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Hiya, if you're reading this guide then you're probably more interested in a grounded experience within Project Zomboid. This guide was the weird lovechild between researching the "realism" behind a zombie apocalypse, the way society would act and adapt and how the things we've grown accustomed to would fall and fail - while also just wanting a more hardcore but balanced PZ experience.

This guide/these settings are by no means perfect and I've only been able to spend about ~20 in-game days testing it so I welcome all of your thoughts and criticisms and potentially any mod ideas that fit well with the grounded and heavily RL inspired vibes.

Each sandbox setting will have a note about why I chose it or why I think it works, this is purely so you can understand the logic behind the decision and I encourage you to play with the settings as much as you'd like to make them more realistic to countries/cities you may live in if that's how you play.

Any setting not listed is the default setting, I put a decent amount of time and research into this so I truly hope you enjoy the gameplay flavour. (If I have to read about 90's Kentucky's energy supply one more time I may explode).

If this guide helps you out, please feel free to leave me a thumbs up and a favourite as it helps others find it!

Now let's get into it >:)

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I find the normal amount of zombies perfectly capable, however depending on the month(s) after the apocalypse started, lower zombie counts could make sense either through "other survivors" cleaning up or the dead simply starving. The opposite is true if you're willing to suffer.

This really comes down to how hard you want to make this on yourself. :)

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I find the original 1 hour days to be a little too quick for my liking, especially with the planning required with these settings. They do technically work on 1 hour for the purists out there, but try a test run first.

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Again, highly subjective and preferential (don't worry, we'll get to the nitty gritty soon), however I left these in to add a note specifically that playing from the time you actually /start/ the game can be a fun and challenging way to see if you'd actually be ready to fight off hordes of infected ;)

On to the good stuff.

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This was chosen under the assumption that the water runs while the electricity does and/or the smaller areas of West Point/Muldraugh/Riverside etc. would likely have multiple gravity fed standing water tanks/towers which could realistically last years unmaintained. For the sake of the game I figured we'd go with electricity - speaking of.

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I generally like to go with 0-6 months, purely under the assumption that due to the military and government's quick involvement in attempting to contain the spread of the virus and infected that they likely would have diverted or isolated power to key points in the grid specifically to help the military continue their efforts. It would likely continue without human intervention for at least a few months provided the fuel was added in bulk as I believe Kentucky primarily ran on coal plants around this time period until the further adoption of natural gas plants. 0-2 Months can be used in place of 0-6 as coal power plants, especially older models, can fail a lot faster without regular maintenance/checks etc.

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Probably pretty safe to assume most people wouldn't have bothered rigging up their alarm settings when faced with an immediate evacuation order or fleeing from fleshing eating creatures. However it's also likely those who were at work or on vacation wouldn't have their alarm settings changed, this setting can go between Extremely Rare or Rare.

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Most people tend to flip the deadbolt when they're home, however the setting could also be set to Sometimes, given the above reasoning.

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The vanilla darkness isn't nearly what the world would look like if people stopped existing in it, even counting streetlights and whatever leftover automatic lighting turns on at night; the world would be, or at least feel, significantly darker. For extra fun and to make handheld light sources feel a lot more worthy, you could try Pitch Black.

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Given how many intersections are lined with cars it's safe to assume the fuel stations were likely overrun by panicked crowds. Times of crisis don't bring out the best logic in people so regardless if the military was allowing people through or turning them away these places would be the first to go.

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The original speed of erosion is incredibly fast. Even without human maintenance concrete is expected to last around 50 years. Depending on the area you live, and the median rainfall, shrubs, plants, weeds etc. can definitely take over faster or slower however I feel 500 days/just over a year is more justifiable than a few months before the entire world turns into The Last of Us.

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This is more or less for the reasoning above. Vanilla farming speed is incredibly fast, the majority of edible plants found in the game have a real life counterpart growth speed anywhere between 3-8 weeks. I feel this setting helps make farming and prepping for future needs a much more viable and necessary thing to consider rather than a second thought.

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Again the vanilla harvesting feels a little OP, especially when you basically have to do nothing but sprinkle some water on the crops every day. This option makes fertilising & composting far more important. It also goes well with realistic canning and food preservation mods as the next season may just screw you over completely.

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Realistically this should be 3-12+ months but for balancing reasons (I know, I know, we're supposed to be hyper-realistic) this seems like the fairest option. We can all just pretend every compost bin is filled with vermicompost which can be harvested after ~4-5 weeks.

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Once NPC's are officially reintroduced this setting will be updated to Often, assuming it's still a variable once active AI are running around the map. Generally I do enjoy this option however the effects still play out in the middle of the wilderness and in very rural cleared out areas which makes 0 sense given you're currently the sole survivor.

However if you do want to roleplay that there are other survivors "somewhere" out there, you could also set this option to Often now in order to help move the horde around the map and make things a little more tense.

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No fire department means no one to put out fires; burnt out houses, storefronts and office buildings would be incredibly common. The people who were forced to stay or couldn't otherwise escape would likely horde and stash items as much as possible and dead survivors would be fairly common given there's no one left.

However I left this open to personal choice as I'm aware there are a decent number of mods that struggle or break with these settings enabled. The same goes for the other randomised options in this section. If using mods like Item Stories, simply disable this option altogether :)

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People changing their tyres on the side of the road probably wouldn't have cared too much about leaving their vehicles behind if a horde of infected were coming up on them. It also introduces more crash sites, accidents involving fleeing vehicles hitting people/infected etc. which makes the world feel a little more fleshed out.

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Self explanatory/same reason as above, makes the world feel more fleshed out given how quickly things went down.

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A great option for storytelling, but for realism and the time between the full outbreak and the "official" game start date, I highly doubt there'd be a tonne of maps scattered around with annotations. The local/rural residents likely know their region pretty well and wouldn't be venturing too far out until their deaths and tourists would either be easy pickings for the locals or in lockdown.

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Maggots will almost never leave their food source until they're ready to pupate, you'll almost exclusively find them in left out bodies.

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A quick note: These settings are meant more as a general guide for what I believe would realistically be left in an event similar to this, especially given how quickly the event itself went down. However I'm aware many people like to play with lesser loot settings and the mods provided/the rest of the settings should play perfectly well with Extremely Rare rarity as well.

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Fresh produce etc. are usually not the first things people grab in a bug out situation, if this feels too OP for you you can change food spoilage to fast (or change the rarity to Normal), however I feel this is balanced against the rest of the settings (electricity, farming etc.).

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Since melee weapons covers larger tools, instruments etc. I felt normal was a much more realistic setting, however as bats/axes/more are covered under this setting I didn't want the game to feel like it was spewing weapons at you.

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I avoid using firearms in my playthroughs as much as possible so them being around slightly more doesn't affect my gameplay at all. The reason I've put the setting up to Normal is purely because this game is set in the U.S.A. In Kentucky. I feel that's self explanatory but for those who don't know; there are more firearms in the USA than there are people, it would definitely be normal if not common to see firearms consistently especially in rural and farmland areas. This can be changed to Rare if you roleplay a more stripped down game world.

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The same reasoning as Ranged Weapons, also works if above is set to Rare.

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Medical items are fairly common in everyday life, almost every office/store/govt building in multiple countries is required by law to have some form of first aid/first response kit around. While most people may grab a medkit or two, the likelihood tweezers, medical scissors, etc. are looted in the majority of houses/offices/buildings is pretty low.

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Since this loot table covers things like fishing rods and toolboxes, I figured it should be a little higher up on the spawn rate as the majority of these items are fairly common in most countries/towns etc.

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This option is a little more personal choice as I understand having every book basically lets you blast through to endgame, however, in a realistic setting as the one we're going for, books would be incredibly common - if not abundant. I feel Common is a good balance between gameplay balance and realism.

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This option tends to affect clothing, random electronics, toys etc. which are items that would likely be left behind in the event of a catastrophic breakdown.

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Vanilla XP rates are pretty slow, my logic behind this is that studies have shown reading /and/ participating in the thing you're learning about has a higher mental retention rate than not actively participating.

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The default construction strength is incredibly weak, realistically zombies wouldn't be able to bust down a high levelled door (or you can just pretend there's extra barricading going on, as that's likely what would happen in real life). Also with the XP Multiplier set higher, farming repairs won't be as necessary.

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Pretty self explanatory, the vanilla injury system is incredibly quick to heal and not threatening enough. It also works amazingly well with Immersive Medicine (linked below).

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Unless the majority of your wardrobe comes from Shein, most department store clothing/surplus/survival/etc. clothing lasts a lot longer than vanilla.

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I find turning at the wrong angle, especially playing on multiplayer, can turn a regular attack into a bite. Can also be a personal choice.

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Like the random zone/housing chances, there's no one around in the official game lore (until NPC's), so it only makes sense you'd fine scattered vehicles people tried to escape in.

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Like above, most people would have either hunkered down or attempted to flee as far as possible from the larger cities and towns. Most parking lots and spaces on the sides of the road would be long abandoned.

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Most cars don't degrade after a week of sitting, even if they're idling. I like to think people took better care of their cars before the apocalypse but this can be changed based on the months after the apocalypse option.

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I personally play with Sometimes as I imagine the majority of people fleeing from their vehicles at overrun intersections or having to leave due to a horde coming in to their scavenging zone with no way to reach their vehicle probably wouldn't bother running back to lock the doors.

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Another pretty self explanatory setting, imagine thinking a 200lb beefcake would be as easy to take down as a 60lb basement dweller. Human bodies are wild and this setting helps reflect that.

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Like any virus, some bodies are more or less resistant to strains. Someone suffering from malnutrition would likely reanimate slower than someone who was in better health.

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Zombies aren't that smart, they'd likely only end up under a vehicle chasing vermin or a survivor. It'd be a pretty unlikely occurrence.

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Zombies are kind of like dogs, they might really want the squirrel that's right in front of them but if it disappears and another comes along, they'll probably go for that.

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This setting tends to make the world feel more alive, it makes sense that most zombies would try to "reach" or grab at things beyond their actual capability. Having this option off feels kind of cheap.

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Pretty self explanatory. If you trigger them, they trigger them.

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You're not seeing survivors so chances are the infected population has already peaked, but it's nice to have a little extra for the slow days.

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I borrowed this setting from a post about realistic zombie settings, the below setting accompanies it as it gives the illusion that herds and lone zombies roam the map on their own accord.

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Prevents zombies from bunching up/spawning in odd groups, also makes sneaking past larger groups of zombies harder as they tend to be more spread out.

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We made it to the end, this section will likely be the most updated throughout its existence as I try to find more and more realism based mods that work well together. I've tried to make sure the mods are compatible with each other and multiplayer but as with all mods, be smart and read the instructions.

The below mods are simple recommendations while the current WIP collection contains a much heartier dose of realistic mods. If you're only looking for a few here and there for a more vanilla-like playthrough I'd recommend reading ahead or subscribing to a few from the collection. :)

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3111275555

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1969674962

Primitive Survival offers what it says on the tin. A new array of easy to make early game weapons, tools and recipes.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2659216714

A common sense and QoL mod for those of you that prefer to hole up in taller buildings. Also useful for fenced in houses.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2372994639

Since farming speed and abundance have been reduced I like having this mod around as something to stockpile in the homebase.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2618566294

Adds 5 new wild fruits to forage for which can be added to current salad and cake recipes.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2709866494

By far one of my favourite immersive mods, there's far too much to go into for this section but the mod author has provided immense detail on the workshop page. Goes incredibly well with the gameplay settings chosen.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2875848298

A huge list of QoL changes that just, well, make sense. Crowbars can be used to pry open doors, spears can be crafted with mops etc. Dozens and dozens of logical changes to make PZ feel much more grounded.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2903127760

A mod I love alongside Primitive Survival. This mod adds another big batch of QoL and common sense recipes, such as refilling lighters, improvised can opening etc.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2890748284

Another great mod I use in every playthrough. Being able to can, salt and smoke meats along with vegetables is a game changer with poor farming abundance and slow growth speeds. This mod also plays very well with the next in this list.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937434637

35 new crops, new fruit trees, more recipes, and animals to take care of and slaughter.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2917518699

Since injuries are much more severe in this settings list, growing your own medicinal herbs will be quite literally lifesaving toward endgame when the majority of medical loot has been looted.

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https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857548524

A mandatory mod for my own playthroughs, being able to run things without generators when the fuel runs out is incredibly satisfying.

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