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Health and Medical

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Tactical Quick Answer

The Knox Infection has no cure, and the game never tells you outright that you have it. Watch for a Queasy moodle and climbing stress appearing unprompted alongside a rising temperature and draining health, which kills you in 48 to 72 hours on default settings. On those same defaults bites infect 100 percent of the time, lacerations 25 percent, and scratches 7 percent, so disinfect and bandage every broken skin wound and swap dirty bandages out for clean ones.

Injuries happen. If a zombie breaks your skin, you risk contracting the Knox Infection. This guide explains how to treat wounds and manage your character's health.

The Knox Infection​

The Knox Infection is a death sentence. There is no cure. The game's user interface will never explicitly tell you that you have the Knox Infection. A generic "Infected" tag on the health panel only indicates a standard bacterial infection, which can be cured.

The true Knox virus is telegraphed internally. Your temperature rises almost immediately, stress climbs within a few hours, and the Queasy moodle follows within about half a day. Build 41 named that first stress stage "Anxious", which Build 42 renamed to "Tense". Your health then drains until you die, which on the default Infection Mortality setting of 2 to 3 days means 48 to 72 hours. Reanimation follows death within a minute, and it happens no matter what killed you.

Different zombie attacks have different infection chances, rolled once per wound as the wound is inflicted. These are the defaults under the Transmission setting of Blood and Saliva, not fixed constants, and changing that setting changes all three:

  • Scratch: 7% chance of infection.
  • Laceration: 25% chance of infection.
  • Bite: 100% chance of infection.

The widely repeated 4% bite survival figure traces to the 0.1.6a changelog, which announced that a bite would "only infect 96% of the time... just to give you that bit of doubt." That was a stated design decision and not a bug, and the wiki's own note on that patch says it may never have shipped.

If you are bitten, your current run is over. Go out in a blaze of glory, or drink bleach to speed up the process. Note that dying early does not spare you the reanimation.

Treating Wounds​

If you suffer a non-zombie injury, or survive a scratch without catching the virus, you need to treat the wound immediately.

  1. Disinfect: Apply disinfectant, alcohol wipes, or a strong spirit to the wound to prevent regular bacterial infection. Build 41 used bourbon for this, which Build 42 removed from the game, so reach for whiskey, vodka, or rubbing alcohol on the current build.
  2. Bandage: Apply an adhesive bandage, a rag, or an actual bandage. Sterilize rags in boiling water first to reduce infection risk. Build 42 renamed Ripped Sheets to Rag, so both names refer to the same item.
  3. Change Bandages: Bandages get dirty over time. A dirty bandage increases the chance of bacterial infection. Remove it, disinfect the wound again, and apply a clean bandage.

Specific Injuries​

Different wounds require different treatments.

  • Deep Wounds: Caused by broken glass or severe attacks. Stitch these closed with a suture needle, or a regular needle and thread, before bandaging. Stitching is the fast route and not the only one, since keeping the wound bandaged for roughly a month heals it too.
  • Fractures: Falling from any floor above ground level breaks bones, as do crashes above 60 mph and heavy blunt weapon impacts. You need a splint made from a straight piece of wood and a rag. Left alone a fracture takes up to 60 days to heal, but a splint cuts that by roughly 10x and every First Aid level cuts it further, so splint it immediately. The splint is also the only thing that stops the ongoing health drain a fracture causes. Head and torso fractures cannot be splinted at all.
  • Lodged Glass: If you climb through a broken window without removing the glass first, shards get stuck in your skin. Pull them out with tweezers, or with bare hands if you have none, then stitch and bandage the deep wound underneath.
warning

Never run a generator inside a building. The game fills the space with toxic fumes and drains your health to 1, and stepping outside is what stops it. Vehicle exhaust is a different matter: despite a widely repeated claim, sleeping in a running car inside a closed garage is not modeled in Project Zomboid and will not poison you.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What are the infection chances in Project Zomboid?

A scratch carries a 7 percent chance, a laceration 25 percent, and a bite 100 percent, rolled once per wound as it is inflicted. Those are the defaults under the Transmission setting of Blood and Saliva, not fixed constants, so a server or sandbox game can change all three.

Can you survive a bite in Project Zomboid?

Not on default settings. A bite infects you 100 percent of the time and the run is over. The 4 percent survival figure comes from the 0.1.6a changelog, which announced bites infecting 96 percent of the time as a deliberate design choice, and it may never have shipped at all.

Does the Infected tag mean you have the Knox Infection?

No. A generic Infected tag on the health panel only points to a standard bacterial infection, which you can cure. The Knox virus shows up as a rising temperature, stress climbing on its own within a few hours, a Queasy moodle inside half a day, and health that slowly drains.

How do you treat a deep wound in Project Zomboid?

Stitch it closed with a suture needle, or a regular needle and thread, before you bandage it. Keeping it bandaged for about a month also works if you have no needle. If glass is lodged in the wound, pull the shards out with tweezers or bare hands first.

How do you heal a broken bone in Project Zomboid?

Make a splint from a straight piece of wood and a rag, and do it immediately. Fractures come from falls off any floor above ground level, crashes above 60 mph, and heavy blunt weapon hits. Untreated they take up to 60 days, while a splint cuts that by roughly 10x and stops the health drain a fracture otherwise causes.