Long Term Survival Guide (Advanced).

Can't survive for more than 3 days? Youre either super unlucky / bad at combat or not planning ahead, here is a meta game guide to beat not only the undead but the threat of sustainability!.....spooky

Starting Up

So you know the controls, know the mechanics of food and resource consumption and with combat. But what do you do after the taps run dry and the power goes out leaving you and your 2.5D character out in the apocalypse? Just a quick read through of this guide is all you need to keep going past day 14!

Remember, to tell if you are infected, you will usually be in increasing pain up to sickness, by that point, you'll be one with the huggers in the next few days. If you don't like taking risks, the construction worker and stout skills work perfectly in keeping those pesky zombies at bay whilst raising your infection resistance, good luck!

*To build stuff, you need the hammer equipped as a weapon.

You could opt to live out in the woods in a tent, but you'll be strapped for building resources and plus the rest mist is calling for you to start kicking some zombie butt.

First Day

Day 1.

Find a weapon:

So the end times have come and fellow man wants to do nothing more than to chew the contents within your skull. It's time to go defend yourself, the zombies may look like they want to give you hugs but really it's all an elaborate ploy. Looking around your spawn there should be a weapon around in the drawers or cupboards, equip the best you can find; ranking from spoon (Insanity wolf recommends a spoon) to knives, to pans and rolling pins to baseball bats and axes. Deal with any immediate threats close to your spawn, is better to be safe than sorry. NEVER and I do mean never, go outside of your spawn house without a weapon, even if it's a spoon you should equip it, you'll most likely be spotted by those eagle eyed critters, even from off the screen.

Locate yourself:

You won't start off hungry or thirsty so the second priority after dealing with threats is to find where you are on the map. Some people like to aimlessly wander and explore, and that's fine, but the map is pretty big and all the good juicy loot is spread out far enough that you simply won't get what you need before everything starts going downhill after the second week. You could implore the dark souls method of dying and infinite amount of times before learning the entire map in your head (And good luck with that), but for the rest of us, looking up a map is important (The game itself doesn't have a in game map yet, hopefully we can refer to that when its updated). The best way to locate yourself is to look around for any landmarks such as roads, store types and the ground layout. A good orienteer can deduce where they are by checking the neighbouring houses and looking at the spawn house and matching it to a location on the map. This will give you a sense of direction where to go and where to plan your base.


Here is a link to the map: MAP LINK[pzmap.crash-override.net]

Munch on that fresh food, and obtain a water bottle:

Begin nomming on the fresh content of your fridge as that stuff will start going off in late game, if you've already planned on moving to a new spot to cover as much area as possible on the first day then you might as well raid the contents of your fridge and eat it ad hoc. Grab any cans or chips with you. If you can find one, grab a whiskey bottle, water bottle or orange soda bottle, and that can be used as a water container on the go. You get all this advice on filling water in pots before the supplies are turned off, but we aim to be self sufficient by then so don't worry about that.

Move to a defensible and high density area if you can:

What you want to be doing aside from the usual survival is to start to position yourself in a good location, near warehouses and housing areas. These places will no doubt have a high density of zombies, but you should be able to kit yourself out within the first and second days.

Sheet up:

You don't want zombie voyeurs looking at you from your bedroom window, so close all curtains and sheet up all odd windows which can be found in cupboards, if you don't want to risk the first day, you can sheet up the spawn house as a temporary measure if you haven't planned a route yet.

Key items to take (If you can find them):

• Nails
  
• Carpentry books
  
• Saw
  
• Hammer
  
• Battery
  
• Farming book
  
• Any farming equipment
  
• Axe

Summary of the first day:

General survival, plan a base, look for long term items and eat as you go along. Don't even bother with meat and raw stuff, go full veggie, pre-cooked burgers are also good. Keep upgrading your bags too.

Second Day

Day 2:

Day 2 is generally more of the same as Day 1, gather general resources such as food, and items such as can openers. Look for any items missed from the list from day one and keep a tab of your weapons usage as you don't want weapons breaking on you whilst you duke it out with the undead. At this point you should really be reaching your planned destination or settling down a temporary night house stay (like an extra base for the night times) and consolidating food resources for the next 14 days, about 4-6 houses worth of food should do you for the next 14 days, and remember eat all perishables (and your carrots) first!

Days 3 to 6 : Stocking up for crafting

Day 3-6:

So you've settled down and got your food stocked up for the next two weeks, great! good job on not dying so quickly or getting infected by the horde. So what now? you'll need to go find the nearest warehouses and begin raiding them, stealth is going to be a bit difficult but it's not impossible. You might want to drag it out for 2-3 days until the 5th day if you wanted but the earlier start the better.

What you want to look for:

You want to be looking for farming supplies if you haven't already and building supplies. Nails are of upmost importance and so is the saw/hammer if they were not obtained already and I shall explain why later. the warehouse boxes should contain things like axes, nails, repair stuff like duct tape, etc. Grab the lot, and grab seeds while you're at it too. You want to be doing this for the next couple of days until you are stocked to the brim with farming and cooking materials. Any bonuses like medical supplies like painkillers (grabbin pillz), etc are a good addition, but if you've been smart with your zombie encounters you can hold it off until much later. Remember to keep filling your water bottle or whatever bottle up, don't worry too much about containers within these days.

I got this in the bag!:

Garbage bags are priority during these search days, they can be converted into precious rain catchers, so get on with grabbing these as you can, you can find them in bins, in cupboards etc.

And on the Seventh Day God said, let there be carpentry

Day 7

So you've got all your stuff and you're good to go for food (hopefully? if not just keep scrounging around and pick up more perishables to consume if not), now you'll need to prepare for the water/electric supply going out. Initially you won't have the right carpentry level to begin making rain catchers but you'll have the basic farming skills to start. You should take the day to go out collect bowls, mugs and empty pots and bring it to your main house. Spend all the daylight hours gathering pots and stuff . Once evening falls keep filling these with water until all are done. This is to last you for an additional one or two weeks as well as provide storage for dry season.

Multipliers:

Spend any free evening time reading those carpentry and farming books, beginners for level 1 and intermediate for level 2, this should give you the edge when we start grinding for carpentry.

Days 8 to 9: Its a boring job but someones got to do it

Day 8

Here is where you should begin grinding for levels, it's boring job, but it will pay out, and once you've got the skill, you are free to explore to your heart's content.

The best method of grinding carpentry for me was to go out, hack a few trees down with an axe, bring them to the front of the house and saw the crap out of them and turn them into planks. This is then combined with nailing barricades to your windows (hey its XP though waste of nails since if you've sheeted up its kinda moot) until you reach skill level 1.

*If you're feeling bored go scrounge around for magazines and books or if you are unhappy go eat some chocolate or something xD

Also try setting up a farm with the seeds and farming tools, but only after achieving level 1 carpentry.

Once it hits evening, get out your books and start getting ready for level 2 carpentry.

Day 9:

If your power supply hasn't turned off yet, prepare your anus for a power cut very soon, the main factor here is that your fridge will become only but a storage device and your food will start to decay rapidly, good job on setting up those farms if you have already.

Begin your day by ruining the environment by cutting trees and littering the ground with dead zombies if they catch you. At this point your safe house should be zombie free or pre littered with a mound of corpses. Keep chopping those trees and keep sawing those logs until you think you've done enough. At level 1 it is useful to make wooden crates with planks and nails, and put them both in the farm area and in empty spaces of your house, the bonus is you get more storage and more carpentry levels. Remember to water your plants before you head to bed if the rain hasn't kindly done it for you.

Days 10-14: How have I not died yet?

Day 10-14:

Things are being cut close now if the power and water aren't already out. By this time or within this time you'll have reach carpentry level 2 and possibly farming level 1. Remember those garbage bags I said you would need? now you can craft the furniture item 'Rain catcher' giving you renewable water, hurrah, but remember to make a fair few to prepare for winter (Winter is coming) and the dry season as it doesn't rain every day and your crops need water too. Grab more water containers through your travels and you should be set for the rest of your days and for future upgrades.

*Protip:

Remember to keep your veggies on a crop rotation as to not have a ton grow all at once since you don't want too much at one given time.

So there you have it your main base is partially setup and you can go exploring, but here are a few things you should look for:

• More water containers
  
• More cans, chips and bottles (for winter)
  
• Flashlight
  
• Rope
  
• Cooking books and items
  
• Box of Nails and Nails

Now some have asked, why would you want rope? well to answer that question, fumbling around in the dark with the entire town in blackout is not a pleasant experience. Rope is a crafting item required to make lamps on pillars which is a light source that doesn't set your house on fire (Unlike the campfires). This is useful for managing yourself around the night if you prefer being nocturnal.

Day 15: Its time to cook!

Day 15

Actually day 15 can be as flexible as you want it to be, since you've got you're farm running, you can just go ahead and eat that fresh stuff for the next few days, but why have we left cooking until this point? Well you don't really need cooking to survive the first two weeks, since you can just abuse the fridges capability of keeping food fresh and use the time to setup your base and generate renewable resources. However, the problem you face now is that even with all your crops, once it starts going bad it will make you unhappy and bored before going rotten. .

My suggestion is that now that you're set up, you can begin with cooking and why? well because its a precious opportunity to convert all those fresh veggies into efficient items like soups, roasted veg and cook "happy meals" like salads that give you happiness and reduce boredom, after all there are only so many books to read and 'gentlemens' magazines you could fumble through.

However before you start going away and trying to go make a 3 course meal, you've got to think, wait a second, there is no power, how am I supposed to cook stuff? This is where you should be thinking of building a campfire.

Recipe for campfire:

(Book, paper, Newspaper, sheet) x 3 planks = campfire kit (just left click once all items are in inventory)

Then just place it outside by either equiping it and left clicking or have it in your inventory.

Just three more problems now:

1. A campfire will alert the horde, and you don't want a mardi gras of zombies on your doorstep
2. You need fuel for it
3. You need to be able to light it

So what to do? well it is up to you what order you want to do it in, I personally would build a perimeter using tons of planks I've collected and spend day 15 collecting and sawing more logs to build a wooden wall fence around the house, but you could equally just risk making a campfire out in the open so long as you've completely cleared your area of zombies.

You'll need logs one way or another so get to choppin those trees. Once you've made your planks from sawing the trees with a sharp tools such as a screwdriver or any sharp equipable object you can make a notched plank, use your saw to then make some sticks, now you have a method of lighting the fire.

*Remember also to dump a few logs into the fire because of course you need fuel, and you don't want to break the laws of thermaldynamics or physics >: (.

Next we'll focus on the actual cooking part, also begin reading the cooking books in the evening to make sure you get the most out of your exp grind.

Day 16 + : Blaze it and Graze it 420*

Day 16

If you havent set up your little garden area now or finished doing campfire stuff you could spend day 16 continuing, but for you guys that are up and running and ready for the next step, its time to get cooking.

Have a look at this link to check the recipes and the cooking times:

Cooking recipes[pzwiki.net]

The best things to make are salads. For grinding purposes, ramen noodles are also good to make since they are quite quick.

1. Souped up and ready to go

Soups are only worth it from a can, they perish quicker than fresh veg, but in the middle state before rotten still provides better stats boosts than fresh veg, its still quite efficient, but you should treat it as a perishable asset and treat only canned soup this way.

2. You don't make friends with salad

Waiting for stuff to cook is boring, and means you have to stick around to watch it cook, no worries, if you've got spare veggies and bowls lying around, grab a kitchen knife, if you havent got one already, as they are super common. Now you can make some salads out of your veggies, why? because they feed you better and accompany both happiness AND boredom, and to some extent thirst, the only problem is that it only keeps for 2 days, so make sure you eat them as fresh as you can. Otherwise just convert your veggies into soup for profit.

Things you want to look for:

• Cooking pot
  
• Bowls
  
• Kitchen Knife
  
• Ramen
  
• Canned soup
  
• Beans

Remember, to only use one cooking pot for soups and use the rest as water storage

Day 16+

In the next installment of the guide I'll cover hunting/fishing and meat items, its relatively new in the update so even I've not really had the chance to play around with it.

[scouseroo1234]

i need i to use this to help but i think there should be 2hr version cuz i cant suvive for 2 in game hours

[Gena Cider]

game is too easy? try pacifist only

[Normal.kid]

game gets too hard? try bleach

[Normal.kid]

games easy? try sprinters

[avaster]

game is too easy why u giving a guide

[Klepto]

@CSI48 tough talk for a fella with a private profile

[dgresevfan]

No matter how well things are seemingly going, eventually a house burglar alarm goes off and a horde devours me.

[ginger boi]

yeah if zombies are a problem your not running enuf ,

[MrSavageBeast/Troopieharold]

We need animal hunting or

[laila]

As someone mentioned, dont forget TV shows on Life and living and deconctructing wooden boxes at McCoy Logging Corp. Its right that checking time and looking at shows is not easy (especially without watch in inventory).. https://www.reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/comments/b98vft/guide_to_life_and_living/

PS: I cant wait for fishing and farming more in detail, becouse I usualy end my life around that point...