Best character builds in Project Zomboid | Rock Paper Shotgun

PROJECT ZOMBOID CHARACTER BUILDS: THE BEST CHARACTER BUILDS IN PROJECT ZOMBOID

LOOKING FOR THE BEST CHARACTER BUILDS IN PROJECT ZOMBOID? Before you dive into the world of Project Zomboid and start surviving the apocalypse, you need to make your character. The character

creation menu can look quite daunting at first, but don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll talk you through the character creation process step-by-step and cover some of the best character

builds in Project Zomboid so that you can get off to a great start in the apocalypse.

The first section in the character creation menu is occupation. This lets you select what job your survivor had before the apocalypse began. While they aren’t all true professions (I don’t

think you could list hotwiring cars as a burglar on the census), they all come with various bonuses for different skills. When selecting your occupation, you should think about your

preferred playstyle. If you want to build a base and do lots of crafting, Carpenter might be for you. If you prefer foraging or farming, we’d recommend selecting Park Ranger or Farmer

respectively.

When you select an occupation, it will change your points to spend total in the lower right corner of the creation menu. You can not proceed until this number is 0 or higher. If you need to

gain or lose points, head over to the trait menu.

Traits are positive and negative bonuses that you can apply to your character in Project Zomboid. Negative traits give you points back, which you’ll need if your occupation puts you in the

negative. Positive traits are available if you have some extra points spare to use before jumping into the game. If you select the unemployed occupation, you will get 8 points to spend on

positive traits.

Traits can have an immense impact on your character in Project Zomboid. The Thick Skinned trait makes it much harder for zombies to scratch and bite your character, for example. Since this

is a very useful trait, it costs 8 points. Less useful traits, like Speed Demon (which lets you drive faster) cost fewer points. Likewise, more severe negative traits give you more points

back. If you want to see some of the best traits, take a look at our character builds later in this guide.

Here is a full list of every trait in Project Zomboid, including its description and cost:

Outdoorsman Positive Not affected by harsh weather conditions. -2

Nutritionist Positive Can see the nutritional values of any food. -4

Amateur Mechanic Positive Has a detailed knowledge of common and commercial vehicle models, and repairs. +1 Mechanics -5

Fast Healer Positive Recovers quickly from injuries and illness. -6

Herbalist Positive Can find medicinal herbs and craft medicines and poultices from them. -6

Adrenaline Junkie Positive Moves faster when highly panicked. -8

Handy Positive Faster and stronger constructions. +1 Carpentry | +1 Maintenance -8

Hunter Positive +1 Aiming | +1 Short Blade | +1 Sneaking | +1 Trapping -8

Thick-Skinned Positive Less chance of scratches or bites breaking the skin. -8

Hard of Hearing Negative Smaller perception radius. Smaller hearing range. +4

Smoker Negative Stress and unhappiness decrease after smoking tobacco. Unhappiness rise when tobacco is not smoked. +4

Hemophobic Negative Panic when performing first aid on self, cannot perform first aid on others, gets stressed when bloody. +5

Restless Sleeper Negative Slow loss of tiredness while sleeping. +6

Slow Healer Negative Recovers slowly from injuries and illness. +6

Underweight Negative Low strength, low endurance, and prone to injury. -1 Fitness +6

Thin-Skinned Negative Increased chance of scratches, lacerations, or bites breaking the skin. +8

When selecting an occupation or certain traits, you will see that some give positive or negative bonuses to certain skills. For example, Carpenter gets a +3 bonus to carpentry and a +1 bonus

to Short Blunt. These bonuses are crucial in the early game, as they let you get a headstart in certain activities or deal with dangerous situations. Doctors and Nurses get big bonuses to

First-Aid, while Burglars are able to sneak around and use stealth to stay away from zombies. All of these skills can be leveled as you play Project Zomboid. They each have their own XP that

generates as you perform related activities. For example, sneaking around and avoiding zombies will level up your sneak skill. You can level a range of key skills up by watching TV over the

first few days, so make sure you familiarise yourself with the full Project Zomboid TV schedule.

* Axe * Long Blunt * Short Blunt * Long Blade * Short Blade * Spear * Maintenance

* Carpentry * Cooking * Farming * First Aid * Electrical * Metalworking * Tailoring

If you want some extra guidance on building a character in Project Zomboid, we’ve got two excellent builds that you can use for inspiration or copy for your own survivor:

* Cat’s Eyes * Dextrous * Inconspicuous * Keen Hearing * Strong

* High Thirst * Slow Healer * Disorganized * Prone to Illness * Weak Stomach * Sleepyhead * Slow Reader * Sunday Driver

Okay, that’s a lot of negative traits so this build might seem daunting. However, you’ll quickly realise that a lot of these negative traits won’t impact your game too much. DISORGANIZED

gives you slightly lower storage capacity, but this does not affect your own player inventory. Cupboards, dressers and other storage units will have slightly less room, but this has minimal

impact on your game. If your cupboards are full, you’re probably doing a good enough job.

Some of the other traits are almost negligible if you are playing smart. PRONE TO ILLNESS and WEAK STOMACH make it easier to get ill from bad weather, infected wounds, or food poisoning, but

you should strive to avoid all of these anyway. Food poisoning can be avoided altogether if you cook food and avoid raw meats, while you can just hide inside or use warm clothes to avoid

catching a cold during the colder months.

SLOW HEALER and HIGH THIRST are the most severe negative traits in this build, but they are fairly easy to manage. Our first tip when finding and fortifying a base is to live near a water

source, as this is always going to be a problem. If you’re already near a water source, High Thirst should be manageable. Slow Healer is slightly more troublesome, but the best way to heal

is staying well-fed and well-rested. Slow Healer just means you might have to avoid exploring a little longer when injured, but there are plenty of other things you can do in base. You could

spend time reading skill books to get extra XP boosts, or keep an eye on your farm, for example. If you’re playing on single-player, you could even just speed up time to skip until your

character is healthy again.

SLEEPYHEAD, SLOW READER and SUNDAY DRIVER are easy to forget and essentially amount to free points. Sleepyhead makes you need to sleep more often, but Project Zomboid characters rarely need

to sleep anyway. If anything, this should make the sleep cycle a little more natural. If you do find yourself sleeping in the day and awake at night, Cat’s Eyes will make it easier to see in

the dark. Slow Reader does exactly what it says - you read slightly slower - but this isn’t going to impact your playstyle much. Books take a while to read, so a few more minutes of waiting

won’t be a big problem. Again, those in single-player can just speed up time to completely negate this issue as long as you’ve got plenty of food and water stocked. Sunday Driver makes you

drive a lot slower, but you’ll still be able to outrun zombies and this will just make crashes less deadly.

The goal with this build is to make it easier for you to loot buildings and fight zombies, which are key to survival in Project Zomboid. DEXTROUS allows you to transfer items slightly

faster, while STRONG will let you deal more damage and carry more items in your inventory. INCONSPICUOUS makes it much harder for zombies to see you and KEEN HEARING increases your

perception radius. This is essentially the circle around your character in which you can see nearby zombies. This is essential if you want to avoid sneaky bites and scratches from behind

when looting a building or managing your inventory.

* High Thirst * Disorganized * Prone to Illness * Weak Stomach * All Thumbs * Short-Sighted * Slow Reader * Sunday Driver

Having read through the previous build, the balance between positive and negative traits should now be much clearer. Many of the negative traits have little effect but give you lots of

points, which you can then spend on crucial positive traits. As you can see, many of the negative traits are actually repeated across both builds. HIGH THIRST, DISORGANIZED, PRONE TO

ILLNESS, WEAK STOMACH, SLOW READER and SUNDAY DRIVER all feature in both builds because they are either easy to manage or have minimal impact on your gameplay.

ALL THUMBS and SHORT-SIGHTED are the new negative traits for this firefighter build. Short-Sighted is the worst of the two, as it reduces your perception radius. However, if you spin around

often while moving to check your back, you should be able to avoid any sneaky zombie surprises. All Thumbs makes you move items a little slower, which makes looting take longer. This will

have little impact as long as zombies don’t know where you are, so make sure to sneak when moving around.

Fortunately, the INCONSPICUOUS trait should make it a little easier to avoid zombies so that you can focus on looting. While you might loot slightly slower than usual, the LUCKY trait will

help you find rarer items, stronger weapons and better armor, drastically increasing your odds of finding useful gear. STOUT will increase your inventory capacity so that you can carry more

stuff around in your inventory while giving you extra strength to deal with zombies when necessary. ATHLETIC is the best positive trait in this build, as it increases your running speed,

lets you run for longer without getting exhausted and even lets you swing weapons faster. This will make it much easier to travel around the map and outrun zombies, while also boosting your

efficiency in combat if you do need to fight.

That wraps up our best character builds in Project Zomboid. Hopefully, those builds give you a better idea on how to create a character and which traits are best in the apocalypse. If you

want more help surviving the apocalypse, check out our list of Project Zomboid tips and tricks. You can also take a look at our list of the best survival games on PC in 2022 if you want to

see how you'd fare in other survival scenarios.