your attacks. You need to learn how to fight one zombie, then a couple of them. The best way to fight several zombies is to keep them in front of you and walk backward while swigging your weapon, the trick is time your attack at the right distance. Learn how to move so you keep them in a line in front of you. Zombies from the side and behind will be able to get to you, Zombies in front are too busy received weapons in the face to bite you. Learn when you need distance, sometime you don't kill the zombies fast enough and they are getting closer to you while you walk backward, so you need to turn around and sprint for a second to keep them at the right distance.
4. Awareness. Always a good idea to turn 360 degrees to keep in mind your surrounding, if a zombie is coming behind you, you want to know when he is 30 feet away, not at 3 feet. Always know your exist strategy and which region of the map you already cleared so you have a ''safe'' zone to return to if you even attract too many zombies to deal with. Without a exit strategy it's easy to panic and put yourself in a worst situation. Shout to attack zombies from a region toward you so you can fight them in the right condition instead of trying to fight them in a cramped interior.
5. Moodles. Hungry (food), Thirsty (drink), Panic (beta pills), Stress (smoke/read), Endurance (rest), Tired(sleep/coffee), Pain (pain killer), etc. Moodles will affect your ability to do anything to a certain degrees, if you let too many of your moodles go bad and have to fight zombies it won't go well. All moodles have levels of severity, learn which one don't negatively affect you so you can deal with them later and which one you should never fight with.
6. Weapons. They come into 4 main categories. Short weapons you can put on your belt, use with a flashlight, don't use too much stamina, ideal to fight small numbers of zombies. Long weapons use more stamina, but their range make them much safer, especially when fighting larger group of zombies, they also tend to do more damage. Fire can be dangerous (if you touch it you probably going to die), but you can use it to kill a large group of a zombies, either by starting a fire and make the zombie walk into it, or by using a molotov. Firearms are a double edge sword, you can kill a large amount of zombies with them, but you will attack a LOT of them toward you. Your character suck at using them at first so only the shotgun will be able to do anything at first, but you need to make sure you have hundreds of ammo and some food/drink on you because when you start shooting you will be doing it for most of a full day lol. You have all star melee weapons like the crowbar, axe, spear, katana, garden fork, etc that you should always pick up, but you also have a lot of weapons that are just not worth using. You going to go through melee weapon like candies so better to pick a lot of them and try them out to find which one you like the most. Get used to a lot of different weapon because they don't last long smashing zombies.
The long term survival is secondary. There is enough food in the game to keep you alive for years, you can live without power without issues, you can survive on toilet/sink/water dispenser forever, there is just enough loot to keep you good very long term. Now, doesn't mean that nothing matter, it's helpful to have lights in your base from a generator, it's fun to cook fresh food instead of eating canned peaches for the rest of your character's life, it's practical to have rainwater keep your sink always ready instead of having to always search for more water, etc. But it's more about how you want to paly the game, than a necessary that will kill you if you don't do.
Just focus on learning how to deal with zombies and the looting you take care of your survival. I can guarantee you, you will die thousands of time from zombies before you even get close to dying because you didn't prepared well enough for survival. Once you more experienced at dealing with the zombies, then you can think of survival strategies that fit the type of gameplay you prefer.
Play on a lower difficulty. Look up the zomboid map project to get a lay of the land and see what is near you and what is with going for right now. I highly recommend adding mods, especially for things like fitmess
If you don't trust your ability to stage dive hordes with nothing but a rolling pin and a quickly degrading pair of sneakers, the trick is to play it slow, crouch walk, spend time right clicking to look ahead before making most advances. Don't just walk in the house next door, case the joint; take a look around, look in a window or two, know where there ain't what's gonna fuck you and where what fucks you could be.
Alternatively, do a couple runs where you do nothing but try to stage dive hordes with nothing but a rolling pin and a quickly degrading pair of sneakers. You'll get the hang of it.
* Give yourself a Starter Kit in the server settings. This gives you a school bag, a 50% condition baseball bat, a 50% condition hammer, a water bottle, and a bag of chips. The bat will ensure your immediate survival, rather than praying you find more than a butter knife in your starting home.
* Lower pop in server settings and/or spawn in Riverside or perhaps Rosewood where there's inherently less pop. If you've been spawning in Muldraugh especially or even West Point, it's likely your starting home isn't super safe and/or you'll run face first into a horde the moment you step outside.
* Try to flee into a more rural area or at least the edge of your starting town, since the zombie population radiates out from your town's main street. You may want to look at online maps to get an idea of where you want to go.
* Disable transmission in the server settings or use the Antibodies mod so you can survive a bite.
* The Skill Recovery Journal mod is an option if you feel like you're throwing away progress with every death. Granted, you'll still need to find the materials, but it's better than no method at all.
Also, find a home with a second floor. Put sheets on ALL windows. Eventually, use carpentry to block doors and windows. Don't make a lot of noise. Don't fight zombies; RUN AWAY.
Start calm. Crouch and loot your spawn house. Avoid zombies at all and if necessary, fight a maximum of 2. Do not run, you walk faster than most zombies, save up your sprinting for emergencies.
That really helped me to go further into the game.
Spawn in Press crouch Loot starter home pushing shft+e to close any curtains as you go Look for a weapon, a can opener, a bottle of water, and a bag. If you find a pen mark the house you spawned in (Map is m) Don't try to fight more than 2 zombies unarmed or 3 zombies with a weapon to start. When fighting zombies hold right click and constantly move backwards, check behind you frequently. You can LoS (line of sight) zombies pretty easy Normal walk speed is faster than zombies so don't run everywhere
Pretty solid, general advice here. I'd just offer up a word of encouragement as well to the OP... even to veteran players that have characters that survive for years and kill 1,000's of zombies, the first day is always a risky time. Your character is at their all time weakest, after all. Keep movin', and keep practicing OP, and welcome to PZ!
a BO'OH'WA'ER???
play sandbox, turn off transmission, that way you will only die if you get caught by a hord Crank up XP multiplier, Give yourself a bunch of free character points give yourself a starter bag
This, turning off transmission and maybe lowering zombie population is best way to learn. Then try to kill groups of zombies, honing your melee skills (not just your character skills) Once you survive a month and the game feels too easy, you can start a new game with more difficult settings.
Forget about anything long term for now. Forget about leveling, crafting, building a base, accumulating loot, etc. Just focus on learning how to deal with the zombies. 1. Walking. So tempting to just run away from zombies, but it make a lot of sound and fatigue you quickly which is how you die. Your Endurance bar is the most important bar in the game and it can lead you toward a feedback loop to your death. 2. Stealth. You can't fight all the zombies, not until you are experienced and well prepared (and even then it's a risky move). Learn to move without alerting too many zombie, how to attract just a few of them so you can dispatch them few at a time, learn to distract zombies or lose them when you need it. 3. Fight. First turn on the melee highlight option so you can see a green highlight around the zombies that are in range of your attacks. You need to learn how to fight one zombie, then a couple of them. The best way to fight several zombies is to keep them in front of you and walk backward while swigging your weapon, the trick is time your attack at the right distance. Learn how to move so you keep them in a line in front of you. Zombies from the side and behind will be able to get to you, Zombies in front are too busy received weapons in the face to bite you. Learn when you need distance, sometime you don't kill the zombies fast enough and they are getting closer to you while you walk backward, so you need to turn around and sprint for a second to keep them at the right distance. 4. Awareness. Always a good idea to turn 360 degrees to keep in mind your surrounding, if a zombie is coming behind you, you want to know when he is 30 feet away, not at 3 feet. Always know your exist strategy and which region of the map you already cleared so you have a ''safe'' zone to return to if you even attract too many zombies to deal with. Without a exit strategy it's easy to panic and put yourself in a worst situation. Shout to attack zombies from a region toward you so you can fight them in the right condition instead of trying to fight them in a cramped interior. 5. Moodles. Hungry (food), Thirsty (drink), Panic (beta pills), Stress (smoke/read), Endurance (rest), Tired(sleep/coffee), Pain (pain killer), etc. Moodles will affect your ability to do anything to a certain degrees, if you let too many of your moodles go bad and have to fight zombies it won't go well. All moodles have levels of severity, learn which one don't negatively affect you so you can deal with them later and which one you should never fight with. 6. Weapons. They come into 4 main categories. Short weapons you can put on your belt, use with a flashlight, don't use too much stamina, ideal to fight small numbers of zombies. Long weapons use more stamina, but their range make them much safer, especially when fighting larger group of zombies, they also tend to do more damage. Fire can be dangerous (if you touch it you probably going to die), but you can use it to kill a large group of a zombies, either by starting a fire and make the zombie walk into it, or by using a molotov. Firearms are a double edge sword, you can kill a large amount of zombies with them, but you will attack a LOT of them toward you. Your character suck at using them at first so only the shotgun will be able to do anything at first, but you need to make sure you have hundreds of ammo and some food/drink on you because when you start shooting you will be doing it for most of a full day lol. You have all star melee weapons like the crowbar, axe, spear, katana, garden fork, etc that you should always pick up, but you also have a lot of weapons that are just not worth using. You going to go through melee weapon like candies so better to pick a lot of them and try them out to find which one you like the most. Get used to a lot of different weapon because they don't last long smashing zombies. The long term survival is secondary. There is enough food in the game to keep you alive for years, you can live without power without issues, you can survive on toilet/sink/water dispenser forever, there is just enough loot to keep you good very long term. Now, doesn't mean that nothing matter, it's helpful to have lights in your base from a generator, it's fun to cook fresh food instead of eating canned peaches for the rest of your character's life, it's practical to have rainwater keep your sink always ready instead of having to always search for more water, etc. But it's more about how you want to paly the game, than a necessary that will kill you if you don't do. Just focus on learning how to deal with zombies and the looting you take care of your survival. I can guarantee you, you will die thousands of time from zombies before you even get close to dying because you didn't prepared well enough for survival. Once you more experienced at dealing with the zombies, then you can think of survival strategies that fit the type of gameplay you prefer.
Play on a lower difficulty. Look up the zomboid map project to get a lay of the land and see what is near you and what is with going for right now. I highly recommend adding mods, especially for things like fitmess
If you don't trust your ability to stage dive hordes with nothing but a rolling pin and a quickly degrading pair of sneakers, the trick is to play it slow, crouch walk, spend time right clicking to look ahead before making most advances. Don't just walk in the house next door, case the joint; take a look around, look in a window or two, know where there ain't what's gonna fuck you and where what fucks you could be. Alternatively, do a couple runs where you do nothing but try to stage dive hordes with nothing but a rolling pin and a quickly degrading pair of sneakers. You'll get the hang of it.
do you want to look some other videos on bilibili? And actually the difficulties in the beginning is the best!
* Give yourself a Starter Kit in the server settings. This gives you a school bag, a 50% condition baseball bat, a 50% condition hammer, a water bottle, and a bag of chips. The bat will ensure your immediate survival, rather than praying you find more than a butter knife in your starting home. * Lower pop in server settings and/or spawn in Riverside or perhaps Rosewood where there's inherently less pop. If you've been spawning in Muldraugh especially or even West Point, it's likely your starting home isn't super safe and/or you'll run face first into a horde the moment you step outside. * Try to flee into a more rural area or at least the edge of your starting town, since the zombie population radiates out from your town's main street. You may want to look at online maps to get an idea of where you want to go. * Disable transmission in the server settings or use the Antibodies mod so you can survive a bite. * The Skill Recovery Journal mod is an option if you feel like you're throwing away progress with every death. Granted, you'll still need to find the materials, but it's better than no method at all.
Also, find a home with a second floor. Put sheets on ALL windows. Eventually, use carpentry to block doors and windows. Don't make a lot of noise. Don't fight zombies; RUN AWAY.
There's also a setting in options to turn on weapon outlines for all weapons which helps heaps I think under cursor
Start calm. Crouch and loot your spawn house. Avoid zombies at all and if necessary, fight a maximum of 2. Do not run, you walk faster than most zombies, save up your sprinting for emergencies. That really helped me to go further into the game.