Suppose you wake up and the world has fallen into chaos as zombies take over the landscape. What would be your first priority?
Ninety-nine percent of you will have thought of weapons. Sure, water and food are essential. But with no guns, you’ll just fall prey to the zombie menace like your unarmed neighbors.
The Indie Stone’s Project Zomboid offers a fair variety of weaponry to unleash on the zombie plague, but it’s never enough.
So we’ve got a collection of hand-picked Project Zomboid weapon mods featuring new melee weapons and firearms to spice up your zombie survival.
It doesn’t matter how much water you drink, how much food you stockpile, or how many books you read if you can’t keep the zombies at bay.
One bite is all it takes to send everything down the drain.
Gluten’s More Pole Weapons helps you keep a safe distance from the walking dead by adding 13 long weapons to your crafting menu. Just add a longer handle to any of your short vanilla melee weapons, and you’re good to go.
The short spear can also be combined with a handle for an even longer spear that will let you poke zombies as much as you want without risk of infection.
If you’re more of an up-close and personal survivor, the Rager Baseball Bat by Madax will serve you well.
This high-tech bat is a much more powerful alternative to the basic Baseball Bat. It features a sleek design and – most importantly – some bad-ass weapon modifications.
Whereas the Baseball Bat can only become a Spiked Baseball Bat, the Rager can be wrapped in barbed wire, made heavier with iron studs, and even outfitted with an ax head for devastating effects.
Gamers tend to lose their marbles whenever they find a Katana in a survival game.
Me? I’m more of a machete guy.
But I’m not talking about a boring regular machete like the one in vanilla PZ. I’m talking about the black-coated, aerodynamic high-end machetes for hiking and military ops.
Creator Madax brings us one such blade in his Akier Machete add-on.
Like the Rager Bat, this weapon shines for the available mods. You can give it a barbed blade, make it shorter or ergonomic for easier wielding, and more.
SMGs are some of the most entertaining weapons to use in shooters – and I’d love to have one in a zombie survival context.
They’re easy to aim, lightweight, and look like a lot of fun.
Abdhaq’s Quick SMGs mod brings 18 of these practical firearms to PZ, along with bullets and specialized repair kits. You’ll probably recognize the MP5, UMP, Skorpion, and UZI – but there are plenty more to discover.
Getting your hands on one of these will make surviving a little easier, but they’re all pretty balanced, so don’t worry about breaking your game.
I love modern versions of classic melee weapons. Black-coated blades, carbon-fiber bodies, and some laser cut-outs for lighter weight can give a weapon intense bad-ass vibes.
The Tactical Weapons mod by SS232 brings several blades in this modern “tactical” style to PZ.
You’ll find two knives, an ax, a long sword, and the coolest ninja sword in the post-apocalypse. You can even attach some of these weapons to one end of a stick to create a spear or halberd.
If you’re roleplaying a ninja or a resourceful survival expert with a background in medieval martial arts, this is the way to go.
Borderlands, Path of Exile, and Project Zomboid all have one thing in common:
It’s all about the loot.
Sure, you can say you’re trying to save the world or survive the zombie apocalypse, but in the end, it all comes down to risking life and limb for weapons, armor, and resources to help you find even more loot.
Paw Low Loot keeps exploring interesting by injecting all-new fantasy and tactical-themed equipment to loot caches all over Knox Country.
There’s themed loot for witches, priests, mercenaries, and… campers?
You can expect revolvers, SMGs, pistols, and even some medieval stuff like swords and shields.
As zombies take over and society is sent back to the middle ages, we should make sure we bring back the good parts of the middle ages as well – and by that, I mean the weapons.
There’s nothing like splitting zombies in two with a Zweihänder, and I’ll take a crossbow over a handgun any day!
Antique Armory by Stalhansch adds 30+ custom weapons from before gunpowder took over the battlefield. You’ll find them scattered all around the game world as family heirlooms and museum pieces, often wrapped in a thick blanket for protection.
When I say “medieval,” I’m not referring to Europe exclusively.
There are also cool Arab and Native American weapons that you have to check out!
After the first few weeks of the zombie apocalypse, scarcity will set in – and you might be forced to make do with what you find lying around.
Creator DjVirus explores this scenario with his Scrap Weapons mod, introducing a wealth of hardcore melee weapons you can make out of everyday items and whatever metal scraps you can put together.
Turn a wrench into a tomahawk, or fuse a spanner and a blade for a Mad Max-style sword. Nothing goes to waste in the post-apocalypse!
Taking a small step away from realism, we find DjVirus’s Scrap Guns – a mod that’ll help you create some devastating firearms and throwables from duct tape and junk you found in the trash can.
These are not basic science fair projects but fully-functional automatic weapons with fearsome stopping power. There are handguns, shotguns, bayonets, sniper rifles – and even grenades made out of empty Coca-Cola cans.
The Fallout vibes are through the roof.
It takes a high metalworking skill to create the more powerful guns, so this mod works well with a fortified strategy where you weld together many fences and walls to keep out the dead.
Even though zombies are practically paranormal in nature, the basics of survival still apply.
One of the first things you need is some sturdy, reliable tools to chop wood, make kindling, and cut through the overgrowth. If you can also cut through zombies with them, that’s even better!
Bushcraft Gear – Tools by modder Scavenger adds six all-new lore-friendly melee weapons to PZ.
My main reason for featuring this mod is the clean and unpretentious aesthetics. These knives, axes, and machetes look like the ones at the hardware store down the road, making them perfect for PZ’s urban environment.
The same modder offers us more unusual arms in the Bushcraft Gear – Rare Weapons mod.
This smaller collection introduces two rare, fantasy-looking weapons to your arsenal: a Viking Axe and a “Reinforced Baseball Bat” that looks more like the spiked mace an orc would wield in World of Warcraft.
In addition, Scavenger replaces the vanilla Katana model with a more attractive version that matches the look of the other Rare Weapons.
If there’s something the ORGM mod by Fenris_Wolf has, it’s variety.
This massive mod introduces over 100 new firearms to Project Zombie, including revolvers, semi-auto pistols, machine pistols, assault rifles, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, and the list goes on and on.
These weapons are all based on real-life products like the AR-15, the Colt Python, and the FN Five-Seven.
Some of them you’ve seen in video games, others in film, and you’ll likely find a favorite here.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
