What is this?
I'm doing a comprehensive guide on traiting and professions in Project Zomboid, because I feel like the new people should be assisted with this.
Something you find necessary is missing? Just tell me down below and I'll make my best to add it here. This also focuses primarily in single player, but works online too.
Traits, what are they?
Well, traits let you choose what good sides and bad sides your character will have, and will greatly affect core gameplay.
Here are my choice of the traits that affect the game the most.
All the profession traits:It's pretty obvious that the job traits are the most important ones, because it doesn't cost any trait points to actually choose a job, and I don't see a point to be unemployed.
Athletic:This trait allows you to run faster, without tiring. I find it very useful when running through an area densely populated with zombies, because tiring up in the middle of an horde isn't the best thing to happen.
Strong:This trait is extremely useful, as it allows you to carry 16 instead of 8. That's double. I use it always, because its so efficient to not be used.
Lucky:In single player, it affects loot rarity, and chances of getting bitten. This is very effective with the Police Officer and Construction Worker, because the Police Officer uses a lot of ammo, so when using lucky and looting dead zombie bodies its a relatively common chance to find pistol ammo. Also, the Construction Workerhas the Thick Skinned trait, what affects chances of zombies breaking the skin, and lucky also decreases the odds of a zawmby scratching or biting you, so its a good combo.
Light Eater:Well, as you can probably see from the title, you need to eat less. This, this is very good. Eating plays a vital role in the game, and its good if you are scarce on food.
Lets move on to the professions.
Professions, A.K.A Jobs
This is where it gets interesting. There are so many ways to blend traits with professions, and how they relate to each other.
Lets dive right in.
Lets start with the Fire officer. This is an ideal setup for me. The strong allows you to carry as much as you can, and isn't a woodworker usually very strong when wielding an axe? Strong also gives the effect of bigger knockback, and that paired with the increased attackspeed with axes from Axe Manmakes you a killer machine. Gracefulis useful, so you can sneak right past the zombies, and you don't need to attract attention, because you aren't shooting a gun, you're swinging an axe. The defective traits are the most non-affecting traits I could find, I mean Cowardly increases panic, and yes panic does reduce accuracy and slow the reloading speed, but as I mentioned, you are not a trained shooter.
Next the cowboy of modern apocalypse. Stoutis like the smaller brother of Strong, but if you actually need it, just take the bigger one instead. Oh, Lucky, oh you. This is where it gets complicated. Lucky changes everything. It changes the chances of you getting scratched, that's good. That is still not the reason why we are here for it. It increases the loot chances. At first I was like, oh boy this sure is a bit useful, but then... I looted zombie corpses, and realized how useful it is. I found 10x 9mm ammo in about 5 zombies when I killed them by melee, then I found one wielding a pistol, another one with a Big Hiking Bag, all these very useful things you can find, and mostly of all, the ammo as I mentioned. That is why Its useful. Brave? That's because you get easily panic'd when facing a horde, and you just cannot afford to lose all that reload time to panic. Luckyalso increases the chances of finding Beta Blockers in bathrooms, which reduce panic easily. This is a solid combo. The other traits are pretty straightforward, I tried to grab as little effecting traits as possible, and the Overweight is because you wont be hitting -> running back -> hitting the zombies like you would do with the Fire Officer.
Ah, the newbie friendly class. Lucky + Thick Skinned decreases the chances of getting scratches and bites from zombies well, and also add some easy looting time for the starters, Stronggives good knockback, so the player can use weapons with small amount of knockback and survive better with them too, and have increased carrying size what usually is a common problem due to starters (atleast it was for me). The not-so-effective traits are none so bad, and you don't need to be less panicked as long as you use handguns, and that paired with lucky gives you easy time looting 9mm ammo for your pistol (By this I mean the pistol is significantly easier and faster to reload compared to the shotgun).
Ok, this is the leaf guy that loves being outside. Outdoorsman allows you to negate completely the chance that raining will make you sick, what is a good bonus. Strong gives you more carrying speed, so its pretty obvious. Eagle Eyed? Why'd I pick that? Its because when you are a lot outside, you gotta see alot, so you don't get ambushed. The other traits are obvious, but there is one thing I'm not sure of. Prone to illnessincreases the chances of getting sick, but there is one thing:☐ Getting sick from rain☑ Getting sick from eating rotten food. So just watch out for that. Otherwise everything will be going well.
[ATTENTION: THIS CLASS DOES NOT WORK IN MULTI PLAYER, DUE TO SLEEPING NOT BEING IMPLEMENTED YET.]
The hipster of our professions, the unnormality of our professions, this is actually not that popular, but still a good class when paired with similar traits. The Night Owl trait allows you to be the most nerdest guy of them all, requiring no sleep and no food (with Light Eater ofcourse ;D), and hear every single thing inside the house you are in. You wanna know why this class is especially good? You have no idea how many times I have died while looting a house, going inside a room and finding that there is a zombie and start fighting it, and then another zombie comes behind me and hits me so hard that I'm scratched five f*cking times? You know how angry you feel then? That wont happen. You hear every little "Nhgheea" or "Ggggrowl" or a zombie banging his head when you use this character. This character is the character who stays inside. You hear me? Of course you don't, because you have Hard of Hearing (just kidding 
).
Feedback
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Please post feedback below, I would greatly appreciate it.
