My Final Positive Trait Tier List Of Build 41 Project Zomboid
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- Опубліковано 21 лис 2024
- Now that nothing should be changed until build 42 comes out I decided to do an updated tier list for the positive traits. Which one is the best? Find out on this episode of why am I writing this.
Mod:
steamcommunity...
Tier List Picture (Fixed hunter and Mechanic positions);
imgur.com/a/oZ...
/ retanaru
ko-fi.com/reta...
Thank you for including the trait names instead of just using their picture, it'll make looking at it a lot less of a headache
I’d have just preferred if he put the name at the bottom of a picture so it’s just a little clearer
totally
😅😢🎉😂😂😂😢🎉😮2ND Iaķ>ii
True
TIMESTAMPS:
0:37: Speed Demon (A Tier)
1:16: Cat's Eyes (S Tier)
1:30: Dextrous (S Tier)
1:42: Fast Reader (C Tier in Multiplayer)
2:06: Outdoorsman (S Tier)
2:35: Wakeful (S Tier)
2:47: Iron Gut (F Tier)
3:03: Angler (A Tier)
3:14: Baseball Player (B Tier)
3:22: Brave (B Tier)
3:47: First Aider (F Tier)
4:31: Gardener (F Tier)
4:48: Graceful (B Tier)
5:09: Inconspicuous (D Tier)
5:39: Light Eater (High C Tier / Low B Tier)
6:04: Lucky (D Tier)
6:30: Nutritionist (F Tier)
6:40: Resilient (D Tier)
7:00: Runner (High D Tier, near S Tier if versus sprinters)
7:15: Sewer (C Tier ("You either want it, or you don't care"))
7:40: Amateur Mechanic (C Tier, misplaced in D Tier)
8:03: Gymnast (S Tier)
8:23: Brawler (B Tier)
8:32: Cook (D Tier)
8:46: Eagle Eyed (D Tier (take Keen Hearing instead))
8:59: Fast Healer (C Tier (best if playing without infection or with a way to survive it))
9:13: Fast Learner (A Tier)
9:20: Fit (A Tier)
9:27: Former Scout (D Tier)
9:38: Herbalist (B Tier)
9:54: Hiker (B Tier)
10:19: Keen Hearing (S Tier ("Highest possible S Tier trait"))
10:29: Low Thirst (B Tier ("just for the quality of life bonus"))
10:54: Organized (A Tier)
11:09: Stout (A Tier)
11:16: Adrenaline Junkie (F Tier)
11:37: Handy (A Tier, S Tier if your class doesn't start with a maintenance bonus)
12:01: Hunter (Stated to be B Tier, but placed in A Tier (best trait for skill point to cost ratio))
12:22: Thick Skinned (D Tier ("if infection was turned off or survivable, it would probably be pretty good"))
12:42: Athletic & Strong (S Tier)
BREAKDOWN:
S Tier: Keen Hearing, Athletic, Strong, Wakeful, Outdoorsman, Gymnast, Dextrous, Cat's Eyes
A Tier: Handy, Fast Learner, Fit, Stout, Hunter (?), Angler, Organized, Speed Demon
B Tier: Baseball Player, Brawler, Graceful, Brave, Herbalist, Hiker, Low Thirst, Hunter (?)
C Tier: Light Eater, Fast Healer, Sewer, Fast Reader, Amateur Mechanic
D Tier: Thick Skinned, Runner, Lucky, Cook, Eagle Eyed, Former Scout, Inconspicuous, Resilient
F Tier: Iron Gut, First Aider, Gardener, Nutritionist, Adrenaline Junkie
why are you spending time writing this shit down? when people can just fast forward to the end?
@@magical389 I wanted to have timestamps so I could quickly go back and hear his reasoning for each trait while designing my next build, figured maybe someone else would too
@@JustMelsie Appreciate it, ignore that fool.
@@DantePetrizzo98 :)
how u bothered
Since you talked about how good runner is when playing with sprinters, I'd say the same about graceful: tripping with sprinters is a death sentence, and even 10 fitness characters can trip on a sprint jump (tiny, but enough that it matters on the long run, and it increses with certain negative moodlets I think), and every bits that reduces that chance helps a lot.
Definitely a good choice, especially since you will be around fences a lot while playing sprinters.
The best fitness possible has a hidden modifier that only i know of: +70 coolness on a LOT of animations.
S+ tier.
@@Lem_Nade_Music You mean the leap past fences (and the dramatic fall and triple roll if you trip)?
@@giacomomeluzzi280 exactly
nutritionist is one of those traits you should take on your early runs so you have an idea of the nutrition of all the different foods besides canned goods it also lets you see the goofy things like how candy is actually a good weightloss food
Agreed. For those who dabble in mods, there are a few that spawn a nutritionist magazine into the game, which give you the trait if you read them. Similar to how the herbalist magazine used to work.
There is a wiki page for that so it's better to spend your points somewhere else
I still take Nurtitionist every time because any amount of the game I don't have to have memorized frees me up for literally anything else more important in my life. "Just memorize the calorie values of the videogame food or google it every time" No.
same
@@JimJamTheAdmin
@@callmehugo3526I don't like to play a game with the wiki constantly open, but Fitness Instructor + Strong is a good build that already has Nutritionist for "free".
I didn't realize this at first, but Fast Learner combines really well with other xp boosts. For example, if you start with 1 level in Axe (such as by picking Brawler), you'll receive about 3 xp per zombie kill which is quadruple the base xp of 0.75. However if you take Fast Learner, you'll earn 3.9 xp per kill. The 30% bonus multiplies on top of the existing xp bonus.
Taking a bunch of the traits with the hidden increased foraging chance and reduction to darkness and weather is always hilarious.
Some naked person walking around in the forest in total darkness in the middle of winter with a pack full of food, weapons, and gadgets, they are finding in he snow without a problem at all.
Foraging / Searching has done pretty well for me so far, and I'm only just starting the game. I only had a wrench to use as a weapon, but I managed to scavenge up a random machete I found just lying about next to a laundrette.
i think dextrous is not just about that last min pick, its about something you do throughout the game aka inventory management which kinda saves you a lot of time and hassle.
Yes, it's less painful to move heavy stuff like sledgehammer. Also it's A tier if you use spears, specially for moving those tons of wooden spears out of the backpack lol
Yup.
Also if you're playing Spears or Axes with Stone Axes (which means you're going to carry a lot of them with you) managing your inventory is going to be waaaay less inconvenient.
100% agree, it's so cheap (only 2 point) yet can save a lot of time.
Good for looting too, loot fast = leave fast = reduce chance meta event screw your trip.
Yeah for 2 pts dexterous and fast reader aren't a waste of points at all, coward is a good trade for either. The problem with this tier list is that you can't judge positive traits without considering negative traits and occupations.
i played a character with the fat fingers/high hunger trait, and my character was starving faster than i could cook a pot of noodles lol
i spent entire days just going through my perishable goods trying to eat it all without dying
I just tested thick/thin skinned a few days ago. If you are wearing at least two layers of protection and the zombie attacks that part of your body, the worst outcome you can receive is a zombie biting through the top most layer destroying the patch, putting a hole in the clothing and then they will always be stopped by the next layer with no damage to it. It worked 10/10 times on all trait combinations. If you have one layer of protection or less on, a zombie can bite through the clothing and bite you or destroy the clothing but not bite you. The only areas of your body where you can have one protection layer is the heads and the hands, but helmets are bugged right now and will block an attack but not receive any holes/condition loss. For gloves it was also 4/10 success rate for successfully stopping a bite on the hands regardless of trait combo, but this might be a sample size error since I only tested hand attacks ten times. For having 0 protection values thick/thin skin works as advertised but the numbers are off. The wiki/mod states you have a 30% increase/decrease in receiving a zombie related injury, but when I let a character still and get attacked while naked 100 times from the front/back I got a 15% increase in zombie injuries from the front for thin skinned and a 9% reduction in zombie injuries from the front with thick skinned. I kept track of how many were a scratch/laceration/bites and I found no pattern here either. If you are attacked from behind it doesn't matter what traits you have, your gonna receive an injury anyway. I'm confident that thick/thin skinned are at least doing something for the character if your naked but I'm not sure if the games being janky like normal or if I just got a bunch of outliers for my test
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qoh4KCLuE60C2hw-6whgEuzhDmH9Ty__QF7v16a_ciM/edit?usp=drivesdk
Here's a link to the actual results of my test where I counted if no injury, scratch, laceration, and bites if anyone wants to read it. Maybe someone who didn't play league of legends through high school/college can read it and tell us a lot more than I can. Maybe the numbers are adding up and I'm just stupid or the sample size isn't big enough
The reason the wiki is off is because its quoting the multiplier directly. 1.3 for thick skin for example. Obviously the math is less straight forward than that, but there's really no other way to put it.
And the thing is, from the front, how much is Thick Skinned helping over being able to take an extra point in weapon skill for 4x exp gain and a higher defense bonus from that?
I knew some of the quirks with how traits function, but this video really highlighted just how many traits have weird mechanics behind them. That coupled with the knowledge from your other videos has really helped me when evaluating which traits I should be taking for my playthroughs. Thank you.
Use me as a "petition for negative trait tier list" button
Easy S for smoker
Well thats an easy way to farm ton of likes
@@mathewunknown8266 Ah yes, karma farming on youtube. genius
@@zaikolebolsh5724 Disagree because:
1. You need to carry cigarettes.
2. Availability highly depends on difficulty settings and mods
3. If you don't have them then you're slow at everything involving inventory management.
4. You need to hover your inventory then you need to right click on a cigarette and then left click on the smoke. I don't know how people like doing this task every fucking day. It's highly annoying to me.
5. You become a smoker. Scum of the earth that force other people to smell your rotten cigarettes. This point may be moot because everyone else is dead but i'll stand by it
@@fiskpojken a brother gotta get his dopamine one way or another
I always kept saying that anything related to taking damage or character's health is pretty useless, because you either never take a single hit or you instantly die
God. I remember watching the same video from you a year ago. It was so long ago.
The stream where I crashed like 3 times... good times.
I always take Graceful. I love the reduction in trip chance. And because I also always take Gymnast, I tend to get level 10 Lightfooted before long. You are practically a ghost when you are level 10 Lightfooted with Graceful. You can jog up behind zombies even on pavement undetected. Great for short blade instant kills.
@@anasheya7168 true. Graceful allows you to wear shoes inside and not be detected from outdoors even with level 0 lightfooted. I always wish there were quieter shoes that were worse at stomping.
I'm usually not a big fan of using speed demon or Sunday driver, but I have to admit that the speed that Speed demon gives you when trying to transport another vehicle is beautiful.
Makes trips that can take hours so much faster :)
(it's also dangerous to use it with deaf characters because the increased engine noise doesn't let you tell if it was a noise event or the car)
Imo even if speed demon can very likely screw you up, it's still satisfying if you manage to pull it off.
But I just can't with Sunday driver.
It's so unbearebly slow, I feel like I'd rather running.
My brother in Christ i don't think you'll be able to tell a lot of difference when you're deaf
When all the turns were 90 degrees I used to take Sunday driver as a positive trait because it kept me from driving too fast, but they made it worse and curved the roads so now I avoid it like the plague.
@@nerfherder4284 the roads are curved?!
Even on maps where speed demon is a death sentence, like the '10 years later' map where all the roads are filled with plants and junk so if you're not slow and careful you'll crash, I still feel like speed demon is essential, since if you're able to control it then it doesn't pose too much of a risk, and it's incredibly useful if your car is surrounded by zombies and you need to accelerate quickly right into them to escape
Disappointed that fast learner isn’t at the very top of S tier, it’s by far the most important trait in the game, for any build, and for any character life length. Even if you live less then a month.
There’s absolutely no point in not taking it, the extra XP is an unbelievable advantage, i haven’t made a single build without it since my first day of playing.
A positive tier list is useless w/o considering neg traits. If you take pacifist you gain less XP on all weapons, but fast learner negates those losses and buffs all others. In conjunction they are an awesome combo 👍🏻
@@nerfherder4284it is not (-25% weapon xp debuff + 30% fast learner exp bonus = 5% weapon xp bonus), it is ((100 base xp gain + 30 fast learner exp bonus) - 25% weapon xp debuff), which means fast learner and pacifist traits is not an op combo
fast reader is seriously underrated, it allows you to read books quickly enough for each and every show if you make it to a library and grab the necessary books fast enough, not to mention it's a crucial qol trait in mp
Ah you start with electricity on i see. But if you don't then..
@@kledonmushroomjuice643 Yh,just find the vhs from the vhs stores,which in fairness it can b hard tl find the ones u want
No matter how you look at it, unless you are taking illiterate, slow reader is lame, as is clumsy. 2 pts to waste your own life. I will trade coward for fast reader every time.
@@nerfherder4284 In multiplayer? maybe. In single player? You're fast forwarding anyway.
If you don't like fast forwarding to read books, take slow reader and skip the xp books. There's not really any time-sensitive demand for skill levels in PZ with default settings.
@@kledonmushroomjuice643 why wouldnt you, i also dont see the point to not playing with abundant loot tbh as did the entire population of knox county just eat all their food they had stockpiled in a single day or something? same with their gasoline and tools... Did they all just eat their sledgehammers, magazines and books?
Taking all the F tier traits, I want to suggest reworks for them all, and by extension reworks for their stats.
Iron Gut - Reduce chance of pain from overeating (Overeating should cause pain or some similar debuff, maybe it can make you slower because you can’t move around as much?)
First Aider - Rework First Aid to allow to cure various actual illnesses like colds (somehow idk how), use less medicine when taking painkillers, sleeping tablets, etc as you learn proper dosages, and being able to accurately tell how long your wound has to heal like how higher Farming skills give you more and more of an idea how long the food has to grow
Gardener- Rework Farming entirely; much less yield and no seeds until level 5 at least. It’s far too easy to just plop shit down and be set forever.
Nutritionist - uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh idk. Learn how many calories you have currently?
Adrenaline Junkie - Killing a certain amount of zombies grants you extra strength and fitness (can go above 10) for an hour or so? Something substantial for the amount of points it gives. Obviously killing more zombies resets the timer. Maybe something like 20-30? It would need to be fine tuned
i actually really like the adrenaline junkie one, but i think adding a temporary buff to whatever weapon class your using when there’s multiple zombies near you would be better
I personally think adrenaline junkie should only activate when your character has been panicking for some time and give you higher attack damage (to counter damage reduction from panic), rapid stamina regeneration, sweating and make your character ignore 1st stage of tiredness. And after there are no zombies left and your panic level goes down, it should cause a crash which would give you some additional exhaustion, tiredness and unhappiness points. Which would make this perk a great last resort option to save you ass, or a great option to mow down a horde with an axe.
Nutritionist is fine as is, but if it were Fitness Instructor exclusive or if there was a set of nutrition mags instead (that Fitness Instructor already knows) that would be fine too.
Easily hands down the best trait tier list since you have been testing soooooo many things in this game.
10:51 THANK YOU.
As expected, awesome tier list, unlike many others on YT.
I think fast reader should be higher, especially since it costs so little. Just because you can increase game speed doesn't mean actual game time isn't passing. I have every single skill boosted, so when I use that skill I actually get the bonus xp. I'm able to knock our my level 2-3 Carpentry book, while still finishing the others. I'm able to go to bed at 12-1:30 instead of reading till 3 am and can wake up at 7 and am out the door and maximizing daylight for long excursions and do other things around my base. I can get xp boosts for trapping, foraging, cooking, and farming early on. Things like cooking are easier early on when there is electricity for fridges and ovens. In the event I get a laceration or some other injury I already have the first aid boost up.
I'll give my opinion:
- Speed Demon: I would place it lower. I can't see it making much of a difference. Really, it's more that it's a 1 trait point and if you can fit it into your build, why not. If it can make towing a bit easier, and vehicles a tad more responsive, that's a cool bonus for one measly point. However, I wouldn't take it by default, driving is fine without it. Gotta drive slowly anyway to avoid dying from car crashes. And then, because of the sound radius thing, it's going to be a malus for most people.
- Outdoorsman: I would also place it lower. It's impossible to catch a cold anyway. It's a strong trait that does a lot of things at once, so for 2 points it has incredible value, but none of its bonuses do a lot anyway. Never catch a cold, barely ever get scratched (the goal is to always walk to to avoid trees), and foraging doesn't need the radius to be useful (or overpowered, even).
- Brave: I would place it lower given that it locks you from taking Claustrophobic. You might think it costs 4 points but it really costs 8. That's simply too expensive imo. I will place it higher when TIS fixes the microsipping exploit that allows us to easily negate Claustrophobic and combat panic.
- Gardener: It is indeed a crap trait, but it stands as one of the 'ok' traits to gain foraging radius with. Now I know I just said radius isn't needed for foraging to be useful or op, but I think it deserves a special mention for this, at least. D tier would be more fitting.
- Graceful: Instant S tier for me. Tripping is super bad. Holes in your clothes, scratches or lacerations on your legs and arms. Can't fight for a day or two. Worst case scenario, you get bitten while you recover. Sure, you can give wide berths to windows and fences to avoid zombies ever lunging at you. Sure, you can never jog vault a fence. But it's undeniable that windows and fences are the most powerful tools for killing zombies, especially sprinters. Graceful is insanely valuable imo. It deserves S tier 100%.
- Inconspicuous: F tier. Just trash. Costs the points that conspicuous would give, so 8 points for nothing.
- Lucky: A/S tier imo. It might not be a lot more loot, but it's more loot, which is always good. More chance for long johns, leather trousers, machetes, katanas, VHS, books and magazines. More loot out of the entire map. I played CDDA a lot with unlucky and lucky and I can say it makes a noticeable difference. Also, it's the best trait for foraging radius (.25 radius per point). Deserves to be much higher.
- Resilient: F tier, does nothing. Also costs more points because there's prone to illness.
- Runner: A/S tier, for everyone, not only sprinters. You're telling us how important fatigue and endurance and calories are. Well, the faster your character is, the less time it spends running. Less endurance used. Less calories used. Less heat generated. Less fatigue overall. The first level takes you from 90% to 110% speed, that's simply insane - 22% speed increase. I would kill for such a constant speed increase in any game. You'll reach first level anyway, but getting it sooner, and having subsequent levels sooner, is just too valuable imo. Other than endurance/fatigue considerations, less time wasted moving is also very valuable imo. This is the type of stat that goes mostly unnoticed, but is very valuable nonetheless.
- Tailor: D tier imo. Any skill increase traits are valuable, but tailoring is so easy to level by itself that there's no reason to take this. It's the same as Gardener, minus the foraging bonuses.
- Mechanics: C because it's pretty much like Tailor or Gardener but Mechanics is super annoying to level.
- Fast Healer: I would consider it F tier, but for people who play without infection I could consider it D tier. The entire point of this game is to never get hit. And honestly, wounds are not punishing enough even with slow healer. Even a deep wound will heal in a couple days without being stitched, it's ridiculous.
- Fast Learner: S tier definitely. Any xp increase boost is incredibly valuable imo. The grind in this game is a bitch. The less there is, the better.
- Fit: B or C tier for me. Athletic or nothing. 9/10 fit or 0 fit. Costs too many points to do almost nothing. Fit is incredibly strong, but 2 points is meh. What you're looking for is the athletic bonus. Spend 4 more points to get athletic please.
- Hiker: Same as gardener, former scout, tailor, etc... it's got some foraging radius bonus and a bonus for a skill that's either easy to level or useless. Trapping is useless and tedious, while foraging and fishing exist it has no reason to be in the game. So, D tier.
- Keen Hearing: I would make it A tier, not S. It's very good but simply not needed. It's for sprinters mainly. In a point-demanding build I would skip this, even when I'm fighting 24/7.
- Low Thirst: D tier 100%. It's good that it exists for the situational game where you intend to exile yourself somewhere in the woods with no water, but otherwise the trait is useless. Please, nobody take it when trying to make an optimized build. Get High Thirst instead, get 12 (12!!!!!) more points, get Strong with them, and use the extra 6 carrying capacity to carry one more 0.7 bottle with water. It's a no-brainer.
- Organized: S tier for me. More space in your bags, an entire more encumbrance point in your fanny packs (from 1 to 2), more space in your car seats, trunk, trailer, in your base. It's just too good to pass up imo, especially when 50% of this game is looting and moving items around.
- Stout: Same as fit, 9/10 or 0 imo. The strong bonus (for melee damage) is the entire point of increasing strength imo. B/C tier imo, not A. Spend 4 more points to get the actual amazing bonus.
- Hunter: Trapping and sneaking being 100% useless for me, the only good thing about this is aiming, short blade, and foraging radius. Too expensive for these bonuses. You can get short blades with burger flipper (which has 1 maintenance and is super cheap), and foraging radius is meh (this trait is amongst the worst for radius too). So really, this trait is all about the +1 aiming which you can't get any other way. Hence, 8 points for aiming. C tier for me.
- Thick Skinned: The most expensive trait in the entire game at a whopping cost of SIXTEEN points. F tier, utter trash, get thin skinned and buy something worthwhile with your 16 points, like strong or athletic. You get hit = you die in this game, never get hit no matter your bonuses. This barely does anything anyway by the calculations I've seen (something like, you go from 20% chance of dying when you get hit to 16%).
I agree with all the rest. You never have enough carry weight though.
Speed demon - agree, usually you take it if you have an odd point out.
Outdoorsman - agree
Brave - Claustrophobia is annoying to deal with, IMO. Brave itself is pretty meh, so I agree with that part.
Inconspicuous - because of the issues with it mentioned in the video or even despite of that? If/when it works properly, it can be useful depending on the settings you play with, and how new you are to the game.
Resilient - agree
Amateur Mechanic - the mechanic occupation gives it to you for cheaper. I guess it can be useful it you absolutely want what it's offering, but also absolutely want to have another occupation.
Fast Healer - the only thing it can be useful for is fractures, but it has so many downsides it's just not worth it.
Fast Learner - agree
Fit/Stout - 100% agree. No point in half-assing this.
Keen hearing - useful if you play with sprinters, and somewhat useful but not terribly so if you use guns. Otherwise, not worth it.
Low thirst - useless. On that note, so is light eater. With how calories work currently, I can sometimes barely maintain my weight even with Hearty Appetite.
Thick skinned - the idea that you should just not get hit is ridiculous. You are going to get hit. I can understand maybe not taking thick skinned, but taking thin skinned is just asking for trouble.
(no opinion on stuff I didn't mention)
@@LasherTimora Claustrophobic is not a problem until they fix the alcohol exploit (microsips). Absolute non issue. It does require exploiting though. But even after, I'll still happily carry beta blockers in my bag and enjoy the 4 mostly-free points. It is annoying not to be able to take brave with it, though. Brave's still pretty good. Cowardly is really bad. Neither is probably the best still.
Inconspicuous does nothing. If and when they fix zombie vision/stealth, it might be worth taking, but we'll see when that happens. It will be a pretty big rework of zombie AI. Ret's video on it clearly shows that it does nothing to help, I agree with what he says - can't gamble on RNG. What empowers the player is being able to predict the outcome of an action, and conspicuous does that - it is the actual positive trait and it gives points lol.
I might roll back what I said on amateur mechanic. If I compare it with tailor, tailoring is easier to level, especially since it requires much less clicking. However, mechanic is still pretty easy if you have the time for it. In solo, at least, since you can fast forward. Occupations are a different thing because taking one locks you from all others. So, maybe higher than tailoring, maybe on the same tier... doesn't matter much anyway.
I'm wondering why you think keen hearing is good for guns? Is it for the panic reduction when turning around? I would probably try to buy brave with the 6 points if that was a consideration.
For low thirst my opinion has changed since I wrote the comment. I figured out that even with weak stomach drinking tainted water at 100 thirst (the maximum) is not enough to make you lose more than 12% of your health. Like, seriously? High thirst all the way. *But* also I've played with layers and layers of clothes, and figured out that you are constantly thirsty when you wear the most protection that you can. So, for this kind of playstyle, if you can spare the points (like, you're going for a gimped 0/0 build), low thirst might see good value. However, I'm also now very dubitative about clothing. On one hand, it might save you from a ninja zombie you didn't hear in a corner of a room. On the other, the thirst, temperature, swing speed reduction (from the jacket), weight, and fatigue increase... that's a lot, when you're likely to die anyway because you're dragged down, fall from the 5th floor, or some other stupid thing where clothing won't help. I'll keep it at D for the convenience, but it should barely ever see any use.
For thin skinned, look at mgetjane's post on reddit old.reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/comments/10lrbm7/the_true_value_of_thick_skinned_and_thin_skinned/
Clearly thick skinned is shit and overrated, and thin skinned changes so little it doesn't matter. 12% less chance to die at most in the perfect situation for it - more like 3-4% on average. It's just too many points. 16 points! 16!!!
I agree with you, though. It is ridiculous to ask of yourself to *never* get hit, not even once in hundreds of hours. Then again, this is a ridiculous game, where any mistake, however small, can (and will) abruptly end your run, thick skinned or no. This ridiculous game asks ridiculous things of you, and as ridiculous as it is to expect to never get hit, it isn't ridiculous at all to *aim* for it. Perfection (or near-perfection) comes from asking ridiculous things of yourself, after all.
It follows the same logic as clothing: why burden yourself with increased thirst, temperatures, fatigue, weight, decreased swing speed, or in this case, 8 to 16 less points, for a hypothetical which you are not aiming for? When you're as likely to die from something that has nothing to do with clothing/dodge chance anyway?
I would rather unburden myself and focus on what matters most. Use the freed up resources to work on the absolute goal of perfecting my gameplay so much that I can completely avoid all run-ending mistakes. For thick skinned, the freed up resources can be used for traits that empower you 100% of the time like strong or athletic instead.
Finally! My life is now complete, until the next balance patch of course.
A nice way of power leveling cooking skill when combined with foraging (or someone high in foraging in MP). Collecting bugs that have a "uncooked" tag next to their name can be stacked and cooking these in bulk will level your cooking skill very fast when paired with a skill book.
I don't know if it was a placebo effect, but whenever I took Lucky, I would pretty quickly find something great, such as a large gym bag or rare weapon, and when I didn't take it, I couldn't find anything better than a purse and a kitchen knife for a long time.
The real deal is starting with nearly every negative trait and grinding yourself into a god
you don't take in consideration the amount of points some of these traits cost too much for what they bring, for example 6 points for low thirst is huge since it"s almost useless, it should be in F section.
Agreed, points are important as are the negative traits that can be countered with poss traits i.e. wakeful/restless sleeper, pacifist/fast learner and the like. Plus for 6 points High thirst is an easy take. Carry two bottles, done.
I know the devs don’t want to rebalance traits right now because the game isn’t finished, but man they could really use it. There’s a lot of 6 point traits that should be 2 points, lots of useless or misleading traits, and trait mechanics that are straight up not functioning correctly. I’d really like to see traits get some polishing
well it is a beta init
I tend to look at the forage bonus types and percents when deciding if scout or herbalist, etc is worthwhile for a build. Their usefulness will rely on the player's settings but those bonuses can outweigh the xp bonus since it's ridiculously easy to level.
The bonus should cap out 15 for foraging
Hey Retanaru, your previous tier list stream has a few noticeable differences in where you placed these traits. What has changed from your tier list streams to now? Playstyle? More experience playing? Philosophy? I'd love to know and keep up the S tier content
I don't know if this is the only reason for his changes (could also be the stuff you listed), but the game is still in development so traits are frequently impacted by changes. For example, sneaking used to not take more energy than walking, so you could easily level stealth by constantly sneaking so you'd get points every time you walked near a zomie. When they changed that, sneaking constantly became too exhausting, so beginning with sneak skills from traits became slightly more valuable to stealth characters. Changes in levelling, various checks, and items can significantly change trait balancing. Similar stuff happened to over and underweight recently because the way that hunger and calories interact changed drastically.
This man singlehandedly being the living wiki for zomboid
If his information is as accurate which, for some perks it isn’t. Like Fast Healer and Slow Healer don’t change the stage a wound starts at, it changes a value in the heal time formula from 0.8 to 1.2. Which is applied after the wound is given.
@@mythoceanas8874 Last time I looked at the PZ wiki it was worthless for what I needed to know. I've unironically learned more about the mechanics of Zomboid from Retanaru (and playing it myself) than from any other resource online, including the subreddit and the steam forums, both of which are actually ass.
@@KissyKaede and that is fine. The wiki has always been a bad. But it doesn’t change the fact that some of what he is saying is factually in accurate, which makes him about as accurate as the wiki.
I do realy like that even for some of the less desirable traits, you bring up situations in which it could be useful, as *most* traits in this game are worth taking, even for niche reasons that don't come up all that often.
great list, only one I disagree on is baseball player. crowbars and spiked baseball bats already have so much durability I dont think the trait is nearly as neccessary as the other weapon skill traits.
Sunday Driver and Speed Demon are like opposite traits. Sunday Driver dramatically reduces the likelihood of bouncing off a suddenly-spawning tree at 90mph.
Cruise Control is a thing. Meanwhile, if you bump into something (especially while towing offroad) sunday driver can straight up get you stuck. (not to mention how it makes hordes able to stop your vehicle fairly easily)
Angler B Tier. It's more of a "convenience" trait. For 4 points, you could easily just find the 2 books and just miss out on the other bonus's. Plus, you could always snag outdoormans and wakeful with those points. Handy should be in between A and B. You could always take repairman for 4 points. Gives a fair bit more across the board for only 4 points. Baseball player C tier. Brawler should be B tier. Although it costs 2 more points, does give you an extra bonus to axes. Axes are pretty much infinite. Brawler and Handy are the 2 most difficult traits for me to rank. Handy is great for maintenance, but its just so damn expensive. This is just my Opinion. No way reflects your rankings. I agree with your rankings! Amazing job.
***As a side not. No other youtuber is even close to the accuracy of this video.
i like lucky as i often do forage for goodies, its a renewable source of a lot of materials and food - and combined with the other S tier traits, you have a notably large forage radius that doubles as a multiskilling task for nimble. you can get entire boxes of ammunition, and its the only renewable source of long blades and other rare weapons (which show up slightly more often with lucky).
both burglar and veteran are highlight occupations with impact bonuses.
As a person who regularly starts with 0/0 strength fitness i think putting the strength and fitness traits on the same tier is really odd, in a little bit you will hit 6 strength naturally but fitness requires deliberate effort through the excercise system, what's even worse for fitness is the excercises favor strength with pushups seeming to be the fastest xp and squats barely being better for fitness than burpess while the latter is also leveling your strength it's just just so so much easier to level strength over time than it is fitness if you're going for a lomg playthrough
would've been nice to know this, I picked strong and unfit for my solo world, spend probably 20 ingame days (excluding sleep) just exercising to get lvl 6 fitness
He did state that fitness is better if you're forced to choose only one as stregnth is easier to gain.
@@kuronikou2586 i heard, i just think it's a much larger difference than a slight preference especially stout i don't think should be A tier it's pretty easy to naturally gain stout but getting to fit even from 5 fitness is hell
His take was basically "leveling them up is a unreasonable chore" and he's correct on that. You REALLY don't want to level these up. LVL 9 STR/FIT provide you with an insane advantage.
Plus, LVL 9 of them is the most important breakpoint in the game, because you get a multiplier for some of the stats they provide. Previous levels are not as good as LVL 9 and I can say good luck leveling them to LVL 9.
Getting underweight/weak/unfit etc. is a personal choice, self-challenge, not a viable playstyle if you're min maxing.
@@DezZzO_YT i just don't think strength is THAT hard to level i could possibly concede on the level 9 trait but the +2 strength trait seems awfull to me especially in the context of longer playthroughs, strength will absolutely go up but fitness won't, compared to traits that can't be gained at all like keen hearing gymnast for nimble or organized i just don't see how strength boosts can compete i'd rather take 0 strength for the +10 points and spend a couple days to get back to 5
really nice tier list as far as meta players are concerned, though i think brave is F tier as long as beta blockers exist and you're not playing on 16x pop. graceful and cat's eyes are surprisingly underrated traits for most people when they can be kinda lifesaving, but it's understandable since they're both really specific. cat's eyes might save you from sneaky blending zombies on certain terrain during certain moon conditions.
i think thick skinned is worth it if it were like 3 points IF the stats on that one reddit post are correct and it just translates to like an extra 12% chance to negate or reduce damage to its next injury tier(big w if it was a bite and it turns into lace); it's essentially just another layer of rng manipulation in your favor ala graceful in a similarly limited capacity. ideally you never get hit/fast climb fences/tall climb while threatened the entire time you're playing, but if you had points to spare and this thing essentially gives you another chance to positively these worst possible outcomes, it seems pretty worth it.
also i think SD should be S since it prevents car stuck horde on a decent number of cars as long as they're not towing and you're not like 10+ rows deep, at least until zombies proc their car deletion ability lol
I cannot see without cat's eyes. For me it's fundamental
I think you should do a video on lucky/unlucky since it's a trait that is heavily recommended by the community.
The problem with lucky/unlucky is actually showing what they do. I can show the containers and maintenance changes, but the rest would pretty much require showing decompiled game code and that's hell nah territory.
@@Retanaru there's people that decompiled the code and they still don't know what these traits do. They're a forever mystery I guess.
I know it would be a lot of work, but you could spawn in Rosewood and loot the fire station (only for relevant items - could be any other building also), 3 times with lucky and 3 without/with unlucky. A screenshot of your inventory in the end of each run for comparison and it probably should be enough to settle the issue
@@jspjsp3647 That is not a big enough sample size.
@@jspjsp3647 Settle what exactly? Inventory container loot is the easily proved part. It's all of the rest of the mythic qualities people give lucky that needs proven.
Lootzed gives you the exact spawn chances of items in containers with and without lucky in real time.
I learned the iron gut thing after eating a rotten apple by accident when moving it to compost. Said "eh screw it I'll be fine so got iron gut".... Few minutes later I was dead.
Its way to easy to die from some rotted fruit or something. Irl we are quite resistant to off food
Rotten apples don't kill you. Rotten apples only raise boredom and unhappiness. Only poisonous berries or mushrooms will kill you.
Actually, a character with a 0.01 chance to be spotted per check has a 1 - (1 - 0.01)^100 chance of being spotted in 100 checks, which works out to a 63.4% chance of being spotted. Some example values (% chance of being spotted | % chance in 100 checks):
50% | >99.99%
25% | >99.99%
10% | >99.99%
5.0% | 99.41%
2.5% | 92.05%
1.0% | 63.40%
0.5% | 39.42%
Here's the general insight, without drawing too many conclusions because I don't know at what rate the game makes checks for zombies to spot you, or what the baseline chance of detection is. Because this is all probability, you will almost always pull some fraction of the group you want to sneak past (if you walk in their LOS), so have a plan for dealing with those stragglers without drawing the horde. Maybe get more familiar with your short blades.
I’d really love to see you test thick skinned. I’ve been taking it because of the targeting priority bug. When my shove or swing goes through a zombie and hits one behind it, my hope is that it might let me dodge infection sometimes when the nearer zombie gets its free hit and clamps down on me. I just don’t know if it’s actually doing anything for me though.
IMO thick skinned is just unreliable and waste of points, once I had thick skin + wear full leather patched armors but still got bite from front, it went through 4-5 layers of defend just from 1 single attack.
Basically best defensive is just don't get attack in the first place, if you failed to do that just hope and pray. Maybe some armors & thick skin can add more survival chance but you can still failed if got unlucky.
@@Aka_bara This. Also what doesn't help is armor slows you down. Slower you are the easier you are to grab and the more often that armor will see action over if you wore just shirt and pants with best drip without any modifier. In fact during summer it's entirely viable to walk around without clothing. The only ones you need are shoes and gloves, the rest is just extra weight until you temperature starts to drop. Additional advantage is you don't get overheated as quickly while running/fighting, an activity I do quite often and the less micromanaging of my water containers I have to do the happier I am.
Your math is off with visual stuff at 5:30. Checking 100 times is only a 63% chance to get spotted within one second, 87% chance of getting spotted within two seconds, and a 95% chance within three seconds.
a 50% spot reduction means a 39% chance within one second, a 63% chance within two seconds, 78% chance within three, 87% chance within four.
Either way though 39% chance is still really high. It's one of those traits where on paper it sounds good, for example peeking around a corner for half a second would alert only two zombies instead of four which is much more manageable.....but in actual gameplay situations like that are extremely rare.
How are you calling Brave a late bloomer trait? Since Brave is less effective later because of desensitization, it is better off earlier until your fear is reduced.
Hunter is great for gun players. Short blade makes a great back up weapon as you can fit most of them on your belt. It does really low damage initially but once you start getting levels in it it kills really quickly. Also the low stamina cost means you have more stamina to run around to reposition once you are ready to shoot again
main problem with cooking recipes is that all the interesting foods (burgers, pizza, cake) that you make with the cooking recipe rely largely on perishable foods that are no longer a thing a month into the game when the power fails and all those freezers are now holding rotten beef.
You don't need those recipes to open canned food and make chili + potato + carrot stir fry.
Wakeful sort of has a downside, it can make your sleep schedule wonky and sometimes necessitate using vitamins where you otherwise wouldn't need too. Your sleep pattern will start to shift.
Only if taken with restless sleeper is it useful, otherwise you are right, it has severally screwed up every game I've chosen it for. If you choose it and restless sleeper you net +4 pts
The alarm feature in clocks and watches are good to have if you have wakeful
you recover from fatigue, tiredness and other negative traits faster, it isn't only the number of hours slept
Trait tier lists are the best PZ content in existence
It would be nice to see your cover what exactly zomboid lore settings do, such as hearing and sight. The game's a tiny bit vague and they don't seem to do much.
I found a niche use for iron gut. I managed to survive a winter eating rotten food and using lemon grass to not die. The iron gut helped reduce the amount of lemon grass I needed. I wouldn't say it's the best survival method but it worked.
Speed Demon is the only trait I gave a flat out "NOPE" to when looking over them. Like I figure I'd just end up wrecking more cars if I went that much faster, not to mention the louder reversing.
In hindsight though, I probably should have flat out rejected more of them.
Good video! Thank you for being so concise
Eagle eye has a hidden downside of not being able to take short sighted which is free points
personally i like inconspicuous, as I'm often fighting large numbers of zombies and you can really see how often they get thrown off by it. this allows me to control dangerous situations a lot safer. I do think it should basically always be coupled with graceful, since sound ruins the visual check pass without fail.
You should actually look up what Inconspicuous does. It's extremely unreliable and likely has never actually saved you.
@@ARTEMISXIX not sure why you said that! i know retanaru's video about it too. I think the best use and demonstration of Inconspicuous happens with a large number of zombies in a combat situation. some of them they'll walk right past you, you'll need to alert them on purpose to get a response.
how useful that is? probably not very. but myself, i like it and the results and fun have been to my benefit.
Alternative to speed demon, just yank the car behind you. Stop, back up, and yank, and repeat
while reversing with speed demon you could try to keep your RPM low, since the lower the RPM the lower the noise the engine makes
if you have that one mod that makes car physics better (and lets you use manual transmission) you can apply this to normal driving as well.
I did find a use for Adrenaline Junkie, by combining with Runner and dealing with all sprinters. The 10% boost is just enough to give me enough speed to outrun sprinters. The trick being that if I get far enough ahead of them that I can't see them behind me, I calm down and then they catch up!
To be fully fair, if you're aggroing that many sprinters and have to run from them constantly, you're doing something wrong indeed. Plus if you know how panic works, you know that simply running from them would lower your panic in a short bit making this trait not work. Just get more levels into sprinting if you really want to play catch-up with sprinters (not recommended, very unwise stamina usage)
That spawn at the start could be a really cool role playing spawn tho
There are so many players that underestimate the power of Keen Hearing, especially when runs go horribly wrong and you have to fight off a town of zombies while on foot. Once that house alarm goes off, you don't have a lot of time to 'check your surroundings'.
Overall I agree with the tier-list and it's made me re-evaluate my character build. I would like to make note of some specific traits however; Speed Demon I am mixed on. I love it but can't stand it at the same time; I love it for the obvious reasons I can't stand it because of the noise your car makes. I love cars, I love driving and cars are crucial to me so that's a big downside. I'd still put it high on the list. Organized I would put in S tier easily especially if you're a loot goblin and you're driving a vehicle with the highest cargo capacity. This trait makes it even more worth it. Thick Skinned I'd put in F tier no problem - it's as you said if you don't get hit in the first place. Handy I would put in S tier because it offers you something throughout the whole game that most of these traits lack - so any trait with that characteristic I put in S tier. Such as that and Organized or Keen Hearing etc.
can you do a video on walls and defenses? I adore your videos
There's a similar video in the pipe.
What do you think about the actual in-game time saved from fast reader? The real life time saved might not be that big of a difference when you fast-forward, but if you end up reading more than a few books I'd imagine it would add up, especially if you die and don't want to reset the world.
Edit: You forgot to mention that Organized saves you crate space in base since the trait applies to every "container".
Slow Reader is the way. You only read any given book once, assuming you don't die.
I'm biased, but honestly I prefer fast reader more than slow reader.
Like, please done with the book already, I want to play the game.
Slow reader SUCKs, 2 pts ain't worth it at all, same with clumsy. Organized is a great trait because it can make a car trunk way more useful meaning less loot runs and risk of dying.
@@drumlessons833 You didn't actually respond to me, but okay.
Factor in how productive you want to be before max ramp, assuming default settings. You can manage your levels and reading to line up with TV; iirc VHS stacks with seeing the live episodes, but I could be wrong.
Another thing about Organized, it lets you fit large items into your car trunk that wouldn't normally fit there, like Refrigerators, water dispensers and ovens.
Angler is an F tier trait, not because fishing is trash, but because fishing is wayyyy too overpowered. At 0 fishing with a wooden spear you can easily catch enough fish to gain weight by just fishing at the right times, unless you're feeding a squad in multiplayer i can't imagine a need for it for 4 trait points
The nice thing about Amateur Mechanic is that leveling it past the first few levels is slow and grindy, and any trait or profession that starts you with skill bonuses will give you XP gain bonuses for that skill, forever. This means Amateur Mechanic is not just a small head-start on the Mechanics skill, it also forever makes leveling it faster.
Definitely B tier in my opinion.
Eagle eye is an S tier when you play against sprinters, specially at night when your vision cone gets reduced. You always have to spot those bastards as farther you can, specially when they do the curve attack.
I wish first aid was more useful. I think it would be cool if they added a more in depth sickness system, like influenza, fever, etc, where people with a high medical skill can conjure up medicines with herbs and such.
Organized is S tier for me. The time spent gathering or making new storage spaces is an annoyance I like to minimize as much as possible, same reason I take it alongside Dextrous and Fast Reader.
Nooooooooo. Adrenaline junkie was so much fun! It allowed you to outsprint some cars when panicked, and now you can't even get panicked properly a month in. Absolute tragedy.
i remember seeing a post about speed demon using a bit more fuel then no perk too
Thick skin has saved my “skin” so many times I always use it
Look I'm a foraging shill. Lucky gives a solid boost to forage radius. It should at least match Farming for tier. Idc if farming goes up or down but you done my boy Lucky dirty
Foraging is as good as it is already, more boosts to it are costly and not worth it
For me playing single player with a mod that shows exactly how many calories my character has, nutritionist is a great skill to get. I know if the food I'm about to eat is going to tip me over to gaining weight and by how much - which translates to conserving food over the long term. And it lets me take an educated guess about how much food I need to bring with me during the day and for longer trips.
After playing with it for a while you memorize the types of food and you don't need it anymore (I used to play with it when I started too). Also even with food set on the rarest setting (and mods to make it even rarer) food should never be an issue. After a week i always end up running out of storage space for it anyway (you don't need 3 full crates of canned good). You don't need to min max your food once you get more experience with the game so this trait become a waste of point after a while.
If u are good take axe man strong and fit ,dexterous, cat eye, with thin skin, sickly, slow healer, short sighted ,weak stomach, high thirst
This is for single player, in multiplayer the cop is by far the best
Hard disagree on Lucky (6:02). Leaving aside the sizable Foraging buff... In a game with finite loot, where the name of the game is "surplus" - finding *more* than enough to replace what you have before it, too, breaks - a 10% boost to the best loot is massive across time. Not only will you find more loot in total, but you'll find the loot you want quicker, allowing you to capitalize on it sooner.
It *also* doesn't fall off lategame like many perks because it affects the contents of zombie inventories on death, including odds of finding a house key. B tier minimum, and for someone who's a like-minded fan of Foraging, I think it's an A-tier trait.
10% is a big boost, but not when it's a relative boost. 10% of 1% is .1%, so in reality, it's just a 0.1% boost, which isn't worth the points in most cases I think.
First of all, do you have any proof for the fact it affects zombie loot?
I've looted tens of thousands of zed corpses when I tested Lucky vs Unlucky and there was seemingly no difference in loot at all, comes down to pure RNG. Hell, Unlucky spawned more rare stuff like Machetes and Katanas for me and the sample pool seems to be big enough for relevance.
Secondly, your take is reasonable on theory, I'll give you that, but I've been running both Lucky and Unlucky for hundreds of hours and I see no reasonable difference in any kind of rare loot.
Plus, the whole definition of "rare loot" doesn't seem to be understood by anyone.
For example, Crowbars and Sledgehammers are not considered to be rare loot, but I did find a little bit more machetes. After my testings on Lucky vs Unlucky on warehouse containers the numbers for things that would be usually considered rare (like Antique Oven, Machetes, Axes etc.) are also pretty much RNG. Sometimes Lucky gives less, sometimes no trait or Unlucky give you more stuff.
If the difference between Unlucky and Lucky is SO unnoticable that even thousands of containers and tens thousands of zeds don't give us a definitive answer on it's worth, I'd argue it's more of a placebo trait more than anything at this point.
If you disagree - just test it out yourself. You'd be surprised that there's basically no difference and it's pretty much RNG in both short and long runs.
@@DezZzO_YT There's a reddit comment about this subject which contains some pieces dredged out of the game code. I'll link it at the bottom of this comment.
To answer your most fundamental question: do I have *proof* that it boosts some loot by 10%? Besides the wiki and its in-game description and the description used in this video-no, I have conducted zero first-hand research. I am relying on the community's knowledge for this.
To answer your second concern, that Lucky & Unlucky don't offer a visible difference in your experience: there are other factors that go into zombie weapon spawns, such as what day it is & what day has peak population, that are tough to isolate when doing tests like that.
To your comment and the other commenter, bear with me on this one. Hear me out. Let's assume that Lucky is not bugged, and you find desirable loot like axes and sledges 10% more often. If I have an axe build and, on average, consume 0.9 axes of durability in the time it takes me to find another 1.0 axes, then I am left with a marginal gain of 0.1 axes per loot cycle. If we increase the axes' spawn rate by 10%, and consume 0.9 axes to find 1.1 axes, then I am left with a marginal gain of 0.2 axes per loot cycle. That would be 100% increase, or a doubling, of effective loot over time and would leave me much more likely to successfully weather a "dry spell" of unusually bad loot.
That's a more in-depth explanation for why a 10% loot increase can actually be massive over time. If you're right, however, and it's bugged, then yeah obviously it's terrible. However, this tier list did not make the assumption that it's bugged and so my comments do not, either.
www.reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/comments/rzlhbf/comment/hrwla47/?context=3
The linked post does not say it changes all zombie loot. Just keys.
@@assatgames9567 sadly, that's just a theory based on something the guy wasn't even sure about in the first place, which he clearly states in the post.
Last time I tested loot in McCoy warehouses it was the following for 100 runs (comparing best to next best):
Axe - No Trait (140 more Axes compared to Lucky)
Machete - Lucky (30 more Machetes compared to Unlucky)
Wood Axe - Unlucky (30 more compared to lucky)
Crowbar - Lucky (50 more compared to Unlucky)
Sledgehammer - Lucky/No Trait (80 more compared to Unlucky)
Antique - Unlucky/No Trait (10 more compared to Lucky)
As I said, on my experience it comes down to pure RNG. I was referring to the exact post you posted when I was saying there is not real solid info on the trait somewhere in the comment section.
While, as again, it sounds solid on theory, on practice it's not noticeable at all. This is confirmed by both testing with a solid sample size (going over 100 runs for Lucky/No Trait/Unlucky is not something I'm willing to do, doing 100 runs was already unhealthy enough) and general suspicion when you play a lot.
While there's no rock-hard evidence for either debunking or supporting Lucky as a trait, I'm really striving forward position that it's borderline useless and Unlucky should be your best bet.
Not only that, but even if Lucky actually works and my testing was just very convoluted to some cosmically stupid RNG unluck, 10% rare loot difference is not something an experienced player is going to play around. Finding stuff like Sledgehammers is still basically guaranteed if you know where to search. Axes spawn pretty often on zeds. There's nothing you wouldn't really survive without with Lucky. It's such an RNG trait I would still easily argue it's not worth the 8 points (for not taking Unlucky in total).
For a basis, traits have pros and cons according to each ones strategy and playstyle, putting this aside, I enjoyed overall most traits while others I had much more use for them.
While some people have shorter term needs, I usually go for medium-long term. Fast Reader for example is a trait that affects every single skill, while dextrous is just for actions and I find it is very situational, so it's just a bit too high. Graceful could be avoided so it goes B, but Dextrous feels like the same so why S?
I guess it's a good concept you took, I would like for you to do a second ep maybe with a new tier list having in mind the different time windows people will do in their run-through and your opinions on the influence also in picking traits according to where people expect to base or stay around.
mostly agreed, except for Adrenaline Junkie trait. Adrenaline Junkie does cost 8 points and has a very low cp, however, it is very likely the only way to run away from a horde when you are exhausted and can be a potential life saver. At least every time when my character was hunt to death made me hoping I should have taken that trait.
The trick is to not get too exhausted in the first place
this tier list is very situational
So society after the zombie apocalypse will be fishing-based lion villages that build houses of gymnast equipment and fight off zombies with big stocks.
Thank you ❤
Good Video. I've never heard someone say Lucky is that useless. I thought that if you had a 20% chance to find something rare like a katana, it would jump to 30% with Lucky. If what you say is accurate, a measly 0.1% increase is a complete waste of 4 points.
It is useless on MP, but not SP. I think the tier list should have had an MP SP divide.
My take on some of the ratings as someone who spent at least 200~ hours creating a Tier List for all the traits in the game and managing it for more than a year, with more accent on mix maxing and competent play:
*Fast Reader* - also has a use if you're really going for TV and want to read all the books in time for the programs. Difference for a vol 1 is 2.5 in-game hours which makes a difference
*Outdoorsman* - is really overestimated, if you run it for some time you'll see that you're going to get scratched by trees anyway, sickness will happen too with a wet character in a poor weather. Plus, not walking through trees via "walk to" option and not getting wet and walking around in terrible weather is very easily avoidable, D trait at the best
*Brave* - overestimated a bit. Difference is not that big and I'd say that spending 4 points just not to carry Beta Blockers is not worth it. Plus, we really want to run Fear of Blood and Agoraphobic/Claustraphobic, so we still would be really panicked and would want to use them anyway before clearing big groups, Cowardly gets way better with time and Brave is not that great even early on
*Graceful* - easiest F tier. Stealth is a noob trap, 10% reduced chance of tripping is laughably bad. Not only you can stop running before fences and just do a normal lounge that has 0% chance to trip you at all times, but you also can run into zombies, just make sure your character doesn't do the "bump into zed" animation more than twice in a row, you'll never trip from bumping into a zombie once. Also it prevents you from taking Clumsy, which is an S tier trait
*Light Eater* - does not affect calorie gain, so you're paying 4 points for a small increase in time you're going to heal better and carry a tiny bit more in your inventory without getting first encumbrance debuff. D tier at best
*Low Thirst* - just carry a bottle and turn auto drink on. You'll forget about thirst moodle. Two bottles of water is enough to carry you through the whole day with High Thirst. F tier
*Hunter* - is overestimated. Aiming is questionable and you mostly need the first 3-4~ levels into aiming which is leveled pretty easily via shotguns, plus guns are mostly viable exclusively with full vanilla zombies, make it Tough zeds on Insanely Rare Loot and guns become useless due to sheer durability of zeds and lack of ammo, so it doesn't scale well to higher difficulties. Short Blade is borderline the worst weapon type in the game. Sneaking is absolutely worthless. Trapping is okay. Do you really want to spend 8 points for two mediocre traits and two useless ones?
*Thick Skinned* - does not reduce your chance of getting a wound by 30%, it simply multiplies your dodge chance by 1.3 and it only works with zeds, in actual numbers it's even worse than you think. There's a Reddit post "the true value of Thick Skinned and Thin Skinned" that explains the trait in great detail
Generally speaking (outside of little nitpicks I didn't want to mention) I'm surprised to see how many different tier lists and trait opinions are relatively the same after all this time from the minds of experienced players
Though I really hope you've changed your opinion on Clumsy after all this time!
why is stealth a noob trap?
I really like light eater because it means I'm less likely to accidentally get fat by eating whenever I get the hungry Moodle but this can be avoided if I paid a bit more attention or just ignored it.
@@lucasbrant9856 answer is simple: even if there are not that many of zombies around, why would you sneak around a few zeds when you can easily take them down?
Clearing out territory is way more efficient for your survival than just avoiding zeds.
They will spread out, they will get to you.
They will get into corners, buildings, increasing the chance of sneaking up on you instead.
What any experienced player does is just goes around, screams like hell and clears out hordes (unless it's a 100% sprinters run).
Killing zeds and being loud as hell is way more safe than sneaking around.
I really liked stealth as a new player, but then I just started taking Athletic + Strong, got decent at combat and then killing like 500 zeds in 2-3 days became a regular occurrence for any of my runs (and that's with tough/strong zeds with mixed sprinters, insanely rare loot and no multi hit, this number goes way higher if you're playing on an easier difficulty).
Why would I stealth if I can simply clear out half of Riverside/Rosewood in first few days and safely loot things I want?
@@shreaper2671 to be fair, this is just an experience matter. If you know what food provides high calories and which provides little calories, this is a non-issue. For any experienced player it basically goes like this: I'm losing weight? Time to chunk up on that Butter/Lard. Gaining too much? Salad diet time! Generally speaking, yes, it's that easy to manage.
Also a lot of newer players seem to really care about LVL 1 hunger moodle, while it should be ignored. You shouldn't overeat unless you're hurt and need the increased healing and you shouldn't eat as soon as you hit the first hunger moodle, it does nothing to your character. It's just a waste of food.
Stealth is a noob trap because visual stealth basically doesn't exist. This means you gain almost all of the benefits of stealth just by crouching which reduces your footstep sounds to a reasonable level right away. What actually happens is players gain some experience and realize the zombies aren't scary. They start spamming Q all the time and killing them all. Then they grow even more and it turns out its unnecessary to kill every single zombie in places they will never go to again, so they start using tactics to draw zombies away long enough to loot what they want and leave.
You'll usually get replies from people with respawns turned off (I prefer them off too) who simply clear every single place they ever go. Respawns are on in all the default play settings. So mass clearing doesn't make sense. You always have to adjust what you are doing to your individual settings.
at 12:17 is hunter then a B tier or A?
B tier. I was going crazy with the actual picture for some reason.
Hunter gives extremely valuable aiming skills and also short blade skill, I take it almost every time.
I disagree about fast reader being useless in singleplayer. Your first week-month is *so* important and you want to be doing as much as possible, and also getting value out of it. Spending 2 days straight reading a single book (slow reader enjoyers) is fine when you've got an entire base set up and sustainable food but when you're needing every moment to count it really does add up
I doesn't take 2 days to read a single book with slow reader. Maybe like 4-5 hours. Besides, your first month, how many books do you NEED to read anyways? Farming is not necessary because there are no clear huge benefits to leveling it (except extra info).. Carpentry I could see.. With traits like dexterous, wakeful, and fast learner.. Allot of time is saved.
I want you to make the bad trait vdo just so i can watch more of you content.
I didn’t even think of the better towing capabilities from speed demon 😂
Mostly agree. Especially Strong and Athletic. Keen Hearing is an F for me though. I put on headphones and I can hear zombies coming from behind me.
Same, I even play with Hard of Hearing though too. Can usually see Zed's appear behind you in time to avoid if you've got bad situational awareness. I just constantly look behind me :p
Hey Ret, could you make a video detailing to effect of the foraging bonuses on traits and occupations?
Cuz high hunger has a positive forage bonus, and i wonder if these numbers are multiplicative and etc. Like, if with veteran increasing ammo by 50%, and lucky putting that to 55%, would you benefit in avoiding all other forage radius buffs other than levelling the skill to enable a player to target specific items?
Cuz imagine if we could inflate the numbers, of food only, or junk only, for nails etc. Or all the other specific boosts?
Cuz if so, that could make a whole new form of build, "Statistical Manipulation" viable.
For me fast reader is S tier. Yes, I can speed up time but it takes almost one entire day to read a book. But if I am using fast reader, I can finish my book significant faster and have enough time to explore and get supplies.
I like to do my reading when I need to gain weight. Load up on calories and spend a day or two just reading and using almost no calories. I always use Slow Reader, Fast is just a waste of points once you've read the books and is a dead trait.
Actually eagle eye is kinda good. By default your FOV is about 145 degrees, with eagle eye it's about 160 which is a 10% increase. However if you are extremely tired and panicked, your FOV is reduced to about 50 degrees, but with eagle eye it's around 85 which is +70% and it's insane. But of course having ultimate panic and tiredness is almost a death sentence anyway plus eagle eye and short sighted only works during daytime, so keen hearing is definitely better.
would you consider giving your thoughts on the more traits mod? i think enough of the community uses it to warrant a video, i mean discussions on the subreddit happen sometimes but you have a very deep knowledge of the game
A Project Zomboid UA-camr with great content? Consider me subbed!
for me lucky is a god send since everytime i use it , i find ammunation for guns like at the very start with it
Dope! Thank you!
I had a spawn on my 4th ever character where I spawned between two zombies in a tiny room
Thick skinned is so OP it should be in A or S, defo not D. I remember I used to use thin skinned all the time since I thought "well if I get bitten or anything I'm probably dead anyway so no use wasting 8 points" but when I switched to using thick skinned, it was insane how much easier it made it to not die. I don't know the exact numbers (and I usually play with a bunch of mods on so maybe some mods that I've been using make the trait way better) but when using thin skinned, the idea was basically if you got scratched a little bit, better fix it quickly, if you got hurt even a medium amount then all of a sudden it's a crisis, if you get bitten or anything you're just dead. But when using thick skinned, you can just tank everything and bandage it up later. If you're using the fast healer trait with thick skinned then injuries are way less of a problem and you'll probably only die if you really screw up or if you get mauled to death in the middle of a huge horde. Also I'm pretty sure thick skinned reduces the chance of zombification from getting bitten significantly, since when using thick skinned I've been bitten on multiple occasions and not been zombified (after waiting multiple in game days) whereas a bite used to be a death sentence.
Also another thing, even though the strong and fit traits can be really overpowered and helpful, I wouldn't rank them S or A since even if you pick the opposite traits (e.g. unfit, underweight, weak) you can eat and exercise in game to get these traits without spending any points. So if you're planning on surviving for a long time I'd recommend not spending the points of these traits
Must be a mod or a bug, a bite has a 100% chance of zombification, nothing modifies this.
@@LasherTimora Definitely not a bug since I remember it being affected by traits like how the disease resistant one reduces the risk of zombification from bites, so it must've been a mod
@@evildude2135 Disease resistant doesn't reduce the chance of infection, it just slows down the rate of zombification. You'll have more time before you die once you're infected.
I've always been told that other than the horn, the only thing that affects your vehicle sound is if it's on or not. Meaning, zeds can hear it the same if it's idling or moving. Someone correct me but i want to say it's on the wiki.
It does get louder as the RPM increases. Some cars are louder than other by default, but the muffler and its condition makes a difference too.
One thing I will personally say for the Tailor perk, is as far as I know you *CANT* get thread from ripping clothes until you have level 1 tailoring or higher... so not only does it give a skill bonus it means the only things you need is material and a needle to instantly start using the skill which makes it much less of a headache...
Along with it meaning literally every zombie you see being walking tailoring XP in more ways than just ripping all their stuff.
Another small thing, low thirst is also good for "Armor" builds or people who often wear lots of heavy clothing even during hotter seasons (leather jackets, police vests, etc) Since if I am not wrong sweating causes you to need to drink more often as it is... So as someone who (despite avoiding injuries like the plauge) loves wearing himself WAY too much armor for it being 71 degrees outside can be very helpful... but I frankly never take it since 6 points is WAY too much imo, since that puts it in the same cost category as fast learner... between those two, I will always take fast learner no matter what, it increases ALL of my XP gains and easily saves me so much time and materials to learn skills while high thirst just saves me a little bit of time of needing to find a sink/get water every couple of in game hours while walking and fighting outside.
You definitely can get thread from ripping clothes at level zero, it's just somewhat rare.
@@peterprime2140 Well that is good to know, but even if you do get that lucky bit it drops usually barely any even with level 1 or 2 tailor... I couldn't imagine trying to level Tailoring starting at 0 with only a needle and clothes ripping...
Baseball player is at least A-tier for me. Having at least +1 to a combat skill is SO important for many reasons I wont get into. Long blunts are arguably the best weapon type in the game, so unless I’m playing Lumberjack, Fire Officer, or Park Ranger, I’m taking baseball player every time.
Your take on that +1 to a combat skill is so important is very true, but Long Blunts is definitely not even close to being the best weapon type in the game. The only advantage they have is high durability, but if you're going to kill any significant amount of zeds you're going to drop Long Blunt weapons after leveling maintenance to lvl 4-6.
Spears are generally the best and their only disadvantage is their fragility, but their kill per stamina/durability rate is still insanely high.
Axes are second best, but they consume way more stamina and have lower range, good axes require good RNG
Long Blades are third, they're actually the best weapons overall, but they're TOO god damn rare.
Everything else is arguable, but Long Blunt doesn't come near top 3 best weapons, sadly. It's just a temporary weapon type to level your maintenance via Crowbar.
If low thirst is B tier because it saves you time in the long run, wouldn't fast reader be a B tier as well? The time you spend reading could be used in other tasks. Even better if you consider the less time grinding the skills if you use TV and VHS. I know it's a vanilla game video, but in modded ones fast reader makes it possible to use mod features early on :)
Anyway great video! Thanks :D
It's the difference between in game time and real life time. High thirst wastes your real life time for the entire time the character lives. You only have to read the books once.
@@Retanaru that argument is a false one. How does carrying two bottles and filling them both take more time irl, but wasting actual time sped up reading a book doesn't??
@@Retanaru I will try that, I can't remember the last time I've played without High thirst, always used it for the almost free points since the beginning lol
@@nerfherder4284 Have you ever sped up filling your bottles, walking to the sink, driving back for water, or gathering the materials to make water collectors? The answer is almost guarantied to be no. You've probably never even thought about the amount of time you spend dealing with high thirst because "just throw two bottle in your inventory" and not once thought about that second looting run you had to do to carry that last item back to your car because a single water bottle made the difference. Water is insanely abundant and yet high thirst still finds a way to waste your time.
very good list i agree with this!