PZ VHS Stores: B41 XP Tricks vs B42’s Hard Mode

📈 Skill XP on Demand

Missed the Life and Living TV broadcasts in the first week? No problem – many of those shows exist as VHS tapes. Watching "Woodcraft E4" on tape gives the same Carpentry XP as catching it live, as long as you haven't seen it before (more on that Build 42 caveat later). It's a second chance at free XP!

🛡️ Safe, Passive Learning

Reading skill books or grinding carpentry in the field takes time and exposes you to danger. Popping in a VHS lets you learn from the safety of a secure base. Your character gains XP while you organize loot or wait out the rain.

📚 Lore & Entertainment

Beyond mechanics, tapes offer lore and laughs. The game's writers packed Home VHS tapes with snippets of Knox Event backstory, personal dramas, and pop culture parodies. They're collectible stories that make the world feel lived-in.

📦 Loot Variety

VHS stores aren't just tapes; you'll often find VCRs (videoplayers), TVs, magazines, maybe the odd Electronics scrap. In B41, these stores were a one-stop shop to gear up for electronics and entertainment needs.

The Hit Vids! in Riverside is on the west side of town. Look for an L-shaped building with a small parking lot near the riverside park. This is a relatively low-risk location early on, as Riverside's zombie population is moderate. Inside, you'll find rows of shelves in a single-story store.

Muldraugh's VHS store is towards the southwest end of town, just south of the police station and near the southern gas station. It proudly sports the "Hit Vids" signage on the front. This area can be hot – it's near a gas station (always a zombie hotspot) and not far from the main drag.

Approach carefully, possibly coming from the woods behind the store to avoid hordes. Once cleared, Muldraugh's store often has a great selection of tapes (mechanics skill tapes have been found here, among others).

This small town surprisingly has a Hit Vids as well – it's located just south of the March Ridge cinema (almost adjacent). March Ridge is a bit out of the way and famously dangerous (high zombie density in a compact area), so be on guard.

The VHS store here is a single-story strip-mall style building. If you spawn in March Ridge, loot it quick; if you're coming from elsewhere, consider if the long trip is worth the tapes unless you specifically need them.

The metropolis of Louisville boasts three separate Hit Vids locations:

• West Louisville – near the horse racing track in the northwest suburbs. It's an L-shaped standalone building, much like Riverside's. Fairly suburban setting but Louisville's spawns are dense – expect a fight.
• North Louisville – in the northern downtown, not far from the river and the big bridge. This one looks like a storefront among other shops. Street combat in Louisville is for the experienced – you might want to clear block by block, or use noise distractions to draw zombies away before attempting a loot run here.
• Northeast Louisville – in the Grand Ohio Mall / retail park area, at the far NE end of Louisville. This Hit Vids is in a strip mall next to a liquor store ("Kegsplosion"). It has a long facade with the logo. The mall area can be extremely dangerous (indoor hordes and parking lot hordes converging). Only attempt if well-armed or if playing on lower pop settings.

🎒 Bring a Bag

Tapes are light (0.1 units each) so weight isn't an issue, but quantity is. You might walk out with 10-20 tapes from a stocked store. A normal hiking bag or big duffel is fine. No need for a car trunk unless you're grabbing other loot.

🚪 Check Back Room

Some Hit Vids have a back room or staff room. Often overlooked, these can contain extra tapes or the VCR items. Also a good spot to hide if you get swarmed out front.

🔇 Noise Discipline

Breaking the front glass to enter will attract zombies. If you can, open the door with a key or through an adjacent building. Clear the immediate area first. Once inside, playing a tape on the spot is risky (sound will attract zeds nearby through windows). It's best to grab and go, then watch at a safehouse.

⭐ Prioritize Skill Tapes

There are a lot of tapes (over 100 unique titles). Your goal under pressure should be to snag the "valuable" ones: tapes that grant skill XP or recipes. Look for tape names like The Cook Show, Woodcraft, Car Zone, Exposure Survival, etc. In a hurry, prioritize anything that sounds like a show (with "E1, E2…" episodes).

🗺️ Aftermath – Mark It

Consider marking the store on your map as "looted" (maybe an X or a note). In B41, one loot run could basically set you up with all the tapes you'd ever need. In B42, loot settings might cause stores to be less loaded, so you might return later to see if you missed any. Having it marked helps you keep track.

🏪 Retail VHS Tapes

These are commercially produced tapes – essentially episodes of TV shows or movies from the PZ universe. Most of the Life and Living TV channel shows (the ones that air in the first 9 days) have their episodes available as retail tapes.

For example, the cooking show ("The Cook Show E1–E7"), the carpentry show ("Woodcraft E1–E3"), the survival show ("Exposure Survival E1–E8"), etc., all exist as VHS tapes you can find. Watching a tape gives the same XP that the live broadcast would have given.

Important: In B41, this was in addition to any live viewing – meaning if you watched it live and later found the tape, you got double XP.

Retail tapes are not unique – you might find multiple copies of "Woodcraft E2" in different stores or houses. They also spawn in various places besides VHS stores: sometimes in gas station stores, crates, cars, etc., but VHS stores have the highest concentration.

🏠 Home VHS Tapes

These are recorded by regular folks in the game world – unique tapes with personal or random content (weddings, home movies, weird recordings). They often have flavorful descriptions and help build the lore of Knox County's residents.

A handful of Home VHS actually give skill XP too, usually for skills that weren't covered by TV. For example, Tailoring 101 (Home VHS) gives some tailoring XP, which no broadcast covered. There are home tapes for Mechanics, Tailoring, Metalworking, First Aid, etc.

Home VHS tapes are unique spawns – each title will only spawn once in the world (if at all), and notably they do NOT spawn in VHS stores. You'll find them in residential homes (bookcases, living room shelves) or sometimes on zombie corpses.

So, don't expect to raid a VHS store and come out with "Granny Nani" or "Muldraugh AV Club" tapes – those you have to scavenge from homes or trading.

Example Tapes and Their XP (Build 41)

The above are illustrative – for actual numbers, see the PZ Wiki or a detailed guide.

XP Gain Cut-off at Level 3 (Default)

Example: In B41, a savvy player could reach Carpentry 4 or 5 by Day 10: catch the 3 TV carpentry shows (levels 1, 2, maybe 3), then watch Woodcraft tapes for the rest. In B42, that same strategy would stop giving XP at level 3. You'd then have to actually go saw logs and build walls to progress further, or change sandbox settings.

Sandbox Option: Thankfully, the devs know some players love the old way. B42 introduces a sandbox setting to customize the "TV/VHS XP cap." You can set it higher (e.g., allow gains up to level 5 or 10) if you want a B41-like experience.

No More Double Dipping (TV vs VHS)

Implications:

• If you're starting a fresh B42 run solo, you might skip the live TV on purpose and use tapes later when you're better prepared (and have reading multipliers). This sounds counter-intuitive – why skip free Day 1 XP? – but if you really want to min-max, saving the content for after reading skill books yields more total XP.
• In multiplayer B42, this change prevents a scenario where one player could watch the show, then pass the tape to another who also watched the show, etc., essentially cloning XP. Now, once the event has happened globally, presumably everyone on the server flagged as having seen it.

Tip: There is a mod for B42 that allows Life and Living broadcasts to loop continuously (or repeat till power outage) – effectively an infinite TV mod. If using such mods, be mindful to also adjust the XP cap or you'll still hit the ceiling quickly.

🏚️ Loot Scarcity and "Looted" Stores

While not directly a VHS mechanic change, B42's world assumes more time has passed and others may have scavenged before you. The new Looted Buildings feature can spawn some locations already looted/trashed – you'll enter and find empty shelves, broken stuff, maybe a note indicating someone was there.

By default it affects very large buildings (mall, etc.), but if sandbox tuned, it could hit smaller ones. If a VHS store was flagged as looted, you might find zero tapes there. This is controversial and the devs have been fine-tuning it in unstable patches.

Still, be mentally prepared: B42 might not hand you loot on a platter like B41 did.

❌ No New Skills on Tape

Build 42 introduces a bunch of new crafting and systems (e.g. animals, farming improvements, brewing, etc.). None of these new features come with VHS tapes to instantly boost them (at least not in current unstable).

Don't expect to find "Aiming Show E1" or "Animal Husbandry 101" tapes – those don't exist in vanilla. The community promptly made a mod ("Operation Z VHS") that adds aiming skill tapes, showing there was demand.

So, in B42, you'll still be training aiming, tailoring, etc., the old-fashioned way (or via books). VHS remain relevant for the classic set of skills from B41.

Timing Matters

Watching an XP tape when you're well-fed, calm, and have the skill book read will ensure maximum gain. Avoid watching when character is depressed or starving (these don't reduce XP but they might cause you to not pay attention or fall asleep).

One and Done

Once a tape's watched, mark it (mentally or literally stash it somewhere). On B41 I used to throw watched tapes into a "seen" crate. In B42, since repeats won't give XP, you can safely trade away or discard duplicates after use (unless you want to re-watch for entertainment).

Share with Friends

In multiplayer B41, one tape could be used by multiple players for XP as long as they watched it together or separately. In B42, each player has their own tracking, so you can still pass tapes around – just each player only benefits once. Host a "movie night" in MP; it's genuinely fun to gather survivors to watch a tape.

A Note on CDs

Not to drift off VHS, but you'll also find Music CDs in similar places. These don't give skill XP – they're for boredom reduction and atmosphere (you can play them in CD players or car stereos). They feature fictional bands and songs. If you're looting a VHS store, you might find a shelf of CDs too. Feel free to grab a few; they weigh almost nothing.

If you spawn near a town with a VHS store (e.g., Riverside spawn is very close to its Hit Vids), consider looting it on Day 1-3. Weigh the risk: an untouched VHS store early on can set you up with a huge XP advantage.

In B41, early loot of VHS store is almost always worth it. In B42, it's still valuable, but less of a game-breaker due to XP caps.

Make sure your base has the means to play tapes. If not, prioritize finding a portable VHS player or a modern TV. Check electronic stores or the VHS store itself (some have TVs on display).

You don't want to have tapes and not be able to watch them.

Use your tapes in conjunction with skill books. E.g., find Carpentry Vol.1 and 2, read Vol.1 to completion, then watch the Carpentry tapes to blast through levels 1-2; read Vol.2, watch next tapes for 3-4.

This synergy is bread-and-butter for efficient leveling. It's exactly how a veteran in Zomboid gets a well-rounded character by mid-game.

With B42 limiting XP, remember to actually practice the skills too. Tapes won't teach you everything. They might get you to level 3 in Fishing, but you'll still need to go fish to reach level 4+ (and learn nuance like how not to get bored to death waiting for a bite!).

Use tapes as the boost, but engage in the activity to truly excel.

A few safety tips – don't watch tapes at night with the lights on next to a window. Zombies see the light and hear the noise. Curtains or no windows are your friend.

Also, if you're extremely tired in game, avoid watching a tape; there were past issues where you could nod off and miss part of it (thus losing potential XP).

If in MP, share the duties. Maybe one of you focuses on gathering tapes, another on books, then meet up at base to have an education evening. Only one tape can play on a TV at a time, obviously, so you might do it one by one.

Enjoy the social aspect – pretend you're movie buffs in the apocalypse, because you kind of are!

Challenge Runs

If you're doing a Six Months Later or similar challenge, the power is off, TV shows are long gone, and the world is overrun. Going out of your way for VHS tapes when you can't power a TV might be low priority. Survival comes first – you can worry about tapes after securing food/water/weapons.

All Thumbs / Slow Reader Characters

Tapes still help even clumsy survivors, but if your character is a really poor reader (takes ages to finish books), the synergy with books is harder. You'll still get XP raw, but you lose out on multipliers. In this case, you might rely a bit more on just doing the action rather than waiting to find Volume 3 of a book to then watch a tape.

Already Skilled Start

Some players start with professions that give skill bonuses (like Carpenter starts at level 3 Carpentry, etc.). If you're already at or above the tape cap for a skill, those tapes won't help you as much. E.g., a Carpenter starts with Carpentry 3 – Life and Living and Woodcraft tapes for levels 1-3 Carpentry will do nothing new for you in B42.

Inventory Management

Tapes are light but if you're nomading or have no fixed base, carrying 20 tapes around might be impractical. You might opt to skip them until you have a safe spot to stash and watch. The good news is you can always come back; unlike perishable loot, tapes will sit on those shelves indefinitely.

🌐 Official Wiki

PZ Wiki – VHS Tapes: Detailed tables of all VHS tapes (skill and home) and their effects. Great if you want to see exactly how much XP each gives, or what quirky dialogue to expect.

📄 Community Guides

Steam Guides: "All Useful VHS Tapes" and others provide handy rundowns of tapes by category and usage tips.

🗺️ Interactive Map

Map.projectzomboid.com: Use the filter to highlight VHS stores and plan your route through town.

🧩 Recommended Mods

• Rosewood/West Point VHS Stores – Adds new VHS store locations for more looting opportunities.
• Named Skill VHS – Automatically renames tapes with their skill, e.g., "Tailoring Show E1 (Tailoring)".
• Known and Collected – Marks books and tapes you've already used. Prevents accidental re-watching.
• Operation Z VHS (Build 42) – Adds aiming skill tapes, balancing out the lack of shooting skill media in vanilla.