Advanced – Scavenging & Improvised Weapons

In Build 41/42, weapon spawn locations are fairly logical. For example, your best bet for a proper melee early on is a Baseball Bat (try bedroom closets or sports stores) or a Hammer (garages, tool sheds). Both are common in residential areas.

Another pro-tip: craft a Spear as soon as you can. Grab a tree branch or plank plus a sharp tool (like a kitchen knife or chipped stone) to craft a spear. Spears have long reach and a high critical chance, often skewering a zombie in one hit. The downside? A crafted spear will break after a few kills (they are fragile).

Advanced – Muscle Strain Mechanics in B42

Build 41 already had endurance to manage – swinging any weapon costs stamina, and heavy two-handed weapons cost more. Build 42 went further, introducing a Muscle Strain mechanic that punishes overusing heavy tools in combat.

Concretely, in B42 if you're wielding a one-handed weapon (lightweight) your character can swing in a roughly 45° arc without twisting their torso awkwardly, which is within a comfortable range. Two-handed weapons still allow a wider swing (up to ~70°), but they tax your stamina more per swing.

Pay attention to your Encumbrance stat on weapons. In Build 41/42, each weapon has a weight. For example, a Crowbar weighs 2.0 (now slightly heavier in B42 perhaps ~2.5, if devs nerfed it) and a hand fork weighs maybe 0.5.

Advanced – Weapon Condition, Repairs & B42 Upkeep

In Build 41, each weapon had a maximum condition (displayed as little rectangles in the inventory tooltip). Every swing had a chance to lower condition, and when it hit zero, crack! – the weapon broke. The chance of losing condition was lowered by your Maintenance skill.

However, Build 42 threw a curveball (or crowbar?) into the mix with a much more intricate system. Now, many weapons – especially blades – have separate parts and sharpness. Take a Hatchet: it has a handle and a head. They each have their own condition bar. The hatchet blade can also get dull (sharpness degrades).

For blunt weapons, the system is a bit simpler: a crowbar or bat doesn't have "sharpness", but some have parts (a bat could have nails – those nails might fall out on break now, or a metal bar reinforcement could make it last longer).

Advanced – Range, Swing Arc, and Multi-Hit

In Project Zomboid, each melee weapon has specific properties: range, attack cone (arc), knockback, crit chance, and whether it can hit multiple zombies in one swing (multi-hit).

For crowd control, you want weapons with wide reach and knockdown power. Knockdown is huge: when facing 5 zombies, if your first swing knocks down 2 of them, you've effectively removed them momentarily as threats.

Spears are a special case: they have excellent range (you can poke from farther than even a bat swing) but they typically only hit one target at a time – however, their one target might be instantly killed by a skull penetration.

Advanced – Legendary Loot vs. Forged Weapons

Traditionally, Project Zomboid's melee endgame was epitomized by the Katana. If you had a katana, you were basically a walking Cuisinart for zombies.

Now in Build 42, as we've noted, katanas cannot be sharpened anymore. This slightly reduces their dominance: as you kill with it, it will dull and become a bit less deadly over time until it breaks.

Enter Build 42's craftable arsenal. This is the game-changer for late-game melee. The developers expanded crafting to allow creation of real weapons if you invest in Metalworking/Blacksmithing. For example, at Metalworking level 8 you unlock the ability to forge a Crude Sword Blade, and at level 10 a proper Sword Blade (essentially a katana-like blade).