Project Zomboid: Infections, Illnesses, & Injuries Guide

In Project Zomboid, zombie attacks will hurt players, but often the real impact of these attacks involves what happens afterwards: infections, illness, and debilitating injuries. In most situations, players’ health bars will quickly recover from damage, but lingering effects can dampen that regeneration or even reverse it if left untreated. Of course, zombies aren’t the only cause of injury either; players can injure themselves with broken glass, car accidents, falling, burns, and more.

The most common side effect of an attack or incident in Project Zomboid is a simple injury, such as a scratch or laceration. While basic wounds can be dealt with using bandages and time in Project Zomboid, more severe wounds will require extra tools to properly treat with bandages and plenty of rest. The worst wounds also debilitate players, causing an effect depending on where the wound is. For example, a fracture on players’ legs will cause them to slow to a crawl and result in constant agonizing pain when walking.

These injuries can also get infected if left untreated for too long, which can potentially kill players. Then, of course, there’s also the chance that the wound is infected from the start if it came from a zombie; this type of infection is guaranteed to be fatal and is accompanied by health loss and illness. Zombification isn’t the only cause of illness, though; illness can also come from being around corpses for too long and eating poisonous, raw, or rotten food making surviving in Project Zomboid a challenging task.

How to Handle Infection, Illness, and Injury in Project Zomboid

Each type of health issue has its own downsides and solutions, so here’s a list of each.

How to Deal with Infections in Project Zomboid

Infection is most frequently caused by not bandaging a wound or keeping a dirty bandage on wounds. They can be prevented preemptively by using better bandages and disinfecting the wound, although disinfecting after infection also aids recovery to a lesser extent. Infections cause a constant minor health drain while improperly bandaged and result in pain and a heal speed decrease until fully dealt with. The only solution for an infection in Project Zomboid is time, although, as mentioned previously, disinfecting the wound will speed up recovery. Also, infections that result in zombification are unable to be recovered from.

How to Deal with Injuries in Project Zomboid

Injuries in Project Zomboid come in many forms from many sources , but all share some common traits. Untreated injuries will cause constant health loss, cause pain and reduce speed or combat capabilities proportionally to the severity of the wound. Clean bandages are all players need for most wounds to heal, but some require special treatment to deal with properly.

How to Deal with Illness in Project Zomboid

Illness is a more subtle problem that’s often a byproduct of something else but can also be caused independently of other health issues. Illness results in a slower healing speed and health loss if it progresses in severity. Illness in Project Zomboid is most often a result of zombification progression but can also be caused by eating bad food or drinking tainted water, as well as standing near corpses for prolonged periods. Illness from corpses will quickly go away after vacating the area. Likewise, illness from food or water will go away after some time. However, if the illness is nasty, such as with poisonous berries, players might perish before the illness dissipates.

How to Deal With Deep Wounds in Project Zomboid

Deep wounds require a suture needle or a needle with thread in order to stitch the wound before properly bandaging it; bandages still work to stop health loss before stitching, but the injury can’t heal, and bandages will quickly become dirty.

How to Deal With Fractures in Project Zomboid

Fractures (that aren’t located on the head or torso) heal approximately 10 times faster with a splint, created with a ripped sheet and any straight wooden item, although a bandage is still necessary for healing.

How to Deal with Lodged Objects in Project Zomboid

Lodged bullets or glass shards must be removed with tweezers, ideally disinfected, and stitched before bandaging the wound; players can bandage a wound temporarily before removing the foreign object, but it’ll never heal, and there will be extra pain.

How to Deal with Burns in Project Zomboid

Burns doesn’t actually require any special treatment to heal. However, their recovery time is far beyond that of most other wounds, which can fool players into thinking they’re doing something wrong. Nevertheless, players can keep clean bandages on the wound and disinfect as needed, and eventually, the burn will heal.

Project Zomboid is available on PC.

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