Yeah, well, the name of that gameplay mechanic isn't really self explanatory but it's quite simple :

It's off-screen events.

They can happens through sounds or when the player is asleep, becoming concrete when they have an impact on the on-screen gameplay.

You wake up one day and you just hear some helicopter blades, it's a cool bit of sound design isn't it ?

Well this is probably the moment for you to stay indoors and wait for the next day, especially if you're a beginner.

If you can overhear the helicopter, it's no good because it will slightly leads zombies to your base, if you're outside and visible (basically not scouting in the woods), the helicopter will follow you and leads hordes in your direction.

If the helicopter fails to find the player (usually it will attempt to find you for 1 to 4 hours), it will leaves and come back approximately one hour after.

This nightmare will last between 9am to 7pm, and, on default settings, the helicopter might come between Day 6 and Day 9 but will never show up again (you can change its frequency of apparition in the sandbox settings but I would quite frankly not advise it).

Hopefully, if you listen to the radio station AEBS you can determine when the helicopter is coming, the following message will be displayed on the day its arrive:



If you're on a multiplayer server, the helicopter event isn't deactivated, it will just hunt a random player and it might switch to another one, etc.

As well as the helicopter event, gunshots or screams can sometimes be heard by the player, even though they actually have no physical effect in-game, except causing zombies to migrate.

They can happen up to once a day for now.

The devs explained on their website the 21st of October 2021 that those events might have a physical incidence on the gameplay through a future update.

The few beginning days of a survival in PZ are made really comfortable by the fact electricity and water are still available and usable in every buildings we might come across, but this won't last. At some point in the game, it will just shutoff.

To counter that, the player can still have electricity by using generators (don't forget to put them outside to avoid being poisoned). You can also get water by constructing rain collector barrels.

To prepare yourself for all that I would advise to collect every garbage bags you can get, according to the fact it requires 4 of them to build a rain collector barrel. Try to get your hands on ''How to use generators'' as well, because you will need to read this magazine if your character isn't an electrician to run a generator.

Hopefully, as well as for the Helicopter event, you can preshot the power shutoff by listening to the AEBS radio station, this message would be displayed two days before it occurs:


One day before, the message will be: ''Knox Power Grid: Systems failing. Network compromised.''

And on the day of the event: ''Knox Power Grid: Blackout.''.

The date of the power shutoff is around Day 14 on default settings.

Sometimes you will be able to find annotated maps on a dead zombie, those can provide you information but also a bit of ''lore'' about the other survivors and what they went through.

It can help you find some goods or a survivor house (you can recognise them because the windows and the door are boarded, don't hesitate to be a big rat and get them for your own base if you have enough available space to carry them safely).


An example of annotated map.

If there's one event the players despised it's that one.

You're sleeping quietly and suddenly your player wakes up, not well rested at all and panicked, because a zombie just randomly spawned in your bedroom, yep, that sucks and can end the life of a survivor in a heartbeat.

Hopefully, it got removed on the current build of the game, you can activate it in sandbox mode if you'd like.

Even if this event doesn't occurs anymore on default settings, be careful with the sound of your tv and don't forget to board or put sheets on your windows to hide any light sources inside of your base. Sometimes, those can attract zombies that will start banging their head at your windows furiously to get inside, which i wish to no one.

After reading this guide, you should know everything there is to know about the Metagame in Project Zomboid, don't worry you're not hearing things and we're all sane :)

I might edit this guide if there's any new Metagame mechanics added, which will probably happens since the devs will add NPCs to the game in a future build.