Dealing with hordes in Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid has no special horde unit. A horde is just many ordinary zombies that heard or saw the same thing and walked toward it. Each zombie moves toward the loudest recent sound or a target it can see, so a gunshot in town can pull dozens of separate groups into one moving crowd. For how single zombies behave, see the zombies page.

Three sandbox settings shape this. Follow Sound Distance (default 100 on Apocalypse) is how far a zombie keeps walking toward a sound it heard; it is not a hearing range. Hearing and Memory decide how well zombies notice sounds and how long they keep chasing. Redistribute Hours (default 12) lets zombies drift back into emptied parts of a cell, so a street you cleared will not stay empty. Details are on sandbox settings and zombie respawn.

Big world events gather crowds for you. The helicopter pulls zombies toward wherever it flies, and house alarms ring for about twenty in-game minutes (one source). Build 42 reworked stealth, so light, weather and cover now affect how easily you are seen, but sound still travels through rain and darkness.

Zombies spot movement at roughly 20 tiles in daylight (one source), less at night or in rain. That means you can usually see a crowd before it sees you, if you stop and look.

• Direction: a horde that is all facing and shuffling one way is following a sound. A loose ring of standing zombies is idle and will scatter toward the next noise.
• Size: count the front row and judge the depth. If you cannot see the back of the group from a rooftop or second floor, treat it as too big to fight.
• Speed: watch for any zombie that breaks ahead. On custom settings with fast zombies, read the sprinters guide before trying anything below.
• Sound: the groaning chorus gets louder as a crowd closes.

Opinion If a horde is coming your way and you have not been seen, getting out of its path quietly is almost always better than any trick on this page. Stealth covers moving unseen.

Noise is the only reliable way to move a crowd. The table lists the figures we could find. All radii are approximate and the firearm values scale with the sandbox Firearm Noise Multiplier.

A noise maker needs Electrical 3 and the Engineer Magazine Vol. 1 (one source). A timed version exists too, and it is covered on the explosives page. Gun details are on firearms, and alarm behavior on alarms.

Opinion Use the smallest noise that does the job. A whisper peels one zombie off a group, a shout moves a street, a gunshot or horn moves a district. Big noises also wake zombies you never meant to touch, so make them only where you want the crowd to end up.

Opinion The method below is a common player approach, not a game rule.

1. Pick a destination first: open ground or a far side of town, away from your base and loot route.
2. Get noticed at the edge of the crowd, then walk or jog in a straight line. Do not sprint early; endurance runs out and the front zombies keep pace.
3. Break line of sight with buildings, hedges or tall crops. Turn a corner, crouch and move off at an angle.
4. Let them reach your last known spot. With sight gone and no new sound, zombies stop once their memory fades.

To split a crowd, make noise to one side of its path. Zombies nearer that sound peel off, and the rest keep walking. A noise maker thrown into a side street, or a crouched whisper aimed at the near edge, can turn one big group into two smaller ones (one source). Fight the smaller half, or let both drift off. Never lead a horde while overloaded; check carry weight before any long run.

A choke point only works if one zombie reaches you at a time. Two at once is how most crowd deaths happen.

On default Apocalypse settings zombies navigate but do not open doors, so a closed door holds until it is broken down. Zombies crawling under parked vehicles is a Build 42 sandbox option set to 50% on Apocalypse (one source), so a line of cars is a delay, not a wall. Reinforcing doors and windows is on barricades, and the shove and stomp routine is on combat.

Opinion Stomp zombies as they tumble over a fence or window instead of swinging at standing ones. If a second zombie gets close while you finish the first, back off and reset. Build 42 adds muscle fatigue, so long fights at a choke point wear you down faster than in Build 41.

Fire kills crowds but is hard to control. Burning zombies keep walking for a while and can spread flames, and one guide notes that fire only does its work on tiles that stay loaded near you (one source). Read fire before you light anything near a building you want to keep, and explosives for Molotovs, pipe bombs and timed devices.

Driving through zombies damages a car quickly, and the engine noise pulls in more (one source). Reversing into them damages the trunk. Zombies that target you in a car attack the windows, and an open window lets them reach you.

Opinion Use a vehicle to lead a horde, not to plough through it. Drive slowly ahead of the crowd with the windows shut, sound the horn now and then, and stop well before the car is surrounded. If the car stalls or bogs down in a crowd, you will be stuck in a box with damaged windows. See vehicles for repairs.

Opinion Plan your exit before you make any noise: two routes out, both away from the crowd, with nothing to climb in a hurry. Retreat at a walk while you still have endurance, and keep a door or corner between you and the front row.

If a horde reaches your base:

• Go quiet. Turn off generators, engines, radios and TVs. Shut curtains and stop building. Zombies that lose the sound tend to stall and wander.
• Go up. An upstairs room reached by one stairway is the classic fallback. Many players remove the stairs and use a sheet rope instead; test this in your build before relying on it.
• Pull them off. A noise maker or horn far from the base can drag the crowd away while you slip out the back.
• Leave if needed. Keep a go-bag and a fueled car on the far side. A base can be retaken later; a character cannot.

For layout ideas that make this easier, see base building.