Project Zomboid – Forest Survival Guide and Tips

This guide will show you some of the basic foraging systems and necessities in Project Zomboid.

Introduction

Getting by in nature in Project Zomboid is like playing a separate game without zombies or scavenging. I suggest checking out a video by Ambiguous Amphibian where they play the game entirely focused on nature. The video features the old foraging system but still provides valuable information. It’s so good that it convinced me to buy the game. Now, let’s move on to the next part, which will discuss traits and helpful skills.

Traits and Skills

If your plan is to survive in a nature-only scenario in Project Zomboid, paying attention to traits and occupations is crucial. In a regular playthrough, nature skills might not be a top priority, but some of this information can still come in handy.

For a nature-focused run, consider selecting the Park Ranger or Lumberjack occupations. The Park Ranger occupation enables faster movement through dense trees and provides a +2 bonus to the essential foraging skill. Additionally, it offers valuable bonuses to carpentry, trapping, and axe skills. Lumberjack, a popular choice for standard runs, grants the axe man trait, enhances strength, and offers a moderate bonus to movement in wooded areas. While Fisherman or Farmer occupations are options, they are generally less beneficial for a nature-centric playthrough.

Now, let’s delve into traits that are centered around foraging in Project Zomboid. Cat’s Eyes proves beneficial during the night, providing improved visibility. Outdoorsman becomes crucial for nature-only runs, safeguarding you from severe impacts of unstable weather. Former Scout is acceptable for its skill benefits, while Herbalist is essential unless you’re up for the challenge of searching for an exceedingly rare magazine. Herbalist, associated with The Herbalist magazine, allows you to forage medicinal plants, replacing all in-game medicine, excluding sleeping pills, with their plant counterparts.

In addition, Low Thirst proves extremely useful as clean water is scarce. Strength and athletic skills may be valuable, and Wakeful has a dual purpose. Perception skills like Keen Hearing and Eagle Eyed significantly enhance your foraging radius. Wakeful prevents extreme fatigue, allowing you to forage deeper into the night, uncovering loot that is easier to find during those late hours.

Given the complexity of this information, let’s shift to something less monotonous—or did I say less? I actually meant more.

For more information, feel free to check our Project Zomboid Medical Guide.

Foraging

For many players, foraging in Project Zomboid is often considered boring, with some viewing it as a step down from the old system where loot seemingly appeared out of thin air. Despite this, foraging remains essential for various challenge runs and proves highly beneficial when living near nature.

The foraging system appears simple at first glance: right-click and choose “investigate area” or click the magnifying glass icon on the left. From the ensuing menu, select a focus (or none) and click to commence foraging. The ungreyed bubble around you indicates your search radius, and hovering over the eye icon in the foraging menu reveals factors affecting its size, including traits and occupations. Refer to the wiki for more details. Additionally, accessibility settings allow you to adjust saturation effects during search mode, aiding in spotting approaching zombies.

Some handy tips include using the foraging menu as a rough clock by tracking the sun/moon’s position. Your location influences findings, with urban areas yielding more trash, while fields may contain crops. Foraging can unearth various items, such as half-full propane tanks, Engineering magazines, and .308 rounds. Despite popular belief, the wiki suggests you might even discover nails, saws, and hammers—I’m fairly certain I’ve found saws before, although I can’t confirm it.

Food

Ensuring an adequate food supply is crucial for survival, and fortunately, the forest offers ample options. However, it’s important to note that most forest foods are low in calories, potentially leading to a substantial weight loss.

Foraging serves as the initial food source, providing berries, fruits, spices, mushrooms, and even bugs. A word of caution: without the herbalist trait or having read The Herbalist, you cannot confirm the safety of mushrooms or berries, and consuming poisonous ones can be fatal within minutes. The wiki suggests that most berries are randomly poisonous or safe, and once identified as safe or poisonous, they remain consistent. The wiki also lists some berries deemed consistently safe, as depicted in the images below.

This one is always poisonous:

When it comes to mushrooms, none are consistently safe, and none are consistently poisonous. They pose a greater risk when poisonous and are more likely to be so in the first place.

On the other hand, wild herbs, veggies, fruits, and other plants can be trusted. However, be aware that some herbs and plants may indicate -20 happiness and +20 boredom, as your character finds them a bit unappealing. Despite this, they are not otherwise harmful.

Bugs and dead animals (at higher levels) are potential sources of food, but the tooltip warns about their danger when uncooked, and it’s advisable to heed that warning. Even when cooked, bugs will always reduce happiness and increase boredom.

Lastly, there’s “junk food,” as termed in the wiki. While it’s possible to find it through foraging, relying on it as a primary food source is highly unreliable.

Fishing serves as another reliable means to secure good food in Project Zomboid. Fish, like bugs and animals, require cooking, necessitating the use of a campfire. While it’s possible to craft a proper fishing rod with the Angler USA Vol.1 magazine, the simpler method involves using a spear. Fishing can yield nutritious food, and occasionally, you might reel in socks and boots.

Trapping becomes a more viable food source in the later stages of the game, especially if you’re sticking to a forest-only setting. These traps generate food passively and prove to be a valuable long-term investment. According to the wiki, you can forage entire traps, and if that doesn’t work, you can forage trapping magazines to craft them yourself. Placing traps results in dead animals magically appearing after a while. As with other sources, the meat obtained from traps requires cooking.

Another option is farming, which involves foraging crops to acquire both seeds and crops. Digging furrows with your hands initiates standard farming mechanics. Farming is often considered the best option, even surpassing trapping. Tainted water can be used for watering, making it feasible if you’re near the ocean. According to the wiki, you might even forage trowels to streamline the farming process.

Water

Securing water is of utmost importance in a forest-only run, and it becomes a pressing concern right from the start. If you’re preparing for a camping trip in Project Zomboid, ensure you bring something metal to store water (while keeping plenty of bottles handy).

In the early game, one way to obtain water is as demonstrated by Ambiguous Amphibian (AA) in the mentioned video. Drink tainted water directly from a water source and consume lemongrass. If a water source is unavailable, you can consume plants and berries with water content or try rain dances, hoping for assistance from the sky lords above. As per my knowledge, this approach still works in newer versions of the game. However, it’s not the most reliable method, and following AA’s advice to avoid drinking from tainted water bottles is advisable.

Another method to obtain water is by cooking it over a campfire, using firewood as a more reliable option than lemongrass. It’s important to note that this can’t be done with water bottles; they don’t melt or undergo any changes—it simply doesn’t work. To carry out this process, a suitable water container like a saucepan or cooking pot is needed.

In the endgame, water collectors become a viable option, similar to a normal playthrough. Unfortunately, plumbing them might not be feasible, so boiling the collected water is necessary. If someone is willing to experiment, attempting to plumb one water collector into another could be an interesting test to see if it works.

Buildings, Campfires, and Tools

Congratulations on reaching the final section! Now, let’s discuss some of the crafting you’ll be doing in your forest-only adventure, focusing on essential items like the campfire and more.

First and foremost, craft an axe. If you’re unsure, refer to AA’s video or open the crafting menu on the right. You’ll need a branch and a sharp stone, both easily foraged. Additionally, gather ripped sheets, which can be made from your clothes, a nearby zombie’s attire, or, for an added challenge, fish for socks to rip. Given the brittle nature of trees, you might need more than one axe to chop a tree, so keep extras on hand. You’ll also require more logs for fuel.

Once you have logs, branches, twigs, and rags/ripped sheets, you can craft a campfire kit. If there’s any missing component, check the crafting menu for alternatives. The campfire needs tinder (twigs, branches, ripped sheets, etc.) and fuel (tinder alone won’t last, so add logs or planks).

You’ll need something to ignite the fire. A notched wooden plank should suffice. Crafting it requires a chipped stone and a log. If it doesn’t work, you’ll need a branch or sturdy stick. If you’re still facing issues, ensure you’re not exhausted, and if problems persist, consult the wiki for guidance.

For fishing gear, combine a chipped stone and a branch to create a basic fishing setup. To improve, find a fishing rod or read Angler USA Vol.1. Forage for magazines, excluding the herbalist, which might take around 300 hours of in-game time to come across easily.

To wrap things up, let’s talk about building structures. Many players opt for log walls, crafted with a few logs and ripped sheets, easily found in the crafting menu. But, can’t you do better than that? Of course, you can! Craft hammers using a normal stone, ripped sheets, and a branch. Foraging for saws and nails can be tedious or even impossible, so some players use mods that allow crafting nails. Feeling extra lazy? Craft your saws as well. From here, the sky’s the limit, or something along those lines.