Field notes / Knox Country

Project Zomboid survival guides

Plan the run. Know the way out. Practical guides for the first night, the next supply trip, and the shelter you want to keep.

Start with your first day

Snow-covered Project Zomboid neighborhood with houses, fences, and lit streets — Read the streets. Leave room to retreat.

The field library

From first shelter to longer journeys

Choose the problem your next trip needs to solve. Each guide connects practical decisions with the atlas and links to game references.

Getting started

Your first day in Project Zomboid

Build a short, repeatable loop: a defensible room, drinking water, a usable weapon, and a route home.

Explore Getting started

A practical first-week survival plan

Use milestones instead of a rigid calendar. Stabilize shelter, repeat a small supply loop, then prepare for disruptions.

Explore Base building

Choose a safehouse with a way out

Compare access, escape routes, water, and supply trips before investing in walls or hauling furniture.

Explore Base building

Prepare for water and power shutoff

Build a water plan and a food reserve before the utilities fail. Treat generator fuel and condition as ongoing jobs.

Explore Survival systems

Plan for the helicopter event

Prepare shelter and supplies before the sound arrives. The helicopter can spot and follow you, and its noise moves zombies.

Explore Items and exploration

Plan loot routes around a specific need

Turn a map full of buildings into a short trip with one objective, a fallback, and a clear return route.

Explore Survival systems

Combat, moodles, and knowing when to leave

Protect your room to move. Read the character's condition before a fight and leave while retreat is still easy.

Explore Skills

Plan skills, books, and useful practice

Use the five skill-book bands, the early Life and Living schedule, and useful practice projects to turn safe hours into progress.

Explore Travel

Prepare a vehicle before the long trip

Check the whole transport plan: access, condition, fuel, cargo, road choice, and a way home if the car stops.

Explore Character builds

Choose a character for the run you want

Compare useful occupations and concrete trait tradeoffs, then match the character to an early route and a longer-term role.

Explore Controls

Controls to practice before your first supply run

A quick reference for default PC movement, combat, doors, inventory, and vehicle controls, with short practice drills.

Explore Multiplayer

Coordinate a co-op run and its sandbox rules

Agree on the world settings, meeting point, shared supplies, and recovery plan before people scatter across the map.

Explore Updates and compatibility

Check your build before following an old map or guide

Separate map coverage, game mechanics, mods, and save compatibility so an old route does not become a new problem.

Explore Items and equipment

Essential tools and what to carry them for

A practical tool reference: hammer, saw, screwdriver, vehicle tools, can opener, and sewing supplies, with mapped scouting targets.

Explore Base building

Set up a generator and a fuel routine

Place, connect, fuel, and inspect a generator, then organize the maintenance and fuel stops that keep it useful.

Explore