35 PZ tips for Mid to High Level Players

[The early worm deserves the bird]

Hey everyone. I've been playing this game for about 500 hours now and I find I'm always learning something new. So I started making a guide for myself to keep track of them all this is stuff not meant for the newer people this is stuff meant for people that know when to wake up for the TV shows to get skill points, are used to surviving the first week like it's nothing etc. Take a look there's probably at least one or two things here you probably didn't know. (Ok you probably know the bandages one but this originally from a community tips and tricks post I had)



1) If you lure zombies into a building there is a chance a key for that building will spawn when the zombie dies.


2) Zombies don't notice survivors with flashlights at night unless they are facing the flashlight beam.


3) Engine Quality is important! Not to be confused with Engine Condition. To see Engine Quality click on the engine when you pop the hood and look at the details. Higher quality engines will start more often. As an example. Your Engine Condition (How much damage has been done to the engine) could be at 100% condition. But the Engine Quality (If you have an old junker engine or a Ferrari engine under the hood) could be a quality of 1 and therefor never start.


4) You can grow plants indoors.


5) Gardens are great but pretty much everything grown from a garden will have very few calories and you will pretty much only lose weight if you eat when you're hungry leading to the underweight quality. Either stuff your face all the time with garden food or add meat to your diet by fishing and trapping.


6) You can get washing machines and sinks to work if you have a water collection barrel above them that is either full and indoors or outdoors and filled with rain water. Plumb it to the sink or washing machine and they will work. Also, with sinks the tainted water comes out purified.


7) If it's really cold you can leave a wood/antique stove burning all night and it won't burn your house down. If you’re close to it, it seems to warm you up (Not confirmed on the warm up part. Confirmed on won’t burn your house down part)


8) In the options screen under Accessibility Options there is a button that says return to normal speed when you are done with a normal task. It's default is off. Turn it on to make your life MUCH easier. Any time you speed up time to do a task like break down a create, read a book, chop a tree etc. and you fast forward the time. It will reset back to normal speed the moment you are done with that task.


9) You can name your bags. Makes organization easier. However, you cannot name boxes.


10) If you use the walk command in a forest your character will avoid trees. You'll still need to watch out for zombies though.


11) If you hit Shift plus W it will engage the cruise control on any car. Cruise control goes up or down in increments of 5 miles an hour. Cruise control will stay set at this speed if you take manual control for whatever reason (I.e. avoiding an obstacle). So if you would like to go back to that same speed just hit Shift W again. However cruise control will reset back to zero if you get out of your car for any reason.


12) You can sterilize bandages or ripped sheets with boiling water instead of using alcohol or disinfectant. Use a cooking pot with water, rags, and a heat source all at the same time. Open up the heat source container. Put the cooking pot with water, and rags in. And then start the heat source.


13) You can get thread from ripping clothes, which is useful if you want to up xp your tailoring skill


14) The xp you gain from melee weapon is tied to how much damage you deal with that weapon (which means you'll get significantly more xp when using a hunting knife than a butter knife, even when doing the one-shot stab animation). Shotgun is the way to go to increase aim skill considering the huge amount of damage and that you can hit up to 4 target with a single shot


15) The base xp you gain in any skill (except strength and fitness) is 25%. When you have 1/2/3 or more starting points in a specific skill, you'll gain 75/100/125 % xp in that skill instead (which is 3 times more than usual with only 1 starting point in a skill)


16) You can sit on floor near a chair, then use the "rest" action on it to double the speed at which you recover from exhaustion (not sure if a bug or intended though)


17) Sneaking is based on how many zombies DON’T see you when you are sneaking by them. You gain more experience for bigger groups. Sneaking into town at night is a good way to level this skill. A way to power level this skill is to find a two-story building that has a railing or something. Build a rope ladder over the back out a window away from the zombies (Might want to keep an extra one on you just in case zombies tear it down) take out the stairs to the second story. Find a car with a siren. Park it in front of the railings and, at night, let the siren blare. Run around to your sheet rope climb back in and stealth along the wall while all the zombies are there. You’ll massively gain stealth XP.


18) You can increase the xp in your "maintenance" skill by pushing and foot stomping zombies, which is a good thing to do early game (and easier since the zombies are scattered) to get 1 or 2 levels on that skill before using a weapon. Check your shoes' durability from time to time though, you certainly don't want to walk on broken glass without shoes!


19) Maintenance effects how fast your weapons degrade.


20) Pressing the N key will take your car key out. A fast way to get the key if zombies are around.


21) You can forage or fish and speed up time to make it go faster. While you are sped up you can hold the right mouse button and twirl around so you can see any potential zombies coming up on you.


22) If you have backpacks in both arms and are over encumbered you can’t jump over a wall. But you can climb a sheet rope without dropping anything.


23) You can roll down your window and shoot from your car with a gun. If you open a box of bullets you can set it on the seat beside you ready to restock. NOTE. You can reload your gun while driving however you cannot move bullets from your car seat to your person unless you stopped to do so.


24) Zombies will unload. So, if you see a zombie with something you want (Axe, spear, etc.) don’t leave the area. The zombie won’t be there when you get back.


25) Motorcycle Helmets give skull AND neck protection. Regular hardhats etc. will only give skull protection.


26) If your Carpentry is low a good way to get it up is to dismantle things in the house you loot. Beds give the most xp


27) If you crouch and yell you will have a smaller sound radius than if you stand up and yell. Good for drawing small groups of zombies at a time when there are a lot around.


28) There is a weather station on the radio and it will give you the weather for the current day and the next day at every hour on the hour. However, it is randomized on each play through. Check every radio for their presets eventually you will find it. It’s very useful to know.


29) The radio will also warn you of the Helicopter Event. It will tell you if there is “Incoming Air Activity” it will also warn you if there is a blizzard coming and how many days away it is so you can plan appropriately.


30) If you equip the radio in your primary hand you can listen to it while you are out in the field. Make sure to bring earbuds or a headset and MAKE SURE IT’S PLUGED INTO THE RADIO (You have to drag and drop it onto the earbud slot). Otherwise the zombies will hear the radio and come towards you. You can set a radio at your place by using the place option.


31) Never add more than the same three ingredients to a meal. It will make you unhappy if you add more than three. (If you want to be lazy, one bowl and three cabbages will feed you and not make you unhappy)


32) When cooking look at the numbers to the right of the ingredient you’re using. Those numbers are how much it will increase the hunger stat. Higher number means you’ll get more from it. As you use more of the ingredient this number will go down.


33) If you are doing a burn and there are already dead zombies around, the burning zombies can’t light the dead zombies on fire. Also, cars can’t be set on fire so running around your car can be a good tactic. However, zombies that have turned to ash seem to act like regular dead zombies and will attract flies and make you sick in large numbers.


34) When cooking use a frying pan and roasting pan can use up to six ingredients but needs to be cooked. Salad’s don’t need to be cooked. Hold up to 6 ingredients. But spoil the fastest of all recipes. Rice/Pasta or Soup/Stew can use up to 6 recipes. You can add stale food to the meal and while you don’t get as much hunger from it you can cook out the boredom and unhappiness. A good way to increase the shelf life of your food.


35) Cabbages take the least amount of time to grow at 14 days. However, Carrots are right behind them at 15 days. Carrots need full water at seeds and then a MAX of 65 water after that (Best to grow them in doors). If you build box traps carrots are rabbit’s favorite food when trapping. Between cabbages, carrots, and Rabbits you’ll have maxed out food almost always. Although cabbages are rabbits second favorite food so you can also max out with just cabbage and rabbit.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Careful with mechanics.
Some of the tiles you should be able to remove and re-add with 100% chance, due to your skill, can still be damaged!
Like if you have a guy with str 3 (carry cap 9 pounds) and you remove a car chair, or a wheel (both 15 pounds), even if you have 100% chance to remove them, and remove them successfully you may STILL damage them.

[ButterMyBiscuit]

Subscribed. Please keep updating. Brand new Player.

[Nordil(Hun)]

The stove and the hearth both increase the temperature in a room, allthough it depends how close you are to the stove. About 6-7 tiles away from the stove you will not feel the temperature bonus anymore. (Tested it out a few months ago)

Encumbarance, clothing, and wetness all affect your fighting and movement abilities.
Be carefull how much you carry, how "HOT" your character is (wetness), and what you wear.
These maluses can add up so hard, you will wonder why your character is suddenly a slow slugger. (It was confirmed in another thread, that already being hot is enough to affect your movement speed, wet increases the malus!)

[Zaidah]

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Careful with mechanics.
Some of the tiles you should be able to remove and re-add with 100% chance, due to your skill, can still be damaged!
Like if you have a guy with str 3 (carry cap 9 pounds) and you remove a car chair, or a wheel (both 15 pounds), even if you have 100% chance to remove them, and remove them successfully you may STILL damage them.

There is a chance indeed, but it only damages 1% when it happens. You would rather train your mechanics on easier parts to remove (like light buld and radio), otherwise do that on vehicles you don't use and on parts with already low HP.

I could add something else (as it happens to me twice) : when your wheels are really low on durability (red blinking), there is a chance that it will explode, immobilizing your car after you lost your momentum (and then the wheel is gone).

[Zaidah]

Also, I have to correct you on something : you can only add up to 4 ingredients in rice/pasta recipes.

Another thing, even though it's only a forum thread, it would be appreciated to say that a fair number of people on these forums (and probably elsewhere) contributed to find/share all these tips. The way you phrased it makes it feel like you found all of this by yourself ("I've been playing this game for about 500 hours now..."). I'm sure that wasn't the intention, otherwise it's cool that you took some time to gather these all in one thread.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Zaidah:

Also, I have to correct you on something : you can only add up to 4 ingredients in rice/pasta recipes.

Another thing, even though it's only a forum thread, it would be appreciated to say that a fair number of people on these forums (and probably elsewhere) contributed to find/share all these tips. The way you phrased it makes it feel like you found all of this by yourself ("I've been playing this game for about 500 hours now..."). I'm sure that wasn't the intention, otherwise it's cool that you took some time to gather these all in one thread.

Not just pasta actually. If i recall well stew only allows 5 different kind of ingredients. However to carry it you either need to carry the pot as well, or to place them in bowls. Either way it is huge extra weight so totally not worth it. (Same with pasta.)

About the 1% damage. Yep, it is as you say. I just figured i will make a mention of it. (Since i am the guy making allmost in every thread the Engine quality remark:D) I think that actually when your str is higher and you have 100% chance though then you wont damage it. I think this minor damage comes from the carry capacity being lower than the tile part.

About the tire explosion:P I think anyone who play over 200 hours and drove a car experienced it at least once. Though some cars can still function for a while with 3 tires, though it becomes harder to control them and less acceleration too. (I once had a car and was mass killing zombies with it, did it even with three tires, until due to poor control i ran into a tree, then it was time to leg it:)

[JohnRando]

Most recipients allow 6 ingredients recipes (bowl for salad / fruit salad ; frying pan, roasting pan, soup, stew).
Some other recipes allow only 4 ingredients (pasta, rice, sandwich, burger)
Can't remember about pies, as i don't use them often, but i think it's 4.

One or two times the same ingredient give bonus. Third removes the bonus and becomes neutral. 4th and beyond add a malus to boredom and happiness. Ideally you can make a soup with, for example : cabbage x2, rabbit x2, whatever else x2 gives you bonus x6. Or cabbage x3 and rabbit x3, no bonus no malus.

Fish is very high calories, use fish x2 to gain weight, or x1 to "more or less" conserve weight (depends on what else you put in the recipe). Pasta and rice is also high calories by default, so if you want to gain weight, pasta/rice + fish is reeeally efficient.

Right next to weight value is an arrow ^ or down. Helps keep track of what diet you need to have next.

[geras]

Office cubicles work as small fences. You can pick these up and place them for a mobile zombie-tripping setups.

I just found this out yesterday.

[Gilga ™ |Yonaguni|]

Don`t bother watching TV in the first 1-2 weeks, its more important to loot fresh food etc.

You get the xp anyway, its not really worth the time.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Gilga ™:

Don`t bother watching TV in the first 1-2 weeks, its more important to loot fresh food etc.

You get the xp anyway, its not really worth the time.

Actually i would say for the first two days try to hit as many huge food stores as you can.
And pack all the food that is not in a freezer to a freezer.
(Nearly very food from start will stay for 2 days fresh, thereafter 1-2 days stale and finally rotten. There are a few exceptions like potatoe. Potatoe can stay fresh and stale for a longer while than any other food without a fridge or a freezer.)

[Gilga ™ |Yonaguni|]

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Actually i would say for the first two days try to hit as many huge food stores as you can.
And pack all the food that is not in a freezer to a freezer.

Jipp, this is what i always do, but the first 2 weeks are important. There is so much to do, i wouldn`t waste my time with TV Shows.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Gilga ™:

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Actually i would say for the first two days try to hit as many huge food stores as you can.
And pack all the food that is not in a freezer to a freezer.

Jipp, this is what i always do, but the first 2 weeks are important. There is so much to do, i wouldn`t waste my time with TV Shows.

Well thing is the first two days are the critical ones. Because that is your chance to get into cafe-s, farmer's markets, supermarkets and so on to places with huge food supplies that tend to rot.(Especially meat is super important at start!)
Once you done with this, you can also sleep a bit.(I sometimes keep my guy up from day 1- to day 7 with coffee and vitamins) So usually after you are done early day 3, you can rest in a house with a tv. I usually try to find a place to sleep at, and usually it takes about half a day to find a safe house to sleep at, so i usually can watch day 3 carpentry show. Thereafter since you are hopping from house to house to gather food at certain fridges....well you can watch a show every now and then.
Allthough from day 3 i usually keep an eye out for bags and long blunt/short blunt weapons too.

(but of course my playstyle is seriously off, since i start with 0 or 1 str usually and 0 endurnace:D)

[Gilga ™ |Yonaguni|]

Ether you die early, and the xp from the TV doesn`t matter, or you survive. If you survive, the xp you could get from TV are not really needed.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Gilga ™:

Ether you die early, and the xp from the TV doesn`t matter, or you survive. If you survive, the xp you could get from TV are not really needed.

Yeah i know about the long haul planning:) Actually in this regard the most important perk is fast learning, since on the long run it costs the least, and if i recall well with it you get faster Endurance and Str gain too.

I actually do the TV show especially the one with carpentry for aesthetics. To be able to build floor boards ASAP. Because if you place floor boards outside beside a wall you can stop it from deteroirating. So you can have a selected house, trailer park etc not be affected by the huge cracks and what not, nor need to cut all them wall weeds.