Project Zomboid Update 42.0.0: Detailed Guide with Complete Details and Changes

In March 2025, the developers of Project Zomboid delighted players with a new update for the unstable branch of build 42. This patch brought numerous balance changes and several important improvements that can radically change your gameplay. In this material, we will thoroughly examine the key innovations and explain how they will affect your survival in the world of the zombie apocalypse.

We used the unstable version 42.5.0 as the basis for the guide, as it offers more improvements and fixes.

Raccoons are new small inhabitants of the game that add fresh dynamics to the gameplay. Despite some minor issues with climbing fences, they function quite stably. It is interesting to observe how they interact with player shelters: creating piles of garbage, stealing food, and even allowing themselves to be petted. However, do not forget that these creatures can be made into a hat if you suddenly need an additional resource.

Five new flyers are now available for study, helping players find more valuable locations for resource gathering.

Metal armor has finally become part of the game. Developers have made significant progress in research related to creating armor from welded scrap and blacksmith products. Missing recipes, such as the forge and shovel head, have been added to the game, significantly expanding crafting possibilities and allowing players to better prepare for the challenges of the zombie apocalypse.

Two new biomes — "Lake" and "River" — now adorn the game world, adding variety and new opportunities for exploration.

Food harvest tables are now focused on wild plants, herbs, insects, and crops that produce seeds. This is especially useful for farm and greenhouse owners.

A new category of artifacts has appeared in the game — rare finds that can be discovered outside cities. This adds excitement for treasure hunters and explorers.

Improvised screwdrivers have also been added to the game, becoming available for crafting. This item serves as an alternative in mechanics and carpentry, making it a useful tool for players who prefer repair and construction.

Bundles of firewood and firewood with nails, which burn significantly longer than ordinary wooden items, have now appeared in the game. You can chop branches or logs to get firewood and also collect wooden chips that will come in handy for lighting a fire.

Among the new crafting items are carved wooden goblets, an improvised knife from a machete blade, wooden rods, and metal from branches. Recipes for processing and forging metal items have also been added, including the use of silver and gold jewelry.

Gold and silver coins have been introduced into the game, although they cannot yet be found or created. However, they can be used together with gold and silver scrap to forge gold and silver sheets, which will become useful crafting materials.

In addition to new items and tools, some features have also been added to Project Zomboid, such as animations, animal behavior, interface scaling, and more. Learn more about all the innovations in this section.

Controller support has been significantly improved. Now players can use additional features such as crafting windows, chicken trailers CS, and carcass cutting hooks. Support for workbenches, liquid transfer systems, flyers, and newspaper windows has also been added, making the game more convenient and accessible for everyone.

New animations and sounds add realism to the game. Smooth transitions from running to aiming, sounds of working generators, sitting on chairs, and opening/closing wooden gates make the world more alive. Even the sounds of feeding chickens now significantly enliven farms.

Now elements on the sidebar can be scaled in the settings. This is especially useful for users with high screen resolution.

Animals now recognize bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, and ponds and can drink from them if they are in their habitat. It is recommended to build enclosures near water to simplify animal care. Changes have also been made to their behavior: they can now look around, and their eating habits have become more varied and realistic.

A new script property has been added that allows replacing the standard alarm sound with any other. If a custom sound is not specified, the regular horn will be used.

Rain collectors can fill with water even if the player is outside their shelter. Previously, mods were required for this, but they are no longer needed. However, it is still unclear whether this change applies to livestock waterers.

Campfires have increased capacity, allowing the use of buckets for water purification, making this process more convenient.

The quality and quantity of meat now deteriorate over time after the animal's death. If the carcass is left too long, the meat may spoil. Additionally, killing an animal with a vehicle now results in less meat being obtained and of lower quality.

A patch with bug fixes was also released after the main update. It added three new skills:

The patch includes several changes in experience gain, which may affect skill leveling:

These changes are aimed at improving the balance and functionality of skills at early levels, as well as simplifying the leveling of certain skills.

Changes have been made to the balance of crafted and primitive weapons:

Changes in looted buildings:

Sledgehammers can now be found in farm barns, garages, and even in the trunks of some cars. This makes them more accessible, and players will no longer have to search for a long time to find a weapon at the start of the game.

In the latest update, developers have reworked the mechanics of buffs and debuffs. If your character reaches the maximum level of mood or unhappiness, performing any actions now takes twice as long. This makes managing such statuses more important than ever and requires players to take a careful approach to their character's condition.

This update includes numerous fixes, and here are some of them: