A Handy Medical Guide

This guide is aimed to help people out when it comes to medical in Project Zomboid! It'll outline where to find medical supplies, what to use them for and how to make the most out of what you have.

Outline of Basic Medical

Medical! You'll need to know how to treat wounds sooner or later, since there's countless ways to injure yourself in Project Zomboid. However, with the right supplies, you'll be able to bounce back from any injury.... unless it's a bite.

The first aid skill helps out with the duration that bandages stay on you, how quickly you perform interactions on yourself and to understand the severity of your wounds. The higher it is, the better. Though it won't be a huge problem if you lack high enough first aid skills.

Medical supplies in Project Zomboid.

In the image above, you can see a list of almost every medical items in the game. These can be found in clinics, bathrooms and zombies across the map. Some of them can be used on any injury, like disinfectant and bandages, whereas some can only be used in very specific situations, like the tweezers and suture needles. Antidepressants, Beta Blockers and Sleeping Tablets are used outside of "medical", as they help with anxiety, depression and the inability to sleep due to nightmares.

One item that isn't listed on the image above are ripped sheets. These can be salvaged from most items of clothing, and can be used as improvised bandages. As you can find socks on practically every zombie, you can rip up a pair of socks from a zombie's body and use it to wrap up any scratches or lacerations that you may have. Every injury in this game can be bandaged up once treated, and it's heavily advised that you do so. this can help to reduce healing time overall, but also prevent wound infections.

Any questions can be dropped in the comments below, and I'll add / reply to this guide with the appropriate information.

Bandages

Every bandage has three states. Dirty, clean and sterilised. Each one can be found in different areas, and they can all be changed from one state into another. Whilst bandages are used to stop bleeding, they can also be used to remove infections or treat long-lasting injuries.

Dirty bandages can be found in rubbish or on dead zombies. To clean these bandages, all you need to use is water. It can be directly from a sink, a toilet or a water bottle! Dirty bandages are also obtained when a clean bandage has been on a wound for a long period of time. Applying a dirty bandage or leaving one on for too long can increase the chances of an infection in the wound.

Clean bandages are found in bathrooms and clinics. They can be created from dirty bandages by using water, and can help with healing wounds over a long period of time. Applying a clean bandage to a healing wound will keep it safe from infections, while stopping any bleeding from the wound.

Sterilised bandages are one of the best bandagesyou can get. They combine a bandage and disinfectant, allowing you to treat, prevent and bandage your infected wound much easier and quicker than you would otherwise. These are also the best bandages to use if you're suffering from a burn. You can create a sterilised bandage by combining a ripped sheet or bandage with a bottle of disinfectant.

Adhesive bandages are a single-use bandage that is consumed when it changes to a dirty bandage. These cannot be sterilised, so you will need to use these in combination with disinfecting supplies. They will still do their job and prevent you from bleeding out, though.

Disinfectants

Getting a wound infected is an easy way to be knocked off your feet for a while, and it can be a hassle to treat if you lack antibiotics. Using a form of disinfectant will help you, however. Alcohol wipes, bottles of disinfectant and bourbon can all help to deal with wound infections. However, you can also apply these to bandages to gain the same effect on a bandage.

Alcohol wipes and bottles of disinfectant can be found in clinics across Kentucky, but also inside of residential bathrooms. Alcohol wipes cannot be applied to cotton balls, so bottles of disinfectant are generally carried around more often. On top of this, disinfectant bottles have 10 units that can be used compared to the 5 units of alcohol wipes.

Bourbon is found in bars and alcohol shops, which makes it somewhat easier to obtain compared to the medicinal forms of disinfectant. One important thing to know about using bourbon as a disinfectant is that it causes pain when applied directly to your characters wounds. This can be avoided by combining it with a bandage, however.

You can sterilise bandages without the use of disinfectant, as well. If you boil water in a cooking pot or saucepan and right click on it, you gain the option to disinfect the bandages in the boiling water. A relatively inexpensive way to make useful bandages, this can save your life if you're not able to get yourself to a clinic or they've already been picked clean.

Other Medical Supplies

This portion will cover the following medical supplies: antibiotics, cotton balls, painkillers, suture needles and tweezers. These can all be found in clinics and bathrooms, and you'll have most of these items by the time you've looted one or two clinics.

Antibiotics are a form of medication that is used to fight off infections, typically those stemming from wound infections. These half the strength of the infection, which makes it easier to treat with sterilised bandages or disinfectant. You cannot treat zombificiation or a cold with these, so don't bother wasting your supplies on treating it.

Cotton balls are useless on their own, but dousing them in alcohol or disinfectant is their primary use. They can be used to treat wound infections before applying a bandage, and are consumed upon use.

Painkillers are as simple to explain as the name is. They deal with pain caused from disinfecting wounds, damaged limbs or glass shards buried in your skin.

Suture needles and tweezers will be spoken about in one paragraph, as they compliment each other nicely. Both of these items are used when you have a deep wound. Deep wounds can be caused by glass shards or a bullet. To treat this injury, you need to use tweezers to remove the foreign object from your body. You can also use your bare hands for this, though you do chance messing the injury up and causing more damage to yourself. Tweezers are a quicker and safer way of removing them.

Once removed, you're left with a deep wound. To close this up, you need a suture needle. A suture needle holder will increase the chances of closing the wound up, but it is not required. Once closed up, you've treated a deep wound successfully. You can also use a needle and thread from a sewing kit to replace a suture needle, although you'll be in greater pain if this is used.

Splints! They're rarely needed, but when they are, you really need them. If you fracture a bone, you're going to be slowed down a bunch and will need to take it easy for a while. Splints aren't something you can loot, so you'll have to craft it. The recipe for a splint is as follows.

Splint: 1x Plank or 1x Tree Branch or 1x Sturdy Stick and 1x Ripped Sheet or 1x Dirty Rag

Wounds

There are several type of injuries in Project Zomboid, and most of them can mess you up in one way or another. They are as follows:

• Bites
  
• Bleeding
  
• Burn
  
• Deep Wound
  
• Lodged Bullet / Glass Shard
  
• Scratch
  
• Laceration
  
• Infection
  
• Fractures

Working our way from the top, let's start with bites. Being bit in Project Zomboid is a game over. You're not able to recover from it, and it'll slowly kill you until it eventually turns you into a zombie yourself. The chances of being bit from behind are higher, so always be careful turning your back to a zombie.

Bleeds are what happens when you're cut, scratched, shot or impaled by glass shards or bitten. It accompanies most wounds that penetrate the skin, but it's the easiest one to treat. A bandage! All you need to do is wrap your cut up and the bleeding will stop over time. Swap out bandages regularly and you'll do just fine.

Burns. These are the most time-consuming injury to deal with, as it can take an extremely long time to heal. To treat a burn, you need to keep the burn covered with a clean bandage until it heals. Sterilised bandages are ideal for this, but anything that is clean will do.

Deep wounds are a dangerous one to have, as they can take a month to heal if you aren't able to stitch them up. However, a suture needle is all that is required to close this up. Stitching it up will inflict pain onto you, however.

Lodged bullets and glass shards accompany deep wounds, as they're typically what you need to remove from your body to treat a deep wound. To remove lodged objects, you can either use tweezers or your bare hands. Tweezers are the safest option, as it won't make the wound worse. Make sure to disinfect after the object has been removed!

Scratches are one of the more common injuries that you'll sustain, being caused from zombie attacks, catching yourself on fences and tripping over. You can easily treat these with bandages, so you won't be suffering badly if you get scratched. However, if the scratch is caused by a zombie, you have a 7% chance to be infected and you'll slowly die to zombficiation.

Lacerations are essentially a more severe version of a scratch. It lasts longer, can take away more health and has a 25% chance to cause death by zombification. However, the treatment is also the same. Keep it clean, bandaged and disinfected to avoid any further complications.

Infections are caused by using a dirty bandage on a wound, or can appear from a wound naturally. Using bourbon, bottles of disinfectant or alcohol wipes will treat the infection. You can also use sterilised bandages to both treat the cut and infection at the same time.

Fractures are a serious injury that you can suffer from if you fall from a high enough position. They can really mess up your day, and slow your movement speed substantially. Having a splint on hand is the best way to deal with a fracture, although they will take a long time to heal.

Poultices

Poultices are natural remedies, as you can forage for the ingredients around the world. They can help with broken bones, infections and recovery from wounds you've sustained. They typically require a mortar and pestle, which can be crafted with a saw and two planks. A relatively simple recipe, but the benefits that it offers can be good. There are three poultices to keep an eye out for. Plantain, Comfrey and Wild Garlic.

The plantain poultice is crafted with a mortar and pestle and 5 plantain. This one is used to aid recovery from wounds, helping you recover from wounds if you've been nastily beaten up.

The comfrey poultice is crafted with a mortar and pestle and 5 comfrey, just like before. This is used to help recover from fractured bones, which can be used independently of a splint.

The wild garlic poultice is crafted with a mortar and pestle and 5 wild garlic. This is used to fight infections if you don't have any disinfectant or sterilised bandages on hand.

[oompaloompa]

super important note - you can make sterilized bandages/rags with boiling water

[Fury]

Unless you play with Slow Healer or some other hardcore settings, wound infections as well as dirty bandages on them can just be ignored. They will still heal, it will just take a bit more time. Guide is vaguely worded and only pertains to the default settings, which I dont use and definitely do not recommend, so make sure you do your own research.

[QB14]

And for any new players who don't know if they've been infected by a zombie, being stressed for no reason and becoming queasy usually means you've been infected. (Although it can also be corpse sickness.)

[QB14]

A minor nitpick, but I'm pretty sure the 7% and 25% chances aren't always present. If I'm not wrong, the 25% for laceration and 7% for scratches to zombify are reliant on you being attacked by a zombie, not just a flat percent. For example, tripping on a fence and a scratch from a zombie are both scratches, but only one would actually be able to zombify you.

[Garfield.]

alright im just gonna say it, the wound infections along with dirty bandages do pretty much nothing in the base game the worst they can do is make your wounds heal slightly slower perhaps this will change in the future but as of now they dont do anything that bad

[RBerry435]

Followup, this guide did just save me a AI Survivor - thanks again!

[RBerry435]

Amazing guide, take my points + thumbs up - as a newer player (after a few year absence), decided to come back and after a day of playing saw this at the top of guides and decided to gave it a read. Came out with knowledge on how to treat deepwounds which I always assumed you could just use a Sterilized Rag for but clearly not. Thanks!

[dougburg]

I play with sprinters and higher population, but with infection off, so I get beat up a lot

Do not use disinfectant to make a sterilized bandage, simply boil your bandages or ripped sheets in hot water and they are sterilized without disinfectant. Save your precious alcohol wipes and disinfectant to apply to a wound that is already infected to cure the infection. An infected wound will heal without disinfectant, it just takes a lot longer.

There is another wound you failed to mention: Broken bones, and if you are not prepared, they will kill you. So.... Before you start building stairs, and running around airborne roof tops bases, etc. Make a splint and carry it with you ALL THE TIME. If you fall, you can splint it right away and you might live. if you fall and break your leg, and do not have the ability to make a splint, you are really in a world of hurt.

[the BIG sloppy]

tyvm for helping us new kids on the block hang in there a bit longer

you're a life-saver, doc

Many thanks!

[Mezu Savage]

I'm not too familiar with the herbs since I've not used those much, but I'll do some research and get onto that! Thanks