Short blades and knives in Project Zomboid

Short blades are one-handed stabbing weapons trained by the Short Blade skill. In Build 42 the group is large: one item list puts it at 59 entries (one source), but most of those are cutlery, scissors and garden tools that barely scratch a zombie. The ones that matter as weapons are real knives, daggers, shivs and a few improvised spikes.

Every short blade is light and fast, and every one reaches only about 0.9 tiles at most, the shortest reach of any melee group. You have to stand next to a zombie to use one, so they suit careful single kills more than crowds. For the other melee groups, see the melee weapon list and the wider weapons guide.

Figures below are base values for vanilla Build 42 as listed by pzfans (one source). Damage is the min to max hit, crit is the critical hit chance, and condition is maximum durability. The last column is that list's estimate of average hits before the blade breaks, which is the number that tells you how long a knife really lasts.

The gap between the kitchen knife and the hunting knife is the main lesson. Both have 10 condition, but the hunting knife loses it far more slowly, so it lasts roughly seven times as many hits. A separate pzfans guide gives the hunting knife a loss of about one condition point every 15 hits, which matches the table.

Build 42 adds three ways to make a knife instead of looting one. Knapping stone gives the stone knife and long stone knife early in a run. Bone from butchered animals gives sharp bone blades. Blacksmithing forges proper metal blades, and several forge recipes are gated by Short Blade level (one source):

Looted knives still matter most. Kitchens give kitchen, bread, paring and steak knives, while hunting knives turn up in sporting and outdoor loot. The loot locations guide covers which buildings to search.

Short Blade raises your damage, hit chance and crit odds with every weapon in the group. It levels by hitting zombies with a blade. One source lists 32,775 XP to go from level 0 to 10 before multipliers, and gives a starting point to Burger Flipper, Chef and Doctor, plus the Hunter trait (one source). See traits and occupations and skill leveling for the multipliers.

• Stealth kills. Players widely describe a jaw stab: sneak up behind an unaware zombie with a short blade and the attack kills it outright. This is the main reason to carry a knife at all. Pair it with the stealth guide.
• Crowds. Each swing hits one target on default settings, so a knife is a poor answer to more than two zombies.
• Upkeep. Knives sit in the low durability tier. Repair them before they fall too far, as the Maintenance guide explains.

Much of a knife's value is off the battlefield. A sharp blade is the standard tool for butchering carcasses and fish, for cutting food in cooking recipes, and for the knife work in carving. A kitchen knife can also be tied to a stick as a spear tip, which turns a fragile blade into a weapon with reach.

Using a knife as a tool wears it like combat does, so keep a spare cheap blade for chores and save the good one for fighting.

Opinion For most runs the order is simple.

1. Hunting Knife. Top damage, 50% crit and about 150 hits. The forged version has the same numbers, so a blacksmith with Short Blade 5 can make more.
2. Fighting Knife. Same damage and crit, fewer hits, still a strong find.
3. Large Knife or Machete Blade Knife. Slightly less damage and crit, same durability.
4. Railroad Spike Knife or Multitool. Weak damage but very durable, good as a tool blade.
5. Stone Knife. The early answer when nothing else is around, since knapping needs no loot.

Opinion Skip the kitchen knife as a main weapon. It hits fine but breaks after roughly 20 hits. For a full ranking across every weapon type, see best weapons.