First aid quick reference for Project Zomboid

Open the Health panel (the heart icon), then right-click the injured body part to see every treatment your inventory allows. This card is the short version for Build 42; the long explanation is on the health page.

1. Get safe. Treatment stops if you move, so break line of sight first.
2. Stop bleeding. Any bandage, even a dirty rag, beats bleeding out. Neck and head wounds bleed fastest, hands and feet slowest.
3. Pull lodged glass or bullets. A wound with something in it cannot close.
4. Stitch deep wounds, splint fractures.
5. Disinfect and put on a clean or sterilized bandage. Change it when it turns dirty.

Healing times are in-game time on the default 90-minute day at Normal injury severity, with a bandage on. They come from a reading of the Build 42 game code (one source), except the fracture figures, which two sources agree on. The Fast Healer and Slow Healer traits shorten or lengthen all of them.

Sources disagree on bullets: two say tweezers remove them, one says a suture needle does. Carry both. Glass wounds mostly come from broken windows, so clear the frame or wear thick clothing. Burns are covered on the fire page and gunshot wounds on the firearms page.

These are two unrelated things. A wound infection is ordinary and curable. It shows as "Infected" on a body part in the Health panel, comes mostly from dirty bandages, bare wounds and dirty or bloody clothing over the wound, and is fixed with disinfectant, alcohol wipes, antibiotics or a wild garlic poultice. The Knox infection is the zombie virus. Nothing in the Health panel shows it and nothing cures it. On default settings it kills in 2 to 3 days, starting with the Queasy moodle.

Only wounds dealt by zombies can carry Knox. The game rolls once, when the wound happens, so fast treatment does not change the result. Scratches from weapons, glass or fences never infect.

These odds apply to the default Blood and Saliva transmission. Saliva Only makes bites the only infectious wound, and None turns the virus off; both are in the sandbox settings. Queasy can also come from bad food or tainted water, so a queasy spell after a scratch is not proof.

Every dressing stops bleeding equally well. The difference is how long it stays clean, which also grows with First Aid level. A dirty bandage is the main cause of wound infection, so swap it as soon as the panel shows it dirty.

Sterilizing: combine a clean bandage or ripped sheet with rubbing alcohol or strong liquor such as vodka or whiskey. Hot water over a heat source also works through the medical recipes (one source). Dirty dressings wash clean with plain water, and since 42.21 in a washing machine (one source).

Disinfectants: bottle of disinfectant, alcohol wipes, cotton balls doused in alcohol, and bourbon or similar spirits. Wipes and doused cotton balls are rated strongest, bourbon weakest (one source).

Stitching. A suture needle is the better tool. A plain needle with thread does the same job but causes about twice the pain (one source). Stitching can itself start a wound infection: roughly 1 in 5 at First Aid 0, falling to 1 in 30 at level 10 (one source), so disinfect afterwards. Pulling stitches too early reopens the wound.

Splints. Craft one from a plank, tree branch or stick plus one cloth strip, or apply the same materials straight from the Health panel. Arms, hands, legs, feet, neck and groin can be splinted. The First Aid level of whoever applies it is locked in, so if a better medic turns up, remove the splint and have them reapply it. The materials come back.

Poultices. Each takes five of the herb and a mortar and pestle (one source), and the recipes have to be learned first. Herbs come from foraging.

• Plantain: speeds scratches, lacerations and deep wounds.
• Comfrey: speeds fractures and stacks with a splint. One dose is small, so it does not replace the splint.
• Wild garlic: fights wound infection.

Sources disagree on whether a poultice can sit under a bandage, so test it before relying on it.

Painkillers lower pain only. They do not speed healing, but pain slows you and ruins sleep, so take them for fractures, burns and after surgery. Antibiotics fight wound infection only; the item text itself says they cannot prevent zombification. Vitamins treat nothing.

First Aid changes these things:

• Bandages stay clean longer, from 100% at level 0 to 250% at level 10.
• Splints work far better. The splint bonus rises in step with level, which is why a fracture takes over a week at level 0 and about a day at level 10.
• Less pain from stitching, pulling glass or bullets, and cleaning burns.
• Lower chance of infection from stitching.
• Treatment actions finish a little faster.

It does not change the Knox odds. Opinion First Aid is slow to train because it only rises when you treat real injuries, so read the skill books early and consider a medical start from the occupations list if you play with a group. The other skills are compared on the skills page, and clinics and ambulances on the loot locations page are the best places to find suture needles and antibiotics.