Bows, crossbows and thrown weapons in Project Zomboid

As of the 42.22.x builds, the base game has no bows, no crossbows, no slingshots and no arrows or bolts. There is also no throwing knife or javelin. Spears in vanilla are melee weapons: The Indie Stone's Build 42 feature post describes spears breaking and leaving a stick in your hands, and says nothing about throwing them. See spears for how they work.

Bows were not always off the table. Players on the Steam forum point to a 2022 crafting outline for Build 42 that included a bowyer branch. They also note that the developers have not mentioned bows since then, and archery is not on the current roadmap. Build 42 added hunting, but you hunt with guns, traps and melee, not a bow.

The Molotov is the only vanilla thrown weapon that anyone can make from day one. It deals no impact damage. It sets an area on fire, and the fire does the killing. More on fire behavior is on the fire page.

Both sources say matches will not light it, and one also rules out the magnesium firestarter, so carry a lighter. One small bottle of rubbing alcohol holds only 0.5, so you need two. Burning zombies keep walking for a while, and fire spreads to wooden houses, your tent and your gear. A short throw can set you alight.

Opinion Treat the Molotov as a crowd tool for open ground, not a quiet weapon. Throw it at a horde on a road or a parking lot, then back off and let it burn.

Homemade explosives are the other thrown option. The recipes come from the Engineer occupation or Engineer Magazine 3 (Homemade Explosives). The full crafting lists are on the explosives page, so this is only a quick comparison.

The blast figures above come from a single guide (one source). Every thrown item is used up on impact, and explosions are loud. The noise generator is a lure, not a weapon: it pulls zombies toward a spot so you can slip past or burn them.

Skill. In vanilla, Aiming XP comes from successful hits with ranged weapons, and misses give nothing. No source we found says that throwing a Molotov or bomb trains Aiming or any other skill, so do not count on it. See skills and skill leveling for Aiming itself.

Noise. Breaking a bottle and the fire it starts are far quieter than gunfire, but the light and flames still draw zombies. Explosions are loud enough to pull in a whole area. No source gives an exact noise radius for either.

Retrieval. There is nothing to pick up. Molotovs and bombs are destroyed when used, so every throw costs a fresh craft. Reusable ammunition (arrows and bolts that you can pull out of bodies) only exists in mods.

Everything in this section is mod content. It is not in the base game, it can break with game updates, and adding it to a running save is risky. Read mods before you install anything.

RadArchery Restrung is the most complete option right now. It is a standalone continuation of the older RadArchery mod, and the two must never run together. It adds two new ten-level skills, Archery and Fletching, so in this mod bows do not use Aiming. Arrows are crafted from shaft to forged head, stick in zombies and targets, and can be recovered. Missed arrows land on the ground. Sandbox sliders set breakage and recovery rates.

Pallontras Crossbows has you carve bolt shafts from planks, knap stone bolt heads (using Knapping skill), cut heads from tin cans or jar lids, or forge metal ones, which ties it into blacksmithing. Its author notes it is still buggy in multiplayer.

Guns are loud in Build 42. One guide gives sound radii of about 60 to 120 for pistols, 70 to 170 for rifles and 200 for shotguns (one source), and a sandbox multiplier can raise or lower that. Closed curtains do not hide a shot. No source we used lists a vanilla suppressor. Details are on the firearms page.

Without bows, the quiet way to kill in vanilla is still melee. A knife or spear makes far less noise than any gun, and the stealth guide covers sneaking up for kills. A Molotov is quieter than a gun on impact, but its fire lights up the area and spreads, so it is not stealthy.

Opinion If you want a silent ranged weapon, install an archery mod. In vanilla, pick a good melee weapon from best weapons, keep a Molotov or two for hordes on open ground, and fire guns only when you are ready to move away from the noise.