Game modes, presets and challenges in Project Zomboid

Build 42 does not use the Build 41 mode list. Update 42.15 replaced most of the old modes, and the 42.20 stable release kept the new set. A solo game now starts from one of four modes: Apocalypse, Outbreak, Rising and Extinction. Next to them sit Custom Sandbox and the Challenges list.

Survivor and Builder are gone. Guides that compare Apocalypse, Survivor and Builder describe Build 41. Their closest replacements are Outbreak (lethal zombies, less grind) and Rising (few zombies, lots of building). One site also lists Six Months Later as a fifth built-in playstyle in 42.19 (one source), so look for it on your own menu.

Every mode is a saved set of sandbox settings, and each has a matching preset inside Custom Sandbox. Nothing in a mode is locked away from Custom Sandbox. See version history for when each change landed.

The Indie Stone describes the modes in words only: Apocalypse is the lore canon mode, Outbreak is for players with less time, Rising is a relaxed homestead mode, and Extinction is for veterans and is the first official mode with sprinters. The exact values below come from pzfans, which read them from the 42.19 preset files (one source). Patches can move them, so treat the in-game description as final.

Being dragged down by a group is on in all four, and in Extinction crawlers can do it too. Extinction zombies also follow sound twice as far. The Rising starter kit is chips, a water bottle, a small backpack, a baseball bat and a hammer (one source). For what strength, toughness and sprinters mean in a fight, see zombies.

Infection: none of the sources list a different infection setting for any mode, so assume a bite is fatal in all four. Changing how the infection spreads, or turning it off, is a Custom Sandbox job.

Loot is set per category, as a multiplier on the normal spawn chance. Figures are again the pzfans 42.19 readout (one source). They change how often items appear, not how good they are. The loot tables page explains how spawn chances work.

• Apocalypse has more guns than Build 41 did, which the developers tie to its 1993 Kentucky setting. Zombie respawn is off.
• Outbreak speeds up non-combat skills (about 1.2 times for most, 1.4 for Welding, Mechanics and Tailoring, 1.5 for First Aid (one source)), makes crops grow and yield 1.5 times faster (one source), and makes fridges work better. Weapon skills stay at normal speed.
• Rising trades weapons and books for tools and materials, which suits base building and farming. Climbing is also made easy.
• Extinction cuts nearly everything and raises firearm noise and jamming penalties to 1.25 times (one source). Read firearms before relying on guns there.

Opinion For a first character, pick Rising. Weak, slow zombies in small numbers give you room to learn the controls, looting and injuries without dying in the first hour, and the starter kit means you always have a weapon and a bag. The catch is that zombies respawn in Rising, so a cleared street does not stay clear.

Opinion Once you can survive a week, move to Apocalypse. It is the default, most guides and servers assume it, and zombies never respawn. Choose Outbreak instead if you play in short sessions and dislike slow skill leveling. Its zombies are just as dangerous as in Apocalypse.

The developers themselves say Extinction is not recommended as a first experience. The beginner's guide and first week pages assume Apocalypse rules unless they say otherwise.

Challenges are fixed scenarios with their own start and rules. Build 42.20 shipped with four that the developers named, and said some older challenge maps were taken out of rotation for now. They did not say which.

The official list was written for 42.20. We found no patch note that adds or returns a challenge in 42.21 or 42.22, but your own Challenges screen is the final word.

Opinion Challenges are for players who already handle Apocalypse well. Top of the World puts you in a tall city building from the first second, which is the hardest kind of place to fight in, as the Louisville page explains.

Tutorial. The tutorial is a short scripted lesson on a small fenced map with no settings. It covers moving, looting, moodles, equipping and attacking, and it ends by having you shout, which brings a horde you cannot escape. That description is from the Build 41 wiki page; we could not confirm whether Build 42 changed it. It teaches buttons, not survival.

Custom Sandbox. This opens every setting. Load one of the four mode presets, then change only what bothers you. You also choose your starting town here. Opinion A good learner setup is the Rising preset with zombie respawn set to zero. Settings are fixed when the world is created, and single player has no normal screen to edit them later.

Multiplayer. A server does not run a separate mode. The host picks the same sandbox values, and the four presets are available as starting points. On a dedicated server they live in the SandboxVars file and can be edited there or from the admin panel. Agree on the preset before day one, because options such as basements are baked in when the world is generated. Setup steps are on multiplayer and hosting a server.