Seasons and the calendar in Project Zomboid

A standard game opens in July 1993. Most sources give the date as July 9, 1993, a few days after the military closes off Knox Country. The start month and day are sandbox options, so a custom game can begin in any month. One server guide lists the default start day in the settings file as 1 rather than 9, so check the Time tab in your own sandbox settings if the exact day matters to you.

By default one in-game day of 24 hours takes about one real hour, split roughly evenly between day and night. Day Length can be raised in custom sandbox games, which slows everything that runs on the clock, including crop growth and food spoilage. The game follows the normal calendar, so the season you are in depends on the in-game month, not on how many days you have survived.

Opinion At one real hour per day, the July start is only about 145 days, or roughly 145 hours of play, from the start of December. That sounds like a lot, but much of it goes by while you sleep or read, so winter arrives sooner than new players expect. Plan your first week with that in mind.

The game uses meteorological seasons: spring is March to May, summer June to August, autumn September to November, and winter December to February. Temperature and rain are both sandbox sliders, so the exact feel of each season depends on your settings. We could not find reliable degree figures per month for Build 42, so the table below describes conditions rather than numbers.

Build 42 judges how cold you feel from air temperature plus wind, so a mild but windy day can still chill a wet character. Snow raises calorie use while walking and stops outdoor rain collectors from filling. Fog cuts sight range, sometimes to a few tiles. The emergency broadcast on the radio gives a two-day forecast with temperature range, rain chance, fog chance and snow when the season allows it. More detail is on the weather page, and cold-weather survival is covered in winter survival.

With Plant Growing Seasons on, every crop has sowing months, and some have best months and bad months. Sowing outside the window makes the plant cursed: it starts with low health, recovers slowly and catches disease more easily. Sowing in a risky month, usually the last month of the window, rolls a curse chance that two sources put at about 55% at Agriculture 0 and 5% at Agriculture 10, while a third gives 50% to 5%. Sowing in a best month gives a chance at a bonus harvest.

Winter curses every outdoor crop that is not cold-hardy. The cold-hardy crops are barley, cabbage, flax, garlic, kale, leek, rye, wild garlic and winter wheat. Greenhouses are not affected by bad-month or winter curses.

Harvest times are averages at default Farming Speed. Kale becomes safe from bad months from growth stage 3 and carrots from stage 4. The full list of 56 crops is on crop data, and planting advice is on crops and farming.

Foraging in Build 42 weights many finds by month. One detailed guide puts most wild plants and insects in a March to November window, with items getting roughly a 50% bonus or penalty in favored or unfavored months (one source).

• Spring: wild greens and the first berries.
• Summer: the peak for berries and general yields.
• Autumn: nuts, apples and late vegetables. Acorns are common but need boiling before eating. Pinecones favor autumn and early winter.
• Winter: thin pickings. Beauty berry and winter berry can still appear from September to March, but holly berry shares that window and is always poisonous.

Rain helps worms, insects and mushrooms, while snow lowers the chance of most plant food. Rain, fog, snow, cloud and darkness all shrink your search radius. Stones and most firewood can be found all year. See foraging for zones and skill effects.

We could not confirm a breeding season for farm animals in Build 42. None of the sources we checked lists breeding months, pregnancy lengths or seasonal egg laying, so treat any calendar you see elsewhere with care. What is clear is that livestock need a roofed shelter and water that does not freeze, and that snow makes wild animal tracks fade faster, which shortens hunting trips in winter. Wild deer and rabbits move in migration groups. More on keeping stock is on animals.

Fishing in Build 42 is affected by time of day and weather, but the sources we found give no season or month rules and no confirmed figures for winter or ice. Opinion Note the hours when you see ripples or get bites and go back at those times, and fish before winter so you have smoked or frozen stock. See fishing for tackle and spots.

This plan assumes a default July start with Plant Growing Seasons on. Sowing lists come from the windows above.

Opinion Anything you sow in late summer needs to be ready before December unless it is cold-hardy or under glass.