What's the MOST scary thing that has happened to you in project zomboid?

[Shunazo]

i just was playing normally and i was a little tired and went to bed (in the game) then i heard 4 gunshots and then a girl started screaming and she didnt stop i had to quit the game cause i was going to fall of my chair XD   (really she didnt stop) and then some dogs started barking and WTF THERE ARE NO DOGS IN THE GAME HOW THE HELL CAN I HEARD BARKS?

[Peripou]

Well, falling and breaking my leg on the (very) wrong side of a high fence far from my base did induce a bit of anxiety at that time.

 

But my more striking memory is more mundane. I had restarted playing the game after many years, so I was reacclimating myself to its universe. My character broke her leg on some stairs while building a base on the roof of a big secured warehouse. Not the worst place for that to happen. The area was safe, and the area devoid of zombies.

 

But I spent the following days inside, waiting for the leg to heal. While the rain was pouring outside. And suddenly, all this wide empty warehouse started feeling very menacing to me. Strong sense of isolation. Strong sense of vulnerability. I didn't know what was going on outside. I was dragging my leg in the big storage area, between the crate stacks. Sometimes going through the office parts to check on the barricaded doors and windows. But spending most of my time in the large warehouse, re-closing and re-opening the door to the offices corridor, depending on what felt safer at the time.

 

So, no real threat. But, maybe because of that, a very melancholic, oppressive atmosphere. The music, the sound of the rain, the solitude, the big futile empty warehouse... It was just the PZ mood in full force. And for some reason, I remember these long, uneventful moments as even more unsettling than any frantic zombie encounter. Maybe because it was a pure contemplative experience of the end of the world.

 

Anyway, nothing epic there, I suppose. But damn it made me appreciate how PZ is good at creating atmospheres.  

[IndigoRebel]

At most I just get startled by the audio cue sometimes.

But I rage more than I feel anxiety 

[Magic Mark]

Playing multiplayer on a large server with some friends. I'm across the map, decide to set up in a small house along a deserted road.

 

My friends go offline, but I know where some loot is so I decide to set up shop. Haven't seen a player in ages, the house I chose in particular is quite off from the highway and there is nothing of interest around there.

 

Get the house key from the zed, start developing a base that probably ended up being better than the one I was supposed to travel to.

 

Go out and scavenge at a fast food place, get more than enough non-perishables as well as a few weapons.

 

Go inside the house, everything is normal. I go into the pitch-black living room and turn on my flashlight. 

 

I have never ran outside of a room so fast. There was a player hiding in the corner of the room with an axe.

 

Yeah. Not exactly the best situation.

 

Turns out that another traveler found the place and was reading books in the corner while I was gone. Didn't realize anyone was living there and said he just got in through a window. (I didn't barricade anything since I didn't want to attract any player attention)

[makkenhoff]

This one time many builds back, I had secured the large warehouse in Muld. I had built a series of sheet ropes in every window on the second floor. I was down in the bottom of the warehouse, gathering the few remaining crates back before it was easier to move them. (Very time consuming to clear that place, at the time.) I heard a few thump on the front door, and went to the backdoor threw it open, to go clear what I thought was a few zombies, only to have them pour in from the backdoor. I was so startled I screamed and scared half my household. I managed to survive that encounter, but I had to pause my game. To this day, I base in that warehouse, but I always make sure I build a window on the second floor INSIDE the warehouse so I can just climb up without going outside. I learned my lesson. 

[Dedbones]

The spoopiest moment I remember at hand was way back when I first got PZ and hopped into my first game (I think it was my first). I was having a grand ol' time slapping straggler zombies (Jeez! I have PZ running in the background as I type this and someone just let loose a blood-curdling death scream haha, great timing) and looting a couple houses. I came across a nice big, juicy lootable home and forced open a window. First time I encountered a house alarm. A very LOUD alarm. Zombies just poured out of the woodworks. very direction there was jut dozens of 'em. Thinking fast I booked it up to the second floor and shut a bedroom door. Looking out a window I saw the horde surrounding the house and forcing their way in and I was just thinking shit what can i do? I scrambled about looting the room and in doing so discovered how to Macgyver up sheet ropes. I waited until the horde outside gave me enough room to drop out the window and climbed out. I busted my way out... so I of course paid the noob fee with shards of glass lodged in my person.

 

As soon as I hit the ground running they were on the scent of blood so I picked a direction, any direction and ran down the road.. into a pack of what seemed like a street-choking lynch mob of shuffling undead cannibals. So many damned Zombies and I had to hop a fence hoping for some way out. The backyard had zombies too and I barely dodged my way through, getting scratched up and bloodier. I stormed the house and closed the door. I decided I should try and quick-raid the bathroom of this house before continuing on, but as soon as I opened the bathroom a zombie lurched out and bit me something fierce. Pushed em off and just ran out of the house until my survivor couldn't run anymore and the horde thinned out to meagre stragglers again. Able to again search for supplies I succumbed to my injuries. It was quite a pulse pounding intro to PZ

[littleblueboxes]

20 hours ago, Peripou said:

Well, falling and breaking my leg on the (very) wrong side of a high fence far from my base did induce a bit of anxiety at that time.

 

But my more striking memory is more mundane. I had restarted playing the game after many years, so I was reacclimating myself to its universe. My character broke her leg on some stairs while building a base on the roof of a big secured warehouse. Not the worst place for that to happen. The area was safe, and the area devoid of zombies.

 

But I spent the following days inside, waiting for the leg to heal. While the rain was pouring outside. And suddenly, all this wide empty warehouse started feeling very menacing to me. Strong sense of isolation. Strong sense of vulnerability. I didn't know what was going on outside. I was dragging my leg in the big storage area, between the crate stacks. Sometimes going through the office parts to check on the barricaded doors and windows. But spending most of my time in the large warehouse, re-closing and re-opening the door to the offices corridor, depending on what felt safer at the time.

 

So, no real threat. But, maybe because of that, a very melancholic, oppressive atmosphere. The music, the sound of the rain, the solitude, the big futile empty warehouse... It was just the PZ mood in full force. And for some reason, I remember these long, uneventful moments as even more unsettling than any frantic zombie encounter. Maybe because it was a pure contemplative experience of the end of the world.

 

Anyway, nothing epic there, I suppose. But damn it made me appreciate how PZ is good at creating atmospheres.  

 

THIS. I had a very similar experience in my first major playthrough, using the iscolated warehouse at the very south of Muld. Spent ages in that place putting up walls, boarding windows, placing lamps etc.
But when things got quiet and you're walking through this enormous mostly-dark compound, all windows shut tight and the odd sound creeping through the walls...

That's when the game is at its best for me. Which is funny, because nothing gameplay wise is actually happening... if anything it should be super boring. I suppose vicarious misery is somehow good entertainment?

[Strats]

*If you are against spoilers for PZ lore, do not read below*

 

I'd have to say the scariest moment of PZ occurred for me in my longest-lived character (~7 months). Winter had set in as I was setting up a base at the Muldraugh Railyard, so I was busy with construction. The area was dark and the wind rattled against the gray bricks of the administrative building. Through the big windows on the second floor of my abode, I could peer out into the darkness and make out the shapes of the dead dragging themselves along the chain fence of the yard. It was about two weeks into my stay at the railyard when gunshots echoed from the east. In the stillness of the snow, they startled me a little, but that was not the scary part. First came the rustling in the trees, then a form shuffled out from the dark branches. Then another. And another. A slouching mass of undeath shambling into my railyard, hungering for my flesh. I hightailed it back to my compound and as I saw the rotters drifting by on the snow, my HAM Radio crackled behind me with a voice. As days passed and I waited out the horde, I listened to the voice as it was my only hope. But then, the voice was gone, replaced by another. That moment gave me the chills, that moment when I realized my character's insignificance in a world of the dead.

[lucy the axe]

On 28/02/2017 at 7:36 AM, Peripou said:

So, no real threat. But, maybe because of that, a very melancholic, oppressive atmosphere. The music, the sound of the rain, the solitude, the big futile empty warehouse... It was just the PZ mood in full force. And for some reason, I remember these long, uneventful moments as even more unsettling than any frantic zombie encounter. Maybe because it was a pure contemplative experience of the end of the world.

 

Anyway, nothing epic there, I suppose. But damn it made me appreciate how PZ is good at creating atmospheres.  

Spoiler

 

14 hours ago, littleblueboxes said:

But when things got quiet and you're walking through this enormous mostly-dark compound, all windows shut tight and the odd sound creeping through the walls...

That's when the game is at its best for me. Which is funny, because nothing gameplay wise is actually happening... if anything it should be super boring. I suppose vicarious misery is somehow good entertainment?

 

Same.

 

There's something terrifying about being trapped in a dark, cavernous space with lots of possible hiding places for zombies when you're physically hampered by an injury. The place is so huge, you have to walk across the floor to check every nook and cranny and make sure none of the weak areas have been compromised. And even if the building is "safe", you don't know if there's one or ten or a hundred zombies waiting outside and in which direction and if they're going to break into your safe area any minute now... you don't dare sleep. You don't dare make noise. You don't dare open your barricades to check. It's a fight against your brain which is the source of all this paranoia.

 

---

 

The other "scariest" experience was the first major update (v32) I encountered. It was the one where they put the tutorial back in. I played it until the end where

Spoiler

... the game tells you to type Q for help. I've been playing a couple of weeks enough to know that Q meant shout, but I assumed they changed it with the major update. (Also, I used to trust Indie Stone back then. Which was incredibly stupid in retrospect since their goal is to kill you.) The resulting horde plus the feeling of being trolled by a tutorial made me swear never to trust any in-game "help" again.

 

[Patrick H]

A helicopter event started the moment i clicked the sleep button, followed by rapid banging sounds. I left every door inside my house open and zombies were roaming through my house for the whole night. My character woke up unharmed, but a zombie was about to enter my room from the hallway when i moved towards my window to climb down my sheet rope. (which were indestructible back then) My character was sleeping on the second floor, which was all that was between me and about 12 hungry zombies downstairs...

https://map.projectzomboid.com/#0.4190341592779382,0.16785720145762223,341.82189187166824 This was the house, for anyone who wants to know.

EDIT: Also, bathroom zombies.

[Storm6436]

Yeah, surprise bathroom/closet zombies.  Gotta love those. 

 The only time I had a real-life startle response was a variant of that, oddly enough.   This was maybe my third or fourth game since I bought PZ.  Was living in the house I started in on the south side of Muld, not too far from where the new lake between town and the rail yard got put in.  I'd cleared the local area and had culled the horde enough to make my first run up to McCoy hoping to find some rope.  Trip up took a bit longer than I expected due to more Zs on the road there than I planned for.  Add a dash of not paying attention, and my bat breaks on the last Z on the main road.  Queue some confusion until I realized what had happened and cursed myself for not checking the durability... but I soldier on with my trusty hammer, figuring I might find an axe or something similar   I get to McCoy and the place is dead. *rimshot*  It's getting dark, so I duck into the mobile home office by the front gate and pass out in one of the chairs for the night.  Get up the next morning and look around.  See the port-a-john  and laugh to myself.  Wouldn't it be hilarious if there was a zombie in the crapper?   Walk up to it, laugh to myself again since I can't hear anything.  Start to walk away and a little voice in the back of my head is like "What?  Chicken?  There's nothing in there."  So I open the door and get bum-rushed by one of the near-sprint guys who is on top of me as fast as I can blink.  Yelp/jerk in my chair.  Click furiously.   Laugh to myself once I've calmed down.  Got me good.

[Snorrsenkel]

I did not see any zombies near my safehouse for days then the other day I was loading my savegame and suddenly 3 zombies from out of nowhere came running towards me.
I did not even set running zombies in the options. After all it seems to be a bug that just occured once.

Scary situation.

[Virindi_Screenwriter]

Lemme Set the Mood:

 

I was playing with nolanri's car mod + Hydrocraft + Quick SMGs, and a couple other goodie mods and looting the storage warehouse in Southern Muldraugh.

 

I had a military truck outside, and I was filling hiking bags with loot for weight reduction, and then putting the full packs into the truck... with 450 capacity that was A LOT. And I was being thorough, ESPECIALLY since the MREs and Guns/Ammo spawns were just too good in the crates. 2 Generators even spawned inside--and since I had Delta-Chans gasoline pump power Mod I needed one for my base and the other to take to gas stations .

 

Yeah... lots of loot. Loot for days. The energy drinks (mod) and energy bars (mod again) were like the only reason my character didn't pass out (albeit he could've slept in the truck). Life was good...

 

...too good.

 

I was being discreet, only making noise to sledgehammer down the walls to get into inaccessible storage places. That didn't stop zombie migration from gathering at the street to the northwest.

 

Screw it. The loot was too good. My character had been running on scraps and junk for too long. I had made a legit impenetrable base at the Logging Company: No, really: thanks to another mod--Fricken Heavy Fridge, I had placed a ring of fridges around all the entry ways. Fridges that were INDESTRUCTIBLE. Zombies could NEVER, EVER, EVER smash my base. I'd spent the first few weeks organizing and building a second and third story on the tertiary warehouse with a third story rain barrel collection and dirt-poured farm. And with the corpse burning mod I was able to have a wood burning stove that I got from the shack by the lake to use zombie bodies for heat and cooking.

 

I play the game inuitively, working my situation awareness to navigate the game's city like it was my own. I had spent IRL DAYS getting this set up. I was a Zomboid veteran from 1.5d. I knew my stuff. I mastered the mods. My setup was tight.

 

I was prepared.
 

I. Was. Complacent.

 

 

Terror from Those that Can No Longer Feel Fear

 

My second-to-last trip I was carrying the first generator to store in the truck. I nonchalantly noticed a second horde of zombies was milling the in the street to the southeast.

 

Whatever. I was one trip away from driving back--

 

ThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThup

 

Sonuva@#$%^, it was the chopper!

 

The zombies to the southeast starting heading to the storage center fence.

 

OK, no biggie. I've been playing Zomboid for years. Standard procedure: I dropped the generator, booked it inside the storage center. Shut the door. I was out of site--

 

THUMP

 

@#$%! The shamblers were hitting the southern door. GREAT. I took a quick look through the glass door to see how many from the horde were trying to get in.

 

There were... It was... All. Of. Them.

 

ThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThup

 

OK, time to get to the other doors, slink out the back, double-back around--

 

THUMP-THUMP

 

What the--

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

ThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThup

 

That horde to the Northwest I'd seen a day or two earlier had apparently stayed put... until now. In horror I looked through the glass panes of both the western and northern doors to see that each was blocked with a mass of zeds as large as the mob to the south.

I had a baseball bat in my inventory and some energy drinks. Aside from my pack and my clothes THAT WAS IT.

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

ThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThup

 

I had spent DAYS putting everything else in the truck. There was no way a nearly trashed bat was going to get me out.

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

ThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThup

 

My intuitive style of playing was working against me now: The same skill that let me navigate Muldraugh like it was my own neighborhood was feeding me a situational awareness adrenaline rush. 

 

I could try opening one door and seeing what zeds I could kill except the bat wouldn't last. I was too cornered to let them in and run past.

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

ThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThupThup

 

I couldn't smash down another wall and escape--I'd already put the sledgehammer in the truck.

 

EVERYTHING. WAS. IN. THE. TRUCK.

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

Well, at least that @#$%ing helicopter was gone. THANKS A LOT %#$HOLE!

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

In a panic I rechecked the crates. I remember finding a melee weapon I'd intentionally left (Hydrocraft crowbar, I think).

 

Nowhere near enough.

 

I knew I was @#$%ed. I started loading everything in my Alice Pack (mod) bag to drop it on the floor to leave it there for the next game.

 

So there's my naked character (the blue color for the sweater and pants matched--that's too good to just lose!) and I'm about to drop my Alice Pack... then I look inside.

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

There's my uzi and mp5... and ALL THE AMMO CANISTERS FROM THE WAREHOUSE!

 

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

 

I had separated the guns and ammo from my main inventory for a run on the gas station!

 

I run to the storage center's southwest corner. I put both weapons in my main inventory, unload every canister, and then reload the uzi. I'm over-encumbered to the point I can't really move, but it's WAY past trying to run now.

 

THUMP-THUMP-CRASH!

 

Spoiler

http://map.projectzomboid.com/?desc=Survival_1xL0#0.38145536945570624,0.23522149283287788,207.64780047982163

 

 

 

Fear I've Never Felt

 

All of that exposition was for this ONE MOMENT. After DAYS of boring myself to death with tedium, I'd been in a panic for the past few minutes. Now, I was out of time. A horde of zeds came pouring in and bolting right towards me.

 

I started firing.

 

I wasn't aiming really, except in a THATAWAY sense.

 

The uzi flared, Zeds dropped.

 

CRASH!-CRASH!

 

So did the Western and Northern doors.

I shot to the North were the Western and Northern doors led to reduce their numbers, then turned to fire as the zeds from the south regrouped.

 

I swear that with the doors gone, my gunfire attracted two zombies to replace every one I killed in that first salvo.
 

SHOOT. RELOAD. TURN.

 

SHOOT. RELOAD.--SHOOT. RELOAD. TURN.

 

SHOOT. TURN. SHOOT. RELOAD. SHOOT. TURN.

 

I was stuck. Trapped. Adrenaline pumping. I couldn't escape, so I couldn't relax. And I could still fight for my life, so I couldn't let myself give up. My brain just kept pushing the DON'T DIE! button over and over again.

 

I've never felt that way in Zomboid before or since. I'm glad I live next to a busy street, because my vocal, profanity-laden exclamations of dismay were flowing quite freely.

 

My uzi's condition dropped to zero, and I'd used the mp5 until there were no more zombies. The floor was completely covered in corpses. I slowly made my way to the truck--not because I was encumbered (the ammo was used up) but because I was certain there had to be more zeds... but I'd gotten them all.

 

I left the generators (and the zed body loot) for another run. I don't remember how that game world ended, but I do remember that, after this incident, I didn't even leave my impenetrable fort until the power shut off and I needed to pickup that generator.

[Axex]

Zombies in the bathroom get me every time.

[Artrorit]

Once I found a map of West Point and there was a house with text "All kinds of fucked up".I usually like this places because they have lots of gear and food.But this one...When I arrived to this lonely small house I have not found any zombies in the house.I didn't understand why it was marked as "All kinds of fucked up".I just took all the canned food.I could have just left but I wanted to explore everything.When I opened a bathroom door there was nothing exept a strange thing lying on the ground.I tried to pick it up but as soon as I entered the room strange distorted sound started to play.It was very loud and souded like a vacuum cleaner.That sound scared the living shit out of me.I actualy have found myself in cold sweat at this moment.When I calmed down I left this house as soon as posible and never returned.Did any of you guys had this one?

[BoogieMan]

Getting attacked by a zombie that was in some kind of void space on stairs. We could only see/affect each other if we were in direct physical contact. A step back or forward and they'd vanish.

 

 

Other than that.. One time a window broke in a room at the Sunstar Hotel and 3 female zombies tumbled inside and munched half my groin before I shoved them off and ran.. The blood, oh the blood.. Just picture this poor dude standing out in middle of the road dropping his pants and bandaging his wang. Horrifying.