Do zombies respawn in Project Zomboid?

You may be wondering, do zombies respawn in Project Zomboid? Project Zomboid is a hardcore survival role-playing game set during the undead apocalypse, where you'll need to scavenge, find shelter, and level your skills to survive.

The game can be particularly brutal, especially with such high numbers of undead that can easily swarm you if you're not careful. So, check out our explainer of whether zombies respawn in Project Zomboid.

• Make sure to also check out our Project Zomboid beginner guide, which covers the starting goals you need to establish so you can survive for as long as possible.

Do zombies respawn in Project Zomboid?

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By default, zombies do respawn in Project Zomboid, but you are able to change this with the plethora of customisation options available, letting you tailor the game to your own liking. If you don't change the settings, 1% of the total zombie population in a cell (cell being an area) will respawn every 72 hours. 

To change this, you will need to select 'Custom Sandbox' in the new game menu. Select 'Next', choose a starting location, and then you can alter various settings related to the time, population, meta, and zombies. 

If you select 'Advanced Zombie Options', you will see the options that dictate the zombie population and if they respawn. 

Here are the particular settings you'll want to focus on for changing how zombies respawn, along with a description:

• Respawn Multiplier - The fraction of a cell's desired population that may respawn every Respawn Hours.
• Respawn Hours - The number of hours that must pass before zombies may respawn in a cell.
• Respawn Unseen Hours - The number of hours a chunk must be unseen before zombies may respawn in it.

If you want to stop zombies from respawning completely, you will need to change all the above settings to the value 0. Otherwise, you can increase or decrease it to your liking. 

If you do turn off zombie respawns, we suggest turning the overall zombie population up, which can be done with the Population Multiplier option, to keep the challenge of Project Zomboid. 

That's all for our breakdown of whether zombies respawn in Project Zomboid, and now you know they respawn by default, but this can be changed in the settings.

We also have an explainer of the Project Zomboid maps, which covers the four starting locations.