When you should watch TV in Project Zomboid

A project zomboid character drinking watching tv
(Image credit: The Indie Stone)

Survival is only one part of the equation in The Indie Stone's Kentucky-inspired landscape, and you won't find any copies of TV guide laying around to learn Project Zomboid’s TV schedule. Constantly needing to dodge the shambling undead hordes makes planning hobby time difficult, especially when running to the corner store probably means several dozen zombicides. 

Fortunately in my own apocalypse I could think of nothing better to do than stay in and catch the soaps, and I’ve used the opportunity to scribble down some notes to make this guide for everyone else.

How to use a TV in Project Zomboid

TV is already a handy tool for manipulating the undead, since they're quite noisy with the sound turned up. You can use televisions with the volume turned up to attract, and distract, zombies as long as faux-Kentucky keeps the power on. They only have a 15 tile range, but they can help get local zombies to group up and stay concentrated inside houses where they won’t see you as easily.

The less common, but significantly better, usage is to actually watch TV. While there are new TV channels coming in Build 42, nothing beats the most informative of channels. Believe it or not, the Life and Living TV channel isn't just informative, but actually has several shows that will actually raise your skills if you watch them. You have to have the channel and volume on for this, and you have to be in the room while the show is on. It’s a huge help to get a wristwatch as early as possible for this so you know when a show is coming up, so make sure you’re checking bodies to find yourself one.

What is the Project Zomboid TV schedule?

The different skills available from Life and Living TV are spread across the entire day for the first nine days of your run, so to maximize your free skill progress, ignore the zombies clattering at the windows and settle in with some popcorn. Here are the specific times to tune in on each day, the XP you can earn, and what skills they offer:

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 1
TimeSkillXPHeader Cell - Column 3
12 amFishing75Row 0 - Cell 3
6 amCooking112.5Row 1 - Cell 3
12 pmCarpentry75Row 2 - Cell 3
6 pmFishing62.5Row 3 - Cell 3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 2
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking75
12 pmCarpentry75
6 pmFarming75
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 3
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking62.5
12 pmCarpentry100
6 pmFishing75
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 4
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking 87.5
12 pmCarpentry75
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 5
Time SkillXP
6 amCooking75
12 pmCarpentry112.5
6 pmForaging50
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 6
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking62.5
12 pmCarpentry100
6 pmTrapping112.5
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 7
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking87.5
12 pmCarpentry112.5
6 pmForaging100
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 8
Time Skill XP
6 amCooking125
12 pmCarpentry37.5
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 9
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking75

What’s the best thing to drink while enjoying TV in the apocalypse?

Personally, it’s got to be the orange soda, but there’s something fitting about an entire bottle of wine, too.

Sarah Richter
Contributor

Sarah is a contributor for PC Gamer, formerly of TechRadar Gaming. With five years of experience writing freelance for several publications, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.

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