

There are three ways to move in Zomboid: walking, running, and sprinting, each faster but more exhausting than the last. You will be tempted to run away from the horde of 65 zombies you just picked up walking through a commercial zone. But you walk faster than zombies, so do not run unless absolutely necessary; you will become exhausted and tire quicker, slowing you and weakening you. The lowest level of exhaustion (out of four) will halve your melee damage and make you move 20% slower, and it quickly gets much worse from there, especially if you’re running or fighting. And never sprint. It will get you killed. The other comment mentioned a far better way to lose zombies than running away full speed.
When creating a character, you pick from a list of negative and positive traits. Positive traits cost points which you get through picking negative traits, so you need to balance them. But when first starting out, I think you’re better off not touching too many negative traits; you don’t want to start the game obese if you don’t know how to lose weight or in what ways it will affect you! That said, there are a few smaller negatives worth picking up. I would recommend Short Sighted, which is completely counteracted by wearing glasses (which you can choose to spawn with), Prone to Illness, which is countered entirely by Outdoorsy (a cheap positive trait), and Weak Stomach, which only affects eating rotting foods (which you really shouldn’t be doing anyway!). That’ll start you off with an extra +8 points to spend on things you want without really affecting you.
I would also like to reinforce an idea the other comment mentioned, it is a sandbox and you can change settings however you like. I highly encourage you to look through them if you get annoyed by something. My friends like to start with starter backpacks and an extra free +8 points to spend on character creation, so I do that when I play with them. And I personally like to change the infection to be transmitted through bites only. There’s loads of options to fit any playstyle.


I quite liked Legends: Arceus (pirated ofc) and will likely enjoy the new Legends game too. As much as it sucks to ever defend Nintendo, those two games in particular are exactly what I’ve been wanting: a Pokemon game that isn’t the exact same game for the 17th year in a row.
I haven’t actually tried Z-A yet, but L:A was really good imo.