The Best Tips And Tricks For Playing On A Multiplayer Project Zomboid Server

Project Zomboid offers an in-depth zombie apocalypse scenario with hardcore rules and realism that make it a rewarding challenge to survive. One important factor of most zombie apocalypses is other survivors, who add a unique challenge compared to the mindless undead.

There are many unexpected changes to the game that happen with the switch from singleplayer to multiplayer that can greatly affect your playstyle and survivability. However, with the right tools and knowledge, you can join servers with the hope of surviving past day two with more than a can opener.

10

Enable Faster Reading Times

Whether you are creating your own Project Zomboid server or are flipping through the hundreds of servers available, one setting you will want to make sure is lowered is the MinutesPerPage. Lowering this means reading skill books is much faster. Whereas in singleplayer, you are just able to fast-forward the time.

This will stop you from having to spend real hours waiting for the little green bar to fill while your character stands motionless. If you want to make sure your character is able to level skills with any amount of efficiency, play on reduced reading time servers.

This setting is found in INI > Other.

9

Level Your Firearm Skills

In multiplayer servers with PvP enabled, humans with access to weapons become an additional challenge on top of zombie hordes. In order to compete with these players, make sure you are shooting guns to level your Aiming and Reloading skills.

Picking the Veteran occupation can give you two additional skill levels in both Aiming and Reloading while also giving you the Desensitized perk for free. Just make sure you are moving locations after firing, as the sound will draw more zombies and other players.

Police Officer gives a higher base Aiming skill with a bonus in Nimble, but lacks the Desensitized perk.

8

Do Not Pick Sunday Driver

While a handful of traits are better suited to multiplayer or singleplayer, depending on your playstyle, there is a trap that players fall into called “Sunday Driver.” Movement in Project Zomboid multiplayer servers is important, as you will have to travel farther to reach better loot or find other players.

Sunday Driver is a negative trait that reduces your vehicle’s top speed, which just seems like numbers on a screen until you are traveling the speed limit of a school zone across the country. This will also make hauling trailers a nightmare, forcing you to abandon it in sticky situations, so make sure you don’t choose it.

7

Prepare For No More Sleeping

One of the hardest things to get used to on most servers is the lack of options for sleeping. For players used to snoozing the night away on singleplayer, this adds a new danger that you will have to play around. Do you choose to hide out in your base until morning or venture into the dark in search of supplies?

This will also remove the tired moodle, which means that certain traits and occupations are weakened due to the lack of need to keep yourself awake. This makes sleeping tablets a useless first aid item, as it will no longer have an effect in-game.

6

Roleplay (Or Don’t)

A major factor for a lot of Project Zomboid players in multiplayer is the roleplay aspect, which the apocalypse scenario works surprisingly well for. Most of these roleplay servers focus on the survivor aspect of the game and can feel akin to venturing inside The Walking Dead.

For experienced or long-time Zomboid players, the single-player experience can feel stale and without drama or unique conflicts that only roleplaying with other players can bring. If you want to enjoy this aspect of PZ, make sure you look for roleplaying servers and understand their listed rules for behavior.

5

Pay Attention To Wipes

A lot of servers tend to wipe and start from scratch on a scheduled basis, returning everyone active on the server to an initial state. This is to prevent players or groups from becoming too strong and accessing the best loot on the map without fail.

If you want to make sure you have the same footing as every other player on the map, look for servers with a recent or upcoming wipe so that you can get the best experience. There are also servers with no wipes, endlessly evolving into something entirely player-built.

4

Choose Your Base Carefully

Especially on multiplayer servers with PvP enabled, other players can be downright cutthroat, chasing you down and stealing everything you have. To protect your base and all your earthly belongings, carefully consider the best location to place your base.

This could be a single farmhouse in the middle of nowhere or the top floor of a building in downtown Louisville. Either way, you will want to make sure you don’t leave clues of your existence. These can be player-made structures, visible, upgraded vehicles, or dozens of zombie corpses outside your front door.

You can lock crafted crates with padlocks, stopping would-be looters from stealing your stash.

3

Understand Which Mods Are In Use

Most, if not all, dedicated servers run using mods, usually downloaded from the Steam workshop, and typically add whole new cities and towns to explore. These mods can greatly influence the gameplay and what actions players will take compared to the vanilla game.

Make sure you understand what mods are in use and how they affect the game so that you can be as prepared as the other players on the server. The Common Sense mod is one of, if not the most popular mod for servers, which can allow you to use crowbars to break open doors and introduce new sources of loot.

2

Be Aware Of Servers With High Player Count

Without dedicated hardware, you will not be able to run a server with over 32 players without it being nearly unplayable. By joining these servers, understand that you might run into desync and server issues that result in getting your character killed without even understanding why.

However, it can be beneficial to play high-population servers. The map on Project Zomboid is fairly huge, and running into other players can take a great deal of time, especially on servers with only five or six active players. Just know that joining these servers comes with inherent risks that are hardware and network-related.

1

Coordinate Skills With Other Players

One of the main benefits of multiplayer servers is joining groups that work together to survive. Here, you can coordinate with other players to choose which roles you will play. This way, you don’t have to destroy a hundred crates to be able to make your own woodworking projects while worrying about how to level every other skill afterward.

This can make base building, farming, metalworking, and weapon maintenance much more efficient while quickly upgrading your base and supplies. With a well-coordinated group, you can reach the end-game of Project Zomboid much more often and with longer-surviving characters.