When you should watch TV in Project Zomboid

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

It’s a hard life getting ahead in The Indie Stone's Kentucky-inspired landscape, so who has time for Project Zomboid’s TV schedule? Dodging the outstretched arms of the undead hordes doesn’t leave much time for hobbies, especially when running to the grocery store means picking glass out of the windows you need to crawl through. 

Thankfully even in the apocalypse I’m a bit of a couch potato, and I’ve taken some careful notes to put together this zombie TV guide.

How to use a TV in Project Zomboid

TVs can be useful firstly by attracting zombies to a certain spot. Televisions playing with the volume turned up are a good way to attract, and distract, zombies while the power is still 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. Believe it or not, the Life and Living TV channel 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 watch as early as possible for this so you know when a show is coming up, so make sure you’re checking bodies those.

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
TimeSkillXP
12 amFishing75
6 amCooking12.5
12 pmCarpentry75
6 pmFishing62.5
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Day 2
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking75
12 pmCarpentry75
6 pmFarming75
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Day 3
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking62.5
12 pmCarpentry100
6 pmFishing75
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Day 4
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking 87.5
12 pmCarpentry75
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Day 5
Time SkillXP
6 amCooking75
12 pmCarpentry112.5
6 pmForaging50
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Day 6
TimeSkillXP
6 amCooking62.5
12 pmCarpentry100
6 pmTrapping112.5
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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.

Philip Palmer

Phil is a contributor for PC Gamer, formerly of TechRadar Gaming. With four years of experience writing freelance for several publications, he's covered every genre imaginable. For 15 years he's done technical writing and IT documentation, and more recently traditional gaming content. He has a passion for the appeal of diversity, and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, and RPG entries, he still finds time for offline hobbies in tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.