Project Zomboid B42: Complete Update Info & Patch Notes

Project Zomboid’s massive B42 update is finally coming out! The final release, under build B42.20, is set to come out on Wednesday, July 29th, 2026 (a day after this post). With so many changes to track for an update that has been years in the making, we are here to help cover what you can expect out of the patch when it goes live.

Visual Overhauls

One of the first things players might notice when they jump into the new update is that things look a bit different than they did before. Some sweeping changes were made to the game’s visuals to help make surviving the zombie apocalypse a bit more aesthetically pleasing. 

Lighting

A new lighting system is being introduced which allows for light to leak through windows/doors, bounce off walls, and allowing for more realistic ambient lighting.

Unique Towns & Cities

You’ll also find that the existing cities and regions throughout the game have actually been redesigned with the goal of making each feel much more unique and diverse. The general directions that they developers want to go in will support unique tiles, styles unique to each town, new buildings and houses for regions, and landscape improvements.

The following areas of the map will have been totally reworked already:

• Riverside

• West Point

• Rosewood

• Fallas Lake

• Muldraugh

• Ekron

• Dixie

In practice, this means that the surface area of the map as a whole doubles in the B42 update! Especially thanks to the new unique tiles and expansions to cities, 20,000 new tiles have been introduced. This also extends to various procedural basements, new roof types, variations of existing tiles, and more.

Map Limits

Thanks to a lot of improvements behind the scenes, the height limits of the game have been increased all-around. This has allowed for the introduction of new basements, underground areas, and tall skyscrapers which will make the map feel even more immersive and dynamic.

In order to accommodate this massive expansion to the verticality of the map, many technical changes were made to keep the game running much more smoothly. As a result, despite the massive expansion to the map both in terms of new towns and new possibilities for vertical limits in the world, the game should be running as well as ever!

New Crafting Systems

Many more crafting machines will be finding their way into the game in B42, including options for pottery, forging, stone working, brewing, and weapon crafting. These machines will have progressive tiers to them, ranging from “stone-age” style furnaces to advanced electrical machinery which you can discover around the map. 

With the addition of these new machines and crafting systems also comes an expansion to some construction tools at your disposable.

New building types such as additional clay, stone, and wood walls can be made at these stations, in addition to items like preset shelters.

Wild Animals

The wildlife around the map in Project Zomboid is also getting an expansion of its own. You will be able to take care of (or hunt) many newly introduced animals including sheep, chickens, pigs, cows, rats, rabbits, and deer.

These additions will also have their own item products, such as leather, eggs, or milk, which you could farm them for. You’ll be able to find the new animals by tracking their paw prints or droppings, making them a natural and immersive part of the world. 

Farming Improvements

While players will be able to take care of new animals in B42, there will also be large changes made to the farming systems in the game. Many new crops are being added, as well as a new advanced crop farming system.

The amount of time it takes crops to grow will be a bit more realistic, also featuring seasonal changes that impact the rate at which crops will grow (or if they can be grown at all).

There will also be more maintenance to do around your gardens, thanks to the addition of new pests like slugs, snails, and weeds. Solutions in-game like pest killers and chickens will also allow you to mitigate some of those threats to your crops.

Houseplants will also need to see the same amount of love, requiring water and maintenance over time to help make sure they don’t dry out and die. 

Map Expansions

While existing locations have been visually overhauled, players will also be able to expect 3 new major town locations, as well as various smaller expansions to the map. While we don’t have more explicit locations of those towns currently, the developers have shared visuals on what you can expect to scavenge and explore in the new update.

Music & Sound

A new dynamic music system is coming to Project Zomboid as well, featuring the addition of new soundtracks and music to hear in-game.

Various tracks will play according to events happening in-game, such as when you’re exploring vs when you’re in a fight. The intensity of tracks will also be influenced by the state of your game as you play, so you’ll find existing music even more immersive and natural as well.

Additionally, your actual player characters will be more vocal now. You will have 8 voice options to choose from when creating your character (4 male voices and 4 female voices), which will play in-game during callouts, when injured, exhausted from running, and more. 

Clothing & Gear

There are dozens of new clothing options coming to Project Zomboid in B42 as well, including themed equipment like spooky Halloween masks. Otherwise, equipment like backpack can have sleeping bags attached to them now, dynamically reacting to new items and equipment added to the game.

You can also customize your existing gear far more, to really make your look your own. For example, for shin guards, you can choose whether to wear them on both legs, on just one, or to wear a mismatched pair of them.

The equipment you wear will also affect your actual gameplay itself in B42. Wearing items like helmets or masks will affect your vision and hearing, and will add another layer of decision making to how you want to equip your character.

Fishing Improvements

Project Zomboid Fishing has also been massively expanded. Random seeds will determine where fish may be located in various bodies of water around the map.

You will be able to identify the spots where fish are thanks to water bubbles/splashes which vary in size based on how many fish are in an area.  Be careful as you approach, though, as fish will also react to loud noises like gunfire, causing the fish to scatter and become inactive for a while. 

Weapon Parts System

As part of the expansion to crafting in the game, melee weapons are seeing a large expansion to their mechanics and part system in the game.

Weapons can have separate conditions for various parts of their construction, such as their handle and head. This means you could either craft a new weapon entirely when an existing item has worn down, or opt to repair a specific part of your weapon to give it an alternative form of upkeep.

Attributes like your weapon’s condition or its sharpness will impact how much damage they deal and their general efficiency, making it worthwhile to maintain those weapons using stations like a Whetstone to restore sharpness.

Lore Expansion

For those of you curious about the lore and story in the world of Project Zomboid, B42 has a lot to offer. 

Apart from environmental storytelling, you’ll find a wealth of new radio stations, maps, world stories, newspapers, and readable items around the world that offer insights into the history and what’s going on around you during the apocalypse.

Modding Tools & Support

An official mod manager is being introduced in B42 as a part of the developers’ continued commitment to supporting its modding community.

You will now be able to manage mods and browse information directly from the game client, cutting out middle programs and aiming to simplify mod management drastically.

Many More Changes

• Cleaning: You can now clean your walls and areas around the map, wiping off dirt and grime and restoring them to a far more accommodating condition. The zombie apocalypse doesn’t always mean you have to subject yourself to living in a dirt-coated home.

• Fluid Systems: You’ll now be able to swap and mix around fluids in the game, creating unique effects. Fluids have unique categories now such as Fuel or Alcohol, as well as tags as to whether they may be poisonous, flammable, and more. This determines the outcome of when we may mix fluids now in B42, such as a combining Whiskey and Bleach for a dangerous concoction.

• Randomized Wilderness: The map in Project Zomboid is not procedurally generated, which is a big part of the game’s immersion thanks to the amount of effort the developers continue to put into their world. However, a randomized wilderness system is being added to allow players to branch a bit outside of the confines of the map beyond the regular borders of what exists and has been hand-crafted for you to explore. 

Survive Project Zomboid B42 With Friends

Surviving the zombie apocalypse is hard, especially on your own. Although you will now be able to nurture animal companions in the game, do consider starting up a server to play on with you and your friends to all scavenge and survive together!

Kinetic Hosting offers latency-free Project Zomboid server hosting, and is risk-free to try today thanks to our 7-day money back guarantee. The B42 update has been in the works for years, and is finally making its debut on the stable branch of the game. 

If you have ever been on the edge of convincing some friends to try the game, or just starting a server in general, now is the best chance to really get started and throw yourself into the hand-crafted world of Project Zomboid. Consider checking out our server plans for the game here and choosing Kinetic Hosting as your Project Zomboid server host!