Discover the best character builds in Project Zomboid
Looking for the best character builds in Project Zomboid?Before you dive into the world ofProject Zomboidand start surviving the apocalypse, you need to make your character. The character creation menu can look quite daunting at first, but don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll talk you through the character creation process step-by-step and cover some of the best character builds in Project Zomboid so that you can get off to a great start in the apocalypse.
What is an occupation in Project Zomboid?
The first section in the character creation menu is occupation. This lets you select what job your survivor had before the apocalypse began. While they aren’t all true professions (I don’t think you could list hotwiring cars as a burglar on the census), they all come with various bonuses for different skills. When selecting your occupation, you should think about your preferred playstyle. If you want tobuild a baseand do lots of crafting, Carpenter might be for you. If you prefer foraging or farming, we’d recommend selecting Park Ranger or Farmer respectively.
When you select an occupation, it will change your points to spend total in the lower right corner of the creation menu. You can not proceed until this number is 0 or higher. If you need to gain or lose points, head over to the trait menu.
Traits are positive and negative bonuses that you can apply to your character in Project Zomboid. Negative traits give you points back, which you’ll need if your occupation puts you in the negative. Positive traits are available if you have some extra points spare to use before jumping into the game. If you select the unemployed occupation, you will get 8 points to spend on positive traits.
Traits can have an immense impact on your character in Project Zomboid. The Thick Skinned trait makes it much harder for zombies to scratch and bite your character, for example. Since this is a very useful trait, it costs 8 points. Less useful traits, like Speed Demon (which lets you drive faster) cost fewer points. Likewise, more severe negative traits give you more points back. If you want to see some of the best traits, take a look at our character builds later in this guide.
When selecting an occupation or certain traits, you will see that some give positive or negative bonuses to certain skills. For example, Carpenter gets a +3 bonus to carpentry and a +1 bonus to Short Blunt. These bonuses are crucial in the early game, as they let you get a headstart in certain activities or deal with dangerous situations. Doctors and Nurses get big bonuses to First-Aid, while Burglars are able to sneak around and use stealth to stay away from zombies. All of these skills can be leveled as you play Project Zomboid. They each have their own XP that generates as you perform related activities. For example, sneaking around and avoiding zombies will level up your sneak skill. You can level a range of key skills up by watching TV over the first few days, so make sure you familiarise yourself with the fullProject Zomboid TV schedule.
Here is a full list of every skill in Project Zomboid:
Passive skills:
Agility skills:
Combat skills:
Crafting skills:
Firearms skills:
Survivalist skills:
If you want some extra guidance on building a character in Project Zomboid, we’ve got two excellent builds that you can use for inspiration or copy for your own survivor:
Occupation: Burglar
Positive traits:
Negative traits:
Okay, that’s a lot of negative traits so this build might seem daunting. However, you’ll quickly realise that a lot of these negative traits won’t impact your game too much.Disorganizedgives you slightly lower storage capacity, but this does not affect your own player inventory. Cupboards, dressers and other storage units will have slightly less room, but this has minimal impact on your game. If your cupboards are full, you’re probably doing a good enough job.
Some of the other traits are almost negligible if you are playing smart.Prone to IllnessandWeak Stomachmake it easier to get ill from bad weather,infected wounds, or food poisoning, but you should strive to avoid all of these anyway. Food poisoning can be avoided altogether if you cook food and avoid raw meats, while you can just hide inside or use warm clothes to avoid catching a cold during the colder months.
Slow HealerandHigh Thirstare the most severe negative traits in this build, but they are fairly easy to manage. Our first tip when finding and fortifying a base is to live near a water source, as this is always going to be a problem. If you’re already near a water source, High Thirst should be manageable. Slow Healer is slightly more troublesome, but the best way to heal is staying well-fed and well-rested. Slow Healer just means you might have to avoid exploring a little longer when injured, but there are plenty of other things you can do in base. You could spend time reading skill books to get extra XP boosts, or keep an eye on your farm, for example. If you’re playing on single-player, you could even just speed up time to skip until your character is healthy again.
Sleepyhead,Slow ReaderandSunday Driverare easy to forget and essentially amount to free points. Sleepyhead makes you need to sleep more often, but Project Zomboid characters rarely need to sleep anyway. If anything, this should make the sleep cycle a little more natural. If you do find yourself sleeping in the day and awake at night, Cat’s Eyes will make it easier to see in the dark. Slow Reader does exactly what it says - you read slightly slower - but this isn’t going to impact your playstyle much. Books take a while to read, so a few more minutes of waiting won’t be a big problem. Again, those in single-player can just speed up time to completely negate this issue as long as you’ve got plenty of food and water stocked. Sunday Driver makes you drive a lot slower, but you’ll still be able to outrun zombies and this will just make crashes less deadly.
The goal with this build is to make it easier for you to loot buildings and fight zombies, which are key to survival in Project Zomboid.Dextrousallows you to transfer items slightly faster, whileStrongwill let you deal more damage and carry more items in your inventory.Inconspicuousmakes it much harder for zombies to see you andKeen Hearingincreases your perception radius. This is essentially the circle around your character in which you can see nearby zombies. This is essential if you want to avoid sneaky bites and scratches from behind when looting a building or managing your inventory.
Occupation: Fire Officer
Positive traits:
Negative traits:
Having read through the previous build, the balance between positive and negative traits should now be much clearer. Many of the negative traits have little effect but give you lots of points, which you can then spend on crucial positive traits. As you can see, many of the negative traits are actually repeated across both builds.High Thirst,Disorganized,Prone to Illness,Weak Stomach,Slow ReaderandSunday Driverall feature in both builds because they are either easy to manage or have minimal impact on your gameplay.
All ThumbsandShort-Sightedare the new negative traits for this firefighter build. Short-Sighted is the worst of the two, as it reduces your perception radius. However, if you spin around often while moving to check your back, you should be able to avoid any sneaky zombie surprises. All Thumbs makes you move items a little slower, which makes looting take longer. This will have little impact as long as zombies don’t know where you are, so make sure to sneak when moving around.
Fortunately, theInconspicuoustrait should make it a little easier to avoid zombies so that you can focus on looting. While you might loot slightly slower than usual, theLuckytrait will help you find rarer items, stronger weapons and better armor, drastically increasing your odds of finding useful gear.Stoutwill increase your inventory capacity so that you can carry more stuff around in your inventory while giving you extra strength to deal with zombies when necessary.Athleticis the best positive trait in this build, as it increases your running speed, lets you run for longer without getting exhausted and even lets you swing weapons faster. This will make it much easier to travel around the map and outrun zombies, while also boosting your efficiency in combat if you do need to fight.
