Build Planner
Positive traits
Negative traits
Points to spend
0
Starting skills
Granted traits
None
What your picks do
How to actually decide
Ranked on learning rate — the largest and least visible effect in character creation. Mechanics are on the Skills & XP tab.
1. Starting a skill at 0 is a permanent quarter-rate penalty
| What you buy | Starting level | Learning rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing | 0 | ×0.25 | the baseline — and it never lifts |
| Boost 1 | 1 | 4× faster | the biggest single jump in the game |
| Boost 2 | 2 | 5.3× | |
| Boost 3+ | 3–10 | 6.6× | the ceiling |
- Level 0 is not “no bonus” — it is a quarter rate for the whole run.
- Nothing on the character screen shows it.
- One level in a skill you will actually use beats three levels in one you won’t.
2. Strength and Fitness are exempt — never buy them for XP
| Skill | Untrained penalty | Boost bonus | What buying it gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | Exempt | Exempt | Raw starting stat only — always ×1.0 |
| Fitness | Exempt | Exempt | Raw starting stat only — always ×1.0 |
| Sprinting | Exempt | Applies | ×1.25 at boost 1 — a 25% gain, not 4× |
| Everything else | ×0.25 | Applies | Up to 6.6× learning rate |
- Stout, Strong, Fit and Athletic buy starting stat, never a faster rate.
- Runner (−4) is the worst-value skill trait in the game — four points for ×1.25.
3. Level 3 is the ceiling
- Boost 3 and boost 10 both give ×1.66. Everything past 3 buys levels, not rate.
- Doctor’s First Aid 6 overshoots by three levels; Electrician’s Electrical 5 by two.
- Both are still fine picks — just know what you are paying for.
4. There is no blanket weapon penalty
- Melee skills learn at the same rate as everything else. Nothing slows them by default.
- Reluctant Fighter is the only source of the ×0.75 — and it hits Aiming too, dropping an untrained combat skill to ×0.1875.
- Crafty is the one to notice instead.
| Trait | Points | XP multiplier | Skills it touches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crafty | −3 | ×1.3 | Carpentry · Carving · Cooking · Electrical · Glassmaking · Knapping · Masonry · Blacksmithing · Mechanics · Pottery · Tailoring · Welding |
| Fast Learner | −6 | ×1.3 | Everything except Strength and Fitness |
| Slow Learner | +6 | ×0.7 | Everything except Strength, Fitness and Sprinting |
| Reluctant Fighter | +5 | ×0.75 | Axe · Long Blade · Long Blunt · Short Blade · Short Blunt · Spear · Aiming |
Crafty misses two you might expect: First Aid counts as Survivalist, and Maintenance is grouped under melee combat.
5. The stat negatives cost you no learning rate
| Trait | Points | Lands you at | Costs learning rate? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak | +6 | Strength 3 | No — but ×0.9 carry weight |
| Puny | +10 | Strength 0 | No — but −40% melee knockback, ×0.75 carry weight |
| Out of Shape | +6 | Fitness 3 | No — but ×0.99 run speed |
| Unfit | +10 | Fitness 1 | No — but ×0.8 run speed |
- Both stats are exempt from the boost system, so none of these four slow your learning. You are buying a lower starting stat plus the extras in the last column.
- The other difference is how long the climb back is — and Strength and Fitness are the two skills that decay if you stop training them.
- +6 is the safe trade: you start at 3, only two levels under the normal 5, so the climb back is short.
- +10 is a long-run trade: Puny starts at 0 and Unfit at 1, so the climb is much longer — worth it if you expect a long survival and don’t mind grinding, and a bad idea if you want to be combat-ready early.
- The extras only last while the stat is low: Puny and Unfit drop off at level 2 (you become Weak / Out of Shape), and those drop off at level 5.
6. Prefer negatives an item or a base fixes
| Trait | Points | What cancels it |
|---|---|---|
| Fear of Blood | +5 | Beta Blockers |
| Hearty Appetite | +4 | Farming |
| Slow Healer | +3 | Plantain Poultice |
| Slow Reader | +2 | Reading Glasses plus sitting down — 30% becomes 5.3% |
| Short Sighted | +2 | Any pair of glasses — normal glasses, not Reading Glasses |
| High Thirst | +2 | Rain collectors |
| Weak Stomach | +2 | Cook everything |
| Sleep traits | varies | A secure base |
Slow Reader and Short Sighted want two different pairs of glasses. You can start wearing one pair, not two — there is a single eye slot. Take both traits and one of them stays uncancelled until you loot the other pair.
- Watch for negatives that fail the same way. Short of Breath with Unfit, or Slow Healer with Thin-skinned and Prone to Illness — each pair is cheap on the points screen and expensive the first time it goes wrong.
7. A recipe count is worth less than it looks
- 197 books and magazines teach 395 recipes, and most trait recipes also unlock on their own as you level.
- Four recipes are locked behind a trait — the Sewer tarp-clothing set. Everything else a trait grants can be found in the world or learned by levelling.
- So a big recipe number buys you a head start, not access. Worth points if you want those recipes on day one; not worth points if you are happy to loot the book.
- Illiterate refunds 10 points and locks every book and magazine. Skill books are the single biggest source of levelling speed in the game, so this is the most expensive refund on the screen.
Top Builds
Positive traits
What you spend points on, plus the perks a job hands you free. Click any row for full detail.
| Trait | Points | Skill boosts | Recipes | Earnable? | In-game description | Mutually exclusive with |
|---|
Negative traits
What pays for the rest, plus the states your body weight forces on you. Click any row for full detail.
| Trait | Points | Skill boosts | Recipes | Earnable? | In-game description | Mutually exclusive with |
|---|
All 25 occupations
Positive points are added to your budget; negative points are spent. Click any row to expand its full detail — tier, starting skills and learning rates, free traits, every recipe it unlocks, and its foraging bonuses. Click a header to sort.
| Occupation | Points | Tier | XP score | Starting skills | Free traits | Recipes | Foraging |
|---|
All 35 skills
Every skill in the game, its learning-rate class, and every occupation and trait that can hand you a head start in it. Click any row to expand full detail.
Reading “Highest start available”: the best starting level in that skill you can get from any single occupation or trait, followed by how much faster that start learns than beginning from scratch. 2 · 5.3× means something can start you at level 2, and level 2 gains XP 5.3× faster than level 0. Strength and Fitness show 1× — exempt because they sit outside the boost system: a trait can raise the number, but never the rate.
| Skill | Category | Rate class | Your rate this character | Highest start available level · learn rate | Occupations that grant it | Traits that grant it |
|---|
The XP system — how fast you actually learn
All of these are gathered in one place and multiplied together in a single pass — there is no cap, and no ordering trick to exploit.
XP required per level
Every skill shares one curve. Strength and Fitness have their own curve, and are the only two skills the game flags as passive.
The XP figures most guides quote are a third too low. The game multiplies every level requirement by 1.5 before it ever uses it, and that multiplier is fixed — it is not a sandbox setting and cannot be changed. The table below is the real requirement, which is what the in-game bar actually asks for: level 1 costs 75 XP, not 50. The figures the guides copy read 50 · 100 · 200 · 500 · 1,000 · 2,000 · 3,000 · 4,000 · 5,000 · 6,000 (and 1,000…100,000 for Strength and Fitness) — take those at face value and every figure downstream is a third too low.
| Level | Every other skill | Strength & Fitness | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 75 | 1,500 | 20× |
| 2 | 150 | 3,000 | 20× |
| 3 | 300 | 6,000 | 20× |
| 4 | 750 | 9,000 | 12× |
| 5 | 1,500 | 18,000 | 12× |
| 6 | 3,000 | 30,000 | 10× |
| 7 | 4,500 | 60,000 | 13.3× |
| 8 | 6,000 | 90,000 | 15× |
| 9 | 7,500 | 120,000 | 16× |
| 10 | 9,000 | 150,000 | 16.7× |
| Total to 10 | 32,775 | 487,500 | 14.9× |
Weapon skills are the slowest skills you can boost — not the slowest thing to level. The ×0.75 weapon modifier turns 32,775 XP into 43,700 XP of effort at base rate. Strength and Fitness need 487,500 — still 11.2× more than a weapon skill after that penalty, and 14.9× more than any other skill. They also take no perk boost, no occupation multiplier, and they decay when untrained.
Combat XP feeds two perks at once: a swing grants the weapon skill and Strength equal to the number of zombies it hit — 1 XP each. So a weapon skill maxes out while Strength is still in the low levels.
The full stack — everything multiplies together
| # | Source | Value | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perk boost — your starting level | ×0.25 → ×1.66 | Every skill except Strength & Fitness |
| 2 | Book multiplier | ×3 → ×16 (×1 → ×8 for Aiming, Reloading and Long Blade) | Only inside the level band that book covers |
| 3 | Protein | ×1.5 or ×0.7 | Strength only |
| 4 | Weapon-skill penalty | ×0.75 | Short/Long Blade, Short/Long Blunt, Spear, Axe |
| 5 | Sandbox global | server setting | Everything |
The game also has a separate "no multipliers" path used for a few special awards, which is what confirms the normal one applies every multiplier above.
1. Perk boost — the big one
Set once at character creation from your traits and occupation, stored on the character descriptor, and never revised. Levelling a skill later does not change it.
Boost 0×0.25unless the skill is exempt
Boost 1×1.0×1.25 for Sprinting, the one skill paid at this tier
Boost 2×1.33unless the skill is exempt
Boost 3 or more×1.66the ceiling — boost 10 is worth no more than boost 3
No boost at all×0.25a skill nothing you picked touches
| Starting level | Multiplier | vs starting at 0 | UI shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 — untrained | ×0.25 | baseline | nothing |
| 1 | ×1.00 | 4× faster | +75% |
| 2 | ×1.33 | 5.3× faster | +100% |
| 3+ | ×1.66 | 6.6× faster | +125% |
Starting a skill at 0 is not “no bonus” — it is a permanent quarter rate. A trait granting just level 1 makes you learn that skill 4× faster for the entire run. This is the single strongest argument for the cheap skill traits, and it is completely invisible in the character screen.
Which skills are exempt
| Skill group | ×0.25 penalty at boost 0? | ×1.33 / ×1.66 bonus? |
|---|---|---|
| Strength · Fitness | No — exempt | No — exempt |
| Sprinting | No — exempt | Yes, plus a special ×1.25 at boost 1 |
| Everything else | Yes | Yes |
This is why the character screen hides the percentage for Strength and Fitness. Sprinting, Fitness and Strength are exempt from the penalty; Fitness and Strength are exempt from the bonus too. Those two sit outside the boost system entirely — always ×1.0, no penalty and no bonus. The UI exception isn't arbitrary; the boost genuinely doesn't apply.
Practical: occupation or trait bonuses to Strength and Fitness give you raw starting stat only, never a faster learning rate. Firefighter's +1 Strength is a stat bump, not an XP bump. Sprinting, by contrast, is the best-treated skill in the game — never penalised, and uniquely boosted at level 1.
Practical: occupation or trait bonuses to Strength and Fitness give you raw starting stat only, never a faster learning rate. Firefighter's +1 Strength is a stat bump, not an XP bump. Sprinting, by contrast, is the best-treated skill in the game — never penalised, and uniquely boosted at level 1.
Why the UI numbers don't match
The displayed percentage is the absolute increase over the 0.25 base, and it only lines up at level 1:
| Boost | Actual | Increase over 0.25 | UI shows | Match? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ×1.00 | +0.75 → +75% | +75% | exact |
| 2 | ×1.33 | +1.08 → +108% | +100% | understated |
| 3+ | ×1.66 | +1.41 → +141% | +125% | understated |
Those strings would be exact if the multipliers were 0.25 / 1.00 / 1.25 / 1.50 — a clean +0.25 ladder. The real constants are 1.33 and 1.66, so the multipliers were most likely buffed at some point and the wording on the screen was never updated to match. The screen understates your bonus. (That last part is a guess about the game’s history; the rates themselves are certain.)
2. Book multiplier — fully earnable, stacks on top
Reading a skill book stores a multiplier with a level band attached, so it only applies while you are inside the band that book covers. A new book only overwrites the stored value if it is higher.
This is the one XP source anyone can get regardless of build — and it multiplies with the perk boost rather than replacing it. Reading the book before grinding a skill is always correct.
The size of it climbs steeply with the volume: ×3 · ×5 · ×8 · ×12 · ×16 for volumes 1 to 5. Aiming, Reloading and Long Blade are the exception at ×1 · ×2 · ×4 · ×6 · ×8 — and note that their volume 1 is ×1, i.e. worth nothing but the recipes-free level band it covers. You only get the full number from a finished book: while you are still reading, you get a tenth of it for every 10% you have read.
3. Protein — Strength only, and it's a window
Strength, protein between 50 and 300×1.5
Strength, protein below −300×0.7
Every other skill×1protein does nothing at all
The bonus is a band between 50 and 300, not “the more the better”. Push protein above 300 and you lose the ×1.5 entirely. Below −300 you take a ×0.7 penalty.
It applies to Strength alone — not Fitness, not anything else. Separately, when your nutrition state disallows it, Fitness XP is blocked outright rather than reduced.
It applies to Strength alone — not Fitness, not anything else. Separately, when your nutrition state disallows it, Fitness XP is blocked outright rather than reduced.
4. Weapon skills carry a flat ×0.75
Short Blade, Long Blade, Short Blunt, Long Blunt, Spear and Axe are multiplied by 0.75 on top of everything else — they are deliberately slower than crafting skills.
Combined with an untrained start that is 0.25 × 0.75 = ×0.1875 — under a fifth of normal rate. This is why occupations and traits that grant weapon levels matter far more than their small numbers suggest.
Worked examples
| Situation | Calculation | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Carpentry, no trait or occupation | 0.25 | ×0.25 |
| Carpenter occupation (Carpentry 4 → boost ≥3) | 1.66 | ×1.66 — 6.6× faster |
| Carpenter + Carpentry Vol 1, finished (levels 1–2) | 1.66 × 3 | ×4.98 |
| Carpenter + Carpentry Vol 5, finished (levels 9–10) | 1.66 × 16 | ×26.6 — the biggest number in the game |
| Same book only half read | 1.66 × (5 × 16/10) | ×13.3 — it ramps in tenths |
| Axe, untrained | 0.25 × 0.75 | ×0.1875 |
| Lumberjack (Axe 2 → boost 2) | 1.33 × 0.75 | ×0.998 — 5.3× faster |
| Strength, any build, protein 50–300 | 1.0 × 1.5 | ×1.5 (boost exempt) |
| Sprinting with Runner (boost 1) | 1.25 | ×1.25 (special case) |
What this means for building a character
- A level-1 trait in a skill you'll actually use is worth far more than it looks — 4× learning rate for the whole run, for as little as 2 points.
- Level 3 is the ceiling. Boost 3 and boost 10 both give ×1.66, so any occupation pushing a skill past 3 is buying levels with no rate attached.
- Never buy Strength or Fitness for the XP rate — they're exempt from the system. Buy them for the starting stat.
- Weapon skills are the slowest in the game. If you plan to fight, a weapon-skill trait or occupation pays back more than the same points spent elsewhere.
- Books stack with everything, so read before you grind — that part is available to every build.
- Keep protein between 50 and 300 if you're training Strength. More is not better.
Do the XP boosts stack?
Yes — all of them multiply together. One routine reads every source and multiplies them in a single pass: the perk boost (read from your character sheet, itself proof it is fixed at creation), the book multiplier (bounded by the level band the book covers), the sandbox global, and protein for Strength. Nothing overrides anything else.
The real perk-boost multipliers are not what the UI shows
| Starting level | UI shows | Actual multiplier | Relative to starting at 0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | nothing | ×0.25 | baseline — quarter rate |
| 1 | +75% | ×1.0 | 4× faster |
| 2 | +100% | ×1.33 | 5.3× faster |
| 3+ | +125% | ×1.66 | 6.6× faster |
Much bigger than the UI implies. Starting a skill at 0 is not “no bonus” — it is a quarter rate, permanently. A trait granting just level 1 makes you learn that skill 4× faster for the whole run; level 3 makes it 6.6×.
It also settles the 75/100/125 vs 133/166 conflict flagged earlier: both are real. 0.25 / 1.33 / 1.66 are the applied multipliers; 75 / 100 / 125 is a display convention.
It also settles the 75/100/125 vs 133/166 conflict flagged earlier: both are real. 0.25 / 1.33 / 1.66 are the applied multipliers; 75 / 100 / 125 is a display convention.
Why the character screen shows different numbers
What the game actually applies:
Boost 0×0.25unless the skill is exempt from the penalty
Boost 1×1.0×1.25 for Sprinting
Boost 2×1.33unless the skill is exempt from the bonus
Boost 3 or more×1.66the ceiling
No boost at all×0.25
The UI percentage is the absolute increase over the 0.25 base — and it only lines up at level 1:
| Boost | Actual | Increase over 0.25 | UI shows | Match? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ×1.00 | +0.75 → +75% | +75% | exact |
| 2 | ×1.33 | +1.08 → +108% | +100% | understated |
| 3+ | ×1.66 | +1.41 → +141% | +125% | understated |
Those strings would be exact if the multipliers were 0.25 / 1.00 / 1.25 / 1.50 — a clean +0.25 ladder. The real constants are 1.33 and 1.66, so the most likely story is that the multipliers were buffed at some point and the wording on the screen was never updated to match. The character screen is understating your bonus.
That last part is a guess about the game’s history; the rates themselves above is decoded fact.
Also note Sprinting is special-cased — at boost level 1 it gets ×1.25 where every other skill gets ×1.0.
That last part is a guess about the game’s history; the rates themselves above is decoded fact.
Also note Sprinting is special-cased — at boost level 1 it gets ×1.25 where every other skill gets ×1.0.
Other multipliers in the same method
| Multiplier | Applies to |
|---|---|
| ×1.5 | Protein balance between 50 and 300 — Strength only |
| ×0.7 | Protein balance below −300 — Strength only |
| ×0.75 | All weapon skills — Short Blade, Long Blade, Short Blunt, Long Blunt, Spear, Axe |
| ×1.25 | Sprinting specifically |
| ×1.3 · ×0.7 | Some skills are exempt — Strength and Fitness take neither, and Sprinting takes no penalty |
Consequence: weapon skills carry a ×0.75 on top of everything else. Combined with a level-0 start (×0.25) that is 0.1875× rate — which is why occupations and traits granting weapon levels matter far more than their small numbers suggest.
Reading speed
Multipliers applied to reading time sequentially, so they stack multiplicatively:
| Modifier | Multiplier | Exact condition in code |
|---|---|---|
| Fast Reader | ×0.7 | The Fast Reader trait |
| Slow Reader | ×1.3 | The Slow Reader trait |
| Reading Glasses | ×0.9 | Reading Glasses worn on your eyes — only this exact item, not sunglasses |
| Sitting | ×0.9 | Sitting on any furniture, or on bare ground |
Slow Reader + Reading Glasses + sitting = 1.3 × 0.9 × 0.9 = 1.053. A 5.3% penalty instead of 30% — the trait is effectively cancelled for 2 free points.
Fast Reader + glasses + sitting = 0.7 × 0.9 × 0.9 = 0.567, about 43% faster than baseline.
Chair comfort is irrelevant — the check is a boolean on sitting state.
Fast Reader + glasses + sitting = 0.7 × 0.9 × 0.9 = 0.567, about 43% faster than baseline.
Chair comfort is irrelevant — the check is a boolean on sitting state.
Exercise
Relative rate = (60 ÷ seconds-per-rep) × XP per rep, normalised to squats.
| Exercise | XP per rep | Sec / rep | Relative rate | Stiffness | Gear |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell press | 1.8 | 1.5 | 3.60× | arms | Dumbbell |
| Biceps curl | 1.8 | 1.9 | 2.84× | arms | Dumbbell |
| Push-ups | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.31× | arms, chest | — |
| Sit-ups | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.31× | abs | — |
| Barbell curl | 1.2 | 2.2 | 1.64× | arms, chest | BarBell |
| Squats | 1.0 | 3.0 | 1.00× | legs | — |
| Burpees | 0.8 | 2.4 | 1.00× | legs, arms, chest | — |
This overturns the common advice that squats are the efficient pick. Squats have the longest rep period in the game (3.0s) at only 1.0 XP per rep — tied with burpees for the worst rate. Sit-ups and push-ups are 2.3× better and need no equipment. Squats' only real advantage is that soreness lands in your legs instead of your arms.
Metabolics: squats, push-ups and sit-ups are the light exercises; burpees, barbell, dumbbell and biceps are the heavy ones and burn more calories. The game gives the modifier and the timing, not an absolute XP figure, and does not say how it splits between Strength and Fitness.
Fitness Instructor and Fire Officer are special-cased in the regularity system — they lose condition more slowly.
Fitness Instructor and Fire Officer are special-cased in the regularity system — they lose condition more slowly.
Strength & Fitness decay
These are the only two skills in the game that decay. Each carries a laziness timer starting at −50,000. Every Strength/Fitness XP gain subtracts 3,000 (floored at −50,000). The timer climbs every ten in-game minutes. Past 20,000 you begin losing XP, and the game will take whole levels back off you. It caps at 31,000 then resets — the dev comment says this is so "it's not so long to get in shape again."
Practical: climbing out of Weak or Out of Shape isn't one-and-done. Keep some exercise or heavy-load carrying in the routine or you slide back down the ladder.
Practical: climbing out of Weak or Out of Shape isn't one-and-done. Keep some exercise or heavy-load carrying in the routine or you slide back down the ladder.
Passive XP sources
Each fires on a random roll — roughly 1 in 700 in single-player, and 1 in 100 on a server, which is why passive skills climb seven times faster there.
| Action | XP granted |
|---|---|
| Running / sprinting above the endurance warning | +1 Fitness and +1 Sprinting (separate rolls) |
| Carrying over 50% of max weight while moving | +2 Strength — the pack-mule method, confirmed |
| Hitting a tree with a weapon (bare hands excluded) | +2 Strength |
| Aiming while moving (anti-AFK checked) | +1 Nimble |
| Any melee swing above the endurance warning | +1 Fitness |
| Melee hit | Strength XP = number of targets struck — wide swings into groups train it fastest |
| Ranged hit while Aiming < 5 | Aiming XP × 2.7 |
| Weapon hit | Axe/Blunt/Spear/LongBlade/SmallBlade/SmallBlunt XP = damage × 0.9, capped at 3 |
Auto-learned recipes by skill level
Inventive adds +1 effective level to every threshold below.
| Skill | Level | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Farming | 10 (9 with Inventive) | All crop growing seasons |
| Mechanics | 8 / 9 / 10 | Basic / Intermediate / Advanced Mechanics |
| Electrical | 3 (2 with Inventive) | Generator |
Per-level stat curves
Measured by players, not read from the game's files. The game works these per-level numbers out while it runs and never lists them, so treat them as close rather than exact.
Strength
Governs: melee damage · push knockback & knockdown · maximum carry weight · block chance · forcing locked windows · climbing tall fences.
| Level | Carry cap | Melee dmg | Push knockdown | Block | Tall fence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 6 | 75% | 45% (Puny) | +0% | +0% |
| 1 | 7 | 80% | 48% (Puny) | +2% | +2% |
| 2 | 8 | 85% | 85% | +4% | +4% |
| 3 | 9 | 90% | 90% | +6% | +6% |
| 4 | 11 | 95% | 95% | +8% | +8% |
| 5 | 12 | 100% | 100% | +10% | +10% |
| 6 | 14 | 105% | 105% | +12% | +12% |
| 7 | 15 | 110% | 110% | +14% | +14% |
| 8 | 16 | 115% | 115% | +16% | +16% |
| 9 | 18 | 120% | 168% (Strong) | +18% | +18% |
| 10 | 20 | 125% | 175% (Strong) | +20% | +20% |
Strength is about knockdown, not damage. Melee damage only swings 75% → 125% across the whole skill (1.67× range). Push knockdown swings 45% → 175% — a 3.9× range, because Puny and Strong apply extra multipliers at the extremes.
This also means the tooltip figures "Strong = +40% melee damage" and "Puny = −40% melee damage" do not match the per-level tables. Trust the table.
This also means the tooltip figures "Strong = +40% melee damage" and "Puny = −40% melee damage" do not match the per-level tables. Trust the table.
Fitness
Governs: endurance loss & recovery · attack speed · chance to auto-push an attacking zombie · trip resistance · exercise speed · long-fall damage · block chance · tall fence climbing.
| Level | Endurance loss | Endurance recovery | Attack speed | Trip resist | Fatigue gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 90% | 70% | +0% | +0% | 100% |
| 1 | 80% | 80% | +2% | +2% | 95% |
| 2 | 75% | 90% | +4% | +4% | 92% |
| 3 | 70% | 100% | +6% | +6% | 89% |
| 4 | 65% | 110% | +8% | +8% | 87% |
| 5 | 60% | 120% | +10% | +10% | 85% |
| 6 | 57% | 130% | +12% | +12% | 83% |
| 7 | 53% | 140% | +14% | +14% | 81% |
| 8 | 49% | 150% | +16% | +16% | 79% |
| 9 | 36.8% (Athletic) | 155% | +18% | +18% | 77% |
| 10 | 34.4% (Athletic) | 160% | +20% | +20% | 75% |
Athletic is a step change, not a slope. Without it, levels 9–10 would give 46% / 43% endurance loss. Athletic drops that to 36.8% / 34.4% — an extra ~20% cut on top of the normal curve. Combined with 160% recovery, an Athletic character loses endurance at roughly ⅓ the rate of an Unfit one and regains it 2.3× faster.
Sneaking
Crouching applies a base ×20% sound radius before the skill multiplier. XP comes from crouching near zombies undetected — more zombies nearby means faster levelling.
| Level | Effective footstep radius | Detection chance |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 24% | 114% |
| 1 | 18% | 108% |
| 2 | 16% | 96% |
| 3 | 15% | 90% |
| 4 | 14% | 84% |
| 5 | 13% | 78% |
| 6 | 12% | 72% |
| 7 | 11% | 66% |
| 8 | 10% | 60% |
| 9 | 9% | 54% |
| 10 | 8% | 48% |
This is why Conspicuous (+4) is safe. It doubles detection chance, but Sneaking 10 cuts it to 48% — wiping out almost the whole penalty. And the trait forces you into the exact situations that grant Sneaking XP, so it trains itself out.
Lightfooted, Nimble & Sprinting
Lightfooted and Nimble both reduce footstep noise across all movement types and stack with each other and with Sneaking.
| Level | Lightfooted noise | Nimble noise | Nimble combat walk speed | Sprinting speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 99% | 100% | 100% | +0% |
| 1 | 90% | 90% | 110% | +5% |
| 2 | 79% | 86% | 114% | +10% |
| 3 | 71% | 82% | 118% | +15% |
| 4 | 65% | 78% | 122% | +20% |
| 5 | 59% | 74% | 126% | +25% |
| 6 | 52% | 70% | 130% | +30% |
| 7 | 45% | 66% | 134% | +35% |
| 8 | 37% | 62% | 138% | +40% |
| 9 | 30% | 58% | 142% | +45% |
| 10 | 20% | 50% | 150% | +50% |
Stacked stealth is enormous. Crouching (×20% base) × Sneaking 10 (×40%) × Lightfooted 10 (×20%) × Nimble 10 (×50%) compounds to roughly 1% of baseline footstep noise. Clumsy's +20% penalty is statistical noise against that. Nimble also gives +50% combat-stance walk speed at level 10 — the difference between backing away from a lunge and being caught by it.
Foraging — the full skill mechanics
Foraging is the one skill whose radius is driven by traits and occupations as much as by level. Per-occupation and per-trait bonus tables live on their own tabs; the system itself is here.
How the foraging bonus actually works
The one-line answer
Radius, not chance. A category bonus multiplies the distance at which that category becomes visible — nothing else.
Why it still feels like "more loot": vision is a circle, so area scales with the square of the multiplier. ×1.15 radius = ×1.32 area · ×1.35 = ×1.82 · ×1.50 = ×2.25 · ×1.90 (Park Ranger + Herbalist on Medicinal Plants) = ×3.6 the ground swept per pass. You genuinely bring back more — because you cover more ground, not because the dice changed.
✔ It is a radius multiplier
The percentages on your job and traits are added together and turned into a single multiplier — +50% becomes ×1.5. That number is used in exactly one place: how far you can see when the game checks the ground around you.
The percentages on your job and traits are added together and turned into a single multiplier — +50% becomes ×1.5. That number is used in exactly one place: how far you can see when the game checks the ground around you.
✘ It is not a loot roll
Nothing in the spawning or the picking-up ever looks at your category bonuses at all. Zone density, item rarity, month bonus and skill-level gating decide what exists; the bonus only decides what you can see.
Nothing in the spawning or the picking-up ever looks at your category bonuses at all. Zone density, item rarity, month bonus and skill-level gating decide what exists; the bonus only decides what you can see.
Occupation and trait foraging bonuses are invisible on the character screen — nothing in character creation mentions them. They are not skill levels, and they are not luck. They are multipliers on your search radius, applied per item category.
How the search radius is worked out
Start at 3.0 squaresthe floor on a well-lit square
Add 0.5 a square per Foraging levelplus any flat radius your traits and job give you
Cap it at 10.0plus those same trait and job bonuses
Multiply by every penaltypanic, body, exhaustion, clothing, difficulty, item size and weather — each capped, see the table below
Multiply by your vision bonusesaiming or sneaking (whichever is higher) × your category bonus × the hunger bonus
Hard ceiling of 15.0after everything else
In the dark, none of it matterspast 50% darkness the radius drops to 1.5 — you must be standing on the square
The category bonus raises your minimum radius too, not just the maximum. That means it keeps working in rain, in the dark and while exhausted, when the multiplicative penalties have crushed everything else down to the floor. It is one of the few foraging modifiers that never gets cancelled out.
How the category bonus is added up
Take your occupation's percentage for that category0 if it has none
Add every trait's percentage for the same categorythey stack, straight addition
Turn the total into a multiplier+50% becomes ×1.5
Occupation and trait bonuses add together, then multiply once. They do not compound. Burger Flipper's Junk Food +30% plus Keen Cook's +5% is ×1.35, not ×1.30 × 1.05. This also means the free trait your occupation hands you is part of your real foraging profile — see the combined table below.
Zone densities
Density controls how many forageable icons a zone holds; refill is the percentage restored per cycle. The base density multiplier is 20, and no zone holds more than 2,000 icons at once.
| Zone | Density min | Density max | Refill | Sandbox setting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Forest | 8 | 10 | 7% | Nature abundance |
| Farm Land | 5 | 7.5 | 5% | Nature abundance |
| Farm | 5 | 7.5 | 5% | Nature abundance |
| Forest | 8 | 10 | 7% | Nature abundance |
| Foraging Nav | 3 | 5 | 3% | Other loot |
| Town Zone | 3 | 5 | 3% | Other loot |
| Trailer Park | 1.5 | 5 | 3% | Other loot |
| Vegitation | 6 | 8 | 5% | Nature abundance |
Sandbox multipliers — Nature abundance: −75% / −50% / 0 / +50% / +100% · other loot: −100% / −95% / −75% / −50% / 0 / +50% / +100%.
Penalty and bonus caps
| Modifier | Cap | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Darkness | −95% | Past 50% darkness you cannot spot anything new; radius drops to 1.5 |
| Weather | −75% | Rain, fog, snow |
| Exhaustion | −75% | Endurance and fatigue |
| Panic | −95% | Fear, panic, stress |
| Body | −75% | Drunk, pain, sickness, food sickness |
| Clothing | −95% | Helmets, masks, glasses, blindfolds |
| Hunger | +50% | Finding food is easier while hungry |
| Trait/occupation resistance | 75% | Ceiling on stacked weather/darkness resistance |
Clothing penalties
| Body location | Penalty | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Full hazmat hood, full-face helmet | −75% | Head, face and eyes completely |
| Full face mask, breathing apparatus | −50% | Face and eyes, not the head |
| Mask with eye holes | −20% | Face, with eye holes |
| Sunglasses, eyepatches | −2.5% | Sunglasses, eyepatches |
Regular hats and bandanas carry no penalty. Combined clothing penalty is capped at −95%.
Other foraging constants
| Constant | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Radius per Foraging level | 0.5 | Search radius added per Foraging level |
| Minimum search radius | 3.0 | Floor on a well-lit square |
| Maximum search radius | 10.0 | Ceiling before bonuses |
| Hard radius ceiling | 15.0 | Hard ceiling after every bonus |
| Radius in the dark | 1.5 | Radius once the darkness cutoff is passed |
| While aiming | ×1.33 | While aiming — only the higher of aim/sneak applies |
| While sneaking | ×1.10 | While sneaking |
| Good month / bad month | +50% / −50% | Good and bad months for a given item |
| Base foraging XP modifier | 400% | Base XP modifier for foraging |
| XP falloff per level | 5% | Diminishing XP per level for items below your skill level |
| Endurance drain while searching | 0.015 | Endurance drain while searching |
| Floor on the item-size modifier | 0.50 | Floor for the item-size radius modifier |
Build 42: each Foraging level adds 0.5 squares of search radius.
Crafting & building recipes
Every craftable recipe in the game plus every buildable object, cross-referenced against the magazines, occupations, traits and researchable items that unlock them. Names are the ones the game shows you. Click any row for ingredients, outputs, XP and the full unlock chain.
The four unlock routes
Auto-learn, magazine, occupation or trait, and Research Craft. They are independent — most recipes have several — so each gets its own column and a dash means that one is closed.
| Recipe | Category | Level to craft | Auto-learns at | Magazine | Occupation / trait | Research at | XP | Makes |
|---|
Magazines & recipe sheets
Everything you can read that teaches a recipe. Reading one teaches its recipes permanently. Seed packets count — that is why the farming list is so long. Click a row for the full recipe list.
| Magazine / sheet | Recipes taught | Of those, unavailable any other way | Categories |
|---|
Skill books — the other kind of book
These teach no recipes. They apply a temporary XP multiplier over one band of levels, and they are the one XP boost that is fully earnable in game.
Books are the largest multiplier in the game, by a distance
Volume 1 → ×3 · 2 → ×5 · 3 → ×8 · 4 → ×12 · 5 → ×16.
Three skills run a slower ladder — Aiming, Reloading and Long Blade get ×1 · ×2 · ×4 · ×6 · ×8. Every other skill with a book uses the fast one.
It ramps in tenths as you read. You get a tenth of the multiplier for every 10% you have read, so a book 55% read is at 5/10 of its maximum and only a finished book gives the full number. Re-reading a book you have already finished adds nothing — a new value only counts if it beats the one you already have.
It only works inside the band. The multiplier only applies inside the levels shown in the "covers levels" column. Volume 1 covers 1–2, 2 covers 3–4, and so on — read out of order and the bonus does nothing until you reach that band.
| Book | Skill | Covers levels | Multiplier, fully read | Pages |
|---|
What each occupation unlocks
The recipes each occupation hands you outright at character creation. All 25 are listed — several grant nothing at all, which is itself worth knowing. The column that matters is Head start only: recipes you could not have got by levelling the skill yourself. Click a row for the full list.
| Occupation | Points | Recipes granted | Would auto-learn anyway | Head start only — no other route | Dead references |
|---|
What each trait unlocks
The same thing for traits. Click a row for the full list.
| Trait | Recipes granted | Would auto-learn anyway | Head start only — no other route | Dead references |
|---|
Reading the data
| Field in the scripts | What it actually does |
|---|---|
| Has to be learned | The recipe is hidden until something teaches it. Absent means it is in your book from character creation. |
| Auto-learn, all of | Taught automatically once you meet every listed threshold. This is why most "recipe bundles" are a head start, not access. |
| Auto-learn, any of | Taught once you meet any one of the listed thresholds. |
| Level to craft | A separate gate on crafting the recipe. Knowing a recipe and being able to make it are two different things, and the two numbers frequently differ — Make Bulletproof Forearm Armor is taught at Tailoring 7 but craftable from Tailoring 5, so anything that grants it early buys you exactly two levels. |
| XP award | XP granted per craft. Reduced by the usual multipliers. |
| Recipe group | Groups several recipes under one unlock key, so one magazine line can teach the whole family. |
| Where you make it | Where you can craft it — in hand, on any surface, or only at a named workstation like a forge or kiln. |
Where things spawn
Every item carries its own percentage
Per roll: its listed chance × 0.6. Filler ("junk") lists: × 1.4.
Every container makes a set number of passes, and on each pass every item on the list gets its own independent roll at its own listed chance, scaled by the loot setting. Nothing competes with anything else, so one common item never crowds out a rare one.
Dense zombie areas add a flat +0.006 to +0.8 percentage points on top — negligible for common items, enormous for a 0.01 item.
Per search = 1 − (1 − p)rolls. That's the column you want.
× 0.6 is every loot slider's default in Build 42. Change it below and the tables follow.
Best places to look
Item finder every item, every container
Zombie pockets
Every zombie rolls the base pocket list for its sex, plus one outfit list. One roll each.
Vehicles
Bags, cases and crates loot inside a container you find
Foraging
Two weighted picks, not a percentage
Category first, then an item inside it.
Each icon you search picks a category weighted by its zone number, then an item weighted by its zone number within that category. The percentages below are those two shares multiplied — the game's own maths, not a guess. Month, weather and time-of-day multipliers shift the weights before the pick.
Trapping
Two rolls, every game hour
Two rolls out of 100 have to pass: one against trap + bait + skill×1.5, and one against zone + skill×1.5.
Both must pass for an animal to join that hour's candidate list; one animal is then picked from the list at random. The trap only checks while you are away from it — standing nearby stops it cold.
Fishing
Weighted by your bait
Each fish carries a per-bait weight; the catch is picked in proportion to those weights.
Only fish valid for that water are in the draw: river vs lake, predators need a reel, and the fish's max weight must be under your level's size limit. Everything else is trash.
Harvesting — what you never have to loot
Looting is finite. Gathering is not.
A material you can chop, forage, dismantle, dig, farm, butcher or catch has no drop chance to beat — you go and get more.
Everything below is the game's own data: what a tree drops when you fell it, what an object gives when you take it apart, what the ground gives when you dig, and the foraging, farming, butchering, fishing and trapping tables.
A blank here is not "impossible". It means no chop, forage, dismantle, dig, farm, butcher, fish or trap entry in the files points at that item, so looting is the route the data knows about.
Dismantling — the real yields
Your skill level is most of the number
Chance per unit = the item's own % × (10 + skill × 10 + the material's bonus), capped at 100.
An object carries up to three materials and each rolls separately. Each material rolls its listed number of times (halved on a Small object, doubled on a Large one) and every roll is independent. At skill 0 the multiplier is only 10–40%, which is why early dismantling feels empty; by level 10 it is capped at 100 and you get close to the listed maximum.
Chopping, digging and picking things up
Farming — yield per plant
Armor & Weapons
Your skills
What sets your pace
Every XP award in the game is multiplied by your rate for that skill — and the gap between a good rate and a bad one is a factor of six.
Your job and traits add up to a boost tier and a starting level. Fast Learner, Slow Learner, Crafty and Reluctant Fighter scale it again. A finished skill book multiplies it once more, for the two levels that volume covers. A skill that nothing you picked touches earns at a quarter rate for the whole run.
Your character comes from your own game once the mod has been read; the bar at the top is where you set it by hand otherwise. The Build Planner is a what-if screen and never changes it.
Level planner
Every craft you can make at each level, A to Z, at your rate. Click a heading to sort, or a row for its materials.
Every craft that gives XP
XP that doesn't come from crafting
Foraging XP by category
XP is awarded on pickup to every skill the item lists; spotting an icon awards a third of it.