A Project Zomboid mod that adds a Science skill. Research specimens at microscopes, read science books, and gain bonuses to learning and medical treatments.
Found a jar with a brain in it? A dead rat? Some weird mushrooms? Now you can actually study them! Just find a microscope, plop your specimen nearby, and get that sweet Science XP.
Pro tip: Pay extra attention to plants, berries, and mushrooms. Rumor has it that studying enough of them might unlock something... useful. 👀
Look for the small gray "R" on item icons - that means you haven't read/researched it yet and it can give you Science XP!
Higher Science = faster skill book reading.
- Up to 50% faster at Science 10
- Also speeds up recipe research from items
Science makes you smarter at everything (except punching zombies):
- +2% bonus to all non-combat XP per Science level
- That's +20% at max level
- Gain Science XP when gaining Electrical XP (half amount)
- Bandages last longer (+5% per Science level)
- Faster medical treatments (bandaging, disinfecting, splinting)
- Read Science books and magazines
- Read SciFi books (small amount - it's fiction, but it inspires curiosity!)
- Read ANY skill book (tiny amount)
- Research specimens at a microscope
- Research recipes from items
- Do electrical stuff
Pretty much anything that looks sciency:
- Specimen jars (brain, insects, fetal animals, etc.)
- Dead critters (rats, mice, birds, squirrels)
- Insects, berries, mushrooms
- Medicinal plants
- Gems, crystals, minerals
- Medical equipment
- Animal dung (grants Tracking XP too!)
- Pills (grants Doctor XP too!)
- Various fluids (Acid, Blood, etc.)
- Game version 42.13+
- No other mods required
Should work with most mods. Hooks into vanilla functions cleanly and calls originals when possible.
This mod uses ZBSpec for in-game testing.
cd mods/ZScienceSkill
zbspecZScienceSkill/
├── 42.13/
│ └── media/lua/
│ ├── client/ # Client-side code
│ ├── server/ # Server-side code
│ └── shared/ # Shared data
├── common/
│ └── mod.info
├── spec/ # ZBSpec test files
│ ├── zbspec.yml
│ ├── data_spec.lua
│ ├── specimen_spec.lua
│ └── book_xp_spec.lua
└── steam.txt
- ZombieBuddy - Java modding framework for Project Zomboid
- ZBSpec - Testing framework for PZ mods
MIT