Eating is one of the most important parts to making sure your character in Project Zomboid survives. Characters are able to eat a variety of canned and fresh foods that they either find or harvest themselves through cooking.
Of course your character will probably need to eat some food right out of the can, such is the way of the zombie apocalypse, but cooking is overall better for them. Cooking not only will make meals more nutritious for your character, but they will also improve your character’s mood!
Cooking is pretty easy to get into, since almost every house in Project Zomboid has at least some supplies that you’ll need to cook. First, you’ll want to find something to cook in like a saucepan, roasting pan, or a cooking pot. Then, you should find something to cook, whether that’s a steak from a fridge or just heating up canned soup. After that, you should find your nearest heat source. Heat sources range from an oven or microwave to grills or campfires, so just use whatever is the most convenient.
1) Eat Fresh Food First
At the start of your playthrough, it’s best to eat mostly fresh food that you find in refrigerators or freezers, or in grocery stores. This means you can save more canned foods for later in your gameplay, when all the fresh veggies and meats have gone bad.
Finding fresh food is easy, and unlike most canned foods, doesn’t require any tools. Simply opening fridges in houses, or going through bins at grocery stores or food stalls, will reveal some sort of perishable food that probably won’t even require you to cook it. Sticking with plain fruits and vegetables is your best option, since meats need to be cooked to avoid food poisoning!
How it works:
- Find a house or building with food
- Look for fresh food
- Eat things like fruits and vegetables if you don’t have time to cook
2) Canned Food
If you don’t have any fresh food ready you can always rely on canned food to get your character through! Canned food comes in a ton of variety, from fish to vegetables. Canned foods are a quick way to let your character eat, since you can always keep some in your character’s backpack.
I would recommend for every player to keep at least a few supplies in their backpack at all times, and one of the pieces of gear would be a can opener. Can openers can be frustratingly hard to find sometimes, so it’s a good idea to just keep a spare one in your backpack in case you need to eat while away from your base.
How it works:
- Find a can opener
- Find canned food
- Use the can opener to open the food and dig in!
3) Checking Nutrition
An easy to ignore part of Project Zomboid is your character’s weight. Being underweight or overweight actually makes your character weaker and more likely to trip while running or hopping over fences. So keeping up with their weight is super important.
The best way to keep up with their weight is by checking the nutrition values for food they eat. Making sure they’re eating enough, but not too much, is key to keeping them at the ideal weight so they can keep fighting the undead without any issues.
How it works:
- Check your character’s weight in the info section
- If they’re underweight eat more high calorie foods
- If they’re overweight cut back on high calorie foods
4) Watch Cooking TV shows
Early in your Project Zomboid playthrough you will probably notice TVs that’re left on will play different shows at different times of day. These shows are actually really helpful to leveling up different skills, like cooking, early on in the game.
Whenever you have the time, I suggest sitting your character down in front of a TV to watch some of the cooking shows. At 6am in game a cooking show will come on TV, and there are a total of seven different episodes that will increase your cooking XP if you sit to watch them.
How it works:
- Find a TV
- At 6am sit down to watch the cooking show
5) Find Cooking books
When the TV broadcasting stops working, one of the best ways to level most skills is by finding the various books for the skill. These books will give an XP bonus when your character reads them, so it’s best to collect all the books for a series and read one before working on the skill.
There are five cooking skill books available in Project Zomboid. They should be pretty easy to find in a few different locations: bookstores, libraries, and bookshelves in houses.
How it works:
- Find the cooking books
- Read the books
- Once you have the XP multiplier start cooking
6) Find Cooking Magazines
Aside from cooking books, there are also cooking magazines. These magazines will let you make different new recipes!
Magazines can be found in bookstores, gas stations, and in bookshelves in houses. There are two volumes for the cooking magazines, and both of them will let players make various foods. Some of these recipes include cake batter, pie dough, and pizza!
How it works:
- Look for cooking magazines
- Read the magazines
- Cook the new recipes
7) Always Turn Off your Oven
It might go without saying, but it’s not a great idea to leave your oven on when you’re done cooking.
In Project Zomboid leaving your oven on can lead to your base catching on fire. You should, obviously, try to avoid this happening, so always make sure you keep an eye on your oven while you cook, and make sure to turn it off once you’re done using it.
How it works:
- Turn on the oven
- Cook!
- Once you’re done cooking turn off the oven
8) Follow Recipes
As mentioned previously, nutrition is an important part of helping your character survive in Project Zomboid. Cooking and following recipes kills two birds with one stone by both giving them important nutrients and by improving your character’s mood!
Recipes can be found in cooking magazines and leveling up your cooking skill.
How it works:
- Find a recipe
- Gather the ingredients and tools
- Cook!
9) Add Spices
Things like salt and pepper may seem like the last things you’d want to grab while looting a house. But spices are also an important part of cooking in Project Zomboid!
In Project Zomboid, the better the quality of the food your character eats is, the happier they’ll be after eating! So, making good food with seasonings will help your character’s overall health.
How it works:
- Loot a house or restaurant
- Check the cabinets for any spices
- When cooking add the spices
10) Grow Your Own Vegetables
As you get into the late game, you may realize that it gets harder and harder to find canned food, and the fresh food in stores rotted a long time ago. This means you’ll need to work on your virtual green-thumb, and start gardening for your own fresh food.
Gathering gardening books and tools is crucial. So, hit your book store to find the volumes of gardening books, and find some shovels, seeds, and something to water the plants. A great plant to start with and grow plenty of are potatoes! They’re durable and once your character harvests them, they give plenty of calories.
How it works:
- Find gardening books and supplies
- Pick a sunny spot for your garden
- Make sure zombies won’t trample your crops
- Plow the land
- Plant your seeds
- Water them when needed
- Wait
11) Canning Extra Food
Preserving the food you gather is almost as important as actually eating it. The shelf-life of fresh food isn’t great, even if you have a running fridge and freezer. So, canning your food to keep it fresh is a great idea.
Foods such as vegetables, meats, and fruits can all be preserved through canning. Canning requires some objects that are difficult to find, so keep your eyes out for jars, jar lids, vinegar, and sugar.
How it works:
- Find equipment to can food
- Pick fresh food to can
- Can the food for later
12) Trapping
Protein is an important part of any balanced diet, so what should you do when you run out of fresh meat? Well, to start, you should set up traps to catch small animals.
Traps can be found in some hunting lodges, farms, or cabins. Though there are also recipes available to build your own traps. Traps need to be placed away from your character in order to actually catch animals, so make sure you place it in the woods and mark it on your map.
How it works:
- Find or make hunting traps
- Set the traps away from your base
- Wait a day or so in-game and check the trap for any animals
13) Fishing
If you’re looking for meat and don’t feel like waiting for an animal to walk into your trap, you can also go fish!
There are plenty of supplies for fishing, and an important one is fish traps. Fish traps can be placed on the shore and filled with bait to trap smaller fish. You can also look for a fishing pole and tackle so you can go fishing for larger fish. If you’re having a hard time finding those tools you can always make a spear and go fishing with it!
How it works:
- Find or make fishing equipment
- If you have bait, use it
- Find water
- Place a trap if you have one
- Go fishing if you have a spear or fishing pole
