Why farm, fish, trap, scavenge or even stock up for the winter?

[Spark Sunbright]

First off, I think it's great that the farming/fishing/trapping/scavenging mechanics exist in this game, as they add another layer of realism and an alternate style of play to the game for those who enjoy such things, even if I'm not one of them. Furthermore, if I was trapped in the zombie apocalypse in real life, I would definitely spend my days peacefully living off the land rather than facing hoards of rotting corpses as I search for food in the towns.

But in a game, I want to be challenged.

There are so many guides out there that insist that the only way to survive the winter in Zomboid is by spending your days farming and making pickle jars so that you can hunker down for months in some lonely shack in the forest as you wait out the deadly blizzards.

Well, I finally managed the milestone of surviving a full year with a single character (no deaths) in a custom game that is identical to the standard Apocalypse mode with the only change being that all loot was changed from "Rare" to "Extremely Rare". No mods: a vanilla game with a vanilla character that started as Unemployed with no traits added what-so-ever. (Didn't even use the initial free 8 points.) But over the 12 months I spent in this playthrough, never once did I have to forage, fish, trap, farm or make pickles, and I certainly didn't have to stay indoors during the winter months.

By the end of October, just by regularly breaking into houses and looting cupboards, I already had amassed enough food to last me through the winter. Not that I needed it, since there was really no reason to stop looting during the winter. Sure, there were occasional blizzards that kept me indoors for a day or two at a time, but I wouldn't have gone out during the summer thunderstorms either. The only difference between looting houses in the summer and in the winter was how much I needed to wear. And that antique stove that everyone raves about? Didn't use it. Wearing layers of clothes kept me warm enough never to catch a cold.

It is now July of the following year. My base is packed with so much looted food that if I really wanted to be bored out of my mind, I could stay at my base for another full year without going hungry. And I have yet to break into even a quarter of the houses on this massive map.

I roughly estimate that there is enough food on "Extremely Rare" loot settings to survive at least eight years, perhaps even ten without ever farming, fishing or trapping. I doubt I'd live that long, but if I did, I'd likely claim "victory" and quit playing rather than spend my days in post-apocalypse Stardew Valley.

I suspect there are mods out there that could make the survival aspects of this game more challenging, but I really wish the loot settings were on a slider rather than choices like "Abundant", "Rare", "Extremely Rare" etc. Because Extremely Rare feels pretty darn Abundant to me.

Aside from fighting off zombies, the greatest challenge in this game was keeping my weight down... just like in real life!

[Grishnerf]

i hope they do Npcs right cause they can be the balancing factor for endgame.

like getting robbed food while away or sleep
animals eating crops
crows/birds pick seeds

generally npcs will consume whole map the longer game lasts to forfill their needs.
so no more looting a shooping mall after a year with everything FULL.

[Animalman]

I understand what you are saying but it is easy to say that because you obviously had access to m vehicle. In a situation like where you join a sever that has been long lived in, and is very active still, you will struggle to loot food. So trapping fishing foraging and farming are all good.

Due to player population sometimes it’s not possible to live somewhere near other people. So you have to move somewhere. Once you get there, if you are unsure of future looting conditions you might plant some food.

Generally I nomad, even in multiplayer. I barely watch the YouTube strategies because I can’t tolerate many of the voice overs, but the fancy stuff like old style ovens and stuff, water barrels, I tend to set up something communal with these things instead of keeping to myself.

I think what people like about that oven is that it doesn’t use gas, you light it as if a barbecue, and Unlike a barbecue it won’t burn your house down in winter.

It pretty much sounds like you know what you’re doing, and the winter isn’t really a player killer as much as it could be.

[Animalman]

And I’m not sure you’d have enough loot for ten years. After a while even the long preserve stuff goes. Then you might have candies and stuff remaining, but the quality of meal will certainly drop when can food is bad.

[Animalman]

There are ways to amp up the difficulty like having severe depression lead to your character refusing to eat. So it can start screwing up your weight. They will not starve to death but the depression may prevent eating until hunger is more severe.

The simulation in real life if you were the sole survivor you would end up in that situation. But in real life you wouldn’t get bored. You’d get hermit like.

There is a lack of late game events. That players can work towards experiencing. Helicopter event, Power outage, water drop, drives a lot of new players towards surviving that week. But then it goes silent. And the weather drives the day to day decisions.

[Puppers]

I use ridiculously rare loot and worse vehicle condition and turn vehicle spawning to very low and change all the vehicle conditions to the worse possible. And use anananabanannomalous storm which has really been fun. Having to go find all the mechanic stuff to get a car running has really prolonged my game the first week. Using carts to move your items and carry bags in both hands has been so fun, everything you do seems more rewarding to me. If you ever get into mods try them. Some good ones.

Trying an unemployed character sounds like fun, I think next time I play I will do that. Instead of usually using burglar.