In Project Zomboid, it's rare to go out with a bang. Most of my characters in the zombie survival RPG have died with terminally short notice, be it a car crash, a bite I didn't notice until getting home, or a cooking mishap with comically flammable chicken (a story for another time).
But with the game's upcoming Build 42 finally launching this week – adding animals, basements, and more than I can mention in one breath – developer The Indie Stone has confirmed that saves will not carry over, spelling an end to the survivor I've kept alive in the update's beta branch. So why not go out in style?
Rather than go gently into that good branch, my friends and I were intent on giving our latest run a worthy send-off. Which was, unanimously, shorthand for driving into Louisville and taking as many zombies down with us as possible.
Highway to hell
We named Project Zomboid one of the best zombie games of all time
This run in Project Zomboid has been unlike any other. For starters, my friend group survived an in-game month – no small feat, given we hid rotten worms in each other's beds and nearly burned down Rosewood with a stray molotov cocktail. But with our save based on an earlier version of Build 42's beta, it also offered a great taste of the update to come.
The rural town of Muldraugh has been my preferred starting point for over a decade. But a lot has changed. Cortman Medical, for example, has been transformed from a one-floor clinic to a fenced property, the clinic tucked to the side of a far larger mansion. The police station now spans multiple floors, including a basement with an evidence room and a morgue. Speaking of basements, we found our earliest ammo supplies in a doomsday prepper's basement – alongside several unlabeled tins of food that nobody was brave enough to eat.
But chief among the changes are animals. After finding a small farm on the outskirts of Muldraugh, we hunkered down with plans to build for long-term survival. There were already cows and chickens there when we arrived, and with animals being fairly intuitive to manage, we soon had a steady supply of eggs and milk, as well as a livestock trailer to rescue sheep and pigs from neighboring farms. Cortman became our armory, a nearby mechanic was restored to keep our cars in good condition, and when I wasn't picking corn or foraging for farming supplies, I was searching for basements to marvel at.
With so much to do, I didn't notice the passing of milestones we'd usually celebrate: a week without dying, or our first out-of-town supply run. Zomboid tends to slow down for me once my base is barricaded up and its cupboards stuffed with supplies, but in Build 42's beta it seemed there was as much ahead as behind. New skills like blacksmithing and woodwork promised plenty still to do once loot dried up, while huge chunks of the map remained unexplored.
But last week (July 24) The Indie Stone announced that Build 42 was coming to the main branch of Project Zomboid on July 29 – launching as an official update for those who weren't already braving its beta. Furthermore, the stable version will include additions not seen in its beta, including big overhauls for many towns. Knowing we'd jump into the flashier build as soon as it was available, we agreed that a guns-blazing trip into Louisville – an overrun city to the southwest – would be a fitting send-off for our latest adventure.
And it was! It took most of a day to drive from Muldraugh to Louisville, as the roads were choked with wrecked cars that made driving in a three-van convoy difficult. We stopped twice: first at a military checkpoint isolating Louisville from the rest of the state, where we had to leave our vehicles and fight through a horde to remove barricades from the roads, and again at the city's outskirts to sleep. The next day we travelled into Louisville proper, cutting loose from the cautious playstyle that Project Zomboid usually mandates to create as much chaos as possible – stuffing microwaves with metal cutlery to start fires, using emergency vehicle sirens to draw out hordes, and generally being post-apocalyptic nuisances.
When the inevitable happened, it was quick and bloody. Zombies chased me into a supply closet, and only after closing the door into pitch blackness did I realize it was occupied. Those last moments were lit by the muzzle flash of my panicked shots – say what you will about being eaten alive, at least Build 42's lighting overhaul makes it look good. My friends didn't fare any better, with one killed trying to rescue me and another while climbing a fence.
Sure, letting the save falter naturally would have given our characters a peaceful send-off. But loading into Project Zomboid, you're always given the same crystal-clear message. "This is how you died," not how you lived happily-ever-after. Build 42 certainly offers more reasons to live (and I can't wait to dig into them properly as the update is out now), but for these hardy survivors there are no nice farms upstate – only fire, dark closets, and lots of gnashing teeth.
