When you should watch TV in Project Zomboid

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 here with 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.

Importantly, the one real change Build 42 made to the Life and Living channel is that skill gain from watching episodes is now capped at skill level 3. So keep in mind that if you're starting with level 3 or above in any of the skills covered by Life and Living, you won't be able to get any benefit from watching now.

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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:

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.