Have you scratched your hand on some sharp glass and left a dirty bandage on it? Did you fall down in the forest and badly cut your leg? If your injuries are left untreated there’s a good chance your character can get an infection in Project Zomboid. But fear not! This is not to be confused with a zombie virus infection which is un-treatable. There are steps you can take to try to help your character survive a common infection. This guide will try to help keep you breathing!
Regular Infections vs Zombie Virus Infections
In Project Zomboid, your character’s current status is shown through a multitude of menus. One of the most important of these is the Health tab. This will show the status of each of your character’s limbs. Another important identifier are the Moodles which appear at the top right of your game screen. These are indicators which tell you important information about your character, such as their stress level, fatigue and more importantly, sickness.
Although these moodles won’t tell you when your character is infected, they will mention that your character is feeling sick. Your character’s sickness level, is also tied to the infection level. For example as an infection increases in severity, your character will start to get more and more sick. These moodles in order from least severe to most are; Queasy, Nauseous, Sick, Fever. The problem with this is that zombification will show the same symptoms as a regular infection so it can be hard to tell the difference.
If your character’s health is declining rather rapidly chances are they have gotten the zombie infection. If you’re sure you have not been bitten or scratched and the injury is from something else, then it is probably a regular infection and can be treated.
How to Treat an Infection in 4 Steps – Project Zomboid
The best way to treat an infection is to not get one in the first place. Every time your character has an accident and falls and has an injury, you should try to treat is as soon as possible. The steps that you should take when your character has suffered a burn, scratch or cut are:
- Disinfect the wound with some form of disinfectant
- Cover the wound with a clean bandage
- Keep your character well fed and get lots of rest
- Continue Changing Bandages
If you stay on top of all of these things you won’t die from a regular infection. That being said, if you leave a wound open (without a bandage) or leave a dirty bandage on, your chances of an infection will continue to rise. If you have an infection already, it is still important to keep the wound clean and covered.
Disinfecting Wounds in Project Zomboid
One of the best ways you can avoid an infection with a wound in Project Zomboid is by disinfecting the wound when it occurs. The earlier the better. The best thing that you can use to disinfect a wound in, unsurprisingly a bottle of disinfectant. Other items that can be used as disinfectant include garlic and alcohol. You can also forage and craft healing balms with the right medical skills.
To disinfect a wound, you’ll need to head to the Health tab. Here you will find detailed information about eat injury you have and on which body part. Find the body part with the injury and right-click the injury. This will open up the action menu. If you have an item that can be used to disinfect the injury the Disinfect option will be there and you can then choose the item to use. You can only disinfect open wounds so always disinfect before bandaging up.
Bandaging Wounds in Project Zomboid
As you’ve cut yourself it is a good idea to bandage up that cut. The sooner you bandage it up the better. There are multiple different items that can be found and crafted to bandage up wounds. Try to find good quality medical items like actual bandages and adhesive bandages first. These will always cause an injury to heal quicker as opposed to more ‘primitive’ bandages.
If you cannot find any medical items or are in need of a quick bandage you can rip up clothing and use the strips of cloth as a bandage. Find a clothing item in your inventory, right-click the item and choose the option to Rip Clothing.
To bandage an injury open up the Health tab once more. Instead of selecting the Disinfect option on the injury, we will open Bandage. You can now choose an eligible item to use as a bandage on the area. Try to save the good bandages for the big injuries such as burns or deep cuts.
Resting Off the Infection
So you’ve bandaged the injury as soon as possible and disinfected it as well but still have an infection? It happens. Luckily this still isn’t the end. Infections, if treated with the respect they deserve can be cured. Once your character starts an infection the symptoms will get worst and worst until your character either gets better or expires. The most important thing you can do is to make sure you have enough good food to keep your character well fed. A healthy, rested character will be able to get over any infection. (Well…. not any)
For this, you just want to make sure you have plenty of food stockpiled in a relatively safe area. This doesn’t mean your character has to be confined to their bed! You can still go out and walk around the world but make sure not to do anything too strenuous.
Your character’s health still may slowly degrade and even possibly get to the Fever stage. At this point, you should not really be doing any physical activity with your character. Keep them well fed, rested and wait fo the fever (and infection!) to pass.
Changing Dirty Bandages Continuously
Even if you’ve done all of the steps mentioned above there is still continuous work to be done. As time goes on, the bandages that you have applied to the injury will start to get dirty. This may be because of the blood or because your character is around outside. Just as in real life, in Project Zomboid bandages have to be changed. If you leave a dirty bandage on a wound it increases the chance of the wound being infected as well. The longer you leave a dirty bandage, the more chance you will get a new infection.
In the Health tab you will be able to see the status of a bandage that has been applied to an injury. You can see whether the bandage is clean or dirty. Dirty bandages will also have the text in red. To change these, right-click the limb and select the option to Remove Dirty Bandage. You can now apply a fresh bandage to the area.
It is also possible to wash dirty bandages and reuse them as well. Simply walk your character to a sink, shower or water source. Now, take the bandage off the limb and into your inventory. You can right-click on the water source and select the option to Wash Dirty Bandage. These can then be reused and it saves on wasting good medical supplies. This is especially useful if you’ve only sustained a minor injury and don’t want to use precious medical resources.
Hopefully this advice has helped keep your survivor alive just a little bit longer. If you’ve followed all of this advice and still have an infection and your character’s health is declining ,chances are you’ve been infected with the zombie virus. For now, just prepare yourself for the next playthrough…
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