Project Zomboid is an sandbox survival zombies game. There's no ending and unlimited possibilities how you want to play

If you're a newbie you found yourself frustrated while makeing yourself a character.
Firstable you've to chose your playstyle. Maybe you want to scavenge through the forest to survive? or have your own place in one of the towns?
The trait system is based on trait points. If you pick bad trait you will have more pints to spend on the good ones.
Best occupation for new players is Burglar that gives:
+2 Lightfooted
+2 Nimble
+2 Sneaking
The special abilities of Burglar are:
- Much rarely break window locks
- Can hotwire vehicles from the start of the game (in mormal playthrough you need 1 electrical and 2 mechanics skill points)
Most optimal stealth build is:
Negative traits:
1.Very Underweight (+10)
- If you eat a lot, it's easy to fix
2. High Thirst (+6)
- If you have a water bottle in the main inventory it's not a problem anymore
3. Slow Healer (+6)
- Just try to not get injured
4. Pacifist (+4)
- 75% XP of Melee and Aiming skill. This will be offset with the Fast Learner trait
5. Prone to Illness (+4)
- Just stay dry and warm
6. Unlucky (+4)
- Plenty of loot to go around in single player
7. Weak Stomach (+3)
- Just don’t eat rotten, burnt or raw food
8. Short Sighted (+2)
- If you find a glasses, its negates the trait
9. Slow Reader (+2)
- You can fast forward the game while reading
Positive traits:
Stout (-6)
With this build you will start with 7 Strength. Giving you a base carry weight of 15
Keen Hearing (-6)
See better behind you
1. Fit (-6)
- +2 Fitness that gives more stamina
2. Fast Learner (-6)
- 130% XP for all skills except Strength and Fitness
3. Inconspicuous (-4)
- 50% less chance of zombies spotting you.
4. Graceful (-4)
- You make less noise when walking
5. Dextrous (-2)
- Transfer items faster
6. Speed Demon (-1)
- Drive faster. This is the only positive trait for 1 point and its actually quite good
CAUTION: THIS BUILD IN BAD FOR COMBAT

Best location to spawn for beginning your adventure with the game is Rosewood and Riverside.
Riverside is the least populated city in the game that you can spawn in.
Rosewood is 2nd least populated city but you've Fire Department, a lot of houses and shops with every kind of loot.
If you pick Riverside, here are few tips:
- Best place for save base is a house in north-west direction from the center of town. It's close to river where you can fish for food in case of emergency.
- Gas station, Police station and Fishing store close together (Riverside do not have a fire department, you can download a mod from workshop that adds it into the game)
- You can break the doors into arsenal in Police station with machete, hammer or crowbar (not only these, theres a lot of weapons you can use)
- A lot of shops (with food, furniture, tools and books)
If you pick Rosewood:
- Best place to build your dream home are 2 houses at south-east of the School (The big blue building at east of the city)
- Fire Department and Police station are next to each others, you can loot them in one run
- a lot of book, medical and food stores
- You can break the doors into arsenal in Police station with machete, hammer or crowbar (not only these, theres a lot of weapons you can use).

Very important is NOT takeing everything from shelves etc. Your carring capacity is limited. If you carry to much you'll have more chances to randomly trip and eventually lose health.
Grab 2-3 water bottles, some food and weapons. If you find a backpack in the wardrobe equip it on your back, its very useful if you want to loot a building.

Most important rule of combat is "don't overestimate how much Zombies you can take". In situation where you attracted whole horde there's 2 ways:
- If you've guns or leveled skills enough (and when you're comfortable with combat) try to kill it but be extremely causious, theres a chance a zombie will be behind you and bite you in the ass
- run and try to escape (most optimal)
"What's the best melee weapon is?" you may ask, and i will anwser:
Best melee weapon is katana why?
- Kills zombies with one hit
but also have downsides:
- It's very rare to find
- Have low durability
Excluding Katana (in my opinion) Machete is the best. Later in the game you'll kill zombies with 1-2 hits. Durability is pretty good and it's weasy to find.
If you find yourself in a situation where zombies form a gigantic horde, a molotov is your best friend. You can loop the zombies into the fire walk around few hours and all of the zombies are dead for good.
Gun are good in combat, but be aware of using them in the middle of the city, they will attract a lot of zombies from big radius

Power leveling is mastering a skill in game (like carpentry or eletrical). I will show you how to master each of them:
Movement:
- Sprint - there's no mechanic to speed up leveling this skill, just run
- Lightfooted - Get into roof of an building, atteact zombies by noise, crouch and walk a couple of laps without being detected
- Nimble - it's not clear how to level it, the game says it's gained while sneaking, opening windows etc. but there's no XP gain from this activities
Combat:
- Blunt - succesfuly hit zombies with a blunt type weapon
- Blade - same a blunt
- Aiming - Shoot zombies with gun
- Reloading - Load and unload mags and repeat
Crafting:
- Carpentry - Cut down trees, Saw logs and then saw planks into sturdy sticks or just build/fortify your house or use the fastest way: Cut down tree, saw logs, pick some nails and barricade and unbarricade your doors or windows
- Cooking - Get a pot, fill it with water, put as many as possible ingredients into and cook
- Farming - Harvest plants
Survival:
- Fishing - simple as it sounds, just fish
- First Aid - Grab Needle and stiches, Take off your shoes and walk into glass. Pick out glass shards and bandage it, wait for wounds to heal and repeat
- Electrical - Take every digital watch, lamp, fridge, ovens and etc and dismantle it

After one month (on default setting) water and electricity will cut off (from day 0 to 30, it can happen between) You have to fin generator that's powered by gasoline and build some water barrels to collect rain.
Be careful with generator. If it's condition is below 50% theres a chance it will catch a fire.
Don't put it in building, it will gas you to death
After some time check a amount of gasoline, if it's 0, it will burn

Thanks for reading. If there's mispelling or something to improve the quality, you can comment below and I'll fix it. Peace