Project Zomboid – Tips for Generators & Fuel

Generators & Fuel Explained for New Players

Сrеdit gоеs to Shurenai!

Zomboids are attracted to the noise of the generator, and will attempt to reach it’s location, but are no danger to the generator itself. It bringing them close enough to aggro on YOU is the danger posed. Not sure exactly how far it attracts them from, but it’s probably about as far as it can reach to be ‘connected’ to a building as described below

The generator has a 20 tile range to be connected to a building, When connected to a building, everything in that building will be powered/is powerable.

Appliances only consume power when in use. IE, Your microwave won’t make you consume any extra fuel for it just being in the house, but it will up your fuel costs during the periods that you’re cooking with it. Lights only cost fuel when they are on as well. Fridges specifically run 24/7 to keep things cold, So yes, If you have a bunch of fridges you aren’t using in your building, relocate or dismantle them.

When you check the generator after plugging it in, one of the options brings up a status window that shows everything that is consuming power from that generator and how much fuel it’s consuming. Use that to figure out what you need to remove… Important to note that this list only updates sporadically, best way to see what is or isn’t is to force an update by turning the generator off and on again.

Getting fuel in vanilla is very bare bones and simple. Bring empty gas can to the pump, fill, bring back. Only tip that can be offered is to get more gas cans so you can make less trips.

Also, the pumps are powered electrically. So if the power has shut off in your world, you’ll need to bring a generator to the pumping station and connect it there to be able to fill from the pumps. Siphon gas from cars to get the kick starting fuel, then use the pumps to finish topping off that generator. Make sure you turn it off your gas pump generator when not in use so it’s not wasting fuel and degrading in condition needlessly. Just turn it on when you need to fill things, and back off when done.