Project Zomboid – 16 Best Mods for Improved Gameplay

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What sets Project Zomboid apart is its incredible and realistic gameplay and limitless mod resources.

Due to the numerous mods available for Project Zomboid, it can be time-consuming to try them all and determine which ones are useful and necessary.

Therefore, in this guide, we’ll show you the top 16 best mods for Project Zomboid.

Recommended Read: What Is the Best Exercise to Do in Project Zomboid?

We prioritize mods that improve the gameplay, add extra information about in-game resources, or reduce unnecessary actions, rather than mods that change the character’s appearance or add more weapons and vehicles.


Table of Contents


16 Best Mods in Project Zomboid

The mods below work well with the current version of Project Zomboid (Build 41) and should be compatible with multiplayer mode as well as other mods in the list.

Here are our picks for the 16 best mods in Project Zomboid!

1. Rain Cleans Blood

Rain Cleans Blood helps wash away the blood on the floor and walls when it rains or snows.

Bloodstains outside your area can reduce your FPS by adding extra yet unnecessary textures, which can be frustrating. Additionally, having blood around your base is ideal for cultivating negative moodles.

Thankfully, this mod solves these issues by gradually removing the blood, making it a must-have for smoother gameplay.

2. eris_food_expiry

In Project Zomboid, food becomes increasingly scarce over time, and the eris_food_expiry mod helps a lot in keeping track of what to eat first.

The mod’s UI is user-friendly and familiar, too. It shows you the freshness of your food with easy-to-understand bar charts and the exact day it’ll go stale or rotten, but you need to choose the Nutritionist trait for this feature.

If you’re the one who cooks for your team in a multiplayer game, this mod is a must-have, right up there with your cooking utensils. It makes sure your meals stay fresh and nutritious.

3. Better FPS

Project Zomboid mainly focuses on gameplay rather than fancy graphics or animations, meaning that most modern laptops and desktops can run this game well.

However, sometimes your FPS (frames per second) can drop, especially when playing online and using multiple mods.

Better FPS reduces the size of the zone (or your maximum vision on your screen) so that the game doesn’t have to load too many necessary resources, thus increasing your FPS and making the game smoother.

4. Minimal Display Bars

Minimal Display Bars mod brings up the bar indicators, allowing you to track the exact value of your current health, thirst, hunger, calories, and other moodles.

While you can also view these values by enabling Debug mode and following several steps, this mod shows everything without any requirements.

Turning our attention to customization, Minimal Display Bars also allows you to arrange the bar vertically or horizontally, change the color, hide or show any bar, and place them anywhere, according to your liking.

5. Common Sense

Common Sense simply adds improvements that are supposed to naturally occur but are lacking in the vanilla version of Project Zomboid, thus making more sense.

For example, the mod allows you to open canned food with a Knife or a Screwdriver or pry the garage doors using the Crowbar.

Common Sense also adds more recipes or allows more items to be repaired. As a result, you can utilize your tools and items more effectively.

6. Repair Wall

One of the most annoying problems that most of us have encountered after each battle with the undead is that we cannot repair the walls, even though we have enough tools and resources to do so.

With the Repair Wall mod, you can completely restore your walls to their pristine condition.

The repair process has a complete animation, allowing you to check the repair as it progresses.

The potential repair is based on your Carpentry or Metalworking skill levels, which benefits you significantly in the game’s later stages.

7. Grab and Drop

Grab and Drop implements a new way of picking up carryable items, such as Generators, Gas Cans, guns, and melee weapons.

This mod simplifies the grabbing process and lets you quickly pick up items with one assigned button and drop them with another, saving you a lot of time.

In addition, the mod also features other cool options, such as grab everything, auto-wear, and auto-drop.

These actions might not seem like a big deal when done once or twice, but they consume a significant amount of time as you progress.

8. Has Been Read

Many players find it tricky to remember which books they’ve read and how far they’ve gotten in each one, although it can be shown by moving the cursor over each book.

This can be a minor inconvenience with just a few books, but it becomes painful if you have too many.

Luckily, the Has Been Read mod adds small, helpful symbols like a “?” for unread books, an “!” for partially read ones, and nothing for finished books.

9. Just Throw Them Out The Window

After an undead invasion on the second floor, it takes a lot of time to manually carry the corpses downstairs to dispose of them.

So, Just Throw Them Out The Window lets you simply throw those corpses out with a new action added when you right-click on the window.

10. PZ-ClothingUI

By default, Project Zomboid doesn’t distinguish pieces of clothing from other items in the inventory.

This is a bit annoying, especially when you have several types of clothing and find it really difficult to manage and organize.

If so, look no further than PZ-Clothing UI, a mod that enables a special button to view and sort each piece of clothing according to its respective category.

For example, you can check how many shirts, jackets, or sweaters you’ve got to cover your body, or you can simply select the shoes that match your upper outfit, and so on.

On top of that, this mod simplifies the steps to equip clothes. Since all items are shown in the category, you can right-click on each to view all available options rather than scroll down your inventory to find the specific shirt you’re looking for.

To say the least, this is a game-changer for managing your wardrobe in Project Zomboid.

11. Combat Text

With Combat Text, you can easily see the current health of each zombie you’re facing.

This allows you to make strategic decisions, like targeting low-health zombies first, which can be crucial when you find yourself surrounded by the horde.

Besides, the mod also showcases the health bar in a different color depending on the specific type of damage. For example, the damage caused by the fire is shown in orange, while the others are shown in red.

This colored system provides you with even more valuable information during combat, thus allowing for strategic purposes.

12. Manage Containers

Containers are required to maintain the tidiness of your base and organize items effectively. However, it can be chaotic if you place things carelessly without categorization.

Manage Containers lets you assign category filters to each container, ensuring only relevant items are stored inside.

For example, you can configure a wooden crate to only store medical items. When you drag all items in your inventory to this wooden crate, only medical items are transferred.

13. More Description For Traits

Traits and occupations are essential, as they affect your character for the whole run. However, since the original explanations in the vanilla game are vague, selecting traits can be tricky.

Therefore, More Description For Traits is designed to comprehensively explain each trait and profession.

After installation, traits and professions show the precise values and disadvantages, allowing a better and complete character build.

Besides, the mod also shows the foraging stats for each trait and profession, allowing you to make choices that suit your playstyle, especially if you love the nomad style.

14. Show Skill XP Gain

Show Skill XP Gain shows how much XP you gain for each skill in real-time, which is extremely beneficial if you regularly exercise or craft stuff.

The mod is fully customizable. You can select which skill XP gains are shown, the number of XP gained or only show the green arrow.

15. Weapon Condition Indicator

Weapon Condition Indicator displays the current stage of the weapon’s conditions and notifies you when the condition is lower by blinking.

Moreover, the mod provides a convenient way to keep track of your ammo and magazines by showing them on your screen, eliminating the need to navigate your inventory to check.

16. Craft Helper Continued

Craft Helper Continued adds a new option, showing the list of available recipes that include your chosen item and other requirements.

The mod also works like an encyclopedia, offering details on every single item in Project Zomboid, saving you time on research and giving you a comprehensive look at them.

On top of that, the mod also showcases all recipes, and if you’re eligible to craft that recipe, you can instantly click on this mod’s window instead of switching to the default crafting window.


Those are the best mods in Project Zomboid.

Have any suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Binh Tran

As a game writer, my goal is to craft engaging, informative, and concise articles. Whether it's diving into the latest gaming trends or writing game guides, I'm always excited to share my insights with others.

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