Skip to main content

Carpentry and Base Building

Securing a safe house is your top priority after surviving the first week. Carpentry allows you to barricade windows, build storage, and collect rainwater.

Leveling Carpentry​

You need high Carpentry levels to build useful structures.

  1. Read the Books: Never grind Carpentry without reading the corresponding skill book first. The XP multiplier saves you days of real-world time.
  2. Watch Life and Living: Tune a TV to Life and Living at 12 PM every day for the first week. You can reach level 3 Carpentry just by watching television.
  3. Dismantle Furniture: Equip a hammer and saw. Right-click beds, wardrobes, and wooden chairs to disassemble them. You gain XP and yield planks and nails.
  4. Saw Logs: Chop down trees with an axe, then use a saw on the logs to turn them into planks.

Barricading Windows​

A glass window stops a zombie for about three seconds. You must fortify your base.

  • Wooden Barricades: Equip a hammer, nails, and planks. Right-click a window to barricade it. You can place up to four planks on each side of a window (inside and outside).
  • Metal Barricades: Requires a propane torch and welder mask. Metal sheets provide significantly more hit points than wood and cannot be easily broken.

Keep at least one window on the ground floor unbarricaded but covered by a sheet, or use a door. You need an escape route if the house catches fire or gets overrun.

Essential Base Structures​

Once you reach Carpentry level 4, you unlock the most important structures in the game.

  • Rain Collector Barrels: Basic Rain Collectors (garbage bags and planks) require Carpentry Level 3. The larger, high-capacity Rain Barrel requires Level 5. When the municipal water shuts off, these collect rain for drinking and farming. You must plumb them to a sink below or boil the water before drinking.
  • Composters (Level 3): Throw rotten food in here. Over time, it turns into fertilizer for your crops and spawns worms for fishing.
  • Log Walls (Level 0): Log walls are the premier early-game defense. They require zero carpentry skill, just 4 raw logs and 4 ripped sheets (or twine/rope). While they are immensely strong early on, a max-level wooden wall built by a skilled carpenter will eventually overtake a log wall in hit points. Do not wait to build these. Secure your perimeter immediately.
  • Wooden Stairs (Level 6): Build stairs to access rooftops. You can build a base entirely on a roof and destroy the stairs with a sledgehammer, making you completely immune to zombies.

Metalworking Infrastructure​

Once you secure your wooden perimeter, you need to transition to metalworking for advanced fortifications.

Metalworking relies on non-renewable tools: a Propane Torch and a Welder Mask. You also need a steady supply of Propane Tanks to fuel the torch.

To level up your Metalworking skill efficiently:

  1. Grab your torch and mask, then head to an abandoned highway.
  2. Dismantle wrecked vehicles. This yields massive experience points and provides the raw metal sheets and pipes you need for construction.
  3. At higher levels, you can construct high-HP steel walls and metal barricades that withstand significantly more punishment than wooden equivalents.