u/Valuable-Advice-1051

I have 3684 hours in PZ. I am a vanilla/no mod enjoyer, pain is an old friend. In fact, I avoided PZ like the plague (lol) because I didn't like the graphics, but that was so shallow of me. I'm a huge fan of survival games so I looked up "what is the most punishing survival game out there" and PZ was the OVERWHELMING response.

So for the new players, i.e. ones with under 1000 hours, here's how to play:

1. Stop trying to win. You literally cannot win, so see how far you can go.
2. Early on, don't play just to see how far you can go. Learn how to move. Learn how to move quickly and efficiently. I can't stress this enough, people are dying on a consistent basis because they don't have the movement figured out. it's weird, and unlike other games. youll get used to it, just like other games.
3. Have a plan. Don't have one? Make one. You just got a car? Awesome! Where are you going to go with it? What will you do when you get there?
4. Stick to the plan! Side missions will kill you. Greed will kill you even more. DO NOT BE GREEDY. Say this mantra over and over: the bag is not worth it. the bag is not worth it. the bag is not worth it.
5. Stop running. Just stop. Do not run. An occasional jog to reset is fine but you will definitely die if you keep running.
6. You are always faster than the zombies while walking if there are no sprinters, and if you're new there better not be any sprinters. obviously there are caveats, like if youre injured and whatnot, but otherwise you are always faster. This is the second mantra: I'm faster than them. I'm faster than them. I'm faster than them. why does this matter? because once you get more familiar with the game, you'll be able to lead large packs into the forest and away from your objective.
7. LEAD ZOMBIES AWAY FROM YOUR OBJECTIVE. You do not have to kill all the zombies. you do not have to kill some of the zombies. you hardly have to kill any zombies. it depends on your style of play and difficulty level, but leading away > killing them all.
8. if i could write a book, i would call it "how i learned to stop being afraid of the helicopter". on lower difficulty levels you can just make sure the windows have sheets and/or are boarded up. at higher difficulty levels you cannot stay in the house (caveat, caveat). smart new players will listen to the emergency broadcast service on the radio in the morning (after 7am), see "air activity detected" at the very end, and start planning how they will use the helicopter following you to lead zombies away from the gas station. or the library. or that sweet, sweet hit vids.
9. learn by failure. that idea is forced upon you whether you like it or not. take it to heart and stop dying the same way twice. mentally rewind and try to figure out how you died so you dont do it again. "i got in the car and they still bit me! game is bugged!", no you left the window down and they bit you right through the window hole. "all i did was eat a piece of burnt food!" yeah well that can kill you in this game. learn and remember and try not to make the same mistake twice.
10. last but not least: getting infected without immediately dying from a zed gangbang is a gift. use this time to learn! THIS IS HOW YOU LEARNED HOW TO SHOOT GUNS. if you see that tell-tale anxiety/queasy moodle combo, go grab your guns and go literally anywhere and start shooting. pay attention to how they move at you. make note of how wide the sound radius seems to be, the SN38 revolver is so quiet you can sometimes shoot a zed and another one on the screen wont even hear it. a shotgun will pull zeds from 200 tiles away. figure out the difference.

I would say that's the PZ 10 commandments. Obviously there's a lot more and more for experienced players. Things like: build a forge! "But it's hard!" Many things in this game are. If you're one of those people who think there's nothing to do in this game, I don't think you're looking hard enough. Go through the "tech tree". Build everything. That's what the forge does: forces teaches you to build in almost every tech track. Masonry, pottery, welding (for parts), blacksmithing (obviously), and carpentry. Which brings me to:

Don't sleep on carpentry. Nobody tell the Devs, but it is wildly OP. The bonuses you get play directly into my personal playstyle:

L3 Carpentry on day 1. I can build the crappy rain barrels before I even find a rubber hose. But the level boosts aren't the real boost. It's the % learning gain to that skill. Open your skills pane and hover those skills/blocks. It should show you +% like +75% skill gain to short blunt. That is a massive increase to your short blunt learning skill, things like hammers, tire irons, nightsticks, and the king of all kings: the short bat with nails.

L1 Carving with a huge +% modifier. I usually spend 3 entire days, sometimes without sleeping, to get my carving to L7. Why? so I can make the ultra-lethal-in-a-carpenter's-hands short bat. 3 nails later and it's a short bat with nails, which is absolutely devastating to zeds. And heaven forbid you level short blunt skill and maintenance together to make them last forever. There is always one in my hand on my back, and 2 more in my bag as backups. You run out? you go home. hammer on the belt as a last resort backup.

You also get boosts to a few other valuable skills so don't sleep on carp. I don't look at all the metas so idk if it's a "popular" build anymore, but it's hard for me to see any downsides.

Ok so let's do a quick rundown of "it's day one and I just woke up, what do i do?" well if you're not on extinction level (again, you shouldn't be), then you have some time to look around the house to find some items, but then it's time to move. the things you're looking for on day one are usually not the things you're looking for on day 61. so try to find:

ANY weapon. it doesnt matter if you plan to be a short blunt master or not. that can wait. if you find a wrench, an iron rod, a paring knife or whatever, it's a weapon. pick it up. if the next cabinet has a hammer and short bat with nails, obviously that iron rod is the first thing to go.

A rubber hose. You cannot siphon gas without it. do not skip the rubber hose.

The trifecta: hammer, screwdriver, saw. You can't break down anything wooden without them. a garden saw will work, but only until you find a hacksaw.

a plastic, usually 2L bottle to put water in. even if you find one full of delicious orange drink, drink it immediately and fill it with water. the game "autodrinks" water, but not cola.

a few SMALLER, LIGHTER food items. do not pick up a can of anything in the first day or two. that stuff's heavy and when you don't even have a bag, every pound matters.

a bag. man, a bag is the best thing in this game. it is apparently full of dopamine when you open it up. the devs won't tell you this. from satchel to school bag to hiking bag to big hiking bag to military backpack, find you a bag. cant find a bag? dont be the only one going to school without one. make one! in your starter house, find a room with any curtain. right-click > remove curtain. right-click it in your bags > make sling bag. boom! a crappy 10 lb bag that will hold all those cans you shouldnt pick up but refuse to leave without.

there are other things but this is already too long. so ill move on to what should i do first?

try to find the things i just mentioned. find a house. ANY house. if it's a 2 room shack, find a house. CLEAR THE HOUSE. clear the house. if you are new to this game, pretend youre on a bad boomer cop show, shouting "CLEAR!" in every room you go into. do not forget to check the basement.

next, secure the windows with curtains. you can barricade them later if you like.

after that, you can go about looting every cabinet, closet, drawer, fridge, box, shelf and anything else in there.

dump out all the bullshit from the kitchen cabinets. this is your new storage area. rearrange it how you like, but for me personally (initially) the food goes next to the fridge. the weapons go under the sink. you need a "junk" cabinet. i usually make a first aid cabinet. and off to the side if there's enough room i make a cabinet for fishing/farming gear.

ok now it's time to venture out. you have roughly 3 weeks before the power goes out, so only 2 things make sense for me during this time:

fresh food. fresh food. fresh food. it's all going to rot when the power goes out. fresh food. fresh food. grab one of those big ICE chests. theyre lighter than other furniture and only break down to 1 "slat". when your 20lb fridge freezer, and your 2 30lb freezers in the ICE chest are full, you know you're done.

go to places that will fill up soon but may be empty-ish now. like schools or hardware stores. this is not the time to go grabbing every gun you see but are likely too scared to use right now. theyre not going anywhere, zeds dont shoot guns.

for me personally, go get books. books books books. many times im in the nearby school on day 2 to try and get as many skill books as i can. if your house is secure and your neighborhood is mostly empty, you can read books literally 24 hours a day till you get through the important ones.

that's more than enough to get your started. you too will be 3700 hours in in no time!