Spears in Project Zomboid

A spear is the cheapest reach weapon in the game. One shaft and a sharp knife make one, with no skill gate, and most spears reach 1.4 to 1.48 tiles. That lets you stab a zombie before it can grab you, or through a chain-link fence.

Spears are two-handed and use the Spear skill. They have two attacks: a wide swipe, and a forward stab that can kill a zombie outright.

Build 42 changed the deal. In Build 41 the stab and the sprint charge killed most zombies in one hit. Players report that the instant kill was cut back heavily in Build 42, and one current guide says plainly that the charge is not a guaranteed kill. We found no published percentage for the instant-kill chance. Starting condition is also lower than in Build 41, where a spear came from a plank or branch. A plank is not a valid shaft in Build 42.

Opinion Treat a wooden spear as a disposable opener for lone zombies. The melee list has sturdier main weapons.

The Build 42 recipe is Carve Spear. Every character knows it and it needs no skill level.

• Shaft (used up): Long Stick, Sapling, Rake, Mop, Broom, Twig Broom, Gaff Hook or Ice Hockey Stick.
• Tool (kept): a sharp knife or meat cleaver that is not dull. A plain sharp stone is not listed as a valid tool.
• Result: one Wooden Spear and 5 Carving XP.

The new spear's condition is 2 plus your Carving level plus a random 0 or 1, capped at 5. At Carving 0 you get 2 or 3 out of 5. At Carving 3 it is always 5 (one source).

Half-grown trees always drop one Sapling when chopped, and the largest trees drop several. Long Sticks also come from brooms and mops, and from crates at logging yards and tool stores. One guide recommends McCoy Logging near Muldraugh and says Long Sticks no longer come from foraging, though firewood foraging can turn up Saplings.

Fire Harden Spear turns a Wooden Spear into the fire-hardened version. You need the same knife and a lit campfire, fireplace or barbecue within 2 tiles. The recipe unlocks at Spear level 6, from the Wilderness Survival magazine, or with the Bushcrafter trait. Harden a 5/5 spear and it comes out 7/7.

A bound spear is a Long Stick or Sapling plus a head and two units of binding. The shaft passes on its condition and the head passes on its sharpness. A finished Wooden Spear cannot be bound.

The binding recipes are learned at Maintenance 3 with Spear 1, or from the Wilderness Survival and Tool Use of Early Man magazines listed under skill books.

The Build 42 head list covers kitchen, small, steak, large, scrap, fighting and hunting knives, screwdriver, scissors, hand fork, plunger, broken glass, smashed bottle, stone blades and knives, sharp bone, and simple metal blades. The machete is not on it, and neither are the bread knife, butter knife, table fork, spoon, ice pick, scalpel or letter opener that older Build 41 guides mention.

Opinion A hunting, large or fighting knife gives the best bound spear.

These are base item values from one database site, read from the 42.19 and 42.20 game files. "Wear" is the base chance of losing a condition point on a hit, before skill modifiers.

Most spears have a 20 percent critical chance. The fire-hardened spear has 30 percent and the plunger has none. The Garden Fork is a found tool, not a crafted spear, but it uses the Spear skill: 1.0 to 1.5 damage, condition 10, wear 1 in 15, 30 percent critical (one source).

• Stone Blade: knapped from a Sharp Flint Flake at Knapping 1. The Long Stone Blade needs a Flint Nodule and Knapping 6.
• Bone: a Sharp Bone Fragment or Long Sharp Bone from butchering binds like a knife.
• Metal Spearhead: Forge Spear Head needs Blacksmithing 4, 3 charcoal, a quarter steel bar or a salvaged blade, a ball-peen hammer, and tongs or metalworking pliers.
• Long Metal Spearhead: Blacksmithing 5, 4 charcoal and a half steel bar, same tools.

Both forge recipes are taught by the Medieval Armory and Strange Histories (Siberian Bear Hunting) magazines. A second site lists them as unlocking at Spear 2 and Spear 5. Both can hold, since knowing a recipe and meeting its Blacksmithing level are separate checks. Forged heads go on with Assemble Spear and give the only crafted spears with condition 10.

Spears break fast for two reasons: the cap is low and the wear roll is harsh. A Wooden Spear has 5 points at most and a base 1 in 2 chance to lose one per hit. Low Carving means it starts at 2 or 3. One player at Maintenance 6 still reported about five kills per new spear (one source).

Many spears carry the repair-with-glue and repair-with-tape tags. A broken wooden spear leaves a Broken Long Stick, which cannot be carved again.

A spear attaches to the back slot, the same one a shovel uses. The base game has one back slot, so extra spears ride in your main inventory or a bag at 2.0 to 3.0 weight each. We could not confirm any vanilla way to hang several on the back.

Opinion Carry two or three spares on a clearing run.

Spear XP comes from hitting zombies with a spear-class weapon. Level 10 takes 32,775 XP in total, the same curve as the other melee skills. A character with no starting Spear level earns XP at a quarter of the normal rate, so a point or more from traits or occupations speeds this up a lot.

Opinion These habits get the most from a spear:

• Stab single zombies at full reach, then step back. Do not stab into a group, because you cannot move during the animation.
• Use the swipe when two or more are close. Hitting two targets only works if Multi-Hit is on in sandbox settings. Apocalypse turns it off.
• Save the sprint charge for an isolated walker with a clear exit, and never use it on sprinters.
• Level on a Garden Fork if you find one, and keep a sturdier backup weapon for when the spear snaps.

Most spears except the plunger also work for spear fishing without bait. See combat for spacing basics.