Zombie

Zombie

Class	Zombies
Type	Enemy
Spreads	Knox Infection
Outfits	All outfits

A zombie is the main enemy in Project Zomboid. Zombies are the ordinary people of Knox Country after the Knox Infection turned them. They move through towns, roads and forests in large groups. They attack any living person they find.

The default zombie is a slow shambler. A single shambler is easy to outrun and easy to kill. Large groups are the real danger. Zombies gather into hordes and follow noise across the map. A loud fight in a busy street can attract more zombies than one survivor can handle.

Every zombie keeps the clothes and items it had on when it was alive. Police officers still wear their uniforms. Soldiers still carry their packs and helmets. Doctors still wear their coats. The outfit shows what the corpse may carry. Some zombies have ammunition, tools or snacks in their pockets. Others carry weapons on a belt or in a holster. A few still have a knife stuck in their body. So it is worth searching every kill.

Zombie Behaviour

Sound attracts zombies more than anything else. Gunfire, car engines, radios and alarms all attract them. Footsteps and shouts also attract them. A zombie walks toward a noise by the most direct path it can find. That path often goes straight through a window or a door.

Sight comes next. A zombie that sees a survivor chases them. It keeps following while the survivor stays in view.

Zombies do not give up easily. Given time, they break through windows and doors that are not barricaded. A noisy house attracts zombies from the streets around it.

Hordes move as one group. They move across the map toward loud sounds. Distant gunfire and other far away events move them around. A passing helicopter can pull a whole horde after it. A horde that stops in one street can move off again at the next loud sound.

Crawlers are zombies that can no longer stand. They pull themselves along the ground, much slower than a shambler. They are hard to see in tall grass because they are low. Crawlers cannot break doors or windows, and they cannot climb fences.

Sprinters only exist when custom settings turn them on. They run very fast and close the distance quickly. They can trip while running, which gives a little space. Low fences also trip them. Default play only uses slow and fast shamblers.

Where Zombies Spawn

Cities and towns have the most zombies. Downtown streets have the largest groups. The outskirts have fewer, and the countryside has the fewest. Forests have fewer zombies, but they still have some. Louisville has the most zombies in Knox Country. Smaller towns have fewer, but their centres still have many.

The number of zombies grows over the first weeks of a game. More zombies appear on the map as the days pass. When respawning is turned on, it refills cleared areas after a while. Hordes also move into cleared areas from the cells around them. A cleared street does not stay clear forever.

Zombies spawn indoors as well as outdoors. Houses, shops and offices all have their own zombies. Each kind of workplace has its own kind of zombie. Offices, factories and restaurants have the most of these special zombies. Police stations, construction sites, clinics, bars and prisons come next. These places usually have zombies in the matching uniforms inside.

Zombie Outfits

Zombies keep the clothes of their job. The game dresses each group to match the place where it spawns. A police station has officers in uniform. A military site has soldiers in camouflage. A fire station has firefighters in heavy gear.

The Police Zombie wears a uniform with a belt holster and sometimes a vest. The Police SWAT Zombie always wears a heavy vest and often a helmet. The Army Camo Zombie carries military packs and wears boots and a helmet. The Survivalist Zombie carries a bag on its back and a weapon. The Bandit Zombie wears rough clothes and carries knives in its pockets. The Fireman Zombie wears protective firefighter gear. The Doctor Zombie spawns in clinics and wears a medical coat.

There are many more outfits across the map. Each one has its own page with the clothes, the corpse finds and the places it spawns.

Fighting Zombies

Avoiding a fight is often the best choice. A horde wins by numbers, not strength. Staying quiet keeps the hordes away. Gunfire is the loudest option and attracts zombies from far away. A melee weapon is quieter.

Bites are the most dangerous wound. On default settings, a bite gives the Knox Infection. There is no cure for it. An infected survivor gets sick, has a fever and dies. The body then comes back as a zombie. Scratches and lacerations are less dangerous. They can still get an ordinary wound infection if they are not cleaned.

Crawlers are easy to miss in tall grass. It helps to check the ground before moving forward. Sound can also be used against zombies. A loud noise far from the safehouse can pull a horde away from it.