Duct tape, glue and tape in Project Zomboid

In Build 42 all four materials are used through repair recipes: Fix With Duct Tape, Fix With Glue, Fix With Adhesive Tape and Fix With Wood Glue. Each one restores condition on a weapon or tool. The game tags which items accept tape and which accept glue. The tape list covers about 170 items and the glue list about 157, from bats and hammers to bone clubs and bowling pins. Right-click a damaged item and the repair menu shows which materials it takes.

• Weapons and tools: yes, this is their main repair job. See maintenance for how condition and repairs work.
• Clothing: no. Torn clothes are patched with fabric, needle and thread, as covered on the tailoring page. None of the sources we checked list tape or glue as a clothing patch.
• Furniture: we found no repair recipe for furniture or built walls using these materials. Damaged furniture is usually broken down for parts instead, see dismantling.

Every repair takes a time of 180 and leaves the repaired item in your inventory. The tier sets how much condition comes back.

Two sources agree that a duct tape roll has 4 uses, so one roll gives two repairs. The 5 uses for glue and wood glue and the tier labels come from (one source). Adhesive tape needs 3 per repair; the sources do not make clear whether that means three rolls or three uses of one roll.

A repair restores a share of the condition the item is missing, not a flat amount. According to one detailed guide (one source):

• The share is 10% per tier level plus 5% per Maintenance level, rounded down, with a minimum of 1 point.
• From the third repair on, the tier share is divided by the number of earlier repairs, so each new repair does less.
• Every earlier repair adds 2% to the fail chance. A failed repair still uses the material and costs 1 condition.
• At Maintenance 0 the fail chance is noticeably higher, so a point or two of Maintenance pays off quickly.

The practical result: the first two repairs on any weapon are the valuable ones. After that, returns fall fast. The skill leveling page covers training Maintenance.

Opinion Use duct tape first. It is the best repair that needs no skill, it gives double the Maintenance XP of glue, and it is common in houses, garages and work vehicles. Wood glue is just as good once you have Carpentry 2, so a character with carpentry should spend wood glue on wooden weapons and save tape for crafting.

Opinion Treat glue and adhesive tape as backups. They restore less, and adhesive tape uses more per repair. Use them on spare weapons you will throw away anyway.

For badly worn main weapons, the same guide ranks epoxy with fiberglass tape above all four materials here. If you have it, save it for your best axe. Weapon choices are on best weapons and the melee list.

Beyond repairs, these materials appear in many Build 42 recipes. Most need the recipe to be learned first. See crafting for how recipes unlock.

• Duct tape is the most used, in about 64 recipes. It binds spear heads, stone axes and hammers, crude knives and shivs. It also goes into the improvised gas mask (2 rolls), the railspike iron pipe (2), duct tape holsters, gas mask filters, and tarp or garbage bag clothing and armor.
• Adhesive tape can replace duct tape in the improvised lighter, gas mask filters and glass shiv, and is one of the binding options for shivs and the improvised screwdriver. It is also used to make a blank ID card.
• Glue is needed for remote controllers and remote triggers (2 each), timers (1) and firecrackers (1), which feed into explosives. Hollowing out a book takes 5 glue.
• Wood glue can stand in for glue in gas mask filters and filter recharging.

Opinion Because duct tape does so much, keep two or three rolls in a base box at all times rather than spending every roll on repairs.

None of the four can be crafted, though tape and other supplies can come in boxes that unpack into several items. One loot database puts duct tape at about 43% of construction vehicle spawns and 36% of building spawns in homes (one source). For routes and containers, see loot locations and tools.