In Project Zomboid, skills are essential to your character’s survival and progression. Each skill reflects a survivor’s growing experience, improving efficiency and unlocking new abilities over time. Skills are levelled up by performing related tasks, earning experience points (XP) along the way.
The game currently divides skills into six main categories - Passive, Agility, Combat, Crafting, Firearm, and Survivalist - each containing a variety of abilities that help players thrive in the zombie apocalypse.
Passive SkillsSkill | Description |
Strength | Increases melee damage, knockback, knockdown chance, and maximum carry weight. Also improves chances of forcing locked windows and climbing tall fences. |
Fitness | Improves attack speed, endurance, and recovery. Reduces tripping chances and fall damage while increasing push strength and exercise efficiency. |
Agility SkillsSkill | Description |
Sprinting | Boosts overall movement speed when running, sprinting, or sneaking. XP is gained by moving, even when overexerted or encumbered. |
Lightfooted | Reduces footstep noise, making it harder for zombies to detect you. Works well with Nimble for extra stealth. |
Nimble | Increases movement speed in combat stance and reduces footstep volume. XP is earned by moving while in combat stance. |
Sneaking | Lowers both sound and visibility while sneaking near zombies. XP is gained by staying undetected when close to them. |
Combat SkillsSkill | Description |
Axe | Increases speed, damage, and knockback when using axes. |
Long Blunt | Improves attack stats and effectiveness with long blunt weapons (e.g. crowbars, baseball bats). |
Short Blunt | Increases efficiency with short blunt weapons like nightsticks and wrenches. |
Long Blade | Boosts attack performance with weapons such as katanas or machetes. |
Short Blade | Improves short blade use (e.g. knives) and increases success with jaw stabs. |
Spear | Enhances attack speed and accuracy with spears. |
Maintenance | Reduces weapon degradation, allowing melee weapons to last longer. |
Crafting SkillsSkill | Description |
Carpentry | Enables construction of wooden structures and furniture. Affects durability, noise, and repair quality. |
Cooking | Allows players to create more nutritious meals and detect poisonous ingredients. |
Farming | Improves ability to check crop health and identify plant conditions. |
First Aid | Increases treatment speed and effectiveness. Improves knowledge of injuries and medical supplies. |
Electrical | Unlocks electrical tasks such as hot-wiring, rewiring, and crafting devices from electronic parts. |
Metalworking | Enables crafting and repairing of metal structures and tools with greater strength at higher levels. |
Mechanics | Enhances vehicle repair success, part installation, and hot-wiring ability (when paired with Electrical). |
Tailoring | Allows patching and repairing of clothes to improve bite and scratch protection. At level 8, players can fully repair clothing holes. |
Firearm SkillsSkill | Description |
Aiming | Increases firearm accuracy, precision, and range while reducing aim time. XP is gained through successful hits. |
Reloading | Decreases reload time and improves speed when managing magazines, bullets, and cylinders. |
Survivalist SkillsSkill | Description |
Fishing | Reduces the time needed to catch fish and increases catch quality. XP is gained from fishing attempts and successful catches. |
Trapping | Increases success rates when trapping animals and unlocks new trap crafting recipes. XP is earned upon checking traps. |
Foraging | Expands search radius and item detection speed. Improves discovery rates and unlocks rare item finds at higher levels. XP is gained by finding, accepting, or rejecting items. |
