My main Build would be burglar with: Negative traits; -overweight -pacifist -weak stomach Positive traits; -fast driver -car eye -the art of survival -dexterity
I have around 100 hours in this game but i got to say, it's a good guide. I tried your setup with the cop, it's decent, but you probably should've mentioned that if player wants to fight the horde it's best to do so from inside the car, otherwise panic makes it absolutely impossible to deal any damage even with best mod weapons.
So you mean when I worked construction, that one dude who was a smoker and always calling out sick was one of the best people to befriend during Z day?
I usually always choose burglar as my usual profession at the start of the game. The boost in hotwiring cars at the start is super useful. The boost in nimble sneaking and lightfooted are also useful aswell when playing a sneak build
I have never picked that.. mainly because I want to level up to hotwire the normal way.. I always die lol most I've gone is 20 days.. can't wait till I survive the winter
100%, I go illiterate burgled until I gather enough cars and weapons to start leveling a real character. Stealth means you can just loot without worrying about clearing zombies until you get some good stuff.
Same. I love starting with the ability to get a car. I usually care mostly because it'll let me use the vehicle as extra storage and an emergency escape.
I suggest you guys try engineer with amateur mechanic. It is just one quick lvl in mechanics away from hot-wiring but you end up with some healthy xp buffs in those skills. Unlike burglar which gives no xp buffs
Engineer is my favorite trait to start with. Gets you xp boosts with carp, mechanics, and electrics, combined with hunter gives you a char that can boost aim super fast, as well as be able to Hotwire within the first couple days.
Same here. Engineer gets bomb recipes that no one else does and I like getting to lvl 5 electrical to make battery connectors for lamps. Hunter is great well. I choose amateur mechanic (no mec boost from engineer) and I always get wakeful as well. Best 2 pts you can spend.
I just bought the game yesterday, and so far, I only learnedlittlethings about it. I thought occupations and traits were pretty self-explanatory, but the way you taught us in great detail how all of it works, and how to use them efficiently is REALLY amazing, and it'll probably help this poor beginner who can't survive more than 1 day. Thank you SO MUCH, and I really hope you make more of these greatly detailed videos!!!
I know this is a little late but I wanted to clarify that fast learner does NOT negate the downside of pacifist it’s actually the opposite. Because of how the calcs work it’s not just 30-25=5 because of how percentage changes work. I believe it works out to roughly be you get 93.5% xp or something along those lines. I could be wrong on the exact xp percentage but you still end up losing xp. And because positive percentages are applied first generally it ends up hurting your other bonuses to weapon skills as well. It may seem minimal anyways but when it can take sometimes dozens of a single weapon type to max the skill for it, it adds up quickly. Edit: I forgot to mention maintenance is also considered a weapon skill and that’s arguably one of the most important skills in the game to increase the longevity of good and sometimes non renewable weapons.
Fire officer, underweight, athletic is an efficient foundation for a lot of builds, you get to keep athletic for endurance regain but still get 6 points for underweight
I have loved starting with the Firefighter profession with athletic, lucky, and keen hearing. Makes spawning near or at the Fire house easy for a good starter base and the axes are a great utility/weapon. Sometimes I’ll take amateur mechanic so I can get quicker access to cars, while prioritizing book loot so I can quickly get my skills up with Life and Living. Rosewood so far has been my best city and I have a lot of fun with it
The axe man trait actually only lets you swing faster while cutting trees, so it isn't really useful. Brawler gives you +1 axe and +1 long blunt, try it with mechanic and just grind one elec lvl to hotwire cars.
This has been a super helpful video. I've always been scared of picking up negative traits, but hearing ways to negate them or avoid their effects makes me much more confident
I can't believe lucky isn't mentioned, not even sure I seen it in the comments. I have noticed a huge difference in the loot I get with it, to me totally worth it.
I picked up your unemployed chad build when I first started playing and it helped me get through at least in-game week and I wasn't struggling. Thank you so much!
I like to pair smoker with the quit smoking mod as going without a smoke for a week wouldn't leave you climbing the walls anymore you would get over it, something I think the devs should add with maybe a fitness deficit to compensate for the state of your lungs or something since your getting points out of taking the trait initially.
Yeah, Smoker should absolutely come with some sort of permanent Stamina/fitness debuff to make it so it isn't just free points like a lot of people treat it as.
I quit smoking recently and I'll tell ya rn it takes way more than A week for it to level out hahaha. I'm at 3 months and it's only now getting easier to ignore. Admittedly, I don't live in a stress filled( zombie)environment tho lol.
@@ScabbyMcKniel just wondering, how did you quit? I started quitting 2 years ago (lol), i still smoke 1, maybe 2 cigs a day. Cutting down from half a pack a day to 1-2 a day was easy. Taking the last step though, that has been tough.
Park ranger is a nice alternative to carpenter. Has 75% boost to carp, foraging, and trapping. Makes outdoor survival builds easier. Some added bonuses are the 75% axe increase and walking through trees faster. I think also has stats similar to outdoorsmen trait
Outdoorsman is a very cheap trait for giving you all of the perks of Park ranger minus the skill boosts. I'd prefer to just pick construction worker and outdoorsman. Foraging is super easy to level, and the maintenance bonus would arguably make your axes better early game since they last longer, if you aren't going with the big short blunt boost or spears
My current character is unemployed with high Fitness, Agorophobic + Cowardly for max panic outdoors, and Adrenaline Junkie to turn that panic into an asset. This is my first character that's actually made it past the first couple days, but that's likely also due to me now knowing how the game works (kinda).
this actually makes making builds a lot easier to grasp as it gives a ton of good negative traits and counters to those traits now i actually feel like i have an idea of what i’m doing
Just bought the game last week. loving it! I've been going through all your guides and they have been a great help. Thank you very much MrAtomicDuck sir
1:45 Skills at level zero don't start at 100%, but get a 25% modifier and the bonus shown from higher levels is additive, not a multiplier. Meaning, starting with lvl 1 in a skill, you'll quadruple (!) your xp gain in that skill, while starting with lvl 3 means you get to level up that skill six times as fast in the future. Basically, starting at level 1 is a huge boost over level 0, while subsequent levels give relatively smaller boosts, though still significant. Also, weapon skills start at 30% damage at lvl 0 and increase by 10% points every lvl, i.e. effectively +33% more damage per level. An actual multiplier comes from strength (for dmg; fitness for attack speed). I think moodles work as multipliers too, such as *0.7 for that -30% dmg from extreme panic, but I'm not completely sure. Shortsighted simply doesn't work at all and are free points, not just "hard to notice". Lastly, fitness and strength both get a massive jump at level 9 and 10, while also being extremely hard to ever level up afterwards at that point. Just in case you wanted to combine athletic with underweight - it will nullify most of the fitness advantage (unless you play a firefighter or fitness instructor and thereby raise your fitness over the magic line of lvl 8).
My go to class is : Fire officer -negativ: High Thirst/Slow healer/ Conspicuous/prone to illnes/smoker/Weak Stomach/short sighted/slow Reader/underweight/ -positiv: strong/Athletic/Fast learner/Lucky/brave/dextrous/speed demon/
Congratz on 30k subs! onwards to 50k :) Thanks for the guide, it's always tricky on what to pick for a build and this breaks it down so it's easy to understand.
By far the most reliable place to find cigs now is office desk drawers. I play on extremely rare loot and still find 20 cig's in around 1 in 5 desks. Desks used to be pointless to loot but if you are a smoker they are now a must search early game.
They have seeming lowered the chance of zombies having smokes as well. I'd say about 1 in every 100-150 has a pack of smokes, I find more lighters and matches generally.
I love that there's two British Project Zomboid creators and they may as well be Jekyll and Hyde. One is calm and informative, the other is insane and informative
Just started playing a couple days ago. Thank you for your vids, they've almost helped me survive as long as the tutorial 🤣 I've been going fire man because the axe perk sounded really nice. I did 1 life as a burglar and couldn't find any cars that were in condition to drive and had gas. This game is shockingly enjoyable for how often I die.
I like burglar just because otherwise I need to hope hard that I find a car with a key, a good engine, and then a gas can with gas. The ability to hotwire immediately cuts the rng down by alot, as well as ensures I don't need to break down like hundreds of watches, or dozens of tvs, and a week not grinding different cars nearby, ruining potentially useful source of parts. Past that, you'll need a gas can anyway, and a good car is needed by both. Just so damn useful; im bad at stealth though haha
Thank you for all of the videos you have published for us beginners in the game! I started playing using the burglar skill based on your suggestion’s. Only issue for me is the lack of working cars in Muldraugh 😆! It’s all good though, learning to clear the zombies with a rolling pin and my boots has taught me patience and how to walk backwards!
For new people out there: if you want a bit more of legit trait points, install mod to restore some hidden traits. There are a few that are still present in game but you can't take them and most of them are useless (or don't work), but they give points. These are some traits for NPC interactions (NPCs were removed long time ago) and some alcohol traits like getting drunk easier or smth.
If you play in sandbox mode you can give yourself some free point, no shame in that! I have often given myself some points to try out new traits without nerfing my character. Like cooking, not really helpful, but I enjoy it...+6 points. Can also give yourself an XP multiplier, turn off respawn or my fav, make it pitch black at night.
@Pud Pete not much of a cheating mod, like +4 is a cheat for you? Btw I think being drunk allows you to sleep through pain, ain't it? Yeah, perhaps it is a bit cheat. But idc lmao
I always skip Short Sighted because it gimps your Foraging skill which ends up being a very useful if not necessary skill mid-late game, esp in MP servers when towns have been picked over or you have to spend a lot of time in the wilderness or wanna forage to get your calories up/down. That being said: I wish there was a way to affect a neg perk like finding specific glasses or contact lenses to offset or negate the sight line issue. Take yo Face slot and can't wear Welder Mask and other facial covering gear etc would be a nice tradeoff.
Thanks a lot for your video! I will try your Burglar build! I tried this class as a beginner because I love to play sneaky, but I made horrible build. This is so useful for me!
If you have difficulty with the game's noises, turning them off and grabbing deaf is pretty good! Just be sure to grab keen sight as well so you don't have any fellas sneaking up on you. (I also turn off alarms, but that's just a personal preference. Play how you wanna!)
Just now picking up this game after seeing some content and this video was definitely helpful. Trading off unique traits to optimize and customize your build is an underrated game mechanic and I can’t wait to try these builds out
Just a tip in case someone else missed this. Claustrophobic doesn't trigger on the rooms above commercial stores like in Rosewood map (near Knox Bank). I think the game identifies the 2nd floor of these buildings as (outdoors). So you can sleep on those beds without panic setting in.
Underweight is alot harder to deal with in MP (unless you're playing with a group) , and in any single player case where you spawn and there's no more fresh food.
I mean food isn't exactly hard to come by in SP, even if you just ate canned goods you'd die or get bored long before you run out so there's no reason to ration.
I was lvl 2 underweight (forget what its called), gained 9 lbs in 6 game days by cooking big meals in each house I looted. Took everything in the fridge, made a big meal and ate the whole thing so I was stuffed. Kept doing this and I saw 2 up arrows by my weight. When it got to where I wanted it, I slowed down my eating.
Another thing, offices are FANTASTIC places to find cigarettes. You usually wouldn’t consider a place like that to be worth much but if you’re playing a smoker and it’s your only option you should be able to set yourself up for a while by just checking a few desks.
I usually play with underweight, because it’s pretty easy to gain weight eating cereal, ice-creams and maybe butter, if you have enough bourbon or books to recover from depression after eating the whole stick of butter
Sorry I’m late to this video, but I love this guide a lot! You won’t believe how much that unemployed build helped me in solo. I’m going to try the carpentry one because I bought my uncle this game and I’m looking forward to build a base in the apartments in Rosewood thanks to your best base guide as well. Thank you a ton!
Carpenter, nurse and bulgar are my go to as a new player. the ability to hotwire cars, sneak around and fortify my day one base is so important to my longevity in this game lol
I keep dropping into the Pond but never managed to get on while you're around! Great server though. Great vid too. Very handy. Glad to learn about the low sounds radius on the m36.
I am one of those recent new players and the build that I've had most success with is Construction Worker with High Thirst, Slow Healer, Weak Stomach, Sunday Driver, Cat's Eyes, Wakeful, Brave, and Fast Learner. I know Construction Worker isn't popular, but those 3 ranks of short blunt and 1 rank of carpentry really seem to have a big impact in the start of the game.
Hey, sounds good to me 👍🏻. Short blunt weapons are everywhere in the game so being proficient is nice. Your character eventually becomes less panicked around zombies anyways so the brave points might be better spent. I usually choose engineer with most/all of the neg traits you chose.
TBH a lot of people sleep on fire officer with atheltic and strong, which allowes you to fight a lot longer and a lot faster, also allowing you to carry more. Fire Officer: Strong Athletic Fast Learner Lucky (only on single) Wakeful (only on single) Handy Underweight High Thirst Prone to Illness Weak Stomach Hemophobic (just wash your hands) Slow Healer Pacifist Slow Reader(exchangable with Wakeful for multi) Short Sighted Panic Perk (forgot the name, the one for 2 points, SS + Panic perk exchangable with lucky for MP) You can always drop handy, but its basicly a no brainer, high stamina, high carry capacity low effort build. You can always add Thin Skinned (literally free 8 points if you wont take dmg) and add perks like Gymnast + Dextrous, or just drop some negatives for Thin Skinned. Be warned, if you try 10 str/9fitness build you wont be able to play 5/5 or 5/4 builds :D
⚠️ Avoid Speed Demon ⚠️ When driving a vehicle on reverse, what I assume to be a bug causes the car to produce massive amounts of sound, bringing in hordes. Took me very long to realize this, kept getting visited by waves after waves of zombies to my base.
I would think Sunday driver is essentially a positive trait for new players or people with slower reaction times as it reduces their chance of getting in a car crash. live longer and get more points, lol
Sunday driver also makes your car perform worse. With that perk, it's close to impossible to tow a vehicle. It also makes driving off-road even worse, going slower than usual, and with some cars with low horsepower, you could get stuck in off-road, especially if the vehicle is full of loot
A park ranger build is great in co-op servers. You can be the dedicated forager and get a stupid quantity of wild plants for your group and identify the poisonous ones. It's great.
Slow Reader and Shortsighted can fit into ANY build because of how easy they are to mitigate. They might as well be free points. Just read when you’re safe at home and wear glasses. I’d also say the same aboutSlow Healer, Hearty Appetite and High Thirst but those might be more problematic in the later game or on higher difficulties. So far I haven’t had much problem getting food and water or taking the time to heal when I get injured, as long as I have enough medical supplies to keep my bandages changed.
Handy, Wakeful, and Fast Learner are traits I put on every build I make. They're the absolute GOATs. Might include Lucky if I keep liking what I am seeing.
I feel like a lot has changed in this game compared to when most people have made videos. I see people sneaking right up to zombies but yet when I play even with all the stealth perks as a burglar they still detect me from like 20 feet away with their back turned to me, I don’t get it.
That burglar build was weird man. I mean for a new player it should work fine, but as someone who plays a fair bit and watches Retanaru frequently I can't help but see flaws. Clumsy is an awful choice, the noise generation is not the problem, it's that you have an increased chance to trip over fences even when not encumbered/exhausted, that's horrible. Inconspicuous is not the best choice, the 50% chance to not be seen is not worth it based on how frequently the zeds make spotting checks and a 50% coin flip is worthless if a group of zeds are making their checks, you will be seen by half the group that's just how statistics work. Removing clumsy and taking graceful instead of inconspicuous is a much better option, any zed looking your direction when you are within it's vision radius will see you eventually regardless of your traits/skills, but being quieter means you can get past zeds that don't see you and that you don't see yourself a lot easier. Amateur mechanic is another weird choice, why bother repairing the car you jacked when the whole point of burglar is you can just take any car you see? And just so I don't come off as some sort of negative nancy person, the other builds are all solid. The Police Officer build is actually a pretty hyper-focused "I shoot zombies" build, I might adapt that one myself!
Agreed, clumsy and inconspicuous are bad. Much rather choose conspicuous and graceful. It's funny, I rarely choose burglar anymore, but whenever I do I always seem to find keys in every car I check 😂.
I always choose veteran with 1-2 perks that you cannot earn in game and pair it with smoker, prone to illness, weak stomach , and that one hearing defect
I got this game back in the early days and just got back into it after years without playing and man it has come a long way. I used to build mega bases and now I can't make it more than a few days without being eaten alive. The entire meta game has changed lol.
Thanks for sharing these. I'll probably copy a few of the ones I didn't come up with on my own and test them out. I have a question for you on a build: Doctors and Nurses... Are they viable now if being played in multiplayer? And how would you build those occupations if you had to make that occupation. And I got a potential video idea: Hidden traits on picking a starting occupation. For instance I found that if you picked unemployed you almost always start in a trailer or tiny house meanwhile a chef can start in a restaurant. Or how fire officers can spawn in with firefighter pants and lumberjacks can start with those lumberjack shirts. Stuff like that, which is impacted by your starting occupation but isn't explicitly written when you pick to play the build. Those might come in handy for people who spend too much time theory crafting a build and less time playing one.
I always go vet for the desensitised trait because if you get scared you don’t swing as fast and I’ve died so many times that way .. then I use smoker and a few others so I can get strong and keen hearing and lucky .. lucky opens a new loot thing you don’t normally get and keen hearing is OP for “seeing” a zombie coming behind you
I've been watching your videos for a while now, great content BTW, u probably could add more volume to your vidos, usually a have to see them at 80%, and then my ears explodes when i forgott to turn it down
A more advanced tip: you can also pick hemophobic if you're well versed in combat, but if you pair it with smoker you'll need to wash yourself and your clothes regularly as the blood builds up anxiety faster and deeper, which can result in way more smoking than necessary
I have been playing this game for almost 10 years and I never picked any profession other than Firefighter, at this point I feel like something really bad will happen if I don't choose it. My build is usually +Firefighter +fast learner +dextrous -slow reader -underweight. I'm sure this is not the most minmaxed meta build but I like it.
Firefighter is a great occupation to choose, just didnt want to make the video too long! Definitely try something new though, it'll make it more interesting for you :)
It's not really that huge of a percentage increase to falling, but I can definitely see how this effects new players. So I tried to give some other options :)
I absolutely love this game. The only problem I have is I get out of where you start wherever that may be get to like my 4th house and get swarmed even when sneaking or anything I just get absolutely swarmed. Doing something wrong but I love the game either way.
Try being a bit more methodical when leaving your spawn house. If it has a TV, I usually try to keep to that house for the first few days to catch all the TV shows that give XP. Slowly, by attracting them one at a time, clear the area around your house of zombies. This will give you a clear area to retreat and fight so as to not attract more and become swarmed. If all that fails, try spawning in Riverside, less concentrated zoms.
Love your vids and helpful info! I've been trying to set up a server for just my buddy and I with a few mods for some coop fun. But when I start loading mods from the list and start it I'm getting workshop item doesn't fit current build. I've looked so much into this. any advice?
Sounds like one of the mods isn't up to date for the current build version, but I'm just guessing. The Indie Stone's discord has a tech support channel that is great for things like this!
my favorite character build is my fit learner build, it takes a lot of negatives but the character is extremely fit and will learn other skills really quickly, best playstyle for them is to sit in your house reading all your books and then go out and kill some zombies
I have now lasted 2 weeks as a Carpenter with the traits: High thrist, underweight, hard of hearing, prone to illness, smoker, weak stomach, short sighted and sunday driver. But with the good : fast reader (multiplayer), dextrous, fast learner, athletic and strong.
Just got it tonight to multi-play with my partner; first death I had a Mechanic with disorganized, second death I.. forget. Not important, it was just to make sure I was connecting properly. Third and current character I went with Unemployed with Cats Eyes, Graceful, Inconspicuous and Slow Reader. Not knowing how much of an effect negative traits have I just went with something that made sneaking around easier, as I was getting lost trying to meet up with partner >_> If/When that character dies, now that I know a bit more about how things work Ill be a bit more daring
I generally love your carpenter build. But my last few characters have all gotten infected with the knox virus, after just a few scratches, which makes me wonder if the "Prone to illness" - trait affects the risk of getting the Z-virus too? Some people argue it actually does. If that's true, the illness-trait is the worst possible debuff you could pick imho.
If you can avoid it, never use guns around your base. Make sure you have an escape plan if popping off the shot gun as everyone will want to join the party. That said, the shot gun can tear huge holes in a mob and very quickly reduce it to a few stragglers that your melee weapons can deal with.
I'm still pretty new to the game, but I feel like the Security Guard is underrated. The Night Owl perk is super helpful and specific to only the Security Guard
Weak Stomach is recommended by a lot of PZ pros but something they don't mention is that it can make you sick for a long time from OVER EATING. Since overeating is a major tool in the game meta, especially with underweight characters, this causes a huge problem. I'm not sure if I just got unlucky but every time I've played a Weak Stomach character it becomes a constant struggle to eat exactly the right amount of food without getting sick, which is ironically exactly how I live irl because of having a medical condition called gastroparesis. Which, while funny, is definitely intrusive to gameplay.
I usually pick fire officer Negatives: High thirst Slow reader underweight weak stomach unlucky Positives Hunter gymnast Organized outdoorsman if you spawn rosewood you also have a chance to spawn in the fire office. I like this set up because all agility aspects of your character get a 75% boost and you have a boost in short blade and axe. I love axes and I carry a knife with me for sneaky or when low stamina. and you have aiming so guns can sort of level quickly. the only downsides is that you dont have extra xp for proffesion skills but if you just read and work on it, it isnt to hard to level up. and for later game you have the trapping recepies so you can always trap for food and eat lots of calories so you can gain weight
I disagree with pacifist being good for new players, since it also decreases maintenance gains which means more items breaking down which for new players could be a death sentence when they haven't fully learned how to properly manage that. The math with pacifist and fast learner goes the fast learner increase first then the decrease from pacifist meaning you're actually negative xp gained on those skills. It's actually a trap. And you literally proved it, since you said it's an increase which it actually isn't.
Unemployed is always my go to. I eventually learn all the skills I want in the game anyway. Plus it gives me something extra to do and to work towards. Plus having very few or no negative traits is nice.
Negative traits weak stomach, hard of hearing, slow healer, smoker. Positive traits stout (Multiplayer), Dexterous, mechanic, fast learner. I play engineer in single and electrician in multiplayer.
I honestly hate looking up guides on starter stuff like this. A lot more fun to just jump in with both feet, then later look stuff up after learning a lot of it on my own.
Just kinda thought about it, and seen it done once, so if anyone's ever thought of doing a big zombie clean up: Find a police vehicle, or any with sirens, drive it into a wide, open area. Build several layers of walls around it, with at least an walkway looking over all of them. Build a wall around the perimeter of the area, with an opening to funnel the zombies in. For the clean up, run to the vehicle, making as much noise as possible to attract as many as possible. Drop molotovs along the way, enjoy the show. Grand finale: get in the vehicle, turn on the siren, drop more molotovs around the inner walls, bail. If there are any more ways to get more zombies in the culling range, you can add them down below.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
What are your favorite character builds? Let me know!
My main Build would be burglar with:
Negative traits;
-overweight
-pacifist
-weak stomach
Positive traits;
-fast driver
-car eye
-the art of survival
-dexterity
Single player
UNEMPLOYED
-High Thirst
-Slow Healer
-Conspicuous
-Pacifist
-Prone to Illness
-Weak Stomach
-Slow Reader
-Sunday Driver
+Cat's Eyes
+Outdoorsman
+Wakeful
+Fast Learner
+Organized
+Athletic
+Strong
I almost always go as engineer, one I'm an engineering in real life, but also it's the only way to know every recipe.
Mechanic (smoker) so I'm able to hotwire and work on cars. I feel the rest of the stats are easy to get.
I have around 100 hours in this game but i got to say, it's a good guide.
I tried your setup with the cop, it's decent, but you probably should've mentioned that if player wants to fight the horde it's best to do so from inside the car, otherwise panic makes it absolutely impossible to deal any damage even with best mod weapons.
So you mean when I worked construction, that one dude who was a smoker and always calling out sick was one of the best people to befriend during Z day?
Legit mate, they probably have some good traits for it xD
I usually always choose burglar as my usual profession at the start of the game. The boost in hotwiring cars at the start is super useful. The boost in nimble sneaking and lightfooted are also useful aswell when playing a sneak build
For sure! Definitely a really strong perk for getting started.
I have never picked that.. mainly because I want to level up to hotwire the normal way.. I always die lol most I've gone is 20 days.. can't wait till I survive the winter
100%, I go illiterate burgled until I gather enough cars and weapons to start leveling a real character. Stealth means you can just loot without worrying about clearing zombies until you get some good stuff.
Same. I love starting with the ability to get a car. I usually care mostly because it'll let me use the vehicle as extra storage and an emergency escape.
I suggest you guys try engineer with amateur mechanic. It is just one quick lvl in mechanics away from hot-wiring but you end up with some healthy xp buffs in those skills. Unlike burglar which gives no xp buffs
Engineer is my favorite trait to start with. Gets you xp boosts with carp, mechanics, and electrics, combined with hunter gives you a char that can boost aim super fast, as well as be able to Hotwire within the first couple days.
Awesome choice! Really versatile occupation to choose.
I like engineer it lets you do anything on the game with enough grinding. Plus bombs! Clearing areas is so much easier.
Same here. Engineer gets bomb recipes that no one else does and I like getting to lvl 5 electrical to make battery connectors for lamps. Hunter is great well. I choose amateur mechanic (no mec boost from engineer) and I always get wakeful as well. Best 2 pts you can spend.
Mr BOOM-bastic
I just bought the game yesterday, and so far, I only learnedlittlethings about it.
I thought occupations and traits were pretty self-explanatory, but the way you taught us in great detail how all of it works, and how to use them efficiently is REALLY amazing, and it'll probably help this poor beginner who can't survive more than 1 day.
Thank you SO MUCH, and I really hope you make more of these greatly detailed videos!!!
Thanks! That means a lot. There's a lot more guides on my channel, with more to come :)
How's project zomboid going for you nowadays?
I know this is a little late but I wanted to clarify that fast learner does NOT negate the downside of pacifist it’s actually the opposite. Because of how the calcs work it’s not just 30-25=5 because of how percentage changes work. I believe it works out to roughly be you get 93.5% xp or something along those lines. I could be wrong on the exact xp percentage but you still end up losing xp. And because positive percentages are applied first generally it ends up hurting your other bonuses to weapon skills as well. It may seem minimal anyways but when it can take sometimes dozens of a single weapon type to max the skill for it, it adds up quickly.
Edit: I forgot to mention maintenance is also considered a weapon skill and that’s arguably one of the most important skills in the game to increase the longevity of good and sometimes non renewable weapons.
Fire officer, underweight, athletic is an efficient foundation for a lot of builds, you get to keep athletic for endurance regain but still get 6 points for underweight
Nice!
I have loved starting with the Firefighter profession with athletic, lucky, and keen hearing. Makes spawning near or at the Fire house easy for a good starter base and the axes are a great utility/weapon. Sometimes I’ll take amateur mechanic so I can get quicker access to cars, while prioritizing book loot so I can quickly get my skills up with Life and Living. Rosewood so far has been my best city and I have a lot of fun with it
Firefighter is a great one. Love some of these!
Rosewood is my second favorite. I like Riverside for the junkyard and all the good areas are in the west close together.
The axe man trait actually only lets you swing faster while cutting trees, so it isn't really useful. Brawler gives you +1 axe and +1 long blunt, try it with mechanic and just grind one elec lvl to hotwire cars.
I'm 400 hours into this game and all of these builds are 100% viable. Even learned some new things. Good video
This has been a super helpful video. I've always been scared of picking up negative traits, but hearing ways to negate them or avoid their effects makes me much more confident
Glad it was helpful! Good luck out there!
Exactly why I’ve been looking for . Love the detailed step by step instruction .
My pleasure! Good luck!
I can't believe lucky isn't mentioned, not even sure I seen it in the comments. I have noticed a huge difference in the loot I get with it, to me totally worth it.
I picked up your unemployed chad build when I first started playing and it helped me get through at least in-game week and I wasn't struggling. Thank you so much!
Great to hear!
I like to pair smoker with the quit smoking mod as going without a smoke for a week wouldn't leave you climbing the walls anymore you would get over it, something I think the devs should add with maybe a fitness deficit to compensate for the state of your lungs or something since your getting points out of taking the trait initially.
Yeah I've seen this mod! Good option for players to look at.
Yeah, Smoker should absolutely come with some sort of permanent Stamina/fitness debuff to make it so it isn't just free points like a lot of people treat it as.
As a rule of thumb when I take smoker I also take asthmatic to better display what a smoker would be like in the real world.
I quit smoking recently and I'll tell ya rn it takes way more than A week for it to level out hahaha. I'm at 3 months and it's only now getting easier to ignore. Admittedly, I don't live in a stress filled( zombie)environment tho lol.
@@ScabbyMcKniel just wondering, how did you quit? I started quitting 2 years ago (lol), i still smoke 1, maybe 2 cigs a day. Cutting down from half a pack a day to 1-2 a day was easy. Taking the last step though, that has been tough.
Park ranger is a nice alternative to carpenter. Has 75% boost to carp, foraging, and trapping. Makes outdoor survival builds easier. Some added bonuses are the 75% axe increase and walking through trees faster. I think also has stats similar to outdoorsmen trait
Also no injuries when running in forest
Outdoorsman is a very cheap trait for giving you all of the perks of Park ranger minus the skill boosts. I'd prefer to just pick construction worker and outdoorsman. Foraging is super easy to level, and the maintenance bonus would arguably make your axes better early game since they last longer, if you aren't going with the big short blunt boost or spears
My current character is unemployed with high Fitness, Agorophobic + Cowardly for max panic outdoors, and Adrenaline Junkie to turn that panic into an asset. This is my first character that's actually made it past the first couple days, but that's likely also due to me now knowing how the game works (kinda).
i used the same for a while. good for running away but not combat. extreme panic gives you like a 30% damage reduction
this actually makes making builds a lot easier to grasp as it gives a ton of good negative traits and counters to those traits now i actually feel like i have an idea of what i’m doing
That's really good to hear! Good luck out there.
Just bought the game last week. loving it!
I've been going through all your guides and they have been a great help. Thank you very much MrAtomicDuck sir
Glad I could help!
1:45 Skills at level zero don't start at 100%, but get a 25% modifier and the bonus shown from higher levels is additive, not a multiplier. Meaning, starting with lvl 1 in a skill, you'll quadruple (!) your xp gain in that skill, while starting with lvl 3 means you get to level up that skill six times as fast in the future. Basically, starting at level 1 is a huge boost over level 0, while subsequent levels give relatively smaller boosts, though still significant.
Also, weapon skills start at 30% damage at lvl 0 and increase by 10% points every lvl, i.e. effectively +33% more damage per level. An actual multiplier comes from strength (for dmg; fitness for attack speed). I think moodles work as multipliers too, such as *0.7 for that -30% dmg from extreme panic, but I'm not completely sure.
Shortsighted simply doesn't work at all and are free points, not just "hard to notice".
Lastly, fitness and strength both get a massive jump at level 9 and 10, while also being extremely hard to ever level up afterwards at that point. Just in case you wanted to combine athletic with underweight - it will nullify most of the fitness advantage (unless you play a firefighter or fitness instructor and thereby raise your fitness over the magic line of lvl 8).
Short sighted reduces the foraging radius significantly, it's not free but does not affect vision and combat.
@@postvideo97 That's true, forgot to mention that.
My go to class is : Fire officer -negativ: High Thirst/Slow healer/ Conspicuous/prone to illnes/smoker/Weak Stomach/short sighted/slow Reader/underweight/ -positiv: strong/Athletic/Fast learner/Lucky/brave/dextrous/speed demon/
Congratz on 30k subs! onwards to 50k :) Thanks for the guide, it's always tricky on what to pick for a build and this breaks it down so it's easy to understand.
Thank you sir Melon!
By far the most reliable place to find cigs now is office desk drawers. I play on extremely rare loot and still find 20 cig's in around 1 in 5 desks. Desks used to be pointless to loot but if you are a smoker they are now a must search early game.
Good to know!
They have seeming lowered the chance of zombies having smokes as well. I'd say about 1 in every 100-150 has a pack of smokes, I find more lighters and matches generally.
I love that there's two British Project Zomboid creators and they may as well be Jekyll and Hyde. One is calm and informative, the other is insane and informative
Just started playing a couple days ago. Thank you for your vids, they've almost helped me survive as long as the tutorial 🤣
I've been going fire man because the axe perk sounded really nice. I did 1 life as a burglar and couldn't find any cars that were in condition to drive and had gas. This game is shockingly enjoyable for how often I die.
Happy to help dude!
If you do custom sandbox you can change the starting condition of cars so more will be ready to drive
The axe perk actually sucks, there have been some YT vids looking into the traits. It only helps you chop trees faster, not swing at zombies fast.
I'm a new player but now i'm a total chad thanks to you, awesome builds and awesome explanations. Thank you very much.
Glad to help!
I like burglar just because otherwise I need to hope hard that I find a car with a key, a good engine, and then a gas can with gas. The ability to hotwire immediately cuts the rng down by alot, as well as ensures I don't need to break down like hundreds of watches, or dozens of tvs, and a week not grinding different cars nearby, ruining potentially useful source of parts. Past that, you'll need a gas can anyway, and a good car is needed by both.
Just so damn useful; im bad at stealth though haha
For those who need it:
1. Carpenter.
- smoker, weak stomach, prone to illness, pacifist
+ perks: fast reader, fast learner, handy
2. Burglar.
- high thirst, weak stomach, smoker, prone to illness, clumsy
+ cats eyes, wakeful, inconspicuous, amateur mechanic
3. Police. (Rick Grimes)
- slow healer, underweight, prone to illness, weak stomach, smoker
+ cat's eyes, brave, fast learner, keen hearing
4. Unemployed. (chad, thad, and brad)
- high thirst, pacifist, prone to illness, weak stomach, short sighted, slow reader
+ wakeful, keen hearing, athletic, strong
Thank you for all of the videos you have published for us beginners in the game! I started playing using the burglar skill based on your suggestion’s. Only issue for me is the lack of working cars in Muldraugh 😆! It’s all good though, learning to clear the zombies with a rolling pin and my boots has taught me patience and how to walk backwards!
Happy to help!
Meh good luck finding one with gas though. That made me quit burlgar for good.
For new people out there: if you want a bit more of legit trait points, install mod to restore some hidden traits. There are a few that are still present in game but you can't take them and most of them are useless (or don't work), but they give points. These are some traits for NPC interactions (NPCs were removed long time ago) and some alcohol traits like getting drunk easier or smth.
@Pud Pete yea? some people like to play on easier settings lol, that's the whole reason the game is so configurable.
@Pud Pete worst take
If you play in sandbox mode you can give yourself some free point, no shame in that! I have often given myself some points to try out new traits without nerfing my character. Like cooking, not really helpful, but I enjoy it...+6 points. Can also give yourself an XP multiplier, turn off respawn or my fav, make it pitch black at night.
@@nerfherder4284 yeah, that too. But when I started modding my game I even added mod for additional trait points and now I'm OP af.
@Pud Pete not much of a cheating mod, like +4 is a cheat for you? Btw I think being drunk allows you to sleep through pain, ain't it? Yeah, perhaps it is a bit cheat. But idc lmao
I always skip Short Sighted because it gimps your Foraging skill which ends up being a very useful if not necessary skill mid-late game, esp in MP servers when towns have been picked over or you have to spend a lot of time in the wilderness or wanna forage to get your calories up/down.
That being said: I wish there was a way to affect a neg perk like finding specific glasses or contact lenses to offset or negate the sight line issue. Take yo Face slot and can't wear Welder Mask and other facial covering gear etc would be a nice tradeoff.
I think short sighted is basically bugged right now and only effects foraging. Its a good free 2 points on any build.
Interesting!
Thanks a lot for your video!
I will try your Burglar build! I tried this class as a beginner because I love to play sneaky, but I made horrible build.
This is so useful for me!
Good luck!
If you have difficulty with the game's noises, turning them off and grabbing deaf is pretty good! Just be sure to grab keen sight as well so you don't have any fellas sneaking up on you.
(I also turn off alarms, but that's just a personal preference. Play how you wanna!)
Just now picking up this game after seeing some content and this video was definitely helpful. Trading off unique traits to optimize and customize your build is an underrated game mechanic and I can’t wait to try these builds out
Glad it helped!
Just a tip in case someone else missed this.
Claustrophobic doesn't trigger on the rooms above commercial stores like in Rosewood map (near Knox Bank).
I think the game identifies the 2nd floor of these buildings as (outdoors).
So you can sleep on those beds without panic setting in.
Underweight is alot harder to deal with in MP (unless you're playing with a group) , and in any single player case where you spawn and there's no more fresh food.
I mean food isn't exactly hard to come by in SP, even if you just ate canned goods you'd die or get bored long before you run out so there's no reason to ration.
Dude you can put on shitloads of weight without fresh foods. More, in fact. Chocolate, ice cream, peanut butter, anything with high fat.
Fish are the real calorie king. Just go fish for a few days, work out while you're full.
And Overweight is still far worse.
I was lvl 2 underweight (forget what its called), gained 9 lbs in 6 game days by cooking big meals in each house I looted. Took everything in the fridge, made a big meal and ate the whole thing so I was stuffed. Kept doing this and I saw 2 up arrows by my weight. When it got to where I wanted it, I slowed down my eating.
As a new player to project zomboid this video has helped me out alot, keep it up duck!
Thanks, will do!
Another thing, offices are FANTASTIC places to find cigarettes. You usually wouldn’t consider a place like that to be worth much but if you’re playing a smoker and it’s your only option you should be able to set yourself up for a while by just checking a few desks.
Good to know!
I usually play with underweight, because it’s pretty easy to gain weight eating cereal, ice-creams and maybe butter, if you have enough bourbon or books to recover from depression after eating the whole stick of butter
I love to play as a repairman.
As a spear lover, leveling maintenance quickly is making the difference :3
Great choice! Spears are fantastic.
Sorry I’m late to this video, but I love this guide a lot! You won’t believe how much that unemployed build helped me in solo. I’m going to try the carpentry one because I bought my uncle this game and I’m looking forward to build a base in the apartments in Rosewood thanks to your best base guide as well. Thank you a ton!
Glad it helped! That's awesome. Tell your uncle I said hi 👋
Carpenter, nurse and bulgar are my go to as a new player. the ability to hotwire cars, sneak around and fortify my day one base is so important to my longevity in this game lol
Burglar is always such a good one! Really invaluable to be able to get moving so quickly.
I keep dropping into the Pond but never managed to get on while you're around! Great server though. Great vid too. Very handy. Glad to learn about the low sounds radius on the m36.
I tend to play on the Patreon server, so if you're playing on the public one the chances of seeing me are a bit lower for sure.
Finally picked this game up 3 days ago. I have no idea what I’m doing
you forgot to add wearing glasses cancels out short sighted
I am one of those recent new players and the build that I've had most success with is Construction Worker with High Thirst, Slow Healer, Weak Stomach, Sunday Driver, Cat's Eyes, Wakeful, Brave, and Fast Learner. I know Construction Worker isn't popular, but those 3 ranks of short blunt and 1 rank of carpentry really seem to have a big impact in the start of the game.
Hey, sounds good to me 👍🏻. Short blunt weapons are everywhere in the game so being proficient is nice. Your character eventually becomes less panicked around zombies anyways so the brave points might be better spent. I usually choose engineer with most/all of the neg traits you chose.
TBH a lot of people sleep on fire officer with atheltic and strong, which allowes you to fight a lot longer and a lot faster, also allowing you to carry more.
Fire Officer:
Strong
Athletic
Fast Learner
Lucky (only on single)
Wakeful (only on single)
Handy
Underweight
High Thirst
Prone to Illness
Weak Stomach
Hemophobic (just wash your hands)
Slow Healer
Pacifist
Slow Reader(exchangable with Wakeful for multi)
Short Sighted
Panic Perk (forgot the name, the one for 2 points, SS + Panic perk exchangable with lucky for MP)
You can always drop handy, but its basicly a no brainer, high stamina, high carry capacity low effort build. You can always add Thin Skinned (literally free 8 points if you wont take dmg) and add perks like Gymnast + Dextrous, or just drop some negatives for Thin Skinned. Be warned, if you try 10 str/9fitness build you wont be able to play 5/5 or 5/4 builds :D
Also i forgot about Smoker, but if you spend some time in character creation you will always have what you want with 0 visible negatives.
Carpenter is my favorite and its great u covered it
Always a solid choice.
⚠️ Avoid Speed Demon ⚠️ When driving a vehicle on reverse, what I assume to be a bug causes the car to produce massive amounts of sound, bringing in hordes. Took me very long to realize this, kept getting visited by waves after waves of zombies to my base.
Not a bug, shows up in the description now
I would think Sunday driver is essentially a positive trait for new players or people with slower reaction times as it reduces their chance of getting in a car crash. live longer and get more points, lol
Sunday driver also makes your car perform worse. With that perk, it's close to impossible to tow a vehicle.
It also makes driving off-road even worse, going slower than usual, and with some cars with low horsepower, you could get stuck in off-road, especially if the vehicle is full of loot
A park ranger build is great in co-op servers. You can be the dedicated forager and get a stupid quantity of wild plants for your group and identify the poisonous ones. It's great.
I…..LIKE UNEMPLOYED build.
I’m going to try it tonight!
Thank you very so much.
No problem!
Slow Reader and Shortsighted can fit into ANY build because of how easy they are to mitigate. They might as well be free points. Just read when you’re safe at home and wear glasses. I’d also say the same aboutSlow Healer, Hearty Appetite and High Thirst but those might be more problematic in the later game or on higher difficulties. So far I haven’t had much problem getting food and water or taking the time to heal when I get injured, as long as I have enough medical supplies to keep my bandages changed.
Handy, Wakeful, and Fast Learner are traits I put on every build I make. They're the absolute GOATs. Might include Lucky if I keep liking what I am seeing.
Lucky is OP!
I feel like a lot has changed in this game compared to when most people have made videos. I see people sneaking right up to zombies but yet when I play even with all the stealth perks as a burglar they still detect me from like 20 feet away with their back turned to me, I don’t get it.
That burglar build was weird man. I mean for a new player it should work fine, but as someone who plays a fair bit and watches Retanaru frequently I can't help but see flaws.
Clumsy is an awful choice, the noise generation is not the problem, it's that you have an increased chance to trip over fences even when not encumbered/exhausted, that's horrible. Inconspicuous is not the best choice, the 50% chance to not be seen is not worth it based on how frequently the zeds make spotting checks and a 50% coin flip is worthless if a group of zeds are making their checks, you will be seen by half the group that's just how statistics work. Removing clumsy and taking graceful instead of inconspicuous is a much better option, any zed looking your direction when you are within it's vision radius will see you eventually regardless of your traits/skills, but being quieter means you can get past zeds that don't see you and that you don't see yourself a lot easier.
Amateur mechanic is another weird choice, why bother repairing the car you jacked when the whole point of burglar is you can just take any car you see?
And just so I don't come off as some sort of negative nancy person, the other builds are all solid. The Police Officer build is actually a pretty hyper-focused "I shoot zombies" build, I might adapt that one myself!
Thanks for the feedback, but as you said it's built for beginners :)
Agreed, clumsy and inconspicuous are bad. Much rather choose conspicuous and graceful. It's funny, I rarely choose burglar anymore, but whenever I do I always seem to find keys in every car I check 😂.
I always choose veteran with 1-2 perks that you cannot earn in game and pair it with smoker, prone to illness, weak stomach , and that one hearing defect
I got this game back in the early days and just got back into it after years without playing and man it has come a long way.
I used to build mega bases and now I can't make it more than a few days without being eaten alive. The entire meta game has changed lol.
This is incredibly useful! Thank you!
You're very welcome!
This is great, thanks!
You're welcome!
I just started my first run of PZ. I started as a Burglar named Bilbo Baggins!
Lmao
Thanks for sharing these. I'll probably copy a few of the ones I didn't come up with on my own and test them out.
I have a question for you on a build: Doctors and Nurses... Are they viable now if being played in multiplayer? And how would you build those occupations if you had to make that occupation.
And I got a potential video idea: Hidden traits on picking a starting occupation. For instance I found that if you picked unemployed you almost always start in a trailer or tiny house meanwhile a chef can start in a restaurant. Or how fire officers can spawn in with firefighter pants and lumberjacks can start with those lumberjack shirts. Stuff like that, which is impacted by your starting occupation but isn't explicitly written when you pick to play the build. Those might come in handy for people who spend too much time theory crafting a build and less time playing one.
Doctors and nurses are not viable at all right now, even in multiplayer. Might change once npc and animals are added.
I always go vet for the desensitised trait because if you get scared you don’t swing as fast and I’ve died so many times that way .. then I use smoker and a few others so I can get strong and keen hearing and lucky .. lucky opens a new loot thing you don’t normally get and keen hearing is OP for “seeing” a zombie coming behind you
I've been watching your videos for a while now, great content BTW, u probably could add more volume to your vidos, usually a have to see them at 80%, and then my ears explodes when i forgott to turn it down
Sorry about that! Yeah, will see what I can do.
A more advanced tip: you can also pick hemophobic if you're well versed in combat, but if you pair it with smoker you'll need to wash yourself and your clothes regularly as the blood builds up anxiety faster and deeper, which can result in way more smoking than necessary
I have been playing this game for almost 10 years and I never picked any profession other than Firefighter, at this point I feel like something really bad will happen if I don't choose it.
My build is usually +Firefighter +fast learner +dextrous -slow reader -underweight. I'm sure this is not the most minmaxed meta build but I like it.
Firefighter is a great occupation to choose, just didnt want to make the video too long! Definitely try something new though, it'll make it more interesting for you :)
We pick high thirst always. Water is a non-issue even after both the power and water cuts out.
awesome vid man
Thanks!
Even then don't pick clumsy, it makes your chance of falling or stumbling more common, that can 100% kill you if unprepared.
It's not really that huge of a percentage increase to falling, but I can definitely see how this effects new players. So I tried to give some other options :)
@@MrAtomicDuck You're... jokiing right? i fall almost every time! You can't be saying i'm just that unlucky? 😅
I absolutely love this game. The only problem I have is I get out of where you start wherever that may be get to like my 4th house and get swarmed even when sneaking or anything I just get absolutely swarmed. Doing something wrong but I love the game either way.
Try being a bit more methodical when leaving your spawn house. If it has a TV, I usually try to keep to that house for the first few days to catch all the TV shows that give XP. Slowly, by attracting them one at a time, clear the area around your house of zombies. This will give you a clear area to retreat and fight so as to not attract more and become swarmed. If all that fails, try spawning in Riverside, less concentrated zoms.
I usually go with a Lumberjack and Brawler, that +3 in axe is sweet!
For sure! Axe builds are super strong.
Love your vids and helpful info! I've been trying to set up a server for just my buddy and I with a few mods for some coop fun. But when I start loading mods from the list and start it I'm getting workshop item doesn't fit current build. I've looked so much into this. any advice?
Sounds like one of the mods isn't up to date for the current build version, but I'm just guessing. The Indie Stone's discord has a tech support channel that is great for things like this!
Thanks a lot. I needed this guide. :)
my favorite character build is my fit learner build, it takes a lot of negatives but the character is extremely fit and will learn other skills really quickly, best playstyle for them is to sit in your house reading all your books and then go out and kill some zombies
its really similar to unemployed chad but it changes to fitness instructor and gives underweight
it maxxes out your fitness and adds some sprinting, also i noticed you never took lucky which is a must have for all of my characters.
I have now lasted 2 weeks as a Carpenter with the traits: High thrist, underweight, hard of hearing, prone to illness, smoker, weak stomach, short sighted and sunday driver. But with the good : fast reader (multiplayer), dextrous, fast learner, athletic and strong.
I personally cannot do a run without either Organised of Keen hearing
Having someone with organised in MP is super useful
If you go for dexterous instead of fast reader, you can also get speed demon and take your middle aged dad build on the road
I'm using a Veteran (stealth gunner) build I found. And it's working real well so far.
5:10 Where is this building? I like the wood stove for the beginning of the game but most of the ones I know of (which are 2) are too insulated.
Smoking underweight strong burglar is my favorite so far
Respawns off should be the default mode, especially on easy settings or for new players.
A handyman lumberjack is my go to at the start. I like fortying for long runs but also do daily local population control during the first few days.
I never pick smoker for RP reasons.
Just got it tonight to multi-play with my partner; first death I had a Mechanic with disorganized, second death I.. forget. Not important, it was just to make sure I was connecting properly. Third and current character I went with Unemployed with Cats Eyes, Graceful, Inconspicuous and Slow Reader. Not knowing how much of an effect negative traits have I just went with something that made sneaking around easier, as I was getting lost trying to meet up with partner >_> If/When that character dies, now that I know a bit more about how things work Ill be a bit more daring
Awesome video, tx
No worries man!
I generally love your carpenter build. But my last few characters have all gotten infected with the knox virus, after just a few scratches, which makes me wonder if the "Prone to illness" - trait affects the risk of getting the Z-virus too? Some people argue it actually does. If that's true, the illness-trait is the worst possible debuff you could pick imho.
If you can avoid it, never use guns around your base. Make sure you have an escape plan if popping off the shot gun as everyone will want to join the party. That said, the shot gun can tear huge holes in a mob and very quickly reduce it to a few stragglers that your melee weapons can deal with.
I'm still pretty new to the game, but I feel like the Security Guard is underrated. The Night Owl perk is super helpful and specific to only the Security Guard
hammer+screwdriver is a must have combo for easy early game xp
Through the order of operations of the percentages the pacifist trait still ends up being a negative even with fast learner
Weak Stomach is recommended by a lot of PZ pros but something they don't mention is that it can make you sick for a long time from OVER EATING. Since overeating is a major tool in the game meta, especially with underweight characters, this causes a huge problem. I'm not sure if I just got unlucky but every time I've played a Weak Stomach character it becomes a constant struggle to eat exactly the right amount of food without getting sick, which is ironically exactly how I live irl because of having a medical condition called gastroparesis. Which, while funny, is definitely intrusive to gameplay.
I’ve got a mod that adds a sensitive digestion trait that does what you said but unless u got a mod weak stomach doesn’t do that
nope, it doesn't. I always have weak stomach. I think you're refering to sensitive digestion.
Cheers for the guide man
Np!
I usually pick fire officer
Negatives:
High thirst
Slow reader
underweight
weak stomach
unlucky
Positives
Hunter
gymnast
Organized
outdoorsman
if you spawn rosewood you also have a chance to spawn in the fire office.
I like this set up because all agility aspects of your character get a 75% boost and you have a boost in short blade and axe. I love axes and I carry a knife with me for sneaky or when low stamina. and you have aiming so guns can sort of level quickly. the only downsides is that you dont have extra xp for proffesion skills but if you just read and work on it, it isnt to hard to level up. and for later game you have the trapping recepies so you can always trap for food and eat lots of calories so you can gain weight
I disagree with pacifist being good for new players, since it also decreases maintenance gains which means more items breaking down which for new players could be a death sentence when they haven't fully learned how to properly manage that.
The math with pacifist and fast learner goes the fast learner increase first then the decrease from pacifist meaning you're actually negative xp gained on those skills. It's actually a trap. And you literally proved it, since you said it's an increase which it actually isn't.
Unemployed is always my go to.
I eventually learn all the skills I want in the game anyway. Plus it gives me something extra to do and to work towards.
Plus having very few or no negative traits is nice.
Negative traits weak stomach, hard of hearing, slow healer, smoker. Positive traits stout (Multiplayer), Dexterous, mechanic, fast learner. I play engineer in single and electrician in multiplayer.
Always good to have a mechanic on the team!
@@MrAtomicDuck Dude fast learner is good to level everything and if you can't find the magazines you need amateur mechanic.
I would like to add Sunday driver as a negative trait for the unemployed to get the fast learner trait
I like going fire-fighter to have a head start on fitness and axe proficiency though axeman is my second favorite.
For sure a good one!
I realised I did a oopsie in the form of calling lumberjack axe man but I got a gold sticker from the duck lord so now I dare not fix it.
According to another YT video, by someone who digs into the code: axe man only makes you swing fast while cutting down trees, not attacking zombies.
I honestly hate looking up guides on starter stuff like this. A lot more fun to just jump in with both feet, then later look stuff up after learning a lot of it on my own.
Each to their own :) Just providing it for those that want it.
Just kinda thought about it, and seen it done once, so if anyone's ever thought of doing a big zombie clean up:
Find a police vehicle, or any with sirens, drive it into a wide, open area. Build several layers of walls around it, with at least an walkway looking over all of them. Build a wall around the perimeter of the area, with an opening to funnel the zombies in.
For the clean up, run to the vehicle, making as much noise as possible to attract as many as possible. Drop molotovs along the way, enjoy the show.
Grand finale: get in the vehicle, turn on the siren, drop more molotovs around the inner walls, bail. If there are any more ways to get more zombies in the culling range, you can add them down below.