Every new game of Project Zomboid becomes a Vampire Survivors–style run. Pick Zomboid Survivors on the New Game screen, choose where to start, pick your first weapon from three cards and hold out against a horde that never stops growing. The zombies get tougher and faster every minute, and as you level up the horde adapts: armored zombies, special infected and Tank bosses, until nobody can survive. Every run earns gold for permanent upgrades, so the next one goes further.
What you get
- Real Zomboid gunplay. The Crowbar, M9, Revolver, Pump Shotgun, Hunting Rifle, M16 and Double-Barrel are real weapons in your hands: hold right-click to aim, left-click to shoot or swing, R to reload, with Zomboid's own animations, sounds and recoil. Number keys 1–7 switch between the hand weapons you own. Spare ammo refills itself and the guns and ammo weigh nothing. Gunfire draws the horde.
- Automatic weapons around you. Orbiting Knives, a Stink Aura and Molotov fire pools work on their own; every zombie caught in a Molotov fire catches fire.
- XP gems and level-up cards. Zombies drop small floating pixel-art gems. Every level-up pauses the game and offers three cards: a new weapon, an upgrade (8 levels: damage, range, fire rate, pellets, rounds that punch through) or one of eight passives (Whetstone, Running Shoes, First Aid Kit, Scrap Magnet, Ammo Belt, Adrenaline, Speed Loader, Explosive Rounds).
- A horde that keeps getting harder. Walkers, then runners and riot-gear brutes, plus Infected Soldiers and Hazmat Hulks that drop treasure chests. Zombie health climbs every minute, more of them run, and after 10 minutes the waves keep growing too. There is no end.
- The horde adapts to you. Every 5 levels the zombies get tougher, more of them come in armor that shrugs off weak hits, and special infected join in: Bloaters that burst when they reach you, Spitters that spit acid where you stand, Screamers that call the horde, Spore Carriers whose clouds punish standing still, and Tank bosses that smash you up close and throw rocks. Your build decides whether you live.
- Seven places to start. Muldraugh, West Point, Riverside, the Kentucky State Prison, the Crossroads Mall, the Grand Ohio Mall or Louisville Airport, each shown on the map.
- Gold and permanent upgrades. Every run earns gold that you keep. Spend it between runs in the upgrade shop (press U before your first pick, or after you die) on nine upgrades: damage, fire rate, healing, endurance, gem range, reloads, XP, gold, and a fourth card on every level-up.
- Ten evolutions. A chest evolves a max-level weapon when you own its paired passive: Red Crowbar, Napalm Trail, Knife Storm, Rot Cloud, Akimbo M9s, Fan the Hammer, Dragon's Breath, Deadeye, Bullet Hose and Thunder Boomstick.
- Rescue survivors. Every few minutes a survivor is trapped nearby. Follow the arrow and reach them in time, and up to three fight beside you with their own guns.
- Arcade-lite survival. Bites hurt but never infect, there is no hunger or thirst, every door is unlocked, it's always daytime with no fog, and the run ends when your health does. Your run saves with your game.
- Plays in first person with Project Viewpoint (optional). Gems float as pixel-art sprites, treasure chests bob and turn, and your knives, aura, rings of fire, blasts and melee sweeps all show in 3D, with a radar of the horde around you. See the setup below.
Single player. Needs Project Zomboid Build 42.21 or newer. Your other saves and game modes are untouched.
First person setup (optional)
First person needs two other Workshop mods, Project Viewpoint and ZombieBuddy, and ZombieBuddy's loader has to start with the game. Once you subscribe to either, the main menu shows a setup helper in the bottom-right corner: it checks where you are and gives you a button for the next step (open the Workshop pages, switch both mods on, get ZombieBuddy's installer). The one step no mod can do for you is running ZombieBuddy's installer. The steps by hand:
- Subscribe to ZombieBuddy and Project Viewpoint on the Steam Workshop.
- Install ZombieBuddy's loader. Easiest: download ZombieBuddyInstaller.exe from ZombieBuddy's GitHub releases, run it, choose Install, then Both. By hand instead: copy zbNative.dll and ZombieBuddy.jar from
Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\108600\3619862853\mods\ZombieBuddy\libs into Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid, then in Steam right-click Project Zomboid > Properties > Launch Options and type -agentlib:zbNative --
- Turn them on: main menu > Mods: enable ZombieBuddy and Viewpoint, then restart the game.
- Allow Viewpoint when ZombieBuddy asks on the next start. In a run, press O to switch between first person and the normal view.
- After an update, if first person stops working, install the loader again (the second step above).
Credits
- Inspired by Vampire Survivors (poncle). No Vampire Survivors files are used.
- Works with Project Viewpoint (ellu and norkus) and ZombieBuddy (Zed) when you have them; neither is included.
- Plays inside your own copy of Project Zomboid (The Indie Stone), using its items, sounds, outfits and animations from your install. Nothing from either game is shipped.
- License: MIT (the mod's own code, data, UI art, 3D models and sprites). Remixes welcome.
