What is the best melee weapon in Project Zomboid?

There is a plethora of weapons available to the player in Project Zomboid. As such, it is crucial to know which weapons are useful for you. For new players, the large variety of weapons can become quite complex to fully understand. But, I’m here to help! In this guide I will tell you about the best weapons you can obtain in the early game!

Melee weapon

Project Zomboid Best Starting Weapons

Some new players of Project Zomboid will continue to roam around using a simple rolling pin as their primary weapon. Even after being several hours in the game! Make sure you are not one of these individuals! Here are some of the best weapons you can find in each category:

Long Sticks

  • Crowbar – A blunt weapon dealing 0.85 damage
  • Baseball Bat – A type of blunt weapon dealing 0.9 damage
  • Shovel – A farming tool having 1.4 damage
  • Guitar – An improvised blunt weapon dealing 0.5 damage
  • Bass – A long blunt weapon having 1.2 damage.

Short Sticks

  • Hammer – A small blunt weapon with 0.75 damage
  • Lead Pipe – A blunt weapon dealing 1 damage
  • Nightstick – A blunt weapon having 0.85 damage

Short Knives

  • All Pocket Knives (stronger than kitchen knives)
  • One Handed Sickles
  • Meat Cleaver – Cooking/One handed short blade having 0.6 damage

Long Knives

  • All Long Knives

Spears

  • Spear with Machete – A crafted spear dealing 1.7 damage
  • Spear with Screwdriver – A crafted spear having 1.4 damage

Axes

Axes are quite rare, and should only be employed to chop down trees.

Utilizing Short Sticks

In the early stage of the game, you should head on over to the Police Station. Here, you can find a Nightstick. This isn’t the best, but it can be useful for now. Later on, Carpenters or players with the Carpentry skill can craft their own sticks. The tools made from these however, are not reliable in the long run. If you want to possess high-damage weapons, you need to have ready-made tools such as a Fire Axe.

Recommendation for New Players

If you are a new player, I recommend that you extensively search Garages. These can contain various weapons such as one-handed hammers, pipes, and sticks. These weapons are optimal for you to transition through your weapon adaption phase. Furthermore, they also happen to be some of the best weapons to remain familiar with throughout the game.

Two-Handed and Pole weapons

There are a great number of two-handed and long pole weapons in the game. Regardless of that, I would discourage you from using them. These are generally inconvenient when dealing with zombies. These weapons have slow swing speeds, making them difficult to effectively control. This holds especially true for new players of the game. Additionally, new players usually have difficulty maintaining their distance from zombies. This increases the chances of getting caught out!

This was a brief guide on the best weapons you can attain in the early game of Project Zomboid. I hope it helped you out, and as always, good luck with your zombie-killing endeavors!