Fuel and gasoline in Project Zomboid

Build 42 treats gasoline as a fluid measured in liters, and the game calls it Petrol in tooltips. Build 41 used abstract units instead, with 8 to a gas can.

The rubber hose is the Build 42 catch. Without one in your inventory the siphon option is not offered. Nothing else needs a hose. A container that holds water or bleach has to be emptied before it will take petrol. Hoses turn up in garages, sheds and mechanic shops. See loot locations and the map.

A pump needs two things: fuel left in it and electricity on its tile. While the grid is up, any pump with fuel works. When the power goes out, pumps stop dispensing even though the fuel is still there. The tooltip says the pump has no power, which is a different message from an empty pump.

A generator brings them back. Place it within range of the pump tiles, connect it and start it. The default range is 20 tiles horizontally and 3 floors up or down. Connecting a generator needs the generator magazine or Electrical level 3. The sandbox option that lets generators power exterior tiles is on by default. If a server turns it off, outdoor pumps will not run from a generator.

One guide gives a maximum of 20,000 petrol units per pump (one source), and says the standard Apocalypse settings start each pump at a random level between 0 and 80 percent of that, with a 20 percent chance that a given pump starts empty (one source). The roll is per pump, so try every pump at a station before leaving. A generator powers a pump but does not refill it.

Opinion Fill every can you own before the shutoff, then keep one generator and a hose in the trunk so any station on your route can be switched back on.

Vehicles are the largest drain for most players. Heavy-duty vans and pickups use more than small cars, and a gas tank in poor condition holds less and leaks. See vehicles, the vehicle list and mechanics for tank repair. We found no liters-per-distance figure for Build 42.

Generator fuel use is governed by the Generator Fuel Consumption sandbox value and by the appliances in range. The four generator models do not differ in burn rate (one source). The Generator Info window shows the current total draw, which is more reliable than any fixed days-per-can figure. Add fuel only while it is off.

We could not confirm a chainsaw or any other gasoline-powered hand tool in the unmodded game. Molotov details are on the weapons page.

Propane is a separate fuel with its own container, the propane tank. A full tank holds 5,000 units and weighs 10, against 5 when empty (one source). The easiest tanks to find are the ones bolted to backyard propane barbecues: remove the tank through the right-click menu and pick it up. Their fill level is random. Welding shops, auto shops and garages also stock them.

The main use is welding. The welding torch (the blowtorch of Build 41) holds 10 uses, and one use costs 70 tank units, so a full tank refills seven empty torches with 100 units left over (one source). Refilling is a Metalworking recipe that needs no skill. One job can take more than one use.

A propane barbecue cooks food from its fitted tank, which makes it a useful stove after the shutoff. See cooking. Propane does not run generators or vehicles, gas pumps do not dispense it, and the sources we read list no way to refill a tank in the unmodded game.

Fires that cook and heat run on wood. Campfires, charcoal barbecues and antique ovens accept logs, planks, branches and scrap wood. One guide lists burn times of 6 hours for a log, 2 hours for a plank, 1.4 hours for scrap wood, 1 hour for a tree branch and 15 minutes for twigs (one source). Lighting is covered on the fire page.

Build 42 blacksmithing does not burn raw wood. Furnaces and forges take charcoal, and anything the game tags as charcoal counts, including looted bags. You make it at a charcoal pit or a charcoal burner. Yields are reported as 12 charcoal from 2 logs (one source) and 12 from 18 pieces of small wood (one source). These are different recipes.

Reported costs are 1 to 6 pieces to melt a scrap item, 8 for an iron bloom and 10 for the anvil casting (one source). Coke is the hotter fuel used with limestone when turning iron into steel, and it is also accepted where charcoal is. We found no clear recipe for making coke, and none of our sources mention plain coal as a fuel. What a pottery kiln burns is not documented.

Gasoline is finite on default settings. Pumps do not refill, vehicles do not respawn with fresh fuel and nothing in the unmodded game produces petrol. The exceptions are in the sandbox settings: an infinite pumps option, the starting pump level, and for vehicles the chance of having gas, the starting amount and the consumption multiplier. Wood and charcoal are renewable. Propane is not.

None of the sources we checked say that stored gasoline spoils or evaporates. The real risks are fire and fumes.

• Run generators outdoors. On an indoor tile they fill the building with toxic fumes.
• Keep generators repaired. Below condition 20 the chance of a backfire, fire or explosion rises (one source).
• Burn corpses on road or concrete. On grass the fire can spread to fences, crops and walls.

Opinion Store full cans in a crate outside the main building, away from the generator and any campfire, and leave one full can in each vehicle you rely on.